Title: Made Easy

Author: gigi2

Genre: Naley

Rating: PG-13 for now.

Etc: No spoilers. No particular order of episodes. I own nothing but this story :)

Chapter 2 :::

This class never ends, Nathan thought to himself for the 7th time alone in English class. He briefly waved a hand through his spikes, hoping it would relieve him somehow.

It didn't.

There was a lot going on in his head, things he wasn't ready to discuss with anyone, including himself. 

He never took the time to actually look at the people around him in class, the people that didn't matter anyways. His eyes scanned over the rows when they finally landed on the back of a familiar body with a mass of red hair.

Her.

If he had known her name, he would have for sure said it to himself but he didn't. Although he couldn't see her whole face, he catched on quickly to her habit of tucking her hair behind her ear. Every minute or so, the same strand of hair would fall over her face and she'd repeat the same gesture of brushing it aside.

Before he could make any more observations, the final bell of the day and the week had rang. The uproar of chairs scratching the linoleum floor made the kids smile, seeing as the weekend was here. Nathan pushed himself back from his desk and gripped the ledge before pushing himself up. He shruggishly shoved his folder and textbook into his backpack and made his way to the door, only prompting him to stop when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Mr. Scott? We need to talk."

Mr. Grabaldi had a tendency to make you stop thinking when he focused all of his attention on you. He wasn't an offensive looking person but he definitely could offend you with the look of his eye.

"Yeah, I guess."

The teacher motioned for his pupil to make his way to the front desk, which was littered with vanilla folders and nubbed-down pencils. Mr. Grabaldi could notice Nathan's uncomfotable stance, as he was shifting his weight on either foot and casted his eyes downward. He motioned for the Young Scott to pull up a seat but refused. Taking a seat, Mr. Grabaldi let out a sigh and pulled himself forward into his desk.

"That was a very impressive game you and the team put on last week. Coach Durham must be proud."

He looked up and a small smirk tickled Nathan's lips but decided to let it slip. "Thanks."

"But I'm not here to talk about your athletic abilities. If you studied as much as you gained the admiration of your fellow peers, your game would be matched up to speed. That last paper you submitted, just...it wasn't..."

"Yeah, it was a winner with just about everyone I do and don't know". Nathan bitterly let out.

Mr. Grabaldi took a brief moment to collect his thoughts and to finally reiterrate his point. Dead in the eye, he looked into Nathan's eyes and said, "You're failing my class, Nathan."

Nathan had never heard it out loud before. The way he said it --- it wasn't crude but it came out sounding shrill. Blunt. Coarse. Matter-of-factly. He was failing.

"I'm sorry." He didn't know what else to say.

"I don't want you to be sorry, I want you to pass. You're allowing yourself to fail without a legitimate excuse and it's unacceptable. Your progress report is coming out soon, and so are your games. Do not let your grades be a factor in your eligibility to play on the team."

Nathan slowly swallowed Mr. Grabaldi's verbatim. All of a sudden, it was getting harder to swallow any kind of information that didn't upset him. Failing. Not accomplishing the goal. Not making the basket.

*************************************************

Dammit. Haley chastised herself, as she was halfway out of the quad when she feverishly searched for her thick red spiral notebook and Roxy planner. Without the two, chaos was guranteed to be ensured. She wrote down everything, school-related or not in her notebook, and her Roxy planner was a gift from Lucas. She didn't have very many plans write in or attend to, seeing as she was some kind of social outcast at Tree Hill High. But a gift is a gift, and any gift from Lucas was simply irreplaceable.

She turned back and treaded her way through the quad and back to Mr. Grabaldi's class. Unconsicously, Haley tucked her hair behind her ear and gripped the straps of her backpack. There were still a few students lingering around, most likely getting ready for the game that night. She heard the squeals of laughter and hearty laughs of her peers one last time before she walked into the desolate hallway of lockers. Rounding the corner of her destination, she was relieved to see Mr. Grabaldi's door open wide.

Haley looked up to the sky and silently let out a Thank you! because her belongings were safe. Besides, who would want to jack a red notebook and a leopard-print Roxy planner?

Smiling and without looking down, she walked right into classroom and into a desk's leg. Great going James, you stubbed your toe into a desk in front of a teacher and the captain of the basketball team. A small blush crept over her face and her smile faded a bit but she braved her eyes up to see a Mr. Grabaldi and Nathan Scott. Both of the men looked at her with inquiry.

"Yeah, umm, hi Mr. Grabaldi." Her goofy expression turned into that of a deer-caught-in-the-headlights look. Nathan, amused, removed his recent scowl and turned it into his trademark smirk.

How embarrassing.

"Well hello! Did you need something Miss James?", as Mr. Grabaldi nudged his head slightly.

"Oh, no, I just forgot some stuff." Hayley smiled once more before turning her attention to her belongings, which sat atop her usual desk --- untouched and unscathed. Not to interrupt their private meeting, Hayley wound herself around the rows of desks until she reached hers.

Getting back to the matter at hand, Mr. Grabaldi spoke up. "SO, as I was saying Mr. Scott," not looking up from a pile of papers he was grading, "if you need help, please do not hesitate to ask for it because later on, it will be too late. Keep in mind that your next paper is due in 3 weeks."

"Yeah, I will. Can I go now?" Nathan was more than anxious to go. He didn't care that he was late to practice but he just needed to get out of there.

"Was that a question or a demand Mr. Scott?" Mr. Grabaldi perched his eyebrows and put down his pen.

"Can I please go now if there's nothing else to be said?" Nathan bit back, a little too sweetly.


The older man looked up at Nathan and an idea was swarming in his head. "Actually, there's a way you can bring up your grade, and real quick, too."

Nathan looked confused but considered hearing the older man's revelation. "Ok, how?"

Mr Grabaldi looked over to see if Haley had left the class already but saw that she hadn't. Haley had been too busy making sure that everything in her notebook was neatly put away and untouched. He smiled to himself, "Miss James you're a lucky winner today!"