Haley sighed as she opened the door to her house. I had been a long day. After he confrontation with Rachel at lunch she was looking forward to AP calculus. It may sound weird, but she liked math. She was good at math. As the walked into the classroom she saw the last thing she ever expected to see, Rachel sitting in her class. And as luck would have it, her teacher told her to sit next to her.

The whole class, Rachel glared. Haley could see her out of the corner of her eye. The class took forever to end.

When the bell finally rang, Haley gathered her stuff together to leave for her last class of the day. Suddenly Rachel got up and knocked her stuff all over the floor. "Oops." she said smirking. To say this day had been awful was an understatement. Well, the end of the day had been awful.

Haley saw her mom on the couch talking on the phone. She put her book bag on the coffee table and sat down next to her, waiting until the phone call was over. Lydia turned to her daughter and smiled. She held up one finger, signaling that she would be done in a minute. "Hey Robert, my daughter's home. I'll call you later…ok… alright…bye." she said, hanging up the phone.

Was she serious? Another guy? They'd just gotten to Tree Hill and she was already talking to a new guy? She was unbelievable. "Really, mom? You're already going after a new guy?"

"I'm not going after him. I met Robert this morning at the grocery store. He's approached me and we got to talking. He's a manager of a bank and has two daughters that are in college. You'd like him. He's very nice."

"I bet." Haley said. "How long until we move again?" she mumbled the last part.

Lydia looked at her. "What?"

Haley sighed, "Nothing. I'm sure he's great mom."

"So was your first day?" Lydia asked, excitedly.

"Um, it was ok."

"Did you meet anyone?"

"Yea. I met a guy in my English class who let me sit with him and his friends at lunch. They're really nice. Well most of them."

Lydia placed her hand on Haley's knee. "What happened?"

"One of the people that Lucas, that's his name, sits with has a thing for his brother Nathan. And Nathan and I met this morning. For some reason the girl, Rachel, seems to think that I like Nathan or something and basically threatened me to stay away from him. Oh and if that wasn't bad enough she's in my next class and I have to sit next to her. Mom, she glared at me the whole time. And then when we were leaving the class she knocked all of my stuff on the ground. It was just a long day."

"I'm sorry, baby." Lydia said rubbing her back. "Are you hungry? We can order in tonight."

Haley smiled at her mom. "Yea that sounds good. Can we get Chinese?"

"Sure. I'll go order it." Lydia said.

She got up and went into the kitchen to call. Haley pursed her lips, thinking. How was she going to get rid of this Rachel problem? She would just have to deal with it. But right now she wasn't going to think about it. She was going to enjoy dinner with her mom.


Haley lay on her bed doing homework when she heard a rock hitting her bedroom window. She got up and looked out the window. Looking down, she saw Nathan looking back up at her. She opened the window and stuck her head out.

"What are doing?" she yelled down to him.

"Come down!" he yelled back up.

"Why?"

"Please!" he pleaded.

Haley thought for a minute. Oh, what the hell? "Ok. But just for a few minutes." she said, closing the window.

Haley could see Nathan's smile as she opened the front door and walked toward him. "Ok so explain to me why you couldn't just ring the doorbell?"

"I figured it would be faster this way." He answered.

"Alright. What's up?" She asked.

"Would you like to come to my and Lucas' basketball game Friday? I mean you can sit with our friends if you want."

"You came all the way to my house to ask me that? Why couldn't you just call? Wait! How do you know where I live?"

"Well I would've called, but I didn't know your number. And I kinda asked Peyton to get your address from the office. She works there after school. So will you come? I really want you there."

I really want you there. Haley smiled at this. "Ok, sure."

Nathan smiled, "Great. So I'll let Julian and Peyton know. They'll look for you and you can sit with them." And with that he turned around and headed for his mustang.

"Wait!" Haley yelled. He turned around and started walking back to her. "So instead of creepily getting my address, did you want my number so that you can just call me next time?"

"Sure. That's a good idea."

They exchanged numbers and he smiled. "Well I'll see you Friday. Bye James, Haley James."

He turned and walked to his car. As he drove away he waved. Suddenly Haley's phone lit up. She looked at the screen. It read Message: Nathan Scott. She opened her phone to read the message. Goodnight, Hales was all it said. Haley blushed. What was he doing to her? How could someone make her feel this excited about a text message?

She texted back Goodnight and closed her phone. This just got a whole lot more interesting. Rachel would not be happy about this. Haley could only imagine what would happen if she found out that Nathan was texting her. But honestly, she really didn't care. She wasn't afraid of Rachel.


Haley's first week at Tree Hill High came and went. Finally it was Friday, the day of the big basketball game. Haley wouldn't admit to anyone, but she was really excited about the game. Not only because she would get some time out of her house and away from her mom constantly talking about Robert, but she would get to see more of Nathan.

They had been texting the whole week. Every time Haley's phone went off, it was Nathan. They talked about everything; his parents and Lucas, basketball, what he wanted to do after high school. She talked about how her mom was her best friend and how she wants to be a teacher when she gets out of college. You name it, and they probably talked about it.

This was all new to Haley. She had never had a guy in her life that she had felt so connected with. She felt like she could talk to Nathan about anything. And she really liked that feeling. But at the same time it also scared her. She told herself she wasn't going to get attached to anything or anyone here. She knew sooner or later she would have to leave again. But he was making it so hard not to get attached. Lucas was right. He was a really good guy, someone she could depend on. Maybe not all guys were like she thought.


Haley was standing next to her locker, placing her books in it. She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to find Brooke standing there, smiling.

"Hi." she said.

"Hi, Brooke. What's up?"

" So Nathan told me you're going to the game tonight."

"Yea." Haley smiled. "I'm actually pretty excited about it."

"Oh I bet you are," she said, smirking.

"What?"

"Look at you…getting with Nathan. Honestly, it's about time he got his tail in gear and got a girlfriend. I was starting to get worried about that boy."

Haley was really confused. "Brooke, what are you talking about? Nathan and I are friends."

"No. He and I are friends. He does not look at me the same way he looks at you."

"How does he look at me?"

"Come on! You have to see the way he looks at you. I've been friends with him since middle school and I've never seen him look at a girl the way he looks at you."

"Honestly, Brooke, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Whatever you say. But just to let you know, Rachel sees it too. That's why she kinda hates you. He's never looked at her that way. He never will. She's totally jealous. I mean if I have to hear about how that new girl stole him from her one more time, I might have to kill myself. And what would the world do without Brooke Davis?" Haley chuckled. "Anyway, I'll see you at the game tonight. " She waved and turned and walked away.

Haley was stunned. What did Brooke mean by that? What way was he looking at her? There was no way he saw her as anything but a friend. She was just Haley. All of a sudden she didn't want to go to the game. But what would she tell him? She got sick? Her mom wanted to spend time with her? She forgot?

She couldn't not go. She had promised him and he seemed really excited. And honestly, so was she. She would just have to forget what Brooke had just told her. She was wrong. She had to be. They were just friends. Nothing else.