Lucas stood on Peyton's front porch anxiously waiting for her to answer the door. Today was the first day of school and he was going to walk with her so that she didn't get lost. He knocked for a third time and when she didn't answer he tried the knob. It turned effortlessly so he stepped in and called her name. No answer.
"Peyt! We've got to go. We can't be late for the first day." "Peyton, where are you?"
"I'm in the kitchen." He barely heard her but found her standing in front of the open fridge, her back facing him. He saw her black t-shirt and denim shorts and was again reminded of her toothpick-like legs. Only this time he didn't laugh, he knew better.
"Come on let's go." He tried again. She turned to face him, her face splotchy. "What's wrong?"
"Nothin'" she threw a couple of things from the fridge in her bag and closed the door. "I'm ready."
They walked the two blocks to the school in silence, promising to meet each other in front of the building when the day was over. Lucas noticed the panic in her eyes and tried to reassure her as they parted ways toward their respective classes.
"R….two more and I've beat your scrawny butt!" Nathan hollered at Lucas from the pocket of the three point line. It was lunchtime recess and both boys had made short work of their lunches to ensure plenty of time for a game of HORSE.
"Whatever Nate! I'm just going easy on you 'cause I haven't seen you all summer" Lucas threw back.
"Yeah…right" Nathan laughed. "What do you think is going on over there?" jutting his chin across the lot, behind Lucas, toward one very angry Brooke Davis.
Lucas shrugged and went to turn away from the pretty brunette he had grown up with, knowing full well that she could handle her own, until he saw Peyton standing slightly behind her. "Maybe we should check it out." He offered, already on his way across the playground.
"She is not stupid!" he heard Brooke as he neared.
"Oh yeah? Who brings that for lunch?"sneered the boy. Lucas recognized him as Tim, he was in his class. "That's just plain dumb. Doesn't your momma know how to pack a lunch?"
"Shut up Tim!" Brooke, fists balled at her sides, glared at him.
"Don't worry about it Brooke" Peyton spoke softly behind her.
"Yeah, Brooke, listen to Curly" Tim smirked pulling his fingers at one of Peyton's curls. She jerked her head away just as Lucas caught up with the threesome.
"Don't touch her." He growled, pushing Tim away from the girls.
"Or what? Huh? That's what I thought. You're not going to punch me." Tim cracked a smile, leering at Lucas.
"No, but I will" smoothly came from Nathan just before his fist collided with Tim's nose.
"OWW! Man! What was that…. What the……What'd you do that for?" holding his hand to his nose trying to stop the blood.
"You don't mess with girls Tim. Leave them alone." Nathan warned before turning back to Lucas, Brooke and Peyton. "You guys ok?"
"Yeah" Brook and Lucas both agreed, each a little taken back by his outwardly protective demonstration.
"Peyton? You ok?" Lucas asked. She nodded, looking down. "Peyton?" she still wouldn't look at him. "Peyt?" He gently touched her shoulder. "Are you ok?" She looked up then and he noticed the tears in her eyes, but she nodded. "What happened?"
When Peyton didn't answer, Brooke, always one to offer up the good gossip, supplied "We were sitting here getting ready to eat lunch and Tim took Peyton's bag and threw it on the ground. He said her mom packed a dumb lunch. He teased her about her hair. I don't know why. I love her hair. It's all blond and curly. I wish I had curly blond hair…."
Lucas didn't catch the rest of what she was saying, he was looking for Peyton's lunch bag. He found it under the table. He joined Peyton where she was now sitting at the picnic table and sat her bag in front of them. He reached in to pull out her lunch and came up with only an apple and a pack of Kraft singles. "Did Tim take the rest of your lunch Peyt?" he asked.
"No." she answered quietly.
"Did you eat it?" she shook her head. "Then where is it?" he questioned, obviously bewildered.
"That's it. That's all I have." She supplied as she calmly took the apple out of his hand and took a bite out of it. He suddenly realized exactly what she had been doing in front of her fridge that morning. She was looking for something to eat. He felt bad for her but at the same time angry at her parents. Didn't they know that a seven year old couldn't take care of herself? Where were they anyway, this was the first day of school, parents were supposed to be there on the first day of school.
"Are you OK, Peyton?" Brooke asked sweetly, grabbing Peyton's hand as she and Nathan sat opposite the two blonds.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Luke this is Brooke Davis, Brooke this is Lucas Scott." She offered to the two.
"Oh, I know Lucas." Brooke replied, throwing Lucas a knowing look, much too old for her seven years. "We've known each other forever."
"Yeah," Lucas agreed. "Brooke is Nathan's sister—well, kinda. This is Nathan Scott," he pointed in the direction of the brunette boy, "he's a good friend of mine. They used to live in your house." Lucas clarified.
"Oh" Peyton's eyebrows creased as she tried to put things together. "Lucas Scott and Nathan Scott….?" She looked between the boys to see if they caught where she was going with this.
They both grinned. "Just a coincidence" quipped Nathan. "We're not related."
"OK." She nodded, trying to take it all in. "What's a coincidence?"
Lucas took this one, proud that he had remembered this particular vocabulary word from the year before, "It's where two or more things happen by chance, kind of by accident."
"Like me moving into Nathan's house, and all of us meeting here?"
He frowned, but nodded his agreement. Yes, that would seem like a coincidence, but for some reason it seemed like something entirely different, he just couldn't put a word to it.
"So…. Nathan Scott and Brooke Davis?" For that one she looked at Brooke, who was sporting a full blown smile.
"Well, you see. My dad thought that he wasn't really my dad and left, and my mom, apparently, didn't want me anyways so about three years ago she gave me to Dan and Deb, Nathan's parents." She explained it with the same enthusiasm Peyton would have expected her to use while telling her she'd just gotten a pony for her birthday, not been abandoned by her parents.
"She just gave you to them?" her eyebrow cocked skeptically.
"Yup. I mean she was pretty much Lucas' mom after Karen took off and she was Nathan's mom anyway, so why not?"
She was a little surprised. She had never asked Lucas where his mom was, she just figured that she wasn't around, much like her own. "So, what, this 'Deb' is like…. a community mom?"
"Pretty much." Nathan nodded.
The bell rang signaling lunch was over. Lucas watched Peyton and Brooke, still holding hands, as they headed back to their classes, he was glad that she'd found a friend. He knew that Brooke would not only be loyal, but she'd protect Peyton like a mama bear, much the same way he would. She was also Nathan's sister and he hoped they'd all be able to hang out. He turned to Nathan as they headed toward the double doors, "So what'd you think?"
"About what?" Nathan asked, spinning the basketball on his index finger.
"About Peyton. What did you think about Peyton?"
"I don't know, she seemed really quiet." Lucas nodded, she didn't let people in easily. But maybe they could all be friends, he really hoped so.
Nathan bashfully shot him a sideways glance. "And she's really pretty" he whispered before darting in the door. Lucas' eyes jerked to follow Nathan's retreating form. Maybe not.
When school got out, Lucas sat on the bench out front waiting for Peyton. What Nathan had said had been running through his head all afternoon. He didn't know why Nathan's comment irked him, but it did. It shouldn't bother him that Nathan thought Peyton was pretty, if anything he should think it was gross. I mean, girls weren't supposed to be pretty, they were supposed to be weird…right? No. He knew why it bothered him: because he thought the same thing the first time he saw her at the 4th of July party. He hadn't known that God made girls like that. Secretly, he was pretty sure that she was an angel, with her golden curls and big doe eyes. That's all he could figure that really made sense. Peyton Sawyer was the prettiest thing he'd ever seen- and he found her first. Nathan could find his own. Where was Peyton anyway, school has been out for ten minutes now, he thought to himself. He turned his head to look behind him, his face falling into a scowl when he saw her walking out with Brooke and Nathan.
"Lucas!" she called out, waving. He waved back. "Brooke invited me to come over for cookies. She said Deb makes them every year on the first day of school. Do you want to go?" He nodded, he went every year. He hoped that Deb would adopt Peyton they way she had Lucas and Brooke. By the nervous sparkle in Peyton's eyes, he thought maybe she hoped so too.
They walked the two blocks past the school to the other Scott's house and Deb opened the door to meet them. If she was surprised by the fourth "musketeer" she didn't let on. She gave all four children a big hug and asked everyone, individually, about their day. Listening to Peyton just as intently as she'd listened to the other three. Lucas smiled as he watched Peyton soak it all in. He knew that as embarrassed as she was, she was still enjoying the attention and the feeling of belonging. It was the same reason he loved Deb, she made everyone feel special, wanted even. A feeling his own mother, and Brooke and Peyton's too he imagined, had managed to strip away from him.
Deb dropped Lucas and Peyton off at Keith's in time for dinner. Keith fed both kids and Lucas told Peyton goodbye with the promise of meeting her in the morning to walk to school.
Lucas was sitting on Peyton's couch the following morning, as promised, when she came down from her room. He handed her a muffin and a brown paper bag before picking up her backpack along with his.
"What's this?" she asked, holding up the items he had placed in her hands.
"Well, that" pointing to the muffin, "is your breakfast. And that," pointing to the paper sack, "is for your lunch." He smiled at her and she shyly offered a smile in return. And such was the way they met every school day, Lucas bringing Peyton's breakfast and sack lunch, carrying her backpack as they walked, and she ate, to school.