Chapter One

"It is important to honor our beginnings, to remember that we matter and that we have a place in this world that no one else has."

Brooke's Pov

June 6, 2006

Ok, so here's what you need to know. The name is Brooke Penelope Davis but I'm guessing you already knew that. I live a simple life here in Tree Hill, NC. Well as simple as life can be I guess. I have my friends and my clothes and that's all I really need. I'm really into fashion in case you didn't pick up on that already but anyway, I thought I would give you the low down on everything that involves well, me! Okay, here I go.

My bestest friends in the entire world are Haley James and Peyton Sawyer, my very own tutor girl and goldilocks. What can I say about those two? We basically grew up together. We were always acting up and causing trouble. No, wait let me rephrase that. Peyton and I were always acting up and causing trouble. Haley was always the one bailing us out of that so called "trouble" we would get into. She's always been the sensible one in the group. Haley never seizes to amaze me; she's always seeing the good in people and wanting to help others. I'd kill anyone who told her this but I've always looked up to her. I know what you're thinking. It's kind of strange, right, looking up to someone who's a year younger than you? The truth is, she's always been miles ahead of me. She's a feisty one though, and I couldn't love her more for it. You don't want to be in the wrath of Haley James when she's gets mad, she can really throw a mean punch if need be.

H. James is currently dating Lance Bradley. They have been going out for a little over a year now; well at least they were up until a couple days ago. They seemed happy, at least on the outside they did. No one ever really knows what goes on behind closed doors. However, I do believe that Lance really loved Haley, at least at one point. I could see it in the way he would take of care her and the way he kissed her. Sometimes people just fall of short of the person they hope to be and end up being someone entirely different. Someone they aren't proud of.

It was the last day of school and we were all sitting around the lunch table. I was trying to convince everyone to spend the summer at Michael and Victoria's cabin at the lake. No, your eyes aren't deceiving you, Michael and Victoria Davis, the ever wonderful parents ever girl wishes they had, ah yeah right! Anyway, we were all sitting around the lunch table when...

Flashback 2 days ago:

"Gome on you guys, it's the last chance we'll get to do something fun together before we're all senior, minus Jake and Haley." Haley and Jake gave her pointed looks for rubbing that little known fact in for the thousandth time that day. "Please, you guys. I mean look at is this way, Nate you finally get some much needed time away from dear old dad. You too Luke. I know how much he pressures you guys about basketball, even when it's not in season, which totally cuts out of my Nathan and Luke time," she said in a flirtaious banter but still trying to get her point across. "And Jake this will allow you and Peyton some alone time for three whole months with no interruptions from Hot Larry coming in Peyton's room every 15 mins with the lame ass excuse about fixing the bathroom sink just to make sure you guys aren't doing the nasty."

"Brooke, how many times to I have to tell you to not to talk about your hot dad fantasies around me, espiceally when it's MY DAD! That's just gross dude!"

"I can't believe you would tell Brooke of all people about our indiscretions. You know how she loves gossip."

"I resent that comment Jake and besides Peyton tells me everything. We're girls, we tell each other everything, don't we Haley?"

"Um, Sorry Davis but I'm staying out of this one, and besides I don't know if I want to be away from Lance that long."

I looked over and saw Nathan roll his eyes but very discretely as to make sure none of us saw, but he obviously didn't succeed very well in that because not only did I see it, but Peyton saw it as well. Peyton gave me a look that said "Did you just see what I just saw?" and I gave her a look back that said "Oh yeah sister, all the time!"

Just when I was about to continue addressing my case on this whole spend the summer in a cabin thing, which is a totally awesome idea on my part, Lance comes over and I'm stuck having to wait until he leaves to continue operation: Lake Tillery. There's absolutely no way he's going with us if I want my plan to work.

"Hey Haley, do you think we could talk for a minute?" he looked around the table and saw all the familiar faces. Nathan, Lucas, Peyton, Brooke, Jake and of course Haley. It was an everday occurrence during lunch time to find the six best friends since grade school to sit together. He suddenly became very nervous and he knew he couldn't do this here, not with them all staring at him. "Alone?" he asked finally.

"Yeah, sure. I'll just meet up with you guys later."

"Bye tutor-slut!"

"Urgh I hate it when you call her that"

"What? Nathan, it's not like Haley's a virgin…"

"Can we just not talk about Haley and her virginity please." He said as a statement rather than a question.

"Or lack there of."

"Peyton!" Nate, Luke and Jake all screamed. Apparently they didn't like talking or even thinking about Haley and her sex life. To them she would always be that innocent little girl who wanted to wait for Prince Charming to come and rescue her before she gave it up. I guess Prince Charming came a lot sooner then any of them thought. Especially Nathan.

Haley and Lance went off to go speak in private. Only private was just a few tables away and the gang could mildly hear the low whispers of a true lovers spat. All of them looked on in curosity.

"What's going on Lance?" Haley silently began to get really nervous. Lance was steadily taping his foot and playing with his belt buckle, a nervous habit of his that she found…aggrivating.

"Haley, you know I love you right?"

"Of course I do and I love you too."

"You know I would never do anything to intentionally hurt you and that you are the most important person in my life. I don't know how or when any of this happened but my feelings for you are very strong. So strong that sometimes it freaks me out and causes me to do stupid things. Things I normally wouldn't do, like I was a completely different person or something."

"Hey." She said tenderly. "I know you would never intentionally hurt me Lance. I trust you completely. I mean after a year, how could I not? Now, something is obviously bothering you a great bit but you need to know that you can tell me anything, okay. Anything. I'm always going to be here for you. I promise."

"God, Haley you're making this really hard." Lance began to get tears in his eyes and knew now that he had to tell Haley the truth. She deserved to know the truth, except this truth could end the single most important thing in his life and that was his relationship with Haley.

"What? What Lance? What is so bad, that you can't tell me, your girlfriend?" She knew now that this was something serious. She didn't know what it was he was trying to tell her but somehow she knew that whatever it was that things between her and Lance wouldn't be the same after this conversation.

"Haley, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Haley just sat there utterly confussed until she looked up and so a single tear drop from her boyfriends eyes.

"What are you sorry about? Lance, talk to me."

After moments of silence Haley started to grow irriatated and was now beyond angry. So many thoughts were running through her mind at that moment. So many possibilites of what Lance did that was so bad he felt he needed to reasure Haley of his love for her. All of a sudden a light bulb switched off in her head and she finally began to understand what all of this was about.

"What did you do Lance?" she said with a slight tone of ugrency in her voice but yet very stern. "Huh, tell me!" she demanded.

"Haley, I don't know what to say other than I'm so sorry. I love-" but before he could finish his sentence Haley stood from her seat and was pacig back and forth.

"Don't you dare finish that sentence! You may be sorry but you do not love me, if you did love me you wouldn't have done what you did. I want to hear you say it."

Lance couldn't even look at her. He felt so qulity and he knew he was going to lose the love of his life after finally admitting what he did. Why had he been so stupid? Yes, he was scared and wasn't sure how to handle such strong feelings like that but he didn't have to go and…

"Say it, damn it!" Haley now begain to yell and slowly people started to take notice and watch this heartbreaking breakup unfold. "Say it." She said in a low but despearte voice.

"I slept with someone else." He said as tears were now freely falling from his face. He tried to reach for Haley's hand in a despearte attempt but she refused. She couldn't even look at him.

"Haley, don't leave. Please can we talk about this? I know you still love me and despite what you may think I do love you. I love you so much. I can't believe I could go and hurt you like this when you have been nothing but good to me. I promise it won't ever happen again."

Haley, now seated across from him on the other side of the table, just sat there in silence. She felt like she couldn't breathe, like her whole world was falling apart and she couldn't do anything to stop it.

"Haley, please!"

Lance slowly made his way towards Haley and surprisingly she didn't back away from him. He went in to grab a hold of her hand and she allowed him access.

"Do you remember when we first started going out, how we would go down to The Meadow, just outside of Tree Hill every Sunday morning?"

Lance was surprised at her question but was glad like she was talking to him.

"Yeah, I do. How could I not? It's where we had our first kiss, its where I told you I loved you for the first time. A lot of great memories were made there. It was the place we went to when life got too much to handle. It was our place, just ours. I fell in love with you there.

"So did I."

"Haley-"

"We haven't been there in a long time Lance and we haven't been those naïve teenagers who fell in love and believed that we would always be together for a long time either. I think the day we stopped going there is the day I stopped loving you."

"No, Haley you don't mean that." He said as his sobs began to subside.

"And it's the day you stopped loving me too. I don't hate you, I just can't do this anymore. We both deserve better."

"Maybe someday we could be together again. I know we can. People who are meant to be together always find their way in the end, Haley."

"Maybe." She said with a small smile, as she began to leave."Goodbye, Lance."

That night Peyton and I had came over after school insisting we have a sleepover at Haley's house. We brought the ice cream (cookie dough, of course) and The Notebook. Everything you need for a broken heart.

End Flashback

I never really liked Lance with Haley, not because I didn't like Lance but because I always wanted her to be with Nathan. Anyone could see that they belonged together and anyone could see how much Nathan was in love with her, well except Haley and maybe even Nathan himself. The way he looked at her when he thought no one was looking, it was like she was the only person in the world that really matter to him. God it kills me sometimes, not because I want Nathan to look at me that way, but because I want somebody, anybody to look at me and really see me. I want someone to see the real me, the person I'm too afraid to let the world see. I just want someone to love me for me, that's all any of us really want.

Alright, enough about me, I still haven't gotten to the rest of my fabulous crew. Now where was I? Oh yes!

P. Sawyer, the tortured artist, fake goldilocks and all around badass, well sort of. Peyton doesn't let a lot of people in; trust is a big deal for her. I guess it's because when she was ten years old her mother left, without a good-bye or an explanation, just a note that read "I'm sorry and I love you." Peyton told me once that if you love someone, you love them forever. You don't just up and leave one day and never come back. She's never really gotten over her mother leaving and I don't blame her. I just wish she could find some type of closure, or talk to someone. It doesn't have to be me, or Haley, or even Jake, just someone. Someone she can open up to, so she can let all that anger out that's been building up for the past seven years and be happy. She deserves happiness more than anybody I know.

So, I'm pretty sure you've guessed by now that Peyton and Jake are very much together. They've pratically been dating since they were in diapers. They're like this generations Cory and Topanga. They have this beautiful relationship that I don't ever see going away and I think if it did we'd all lose a little bit of hope. They give the rest of us, who are still trying to find love, the faith to continue looking because it seems to me, it's definitely worth the while.

Nathan, Lucas and Jake-the always charming trio; the Scott boys. In Tree Hill they are known for two things: basketball and well basketball. Although their last name is Scott, I can tell you right now that those boys do not live up to that infamous last name of theirs. In fact, the only thing they have in common with the last name Scott is that all three of them can kick some major ass in basketball. Dan Scott may have been one hell of a basketball player back in his day but he has nothing on his three boys.

Nathan Scott is a martyr. Don't let his cockiness fool you, he would do anything for his brothers and us three girls (he can be a total softy sometimes, but shh he doesn't like it when I tell people that). Although, I'm sure he would fight the world if he had to just to protect one long blonde haired brown eyed girl.

Nathan has only had one serious girlfriend, anybody else was just a random hook-up. He tends to do that by the way, just meet girls and has sex with them, but he's not a bad guy, he just makes bad choices when he's overtaken by the enemy we call alcohol. Anyway, this old girlfriend of 

his was Rachel Gatina. I wouldn't say they were an epic romance or anything but you could tell that they cared very deeply for one another. They broke things off at the beginning of junior year when Rachel's partents told her they were moving half way across the country to some small town she never heard of in Oklama.I think they still keep in touch but I haven't heard him talk about her in a while, but then again none of us have ever asked about her either. Just know that when Nathan loves, he loves with his whole heart and never looks back. Just don't piss him off, you can't tell him anything when he gets mad.

Lucas Scott is a poet. He's always saying the right things and doing the right things. He always seems to be there when you need him. He's the greatest guy I know and I don't know what I'd do without him.

Jake Scott is a musician. So you know he has to have good hands (Peyton's a lucky girl!) He's openly honest and treats women with the upmost respect. I'm glad Peyton has someone like Jake. I think Haley had a crush on him growing up. I know I did, but he's always been Peyton's and he always will be. He's the kind of guy you see a future with, a life with.

So how did a martyr, a poet and a musician all come from Dan Scott's gene pool? That's something I'll never know!

"Davis, get your fashionably cute ass up out of that chair right now. " Peyton screamed, running into her room.

"Well hello to you too P. Sawyer."

"Look, we need to talk…"

AN: Hey guys! Thanks to everyone who left reviews, I really appreciate it! I would like to give a big thank you to ItalHunni28 for helping me with this story and encouraging me to write it! Anyways, hope you guys like it! Please Review. Thanks, xoxo