A/N: Thank you Ace5492, Shaun, HS1130, AshleyM15, OTHGirl24, EmmaJoie and grayfan for your reviews! This chapter I dedicated to OTHGirl24, when I read your review I just got this image in my head and I just had to write it down, that ended up being the base of some of the scenes in this chapter. Once again a proof of how reviews can make a difference in the publishing schedule and story content..
-At Jamie's birthday party, the Saturday afternoon-
She was as breathtaking as ever when she stood by Nathan's back door watching how Nathan, Haley, Jamie and some kids from the neighborhood we're playing Freeze Tag. Every time the four-year-old birthday boy caught Haley he seemed to try and catch his father so that he'd freeze as close to Haley as possible and vice versa, but Haley was seemed to be one of the first to be caught in each round. Lucas couldn't really focus on watching the game, but the smile on Peyton's face told him quite enough about it.
"Hey" He said quietly, but loud enough for her to hear him, as he approached her.
Peyton turned her head away from the playing kids to him, smiled nervously and said a hey back.
"You're not alone here, are you?" he asked her carefully. They both knew he was referring to Ellie and also the first rule of their dating.
Peyton's posture appeared even a little more fragile than usual, when she shook her head.
"Look, I really like what we've had going on for us and I hope not to jeopardize it. It's a big yard and house so I'll just stay further from you."
Peyton did not know what to say. It was her rule and she had wished for this. She didn't want Ellie to meet Lucas yet. But having Lucas so easily declaring to stay away surprisingly hurt her. She found herself disappointed in getting her own will. So she just nodded calmly and reached out for a hug that despite it's brevity was something for her to hold onto through the conflicting afternoon that was without a doubt ahead of her.
"You look beautiful, Peyton Sawyer." Lucas whispered to her ear and she pulled out of the hug, gave him a smile and went inside to add finishing touches to Jamie's cake.
"Alright guys this is the final round of Freeze Tag for now, okay? The game is over when there are five frozen ones. And look who we have as 'it'!" Nathan stuck out his tongue and smirked at Haley. For some reason running around with kids had eased the tension and awkwardness between the two and in the midst of playing they had formed a playful energy, which resulted in very friendly, almost affectionate behavior towards one another.
"Ha ha laugh at me all you want Scott! But you played dirty when you got Annie to catch me first." Haley panted as she was chasing neighbor's seven-year-old, who was running near Nathan. "You distracted me with the handsome Scott and.." she caught three neighbors' kids "you know how he's my soft spot."
Nathan stopped for moment to laugh at her but underestimated Haley. Just when he was about to get to a safe distance from her she touched his arm and he ended up frozen, too.
Jamie had been near by and was now more interested in what Haley had said than the game and ran towards her to ask "Who's the handsome Scott, Haley?"
"Ha! Caught ya! Game over! Good game guys, thank you!" Haley caught the birthday boy into her embrace and fell carefully onto the grass with him. "You are hands down the most handsome Scott boy in the world."
An exaggerated ear-to-ear smile rose on Jamie's face at the compliment. He was beaming at the thought Haley thought he was handsome.
"I find it quite unclassy to be lying in the ground like that at a party, but you are very right about the who of the Scott boys is handsome." A brunette middle-aged lady Haley didn't recognize appeared from behind them.
"Grandma Victoria!" Jamie squeaked and ran to hug his grandmother.
"Happy birthday Jamie." Victoria Davis said calmly. "Now, what have I told you about calling me grandma."
"That it makes it sound like you're old and I should call you just Victoria." Jamie said without the enthusiasm he had had while greeting her.
He stepped back to be by Haley again. "So, Victoria," Jamie exaggerated his grandmother's name. "This is my James friend Haley."
"Hi, Haley James, nice to meet you!" Haley smiled warmly although she was feeling very self-conscious in front of the woman who was glaring at her like she was covered in blue slime.
Victoria took her time to just evaluate and despise the woman in front of her. She was definitely no Davis in her very down-to-earth style and behavior. Then she finally gave her a cold nod and said "Victoria Davis. Now, Jamie, honey. Where can one get a good cup of coffee. I'm certainly in need of one."
"Um..?" Jamie forwarded the question to Haley. He had been so focused on playing that such adult things like coffee hadn't really crossed his mind yet.
"There should be coffee in the kitchen, honey. Aunt Peyton's there. Why don't you take Victoria there?" Haley addressed all of her speech to the boy as the grandmother freaked her out big time.
Most of the people at the party were total strangers to Lucas. He knew Nathan wanted Jamie to get a chance to play properly at the party so he, Peyton and Haley had invited as many children and their parents as they could. Lucas was not feeling like mingling with strangers and so he searched for any of his friends. Just when he noticed Skills and Mouth by the basketball hoop and was about to join them, Lucas felt a soft touch on his knee. He lowered his eyes to see what was touched him. To his surprise it was a little girl, about two years old maybe. She was the prettiest little girl Lucas Scott had ever seen: green eyes, blonde slightly curly hair and a beautiful combination of attitude and fragility in her posture.
"Uh!" the girl said and pointed towards a pink balloon that had gotten stuck in a tree at about Lucas' shoulder height.
"Did your balloon get stuck? Do you want me to help you get it back?" Lucas asked her a warm smile pasted from widely in his face. The little girl nodded.
Lucas reached to get the balloon from the tree and then handed it back to the little girl. She tried to dribble the balloon as she had seen guys by the basketball hoop do with a basketball. To Lucas it was one of the most endearing sights he had seen in the long time. The balloon slipped out of her reach again, but just rolled a few feet on the patio. "Uh" she pointed at it her green eyes seemed to be drilling through Lucas' blue ones. Needing no words she demanded him to participate her balloon game.
Lucas weighed his options: a pretty little girl whose parents did not seem to be around or old friends he could hang out with whenever. Pretty little girl, no contest there. He could definitely catch up with Mouth and Skills later, too.
Right when the game had ended and Jamie joined Haley in the end fun Nathan had backed out and gave Chase an out of the grilling duties. Although there had been many kids playing with them, it had felt more like he had been playing with just Haley and Jamie. It was a little weird. He had only ever really hung out with Haley when they had danced at the Adams wedding. That had turned out really awkward and even though they had seen each other quite a lot because of Jamie's friendship with her, they had definitely been avoiding each other as much as they could. It shocked him a little how much fun he had had playing freeze tag with her and the kids. Like maybe they weren't doomed to awkwardness and avoidance for the rest of their lives. He had already figured that Haley was going to be an important person in his son's life, maybe they could be friends, too. It surely would make things easier with Jamie.
"Do you need any help with that?" a soft voice interrupted his thoughts. It was Haley.
His initial reaction was to brush her off like always before, but he had just thought of trying to change his ways for his son and what better time to start working on it than the boy's birthday. So he smiled instead and said "Oh, yeah, thanks. Um, could you hold that plate for me so I can add these steaks to it?"
"Sure." Haley had been sure she asked for nothing, but couldn't help but feel positively surprised at how friendly he was being to her. His cold behavior was surely safer for her, but it didn't feel half as nice as this did.
"Where did the boy go?" Nathan thought Jamie would be a good common ground to start the conversation.
"Oh, he met this woman, your mother maybe? He said she's his grandmother, but she insisted him to call him Victoria." Haley stuttered replaying in her mind the meeting with the very intimidating lady.
Nathan burst to laugh. "Congratulations on surviving your first meeting with Victoria Davis. She's not my mother. She's my mother-in-law, or whatever that is called these days, Brooke's mother anyway." Haley nodded at his explanation but although he assumed she knew who Brooke was, he had not told her any of that himself and so he wanted to add that, "Brooke was my wife and Jamie's mother."
Haley rose her head slowly so that her eyes met his. She just looked him in the eye warmly for a while "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry about that."
They were quiet for a while until Haley broke the silence and moved the conversation on.
"People turned up quite nicely. Do you think Jamie is enjoying his party?"
"Yeah, thank you for helping me and Peyton invite people here. Now that we're staying here at least for a while, I really want him to find friends and feel at home here." Nathan said sincerely.
"No problem, you have an amazing son. I'd do anything for that boy," Haley smiled back and after a little pause continued "Which brings me to this, um, I think I need to talk to you about something concerning Jamie. Do you think we could talk after the party?"
"Of course, and everything seems to be quite under control now, especially that we got these steaks grilled, so you can talk to me even now if you want." Nathan offered.
"No, I think it's best to do it in peace when the others have gone and Jamie's a sleep." Haley tugged on a little and nervous smile. "I better go serve these steaks now, but we'll talk later."
Nathan nodded. He was intrigued to find out what Haley had to say. She was so good with the boy that it made him feel much less lost and lonely that she wanted to talk to him about his son. Haley was almost gone already, when he finally managed to thank her and confirm they would talk when everyone else had left.
Jamie had taken his grandmother's hand and although it wasn't her first time in the house he guided her towards the house and the kitchen like a gentleman. After all, he was a big four-year-old now.
"You look very nice today, Victoria" he tried to break the iciness he had noticed in her when meeting Haley.
"Thank you Jamie." She melted a little, "How has your birthday been?"
"It's been Awesome!" Jamie's eyes lit up, "I got to help Haley write a song at office. Haley's voice is the prettiest. And then we went for a walk by the docks and Haley bought me ice cream. I had chocolate, chocolate's my favorite. What's your favorite flavor?"
Victoria did not answer, but deep in her thoughts followed her grandson's lead anyway. Annoyed by the lack of response Jamie suddenly stopped and just waited for an answer. "Uh, um, sorry, what?"
"Ice cream, grandma! What's your favorite flavor?" Jamie repeated a little annoyed, but still in high spirits.
"Oh, I don't really like ice cream. Gotta keep up appearances." Victoria run her manicured fingers through her stylishly cut hair. "And it's Victoria, mister.."
Jamie smirked.
"VicToria," he playfully emphasized the name, "Have you ever heard Haley sing?"
"That woman on the ground? No, I've only seen her on her back on the grass like an animal." she replied still very dryly, but her tone was much warmer and playful than before.
Jamie chuckled at the mental image. "Yeah, she's so much fun. And isn't she pretty?"
Victoria raised her eyebrows and rolled her eyes. "Hmm.."
"She's my James friend and I think she's Really pretty," Jamie continued not caring much about his grandmother's face.
Victoria stopped them in the dining room. What on earth was her grandson talking about when he said James friend? She could hear preparation noises coming from the kitchen so it was best to finish the conversation before her much awaited coffee.
"Well she's a James and I'm a James, but she's a girl. She still said that James is a very manly name and definitely not a girls' name. I think one day she'll be my wife - or my mama. We have the same name, just like daddy and mommy had and me and daddy have." Jamie smiled sincerely. "Come on, let's get you coffee." Jamie grabbed his stunned and shocked grandmother's hand pulling her to the kitchen.
The little girl had certainly Lucas wrapped around her tiny fingers. It didn't take long for him to realize that she really did not use words, that she didn't seem to have to. Her way of communicating was very efficient she could hold out quite a conversation with just different kind of "uh"s, pointing, nodding and shaking her head. Lucas and the girl had already discussed that none of the ladies in the yard was her mama. The girl would point at a lady and Lucas would ask if that was her mama and then she would shake her head for no. For a struggling author the communicating was really fascinating. If only there were words for his books that effective, too.
When the fact that her mama wasn't on the yard had gotten across to Lucas, he tried to figure out his new friend's name. That was way more difficult than the topic before, considering you couldn't really point at anything to find out options. But the two still managed to communicate that Lucas could call her princess. They both seemed very content about the new name.
It felt to Lucas that by agreeing on the name he actually became friends with the girl, but then she managed to surprise him again and she just waved at him for goodbye and wandered off. He just stood there, mouth open and watched as Princess walked carefree towards some ladies he did not know.
"Yo, Luke! Who was that?" Skills and Mouth appeared from behind him.
Lucas collected himself and turned his attention fully to his friends. "That was princess, she doesn't seem to speak yet, she just communicates, so I don't know who she really is. But she was definitely very awesome. What have you been up to?"
"Oh, you know, just hanging out. We're in awe about this party. Who knew Nathan Scott could pull such a huge and kick-ass party, especially now without Brooke" Mouth stated in a way that in all wondering sounded almost like a question.
Lucas let out a half-chuckle looked around the yard and smiled "Yeah, Brooke would certainly have loved this party. He's trying really hard, you know."
Mouth and Skills nodded, but the looks on their faces were demanding for elaborating a little more.
"I think he doesn't want to let Brooke down, and so he's trying to be as much of both of them for Jamie, hence a very Brooke-style huge birthday party. But this party isn't all him. Have you met Haley and Peyton yet?"
"Damn Scott, nice job! Three women in a year, two at once.." Skills cheered and right then realized it was was quite out of the line, "Oh, man, sorry. That was bad. I- I didn't mean it like that. Just.."
His long time friends bursted to laughter watching his embarrassment.
"It's okay, Skills. Just try staying out of comments like that when Nathan's around." Lucas comforted him, while Mouth was still trying to catch his breath and stop laughing.
"What he should have said was that we've heard him mention Peyton, and Jamie mention Haley, but we haven't met them and we don't really know anything about them. What's up with them?"
"Well Nathan is not with either of them. He's great friends with Peyton," Lucas looked around but could not see her, "she must be inside somewhere, she's here though so you can surely meet her. And well, Haley is great friends with Jamie," he looked around again trying to see if he could spot Haley, "That's her" he pointed at a woman pouring juice to some kids' cups. Her light brown hair was in a ponytail, she had a simple but pretty green dress. She looked stunning in the most natural way, when she smiled at the kids, who thanked her for the drinks.
"You should ask her out, Mouth" Skills encouraged as they were checking her out. Before anyone could react to his comment they saw Haley smile with a special sparkle in her eyes and noticed the smile was aimed at Nathan, who was nearer to them. "That is unless, she's actually taken by a certain younger Scott-brother."
The three friends just looked at each other smiling at the images playing in their heads, no one daring to say anything out loud, but well aware the others were thinking the same.
That's how Nathan found them as he approached them. He had been best friends with the three for ages, but the weird looks on their faces and the silent communication between the three was completely new sight to him. He chuckled to himself as he remembered noticing from afar how Lucas had met Ellie and thought, maybe her techniques were just contagious and now his author brother wouldn't need words anymore, either.
"What is going on with you?"
"Oh, hi Nate!" all three looked like they were little kids, caught from doing something they weren't supposed to do.
"We were just talking about how Lucas met a girl here, great party by the way," Mouth was the first to recover.
"Luke, you do know I just had a talk with you this morning and that Peyton's here in this party." Nathan's amusement was suddenly gone.
"Wait, what? So you and this Peyton?" Skills turned to Lucas puzzled.
"It's not like that.." Lucas ignored Skills and focused on his brother. He was a little annoyed to be judged so fast "This 'girl I met' happens to be, I don't know, maybe twenty three years younger than me, so although very pretty and awesome, she doesn't exactly go to the same category with Peyton."
Nathan's eyes brightened "Oh! So you were talking about Ellie. Yeah, she's so cool! I told you, you'd be great with her."
Lucas's eyes sure did not sparkle, instead they got a little foggy and his face went pale. "That's her?"
"I thought you noticed, she's such a mini Peyton in many ways." Nathan smiled, still ignoring Skills and Mouth who were standing by them looking very lost.
Lucas might not have looked as lost as the two of his friends, but he was in a big chaos on the inside. He couldn't even grasp what really was going on. It just felt like he was going to explode "I, I have to go." he stuttered and almost ran to his car.
A/N: Alright, what do you think? The party will continue in Chapter 13, if you have any special wishes for what's gonna happen, I'll be very interested in hearing them and I promise, if it works with the rest of it, I'll try and make them happen. Anyway, the Naley talk is at least definitely going to happen then. Please review!