A/N: I had to make a slight change in the previous chapter ('Prologue'). You could go through it before proceeding. :)

CHAPTER ONE

January, 2009

It was the first game of the season, and every other player had left the locker room save for a particular blue-eyed one. After the horrible losing streak the Ravens had for the past few years, a lot was riding on Nathan Scott, captain of the Tree Hill High's basketball team. A fucking lot.

Staring at the open locker in front of him, Nathan felt suffocated. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. A second later, he still felt uneasy…and suffocated. He quickly glanced around making sure that he was completely alone.

He extended his hand into his locker, grabbing the packet as fast as he could. The clock was ticking, leaving him with very little time…very, very little time.

"Sorry," he mumbled. He had no idea whom he was apologizing to.

Opening the packet, he poured two small white cylindrical pills onto his palm. Without a second's ado, he gulped them in. Shoving the packet back into the locker, he slammed it shut, locking it.

He could feel a kick within him and immediately took few long breaths to prevent hyperventilating. The clock continued ticking as he realized he could not delay any longer.

Walking out of the wide door, he plastered a wide smirk across his face. He was the captain of the Ravens. He was the captain of the team that was going to start off their victorious season with a fucking bang.

He was sure of that. There was no stopping him now.

"Scott, over here!"

Nathan glanced sideways to see Jake signaling him. In a swift movement, Nathan used his reflexes to shoot the ball in his hand to Jake. He ran alongside, blocking the opponents from getting the ball. Jake sprinted across the court before finally throwing the ball back to Nathan.

Swoosh!

The ball slid beautifully through the hoop. The Tree Hill Ravens had scored their first win of the season.

A wild cheer echoed through the court as the audience stood on their feet, clapping loudly. The cheerleaders did their celebratory routine, cheering loudly for their team. Coach Durham sported a wide smile on his face, glad that all the hardwork was finally showing through.

And there in the middle of the court was Nathan, perched high up on the shoulders of his teammates.

"Ravens!" He hollered, flashing the trophy in his hands. The grin on his face said it all – this was his life; this was his passion. This moment was worth all the crap in his life. This moment was worth the past few hours of apprehension and guilt. This moment was worth the ache and pretense. In this moment, he was Nathan Scott – the true Nathan Scott.

Maybe the extra push he subjected himself to a few hours earlier wasn't really required. Maybe he would have done great anyway. But it didn't matter. In this little moment, it didn't matter.

Dan Scott banged open his son's bedroom door.

"What the fuck was that?" He yelled at a surprised Nathan.

Nathan gulped discretely. Does he know?

"What, Dad?"

"Don't fucking 'what,dad' me. Don't." Dan stepped forward, directly in face with Nathan.

Nathan took a protective stance backwards. What the fuck was wrong with him again?

Dan was fuming, the anger radiated off of him. "That game you just played, what the fuck was that? What was the need of passing on the ball in the end? You couldn't feel confident enough to make your own shot?"

He couldn't be serious. No, he just couldn't. Nathan stared at his father with a disbelieving look. A second later, that look was replaced with one of fury.

"I wasn't confident? I wasn't confident?" Nathan scoffed. "Look, Dan, in case you were too busy pondering over my faults and shit, let me just remind you a little. That last shot was made by me! Almost all the fucking shots were made by me. That was the best game the Ravens had ever played since a very long time. And it was fucking amazing. My confidence was fucking amazing. Everything was fucking amazing." Nathan's voice rose with every sentence, stressing on every curse a lot more than intended for.

Dan stepped back subconsciously. He hadn't heard Nathan yell at him like this before. He suspected that he might even start hitting him any minute now. Nathan was fiercely defensive as he stared at Dan with a hard look…and if there was one thing Dan knew, it was that his son definitely had the strength to physically overtake him.

His voice lowered a notch. "Get out, Dan. Thanks for the lovely time, again." His words were laden with sarcasm.

"Nath –" Dan started before abruptly shutting off. His son did not look like he was in a mood to discuss. Without another word, he walked out of the apartment, slamming the door as loudly as he did while entering.

"Fuck!" A loud scream resounded through the house.

He pushed away the contents of his side table with full force, sending them flying on the floor. Turning around, he landed a punch on the wall. Blood gushed out from his knuckles, but he didn't care.

Only Dan Scott could do this to him.

A ring from his cell phone broke into the heated silence. He pulled out his phone from his sweatshirt pocket, wincing at the name that flashed across the screen.

Knowing how persistent the person on the other line was, he decided to answer it. He could not deal with the annoying ringing of his phone now.

"What?" He barked.

"Nice to hear from you too, Nate."

"Get to the point, Rachel."

"Fine. Meet me at the River Court right now."

"Look, I'm not interested in your fucking games now. Bother me later."

"No, Nathan. I think you are. After all drugs are kind of interesting, don't you think?"

Fuck.

His face turned pale at the shocking statement. How did she know? How? He was sure that no one was around at that time. Or was he?

"Judging by your silence, I'm guessing you're interested now." A low chuckle followed. "Five minutes, Nathan. I won't be here all night."

With that, the call disconnected.

His stomach felt uneasy for the second time that night as he rushed out, grabbing the car keys in his hand.

The drive was fast and ruthless. He slowed down as soon as he saw the silhouettes of a car and a person, unmoved in the silence.

He turned off the ignition and stepped out. The cool breeze didn't affect him much – his body was pretty cold anyway. So was the heart of the girl walking up towards him.

Her face came into view as she slowly stepped in front of him, standing a few feet away.

"Hi, Nathan." Her words dripped with mockery…and sadism.

"Skip the fucking pleasantries, Rachel."

Rachel laughed humorlessly. "I think you should probably be on your knees now, begging for forgiveness. I'm starting to think I was naïve enough to think that drugs would give you better manners. Who was I kidding? You're still the same."

"If you wanted to waste my time –"

"Ah, no. No. Patience, Nate. I'm coming to it."

"You can't prove anything." Nathan smirked, realizing that he would have definitely heard a camera going off.

"Well, that's the thing with technology, you know? Almost everything is possible. It's like the modern evidence of 'where there's a will, there's a way'."

He laughed dryly at that. "You're full of bullshit."

"I know." Rachel smirked back. "Ever heard of the word, 'video'?"

She took out her phone and pressed a button. She turned it around to show him a video of him taking few pills from his palm. The video wasn't high quality, but one could easily make out Nathan and the pills from it. That was all that was needed.

She placed the phone back in her pocket after the video ended, smirking at Nathan's cold stare.

His jaw was set hard, clenching his teeth at the situation. This was fucked up. This would screw up his chance at Duke or any other college for that matter. If that happened, he would have to bid adieu to basketball. If that happened, he would never escape from the wrath of Dan Scott. All in all, he was fucked up.

"Now, what can I do with the video that will potentially destroy your life?" Rachel tilted her head, pretending to think.

"What do you want?" He asked, the anger storming in his eyes.

Rachel stopped smiling. Her face grew a serious look. "Does the name 'Haley James' ring a bell?"

"You want Haley James?" Nathan shot her an incredulous look.

"Let me finish." She crossed her arms over her chest. "She is the girl responsible for my suspension that occurred few weeks ago. I was gone for a month. I'm sure you noticed that. Right, Natey?"

He cringed at the endearment.

"So I stole a couple of tests from the tutoring centre. She caught me in the process. Instead of shutting her mouth, she actually had the audacity to rattle out everything to Principal Turner. I thought tutors were supposed to help weak students. She obviously didn't and I had to face the brunt of being suspended. I had to face the fucking humiliation in front of the whole school."

Nathan sighed. He was getting frustrated. "Rachel, what has that got to do with me?"

Recovering from her rant, she grinned. "Why, everything."

She paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts and mentally smiling at her cleverness.

"You need to seduce Haley, trick her into falling for you and stomp her heart. You will publicly humiliate her in the way that she deserves. In doing so, your future in basketball will be not be hampered with."

Rachel smiled the evil smile that one often finds in animated characters. She looked at the wide-eyed shocked expression at Nathan's face. If flying high up in clouds would have been possible, she might have done that right now.

Nathan took a minute to absorb in her words. He had never met a greater conniving bitch than her.

"Why not do it yourself? The 'publicly humiliate' crap?" He seethed.

"I don't want to get my hands dirty." She shrugged. "And it really shouldn't be hard for you. Don't you do this on a regular basis? Sleep with 'em and dump 'em – that's pretty much your motto." Her voice carried a tinge of resentment.

"Fuck you, Rachel."

"First her, Natey." She smugly stated

He stared at her for one long minute. She was right in way. This would be a normal thing for him. But over here, he didn't even know Haley. He just saw her in some of his classes. He didn't feel right about playing with the emotions of someone he didn't know. That seemed too harsh – even for him.

On the other hand, there was a chance that his career would be destroyed before it even commenced. And that scared the fuck out of him. He couldn't lose basketball. He couldn't give it away.

It was his dream.

"Have we got ourselves a deal?" She extended her hand towards him.

Nathan waited for a second, pondering over his decision one last time. With one weary breath, he shook her outstretched hand, nodding. "A deal's a deal."

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