Chapter Thirty-Four

It was the morning after Nathan and Jake had been caught at the police station. Lucas and Nathan had arrived at school, and the day passed just like the day before, but both knew things were very different. After dinner had finished Nathan had told Lucas what had happened at the station, although he had left out the significant details of his feelings for Miss James, and his relationship with her sister Taylor. Still, both had thought that she would have told Miss Sawyer, a suspicion confirmed by Jake's late night phone call, which meant that two staff members knew about them.

During lunch break Jake had text messaged Nathan and told him he had spoken to Whitey and neither Haley nor Peyton had said anything to him, which removed one worry for the time being. However, Nathan's other worry only grew more as he walked towards his English Lit class that afternoon. Both Lucas and Brooke were with him and noticed his discomfort; of course Brooke understood it better than her boyfriend, so neither said anything.

Nathan wasn't sure what to expect when he went inside his class. Haley was standing at the front of the room, writing something on the board, and about half the class was already there. She turned around and saw the three of them enter. Nathan tried to prepare himself for anything; hostility, coldness. She surprised him by smiling – not with anything like warmth in her eyes, but it wasn't harsh either. Then, she picked up a stack of papers from the desk and handed one to each of them as she briefly explained the day's assignment.

The rest of the class continued in the same vein, with Haley going about the lesson as usual, not appearing to have a care in the world. Her nonchalant attitude unnerved Nathan more than anything else she could have thrown at him, even to the point where he struggled to make it through the lesson with a straight face.

When the bell finally rang to signal the end of class Nathan didn't get up immediately as he tried to figure out what he was going to do. Observing Nathan's reluctance to leave just yet Brooke took Lucas outside and down the hall before he could mention that they should wait for Nathan.

Nathan packed his bag slowly and waited for everyone else to leave before he tentatively approached the front desk. He slung his bag over his shoulder as he watched her pack up her things, her back turned to him.

"Er…" Nathan began and then paused, wondering if he should still call her Miss James or whether he could finally call her Haley.

Hearing the noise, Haley glanced over her shoulder, but only looked at him for a second before returning to her books. "I thought you left with everyone else."

"No, I…I wanted to talk to you."

"About what?"

"Well…you know."

"I didn't think there was anything to talk about." Haley picked up her books and turned to face him.

"You-you don't?" Nathan asked, incredulously.

Haley shrugged her shoulders slightly and kept her tone light. "No."

"B-but…last night…at the station. I mean, you got what we said, right?"

"Of course I did. But, you're just doing your job like I'm doing mine."

"So, that's just it…That's all you have to say?"

Haley raised an eyebrow at him and her expression turned sour. "What; did you want me to be mad at you or something?"

"No, of course not."

"Then, what were you expecting!"

"I-I don't know. I just wanted you to care!" Nathan said finally and stormed out of the classroom.

"Can I sit here?"

Haley looked up from where she was trying to mark papers in the faculty lounge and saw her ex-boyfriend leaning over the table and peering at her. Despite their not altogether pleasant break-up he was always turning up and talking to her, as if nothing had ever happened between them. "If you must," she said and looked back at her papers. Of course, in usual Chris Keller fashion he didn't notice that she was trying to work and started yammering on about something or other. After enduring it for five minutes she groaned and slammed the book shut, deciding to head to the library.

"What's the matter with you?"

"Since when do you care?" Haley asked bluntly as she stood up.

Chris made a face. "Keller's always cared."

I just wanted you to care…

Haley tried once more to shove the voice that was plaguing her, but it kept repeating in her head. Without bothering to reply to Chris' comment she gathered her things and stomped out of the lounge, turning a few staff member's heads since she was generally known for her friendly attitude and sunny demeanor.

Haley walked to the library in a huff, partly because she was supposed to have been there helping Nathan after school; meaning now. When she reached her usual spot, she dropped her papers on the table, only after which she realized she had just brought the papers she had to mark, not the text she needed to refer to. Shaking her head, she turned on her heel and went back out of the library to get her book.

On the way there, she was so lost in her thoughts that it took her a moment to notice the person standing across from her in the hall; Nathan. She wondered what he was going to say to her next, when she became aware that he hadn't noticed her. In fact, he hadn't noticed anything as he just walked toward and then inside the boy's locker room as if that was where he was supposed to be.

Haley raised an eyebrow as she thought about it: she knew he wasn't on the basketball team, which was practicing now; a fact she had learnt from Peyton who had memorized Jake's schedule so she could do her best to avoid him all day. Then, what was Nathan doing in the boy's locker room?

Haley frowned. Then, with a glance back over her shoulder she followed him inside.

She closed the door gently behind her so he didn't hear a noise, but he couldn't miss the gasp of surprise she let out when she saw him standing in front of one of the lockers.

Nathan looked to the side and stared at her incredulously. "What are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you the same question! You don't have any sport right now, and what you're about to do right there is vandalism!" Haley folded her arms over her chest. "I should take you to the principal."

Nathan looked down in his hand and realized that from where she was standing it looked like he was about to scrape the locker, rather than open it. "I'm not trying to vandalize it; I'm just going to open it –"

"Well, it's not your locker so I could take you to the principal for that too – only of course that wouldn't be of much use, since he probably knows you're not really a student so he would let you off anyway."

"Look, this is important. Can you just wait a little until I'm finished and then we can talk?"

"What makes you think I want to talk to you?"

"Why did you follow me in here, then?"

"I didn't follow you in here."

"No?"

"No!"

"Then what are you doing in the boy's locker room?"

Haley paused for a moment and leant back on her heels. "Well…I…I just came to…"

"Yes?" Nathan prodded.

"I came to ask the coach about something."

"Really?"

"Yes; he's helping out with the play, remember?"

Nathan did remember; he had seen him come in and talk to Haley yesterday morning when they had been in the auditorium. "He's at practice."

"So I see." Haley turned around and started to head back out before she did another 180 degree turn and walked back up to him. "And, just so you know, I was mad! I still am, actually!"

"You're mad at me?"

"Yes!"

"What happened to your whole 'you're only doing your job, like I'm doing mine' theory," Nathan repeated her words, but he said it in a somewhat high-pitched voice, which only seemed to fuel her anger.

"I'm not mad because you lied," Haley clarified.

"Then what the hell are you mad about?"

"I'm mad about the way you treated me!"

Then, Nathan started to get angry. "I was never anything but nice to you!"

Haley scoffed. "You made a complete fool of me!"

"Wha-"

"I was so worried that you weren't doing well and that you weren't going to pass your exams –"

"I never told you to worry about me."

"Maybe not; but you didn't have to say yes when I offered you extra lessons. You should have just treated me the way you did all your other teachers!"

"Well, maybe I would have if you had treated me like you did all your other students."

Haley stared at him open-mouthed. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I didn't see you offering anyone else tutoring."

Haley let out a shocked gasp. "Oh, you are so full of yourself! You know, I –"

She stopped all of a sudden when they heard the back door, the one that lead to the coach's office and the gym, open. She was still trying to work out what to say or do when out of the blue she saw Nathan's face come towards her, and he kissed her.

She didn't even close her eyes; she was too surprised to do anything but just stand there as his mouth covered hers. The sound of the back door closing seemed to jerk her into action as she put her hands on Nathan's chest and shoved him away from her, hard.

"What the hell did you think you were doing?"

"Er, well…" Nathan stuttered, still trying to work out the answer to that himself. Remembering Brooke's words when they had been in a similar situation, he said, "It's the only good excuse for us being here."

Haley stared at him as if he had just grown another arm. "I'm a teacher! And for all intents and purposes anyone who could have come out from behind that door thinks you're a student! Well, except for Jake – and probably Lucas I suppose, that is, if you really are cousins – but everyone else does! Including the coach! I could have been arrested!"

"Oh."

"And," Haley continued, on full steam now, "the irony is you would have been both the alleged 'victim' and the arresting officer! There is no way you can be that stupid, so why don't you try again!"

"I…I just did it to shut you up," he said finally.

Haley's eyebrows went up; way up. "To shut me up?" she repeated.

"Uh, well…you wouldn't stop talking and they would have heard you so…"

"You know what? I hope whoever owns that locker finds you looking through their stuff and gives you another black eye!"

As she stormed out, Nathan yelled back, "I'm so touched!"

She didn't bother to look back at him, she just strode out, worsening Nathan's bad mood. It amplified even more when he finally opened the locker and found absolutely nothing inside.