Chapter One
Lackluster Night with Unwed Mothers

"Which one is he again?" Eliza Thomas asked her roommate, Brooke Davis, as she pointed to the television screen. Lilia, Brooke's daughter, was resting in between the pair on the leather couch in their dorm room. Because of how well off the two were, the university gave them one of the premium dorms. Whether or not it was in the upperclassmen building didn't matter to them. They were just happy to have their own bathroom.

Brooke squinted at the TV and said, "Doesn't look like he is playing right now, but he's number ten." Her eight month old daughter crawled onto her fleece blanket covered lap. "Here baby doll." She said, picking the baby up off of the couch and sitting her between her legs. The mother ran her hands over her daughter's chocolate colored hair.

Eliza stood up and walked into the kitchenette. Her intention to make a pot of coffee was interrupted by a crying coming from the adjacent room. "I just put him down." She moaned as she walked into the room where her son was sleeping. "Hey buddy." She said, picking her eighteen month old son out of his crib and carrying him on her hip into the room where Brooke and Lilia were.

She walked over to the rocking chair that sat in the corner of the living room and took a seat. Rocking back and forth she said, "I find it somewhat upsetting when you have to put a rocking chair where most normal college students would put a keg."

"Yeah, I guess." Brooke whispered as she looked down at the baby in her arms. "She's asleep," She said pointing to Lilia, "I am going to put her up." She slowly stood and carried the child into the room where Brooke slept. After laying Lilia down, she stood in front of her dresser drawer. Running her fingers over the frames that contained pictures of her parents, Lucas, and her friends their last night in Tree Hill. She felt something tug at her heart and quickly left the room.

The duo sat in the room, alone for the first time in weeks. They looked at each other and then back at the television clueless as what to do next. Brooke chewed on her bottom lip until she felt blood on her tongue. Eliza bit her right thumb nail until it was down to the quick, and then switched to the other thumb.

"Isn't weird that we wait all day long for them to finally go to sleep and then when they do we just sit here, staring at each other and twittling our damn thumbs?" Brooke asked as she folded and unfolded her arms across her chest.

Eliza let out a chuckle, looked around the dorm and then said, "We could play Monopoly or something?" She shrugged her narrow shoulders and walked over to the refrigerator.

Brooke's eyebrows rose. "You have got to be kidding me. We are two teen mothers who haven't had a night alone in God knows and all we can thing to do is play Monopoly." She leaned back on the couch and groaned, "We are pathetic."

"It's not like we could do anything even if we wanted to." Eliza said, taking a long drink straight from a gallon of low fat milk. She pointed toward the bedrooms, "They are asleep. We can't just leave them." Reaching into the cookie jar, she pulled out a broken piece of cookie and threw it into her mouth.

"Know any babysitters?" Brooke asked. She watched Eliza walk from the kitchen and sit next to her on the couch. Eliza shrugged her shoulders. "The only downfall of being out of Tree Hill, is if we were there I could call Nathan and Haley and they would watch the kids."

"Yeah and if I was on speaking terms with Reed's father then I would call him, but oh yeah... I'm not." Eliza said sarcastically as she leaned closed to the television. "Hey!" She cried out, "There's Lucas."

Brooke adjusted in her seat, now sitting on her legs. "Lilia is going to be so upset when I tell her she missed seeing her daddy." She ran her long, manicured fingers through her dark brown hair. "Aw. He looks so cute." She lowered her head into her hands as if she was a prepubescent teenage girl watching her celebrity crush on TV.

Falling in love in high school had definitely taken its toll on the couple's relationship. It all started when Lucas cheated on Brooke with Peyton Sawyer, for the first time. Then she took him back. At the time she was kicking herself for letting him back into her life, but right now she was glad she did. Then she found out she was pregnant, but didn't tell anyone. Not even Lucas. A couple months later, Brooke found out Lucas had cheated on her again, with none other that Peyton Sawyer...again. That was the end of their relationship for a while. That was until Brooke came to her senses and let Lucas back into her life because her life now included a child. Their child. Now here they are, at college together. Mommy, daddy, and baby makes three.

"First of all," Eliza began to say, "Lilia is not going to know what you are talking about when you tell her he was on TV. Second of all," She held up two fingers and continued speaking, "If you ever tell a guy he looked cute while he was playing basketball he would probably hit you in the head with a ball."

She rolled her eyes and said, "Fine then, he looks handsome."

"Like that is so much better." Eliza said rolling her eyes and played with her messy, blonde mop of hair atop her head. Known as, "The Beauty Queen" at her high school in small town, Livingston, South Carolina, Eliza Thomas was the picture of perfection. Doing pageants throughout half of her life or at least until she got pregnant the beginning of her junior year in High School.

Her boyfriend at the time, also the father of her son, was two years older than she and was getting ready to go off to college. When he found out she was pregnant, he left town even faster. She had tried repeatedly to get a hold of him. Not for money, but for the sake of their son. So that he could have a father and a somewhat normal childhood.

"Want me to call Dana?" Brooke asked referring to a girl in their Psychology class who always comments on how much she loved kids. "She might watch them while we go out for a little while." Her eyes gave a slight look of hope mixed with a little desperation.

Brooke was still as stunning, if not more, as ever. Her hair had grown out and now hit her back several inches below her shoulder blades. Since having Lilia she had become a workout-aholic saying, "Just because I am a mother doesn't mean I have to look like one." Her hair was shinier, her teeth whiter, and her skin clearer. Giving birth had done no harm to Brooke Davis, but then again who thought it would?

"Might as well." A mellow Eliza said, now lying on a rug which covered most of the old hardwood floor. "Wait is that the weird one...with the tooth?" She asked, running her tongue across her front teeth.

Brooke narrowed her eyes and looked down at her, "What tooth?" She stepped over her and walked into the bathroom.

Eliza followed after her. "Ya know the tooth." She pointed to one of her front teeth, "That one tooth is, like, a different color or something. Like it is a cap or something."

"So what if it is?" Brooke said, spitting toothpaste into the porcelain sink. She turned on the water and rinsed the sink out.

Shrugging her shoulders, Eliza said, "I dunno. It's just weird."

"No," Brooke walked out of the bathroom and turned down her bed next to Lilia's crib. She was now whispering. "You are weird. No one in all of Wake Forest would pay any attention to some poor girls veneer on her front teeth. Maybe she looks at you and calls you the strange one with the kid." She raised her eyebrows, undressed, put on one of Lucas' old tee shirt and accompanied it with a pair of navy boxer shorts.

"No, its just one tooth." Holding up one finger, Eliza continued, "I just bothers me. Why couldn't the dentist have made it, ya know, the same color as the other teeth."

Brooke leaned over and turned off the light next to her bed. The room went black. "Goodnight Eliza. Go to sleep."

"Another lackluster night in the residence of the unwed mothers." Eliza said, leaving the room and closing the door behind her.