I know a majority of you may be pissed at me but please just let me explain! I've just about had a really horrible summer (I'm not being over dramatic here, I really did), so that doesn't help the fact that I had writer's block (with every fic once again) before the summer. I have a lot to catch up on so I hope that you guys are still reading!

Thanks to my beta LadyCatriea for being incredibly patient with me and for all the help! And Danieee and JateSkateFate815 for being there and supporting me!

Disclaimer : I own nothing but the plot and characters you don't recognize from the show!

Enjoy!

Nathan was seated at the head of the table, Haley on his right and James on his left. Following James was Sophie, Aiden, Preston, Jenny, Jake and Peyton. Opposite Nathan was Lucas, all the way at the end of the table. On Nathan's right, following Haley was; Bryan, Dean, Keith, Oliver, Lily, Jacob, Brooke and Gavin who was seated at the bend between Brooke and Lucas.

Awkwardness and silence clouded the room, thickening with tension.

Haley cleared her throat, and everyone looked at her. "Well … Let's dig in everyone." She smiled warmly, letting her gaze on James linger longer than the others.

She turned to Nathan and leaned in closer, beckoning him with a slight gesture of her hand for him to do the same.

"You okay?" She asked.

Nathan gazed at his wife and smiled wistfully. "Yes." He lied.

She smiled back sadly. "Me neither."

[James]

I look down as soon as she looked at me. My plate before me suddenly became a lot more interesting.

My mom.

After all of the visits from my family, I found it harder and harder to look them in the eyes. Especially my parents.

I know they didn't mean to do it, but it was obvious when they looked at me with this expectancy in their eyes.

I stared at the blue and white plate in front of me and picked up my fork. I started to move some food around.

When I walked into the house and I saw everyone there, I wanted nothing more to do than to walk right back out. I didn't feel some sudden wave of familiarity or a rush of memories hitting me all at once. I felt … scared. I don't know why though. It was just … a lot. There's so many of them, for one! These names are going to be hell to remember, that's for sure. Then the twins came running at me, like I was going to play with them. I'm not sure if they noticed the cast or not though. It's not that concealable. Luckily two of the guys who looked around my age had caught them before they could get close enough.

But when they looked at me, they saw James Scott. They saw the guy who had most likely been there since the day they were born. The same guy who had probably been there when they learned to talk, took their first step and who knows what else! But the point of the matter is that they saw their cousin.

And I look at them, not remembering any of this. I don't know which one's which. I don't know their parents' names. I don't even know which one of the others are their siblings and which are our cousins! I started to feel angry, and my gripped tightened on my fork and I forcefully pushed it into the meat.

Then the girls looked like they wanted to bombard me with hugs and stuff, but they probably thought better of it. I'm not sure what I would've done. I'm not so good with affection right now. I couldn't even tell what was going on in everybody's minds.

I know that they all said their names when we were at the hospital, but in my case I had a lot on my mind. Well very little recollection of just about everything previous to that, but still. I'll have to work on that.

I began to feel this anger boiling up inside of me, rising from the pit of my stomach and just boiling. It only grew as I thought of more situations and … feelings. Am I even an easily angered person?

"Jamie!" I look up, startled out of my own thoughts. "Yes?" I answer slowly, not looking around the table and just at the source of the voice. I was able to unclench my jaw and ask it calmly. I took deep breaths, trying to calm down. The heated irate sensation was simmering down.

"I was um, I was calling you." Mom said. "Do you want some more carrots?" She offered hopefully, and started to get up and reach for the plate of carrots not too far from where I sat.

"Oh, no thanks." I said quickly, and she slowly sat back down, unsure. "I'm sorry … I was just thinking about some stuff." I lick my dry lips, feeling incredibly awkward and out of place. I could practically hear my heart beating faster.

I heard chuckling and turned to where it was coming from. The woman with black hair and dark brown eyes was giggling to herself. "Already got the brooding down pat, huh?" She smiled, revealing two dimples. She glanced the blonde man with blue eyes, who I'm pretty sure is her husband.

I smiled back politely, not sure what to say because I had no clue what she meant. I noticed something change in her expression, her smile faltered but then grew bigger. It was almost like she was covering it up.

I quickly look away, so I couldn't feel guilty. There was just something about everyone's' eyes.

I need to distract myself. "What are we going to do after dinner?" I ask casually, looking up and glancing around the table. I think I'm getting the hang of this.

"Riwah Cord!" The twins shout at the same time, raising their spoons to the sky.

I chuckle lightly at their antics. To say they weren't adorable and amusing would be a lie.

"The River Court?" The blonde woman with curled hair asked. She exchanged looks with the other parents and they came to some silent agreement. Then they did the same with the three guys and who I believed to be my two cousins.

"So is it voted yes?" I turn my head this time and looked the girl next to me. I raise my eyebrows but don't say anything. She hasn't spoken all night. I could sense a bit of irritation in her voice. I can't exactly blame her. No one says anything about her tone of voice.

I look at our father, who simply nodded his head. "We'll go after desert." He announced, glancing at me.

I don't know if he was silently asking if that's okay or not. I looked away.

The twins cheered happily and I once again find myself smiling. I glance from the corner of my eyes to the girl once more. She has dark hair, like our father. I caught her eyes when I came in, before she averted her gaze. They were brown. Like our mother's.

She's sitting with her arms crossed in front of her, glaring at the plate of food. It's half eaten. I can't say much about that since my own plate is the same.

I want to know her name, but I know better than to just blurt it out. She's a girl. She'd probably cry if I did that. I don't know if she's an easy crier or not. I have to remember to be subtler with the younger ones.

She's my sister. And that's all I know.

[Lucas]

I squeeze Brooke's hand from under table. My thumb run's across her knuckles as I connect eyes with her. I know what she's thinking.

How much this situation just plain and simply … sucks.

I nod my head in agreement with that thought and she smiles, but it's not one of her Brooke Davis' smile. Her eyes don't light up and I can't see both of her dimples. She diverts her gaze from mine when we both realize that Jacob and Gavin took advantage of this time to get food all over their faces.

"Jacob!"

"Gavin!"

We exclaim at the same time. Brooke glances at me out of amusement and I chuckle. Pretty much everyone's looking at us right about now.

Jacob grins widely, looking up at Brooke. He's probably trying to use his five year ability to get out of this one. I snort at the thought. The twins both got their 'powers' from Brooke, so she's pretty much immune to it. Most of the time. I glimpse at Gavin to see that he had ducked his head.

"Wow Lucas … Good job looking out." Haley remarks dryly and Lily laughs.

I roll my eyes. "Try cooking food that's edible for once Hales, obviously my kids would rather have it over their faces than down their throat." I bit back, grinning. Bryan, Dean and Oliver makes 'Oooh!' sounds.

She glares at me, and then hits Nathan on the back for snorting in laughter.

Peyton hands me a napkin and I try to wipe off the contents of the food from my son's face. "Don't worry." I whisper so that only Gavin can hear me. I place a hand on his back, comfortingly while the other is wiping down his face. "Did you even try to eat it?"

Gavin looks up at me and gives me a small smile, revealing dimples, and then nods yes.

I try not to laugh at the fact that he still wanted it on his face. We're still trying to break them of the habit of doing that around other people.

I'm broken out of this uplifted mood when I catch James' eyes. I can't really place what the look in his eyes is. Longing?

I feel something clench at me, at the thought of that. He shouldn't have to feel that, we're his family!

I keep telling myself that it'll be alright. We've been through much worse, haven't we?

"You know James … When you were younger, you did this a lot." I start to say, catching everyone's attention as their conversations start to fade.

"I remember that time he and Lily got to our wedding cake." I look at Lily who smirks back at me, unashamed. She's been spending way too much time with Jenny.

"Oh yeah!" Brooke giggles, "When the cake finally came out you could see imprints that proved little fingers were swiping at the icing." She explains.

The corners of James' lips twitched upwards, almost like he was fighting a smile off. He leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms and watching all of us now.

"I'm pretty sure it was the icing all over their faces that gave them away." I muse out loud.

"Or was it them being blunt about it and coming up to tell us?" Brooke threw in. "Would've been better if they told us before we were ready to cut the cake." She raises a brow at Lily over Jacob's head.

Lily just smiles at her innocently and shrugs her shoulders, moving closer to Oliver. Maybe she's been spending too much time with him.

Now's definitely not the time to be an ass to my sister's boyfriend. I'm aware of that. But I'm also aware that James would do it too if he hadn't lost his memory. Anyways it's in the big brother job description. I'll see how far I should take it.

[Sophie]

"At least Jacob and Gavin will grow out of it." Dean started. "James still did that in High School."

"At least I stopped." Lily tilted her head up in triumph.

"I wouldn't be so sure…" Oliver smirked at her.

"It's probably nothing in comparison to when Jenny was little." Jake added, his arm around Peyton's chair.

"Dad!" Jenny scolded him.

"No no, go on Uncle Jake!" Keith encouraged him.

"James doesn't want to hear about that." Jenny said, tightly.

"I wouldn't mind." James spoke up, amused.

"Boys, leave Jenny alone." Peyton's words went unheard.

"Aren't there any pictures?" Bryan asks.

"What's for desert Mom?" I ask, detaching myself from that conversation. This dinner wasn't as hard as I had imagined it to be. I mean … It could've gone a lot worse, I suppose. I notice that James it at least attempting to interact with us, so it's a step up from hating us all.

I don't exactly like how everyone's just talking and laughing. Good for them, but what about Jamie? He can't just jump into their conversation! He's never been on the sidelines, that's where I am. James belongs in the game.

"Chocolate fudge cake." Mom says. "Do you and Aiden want to go get it?"

I glance at Aiden who nods and I say, "Alright."

"I'll get more napkins. I'm sure Jake and Gavin are gonna need them." Preston threw in, standing up.

I push back my chair, scraping it across the floor and stand up. Aiden moves to leave first and I accidently stumble back a little, my arm jerks back and my elbow makes a connection with something. I whip my head to the side and gasp. I hit him in face! Well under his eye to be exact. I turn to face him but my hand knocks over a glass of water at the same time. Just great! One arm's in a sling and the other is a violent weapon out to get everybody!

"Sophie." I distinctly hear my mother say my name, but I don't car right now. Everyone else's conversation was still going so I'm sure they hadn't noticed or were pretending not to. Either way it was appreciated.

"I'm so sorry!" I say quickly and lean in to see if I left a mark on his face, forgetting about the water.

James looks up at me, confused. "It's alright… Don't worry about it." He smiles. "See? I'm all good." He probably thought it was no big deal.

I freeze. Him accepting my apology. Those are the words I want to hear, but not for that apology. I bit my lip. I had been thinking about trying to tell him what happened that night. I figured that if he did accept my apology then it wouldn't really count because he's not exactly … right.

I quickly pull back and escape to the kitchen, Aiden on my heels.

"Where's the cake?" Aiden asks first. He loves my mom's cakes.

"Over here." Preston waves him over to the cooling rack. I stand by the fridge, leaning against it.

Aiden pulls himself up onto the counter and takes a swipe from the cake, licking it off his finger. I roll my eyes and chuckle.

"You okay?" Preston asks me. I look at him confused.

"Yeah … why wouldn't I be?" I question him.

He shrugs his shoulders. "No reason." He says simply, and that's it.

I don't think much about it. Preston has a tendency to notice and see things about people that others don't notice or miss. He probably wants me to talk to him about what happened that night. Since that's not going to be happening at all, he might as well forget it.

I sigh, looking down at the tiled floor. I wasn't trying to be mean or cruel or rude. But if I don't even tell Aiden or my parents, no one else is going to know and that's final.

We went back out with the cake and napkins. After my dad cut out slices for everyone and distributed them out, we finished up quickly so we can all head over to the River Court.

[Preston]

"Preston." I say, walking over to James. He had to sit on the benches since he couldn't exactly play the game because of his foot. I volunteered to sit with him, after convincing everyone else they should still play the game. After all, we're supposed to act like nothing's all that different.

It's kind of a ridiculous thought … It's like trying to ignore the elephant in the room.

He looked up at me curiously and I took a seat beside him, leaning my back against the table. I watched as my dad dribbled the ball, trying to get it past Aunt Brooke and snorted. Uncle Lucas won't let that happen, even if they are on the same team.

"My name's Preston." I tear my gaze away from the scene before us to glance at him. I point in front of us, making sure he's watching. "That's my mom, Peyton; my dad, Jake and my older sister, Jenny."

James nodded his head, following my finger and looking at each member I pointed to. I stopped, making sure he was caught up as he probably repeated the name a few times in his head.

"Now … Get ready for the soap opera twists, alright?" I warned him and he looked at me confused before he realized that I was joking in my own weird way.

Please review guys and tell me what you think! Thanks for reading! =] By the way, if you guys want to see what I picture each character to look like and stuff they're into, check out the links on my profile.