Author's Note: I have to be honest and tell you that I don't love this chapter. It's mostly a filler to get us to try outs! Let me know what you think!
"Well, it's official," Haley said three weeks later as Lucas crossed the T's in his last name.
He nodded thoughtfully.
"Are you sure about this, Lucas?" she asked. "I think you'd be such an asset to any basketball team, but I don't want you to do this because I want you to," she said quickly.
Lucas put an arm around her shoulder. "Always so full of yourself, aren't you, James?" he asked with a grin as they started down the hallway. "I'm trying out to see if I've got what it takes," he told her.
She tilted her head sideways and gave him a small smile. "You do, Lucas."
He gave her a squeeze. "I love your faith in me, Hales," he said. He put a hand on his heart. "It makes me misty eyed," he said in a teasing tone.
She socked him on the arm. "Cut it out, Lucas. I'm trying to have a moment here!"
Lucas sighed. "We really need to get you some female friends, James. I don't do the 'moments' thing."
Haley looked up at the sign indicating they'd made their way to the tutor center. "This is my stop," she said.
"All right. I'll see you at lunch?"
Haley nodded. "I'll be there," she said in a light tone. "Have fun in the library."
Lucas held up his copy of The Winter of Our Discontent with a grin. "I will."
He headed for the library and Haley walked into the tutor center, dropping her bag on the nearest table. Lisa looked up from the textbook she was studying while the student she was tutoring worked on a mock quiz. "Hey, Haley," she said.
"Hey," Haley said with a smile, making her way to the clipboards on the far end of the wall. She picked up the a.m. schedule to see that it hadn't changed. She didn't have any one scheduled for this morning. But the faculty liked to have at least one student there in the a.m. available in case anyone came in to inquire about tutoring or an unusually difficult assignment they'd had. She sat down at the table and opened her bag, pulling out her trigonometry text and looking over the problems she'd finished the night before. Half an hour later the bell rang and Haley closed her book. She put it in her bag and stood up, heading for the door.
"Oh, Haley!" Lisa said.
She spun around. "Yeah?"
"I forgot to tell you. You have a session scheduled for this afternoon," Lisa told her. "We're the only two available on Tuesday afternoons, and I've already reached the maximum amount of students I can tutor, so this one went to you."
"OK. Thanks for letting me know, Lisa," she said.
"Sure," the girl said, leaving the room.
Haley walked back towards the clipboards again and picked up the p.m. schedule. She scanned the page for her new student, and when her eyes found the name, she could feel her body temperature rising. "Over my dead body," she murmured, immediately making her way to Principal Turner's office.
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Haley squirmed uncomfortably in her seat and met Principal Turner's eyes. "The thing is, Principal Turner, Nathan and I sort of have a history," she explained, surprised at the relief she felt to finally admit it to someone.
"You have a history?" Principal Turner repeated, evidently looking for clarification.
Haley bit her lower lip and nodded uncertainly. "Yes. It's…problematical."
Mr. Turner sat back in his seat and folded his hands in his lap. "Miss James, are you asking for me to assign Nathan Scott to another tutor?" he asked.
Haley gave a huge sigh of relief. "Yes! Oh, thank you so much for understanding!"
"Hold on, Haley," he said sternly. "I asked if that's what you wanted. I didn't say I was going to give it to you."
"But—" Haley stammered.
"I will reassign Nathan," he said. "But if I do, I'm afraid that you'll have to resign your position in the tutor center. "
"Principal Turner!" she exclaimed.
"The tutoring center is no place for personal differences. And I'm afraid if you can't put yours aside, then I'm not sure this is the right job for you."
Haley sighed and stood up. "Thank you for your time, Principal Turner," she said. "I only have forty minutes left of my free period, and I'd better prep for my session this afternoon," she conceded.
"Good choice, Miss James," Principal Turner said appreciatively. "I would've hated to lose you."
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"You're my tutor?" an amused voice said from the doorway.
Haley looked up. "Like you didn't know," she said unpleasantly.
He held his palms up as he walked into the room. "I swear I didn't," he said.
Haley's eyes met his and he knew she didn't believe him. He sat down across from her at the table and pulled his Algebra II textbook out. "I'm surprise you didn't try to get me reassigned," he said in a teasing tone.
Haley lifted her chin defiantly. "Look, can we please just study?" she asked.
Nathan sat back in his chair, a huge grin gracing his face. "You did! You so tried to get me reassigned!" He laced his fingers together and put his hands on the back of his head. Haley couldn't help but notice how his T-shirt molded to his chest when he did that. She hastily looked away. "So, what happened?" he asked. "No one else wanted me?"
"Nathan—" she said hesitantly.
"Come on, Hales," he said. "There has to be a good story here." He forced himself to keep the grin in place on his face, but it was hard when he'd heard her call him Nathan. It was a reminder of who he wasn't.
Haley sighed. "First of all, don't call me Hales," she said abruptly. "Second of all—it's none of your business."
"Are you ever gonna give me a second chance?" he asked softly.
"Are you going to give your brother a first one?" she shot back.
She watched as Nathan visibly flinched. "It's complicated," he said.
"At High Flyers, you told me that you'd give anything to know your brother," she reminded him.
He shrugged. "That was a lie."
"No it wasn't!" she said heatedly.
"Haley, you didn't tell Lucas I said that did you?" Nathan asked with an edge of panic in his voice.
She shook her head. "No. But I hope one day…you do," she said softly. "Neither one of you realizes how amazing the other one is."
Nathan grinned at her and she realized too late her slip of the tongue.
"Are you gonna try to save the world, Haley?" he asked.
"No," she said gently. "Just the Scott boys."
Until now, Haley had been so angry with Nathan that she'd been too busy to see how much the brothers needed each other. Lucas with his inferiority complex and Nathan with his 'I'm all that' attitude. It was suddenly crystal clear to her what she needed to do. She was going to get the Scott boys to talk to one another if it killed her. And after hearing the rumors that flew through these old hallways, she was afraid it just might.
"So, about that second chance…"
Haley sighed. "I'm not planning on it," she informed him.
"Plans change," he told her.
"Not mine. Mine are pretty much etched in stone," she said.
"And what are they?"
She studied his face for a minute. "Why do you even want to know?" she asked.
"I'm curious."
"Fine. My primary goal…is to make it through this school year. Alive. I want to graduate valedictorian, and then I want to go to Stanford."
"That's a long ways away," Nathan said softly.
"It's only a year and a half, Nathan!"
"No," he said. "I mean Stanford. It's…really far away."
Haley lifted an eyebrow at him. "Well, you're good at geography," she said.
Nathan opened his textbook. "Let's just study," he said brusquely. But only one thing was on his mind. Haley wanted to go all the way to Stanford?
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"It's off, Tim," Nathan said, putting the ball up.
"What do you mean, it's off?" he asked. "It just started!"
"She's a good girl," Nathan said.
Tim stopped in midstride, and his jaw dropped. "And you're a bad boy!" he reminded his friend. "Where is this attack of conscience coming from?"
Nathan shook his head. "I'm not done screwing with Lucas, I'm just gonna find another way to do it."
"And how's that?" Tim asked.
"We're gonna freeze him out," Nathan said, putting the ball up again. "He wants to try out for the team? We can't stop him. But we can stop him from getting the ball," he said deviously.
"I love the way those wheels in your head turn, Scott," Tim said with a grin.
"And don't call me Scott anymore," Nathan said.
Tim frowned. "But we've always called you Scott," he said.
"Not anymore," Nathan said firmly. Scott belongs to Haley.