AN: Hey! Thanks to everybody that reviewed. You're all awesome! Hm… there was a big decrease in the reviews, but with my updating rate I can't really complain. Anyway, this time I think I managed to update a lot sooner though the chapter is shorter than usual.
A big thanks to Denise for pushing me to update, she's the reason you're getting the update sooner! Also, thank you to Chinthana for her help with this chapter and the whole dare night she has discussed so many times with me! Finally, thanks to Vicky that helped me with the names-thingy, though I have to admit we had fun figuring that out!
I hope you like it and please tell me what you think about it!
Chapter 25
The Worst End of the Deal
"Did anyone speak to you?" Brooke spoke rudely being the first to find her voice, after the first shock Rachel's appearance out of nowhere had caused everyone.
"Hey, I'm just as bored as you guys seem to be, and I thought I would help put you out of your misery," Rachel replied too politely for her standards.
"I would like to put her out of her misery alright!" Brooke muttered turning to Peyton that nudged her to make her quiet.
"So, how about it?" Rachel asked again ignoring Brooke's obvious distain. Not that the rest of them looked anymore thrilled.
"A dare night?" Nathan repeated looking skeptical. "Shouldn't we be like prepared for that? We have no time to do it now. Come up with the dares and everything, who would do that and when?"
"Wait, what exactly is a dare night?" Haley interrupted them.
Rachel looked at her in shock coupled with pity and snorting she turned her attention to Nathan. "Actually, that won't be a problem, Nate. Felix and I had everything prepared to organize one at my party last week, but with my neighbor freaking, the damage to your car and all that, we kind of dropped the idea."
"So Felix would be in this as well? Great!" Brooke huffed, "Your suggestion just keeps getting better and better!" She said sarcastically.
"You won't have to be in a team with him," Rachel said with a shrug.
"There are teams?" Haley asked again and getting no response, again!
"And who exactly will participate in this thing?" Lucas asked as well but to no one's shock, Rachel hurried to reply.
"Well, we didn't have too many dares prepared, so I guess just us and Felix. You are seven and the two of us, we can have three teams of three." She suggested, while the annoyingly sweet smile appeared again on her face as she addressed Lucas.
"But won't it be weird if we just upped and left the party?" Peyton asked looking worried. "Won't the rest of the guys mind? Tim for example, Bev?"
"Who cares?" Rachel replied nonchalantly.
"I don't think anyone will even notice," Nathan agreed with a shrug. True, they were by themselves for the last hour or so and no one seemed to bother them.
"Most of us are too wasted to go driving around town though," Jake observed.
"Skillz isn't," Rachel said looking at him and he nodded in confirmation. "And neither am I nor Felix. We'll just make sure to be in different teams so we can drive if needed."
Brooke eyed her suspiciously. She seemed to have everything figured out. It was evident she had given much thought to this, too much for Brooke's liking.
"Will someone please tell me what the hell a dare night is?!" Haley exclaimed surprising everyone.
"Chill, Tutor-girl," Brooke appeased her stifling a giggle. "We split into teams, each team having to complete a number of dares. The one that goes through with the most of them wins."
"What kind of dares?" Haley asked more calmly now.
"Well, you'll have to ask Rach-ho about that," Brooke said eying the redhead in question.
"I really have no idea. Felix came up with most of them," Rachel answered smiling innocently.
"Yeah, right," Nathan mumbled, not convinced by his ex-sort of-girlfriend.
"So? Should I get Felix?" Rachel insisted.
"What makes you think we want to do anything involving the two of you? Let alone take part in a bunch of dares your hideous minds came up with?" Brooke asked with a disgusted face.
"Fine, if you want to keep sitting here doing nothing, suit yourselves. I understand if you're not feeling up to it, Brooke. I'd hate to lose as well."
"Oh, no," Peyton sighed to herself. She had a feeling they were just about to engage into a dare night.
"Excuse me?" Brooke asked fuming. "There's no way you would win, Rach."
"Well, we're not going to find out, are we? Since you're too chicken to even try it out." She snickered and then turned to Nathan. "And you Nate? Whoaa—I never thought I'd see you this whipped. The Nathan Scott I know would never say no to a challenge! It's so sad to see how you just let your girlfriend here, tell you what to do and what not."
Great, Lucas sighed. Well, he had to hand it to Rachel. She was certainly smart and knew how to choose her targets. Nathan and Brooke, probably the most pigheaded in the group.
"We're in. Go fetch your lapdog," Brooke ordered, and Nathan nodded in approval.
"Wh-what?! Wait!" Haley exclaimed.
Rachel of course ignored her and promptly turned to go and fetch Felix.
"Oh, hush, Tutor-girl, it's gonna be fun!" Brooke said trying out her widest grin.
True a dare night sounded far more exciting than what they were doing right now, which was…nothing! But…Rachel and Felix had come up with the idea, which only meant trouble ahead. Still, she could handle those two imbeciles, she was Brooke Davis! She played these games since… probably, since Rachel started playing them as well. This should be interesting, she thought. But her careless spontaneous side was begging her to do this. After all, she had been too much of a nice girl since she had come to Tree Hill and her wild self was begging for some action. Well, too nice if you ignored the fact that she had kissed her best friend's boyfriend, but whatever!
"Fun?!" Haley asked incredulously.
"Just go along with it, Hales," Nathan also suggested.
"Everybody else is in?" Haley asked in shock.
Peyton shrugged, if Brooke said yes, she was in, there was no arguing her way out of it.
"What the hell," Jake said with an indifferent expression. What was the harm in having some fun, anyway?
"If everyone else wants to, but I'm not so sure," Skillz said with a doubtful expression.
"Oh, you have to say yes, Skillz! You are one of the drivers! We can't do it without you!" Brooke said using the puppy-eyes in full effect.
"Well, if I am that important to you Brooke!" Skillz said sarcastically and Brooke just giggled.
"Lucas?" Haley asked turning to her best friend that was the only one that hadn't agreed with the rest of them yet.
Lucas looked around him, from Peyton that kept her eyes on him almost pleadingly, to his brother that was looking at him expectantly and finally to Brooke that was biting her lip nervously.
"Sure," he finally replied with a disinterested shrug. It sure as hell beat sitting around there waiting for Nathan to jump Brooke again or vice versa.
"See, Hales, that just leaves you," Nathan said looking at her pleadingly.
"C'mon, Tutor-girl! You have to say yes!" Brooke pleaded as well.
"Fine! But if this turns out the way I think it will, I'm coming after both of you!" Haley threatened.
Brooke only replied with a toothy grin that vanished when she saw the duo from hell approaching. She had to question her impulses… but not at the moment.
"Ok, so how are the teams gonna be?" Skillz asked just as Rachel and Felix rejoined the group. But no one could make out the answer, just as almost everyone started stating their teammates with too many conflicts to ever sort out.
The girls wanted to go together. But then again, they wanted to go with their boyfriends as well. The guys also wanted to go together but still wanted to keep an eye on their girlfriends, especially with Felix around. Well, for Lucas it wasn't his girlfriend that he was mostly worried about. And of course, no one wanted to go with Rachel or Felix.
"Hey, hey!" Nathan yelled to get everyone's attention and quiet them down. Once he got it, he resumed. "Obviously, Rachel, Skillz and Felix will be on different teams, so we have to see who will go with each of them."
"I'll go with Skillz!" All three girls yelled and then burst out laughing.
"Well, what can I say, I'm that irresistible," Skillz said with a cocky grin.
"Shut up!" Haley exclaimed throwing him a pillow from the couch she was sitting.
"Geez, I'm hurt," Felix said with a sneer.
"Urm… Peyton and Brooke you can go with Skillz and then Hales and I can go with Rachel?" Jake suggested.
"Good, idea," Lucas nodded. This way he and Nathan would end up with Felix. Not bad at all, maybe they could really enjoy that, he thought sending a menacing glare to Felix.
"No, no! That won't work!" Rachel protested.
"Why not?" Brooke asked raising an eyebrow.
"That would leave an entire team with only guys; we need to mix them up. Some dares are only for girls and other for boys," Felix explained calmly.
"Then, how about if Peyton and Brooke went with Skillz, Hales and I with Felix and Nathan and Lucas with Rachel?" Jake amended his previous suggestion.
"Oh hell, no! No way!" Brooke objected jumping from the couch. Both Scotts and Rachel? Oh, no, no! She would never let that happen. And stupid Rachel was smiling like a kid in a candy store! Nope, there would be no Scott candy for her. Not if Brooke had anything to say about it. "Why don't I and Nathan go with Skillz, Peyton and Lucas with Felix and Jake and Hales with Rachel?" She proposed instead.
"It's dare night, Brooke, not a love fest!" Rachel replied disgusted, "I like the previous arrangement better. We want to have fun, not play third wheel to your lovey-dovey stuff. I think no couple should go together."
"You would, wouldn't you?" Haley snorted.
"This is getting us nowhere," Skillz said shaking his head.
"We'll never agree," Peyton agreed with him.
"Urm… maybe we should, I don't know, draw for teams or something like that?" Jake suggested.
Rachel and Felix exchanged a triumphant look that unfortunately no one noticed, since they were all focusing on Jake and his new idea.
"So leave it to chance?" Haley clarified.
"Why not? This way, no one can complain that they didn't get what they wanted, while others did. And really, I think it's the only way we're gonna come up with something within the night," Jake explained and almost everybody nodded in agreement.
"I don't like this," Brooke muttered to Peyton.
"Can you think of anything else?" Peyton asked her.
Brooke pouted. "Not really."
"Okay, so how we're gonna do it?" Nathan asked obviously taking the decision for all of them.
"Hm… I'll go get a deck of cards and we can draw from them." Felix suggested and then paused appearing to be thinking. "Rach, Skillz and I will draw first, until each of us has a different suit of cards in hand." He continued looking at everybody to make sure they were following him. "And then you all draw. Whichever suit you get, you're on that team," he concluded.
"Great idea, Felix!" Rachel exclaimed overly excited. "Go get the cards," she advised, while everybody nodded in agreement. It seemed like a good idea.
A couple of minutes later, he was back with the cards in hand, seeming to shuffle them as he came.
"Okay, here, Rach, draw first," he said offering her the cards.
Rachel took the first card, the two of clubs and then offered it to Skillz who revealed the second card, the Jack of spades, and finally Felix drew the third card, it was the five of hearts.
"Okay, so Rachel has clubs, Skillz spades and I have hearts. Now it's your turn," Felix said turning to everybody and hesitating for a minute.
"I'll draw first!" Haley exclaimed, she had finished her last drink and she was now finding this game idea far more exciting.
"And why would you draw first?" Brooke complained childishly.
"Oh, Jesus, we're not going to argue about this as well, are we?!" Lucas exclaimed exasperated.
"Let's do it alphabetically," Rachel suggested with a shrug. "It seems more fair and again no one gets to complain."
"Yay! Alphabetically! I'll go first!" Brooke said jumping in excitement and turning to Haley to stuck her tongue out.
"Ok, alphabetically it is. Let's just get this over with." Nathan sighed getting impatient.
"Just before we start, let's make it clear, there will be no complaints and no one switches teams. Everybody okay with this?" Felix clarified firmly and then assuming a more relaxed expression continued further. "Otherwise, this could go on all night."
Everybody nodded although Brooke seemed a bit reluctant. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something seemed fishy. Since everybody agreed, Felix handed the deck of cards to Brooke.
Taking the first card Brooke turned it around.
"Argh, the three of diamonds?" She said looking at her card incredulously.
"Just take the next one." Haley instructed.
"Really? I would have never thought of that on my own!" Brooke retorted sarcastically.
"Oh, just do it!" Haley insisted with a laugh.
"Geez, fine. Ok, so this is…" Brooke said and then scoffed as she turned around the card. "Hearts." She said sending an evil glare to Felix.
"Wh-what?!" Nathan immediately yelled bending to get a look at the card. "Oh, no! You don't!" He said turning to Felix and glaring at him.
Lucas was greeting his teeth. This was not going good, not good at all. Damn! This was very convenient for Felix to be attributed to mere chance. But he saw Felix shuffling the cards, didn't he?
"We said no complaints, Natey!" Rachel said with a sugary smile.
"Let's see how the rest of this thing will go, man," Jake said to Nathan also eyeing Felix suspiciously.
"Fine," Brooke huffed again. "Tutor-girl, c'mon. You're next." She said offering the cards to Haley.
"What? No! It's Jake!" Rachel protested fervently and then bit her lip at the curious glances she got from all of them.
"Rachel is right." Felix said calmly. "Jagielski goes before James."
"Oh, God, do you think I'm that stupid?!" Brooke snapped. "I know that Jagielski goes before James, you geniuses! But Haley goes before Jake." She concluded triumphantly.
"Yup, sorry Jakey, I'll go next." Haley also said turning playfully to Jake.
"Be my guest," he offered with a smile.
"But…" Rachel mumbled.
"What's your problem?!" Brooke exclaimed handing the cards to Haley.
"Never mind, let's go on," Felix suggested.
"Felix!" Rachel exclaimed fuming, but he just shrugged apologetically.
"Okay! So this is…Crap!" Haley exclaimed as she revealed the ten of clubs.
"Christ!" Rachel also huffed in irritation.
"Okay..." Jake said with a sigh. "So far we have Rachel with Hales and Brooke with Felix. My turn." He just wished he could go with his girlfriend because he really didn't want to think of what would happen between her and Rachel. But of course, luck had other plans. "Spades." He muttered.
"Great!" Haley huffed and Brooke patted her hand sympathetically. "I got Felix." She said with a mournful expression and Haley just giggled.
"Lucas is next." Nathan said and Jake handed him the cards.
"Sawyer is before Scott-" Felix started but Nathan interrupted him.
"And Lucas is before Peyton. We've already done this!" He just wanted to see who would go with Brooke and Felix. It had to be him, otherwise there was no way he was letting her with him and Peyton. Well, Lucas would do as well; his brother would keep an eye on Felix.
Felix muttered a curse under his breath that made Brooke look at him curiously, but her attention was snapped back to the boy currently drawing the next card.
"Hearts." Lucas mumbled staring at the card in disbelief.
"Hearts?!" Brooke exclaimed unable to stop herself.
"Hearts." Lucas repeated showing the card around. In two days, he had somehow managed to draw out Brooke's name or sort of, twice in a row. He could say it was fate. Or that God or luck was laughing at his face. Either way, this was just too weird.
Rachel could be seen turning red, but nobody paid any real attention to her.
"So the first team is complete. Felix, Brooke and Lucas," Skillz summed it up.
Brooke looked around her a bit lost. Felix and Lucas?! It really couldn't have gone any worse.
"Hey, snap out of it!" Peyton shoved her playfully. "At least you will have Lucas with you to keep Felix in line."
"Yeah… I will," Brooke mumbled managing a weak smile.
Suddenly, Rachel grinned with satisfaction. "Nathan you don't need to draw," she said turning to him.
"Huh?" Nathan asked curiously.
"Well, it's me and Hales, and Skillz and Jake, and only you and Peyton left. Since we said no all guys or all girls, that automatically puts Peyton with the guys and you-"
"With you…" Nathan concluded with a sigh.
Brooke would under normal conditions be throwing a fit right about now, but she was still trying to process her own predicament. Felix and Lucas. Lucas and Felix. Yup, this was definitely going to be an interesting night.
Rachel and Felix left them for a minute, so they could prepare the dares for the three teams. And of course, both Brooke and Haley thought that this was a good time to voice their frustration.
"I can't believe I have to spend the rest of the night with that bitch!" Haley ranted.
"You'll have Nathan with you, don't worry." Peyton comforted her.
"Do not talk P. Sawyer! You're with Skillz and Jake, while Haley is stuck with the queen of bitches and I'm with that sleazeball! You have no right to speak!" Brooke huffed.
"Oh, you can handle Felix, Brooke. And besides, I told you, Luke will be there so there is no way he's gonna let him try anything."
"I told you I was going to come after you if things turned bad, and guess what?!" Haley snapped not appeased by Peyton's reassurance.
"C'mon, Hales, tonight is about having fun. Just ignore Rachel." Peyton insisted.
"Ignore her?!" Haley huffed. "I can't believe I've let you all drag me into this! What was I thinking?"
"Hey! I'm in a worse place than both of you!" Brooke complained again. "I have to deal with Felix and think about Nathan with Rachel! God really hates me!"
"Don't worry about Nate and Rach-ho, Tigger. I won't let her near him." Haley said trying to calm Brooke down. At least Jake was with Peyton and Skillz.
"You do that! If that skank tries anything you tell me, and I'll show her!" Brooke remarked.
"C'mon you guys, we knew from the start some of us would get stuck with the two of them." Peyton tried to calm her friends down once again.
"Yeah, but it didn't have to be Brooke with that jerk!" Nathan intervened as the guys that were so far talking amongst themselves joined the girls' discussion.
"It's okay, baby," Brooke said reassuringly and then letting out an inaudible sigh continued hesitantly. "It's not like we're gonna be alone."
Lucas looked at her slightly raising an eyebrow, but Brooke seemed to be focused on Nathan.
"I know. But it still sucks," Nathan said sulking.
"Don't worry about it. You just watch out for that bitch," Brooke insisted.
"Rach? Puh-lease! Anyway, she seems more interested in Luke lately. Seems I'm old news." Nathan said faking disappointment.
Brooke immediately tensed and threw a glance at Lucas.
"Yeah, am I lucky or what?" He said sarcastically, while Peyton patted his back in comfort.
"Sucks to be you, man," Skillz said with a chuckle.
"At least he won't have to deal with her the whole night!" Haley repeated for the umpteenth time.
"Sorry, baby," Jake said taking her in his arms.
"That bitch has nothing on you Tutor-girl! You can take her anytime! And I expect you to do it, if she does what we were talking about!" Brooke said winking at Haley.
"Playing referee to those two? I sure as hell don't envy you either, dude!" Skillz told Nathan stifling a laugh.
"Wait, what did the two of you talked about?" Nathan asked looking between Brooke and Haley who were grinning, after scoffing at Skillz.
"Girl stuff." Brooke simply replied with a shrug.
"Yup, no boys allowed." Haley confirmed with a grin.
"I think I liked it better when those two hated each other," Nathan mumbled to Lucas that smiled in response.
He hadn't had the opportunity to question either of the girls on what had caused this change in their relationship and he was very curious about it. He didn't really wonder about Brooke. He had already guessed she liked Haley, somewhere deep down within her, though she would never admit it. But Hales was a real mystery. She genuinely resented Brooke; she actually seemed to hate her. What could have changed her mind? Lucas made a note to himself to talk with his best friend as soon as possible.
"How the hell did this happen?" Rachel asked irritated as she closed the door to the room she and Felix had retreated to prepare the final details for the dares.
"It's not my fault!" Felix protested.
"You were supposed to fix the cards!"
"And I did! How was I supposed to know they would go with their first names instead of their last?!" Felix asked also in frustration.
"You should have said something! When I told them they were doing it wrong, you should have backed me up!"
"What the fuck was I supposed to say? They would know something was wrong if we'd insisted too much! They're not that stupid!"
"I was supposed to go with Lucas and Jake!" Rachel exclaimed. "Instead, I got Nathan and that James girl!"
"And I was supposed to go with Brooke and Peyton! Do you think I wanted for that Scott bastard to come along with us?!"
"At least you got Brooke!"
"Like that will do me any good with Scott watching my every move! And you didn't end up that bad yourself. You might not have gotten Lucas, but you got Nathan. Isn't he the one you want anyway?"
"God, you're so dense! Of course, I want Nathan! But he's too infatuated with that LA slut to notice me at the moment!"
"And you think Lucas would?" Felix asked with a snort.
"Oh, God! Why do I even try with you?! I didn't need Lucas to do anything with me! I just wanted Brooke to think that he did!"
"Can't you do the same with Nathan?"
"Not with that geek around! Jake is a guy, he would be so much easier to manipulate!"
"Well, what's done is done. We just have to make the best of it, now." Felix said with a resigned sigh.
"Why does every plan I include you in end up in utter disaster?!" Rachel kept on, raising her hands up in frustration. "I thought you said you had everything planned out! And now look! I don't know why I had to bring you into this!"
"Because I was the one that came up with the idea of fixing the cards and there was no way you could do it yourself?" Felix remarked cockily.
"I have to admit that tidbit where you actually seemed to be shuffling the cards was really good. You didn't mix them up then by accident, did you?" She said accusingly.
"Of course not! I only shuffled around the bottom of the deck. The top was left in tacked. And if we chose by last name, you would go with Lucas and Jake, I with Brooke and the blonde, and Skillz with Nathan and Haley."
"Everything was going fine! We didn't even have to suggest picking the teams by chance ourselves! Jake did it for us! But then Brooke had to give those damn cards to Haley! Argh!"
"It was pretty much shot to hell after that. Funny you would get Nathan even if you had let him draw, in the end," Felix said smiling.
"Yeah, freaking hilarious!" Rachel snapped and then letting out a deep sigh tried to collect herself. "Okay, so I have Nathan, so I'll try my best with him. Maybe if I get him drunk enough, something might happen. And I hope that stupid tutor will pass out in the process!" She paused with a sneer. "Now, you with Brooke and Lucas. Well, this gives us at least an opportunity to watch those two together. And if you push the right buttons, maybe we'll be able to get something out of this after all."
"Hey, I have her with me for the rest of the night. Do you honestly think Scott being there will stop me?"
"Atta boy! Either you score or Lucas snaps and we have them exactly where we want them."
"Like he's gonna stop me," Felix said smugly.
"Don't get too cocky there, Felix. Lucas could beat you up in a heartbeat."
"He wouldn't dare!"
"From what we saw so far, Scott isn't too keen on sharing, even with his brother," Rachel grinned evilly and Felix chuckled.
"So you have the dares ready?" She asked again and Felix nodded showing her three envelopes.
"Cool. Good luck, Felix. Let's get this show on the road."
Felix and Rachel returned to find the rest of the gang still arguing on who got the worst end of the deal.
"So," Rachel started as everybody turned to her. "Since it's already rather late, we'll only have three dares for each team."
Felix produced the three closed envelopes, and out-stretched his hand letting the rest of them choose an envelope. Brooke and Nathan simultaneously grabbed one each and Felix handed the last one to Peyton.
"No one opens their envelope until we get out of here," Rachel explained. "There are three other envelopes in each envelope you have, marked with one-two-three. You have to do the dares in order."
"How would we know the dares were actually done, let alone in the correct order?" Haley asked.
"There needs to be proof," Felix replied. "You all have your cells with you; we can take photos when completing the dares. Or if you can provide any other proof, you can do that. The time on which the photos were taken will show the order."
The rest of them nodded and he went on. "We'll meet here again after; in… let's say three hours. One hour per dare, though I doubt it will take that much. So this gives everybody plenty of time to get everything done. I guess the party won't be over till then. Then each team shows what it has done and we determine the winner."
"Wouldn't it be better if someone else determined the winner? So there won't be any arguing?" Peyton suggested.
"We can use Tim as the judge." Nathan suggested.
"And Bevin!" Brooke chimed in.
"And Mouth!" Haley also suggested.
"Whatever," Rachel shrugged indifferently. "Tim, Bevin and Mouth will be the judges. Now let's go! It's already late!"
Jake, Nathan and Lucas briefly kissed their girlfriends and they all turned to go.
Just before the teams headed out, Nathan grabbed Lucas' arm and kept him behind.
"Luke, I don't trust that ass around Brooke. He's been hitting on her since day one," Nathan whispered seriously.
"I know," Lucas replied grimly. Did he know alright! He still remembered every little encounter between those two he had witnessed, from the first day Brooke got to school when he saw them by her locker. He had made sure to keep an eye on Felix whenever he came near Brooke ever since.
"You make sure that he doesn't try anything funny," Nathan continued.
"If he does, he'll regret it," Lucas said sternly. All this time, watching that jerk hitting on Brooke, not that she seemed even remotely interested in him, but still, Lucas was itching to get his hands on him. He almost wished Felix would give him a reason tonight.
"I'm so relieved you got to go with them. If it was Peyton or Hales I would be really worried but with you there, it's different," Nathan said smiling gratefully to Lucas.
"You don't have to worry about him. I won't let him do anything." He reassured his brother again inwardly cringing at the irony of his brother plea and his own response.
"I'm counting on you, bro. Watch out for her."
"Trust me," Lucas said swallowing the lump in his throat. "I won't let him touch her."
"Thanks, man. That means a lot." Nathan concluded patting his brother at the back feeling assured that everything would go fine tonight.