"Nolan, get up!"

Nolan didn't want to get up.

"Nate, I feel.. not good." She wasn't even lying. Her face was really sore, as was her side. Worse than last night. She didn't even want to think about what her face looked like now.

"Okay, let's make a deal. You can sleep for another 20 minutes, and we'll both skip, well, miss first period, alright?" He was standing at the door way, still wearing a pair of pajama pants and t-shirt. She just smiled at him, and shut her eyes. Twenty minutes came and went quickly, and she heard him yelling again. She slowly got out of bed and headed into the bathroom. The right side of her face was covered with a shade of purple. She sighed. At least now she had use for all the make-up the cheerleaders had given her.

After a quick shower, she slipped into a pair of jeans, a simple graphic t-shirt and a sweatshirt. She was going for comfort today. She stood in front of the mirror, and caked on quite a bit of concealer and cover up. And she hid the bruise well. She brushed her hair quickly, letting it flow over her shoulders and she tried to smile. She had good practice with smiling through the pain.

"Hey, Nole, you ready to go?" Nathan appeared at the door frame, packsack over his shoulders. She nodded and walked out of the bathroom, grabbing her bag on the way.

Nolan was all smiles when she got to school. She was a cheerleader. The team she cheered for had won last night. She was supposed to be happy. Hell, she was happy about them winning. She just wasn't happy in general. At least she didn't have a full day of classes now. She got to miss one. And now, off to English.

"That class dragged on forever." Nolan listened to her friend Ashlynn rant. That's what she was there for anyway. Listening. Ashlynn was not the kind of friend you told your deep dark secrets too. And Nolan never came close to explaining anything about her parents to her "best" friend. She probably wouldn't be listening anyway.

Now that Nolan thought about it, she didn't talk to anyone. Well, aside from Lucas. She wasn't even sure she could do that anymore. It seemed like her loving father was everywhere, and he'd find out. Or Nathan would just be more ignorant about the situation. It wasn't like she could just cut Lucas out of her life. They weren't the two closest people in the world, but she did trust him. She trusted Lucas more than she did Nathan.

She missed Nathan. Sure, he slept in the room next to her every night, but they weren't that close anymore. Their entire family was sort of breaking apart.

True, there had just been a game the day before, but she had cheerleading practice today. At least it was a Friday. Soon she would be free of school for two days. She wasn't even sure about practice. It hurt to walk most of the time because of her blow to the ribs, how was she supposed to jump and yell. Smile through the pain, she thought to herself. She was doing it all her life, what was stopping her now?

"I've gotta get to practice Ash, I'll call you this weekend, 'kay?" She said her goodbyes to her friends, and headed off to the gym. She had successfully avoided Nathan all day. She hadn't seen Lucas either. She imagined he would pick up on the bruise lining her face. Lucas just noticed things like that. It was odd sometimes.

She moved her way through the crowded hallway and escaped into the gym. She saw a few basketball players stretching near the court, and a few cheerleaders lazing around on the bleachers.

"Hey! Little Scott! You did great last night!" Nolan heard Brooke appear beside her, a big grin on her face. Nolan smiled back at her, just shrugging a bit.

"Uh, thanks Brooke." she replied.

"And don't worry. There won't be much to this practice. A few cheers, then just talking. Your brothers tend to get brought up quite a bit, just to warn you." And with that, she rushed over to the other cheerleaders, leaving Nolan to think. Maybe it wasn't too late to just go home now. She turned to leave the gym, and saw Lucas walk in. She started to breathe a bit heavily, just remembering what Lucas represented as of last night. She wasn't supposed to talk to him. Her dad would find out some how.

"Hey Nolan," Lucas started, as he started walking her way. She bit her lip and quickly turned on her heel, heading over to the other cheerleaders. She was sure Lucas was standing there by himself now, surprised. It wasn't like her to just not talk to him, but she couldn't today. Not now.

Nathan watched as his sister turned and walked away from Lucas. He knew he should be happy about it, but it kind of shocked him. Of course, last night their Dad had yelled at her a lot about talking to Lucas, so that's probably why she did that. It was never fun when Dan Scott yelled. Especially when he was really angry. Nathan shook the thought and watched as Lucas was going to follow her. He hated when people cared so much.

"Lucas, just don't." Nathan said simply, walking up to stop him. For a second, he thought Lucas look hurt, then he just shook his head and walked towards the locker room.

Nathan assumed she was just upset still about last night and their dad. So he just headed off to the locker rooms too. If he had to, he could talk to her later anyway.

Practice went smoothly. Nolan did cringe quite a bit during some stretches and moves, but she was sure no one noticed. It seemed a few of the other girls were a bit distracted today anyway. Someone was bringing up the topic of a party. It didn't occur to Nolan. A party. She was probably going to have to go to a coveted Ravens' party. She'd heard her brother and Tim discuss the wild get togethers before. She never got to experience one though. As they finished their cheers, everyone sat on the bleachers to "watch the guys practice." Or, in other words, to talk.

"Nathan said we can have it at his beach house, well, like mansion." someone said. Nolan guessed it was Theresa. She wasn't really paying attention. She was actually watching the guys play. Basketball seemed to calm them sometimes. She guessed it just took their minds off everything else.

Soon enough, the guys were done playing basketball. Nolan was relieved to be going home. She waited in the hallway outside the gym for Nathan. He was her ride home. She leaned against the lockers and sighed.

She smiled as she watched both her brothers walk out of the locker room. Nathan paused to talk to Tim about something, and she saw Lucas heading her way. He really did want to talk. She hated how persistent he had to be.

"Nolan, can we talk for a second?" he asked her, stopping beside her. He was gripping his packsack with one hand, and let the other one drop to his side. She breathed in quickly, and shut her eyes. She opened them again, looking over at Nathan. He was motioning down the hallway, meaning he wanted to go.

"Luke, I can't right now. Tonight, okay?" And she darted away from him, and over to Nathan. She couldn't even glance back at this point. Nathan protectively put his arm over her shoulder.

"Hey, you alright?"

Like she was going to explain her feelings to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What's this I hear about a party?"

"Dad said you can go to the party, as long as you don't drink." Nathan said, as he hung up the phone.

Nolan laughed. Her father was such a hypocrite at times. Telling her not to drink, even though it was his own favorite past time.

"You can still have fun without drinking anything Nole, don't worry about it." He told his sister. They were both lying on the couch, watching sports highlights roll across the screen. Well, at least Nathan was watching them.

"Plus, c'mon. I'll sneak you at least one." he told her, with a smile. She laughed again. Even Nathan wouldn't be able to stop her, considering the constant flow of alcohol at high school parties.

"How did you convince him to let you have a party anyway?"

"Convince? He welcomes the idea." Nathan was the one laughing this time. It was true. Nolan rolled her eyes with a smile, and got up from the couch. There was other things she could be doing, like planning something to wear.

"We'll leave for the beach house about eight, alright?" she heard her brother call back to her. She just nodded and dashed into her room. It was her first high school party. She needed to wear something great.

The party was in full swing by 9 o'clock. It seemed half the school had shown up. Or at least half the school that was popular enough to know people on the basketball team. Nolan was sitting in the kitchen of the house, doing her best to rest a bit. She had moved a bit too much over the day, and her ribs had started hurting again. She noticed quite a bit of bruising when she was changing. She had decided on a pair of rather tight blue jeans and a conservative red tank top. After brushing her hair into a messy bun, she had also redone her make-up and covered up her swollen, bruised face completely. She was happy with the outcome, and was looking forward to a fun evening.

She was pretty sure not a lot of freshmen were going to show up, considering anyone beneath tenth grade was 'immature' and 'stupid'. She was glad to have her brothers. It helped her meet people, and get to know the older crowd. Nathan had allowed her that 'one drink' before he went and worked the party. Which, in other words was seeing who had shown up and deciding who to talk to.

"Wow. Little Scott! You look good!" Again, it was Brooke. Nolan smiled to herself, and turned to face the cheerleader behind her.

"Uh, thanks Brooke." she said simply.

"Come dance with us!" Brooke commanded her, grabbing her hand and motioning to the group of girls and guys dancing in their living room. Nolan thought for a moment, then shrugged.

She quickly drank the rest of her drink and nodded, "Why not?" And moved on to dancing. She felt quite buzzed. She had no idea what Nathan had given her, but it had tasted good. It wasn't surprising that she already felt the effects of it, she was a small kid. She moved with the music with everyone else in the tight group of dancers. Everyone was so close. It was just such a good rush.

As the song died down, Nolan spotted Lucas across the room with Haley. She meandered her way out of the crowd, and stopped in front of them, "Haley! Luke!"

"Hey Nolan," Lucas started, eyeing her up and down. She didn't seem like herself tonight.

"Nice house," Haley said quickly, to cover up the conversation gap.

"Oh thanks. It's a shame we don't use it that often." Nolan replied, glancing around the place. It was true. The beach house was more like the house they never used. Unless Nathan was throwing a party, or for some reason the Scott parents felt they should have a weekend alone.

"Do you think you could point out a bathroom in this place?" Haley asked, looking around.

Nolan laughed, "Yeah. There's a nice one upstairs, second door on the left." She pointed towards the stairs. Haley gave her a small smile, and headed in that direction. Suddenly there was a growing awkward tension between Nolan and her brother. She had totally shut him out today, and she knew he wanted to talk. She bit her lip, and glanced up at him.

"Luke, I know you wanna talk, but I won't be able to concentrate if we do so inside. There is a bit of a boardwalk thing outside, if you wanna go there."

"Sure, lead the way." He said with a small smile. Nolan made her way to the back door of the house, and waited for Lucas to follow. She felt the cool air wipe across her skin as they walked down the wooden stairs, stopping along the deck-like set up on the sand. She didn't think it would be that cool out.

"Here." She turned to see Lucas unzipping his sweatshirt and revealing a long sleeved shirt underneath. She gratefully took the piece of clothing and wrapped herself up in it.

"Lucas, I just want to say I'm sorry for blowing you off in the gym today. I didn't really want to, but I felt it was the best thing to do."

"But why?"

"Well, last night at the game, you know how you hugged me really quickly to calm my nerves (which, by the way, really helped).. turns out my dad saw that. And he was not happy about it. At all." She paused, and looked down, "There was a LOT of arguing, and yelling and-" She stopped herself. She had almost said hitting. But she didn't. And hopefully Lucas didn't catch it.

"And what?" He peered into her eyes.

She was worried he would say that.

"And.. a lot of.. throwing. He threw a glass passed my head. Shattered once it hit the wall." She laughed nervously, and her eyes returned to the ground. Lucas didn't even seen shocked or surprised because of what she was saying. As if he knew it was coming.

"Nolan, how did you get that bruise on your face?"

She bit her lip. She knew that was coming.

"Well, I was headed up the stairs and I totally tripped over my own two feet, face plant into the staircase and-"

"Nolan, tell me the truth."

"What are you implying Lucas?" She knew what she was implying. And she could feel tears welling up in her eyes. She hated thinking about her dad. And what he did. And what he always did. And what he was always going to do.

"I don't know Nolan!" he threw his arms up in the air, "For the first time, you aren't ignoring the topic. Why can't you just tell me? You really wanna know what I think?" He watched her, and she didn't move. The tears were falling now, and she couldn't bear to look up at him. He reached over and cradled her face in his hands, making her look up.

"I think you are scared. Because he does this to you. Your, well, our, jackass of a father. He hits you, doesn't he?"

All Nolan could do is nod. She couldn't defend him. Lucas grabbed her, and hugged her. She felt so safe in his arms at tht moment in time. She did feel terrible though, almost sick. And unbearably cold. And light headed. The last thing she saw was black.

--

Well, what did you think? Lucas finally knows. You must be pleased about that. I was very happy with the outcome of this chapter. Did you love it? Sweet. Review! You know what I love? Long reviews. That way I get to know what you really thought about it. Who am I kidding? Any kind of review is nice. Thanks for reading. If you didn't get it at the end, with the whole black thing, she fainted. kthankz.