((Author's Note -Before: I think I'm more excited when I get people who put these on alerts than reviews. I don't know why, I know reviews take more of an effort, but I guess alerts show me that you are really into the story-at least enough to want to know when I've updated. So here you are. Enjoy this chapter. There will also be some backtracking in this chapter, so I can correctly introduce characters.))
"Just give her the day to cool off, but if you run into her again- don't blow her off but don't bring up the embarrassing subject." Nathan teased him softly, keeping one ear open to listen for the teacher and trying to get Lucas to lighten up. "Or maybe try things with a different girl?" Nathan asked as he nodded once again towards the blonde that was know coming towards them. Watching Lucas look up from the table and glance at the girl before letting his forehead make contact with the table again.
"Sawyer... Scott... Scott. Middle table." The teacher stated as Peyton placed her bag on the end of the table.
"What's wrong with- I'm assuming your brother?" She asked as she glanced over in the brunette's direction.
Nathan laughed as he shook his head and opened up his notebook. "Let's just say it's been a long first day for Lucas." Nathan told her as he reached his hand over Lucas' head, towards Peyton. "Nathan Scott. Nice to meet you... " He trailed off waiting for her to introduce herself.
Taking his hand, she shook it briefly. "Peyton Sawyer. So new kids I'm assuming, maybe you're 'the difference' my friends were talking about this morning." She muttered softly as she took the empty seat next to Lucas. Nathan simply nodded as he noticed Peyton turning her attention to Lucas. "I'm sure whatever you're moping about can't get that bad." Peyton offered.
"Oh trust me." Nathan interjected. "He's royally screwed up. Imagine, well Lucas-what's the worst case scenario that comes close to what you've done?" Nathan questioned, trying to bring Lucas' attention up from the ground.
"Maybe a car wreck, where you know you shouldn't look but you can't look away. I seem to do this thing where I put my foot in my mouth and I should stop talking-but I can't stop talking." Lucas muttered as he lifted his head up and immediately covered his face with his hands. Rubbing his face, he let out a groan as he let his hands fall down onto the table. "I apologize for my-" Lucas began.
"Attitude, moping, pathetic-ness?" Nathan offered only to be shoved by Lucas. "Hey, I'm just trying to help you out. Maybe ask Peyton on girl advice, I'd help you but you can't teach what I do. You have to be born with it and you big brother apparently were." Nathan snickered as the teacher began handing out the outline for the first semester of the school year.
"Shut up Nathan. I feel dumb enough as it is, but leave it to my little brother to dump on me when I'm done. I'm so not helping you with the fade-away now." Lucas said glaring at Nathan.
"Oh, yeah you will. As soon as you get over it. Just focus on basketball for once. We'll worry about the girl tomorrow. So just chill." Nathan told him.
"Wow, you two really are brothers." Peyton interrupted, feeling left out of the conversation. "What help do you need with girls Lucas?" She questioned as she turned her full attention to Lucas.
"Probably nothing, I just jumped the gun with a this insanely different-but in a good way- and cool girl. We seemed to have a lot of things-rare things in common. Instead of playing it cool I decided to jump the gun and act like she was my girlfriend. Needless to say, I've made an impression for my first day of school and it's not a good one." Lucas muttered as he glanced over at the curly haired blonde, before turning his attention back to the front of the teacher before taking a syllabus from Nathan before handing the pile to Peyton, accidentally brushing her hand.
Feeling a spark, Peyton glanced at him before shaking herself out of a daze. Taking a syllabus from the pile, she handed it over to the other table and taking out her sketch book. Trying to ignore the nagging feeling that she was slowly having feelings for 'the new kid' also know as Lucas Scott. Flipping through the pages, she stopped on a her most recent one. It was of Brooke and Haley, they had been over at Peyton's house and were getting ready to leave for cheer amp that summer. Peyton had opted to go with her mom to visit her aunt for the summer in New York. Haley and Brooke were leaving the next morning and decided to have a goodbye sleepover before they parted for the summer.
They were making sure everything was packed and put into Peyton's closet to be kept out of the way when Brooke had picked up her make up bag from the bed and hadn't noticed that it was still open, making everything spill out onto the floor, having things roll underneath Peyton's bed. Brooke grunted before her and Haley ventured underneath the bed to find the stray makeup. Coming from beneath the bed a few minutes later, Haley and Brooke had feathers stuck in their hair, earning a laugh from Peyton. Before taking in the sight one another and busting out laughing before they began helping one another with their hair. Peyton saw a genuine happiness and innocence that she felt the need to capture it. She quickly began sketching the outline of them before hiding it from them and getting started with their sleepover.
Coming out of her thoughts, she glanced over at Lucas who was staring blankly down at the syllabus in front of him. Quickly pulling a clean piece of paper from her sketch book, she quickly scribbled down something and pushed it over the table towards Lucas.
Coming out of his daze, he glanced down at the new paper in front of him and read it, 'Lunch? Meet my friends and get your mind off of your mystery girl? You may get four times the girl advice if you come. If not it can't be overly horrible. Might even have some fun.' Lucas let out a sigh as his thoughts went back Brooke, quickly writing a response, he pushed it back towards Peyton before glancing at the clock and opening his backpack before shoving the syllabus in there. Just as he closed his backpack, the bell rang.
Scooting back his chair, he stood up and followed Nathan towards the door. Not glancing back at a slightly crushed Peyton as she continued re-reading his response. 'Sorry, other plans. Maybe some other time.' Was all he had written. Completely void of anything including an apology.
Balling the piece of paper into a ball, Peyton shoved her sketchbook back into her backpack and caught up with Rachel as the two walked out of the classroom and towards their lockers. "So Peyton, what was with the two hotties?" Rachel asked as she opened her locker and threw the syllabus in there before closing it and leaning up again her locker while turning her attention to Peyton.
"Nothing really. Lucas and Nathan Scott. Got about that much out of them. Apparently Lucas is hung up on some girl that he met this morning, whatever." Peyton mumbled as the two of them made their way to their English class, Peyton feeling a sense of relief wash over her knowing that lunch was after it and she'd have Brooke and Haley there to make her feel better.
"Don't worry P. You could always try with Nathan. He's pretty good looking." Rachel offered as they made their way to their English classroom. "Besides, this is a brand new year. Granted there are new guys, why not look for the quiet guys. I hear they are closeted freaks." Rachel teased, getting a grin out of Peyton.
"What do you have next?" Nathan asked as he dropped of the syllabus into his locker and glanced over at Lucas who was staring intently into his locker as if he was trying to make something appear. "Lucas? Anybody home?" Nathan asked as he pulled back Lucas' locker door and waved his hand in front of Lucas' face, taking him out of his trance.
"I can't stop thinking about her." Lucas muttered as he closed his locker door and let his back fall back onto the row of lockers behind him.
"Brooke?" Nathan questioned as he pushed Lucas off his locker and began walking to class. "You barely even know the girl and you are already acting like a lost puppy dog. Also you're ignoring other girls, Peyton was really cool and you completely blew her off." Nathan said as they made their way through the hallway crowd.
"I barely know Brooke, like you barely know Haley?" Lucas retaliated as he glanced at all the faces in the hallway. "I'll apologize the Peyton later or something. Just maybe if I talk to Brooke and tell her I had a blackout and don't remember our conversation from the library, we could just start over. She'd buy that right?" Lucas half asked/half pleaded as they stopped in front of his history class.
"Yeah man," Nathan said trying to feed into his brother delusional fantasy. "just worry about it at lunch. You really don't want to zone out in a class where I can't cover you. You're right about Haley, so I know how you feel. Just give it an hour and a half." Nathan said as Lucas nodded in agreement before walking into class. Heading away from Lucas' class and towards his English class down the hallway. Walking into the classroom, he saw the redhead from his Chemistry class and then saw Peyton sitting at a desk look down at her notebook. Walking towards her, Nathan sat in the desk in front of her. Sitting down, he turned towards his side as he looked back at Peyton.
"Sorry about Lucas, when he thinks he's upset someone or hurt someone. He usually can't focus on anything else. Right now he freaked someone out, when he's usually quiet. So I apologize for him being rude to you." Nathan offered with a smile, trying to make up for his brother's behavior, even though he knew that if he were to make a fool of himself in front of Haley, he would be the same exact way.
Peyton gave him a soft smile, "Thanks Nathan, but hey every once in a while we all get treated like shit by a stranger right?" She asked as she turned her attention back down to her sketch.
"Wow, you kind of make it hard for the stranger's brother to apologize to you, you know that right?" Nathan asked, trying to lighten the mood. "How about you join us for lunch? I'm sure he'll be in a better mood then?" He offered as other students started filing their way into the classroom.
"Sorry, I made plans to go with Rachel off campus." Peyton said shortly as she continued with her drawing, letting her curls fall down in front of her face. Nathan only assumed that Rachel was the redheaded girl that she had been with both times he had seen her. "Besides I think my trying to be nice quota is up for the day. Sorry Nathan."
Nathan sighed softly before rubbing his face with one hand, "OK. I'll let you bail on me today, but tomorrow me and you are going to lunch and we'll get past this attitude problem that you seem to have blondie." Nathan joked, finally getting Peyton look up at him with a smile forming on her lips. "Looks like I've already gotten passed stage one, it's a miracle." Nathan exaggerated as he threw his hands up in the air before laughing and turning his attention.
Peyton laughed with him as she leaned forward, "You aren't so bad Scott." Peyton muttered as she fell back into her desk.
"Thanks Sawyer, coming from you I think I'll take that as a compliment." He teased as the class began.
Lunchtime...
Sitting at a table outside, Brooke took a small bite of her sandwich before putting it back down on the tray and began picking at her bag of chips. The only thing that was on Brooke's mind, was the same thing that had been since she left the library. Lucas Scott. Half of her was freaked out by what he said that morning, but another half was completely in 'aw', the same half that felt that pull towards him since he had knocked her down in the hallway. Instead of replying, she ran away the second her sister had given her an option to. 'Now he must think I'm a totally idiot and doesn't want anything to do with me. Or maybe he was just saying that to mess with my head. Ugh, this is so confusing.' Brooke thought as she threw down her bag of chips and continued eating her sandwich. Knowing if she didn't eat know that she would regret it at cheer leading practice.
Looking up she saw her sister coming towards her. 'Great a distraction. She told me she had some exciting news to tell me.' Brooke thought as she put on a smile for her sister. "So Hales, what is this news that you were so vague about?" Brooke as she took another bite of her sandwich and looked over at Haley.
"Well you know when we felt something different. I think I found it, at least for me. His name is Nathan Scott. Not only is he completely gorgeous, but I actually lost track of time while I was talking to him. I almost didn't make it in time to wake you up from you library nap, speaking of did that not go well or something. You looked completely flustered and off." Haley said, "Wait before you answer that. I have to tell you why I was vague about Nathan this morning. Do you remember in middle school when we used to keep asking mom to explain how she knew she wanted to be with daddy?" Haley questioned, as she received a nod from Brooke telling her yes and urging her to go on. "She told us that she felt a pull towards him. In a weird way, that's how I feel with Nathan. I know it's really soon but have you ever just felt something that was just completely right? Sure you wanted to question it, but there is absolutely no logic behind it?" Haley asked.
"Yeah, actually this morning with Lucas. In the library, that's why I was quiet Hales." She said finally revealing that she had felt the same thing Haley was feeling. " The thing is I think he felt the pull too. He said that he was completely captivated by me, and we just talked about everything. I've never felt this way before and in a way, it completely scares me but at the same time it's worth it." Brooke said as she saw a huge grin break across Haley's face.
"Brooke! That's great we both have guys now. This year is turning out perfectly." Haley said excitedly, but it quickly faded as she noticed the sullen look on Brooke's face. "What's wrong?" Haley asked, confused as to why Brooke wasn't bouncing off the walls like she usually did or at least should have been doing in this situation.
"Lucas. Lucas Scott as in Nathan's brother Haley." Brooke said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"OK, yeah so. I talked to Nathan he said they saw us dancing this morning. Come on, they didn't have to come up to us, but they did and it just-I'm just confused as to why you aren't happy about this? Come sis, talk to me." Haley said as she took Brooke's hand into both of hers in a reassuring way.
"Yeah, but what are our rules Haley. We don't date brothers because what if we really fall for these guys so hard? The way that mom fell for dad? They end up married-so if that happened I would be married to my brother in law. So go for it Haley. I'm really happy for you." Brooke said as she pulled her into a hug. "Tell me how it feels to find your magnet." She said pulling out of the hug with a dimpled smirk, but Haley could read it in her eyes that she was doing what she always did for Haley- sacrificing something she really wanted.
Before Haley could reply, she saw Brooke's gaze land on the person who had taken a seat across from them. "Well well you must be Nathan Scott?" Brooke asked as she gave him a once over and eyed Haley, giving her approval.
"Yeah,so that must make you Brooke Davis. Haley's twin. Nice to meet you." Nathan said as he held out his hand towards her.
"Manners too. I definitely approve." Brooke stated again as she shook Nathan's hand before standing up. She glanced over at Lucas who was talking to another guy about something. Clearing her throat, she picked up her bag. "I'm going to the gym, have to work on some new cheers. You two have fun. Nathan-we'll have the threatening talk later. Hales, let everyone know we're practicing outside today." She said as waved goodbye to both and began, almost, sprinting to the gym.
"Brooke-" Haley said as Brooke continued walking away from her.
"Haley, whats wrong?"Nathan asked as he watched Lucas talk to another guy that was on the basketball team from last year about try outs .
"Twin rule." Haley muttered as she picked up her bag of chips and began eating them.
"What twin rule?" Nathan asked curiously as he took a bite of his sandwich and glanced over at Lucas who gave him a nod towards the guy he was talking with that he was going to sit with him so that Nathan could talk to Haley, nodding in understanding before turning his attention back to Haley.
Haley sighed before continuing, "My sister and I don't date brothers. Not that it's weird, but more of a future thing. So Brooke is doing what she has always down for me. She is sacrificing something so that I get what I want or to make sure that I'm happy, always putting my happiness and needs before her own." Haley told him as she thought back to the countless times Brooke had always put Haley above anyone else.
"When we were fourteen, Brooke and I auditioned to get into some Texas Cheer leading summer camp, I can't remember what exactly. Anyways, I completely bombed my audition I can't remember why but I just did. Brooke got in and was supposed to leave for the summer. Except she never did, she told me that she wasn't going to leave me behind. We spent the whole summer working on routines and the next summer we both got in."
Nathan smirked slightly, "Sounds like an amazing sister. You're lucky to have her." Nathan cut in.
"Then when we were twelve, there was dance going on at school. It wasn't like you had to go with a guy, but it was the first step into puberty." Haley said as she shook the memory from her head. "I never got asked and Brooke did. She had her dressed picked out and everything. I was happy for her, only Brooke being my sister she also saw that I was disappointed that I hadn't been asked to go. Of course she tried to tell me that we could be each other's dates and that we didn't need boys. I told her that she should go and have a good time, so when the night of the dance came around I was in my room eating ice cream and watching movies. The next thing I know Brooke is walking in wearing her pajamas with her own pint of ice cream and asking me what we're watching." Haley said laughing slightly at how Brooke had been completely nonchalant about the whole situation. "The next day I was walking towards my class when I'm about to turn a corner when I hear our friends ask Brooke why she wasn't there. After she explained that she ditched the dance to be have a girls night with me. They ask her why she would do that and she simply replied 'She's my sister and I know that she'd do the same for me.'" Haley said as she looked over at Nathan.
"Wow, sounds like Brooke has more similarities with Lucas than I thought. I get she's sacrificing what she wants,Lucas obviously, to get what you want and I'm assuming that's me?" Nathan asked, getting Haley to blush. "Hey, we'll talk about that later." Nathan said with a smirk. "I'm still confused though. What is the exact reason you two don't date brothers?" He questioned, wanting a straight answer.
"The next few moments, I am not a complete psycho who's like already named our non existent children, you just have to know that's how Brooke is-how we are." Haley began, receiving a confused look from Nathan before he nodded his head in agreement. " We look ahead, anyways. We don't date brothers. Ever since we were in middle school, we had this idea of what love is-the Disney fairy tales to be exact. Anyways, we asked our mom to explain to us how she knew our dad was the one for her. Because around that time we had a lot of friends' parents divorcing and just telling their kids they didn't love one another anymore like that was a simple enough explanation."Haley said as she continued rambling before shutting her mouth.
"Back to my point, our mom sat us down and told us that she felt a pull to our dad. Kind of like a magnet being pulled to well something metal. Just the first talk and she knew it. Needless to say we went behind our mom's back right after she told us and asked our father the same question just about our mom. He gave us the same reason, we knew that we would get that feeling when we met someone special that we would feel that pull. I felt a certain tug towards you and she felt the same way towards Lucas. Since I know Lucas felt something towards Brooke, you and I can't be anything but friends. For once, I'm not going to let Brooke sacrifice something for me. She has done enough of that over the years, now it's my turn." Haley told him as she started eating her chips.
"OK, I'm still confused what does that reason have anything to do with dating brothers?" Nathan questioned.
"In the far far away future, if Brooke and Lucas were to get married, we would be in laws. Would you want to marry your sister in law?" Haley questioned as she watched the sudden realization come across Nathan's face.
"No, I guess not." Nathan told her as he took another bite of his sandwich as he let everything Haley had just told him sink in.
"Yeah, so Brooke is going to give up her 'magnet' so to speak to put me first, but I'm not going to let her to that." Haley stated.
"Haley-he's not my real brother." He stated, effectively stunning Haley, causing her to drop her bag of chips and look at Nathan like he had grown a second head.
Following his brother out into the quad, Lucas began searching the area for Brooke until someone familiar caught his attention. Seeing his brother already taking a seat across from a girl, recognizing her to be Haley. Lucas smirked as he walked towards the familiar person. "I thought pussies only lived in California." Lucas stated as the group of three guys turned around and stared at Lucas like he had just sucker punched them.
"I thought assholes only lived in Charlotte." One of them replied before laughing.
"Coop, what the hell are you doin' here man? I thought you guys moved to Cali." Lucas stated as the two of them shook hands and pulled one another into a one armed hug.
"We did, but mom missed the small town life. Once dad got business up and running enough to where he could manage it from anywhere we moved back. Instead of back home, we moved here. What about you- why are you in Tree Hill?" Cooper asked.
Lucas shook his head, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Cooper was back in North Carolina. "Mom is opening a cafe here. Never understood the full extent of the move, but here we are. Then again, the bribing with cars clouded our judgment." Lucas chucked.
"Not to interrupt this reunion, but how do you guys know one another?" A spikey brown haired, short guy asked.
"Sorry Mouth. This is my cousin Lucas. Lucas this is Mouth and Skillz." Cooper introduced the two guys standing next to him. "Skillz is on the basketball team and Mouth does commentary on the games. They're just giving me pointers for try outs after school. Where's Nate? Please tell me you two will be at try outs?" Cooper questioned.
"Nice to meet you guys." Lucas said as he shook both of their hands. "Yeah, we'll be there. Have to find our place some how." Lucas joked as he and Cooper laughed. "Nathan is over there with Haley Davis." Lucas said as he nodded his head in their direction, watching Cooper, Skillz and Mouth turn in Nathan's direction.
"Well let's go say hi to Casanova." Cooper joked as he began turning to walk towards Nathan's table, only to be stopped by Lucas grabbing his arm.
"Don't man, he really likes her. Won't shut up about her likes her." Lucas said as he let go of Coopers arm.
"Well then I won't embarrass him just yet. We're about to meet up with the basketball team from last year, wanna come?" Cooper asked.
"Yeah, you know we always have to meet the competition." Lucas joked as he followed Cooper, Skillz and Mouth towards the opposite direction after nodding his head, letting Nathan know where he was going.
End of the day...
Heading into the locker room, Lucas set down his gym bag on the floor as he opened up a vacant locker and began changing. Pulling on his gym shorts and putting on a beater, he sat down on the bench and began changing his shoes.
"Damn man, were you in that much of a hurry? Or did you have another run in with Brooke and decided to hide out here?" Nathan asked as he took the locker next to Lucas'. "Please don't tell me you asked her to marry you, because if you did it's a lost cause. She's already in the witness protection program already on a plane to Cuba to get away from you." Nathan joked as he pushed his bag into his gym locker.
"Shut up Nate." He said as he stood up to close his locker and give Nathan a shove before sitting back down. "I actually haven't seen her all day, which is a good thing since I want to focus on my tryout." Lucas told him as he began tying his shoes. "Anyways, I've been tryin' to find you all day. Guess who moved back from California." Lucas stated as he leaned up against his locker and waited for Nathan to finish changing his shoes.
Nathan stopped tying his shoes as he heard 'California'."Who? We know a few people that moved to Cali. Please tell me they aren't trying to get in touch with us. I already said I already said goodbyes and I don't need someone wantin to visit and whatever." He muttered as he shook his head and finished tying his other shoes before standing up and following Lucas through the locker room doors and out into the gym.
"Would you shut up man?" Lucas questioned as he grabbed a basketball and began practicing on his free throw shots, while Nathan waited under the net to toss the ball back to Lucas. "You are so full of yourself. People in Charlotte were happy to see you go." Lucas said as he tossed Nathan the ball and switched places with him.
Nathan laughed as he put up a shot and waited for Lucas to toss the ball back towards him."Oh please, everyone misses Nathan Scott. It's part of my charm and you big brother are just jealous." Nathan said with a smirk across his face as he put up another shot and switched places with Lucas once again.
"Are you sure that Haley isn't talking to you because she thinks you're one of those special kids?" Lucas joked. "Come on, let's see if you can block me." He suggested to Nathan as they began playing a one on one game.
"Haley doesn't think I'm a special kid. You've got me confused with what Brooke thinks about you." Nathan joked as he put his hands up to block Lucas, only to have Lucas fake left and do a fade away shot as he headed right.
"Keep talkin' trash little brother. I'll school you and then Cooper will school you." Lucas said, letting it slip purposely that Cooper was back in town, to see if he could get Nathan's attention.
"Whatever you can't scho-wait what? He moved like two years ago and his parents wanted to get away from North Carolina. How'd you find out he's back? You see him yet? Come on tell me." Nathan begged as he checked the ball waiting to try to block Lucas again.
Lucas laughed slightly as he began dribbling with his back to Nathan. "Well I've been tryin to tell you. He was the one I was talkin to at lunch." Lucas told him as he went for a layup. "You were too cozy with Haley. Who I guess I'm going to have to meet another time?" He teased before tossing the ball to Nathan. "Come on Nate, we practiced all summer." Lucas said as he put his hands up to block Nathan, neither of them noticing that everyone in the gym had begun watching them intently.
"Whatever, you keep talking I get distracted." Nathan defended himself, as he tried to put up a three point shot only for Lucas to block it. "Damn it." Nathan muttered before shaking his head and turning his attention back to Lucas. "Ball. You can block, but let's see if you can catch." He said as Lucas tossed him the basketball.
"Yeah yeah, excuses. Shouldn't you be used to people talking to you on the court trying to distract you?" Lucas questioned as he and Nathan began tossing the basketball back and forth between one another. "Anyway, Cooper's meeting us at mom's cafe after try-outs. Mom wants the cafe open by Friday so more than likely an all nighter." Lucas trailed off as he finally noticed that everyone in the gym was watching them.
"Sorry?" Lucas and Nathan offered in unison to everyone around them who look dumbfounded. Only to hear two different laughters come from behind them.
"Damn guys, you haven't even been here a day and you are already showing off your skills. What are the rest of us going to do?" Cooper questioned as he patted an older gentlemen on the back. "I told you coach, they're good." He said before heading over to Nathan and Lucas.
"I'm Coach Whitey Durham. This is my gym and not just because my name is on it. Rules are simple, what I say goes. What those two boys just did, everyone better perform at their level or leave my gym right now. At five 'o clock, you will know if you are on the team or not. Suicides now!" Whitey screamed as he blew his whistle, effectively getting everyone to start running.
Author's Note-End: Well how did you like it? It was nine pages so give me a break on taking forever to update. I am also writing the next chapter for my three other stories. I also have two ideas for two new stories, which I'll put on hold until I at least end one of these stories or I'll at least write a few chapters ahead before I post those stories. Reviews are always welcome and enjoyed. Also appreciate, and hey maybe that one review will make me update faster or add another chapter? Who knows, gives you something to think about doesn't it?
-Tink