A/N: Hey! Thank you to those who reviewed the last chapter. I hope you guys are liking it so far. The first few chapters are going to be introductory stuff. I also tried to put as much Naley as I could in this chapter, but there will be plenty more in the future chapters. Here is chapter two!

Chapter 2

...

What the hell? Haley was startled awake as she heard glass shattering along with the familiar screaming. As she pulled out her phone, she saw that the time was 4:42 A.M. Great.

Haley quietly made her way to the top of the staircase, giving her a clear view of her parents in the living room.

"What the hell Jimmy! We just bought this house!" Lydia screeched as she saw the dents in the hardwood caused by the broken glass shards.

What alarmed Haley the most, however, was the hole in the wall. She wondered if her dad threw something at the wall or did that with his bare hands. Seeing no signs of objects nearby and small amounts of blood around her dad's hand, she knew it was the latter.

"Well stop bringing up fucking things from the past!" Jimmy shot back as he got ready to throw another plate.

Externally, Haley tried to appear as calm and collected as possible. Internally, panic took over. Like all the other times, she felt utterly helpless and useless. A part of her wanted to stay there and observe how far this fight was going to go, while another part wanted to go back into her room. She knew she wouldn't be able to fall asleep now, so she decided to take a long shower and get ready for her first day of school. So much for starting the school year off great.

Nathan groaned as he saw Dan in the kitchen. He was hoping that he could make it out of the house without crossing paths with him. He already knew his morning was going to be ruined. Dan seemed to possess the ability to ruin anything just with his presence.

"Good morning, son!" Dan exclaimed in an unusually cheery mood.

How the fuck can he go from making me bleed to being so fucking happy? "Why are you so happy?" Nathan muttered bewildered.

"It's your first day of school, which means basketball starts soon. We're going to impress a lot of Scouts this year. Duke is just two years away now."

Fantastic. It's 6:45 A.M and the basketball talk already started. "Real exciting Dad. I gotta get going," Nathan said dryly.

"Already? I made scrambled eggs. You need to eat healthy food in the morning so you can be in shape for this season."

"Eggs make me nauseous in the morning. Bye Dad," Nathan said while quickly heading to the door.

"Nathan!" Dan yelled as he lost his cheery mood. "Sit and eat your damn food now!"

After he slightly flinched from Dan's change in tone, Nathan sat at the dining table and ate the eggs. Of course, it presented Dan with the perfect opportunity to talk about basketball.

Haley couldn't be happier that her school started earlier than other high schools. It allowed her to escape her parents this morning, and she guessed it would help in the future when they fought as well. Right before she came to school, her parents were giving each other the silent treatment, but she knew one of them was going to explode soon.

Walking through the hallway, she was relieved that no one looked at her awkwardly. She heard so many horror stories of people being new kids and dreaded that she would get made fun of. Sure, she had people ask if she was new, but most people have been relatively nice to her.

"Hey, Haley," a familiar voice said.

"Luke, hi! It's so good to finally see someone I know."

"How's it been going so far?"

"Actually not too bad. I thought there were going to be like popular people just picking on me and stuff."

"They're a lot of rude people in this school, but there isn't this social hierarchy that you normally see in like Mean Girls or whatever. I mean yeah they're popular people, but it's not like they own the school or anything."

"You watched Mean Girls?" Haley teased.

"Hey my girlfriend, Peyton, made me watch it ok," Lucas defended himself.

"Uh-huh, whatever you say," Haley joked while unfolding her schedule. "Let's see if we have any classes together."

Lucas pulled out his schedule and compared it with Haley's. "Looks like we have Miller for A.P Psychology. That's right before lunch, so you can come with me if you want?"

"Oh really, that would be great. I just don't want to intrude."

"You're not intruding, I promise. My friends will love you."

"Ok, well thanks. Bye, Luke."

"See ya. Good luck with Campbell for the first period. He's a nightmare."

Lucas wasn't kidding when he said Mr. Campbell was bad. It had only been fifteen minutes, and he was already yelling at a kid for not knowing the answer. Geez, it was only the first day of school. They were supposed to be doing ice breakers, not getting grilled with math questions.

Anxious that he would call on her next, Haley looked at the board to work out the problem. All throughout her life, Haley managed to get straight A's, with the exception of one B, which sadly was in the gym. She had never really been good at sports.

However, looking at the board, fear crept on her. This was so much harder than the content in Oak Lake. Suddenly, she realized she would have to work twice as hard here if she wanted to maintain her 4.0. More importantly, she needed to work hard, so she could go to Duke, and finally make her parents proud somehow. Lately, anything she seemed to do to make her parents proud was fruitless. Each day, she felt herself disconnecting from her parents. The warm, loving parents she once had seemed so far away.

"Haley James," Mr. Campbell said aloud while looking at the roster. "Mind enlightening us on how to solve the word problem on the screen?"

Haley's running thoughts quickly ended. Crap. No-no-no, this could not be happening. "Um...uh. I didn't finish the problem yet," Haley let out nervously as her heart pounded against her chest. She had never had this happen to her.

Mr. Campbell sighed, "Miss James, you do realize that this problem was last year's math. This year's curriculum will be much harder."

"I'll get caught up sir."

"I hope so."

Thankfully, he called on someone else, but that didn't mean Haley was relieved. Her face was drained of color. She hated being put on the spot.

A friendly blonde girl turned around and started talking to her, "Don't worry about him. He's a pain in the ass. Plus, I bet no one in the class knew how to do that problem. You just got unlucky."

"Yeah. I had him for math last year too, and I barely passed. He's kind of hot though," a brunette girl with a raspy voice added. "I'm Brooke Davis."

"I'm Haley. Well, actually you probably know that since he just called on me, but just in case you didn't...Sorry I ramble a lot." Great going Haley.

The blonde girl was instead amused by her behavior. "Don't worry about it. I'm Peyton Sawyer."

"Are you Lucas's girlfriend by any chance?"

"Yeah, I am. Do you know him?"

"Yeah, I met him at the cafe last night and talked with him this morning. We mostly nerded out on Shakespeare."

Peyton chuckled, "Yeah he has an unhealthy obsession with literature. Anyway, he's amazing. I'm so lucky to have found him."

"Who knew you were with the wrong Scott brother all along?" Brooke teased Peyton.

Haley was confused. "What?"

"Lucas has a brother, Nathan. I used to date him in ninth grade. I mean it's not like we actually liked each other or anything though," Peyton answered.

"Yeah, I had a brief encounter with him last night. He was such a jerk. Anyway, why did you guys date if you didn't like one another?"

"Well, Nathan and Lucas hated each other then, and Nathan knew Lucas liked me, so he dated me to stick it to him. To be honest, I don't really know why I went out with him at the time. I was scared to tell Luke how I felt, so I thought being in a relationship would help me get over those feelings. Instead, my feelings for Luke just grew, but being with Nathan showed me exactly what I didn't want in a relationship."

He's even more of a jerk than I thought he was. "I'm happy for you and Lucas. I hate how Nathan got in the middle of that."

"It's cool. We're friends now. Well not like best friends. Nathan only really talks to a couple of people."

"Yeah, Luke was telling me about that."

Brooke chimed in, "It wasn't always like that. He's just become really distant the past year."

"Why is that?" Haley asked as her curiosity grew.

"Because his Mom le-"

Brooke was interrupted by an angry Mr. Campbell, "Miss Davis. Would you care to answer the question on the board, or is your side conversation with Miss Sawyer and Miss James more interesting?"

"I was just finishing it up," Brooke answered rather confidently.

"I'm sure you were. You wouldn't want to repeat this grade after all. You were almost about to last year."

Haley couldn't believe he just talked to Brooke like that. She gave Brooke a sympathetic look and went back to focusing on her math problems hoping that this class ended soon.

It had only been thirty minutes since the start of the second period, and Nathan was already bored out of his mind. Why did they need to learn chemistry anyway? When were they ever going to use significant digits or the elements on the periodic table in the future?

To make matters worse, he was stuck next to Rachel Gattina, who kept gawking at him. Every time she would not so subtly try to touch him, he cringed and just rolled his eyes. Rachel was way too annoying and desperate for his liking. He didn't really have much interest in girls over the past year anyway. All his life consisted of was basketball and getting drunk. Even when he went to parties, his sole reason was the alcohol.

"Jake," Nathan whispered to the brown-haired boy sitting behind him.

Jake Jagielski was one of the few people Nathan would actually talk to. They met through basketball since they were on the same team. At first, they were enemies, since Jake and Lucas were best friends. Once Nathan and Lucas got over their rivalry, Nathan and Jake put their differences aside as well.

"Yeah?" He replied.

"Can you please switch seats with me man? Rachel's driving me insane." Nathan tried whispering that loud enough so Rachel could take a hint, but not too loud that he would get yelled at by Mr. Reed, the chemistry teacher.

Jake chuckled, "Not a chance in hell man."

"You suck Jagielski."

"Have fun with that," Jake joked as he saw Rachel brush her hand on Nathan's arm.

Nathan shuddered as her hand made contact with his skin. Nothing about her felt good. Fuck, there's still an hour left of this class.

Lunch had been going great. Haley recognized Brooke and Peyton from earlier and instantly clicked with them. Lucas also introduced her to Jake, who was very sweet towards her. During the time, the group of friends asked Haley about her life in Oak Lake and how she liked her time in Tree Hill so far.

"Oh look, Boy Toy is coming over here!" Brooke exclaimed mid-conversation.

"Boy Toy?" Haley asked.

"She's referring to Nathan. Brooke just likes nicknames for people," Peyton answered.

"Speaking of, I need to think of a name for you new girl," Brooke added.

Nathan had to speak to Whitey, the basketball coach, for a while, so he was late for lunch. As he made his way near the table in the courtyard, he gazed at the unfamiliar blonde sitting at the table. He had to admit that she was pretty. She had a natural glow that he had never seen before. However, what bothered him were the annoying glares she started giving him. What the hell?

"Nathan, this is Haley. She moved here from Oak Lake."

"Hi," Nathan mumbled while looking at Haley. The glare she subtly gave him intimidated him for some reason. Nathan Scott was never one to get intimidated.

"Hi."

The group picked up the unknown tension and decided to change the topic of the conversation. For the rest of lunch, Nathan isolated himself from the conversation as he was concentrated on his phone. Every few minutes, he saw Haley give him weird looks, which just pissed him off. He had no idea what her problem was with him. It's not like he actually did anything. He never even saw her before today.

"Haley, you have Smith for Human Anatomy next right?" Lucas asked as the bell rang, signifying the end of lunch.

"Yeah."

"Nathan has it too. You guys should walk together," he suggested.

"Luke, come on," Nathan complained. The last thing he wanted to do was walk the girl who's been giving him the cold shoulder the whole lunch.

"Nate, she's new around here. Help her out man."

"Fine," Nathan reluctantly agreed.

The silence was building between the two as they walked down the hallway. Finally, it became uncomfortable and unbearable. "What the hell is your problem?" Nathan blurted out.

"Excuse me?" My problem?

"All through lunch you've kept glaring at me."

"I'm surprised you saw that considering you were glued to your phone the whole time."

"Ok, seriously, what's your problem?"

"My problem is you're a jerk."

"You literally met me like twenty minutes ago."

"You were being a jackass to your brother who has said nothing but kind things about you in the cafe last night."

Suddenly it hit him that Haley was the person Lucas wanted him to meet. A little bit of guilt came over him when he remembered the way he treated Lucas, and now Haley.

"Look I didn't mean it. I was just in a bad mood."

"So, that makes it ok?" Haley's tone was more curious rather than accusing.

"No of course not. Believe me, I felt bad about it last night when I got home. Luke's really been there for me. It's just my Dad has a way of really getting to me. Even during lunch, he kept texting me and got under my skin." Nathan wasn't really sure why he told Haley any of this. He had only just met her. Nonetheless, it kind of felt good.

Haley could see the sincerity behind his word and the guilt he was feeling. She got reminded of Peyton's story from earlier about how he only dated her to get back at Lucas. Obviously now, he respected Lucas a little more, so maybe she was wrong about him. "Do you want to start over?"

"What?"

"Do you just want to start over from the beginning?"

"Does this mean no more evil stares during lunch?"

"Yeah as long as you don't act like a jerk again."

"So, you don't hate me anymore?" Nathan smirked, amused by their banter.

"Let's just say I don't hate you as much as I did before."

"Okay let's start over."

"Alright! So we're...friends?" Haley asked hesitantly. She didn't know why she asked them to be friends considering Lucas told her Nathan isn't really close to anyone.

"Sure." Wait. Why the hell did I just agree to be her friend? It must've just been a spur in the moment thing.

Haley expected both of her parents to be at work, so she took out her key and unlocked the front door. As she entered the house, she immediately knew something was off. Her suspicions were confirmed when she saw her dad drinking beer on the couch, once again.

"Dad? What are you doing home? You have work." She couldn't believe her dad was home. Did he not learn anything from getting fired?

"Well, actually it doesn't start till next week. Your mom is at work though."

Haley grew slightly frustrated. "Dad, last night you said you would stop drinking."

"I know I said that honey, but think about it this way. I drank so much last night. I can't just stop cold turkey. It could cause all sorts of problems for my body. So I decided to ease into the process of not drinking anymore," Jimmy stated in an attempt of defending himself. He then made himself over to the cabinet and grabbed the car keys.

"What are you doing?" Haley questioned confusedly.

"I only got some. I'm getting more."

"You can't do that. You're drunk!"

"Fine, then give me a ride, and I'll go in and get it."

"But-"

"Either you give me a ride, or I'll go myself," Jimmy said sternly.

Dammit! Haley hated whenever her dad gave her options like this. On one hand, her dad driving alone would be a risk to him and everyone else on the road. On the other, Haley driving Jimmy to the store makes it feel like she's the one propelling his drinking activity. Either way she was left with guiltiness, but at least one of the options was actually safer. "Fine."

"Fine, what?"

"Fine, I'll drive you," Haley muttered as her anger swept through her. Was she ever going to stop feeling so helpless and guilty?

On his way home from school, Nathan stopped by the liquor store to pick up some beer. Thank god for the fake I.D Brooke had made him two years ago. He couldn't remember how many times he used it, especially in this past year after his mom left.

As he got out of the car, he saw a familiar blonde in the car right next to him.

"Haley?" he questioned in disbelief while gently knocking on her window. She didn't really strike him as the drinking type of person.

Shit. "Oh, hey Nathan," Haley answered tensely as she rolled her window down.

"What are you doing here?"

"I took my dad for a drive around Tree Hill and he wanted to have a date night with my mom, so I brought him here." As much as she hated her dad drinking, she always had the constant need to defend him. She never told anyone about her dad's drinking. But moreover, he was still her dad, and she would always love him. "Anyway, I think the real question is what are you doing here?"

Nathan stuck out his fake I.D. and smirked, "I'm here to get some beer."

Haley couldn't help but worry when he said that. She knew that not everyone who drank was an alcoholic, but living with a severe alcoholic caused a dreary feeling to wash over her. "Oh, ok. Well, see you."

Nathan detected Haley's change in facial expression and tone. Something felt wrong in the conversation they just had. Sure, Nathan thought Haley wasn't a fan of alcohol, but something seemed very off about her when he mentioned him getting a beer.

Haley did everything to block out the noises of her parents fighting later that evening as she concentrated on her homework. Of course, Mr. Campbell was the only teacher to assign actual homework on the first day of school. Nevertheless, she was glad. She really wanted to become a tutor to make some extra money and needed all the extra practice she could get.

Since her family was still suffering from her dad's job loss, Haley wanted to help out as much as she could. She was going to college in two years and didn't want it to be hard on her parents. The good thing for Haley is that learning came easily to her. If she worked really hard, she could probably become a tutor within two weeks. With that thought, she went back to studying.

Nathan got the beer and went to his room. Fortunately, his Dad wasn't home yet from working at the car dealership, so he had a little while to relax.

As he laid down on his bed, his mind traveled back to earlier in the day at the liquor store. Something about the conversation he and Haley had unsettled him. He couldn't quite decipher why he kept thinking about it though. Whatever, it's none of my concern, so I didn't care...Then why do I keep thinking about it?

The battling thoughts going around in his mind irritated him. He took a large gulp of his beer to silence them and proceeded to do so until there was nothing but darkness surrounding him.

Thanks for reading! I have the story almost done in terms of planning it out and have spring break, so I hope to have more written:)