Author's Note: Still soul crushed OTH is over all these years later? I am too. So, this is my take on a new season of the show! It will be 22 chapters (except for this one, the prologue) in standard episode format featuring love, drama, and the usual Tree Hill shenanigans. Buckle up, buttercups!
BTW, this is a repost because I stupidly deleted this last year. Hoping to continue it now!
Lucas Scott once wrote, "Tree Hill is just a place somewhere in the world."
True in one way, but wrong in every other. At least Haley James Scott thought so. Of course, one could claim it was bias or nostalgia that made her feel that way. After all, not only did she grow up there, but it was the only home she'd ever known. Most of her friends had moved away – at least temporarily, some permanently – before. They'd lived in California, New York, some even living abroad all over the world. But not her. Haley never left. She couldn't even imagine doing so. Not then. Not now. Not ever. To her, Tree Hill wasn't just "someplace". It was the place. Her place. Her life. Her soul. There was just something magical about it. She couldn't pinpoint why. No one else could either. But they knew it too.
She began to hum a certain Gavin DeGraw tune as she trotted down the streets of the hometown she loved so much. She loved these walks. In fact, she'd taken so kindly to them that it was the sixth one in a row this week. She'd only ever drove lately if she had to go all the way across town, and even then, that was rare. It was like every day was an adventure now. Sometimes the entire family would join in on the 'fun', though sometimes they viewed it more as an exercise scheme than anything else. Haley insisted otherwise, not a fan of exercise any more than the next person, but her job as "mom" was raising a healthy family so sneaking in a bit of physical health wasn't exactly out of the question.
But on this particular morning, leading the way was instead her son, Jamie, nearly 10 years old and playing navigator like he knew these streets almost as well as she did. She wouldn't be surprised if he did. A smart boy, that one was. Smarter than even "Good Ol' Bookworm" Haley James could have ever dreamed of. It was never a surprise to her husband, Jamie's father, Nathan, though. He always knew how smart Jamie would be. Haley teased that it was just wishful thinking on his part. But Nathan knew better than that. And now he could only hope their daughter, Lydia, followed the same path.
The path Haley was following now, however, came to an abrupt end as Jamie stopped short in front of her, staring blankly at something across the street. She didn't even have to look herself to know what it was. Everything, from the flickering lamp post to the chipped cement on the curb, was as familiar to her as the back of her hand. She knew exactly where she standing, directly across from famed author – aka her best friend - Lucas Scott's house; the place that she'd been to more times in her youth than even her own, the place she realized just then that she hadn't set foot inside in almost five years.
Five. Years. She couldn't believe it. She didn't want to believe it.
"Look, Mom!" Jamie's panicked voice thrusted Haley out of her daze, "Somebody's moving into Uncle Lucas' house!"
It was then she finally noticed root of the problem: the two or three men walking to and from a large moving truck on the side of the street, carrying boxes to the front of the house one after the other, back and forth, again and again. Jamie's voice thrusted her out of her daze once more, though the panic turned to sadness:
"I guess he's really not coming back, huh?"
She frowned, though she wouldn't let him see she was just as disappointed – if not more – at such a revelation. "I guess not, buddy."
Jamie, not without looking both ways first, crossed the street over to the home and approached the movers' truck. Haley followed.
"Excuse me," he said, "Do you know who's moving in here?"
A voice responded to the boy's question from deep within the mountain of storage still left inside the back of the truck. "Sorry, kid, I just move the boxes."
Haley considered for a moment calling up Lucas and demanding an explanation. She certainly would have too – if only he wasn't half way across the world in another time zone; Asia, last she'd heard. Besides, she couldn't help but feel a little resentment toward him in the moment, that he didn't even have the decency to tell her he was selling his childhood home. This was a decision, like or not, that affected more than just him. Like, for instance, his godson who was standing there with such a heartbreaking look on his face. In that moment, the anger subsided and now she was just downright sad again.
She placed a comforting hand on Jamie's shoulder as he peered inside the empty house.
"Maybe we'll come back and meet the new neighbors when they get settled in?" she offered, unsure herself if she even wanted to meet them. They'd never understand the significant of that house – not just a house, a home. Lucas' home. Her home. Brooke's home. Peyton's home. Their home. But this time she thrusted herself out of her own daze, putting back on that brave, mom face. "It'll be fun. And we'll get one last look inside."
Jamie reluctantly nodded to his mother's suggestion. It wasn't the solution he was hoping for – though nothing short of Lucas coming back was – but it would have to do for now. And with that, the two stepped off the porch and back into the street, sharing a now deeply silent walk to their destination: Karen's Café.