It was the first day back at school. It was the beginning of the end, becoming a senior meant one more year of high school and then it was goodbye Tree Hill and hello anywhere else. No more pep rallies, no more cheerleading…no more free life. After high school it was either college or reality, getting a nine to five job; something which never really held any appeal to her. She had told herself during summer that this year she was going back to being old school Brooke Davis, carefree cheerleader whose motto is anything that's fun. Although starting things up again with Lucas might interfere with that motto slightly, so she had told him clearly that they could see each other non-exclusively….well she had actually been a little more blunt and straight to the point. Over the summer, her self esteem had hit an all time high when she was admired by many guys; most of whom were the typical Californian stereotype, young and tanned with muscle bound bodies that were to die for. Most of the summer she had indulged herself in their company, not really thinking too much about Tree Hill and what she left behind…but that was until she bumped into a familiar face.

The sun was setting and it was beautiful, the different shades of pink, oranges and reds all merged together creating a truly beautiful sunset. She wasn't supposed to be paying attention to the sky though; she was supposed to be looking out onto the road watching that she was staying in her lane. The top of her car was down so her hair was flowing freely behind her with the gentle breeze, her long brown slightly curled locks didn't sway much though due to the sufficient amount of hairspray she had put on before leaving the house . She clicked her indicator up and turned right, driving into a car park. Opening the car door, she emerged from the Red convertible and smiled. Many men's eyes were featured on her body which was barely covered in a bare of dark denim daisy duke short jeans/hot pants and a black halter top, showing off the top of her cleavage. She was also standing about four inches taller with her black ankle boots with metal heels. Slowly she made her way past the group of adoring men and made her way into the bar. She had never been here before, but it was familiar none-the-less, any bar seemed familiar to her. Making her way over to the bar, she slid onto a bar stool and sat waiting to be served.

A young cute blonde haired boy made his way over to her and sat beside her. He nodded to the bartender; "I'll have a Jack and coke and the lady will have…" With a cocky grin he turned and looked at Brooke.

Brooke smirked and turned slightly on her stool, "My mother told me never to accept a drink from a stranger." She said in a playful tone, arching her eyebrow at him.

He laughed and nodded to himself, "Sounds like you're mother is a wise woman…I'm Alec." He extended his hand out, closer to her body hoping that she would shake his hand.

Brooke looked at the bartender, who was clearly checking out her curves. She had remembered to bring her fake ID and she wasn't even going to get carded. "Hmm, anything that has an umbrella in it." She smiles sweetly at him.

"So…does this beauty have a name?" Alec asks.

Brooke laughs and shakes her head, in amusement. "Does this beauty have a name?" She quotes him as she turns and looks at him, "Thanks for the drink, but I suggest you work a little harder on the pick up lines sunshine." She paused, looking him up and down, giving him the once over. "You've got the looks, I'll give you that but it takes a little more than just a cute smile to win this beauty over."

Alec nods to himself, in self defeat. "Okay, well I guess I lost." He watches as Brooke turns and looks at him obviously curious what he meant by that comment. "Explanation okay." He pauses and leans in closer to her, "I'm here with some of my, I guess you could say some of my protégées. I'm like a mentor to them, a Yoda…and we've all got this running bet to see who can get the hottest girl's number the quickest." Alec turns his head slightly and looks back over to the group of guys he came with. He looks back at Brooke and smiles, "And now you think I'm an ass…so I'm gonna go." He slides off of the stool, with the Jack and coke in his hands heading back to his table.

Brooke looks at the bartender and smiles as he places a cocktail down in front of her. She looks off to the side of the bar; maybe she was a little harsh to the cute guy who bought her a drink. She could have at least given him a fake phone number, so he could have won the bet. Turning on her stool slightly, she looks over to the group of guys in the corner. Seeing Alec with a few good looking, slightly younger guys about the same age as her and…she pauses when she sees a familiar face. A smirk appears on her face and she looks up to the bartender, "Do you have a pen I could borrow."

The bartender nods and takes the pen out of the pocket on his shirt and hands it to the pretty brunette.

"Thanks." Taking the pen in her hand, she slides a cocktail napkin over to her and begins to write her name and number down. Smiling she hands the pen back to the bartender, "I'll be right back, guard my drink." She spins herself on the chair and jumps off, her heels clicking as they bounce against the floor. She slowly makes her way over to the group of guys, who aren't looking in her director. Swaying her hips, she places the napkin down on the table in front of them…and smiles, as she gets all of their attention.

"Beauty with no name." Alec smirks to himself, leaning back in the booth slightly impressed with himself. "I guess I won you over, huh?"

Brooke looks at him and then turns her attentions back to the familiar face and smiles sliding the napkin over to him. "Here's my name and number…" She pauses and looks around the table. She leans over the table slightly more, "Call me sometime…or if you really wanna have some fun, come and join me for a drink." She winks at him before turning on her heels. She walks back over to the bar, and sits back down on her stool. Picking up her drink, she takes a sip and smiles as she feels someone sit next to her.

"So I guess I owe you a thank you…"

Brooke smirks, "you mean for letting you win the bet with your lame ass friends or for giving you some better company for five minutes..." She pauses and places her drink back down onto the bar counter. She doesn't bother to turn and look at him; instead she just asks another question. "So the bet, how much did you win?"

"Fifteen hundred dollars." He replies.

"Not bad" She says nodding to herself. "I guess I earned at least three hundred." She finally turns and looks at him, "Don't you, Nathan?"

Nathan smirks and shakes his head, "I didn't ask you to come over, Brooke." He sighs and shakes his head to himself. "I didn't even know you were in here."

Brooke nods, "Okay then so do you want me to go back over there and tell those guys that we're friends from high school…wouldn't that like" She pauses and acts dumb, "forfeit your winnings?"

Nathan sighs, sure she did him a favor by walking over and handing him her phone number. He hadn't attempted to get any numbers from any girls yet, which was starting to make the guys question him and his objectives. It was nice to see a familiar face to be truthful, at camp he acted like old school Nathan Scott, Mr. Big Shot…but he was growing tired of it. He wasn't that guy anymore and he just wanted to stop pretending for five minutes…so he was happy to see Brooke for that reason, but for another he was slightly annoyed. He had left Tree Hill for the summer to get away from everything and everyone there, everyone being Haley. So seeing Brooke was a reminder of the hurt and heartache that was Tree Hill…, "Fine, whatever…but not here and not now, don't want to make it look like I paid you to come over."

Brooke smiled gently thinking back, they had bumped into each other accidentally during the last few weeks of summer, but after having bumped into each other they decided to meet up and just hang out. Nathan said he was tired of being with the guys all the time and girls that just wanted to get laid by the basketball stars, and Brooke was getting tired of the lame-ass chat up lines most of the west coast guys seemed to use on her. So they hung out and talked, Nathan was reluctant at first really to talk about Haley but he did eventually…and she talked about Lucas, how she wasn't sure if they should get together because of what had happened before and how Lucas had broken her heart. They were just two broken hearted people…joined together by pure chance. Something happened between them…they actually became, true friends. Brooke Davis and Nathan Scott, sure they had known each other and had talked with one another many a time (they had even made drunken passes at one another, on several different occasions) but now they were actual friends, and it was nice. Brooke smiled at the sweet memories as she leaned in closer to the mirror, thinly applying mascara to her darkened eyelashes.

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On the other side of town, Peyton stepped out of the doctor's clinic. She had made an appointment the previous day, after having taken the pregnancy test. She wanted to see whether or not it was just her body playing cruel jokes on her. The doctor had told her that he would inform her as soon as he knew what the results were…as soon as he knew, that wasn't soon enough for her. She was hoping that the test was negative, that she wasn't pregnant…at least then she could go back to being her usual self…but she knew her luck and betted on the other; being pregnant. She shook her head and decided just to forget about it, at least for now. After all she was already running late for her first day back at school, she sighed and slowly made her way to her black opened topped car.

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Peyton pulled into an empty space in the school car park. She grabbed her brown bag from the passenger's seat and threw it over her shoulder as she stepped out of the car. She noted that no-one had actually made their way inside yet, they were just loitering around on the grounds probably talking about how their summers went. Hmm, how was she going to respond to that and a smirk covered her face, as she thought to herself; Yeah my summer was great ya know, saw a couple of live bands, hung out and listened to music, I might be knocked up by my best friend's ex boyfriend…who subsequently is now her boyfriend again. She couldn't help herself; sarcasm was just in her nature. She walked around the rear of her car and head towards the school building.

Brooke opened the door to he baby blue colored Beetle and stepped out. She was dressed to impress in her cheerleading outfit, her makeup flawlessly applied and the perfected loose curls in her hair screamed salonesque wonderful. She saw Peyton ahead, walking towards the school. She hadn't really spoken to her best friend much since getting back from California; come to think of it she had actually spoken to her more when she was in California. Brooke began to skip and made her way towards Peyton, coming up behind her and linking arms. "Hey P.Sawyer…miss me?" Brooke stops and strikes a pose beside Peyton.

Peyton stops, and turns and looks at Brooke, a smile creeping on her face. "Not so much..." She said jokingly, watching as Brooke overly acted the pout. "Ooh look at that, we're not even inside school yet and she's working the pout."

Brooke laughed and linked arms with Peyton once more, the two of them began to walk towards the school building again. "I know we haven't really talked since I've been back, so…B.F tell me, how was your summer?"

Peyton turns and looks at Brooke and immediately the pregnancy and her Yeah my summer was great…speech sprang to mind. She shook her head and sighed, "It was…uneventful." She lied; she couldn't exactly tell Brooke that she thought she might be pregnant. She wanted to tell someone…she wanted to tell Brooke, but she couldn't because of the Lucas factor…she could always say that she slept with some random guy, but then it might get back to Lucas and then there would be all kinds of drama, drama she didn't want.

"Of course it was uneventful…"Brooke shook her head, "I wasn't here. You know I'm the ying to your yang…the Shaggy to your Scooby." Brooke smirked. "Fun without Brooke, is like fire without wind…just not possible." Brooke and Peyton entered the school hallways and noted all of the people dashing around, new kids looking lost, jocks looking overly beefed up and cheerleaders looking ever so cheery. Brooke sighed, "So, as this is our senior year, I'm throwing a party at the beach…where there will be half naked booty for you and me to oogle and possibly fondle." She smirked and bites her bottom lip as she looks at Peyton, imagining all of the good looking guys, half naked.

Peyton shook her head, "Aren't you supposed to be a one man woman now?" She paused, and raised her brow. Was that the right saying? It just sounded so wrong.

"Me? In my senior year…uh no." Brooke shook her head, dramatically. "Lucas and I are just dating – none exclusively…and that's the way it's gonna stay." She rolls her eyes as she hears the bell ring. She starts to walk backwards, away from Peyton but still looking at her. "Gotta go to the gym and organize our time for cheerleading, I don't want pervy-basketball players oogling our goodies while we're trying to practice." Brooke winks at Peyton before turning around and skipping away down the corridor.

So Brooke and Lucas were dating but non-exclusively? What was she supposed to do with that news? Jump for joy that she might be pregnant with her best friend's non-exclusive boyfriend? She shook her head, she was even more confused now than ever. Her goal for the day: to avoid all the drama and just be a recluse. She shook her head and turned around, bumping straight into the man at the root of her drama…

Lucas.