Beach Girls
Rating - PG-13
Disclaimer - I don't own a single thing from One Tree Hill or the book Beach Girls by Luanne Rice. I loved the book and decided a story was in order.
A/N - Ok, I'm unbelievably sorry I couldn't get this out sooner, and I hate to use the school excuse so I'm not going to. It's my fault that I didn't get around to writing this and I'm so sorry. The time between chapters will never be that long again unless I inform my faithful readers first. I hope you enjoy this. Remember the first chapter was set in 2004...we're jumping quite a bit. They were 16 at the time...you do the math.
Chapter 2 - The summer of 2018
It had been a long 14 grueling years since those unforgettable days on the beach. So much had occurred in each one of their lives that keeping in touch had been an almost unbearable task and they had drifted. Of course you always swear you never will, but when life gets in the way it's almost impossible to stay as close as you once were.
Little Maddie Scott knew little of her mother's past. It wasn't that she never asked, it was that she never got a straight answer. All she knew was that a very old friend lived here in Tree Hill, North Carolina. She had come with her father for their first vacation since...
She had asked many times on the ride from Boston, where her mother's friend might be and all she remembered from her mother was a red house that was impossible to miss. Her father had never truly answered though. He could only say that he didn't remember. He hadn't grown up there and didn't really like leaving their home in South Carolina. His only memory was of her mother who he met during one of the rare weeks he decided to join his mother and father.
Maddie remembered very few stories her mother had told her when she was much younger, but a few did manage to stick out. Her very own mother had spent so many childhood summers here in Tree Hill. It looked pretty dull to her, but her mother had made best friends and met the man of her dreams in this dreary town. So, it had to be worth something.
So many years with her Aunt Haley and her mother's other best friend who lived in that red house. Walking along the beach was like a time capsule into her mother's past. Until the sand burned her feet and a girl who was about her age let her have half of the towel she was on.
"Um thanks," Maddie had said to the brunette beneath her vision.
"The sand gets hot around here...you don't live here do you?"
"No, me and my dad are just on a vacation. What's your name?" Maddie asked.
"I'm Jenny Jagielski. I live here like all year...I guess we just never wanna leave the beach," the young girl replied with a laugh.
"I'm Maddie Scott. My first time here," she said with dignity.
'I wonder if it's any fun being here all year...I think I should get off of this towel'' Maddie said to herself and began to get ready to step away.
"Um, so how long are you here for?" Jenny asked quietly before Maddie left.
"I have no idea, but before I go do you know anyone with a red house here? Like bright red?" she asked hurriedly.
"Nope, there aren't any red houses around here. There used to be...I think. That was the witch's house," Jenny mumbled.
"A witch? Like the kind at Halloween?" Maddie asked obviously bewildered.
Jenny just nodded and motioned for the girl to come sit back down. She quickly pointed to a big house back behind the rocks sitting in the blue sky. But the house was not red...now it was a light shade of yellow. Maddie didn't know if the house was really yellow or had just become tattered over the years and it was now an ugly shade of white. But who was she to ask when this girl was being nice enough to tell her this whole story?
"It used to be red when I was either really little or wasn't born. I'm not sure which, but my dad has told me some stories. He used to be friends with her before she stopped coming outside."
Maddie looked up to the house and could not accept that her mother's very best friend had been a witch. But there was no other houses that were red and she had been asking around ever since she had arrived. No one had even been able to remember Brooke Scott.
"So how is she a witch?" Maddie asked in a fairly high pitched voice.
"She doesn't come out anymore. She's very pale and she lives in like New York or something during the winter. She comes out at night most of the time and just watches her birds. She does like to draw and write books, or that's what I heard. She doesn't answer her door and she likes to go outside way before the sun comes out. She's been married like a billion times and she's gotten divorced every time. She even has a sign on her yard that like yells at everybody to stay away from her. I mean what kind of normal person does that?" Jenny asked in a way that confused Maddie even more.
Maddie just crinkled her eyebrows and sat on the towel next to Jenny. How was she supposed to go about meeting this woman if she wouldn't answer her door? But if she wasn't going to meet this woman then she would have a future she didn't want with her father and his new girlfriend Kate. She knew that if this woman couldn't help, then no one could. She stood up and became determined to talk to this woman.
Of course, she was scared. This woman was a legend in Tree Hill and a definite link to her mother. But she missed Brooke. The smile she always got when she walked in from school and the look in her eyes when she was tucking her daughter into bed. She wasn't quite sure how she could continue to live, but she had to carry on.
A witch or not she was going to help Maddie Scott. There was no way she was going to be here and not find anything out. She quickly told Jenny she hoped to see her again and began to move towards the old yellow house and to her mother's best friend, the witch.
The River Court in Tree Hill had certainly decayed since Lucas could last remember them. The asphalt was broken up and when he was a kid this was like a sanctuary on the weekends he had come. He used to love this court, but now it was old just like his memories of when he was happy.
"Ha, I'm beating you," Kate said as she tapped Lucas on the shoulder and continued running with the ball. He faked a small smile as he watched her slender figure cross the court. She was tall and athletic, not built like Brooke. Her hair was a dirty blonde, pulled back behind her head. He knew a lot of guys who would've killed to have her, but she wanted him apparently. He quickly took the ball and put it through the net to make the winning point.
"How do you do that?" she asked him playfully as she fell into his arms, kissing him.
"Eh, with talent," he replied flexing his arms.
"Oh, don't start getting egotistical, you. I'll have those arms if I want them," she said as she laid a hand upon his arm.
Lucas let out a small chuckle as she pulled him in for another kiss and he willingly accepted. She felt so small when she was in his arms and it reminded him of the memories of the time he once shared with his wife.
"Should we go for a swim?" she asked the blonde holding her.
"I kinda wanted to spend some time with Maddie if you don't mind," he said holding his breath, not wanting to make her mad.
"She said she wanted to go make some friends tonight. She ran out of the house around the time I pulled up to make sure I wasn't staying any longer than today. She really doesn't want me around," Kate said, with a small frown.
"She does, she's just still in a fragile state," he responded pulling her close.
"Yea ok...and I'm just being close friends with you," she snorted at his answer. "My parents were divorced, I know what it's like to not want anyone else with your father...afraid the other girl is going to take him away from you. I get that, but don't you worry. She'll like me."
"But we're not divorced," he said quietly. He felt her nod in his arms and suddenly regretted the whole thing with Kate. His little girl meant the world to him.
They were heading back to his house to work on the construction plans for the bridge over in England somewhere. He wasn't going to let her get out of hand while they were there. He was 30 years old and his whole life was falling apart around him. She was 20 and her life was just starting. There was so much that was different between them.
Lucas had been in Boston where his home was, working on plans for this bridge. Kate had been a partner on the plans and one thing had led to another over time. She had been in his business only a year and she was more or less a newbie. He liked most things about her except for the age gap.
He wondered constantly how she didn't know that they weren't as close as they could be. He didn't want the people around him to know that he was with her. She was so young. How could he be with someone who was closer in age to his 11 year old daughter than himself. He and Brooke had Maddie young so it was hard to find a woman who wanted an 11 year old daughter who was his age.
He met Brooke at a basketball game on the River Court one night. It was a magical night when he found her. She was only a year younger...the same age as his sister. Here he was reliving all these memories because he had a feeling he needed to come back here.
Brooke was gone though and he was numb. Kate was whispering things in his ear that were not exactly PG-13 and a small grin came through but it meant nothing. That grin didn't really mean he was happy. He hurt too much to be happy right now.
The irony was that he was about 6 foot and could take on any guy in basketball including his brother-in-law and he could take on anything that came his way, but he couldn't feel anymore. He only felt depressed. This was not what he had pictured his life to be. No one knew what he was feeling though. Not his close friends from work, not anyone who he hung with, not Kate and not his own sister Haley. Only his daughter, and he hated that she did.
Maddie was walking back to the house they rented and was just in view to see her father and Kate pulling away from a kiss. It made her want to gag and cry at the thought of her father with another woman. She quickly turned away from that house and set off to the witch's house with a new determination stronger than before.
The sky was growing darker, for a storm, when Maddie marched up to the front of that old house. Never vacationing here was not helping her conscience. She was a tourist. They had always gone to Virginia or somewhere, anywhere other than here. It hurt that her mother wanted to keep her family away from her childhood.
She stalked to the front of the house and was very sure until the sign came into view. It read in big, bold, capital letters: DON'T COME NEAR! GO AWAY NOW!
A piece of wood held the neat writing and Maddie took two steps back. What if this woman yelled at her and really was a witch? Then she casted a spell and Maddie died on the rocks? But then there was the possibility of her just being shy. Maddie weighed out the pros and cons, then decided to continue on with the mission. She ran to the house, ran to her mother's past, and to a friend who knew her mother better than most, but the trip was difficult considering her sandal got stuck on the ledge of cement and she went down face first and her hands didn't catch her in time.
Peyton Sawyer had been drawing at the kitchen table when something caught her eye from the window. Her small dog, who went everywhere with her was sitting on the chair next to her. Oreo was a fairly old Pomeranian who had been by Peyton's side ever since she was 17. Oreo was watching the drawing of a small bug in the picture and began to bark loudly at it.
"Oreo, shh!" Peyton hissed as her concentration broke. Her eye traveled towards the window when a small figure caught the corner of her eye just in time for her to see the spill the young girl took. 'Children just can't read' Peyton thought as she rushed to the door.
She immediately ran outside to see the girl in tears on her sidewalk. She was trying to pull herself from the ground with a scratched forehead, chipped tooth, bloody knees and toe, scratched cheek, and a bloody nose too. The 11 year old looked up to the blonde and Peyton caught a sight that made her heart skip a beat. It was like a teary eyed Brooke looking at her. It scared her half to death.
"Oh my god" Peyton said exasperated. The little girl in front of her was a mess. Maddie broke into tears from the combined pain. Her mother was gone, she found her friend, and she was hurting from the physical fall.
"Is it really you?" Maddie asked through the cloudy tears.
Peyton was confused, thinking maybe the girl had seen her books. She had just thought the young girl just was a raving fan who wanted another book. She saw the girls eyes once more, and realized that wasn't it.
"You were my mom's friend," she whispered.
"Your mom?" Peyton was now even more confused than before.
"Brooke Davis?" Maddie said, hoping beyond hope that she was the right woman. "Well, that's what you knew her as before she got married."
"Wow," Peyton said when she sat next to the little girl. The shock was running through her blood. That name, alone, brought back good and bad memories. "Well, how is your mom?" she questioned, obviously unaware.
"She's dead," Maddie said sternly, with her hand trying to stop the blood waterfall from her nose.
Peyton's whole world came crashing down with those 2 simple words. She was her best friend and she had no idea that she didn't even exist in the world anymore. Peyton once again stared at the bloody girl before her and saw Brooke sitting next to her. It was amazing.
"We need to get you cleaned up," Peyton said so softly that Maddie strained to hear her.
Peyton slid both hands underneath her and carried the injured girl into her house while the tears stung behind her eyes. The little girl was clutching onto her for dear life and it was then that Peyton realized the little girl was clinging to a link to her mother, the same as she had done when she lost her mother.
OK THERE WAS THE MEETING OF PEYTON AND MADDIE. LET'S SEE WHAT LUCAS THINKS. TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT TOO. REVIEW!!
NEXT - Is Maddie ok? / Some questioning and bonding of the girls / Lucas finds out / What's with Haley? / How's Maddie dealing with Kate?
I hope you all enjoyed it. I'm so, so, so sorry for the wait. I'll do better next time. Look for an update on Lost in the Past next and then The Saddest Song. Will update soon!!!