Oh my imagination running wild
Guess I've missed you from the day that we first met
Crazy, this fascination makes a sound, like a twister in my mind
The restless dream we left behind I never will forget

Restless Dream—Jack's Mannequin

"Ow."

Nathan complained as he grabbed his pounding head and sat up in his bed. How did he get home last night?

He groaned as he read the alarm clock and found that it was only six in the morning. He groaned even louder as he heard his dad's nagging voice trying to get him to wake up fully.

"How you doing, pretty boy? Can't even handle your alcohol, huh? Is there anything that you can be better than me?"

"Go away, dad."

"Oh, I don't think so. I told you we have to start waking up early and train again; it's not my fault you decided to get drunk last night."

"It's Saturday. I'm sleeping."

"Like hell you are." Dan insisted as he violently pulled on Nathan's blinds, ultimately blinding him.

"Get your ass down stairs. You better be there ready to run in fifteen minutes."

++++++++++ShePaintsMeBlue+++++++++++++

"Dan, I told you to leave him alone and let him rest. He's had a tough week." Deb scolded her husband as he and her son entered the house at nine o'clock.

"He's a big boy, he can handle himself. Right, Nate?" Dan asked, elbowing his son in the ribs and laughing as the boy winced.

"Sure." He mumbled while taking a seat at the counter and accepting the coffee mug his mother extended out to him.

"Fine, but you better let him rest tomorrow."

"Yes, wife." Dan smiled sarcastically, while the rest of his family just rolled their eyes.

"So, Nathan, how's school been?"

"Okay."

"Yeah? Any new students this year, or anything?"

Deb smiled while the boys gave her a look.

"Why would he notice that, Deb? No one important or beneficial to his basketball career came, so why would he notice?"

Deb gave Dan a disapproving look which he gladly returned. Deb badly wanted Haley to come a find Nathan, but she stuck to her promise and never said anything to him. She knew her son would be thrilled to see her and she figured it would help the slump he's seemed to be in for the past five years.

On the other hand, Dan hated every time his wife brought up the girls name. He never cared for his son's loyalty and dedication to her and didn't wish for it to come back.

"Alright, I'm just gonna go now before this gets any weirder." Nathan announced, making a face at his parents and leaving.

+++++++++++++She Paints Me Blue+++++++++

"What in the hell do you find so damn intriguing about that bitch? She's not even that pretty." Rachel sulked, clearly upset over the fact that the boy she was pathetically obsessing over was interested in another girl.

"She's beautiful." He argued. "I think I hooked up with her again this weekend."

"You think?"

"I'm not sure," he winced at how bad that sounded, "I was pretty wasted at that party, but I remember being with her."

"That would explain why she was pretty distraught when I found her." Peyton confirmed.

"Distraught? That isn't really what I was going for."

Peyton shrugged sympathetically, "Maybe you should just leave her alone. You seem to upset her a lot, and she's a pretty cool girl."

"I don't want to leave her alone." Nathan spat out bitterly. Who the hell did Peyton think she was?

"How would you know what type of person she is? Do you talk to her?"

"Oh God," Rachel interrupts before Peyton can respond, "If we don't stop talking about that little bitch then you're going to see my lunch again."

"Stop calling her a bitch, what do you even know about her?"

"I know that she moves here and thinks she's some hot ass who can pity her way to the top of the social circle and I'm not going to sit by and let it happen."

Nathan rolled his eyes and glanced at the girl who has been invading his mind all weekend, before looking at Peyton.

"You've spoken to her?" He repeats his question.

"Unbelievable." A clearly pissed off Rachel mutters before collecting her belongings and storming off.

"Yeah, like I said, at the party. I found her on the beach, she looked like she had been crying. I talked to her a little, but she was funny and nice. I liked her."

"Did she seem mad? At me, I mean?"

"I don't know," Peyton shrugged, not wanting to tell her friend that he hurt the girl he obviously cares about, "She was just upset."

"You would be fond of someone because they were mopey." Brooke snorted, noting that her friend established her like of this girl yet only said how she was gloomy.

"She was only like that when I found her," Peyton defended the girl, "Really, Haley's pretty cool."

That is when Nathan began to choke on the water he was drinking.

Haley.

He never knew the girl's name.

"What?" He managed to ask, his voice sounding panicked and desperate; not a far cry from his actual feelings.

"I said she's pretty cool."

"Who?"

He knew everyone at the table was giving him strange looks, but he didn't care.

"Who?"

"Haley." She answered quickly, still slightly unnerved by her friend.

"Haley?" He whispered.

No, no, no it couldn't be. She couldn't be. He hadn't spoken to her in years…

The scar.

He remembers the scar. The fateful day he let her fall and couldn't help her.

No, that's just a coincidence.

He looks desperately around the quad to try and find the girl to help prove himself wrong. There's no way his Haley is here. No way he's talked to her several times and he's never recognized her.

He feels nauseous and even though he wants to see her, he prays it isn't his best friend. He'd been a jackass, he didn't remember her. She would be crushed.

His heart begins to beat hard in his chest as he recalls the say he first saw her in Tree Hill.

"You don't remember me?"

Shit.

"Are you okay, Nathan?"

"Where is she?" He demands, not even bothering to answer. He needs to see her now so he can make sure he's just being delusional and that this girl just has the same name as his old best friend. The same name, the same scar, the same eyes…

"Who?"

"Haley!" He yells, growing more and more agitated by the second.

"Uhh," Peyton pauses as she searches and finds that she is not at her usual table with Jake and Lucas.

"Oh, right there." She points to where Haley is walking in the direction of her usual table.

Without another word, he's out of his seat and finds that he is full on running to the girl.

"What are you doing?" She asks as he stands in front of her, not saying anything or moving, only staring.

He looks at her face and sees the innocence and the big eyes and is certain it's her.

And suddenly, the party comes back to him and he remembers being on top of her, kissing her, touching her, feeling her, seeing her.

The freckles.

He knows that no one else would have freckles like that; those freckles are as reliable in identifying her as her DNA would be.

Without saying anything, his hand travels to her shirts and begins lifting it.

"What the hell are you doing?" She protests and puts her hand on top of his to halt his movements.

He ignores her, and through his strength and her utter confusion, he is able to lift up her shirt to her bra.

The dark black ink in the shape of the star hit him like a bucket of ice water; he recalled that day on the beach.

This was Haley. This was his Haley.

He looked back up to her face and he saw pure confusion. God, that face. How did he not see it before?

Sure, she was more… mature than her eleven year old form, her hair was blonde and she was taller, but dammit, it was Haley.

"Haley?" He breathed out slowly and quietly, almost as if he were afraid that if he spoke too loud she would be scared away.

She swallowed hard as her heart thumped louder. Why was there desperation in his voice?

"What?" She asked through honest uncertainty.

"Haley." He insisted, willing her to know that he recognized her without him having to say it.

"Haley," He repeated with a sigh, pulling her into a hug. "I've missed you, Haley."

He sounded sad and Haley understood. He knew it was her. He knew that she was back.

As much as she wanted to accept his embrace and stay in his arms, she couldn't. He hurt her too much.

"Not enough to recognize me."

She pulled away and she was gone.

He lost her again.

A/N: Yes, I know that this chapter is really short, but I wanted to end it here, with a sort of cliff hanger. I wanted to give you a moment to embrace it.

But, I originally planned on having more after this in this chapter and then after writing it, I decided to cut it shorter, so I already have some of chapter 6 written already which will hopefully make me update the next chapter sooner!

Please review! Thank you!

-Megan AKA ToBecomeAClown