The next day, at school, Marisol had just finished taking a sip from the water fountain when Brooke ambushed her. "Ah! What's with people scaring me all the time?"
"Sorry, but I just wanted to congratulate you."
"On what?" Marisol asked, thinking, 'Please don't say I'm on the squad. Please don't say I'm on the squad!'
"You made the squad!"
"Oh!" Marisol exclaimed. "That's…great, Brooke."
"I know! Isn't it?" Brooke sighed dreamily. "Couldn't you just die?"
"Oh, totally can." Marisol said, through her teeth.
"Anyway, practice after school. If you don't have any clothes, we'll lend you some. Can't wait!" and Brooke practically skipped down the hallway. Marisol groaned.
"See, most girls would kill to make the cheerleading team." Lucas said.
"Thank god I'm not most girls."
He chuckled. "So, how'd it go last night?"
"As good as can be expected. So, basically horrible."
"You know, I'm sorry about the-"
"It's fine. Just save that for Peyton, okay?"
"How far are you going to take this whole 'I like Peyton' thing?"
"Until you go out with her. When that happens, I'll move on to 'I was right and you were in denial.'"
"Great. So, what, um… What did Nathan say when you got home?"
Marisol looked around. "I hope you're not advertising that."
"I'm not. Why would I?"
"I don't know. For kicks? But anyway, Nathan was pissed off. Started yelling, we argued, that kind of stuff."
"He didn't touch you, did he?"
"No." Marisol said, hoping that he still didn't know about the bruise. She didn't even tell Ronnie or Lindsey. She thought, 'What they don't know won't hurt them.'
"Good."
"I was surprised though." Lucas looked at her ands she rolled her eyes. "Not that he didn't touch me, but that he didn't follow me when I walked away from the fight. Nathan just seemed like the type of guy who has to have the last word, like when he tried to stop me yesterday."
"Really?"
"Yeah, so… You pumped for try-outs again?"
"You pumped for practice?"
"Good point." Marisol said and they laughed, walking into the cafeteria.
Nathan was watching them from across the hallway. "Penny for your thoughts?"
"Just a penny? Is that all they're worth to you?"
Peyton shrugged. "You used to tell me for free, so I figured that since you've actually been sincere and starting to use your brain not to be an ass, they went up just a little."
"Thanks, Peyton. That really makes me feel better."
"Ah, sarcasm. Nathan, you should really leave that to me."
He chuckled. "Yeah, I suck at it."
"Well, you're an amateur. So, what's on your mind? Other than the obvious?" He eyed her. "Marisol. You know, she's been avoiding me all day."
"She knows."
"Knows what?" Nathan kinked his eyebrows. "Oh, is that what you're thinking about?"
"No, I don't know. Guess I'm just thinking about this thing I'm about to do later."
"What thing?"
"Just a thing. Maybe you can help me with it. Come on." Peyton stood there for a second, but followed him.
In practice, Peyton kept sneaking glances at Marisol and Peyton. During their little break, Marisol went up to her. "Is there something on my face?"
"Uh, no." Peyton said, unsure of herself.
"Am I doing the routine weirdly?"
"No."
"Do I look funny in any way?"
"No."
"Then, why do you keep looking at me?"
"What? I'm not. Okay, maybe I am, but it's nothing."
"Nathan tell you?"
"Uh, tell me what?"
"It's okay, Peyton. It's called acceptance. First step."
"Okay, I know about the deal, or whatever you want to call it."
"Okay, and?"
"And nothing."
"That's why you keep looking at me funny? Okay, you want to keep why you're acting so weird a secret, fine. So will I."
Marisol started to walk away. "Wait, I got to tell you something."
"What?"
"Come here." Peyton whispered in her ear.
"What? Is he insane? That… He's crazy and delusional! That…idiot!" The girls all looked over at them. "Uh, nothing to see here. Just some method acting."
"Yeah, drama practice and all that." Peyton stammered.
"Drama practice?" Marisol whispered to her when the girls looked away.
"Method acting?"
"Yeah, I had nothing."
"Me too." Laughing, they went back to the group.
Across the gym, Nathan was watching Marisol and Peyton talk from his seat on the bench, waiting for Whitey to put him in. Then, he noticed Lucas take another shot and it swished. He looked over at Whitey and noticed that he seemed impressed. 'Damn, he might make the team, after all. What more does he want?
He can have Peyton. It's obvious they like each other, even when she was my girlfriend. My dad? He can have him? Marisol? Well…"
He was brought out of his thoughts by Whitey calling him in. To his chagrin, Nathan was on the same side as Lucas. 'Time to show him who's team this is.'
For the next fifteen minutes of the game, Nathan had somehow gotten everyone on his team to ignore Lucas and not pass him the ball. Tim had the ball now and, although Lucas was wide-open, he wouldn't pass it to Lucas. So, Lucas ran behind him and stole the ball, taking it up to the hoop for an easy lay-up.
Tim shoved him. "What the hell was that?" Lucas shoved him back and Jake got in the middle, pulling then apart.
"You all stop that right now!" Whitey bellowed.
The guys stopped dead in their track. "How do any of you expect to be a team if you can't work together?"
Tim cut in. "But he stole the ball from his own teammate!"
"But nothing, that guy has been hitting everything and none of you will pass him the ball." They looked down, dejectedly. "And you," Whitey pointed at Lucas. "Need to play as if you're part of a team. Go get changed. Tomorrow, I'll announce the new players at the end of the day."
All of them grumbled on their way to the locker room( the girls had already gone in to change), Nathan called Lucas. "What do you want?"
"I got to tell you something."
"What is it? That I won't make the team? That I suck? That-"
"It's about Marisol."
"What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything. It's about what you can do." Lucas looked at him confused. "Look, my parents, Dan and Deb, they set up this deal with Marisol's mom that me and her have to get married."
"I know."
Nathan was surprised. "She told you?"
"Yeah, she did. Shocked?"
"No." He tried to play it off. "I knew she would tell someone. Just thought it'd be Jaglieski. Okay, since you already know about that arranged marriage, this will be easier to explain."
"Just spit it out, Nathan."
"You can…" He coughed as Lucas looked at him expectantly. "You can marry Marisol instead, if you want."
"What? Why? How? I-"
"They made a mistake in the contract and it's obvious she likes you better. You'd be good for her. I'd just bring her down. I'd cheat on her and lie to her. I'll just end up hurting her in the end."
Lucas started pacing and Nathan took it as he can go on. "It says that, 'The son of Dan Scott is to marry the daughter of Jessica Santorini. You're Dan's son too. You can marry her instead of me."
"What? You hate her that much, so you thought, 'here's a chance to give her away so I don't have to marry her and give up sleeping around.'" Lucas hissed.
"No, don't you get it? I'm doing this for her. Like I said, I'll just hurt her and she doesn't even like me. We have no chance of working out. We're too different. You and her have so much more in common.. You both read, right? She's smart and nice. Everything that I'm not."
"So, you're doing this out of the goodness of your heart?"
"Is that so hard to believe?"
"Yeah, it is! How do I know that you're not just telling me this so I'll feel guilty and take your place, so you can go back to having sex with girls like Vanessa?"
"That's why! Damn it! I don't want to do to Marisol what I did to Peyton. I cheated on Peyton. I lied to her. Everyone knows that me and her were all about sex. Peyton didn't deserve that and neither does Marisol. You don't like her, or something? I'm not stupid. Saw your truck in the driveway last night and I saw you kiss her."
"You are stupid. Nathan, you're the dumbest guy I have ever met! And that's saying something, because I've met Tim!"
People were starting to come out of the locker rooms. Peyton, Brooke, Haley, and Marisol were first. Brooke, Peyton, and Haley, being a good friend to Marisol at the time, got everyone to leave the other way.
Nathan was already mad, but this pushed him over the edge. "What?"
He charged at Lucas. It was a flurry of fists for the first minute, but they eventually pulled apart and were walking in a circle. Jake and Tim were about to go stop them, but Marisol told them not to. "They have to yell at each other. Get it out."
"You're the one that Marisol likes, you idiot! And I like Peyton. I only kissed her as a comfort thing and because I was confused. She had just told me about the whole situation and I kissed her. You don't get it, do you? You think that Marisol would be this upset if she didn't feel something for you?"
"We don't know each other. You're just trying to piss me off."
Brooke, on the other side of the gym, said to Peyton, Haley, Marisol, Jake, and Tim. "This is totally like a soap opera."
"Brooke!" Peyton said.
"What? It is!" Brooke defended and Peyton rolled her eyes.
"Why the hell would I do that? I care about Marisol too. But not in that way and she doesn't like me that way. She told me that she likes you and you scare the hell out of her."
