The phone rang, jolting Peyton Sawyer from a deep sleep. She sat up, rubbed her eyes and groaned, reaching over to pick up the phone. "Hello?" she said, still rubbing her eyes frustrated.

"Not planning on coming into college today then?" a deep male voice said on the other end of the phone. Lucas. Peyton signed.

"You are too sarcastic. My alarm didn't go off." She glanced at her alarm clock. "In fact I'm thinking the batteries are dead, because it says it's 2"

"It is 2. 2pm"

"2pm!!!" Peyton screamed, hurriedly throwing the covers off her and running over to her closet to search for clothes to wear, resting the phone between her shoulder and ear as she looked. "Dear God!"

"Haven't you ever heard of those alarm clocks that use electricity? You might wanna look into buying one." Lucas chuckled at his own lame joke.

"Again with the sarcasm."

"Sorry, Sorry. So I was thinking that we could do something fun this week." He said. "You know, for the summer"

Peyton smiled. Ever since her best friend Brooke had run away years before, Lucas was there to help Peyton through. It was as if everyone she'd ever cared about was leaving her and although she knew she had no right to feel sorry for herself, she couldn't help it. It wasn't long before Lucas and Peyton's relationship grew into something more than friendship – again. Now they were closer than ever.

Struggling to pull on her pants, Peyton nodded, before realising that Lucas couldn't see her. "Uh Yeah sounds great, what did you have planned?" She said, before screaming as she lost her balance and toppled to the floor, landing on her ass with a thud.

Luke laughed, knowing what his girlfriend had just done. Moving the cell phone to his other ear, he clicked open Peyton's website, watching her jump around on the web cam. "I was thinking we'd go to Bridgewater. It's a place not far from here and it's supposed to be a pretty cool place to just go and hang out. I don't know what's there but if it sucks we can always just come home." He reasoned. Then he smiled. "You might wanna turn off your web cam while you're changing, there are a lot of perverts online you know." He glanced around at the other people who were happily typing away in the computer room.

Peyton screamed once more, covering the web cam with a sweater, not before glaring into it and pulling a face, making Lucas love her more than ever. "Sure, that'd be cool. When do you want to leave?"

"Whenever. Tomorrow?"

"Okay. I'd better go, I can't dress and talk at the same time."

"I noticed"

"Sarcastic!!" Peyton laughed before hanging up the phone and tossing it on her bed. Now she was able to actually get dressed, she was ready and out of the door in 10 minutes, her perfect blonde curls bouncing gently. It was only a 20-minute walk to college and as she approached she couldn't help but look up at the building in amazement. She'd wanted to go to art college, she was great and drawing and she knew it, but with much convincement from Lucas, she decided to go to the same college as him, studying English, Law and Art. The Art course wasn't as detailed as it would have been in an art college, but it was pretty cool and enough to give her the opportunities she needed to have a career in the 'drawing business' as Luke called it.

Walking through the entrance, all Peyton could hear was her boots thudding on the tiled floor. Reaching her English class she pushed open the door and went inside. "Nice of you to grace us with your presence miss Sawyer." Said her professor, reminding her so much of Tree Hill High School.

"Yeah it is, isn't it?" She said, taking a seat.

The professor peered over his spectacles at her, holding back a smile and continued to teach.

Brooke sighed as a thick sweater covered the webcam. She didn't often visit Peyton's site. After all, Tree Hill was her old life, but sometimes she just couldn't help it. With another loud sigh she got up and left the Internet café and returned back to her small, yet cosy apartment. Flopping down on the couch and taking off her shoes, she grinned as her small Puppy jumped up on the couch next to her. She'd called the dog New. Not really a common name for a dog, but she felt that that was what he was. Part of her new life. It actually suited him, if that was at all possible. His big brown eyes were full of curiosity and wonder. Wherever Brooke went, New was sure to follow. She petted him gently behind the ear and flicked on the television. The reception wasn't all that great, but it was tolerable and Brooke curled up on the couch as the advertisements invaded the screen. It wasn't long before she'd fallen asleep.

It was 7 hours later before she woke up. She looked around the room, panicked, convinced that for the first time in her life she was going to be late for work, before she realised that today was the first day of summer and Rosa had kindly given Brooke a few weeks off, as had Rex's boss. Rex and Brooke planned to spend some of their time off just lazing around on the beach, which was fine by her. "I desperately need a tan," she thought as she pinched and pulled at her pale skin. With a stretch and a yawn Brooke pulled herself up off the couch and shuffled into the kitchen, picking up the telephone as she went. Dialling the oh-so familiar number of Rex Gilmore's phone, she opened the fridge door and stuck her head in, rummaging around for something to eat. Rex picked up his phone.

"Hello?" He said. Brooke smiled hearing his voice.

"Hello kind sir, I was wondering if you had any plans to fill your first day as a non-working man." Brooke said, in her most posh voice.

Rex laughed. "I can't say that I do. Although, there is this girl that I am just dying to hang around with. You might know her. Brooke Davis?" He said, playing along.

"Hmmmm Oh Yes, I've heard of her. Isn't she just fab?" She giggled. She didn't really think she was fab. In fact she didn't really think she was much of anything anymore.

"She is indeed. I'll be over in about half an hour, ok?"

"Ok, bring food."

"Will do. Bye" Rex hung up the phone while Brooke shut the fridge door, not finding anything, and returned to her place on the couch, poking New as she flopped down next to him. "Hey New, you lazy little mutt."

New looked up at her, yawned and lay his head back down, falling asleep and beginning to snore. Brooke laughed. New was defiantly one of her best friends.

Half an hour to the second later, there was a knock at the door and Brooke flung the front door open, grinning from ear to ear. "Food?"

"Is that all you think about, is your stomach?" Rex said handing her a large bag, filled to the brim with delicious things.

Brooke laughed. "That and what I'm going to fill it with." She said honestly. "My fridge is empty. I think I forgot to include how much money I'm gonna need for food and televisions when I said 'Oh I can afford this place'" she laughed, gesturing to the TV when she mentioned it. "It's on the blink again. I don't watch that much TV but come on!" Her thoughts about the TV were soon forgotten as she began searching through the bag, saying 'oooooh' and 'aaaah' to everything she saw.

Rex watched her with fascination and let out a snort, and then looked horrified with himself before blaming it on the dog, who was still fast asleep.

Rolling her eyes, the brunette girl reminded Rex that the dog was asleep, before bursting out in fits of laughter. "You snorted!" she said, tears rolling down her cheeks.

He was embarrassed and hid his head in his hands, shaking it slightly. "I have a feeling you're not gonna let this drop anytime soon."

Brooke shook her head and proceeded to snort and do her best impression of a pig. "Who am I?" she said, barely being able to spit out her sentence between her laughs.

"Let me guess... me?"

Brooke screeched. "YES! THE SNORTER!!" her laugh filled the room once more, making Rex smile too. It was hard to resist the urge to laugh whenever Brooke laughed. Her laugh was contagious. Soon Rex was joining in too, laughing at his own stupidity, as Brooke rolled around on the floor, still finding time to stuff her face with food. She was a whole different person than who she was in Tree Hill.