Chapter 10: Heart of a Champion

Cause I'm on my way, I can feel my ring coming

It's the blood of a champion, pumping

Deep inside my veins, too much pride to be running

I'ma get what I can

Nelly, Heart of a Champion

"Are you sure you don't want us to help you inside?"

Brooke rolled her eyes and gave a pointed look towards Lucas. He knew that Peyton was upstairs in Haley and Brooke's apartment and he wanted a casual, impromptu run-in with her.

"Lucas, when she wants to see you, she'll let you know."

Without saying another word, Lucas got into the car and waited for Nathan to tell Haley goodbye. Brooke rolled her eyes in Lucas' direction and motioned to Haley that she would meet her upstairs. Before Brooke placed her key in the locked door, she felt herself hesitate. She placed her ear on the door to listen to a confusing conversation on the other end.

"Peyton… why won't you just listen to me?"

"Jake! I need you to leave."

Those five words were the last thing Brooke needed to hear as she quickly unlocked the door and pushed it open. Jake turned his body towards the opening door, letting an awkward smile grace his face, "Hello Brooke."

"Bye Jake."

Brooke pursed her lips and moved into the apartment, giving Jake enough room to exit the apartment. However, he simply shook his head and motioned between himself and Peyton.

"I'm not done with my conversation, Brooke."

"Actually you are. Because this is my apartment and I'm asking you to leave."

"I'll leave when I said everything I came to say."

Before Brooke could utter a frustrated response, she heard a deep voice behind her, "I think she asked you to leave, Jake."

Jake's face softened as he looked over Brooke's head and met Nathan's glare. Nathan and Jake had known each other for a long time. They played basketball together from middle school until Jake ran off to find Nikki and Jenny. After Lucas and Nathan buried the proverbial hatchet, Nathan and Jake grew rather friendly. They weren't best friends, but Jake never felt hostility coming from Nathan. But right now? Right now Jake could feel nothing but hostility and anger. A part of him understood where he was coming from, but another part of him, a bigger part of him, only cared about getting Peyton back. So instead of backing off, he matched Nathan's hostile glare with one of his own.

"I don't think this is any of your business, Nate."

Before Haley could swing out her arm to block Nathan from moving, he lurched forward and charged towards Jake. Luckily, Brooke was fast enough to push Nathan back.

"I don't care what you think, Jake. This is not your fucking apartment and you need to get out. Brooke doesn't want you here, Haley doesn't want you here, and I know Peyton doesn't want you here. Those are the only three opinions that matter and they all want you to get the fuck out. So how about you leave now and I won't kick your ass."

Jake put his hands up in defense and moved past Nathan, carefully. He muttered something about seeing Peyton later and walked out of the apartment. Haley walked forward into the apartment and raised her eyebrows towards Peyton. Without exchanging a single word, the two had a conversation. Haley wanted to know how Peyton was and Peyton let out a long breath and let her know that she was okay, not great, but she was surviving.

"I thought you were leaving?"

Brooke scrunched her eyebrows towards Nathan and he, in turn, raised the two bags in his right hand, "I was, but you left some things in the car. Lucas… Oh."

Peyton waved her hand dismissively, "Stop. He's a part of your lives so it's ridiculous to assume all conversation about him will stop just because we broke up."

"I can't believe Peyton didn't come to this. I'm going to be in so much trouble."

"Is it supposed to be this itchy?"

"Haley! Don't touch it!" Brooke swatted her hands over Haley's as she fidgeted with her cheerleading uniform.

Tonight was the first game of March Madness for Duke and the first game in which Haley would cheer. To say she was nervous would be an understatement. Haley was nervous for herself – she would be in front of millions of people, in the arena and on television, but she was also nervous for Nathan. She knew how much basketball meant to him and she knew that he would be so upset if he lost the game.

"Fine! It's just so weird feeling! And also, I can't believe you were expecting Peyton to come. She didn't look like she had slept well in days when we got home. And you know she's been crying nonstop. I've never seen so many tears."

Brooke opened her mouth to respond, but was interrupted by the rest of the squad and their cheerleading coach, "Brooke! So good to see you, how was your Spring Break?"

Her coach pulled her in for a hug with a bright smile on her face, which was odd for the stuck up, stuffy coach she was used to. Jessica Harper was an expert at cheerleading. She cheered all through college and then opened her own cheer academy in Durham. Once that got boring for her, she decided to coach at Duke. She was thirty-five, gorgeous, unmarried, and was completely devoted to the sport. Everything in her life was about cheerleading, Brooke had never had a conversation with her that was not about cheerleading.

"Oh, um, it was great. I went with a bunch of my friends to Mexico."

"That's super! Wait, where is Peyton?"

Brooke sucked in a breath and prepared herself for the backlash, "Well, she and her boyfriend of like three and a half years got into a big thing while we were in Mexico and they ended up breaking up. She's a terrible mess. She has been staying with me and Haley because she was living with him and she just couldn't pull herself together enough to show up and I know you're going to be mad, but she was in no shape to cheer."

"Oh, well that's too bad. Let her know I'm thinking about her. And you must be Haley James! I've heard so much about you! You look so cute in your cheer uniform. Oh! That's our cue, but we'll catch up after the game, okay?"

Haley nodded her head quickly and gave Brooke a skeptical look, but Brooke's mouth was in a wide-O shape and her eyebrows were scrunched together in order to make a very confusing face. She looked towards another member on the squad and they gave her a knowing smile before rushing over to Brooke.

"She met someone."

"Shut up! Who?"

Lucas bounced his leg up and down as he listened to his iPod, staring at the ground. He gripped his iPod tightly and closed his eyes, trying to let the words calm him down. He jumped slightly as he felt a hand on his shoulder. Lucas turned his head to see Nathan giving him a concerned look. After pulling out his earbuds, he watched as Nathan sat on the bench beside him.

"Everything okay?"

"Not really, I just…" He paused taking a deep breath before recomposing himself, "Just trying to get my mind off of Peyton and focus on the game, man."

Nathan nodded his head, but could tell he was lying. He knew Lucas was keeping something from him, but he also knew that they had barely been speaking to each other the past couple days.

"You know, my first big game was right after Haley and I broke up freshmen year?"

"I didn't know the two of you broke up at all, so not really."

If Lucas hadn't let out a smile, Nathan would have thought he was upset, "It was a really hard game, I couldn't get the picture of her looking so upset and angry with me out of my head. I really thought it was over. But she came to see me that night and she said something I'll never forget…"

Nathan gave a fake smile towards Lucas before turning back into his locker and checking his phone for the 100th time. He let out a deep sigh and fought the urge not to slam his fist into his locker when he saw that Haley hadn't text or called him. He took his phone out of his locker and signaled to his teammates that he would be right back.

"Dammit Haley."

"Jeeze, no need to curse me."

Nathan whipped his head around to see Haley standing against a wall next to the locker room entrance. "You didn't call me."

"We broke up, Nathan."

Haley gave him a pointed look and then motioned for him to walk with her. They walked down the corridor and she reached out and grabbed his hand. Before she could say anything, Nathan turned towards her, "Hales, I don't want to do this."

"Nathan-."

"No, really. Haley, we can figure this out. I'm sorry."

"Nathan, I need some time. And I need you to let me have it."

Haley bit her lip to keep her eyes from welling up, but Nathan squeezed her hands, "It didn't mean anything, Haley, she didn't…I… God, Haley."

"I know, Nathan. I know you didn't sleep with her and I know that you care about me. But also know that I need to work through some things and I need to do it alone. But I came here to tell you that no matter what happens between us, I will always be behind you. Win or lose. Tough time or awesome times, Nate. This is your game and your time and I want you to win. Don't think about me because I know that one day we'll get past this and on that day, we will celebrate the win you get tonight."

End flashback

"…And I had the best game of my life that night."

"Well that was disappointing."

The Blue Devils lost their first and now only March Madness basketball game. The boys played hard, but the other team played harder. Now Brooke and Haley were sitting in the women's locker room talking about the game. Brooke seemed to be more upset than Haley, actually Brooke seemed to be more upset than everyone else. The girls on the squad stayed in the locker room for a while longer before heading out. Once everyone had gone, Haley turned to Brooke and gave her a concerned look.

"What's up with you? I know it's sad we lost the game, but you seem much sadder than that, Brooke."

Brooke gave her an exasperated look before unloading all of her emotions onto Haley, "Peyton should have been here!"

"Brooke-."

"No! This is bullshit, Haley! Her and her boyfriend broke up, big fucking deal. Like you and I have never been dumped before, oh wait! SHE dumped HIM. And now she's just turning her back on everyone and moping around all of the time. Am I supposed to feel sorry for her? How many more tissues do I need to get her? How many more tubs of ice cream do we need to buy? I mean, really! This isn't fair to me and this isn't fair to you. You might want to call me selfish, but she needs to open up her eyes and realize that her life isn't over. It's really not the taking care of her part, I would do that every day if she needed me to. She's one of my best friends, but I'm frustrated, Haley! I can't stand her feeling sorry for herself and ignoring life. What am I supposed to do?"

Haley gave a wide-eyed look towards Brooke as she gave a very emotional-type roller coaster speech. She watched as Brooke went from angry to frustrated to sad. Brooke stared up at her with questioning eyes and Haley gave her the only answer she could thing of at the time, "We have to talk to her. Things will only get worse. Maybe tonight, or maybe we should give you a little time to calm down."

Brooke let out a small laugh and turned to give Haley a big hug, "Thanks Hales. And you're right, maybe give a day or so. Plus who knows, maybe she'll get over it herself."

Nathan rearranged the bag on his shoulder as he stood against the brick wall outside of the basketball arena. They just lost their only chance at winning the National Championship, but Nathan had a smile on his face. For the first time after a loss, he felt like he had something to look forward to. Haley. She was making such a difference, she had always made a difference, but this was different. Normally after a loss, he would mope around or completely ignore everyone. Then later at night, Haley would visit him and for a couple of hours a night, he totally forgot about the loss. But that only lasted a few hours and soon after, he would return to being miserable. Of course Nathan was upset they had loss, but he felt good about his performance. And this would not be the last chance he had at a National Championship.

"What are you smiling about? You lost the game, Nathan."

Nathan was snapped out of his dreamy-Haley gaze by someone standing in front of him, actually two people standing in front of him, "Dan. Mom."

Dan rolled his eyes at Nathan's reluctance to call him dad and Deb gave him a gentle smile, "I'm sorry you lost, sweetie, but you played great."

Nathan felt his face soften as he reached down at hugged his mother and whispered a soft thank you. He could never understand why his mom was still with Dan Scott. Once Nathan's mother quit her job during his Junior year of high school and decided to spend more time at home, he really thought they would get sick of each other and divorce. But they didn't and instead it was a hostile home life in which there was constant yelling. Nathan couldn't wait to leave for college, and again he thought Deb Scott would leave her husband when Nathan left for college, however, she stayed and now he is in his junior year of college and they are still together.

"Great? He did not play great, Deb. Don't be ridiculous. He played okay, but there were players who are better than he was. Mediocre at best."

Nathan rolled his eyes but before he could say anything, he heard Haley's voice calling out to him. He looked to his side and watched as she happily walked over to him. Once she arrived at his side, she kissed his cheek and then looked in front of him. Haley turned a deep shade of red when she realized it was Dan and Deb Scott standing in front of her.

"Oh. Mr. and Mrs. Scott, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there."

Deb dismissively waved her hand and reached for the young girl, pulling her in for a hug, "Don't worry about it Haley, and please call me Deb. Are you and Nathan…"

Nathan looked sheepishly over at Haley and silently, but profusely, apologized for not telling his parents about them, "Um yeah mom, we are dating. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, it has just been a crazy couple of weeks."

"That's so great! I'm happy for the both of you!"

"Oh please. Just another distraction. I guess this explains your mediocre performance."

Haley cut her eyes at Dan, "What?"

Dan wasn't expecting anything out of Haley, but he was expecting a rebuttal from Nathan. He was stunned speechless as he stared at Haley's glare.

"I'm pretty sure Nathan had the best stats of the night. Actually I am 100% positive he did. He had 23 points and 8 assists. The next highest team member was only 14 points and only 4 assists. Duke played hard and they lost. That happens sometimes. There is more than one person on the team. So I think he played an awesome game and I know he's happy with how he did so that is all that matters. It doesn't matter how an analyst or how you feel he did in this game. What matters is he tried his very best and he's going to keep improving because that's the type of athlete he is."