New Chapter.

In case I don't do another update by next week, I hope you all enjoy the season premiere! :)

Nine

"C'mon, gimme your pudding. You never eat it anyhow." James poked at Lily's lunch tray.

"I do too." Lily slapped his hand away.

"Here, take mine." Kyle said walking up and sitting down between the two.

"Hey, where'd you run off to last night?" Lily asked him curiously.

"Oh, I just went to grab a drink." Kyle told her.

"For the entire second half?" She continued a little confused.

"Well it was a pretty long line." He lied smiling nervously.

"You missed a good game man." James chimed in.

"You barely even played." Stacey pointed out, taking a seat at the table.

"1 for 1 from the field and 2 assists, thank you very much." James reminded her.

"Anyways…" Stacey replied, totally blowing him off. "So spill missy, what happen with you and Justin after the game?" She turned to Lily wanting all the details.

"It was going fine 'til Peyton interrupted us." She replied. "Well more like Lucas."

"What's he upset about this time?" Stacey asked, almost not wanting to know.

"I have no idea. He's been in such a bad mood ever since last night." Lily explained.

"But the team won. What could he possibly be angry about?" Kyle answered.

"I thought you said you went out to get drinks?" Lily turned to him.

"Oh uh, I got back in time to catch the last few seconds." Kyle tried to cover up his story.

Lily glared at him, knowing something was obviously up— just not what exactly. She always could tell when Kyle was lying, he was never very good at it.

"Great, that should make today's practice an enjoyable one." James mocked looking a bit scared now as he stood up from the table.

——————————

Justin leisurely strolled around the corner of the hall towards the gym, soon seeing his teammates who were all gathered at the door.

Almost bumping into one of them, he stopped in his tracks. "What are you guys doing?" He said pulling out one of his ear buds to his iPod.

Anthony pointed to the door where a sign was apparently taped onto it.

"Team Meeting in my office. –Coach Scott" Justin read it to himself.

Not thinking anything of the sign, Justin wiggled his way through the crowd to the door.

"It's locked." Tommy told him.

"Yeah, I figured it was." Justin snapped back, still pulling at the handles trying to get in. Pounding on the door in frustration, "Fine, let's go to this stupid thing." He declared unwillingly.

The team followed behind him as he reluctantly began to make his way to Coach Scott's office.

. . .

Justin turned on the knob and this time unfortunately the door did open.

"Glad you guys could make it." Lucas greeted his team. "Come in, come in. Don't be shy, there's enough room for all of you." He added.

The team stood there jammed in the doorway for a minute, unsure what to expect before finally cramming themselves into the Coach's office. It was a tight and uncomfortable fit, but each of the twelve boys eventually did find a spot to sit down.

"So you might be wondering why I called you all down here." Lucas said looking on at the boys. "I wanted to go over some tape from yesterday's game." He announced as he bent down to press the play button on the VCR.

The image of last night's game popped onto the TV screen. "Why don't we just jump to the 4th quarter." Lucas jammed on the fast-forward button on the remote.

Lucas hit the play button once again when the tape got to the last play of the game. "Let's see what we have here." He continued with his almost obvious sarcasm.

"Double screen, yes. Good inbounds pass." He nodded as the play began to unfold. "Cut to the paint, good. Shot is up…"

The team watched as the ball bounced ever so slightly into the basket. Letting out a few shouts and hollers, Justin's teammates started to shove him in approval.

"Too bad that wasn't the play we drew up." Lucas interrupted with a stern look on his face.

The boys settled down, realizing the coach wasn't the slightest bit amused.

"Tommy wasn't open so I put up the shot." Justin defended himself.

"You sure 'bout that? I remember it differently." Lucas replied rewinding the tape back.

"Coach, its fine." Tommy tried his best to make light of the situation.

"Okay so he was open. What's the big deal, we won the game." Justin protested.

"That's not the point." Lucas told him. "You not only deliberately disobeyed me, but you didn't show any respect or regard for your teammates either."

There was a long period of silence in the room. No one knowing exactly what to do or say at the current time.

Breaking the silence, Lucas decided to get what he wanted to say off his chest. "And for that reason, I'm sitting you down for the next game."

Taking a second for it to sink in, Justin stood up. "What!! You can't do that!" He screamed.

"Until you learn the meaning of teamwork I'm going to do just that." Lucas responded.

"Whatever." Justin said coldly as he stormed out of the office, slamming the door behind him.

There was another long, agonizing moment of quiet as everyone began to realize what had just happened.

"That's it for today." Lucas finally spoke. "Go on, get outta here." He told the boys almost shouting.

——————————

"You guys heard?" James ran up to Stacey and Lily who were standing by their lockers.

"No, what?" Stacey asked.

"Lucas is benching Justin." He told them.

"What?" Lily replied a little taken back. This was just the predicament she didn't want to be put into— having to pick sides.

. . .

Like a wildfire, the rumors about Justin spread rapid across the school until soon when virtually everyone had heard the bad news.

Not knowing the truth behind the entire story, everyone just assumed it was some power trip the coach was making as a message of some sorts to his team. Little did they know however, Coach Lucas Scott wasn't going to back down from his decision and in what he believed in— that absolutely no one is bigger than the team.

——————————

Lily hesitantly opened the front door, slowly walking in.

"Hey kiddo." Lucas greeted her

"Hey." Lily answered as she sped up the stairs with her head down.

"What's up with her now?" Lucas asked Peyton who was in the kitchen preparing dinner.

"She's fifteen. Something's always up." Peyton told him.

Flopping down onto her bed, Lily took a deep sigh of relief. She didn't know how much longer she could avoid the inevitable, but it couldn't hurt prolonging it for as long as she possibly could.

With the new events unfolding, she just hoped and prayed her two worlds wouldn't clash anytime soon— which currently seemed almost certain at this point.