A/N- Sorry it's been a while….I got no reviews so I was living in hope…lol..that and I've been way busy!

Chapter 25- the Game take two

"So my place is cool for tonight, my parents are in Rhode island visiting my grandparents for the weekend," Chase said with a mouthful of cafeteria fries.

"Awesome!" Skills said in a sing-voice. "I'll tell my Mom I'm crashing at yours for the night to study for the French finals."

"You seriously have to get over being scared of disappointing Mommy. I mean do you think she really believes we're studying for a French final on a Friday night after a game?" Chase said snorting.

"Sure she does, she trusts me," Skills said.

"You have issues dude," Chase said rolling his eyes. "Anyway, I asked my brother to get the beer, but he's going back to college this morning and didn't have time, so Lucas, you still cool to get the drinks?"

"Lucas?"

"Sorry what?" I said coming back to the conversation.

"Beer?" taking in my blank look Chase said, "for tonight?"

"Oh, right, yeah I'll get it," I told them.

I went back to where I had left off, staring at the outdoor cafeteria table by the fountain. Haley was sitting with her back to me with a group of her friends, but what was holding my attention was the hand that was casually leaning on the back of Haley's chair. The hand that belonged to Chris Keller, the pretentious ass on the swimming team. He didn't exactly fit in with her friends, she was clearly the reason he was there. I felt a pang of what I assumed was jealousy but I immediately pushed in down with denial.

"So did you talk to Jared about the music?" Skills asked me.

Haley got up from her seat, and collected her stuff, saying goodbye to her friends and walking over toward the library entrance.

"Umm, not yet but I will," I said getting up and collecting my own stuff, "I'll see you guys at practice," I said ignoring the boys calling after me.

I walked in the path that Haley had just gone in and walked into the library. It wasn't hard to spot her just getting settled at a work station. One of the chess club geeks was homing in on the station beside her, but I rushed forward and got there first, and sat down.

"Haley, hey." I said slightly out of breath.

"Lucas? What are you doing here?" she said looking shocked to see me.

"It is a public place, you know," I told her, trying to sound like I didn't just follow her in here.

"This is the library. Have you ever actually been in here?" she asked.

I thought back, trying to pin point the exact day but failed. "I had detention in here once." I said honestly. She rolled her eyes and opened her notebook.

"So, I noticed you and Keller at lunch today. Didn't think he was your type," I said trying my best to sound casual while I logged into the computer in front of me, in some attempt to make it look like she wasn't the only reason I was in here, and I actually had work to do.

"What exactly is that supposed to mean?" she said in a raised voice, throwing her pen down on her page, and crossing her arms. "What you don't think I'm good enough to go out with someone in the swimming team?" she said in a defensive tone.

What I wanted to tell her was of course that isn't what I meant but instead what came out was, "Oh please, are they still going insisting they're on a 'team'? Trust me, being on the swimming team is nothing to be proud of."

"There is nothing wrong with the swimming team. There are other teams that hold equal importance to basketball you know!" she said getting flustered.

"Well there are other teams…" I said trailing off

"Not that I owe you any explanations what so ever, but me and Chris aren't together, we're just friends, we practically grew up together," she said going back to her work.

"Just friends?" I said snorting. It didn't look that way from where I was sitting. "I don't like him"

"And that would alter my opinion on him how…?"

"I'm just saying from where I was sitting it looked like he was after a little more than friendship."

"I cannot believe you! You have no right to comment on who I should hang out with! I don't comment on the sluttiness of your friends!" She said in a voice that sounded even louder due to the fact that we were in a practically silent library. We earned a loud 'Shhh' from Mrs Mulkis, the librarian, and Haley mumbled a sorry in her direction. I knew by 'friends' she was referring to when she had seen me with Nikki the other day, and I felt a sick at the confirmation that she definitely seen us.

"Yeah, about that, me and Nik—" I started, wanting to explain how she got the whole situation wrong.

"I don't want to know, you don't owe me any explanations, just like I don't owe you any," she interrupted. I wanted to carry on explaining but she got this final look on her face, and started reading a textbook. We sat in silence for a few minutes, each carrying on with our 'work' and in my case not knowing what to say. Considering she has been staring at the same page for five minutes, I doubted she was actually reading her textbook, but was more focused on my presence beside her.

"What are you actually doing here Lucas? What do you want?" she finally said in an exasperated tone.

"I'm really sorry for everything that's happened the last couple of weeks, if I could erase it all I would."

"That's the whole point Lucas, you can't erase it. And it's not as easy for me just to say let's go back to how things were," she said. I could sense the pain I had caused her in her voice, and I instantly felt terrible. "I mean we're not even friends—"

"Let's just be friends" I said instantly without hesitating. I knew from hurting her like I did, she wouldn't be able to just take me back, she had to be able to trust be again. Being friends was better than having no contact with her whatsoever, and I was fairly confident, that I could win her over in time.

"Friends?" she said thinking I was joking, then seeing the look on my face, the amusement fell out of her voice, "Oh god, you're serious!" she said sighing, as if I came up with a ridiculous idea that was going to be mentally tiring for her.

"Why on earth would you want to be friends? We weren't friends before?"

"So, let's be friends now," I said shrugging.

"How exactly is that going to work? We don't exactly travel in the same circles," she said, talking about the fact that my friends tended to all be in the basketball club, and the girls were mostly cheerleaders, and her friends, didn't belong to any teams and generally got good grades. It was a big surprise to everyone when we first started going out, since people generally didn't venture outside their social circle.

An image of Chris popped up in my head and I was even more certain I wanted to be her friend now.

"Who says we can't be friends because of what everybody else thinks?" I said, "Look, how about you come down to the game against NCP tonight?"

I saw the hesitation in her eyes.

"As friends… I need support from friends." I finished.

"You do have your own personal cheerleaders," she said rolling her eyes, but I could tell she was joking. "Just friends. Because if this is just some ploy to get back together with me, I'm telling you now it's not going to work." A serious tone, entered back into her voice.

"Purely platonic," I said lying. I was pretty sure I could change her mind.

"I'll think about it," she finally said.

That was good enough for me. I got up from the chair, and collected my things happy that she was at least contemplating coming.

"So I'll see you tonight," I said.

"Maybe see me tonight," she said correcting me as I was leaving. She twisted her hair up holding it in place with her pencil, put her reading glasses on and restarted properly, focusing her attention to her work fully now. Right here in this moment, she was sexier to me than Nikki ever was, and she didn'teven know she was doing it.

X x x x x x x x

Brooke POV

"I can't wait!" Peyton squeaked out in excitement as I drove into an empty space at NCP

"I can tell," I told her, switching off Lucas's car and getting out.

Andrea and Alex drove into the space next to us in Alex's car and came to join us. The boys had to arrive at the game in the school bus, as it was tradition for away games, so we had to come over in separate car's to be able to drive us all to the after party, presuming we would win. NCP was hosting this game, since we had the last attempt, when the fire alarm had gone off.

The Tree Hill High bus stopped at the entrance to let the players off, and as Lucas came out, I saw him give his car a once over, checking to make sure I hadn't done any damage in the twenty minute ride over here. I rolled my eyes and joined the rest of the girls who seemed to have started toward the entrance too. Even though I had been to NCP for many games and events before, none of them had been while Nathan had been here, and I found it hard to imagine him here, being his school. The boys had gone through the outdoor entrance to one of the locker rooms and we had walked over to their now silent picnic lunch area, which during the day was probably bursting with students. We sat down to wait for their coordinator to direct us to an empty classroom to wait in before the game. The twelve of us spread ourselves across three picnic tables, and my thoughts drifted to whether Nathan had ever sat here.

Back when the first game had taken place, I was rooting for Tree Hill High to win, but now I wasn't so sure whose banner I would be waving. Sure I wanted my school to win, and come out on top, and show Jake and the others exactly where they could stick it, but I didn't want my boyfriend to lose either.

"Figures they'd choose the losers table," a voice said behind us. I turned around and saw Rachel, and the rest of our cheerleaders, all dressed in their standard red and white uniforms, ready for the game. Rachel had a glittery cobra tattoo wrapped around her left leg, drawing attention to her, and making her stand out amongst the group.

"Rachel!" Peyton said in an overly happy tone, "I'd say it's nice to see you but it's really not," she finished shrugging.

Rachel didn't react and merely just rolled her eyes in irritation. She scanned our team, until her gaze landed on me. I got an uneasy feeling in my stomach from the way she was looking me up and down.

"Nice ribbon," she said smirking. I resisted touching the blue ribbon I had woven into my hair to show team spirit. "Last time I had a ribbon in my hair I was like five." Rachel laughed and the rest of her team quickly followed.

"Oh please, you had a white ribbon in your hair at your cousins wedding last month!" Peyton said, defending me. Rachel's cousin was friends with Peyton's sister, so her family was invited to the wedding. Rachel ignored her, and acted as it she didn't hear the comment and kept her attention trained on me.

"So tell me, how's that scrummy cousin of yours?" she said.

"Last I saw him he was with his girlfriend, I'll tell him you said hi though," I said. Her smirk fell for a nanosecond before resurfacing. I got great satisfaction in making sure Rachel knew that Lucas wasn't sitting around mourning their relationship, even after all this time, like she probably thought he was. Technically he wasn't with Haley at the moment, or he didn't have a girlfriend, but she didn't know that.

"Whatever," she said as if she wasn't bothered. "Anyway we better go rehearse our half time show, so the audience know what a real cheerleading squad look like," Rachel said before flipping around and heading toward the school building.

"Yeah? Well we don't need to rehearse," Peyton said to her retreating figure, a few seconds later as a comeback, clearly trying to have some part in the conversation.

Rachel turned around, and ignored Peyton again. "Later Davis," she said before actually leaving this time.

Well that was a first, I thought as I watched their entire team disappear from view. Getting into mini disputes with the NCP lot wasn't anything knew, but Rachel rarely singled me out. It was generally a group attack, or she and Peyton normally took a leading role. I didn't really like to normally be in the centre of things, so I pretty much kept out of it, unless Peyton needed me. So for Rachel to completely ignore Peyton, and focus on me told me something was up.

"What the hell was that?" Peyton said fuming.

"There's nothing wrong with your ribbon B," Andrea said to me.

"Not that! She completely acted like I wasn't here!" Peyton said pacing. She clearly was more concerned in the fact that she wasn't in the centre of a fight with NCP.

"Calm down Peyton, you'll get your chance to show them up inside," I told her laughing at her reaction, and putting my arm around her. Peyton blew her fringe out of her eyes, and started walking off toward the gym, where the NCP cheerleaders already were. "Let's go rehearse," she said.

"I thought you said we didn't need to, and plus we have like over two hours until the actual game," Alex said looking at the time on her cell. She looked up and saw the determined look on Peyton's face. We all knew once Peyton made up her mind about something it was hard to change it. "Which we could use for stretching," she finished.

"Good save," Andrea told her. I picked up my duffel bag as well as Peyton's and we all went inside.

X x x x x x x x

Nathan POV

"Ok, that's good boys, grab a drink, then head inside, to take a little break before the game, the Tree Hill High boys are already here," Coach Durham said.

I stopped running laps around the gym, a tradition of Whitey, to wake us up before the game. We started heading to the bleachers, where the cheerleaders had just walked in with jugs of water.

I took a long sip out of my water bottle and when I looked down I saw Rachel heading over to me. She had a glittery snake temporary tattoo curling up her leg, drawing my eyes to her tanned lags, exposed by her skirt that was definitely shorter than the custom made length the rest the girls seemed to be wearing, even though I didn't want to look.

Her smile showed me that she had seen me looking. "Nice tattoo," I said as she walked up.

"Thanks, I thought I'd represent the NCP Cobra's somehow," she said shrugging. "Top up?" she asked me, gesturing to my water bottle.

"Sure, "I said opening the lid to the sports bottle and holding it while she filled it up with water from her jug. When she finished she put her hand on my arm.

"So I was thinking I haven't seen you around lately. I thought when you moved back we would be able to catch up."

"Yeah, I'm sorry I've been pretty busy," I told her.

"I'm sure you have," she said knowingly.

"Excuse me?" I asked her.

"I just mean, adjusting to a new town even though you used to live here, and catching up with everything."

"Oh sure," I said. I tactfully removed her hand from my arm, but she held it instead.

"I really missed you while you've been away," she said sighing.

Before me and Rachel had gotten together when she was going out with Lucas, we had been friends, and to be truthful I had missed her company too. But the Rachel I knew used to wonder around in baseball t-shirts and jean shorts, and didn't really care about what people thought of her. She had become a completely different person since I'd been gone.

She took a step toward me and I cautiously took a step back. "Look Rach, I don't know if that's the right thing for us at the moment," I told her pointing between the two of us. Her smile faltered for a few seconds, before she caught a glance at the Tree Hill High cheerleaders walking in from outside at the same time as the their basketball team came in from the door leading to the second locker room.

"Oh!" she said, "I gotcha!" she said.

"You do?" I asked totally confused on what exactly she understood.

"I'll catch you later," she said winking before she pulled me into a hug that lasted a few seconds, sloshing the water in the jug around a bit, before she walked away from me and joined the rest of her squad leaving me even more confused than before.

I looked over to the other cheerleading squad, who had met the team, who still weren't dressed halfway through the gym. My eye caught Brooke's, who was watching Rachel's retreating form with a strange look on her face. I thought about how the situation probably looked from outside and realised Brooke had probably just seen Rachel being extra friendly, then give me a hug. Brooke's frown turned into a smile and she rolled her eyes in Rachels's direction. I let out a relieved breath that I wouldn't have to go and explain, and Brooke turned her attention back onto the conversation between Lucas and Chase, laughing just as they did even though she probably hadn't caught any of the conversation.

The guy I knew as Felix joined the group with another guy with him. I knew neither of them were actually in the team, but had probably tagged along for support. I watched in annoyance as Felix walked over to the small group Brooke was standing in and clapped Lucas on the back as if they were friends, and Lucas automatically included him in the conversation as he went and stood beside Brooke, giving him the acceptance that I knew I would never get. Even if Lucas did accept me, I knew I would never get the approval from her family that Felix would.

X x x x x x x

Lucas POV

Every member of the NCP team seemed to be on the court waiting for the game to begin except for Nathan. I scanned the gym until I found him trying to make his way over but failing miserably because Rachel kept getting in his way. She was clearly vying for his attention as she followed him around the court trying to get him to react to her. As far as I was concerned, good luck to him. I was glad I didn't have to deal with her anymore. The official blew his whistle and Nathan walked onto the court, and Rachel went back to her side.

"Ok boys we want a nice clean game," the official told us, holding the ball in between me and Jake, the two captains. The crowd was silent anticipating the game that was seconds away from starting. Out of the corner of my eye I saw one of the doors to the entrances open and Haley walk in with two girls beside her. I found myself unable to stop myself smiling at the fact she had decided to come, showing me the first step toward becoming friends was well on its way.

The official blew his whistle, bringing me back to the game and I jumped up to hit the ball. I hit the ball as hard as I could toward our side, and the game flew into motion. The crowd went wild and started cheering as our team worked around the ball and I made our first basket, without any trouble from the opposing team.

I looked over to the bleachers to spot Haley, which wasn't very hard since she hadn't taken her seat yet, and she smiled at me, making me feel a rush of pride. I felt the adrenaline rush through me as I rushed to get the ball, feeling the need to show her the best I could play.

X x x x x x

Brooke POV

The whistle was blown for halftime and I winced at the scoreboard. Sure part of me wanted NCP to lose but not by this painful amount. North Carolina Prep were twenty one points behind and it didn't look like that was going to change anytime soon. Lucas was on a role for some reason, and was making baskets left right and centre.

All around me I could hear shrieks of excitement from the Tree Hill High supporters as the players broke off and came over to the stands for halftime. I saw Nathan walk through the double doors out of the gym, with a frustrated look on his face.

"I'm just going to the bathroom, I'll be back in a sec," I told Peyton.

"'Kay, be quick, NCP are about to do their halftime show, then it's us."

I nodded and walked out the doors, looking around the empty corridors for any sign of where Nathan might have gone. I was just about to give up on the account that I didn't know the school very well, and knew no idea where I was when a hand reached out and pulled me into a hallway branching off from the one I was in. I relaxed when I saw the culprit.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey," Nathan said back to me.

"So uh, I can't go out with you anymore," I said in a ditzy voice.

"Oh really? Why's that?" Nathan said, knowing full well I was joking from my tone.

"Because I don't go out with losers," I said like it was obvious. Nathan just laughed softly.

"So I know I haven't seen you play since you were like fifteen but I really thought you were better than that," I said kidding around.

"Yeah, I don't know why I'm just not that focused today," he said.

"Really? Because now isn't really the time to have other things on your mind," I said smiling. "It's the NCP-THH game! It's the event of the year!" I said adopting my ditzy cheerleader voice again.

"I don't know maybe I just need some motivation…" his voice trailing off.

"Oh really?" I said. "Would this help?" I gave him a hug that lasted less than a second then let go.

"Mnnn… I don't think so," he said like he was seriously thinking about it.

"What about this?" I said before kissing him on the cheek, teasing him.

"I think this would work better," he said gently pushing me up against the lockers and kissing me on the lips.

"Someone could see" I mumbled through his lips, referring to the fact that we were standing at a corner that could be seen from several angles.

"Let them," he mumbled back.

"Maybe we should head back?" I said, not wanting to actually go.

"No way, you're on my turf now," he said placing slow kisses on my neck and nibbling on my ear as I tried not to concentrate on how incredibly hot that sounded.

My mind went blank, as all my thoughts went to mush.

"Hey Nate?"

"Mnn.."

"I was thinking what we talked about the other week," I said trying to string together a coherent sentence.

"We talk about a lot of things babe," he said coming up for air and looking me in the eyes, but he still held me in place.

"I think I'm ready," I said taking a deep breath, and saying the thing that I had been thinking about the last couple of days.

"Ready for what?" he said, totally clueless. "You wanna go back inside?" he said holding my hand and pulling me away from the lockers.

"No, I mean I'm ready for us to take that next step. Tonight." I said stopping him in his tracks. I looked him straight in the eye, and this time I wasn't embarrassed talking about it.

I watched his face change as he picked up on what I said. It went from neutral to confused to a small smile to an even bigger smile.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "We don't have to rush into anything."

"I love you for asking, but I'm sure, I've never been more sure about anything in my whole life," I said taking a step closer to him and putting my arms around his neck.

"I love you," he said softly.

"I love you too," I said honestly. A few weeks ago I hadn't been so sure that I was ready to sleep with Nathan, but if possible I've fallen even more in love with him in the last few weeks, and I'm even starting to ignore the part about how our friends don't get on, and how my family doesn't like his family, and the issue with going to Yale, and moving to a place where it was just me and him in our own bubble, and it was him I wanted. I was half aware of hearing the beginning beats of the latest Black eyes peas song and I knew the halftime show was starting, and NCP had started.

I was about to head back inside but heard a strange sound from somewhere behind me that sounded like a sneeze.

"Did you hear that?" I asked, looking around, but only seeing an empty hallway.

"Hear what?" Nathan said, looking to see where I was.

"Never mind," I said putting it down to my own paranoia of being out in the open with Nathan.

" We should go back before somebody starts to miss us. But you know my offer doesn't stand if you lose, because like I said, I don't date losers," I said joking again, and pecking him on the lips, before I turned around and walked away, back toward the gym knowing that I was supposed to perform any minute now.

"I think I just got motivated," I heard him said as I walked away.

X x x x x x

BPOV

The second half of the game went by like a blur. Nathan started playing like himself again, and started making just as many baskets as Lucas, until NCP were only a three points away. The crowd was engrossed in the game, yelling and cheering for their team, knowing it was going to be close knowing there was only two minutes left on the clock. At least losing by two or three points wasn't too bad, I thought as Nathan made another basket.

Jake passed the ball to another player on the NCP team, but Chase intercepted it and threw it over to Lucas, but before he could catch it Nathan flew in between and caught it himself, throwing the ball to Julian while he was still in mid air. Julian rushed forward and made the basket, earning a loud cheer from the crowd. I kept one eye on the tense game, and one on the clock. Without even looking at him I tell Lucas was annoyed NCP had caught up so fast.

The clock was eight seconds away and began beeping for the countdown. Nathan was about half the court away, but threw the ball toward the basket in a wild attempt to make one last point. The buzzer sounded while the ball was in the air and everybody in the now silent gym held their breath.

X x x x x x x

Brooke POV

"Oh common Luke! At least you didn't lose!" I said unable to stop myself from being happy for Nathan's victory.

"We drew B! That's even worse than losing!" he said in an annoyed voice.

I rolled my eyes, and grinned at seeing all of Nathan's team mates, congratulating him from the side of the court.

"Why are you so happy anyway," he asked.

"I'm just happy we didn't lose," I said half truthfully. It was better for both my boys to win than only one of them.

Just then a loud whistle blew and everyone in the quietened down to hear what the Principal of NCP had to say.

"Congratulations to both schools for tonight's game, I'm very happy to see the skill and high levels of sportsmanship than I saw today," he said and everybody clapped. "Now if everybody could make their way out through the outdoor exits, that would be appreciated, and have a good night. If I could just ask that the two teams tonight stay behind for a word with Mr Lorenzo."

The students and parents in the stand started making their way out and Larko went to the centre of the gym. The boys slowly also started heading over, with us following behind. The two schools automatically split into two groups standing either side of Larko.

"Evenin' kids. Good job on not causing any unnecessary shenanigans tonight," he said. "Now I'm going to make a deal with you. I know you kids are all hosting house parties for your fellow peers planned for tonight, filled with substances that are not appropriate, let alone legal for your age group."

"Of course not sir!" Someone on our team said out.

"I wasn't born yesterday kids!" he said, "Here's the deal, I will be willing to turn a blind eye."

Everybody gasped clearly surprised at his announcement. We had never heard anything like this before from Larko.

"If—"He started. There it was: the catch. "If you combine the two parties into in to one joint party with both schools having a good time together."

The response he got was a loud roar of two schools protesting.

"No way!" I head Lucas yell from beside me. "That's blackmail!"

"Ok fine, have it your way," Larko said, "But then I'm afraid I won't be able to forget that you have after parties planned."

"You can't prove we were planning to do anything tonight!" Jake said.

"You're right, I can't. But I can do random car checks." I could feel everyone go tense and silent at the same time.

"Can we have a minute?" Lucas asked.

"I second that," Nathan said. The first thing they had agreed in, in years.

"Please," Larko said taking a step back to give us some 'space'. The two schools turned into their own mini groups.

"How many of us have cars here?" Lucas said in a strategic way right away, taking the leadership role. "We came over in the bus."

"I have your car, and Alex has hers," I said.

"I have mine too," Felix said.

"Ok, I have like four cases of beer in my boot," Lucas said.

"What!" I said, annoyed at how I was driving around a car filled with alcohol all day without knowing it.

"We needed it for tonight B! Now isn't the time!" he said to me. I left the subject alone, knowing he was right, and I would have a go at him later.

"I also put like five bottles of vodka in my sports bag in Alex's car," Andy said.

Alex hit Andy in the chest but didn't say anything.

"Can we have a word?" We all turned around to find Jake and Nathan standing at the edge of our group.

Lucas, Chase and Skills broke away and went to join them, forming a third group between the two schools.

"So we have some stuff in our cars," Jake said vaguely but we all knew what stuff he was talking about. "Stuff that we can't get caught with."

"Us too," Skills said. I knew there was no way we could get away with Larko doing any of the car searches. For one it was actually illegal to have the alcohol since none of us were over 21, and I knew Dad would freak out.

"As much as I hate to say it—"Lucas said, clearly thinking the same thing I was.

"Yeah, I know," Nathan said.

"Ready?" Larko said.

Everyone turned to face him.

"We think it would be fun to have a joint party, "Lucas said.

"Oh do you now? That's strange," Larko said, walking out of the gym calling out on his way out, "I will check if you did combine the parties kids."

After he left everyone was in uproar, but after a few minutes everyone realised arguing wasn't going to change anything.

"So how bout we do it tomorrow night, to change the venue's and let everyone know," Nathan said.

Lucas looked back at us to confirm then said, "That's fine."

"So where should we…..?" Peyton said trailing off.

Everyone was quiet waiting for someone to come up with an idea.

"My place is cool, "Nathan said. "My parents are going back to New York this weekend for work."

"Ok, so that's settled," Lucas said, clearly pissed that Nathan would be hosting the party.

"I'll tweet the new plans," Peyton said taking out her phone, about to contact most of our class.

Everyone slowly started leaving in dribs and drabs, and I could see Nathan loitering near the entrance.

"Hey, I'm going to get a ride with Felix, that's cool right?" Peyton said.

"Sure, I'm going with Lucas," I told her. She smiled and flounced over to where Felix's car was.

I walked over to where Lucas and Skills were standing with Andrea and Lauren.

"Hey, I'm going to crash at Peyton's tonight," I told Lucas.

"Girls and sleepovers," he said rolling his eyes at Skills who grinned.

"Your picturing it aren't you?" I said.

"uh huh," Skills said, and I whacked him on the arm.

"I'll see you tomorrow," I told Lucas before giving him a quick hug and disappearing from sight, to wait for everyone to drive out before taking a deep breath before heading over to Nathan's car where he was waiting for me.

X x x x x

A/N: how did you like reading from Lucas's POV and reading about his storyline with Haley? For some reason I like writing from him more than N and B! I think that's the first proper Lucas POV in a while, but now the story goes on, his POV will be a bit more frequent. What did you think of his interaction with Haley in the library?

Don't be annoyed the teams drew! I promise one team will come out on top very soon to end the whole 'battle' once and for all, but for the story to work, they had to draw right now!

Any theories on anything yet?

I was really upset to get no reviews, and I still wrote this one which is double the length of a usual chapter….it's 13 pages in word, so it would be really nice to hear back from you!

-Love always, B