Note: Great suggestions, although I still like the zombies... Don't worry, Winnie, I won't kill her. It's too easy. And Winnie, fine, I'll admit, I have a fear of rejection. But here I go, facing my fear...
I sneaked past the secretary's office. No one tried to stop me. They must all knew about my mom. I could probably throw a stink bomb while swearing at the principal and no one would stop me. Too bad I was in no mood to take advantage of the situation.
"Haley!" I spotted her in the cafeteria. She got up and ran to me, wrapping her arms around me.
"Where have you been? I've been so worried about you! Keith told me about your mom, I'm so sorry, Luke." There were tears streaming down her face. That didn't take long.
"Why wouldn't you talk to me?" She asked when she finally let me go.
I shrugged, "I really didn't want to talk to anyone."
"Oh, Lucas!" she hugged me again. "I miss her so much, you know?"
I nodded. "Let's get out of here," I suggested.
"What? Just leave?"
"Yeah, my mom just died, they're not going to stop me."
She nodded. "You always were the little sneak," she smiled.
"And that's why you love me," I smiled too.
"Sure, let's go, just a second."
She went back to her table and stuffed her books in her backpack. It was bulging like always, I think she went through at least 3 backpacks a year because they all rip at the seams.
I followed her. Nathan walked up carrying two sodas. He handed one to her.
"Nathan, I have to go," she said. She gestured at me. "I'm leaving with Luke now. Call you later?"
He looked like he wanted to argue, but he didn't want to upset me. Was anyone going to treat me normally?
"I'm not going to break, Nathan. You can talk around me."
"I'm sorry about your mom, Luke."
I was shocked.
"You're being nice to me?"
"Well, yeah. We need you to come back. The team sucks without you."
He was pissing me off, and I couldn't explain why. "Yeah, well I'll be at practice today."
He nodded.
"Bye, Haley," he kissed her. I wanted to punch him. Wait, was I really mad at him for being nice to me? I need help.
"So what have you been doing the last few days?" I asked her.
"Calling you, crying and then calling you again."
"Sorry, Hales, I really just didn't want to talk to anyone."
"It's okay," she said.
We walked to our elementary school. Children were playing on the older kids lot, so we took the kindergarten playground. They must be napping or something.
We each took a swing.
"So what have you been doing?" She asked me cautiously.
"Crying, beating up on Keith, crying some more."
"You know, Luke, in all the time I've known you, I've never seen you cry."
"Yeah, well you will, her funeral's on Saturday."
"Yeah, Keith asked me to speak."
I nodded. "I told him to. She loved you a lot."
Haley started crying again. "God, Lucas, it's not fair."
I got off my swing and hugged her. I thought I was all cried out. I guess not.
"I had never seen Keith cry, either."
"How's he handling it?" She asked when she calmed down.
I shook my head. "He loved her, too. I know I haven't been much of a help."
"Luke, your mom died. No one is expecting you to help."
"I stayed out all night," I told her, "Peyton came over and I spent the night at her house. Keith was pissed to say the least."
"Ouch. What did he say?"
"I don't really remember, there was yelling. He yelled, I yelled, we both yelled."
"I get it," she said.
"And then he hit me."
"What?!"
"I called him a goddamn alcoholic or something equally horrible and he hit me."
"Why did you say that?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. It seems like I'm always about to explode now."
She nodded.
"Anyway, child services saw."
She gasped. When we were kids, I loved telling Haley stories. Her reaction was always so exaggerated. Mom would tell us ghost stories and every bone she possessed was always shaking by the end.
"Yeah, Keith is under investigation now. I'm not allowed to live with him anymore."
"Why?"
"They think he's abusing me or something."
"So what happened?"
"This lady took me to the child services office, and she was going to take me to stay with Dan."
"Why?!"
"Because he's my father."
"But Nathan didn't say anything"
"I didn't stay with him. Whitey came and took me. I'm living with him now."
"For how long? I don't want to go to visit you at Whitey's house. It's kind of weird."
"I know! I don't want to live with him, either."
"So what happens now? I mean, did your mom leave a will saying who you should stay with?"
I shook my head. "Keith wants to adopt me."
"Wow, that's huge." She slapped my arm.
"OW! What was that for?"
"You're not allowed to keep stuff like that from me! When did that happen?"
"We talked about it last night. But it might not happen."
"Why? You don't want to live with Keith?"
"No, I do, it's just, Dan doesn't want to sign his parental rights away."
"Why?"
I shrugged, "Ask your boyfriend."
"Lucas, that's not fair. Nathan is not his father."
I didn't want to argue with her.
"I talked to him this morning."
"What did he say?"
"Um, he said- He said he'll think about it."
"Well that's a start."
"I guess."
We got back on the swings. She started swinging really high. I copied, except that I was going higher than she was. "Ha! I'm still a better swinger!"
She laughed.
"I dare you to jump," I said.
She laughed.
"No way, Luke, I remember when that happened last time."
"You actually did it."
"You dared me to!"
"I didn't think you actually would!"
She laughed.
"Your brother was there, Trevor or Brady."
She shook her head, "It was Ryan."
"He carried you to the café and my mom bandaged you up all nice."
"She made me my first milkshake."
"And you said it was the tastiest delicacy you ever had."
She laughed, "Trevor used to say that to my mom when he wanted something."
"Well it worked. She loved you."
"She put a sesame street bandaid on my arm. She said they were your favorite, but she made me promise not to tell you she told me."
"You never told me that!"
"I promised!"
"You watched Sesame Street until you were in 5th grade," She held her hand up to her mouth like she was trying to hide her laughter.
"When did she tell you that?" I was smiling, too. Jeez her laughter was contagious.
"When I would run away to your house and you weren't home. My brothers used to get everything they wanted and they left me out of it. So I would go to your house."
"You still do that."
"Yeah, but now it's cause it's too quiet."
"So anyway, when you weren't there she would cheer me up with a milkshake and a story about you."
"What else did she tell you?"
"She told me when she took you to the zoo you were afraid of the flamingos."
"They're big and pink! Don't tell me those things aren't scary."
Haley laughed.
"And when she sent you to your room one day because you were destroying the living room, you tied every shirt you owned together to make a train."
"I thought she was going to get mad at me, but she didn't want to hurt my creativity."
"And when you tried to make her breakfast in bed and you set the microwave on fire."
"No one told me you weren't supposed to heat foil!"
She laughed.
"And when you were like 3 you decided you didn't want to wear clothes anymore."
"I wore clothes," I objected.
"You would only wear your superman pajamas."
"That's clothes."
"Sure, Luke."
"She played along. She let me wear pajamas until I was ready to wear clothes again."
"And then you decided that you were only going to eat milkshakes."
"They are a tasty delicacy."
We both laughed.
"How long did she let that one slide?"
"She didn't. She threatened to spank me, so I ate normal food."
Haley laughed.
"What an amusing childhood you had, Lucas."
"I still can't believe she told you all that stuff."
"She only did it to make me feel better."
"How does that make you feel better?"
She laughed, "Cause you're so funny. They way she told the stories...man, Lucas, you gave her so many headaches."
I smirked, "Yeah, she never found out about the tattoo."
"I was so jealous of you two. My house, no one even noticed when I disappeared, and you were her whole life. She knew everything about you and there was nothing she wouldn't do for you. That's powerful."
I slowed down and jumped off the swing when it was close to the ground. "That's how it's done." I said, landing in perfect gymnasts pose.
Haley laughed and jumped after me. "See Brady doesn't even need to carry you to the café."
"It was Ryan!" she exclaimed.
"Whatever! I can't keep track of your brothers."
"There are just three of them."
"I remember your sister's name."
"Yeah, cause you had a crush on her."
"Did not!"
"Oh yes you did. Remember that summer when she was the lifeguard? You were at the pool every single day."
"Ok, fine, but it's not like I ever had a chance with her." I sighed and looked down for the sake of the story. She laughed. "She was too old for me."
"Yeah, that's true."
Amy and Trevor, the twins, are the oldest at 23. Then comes Ryan who's 21 and Brady, 20. All are now in college, leaving Haley with the house to herself.
We sat down on a picnic table.
"So Brooke is worried about you, also, Luke."
"You talk to Brooke now?"
"Well, she asked me how you are doing because you won't answer her calls either."
"What did you tell her?"
"The truth. I hadn't heard from you. She said that Peyton had, though."
I looked away.
"What's going on, Luke?"
"Nothing," I said quickly, too quickly.
"Lucas," she said warningly.
"What?"
"You're not cheating on her are you? You and Peyton are just friends, right?"
I said nothing.
"Right?"
"Right." I lied.
"You're lying to me."
"Why would you think that?"
"Because you are the worst liar I have ever come into contact with."
"Do you have a story for that, too?" I prayed that she would be distracted and forget what she originally asked me. It never worked on Mom, but Haley was easier. It worked.
"Actually, yes," she smiled.
"Let's hear it."
"What was that art thingy that your mom taught us to do?"
It was a testament to well I knew Haley that "art thingy" made sense.
"Coffee filters. She showed us how to make designs on them with markers and then the marker spreads when you put the tip in water."
"Oh yeah!"
"She had so different craft books from the library just to keep me occupied."
"Cause you were a monster when you were bored," Haley said.
"Yeah, that's probably true."
"It is true! Remember when we got in trouble for something and she didn't let us play together for a whole two days."
"I showed you how to set leaves on fire with a magnifying glass." I laughed, "Two days was an eternity."
"And what was it you did for those two days again, Lucas?"
She remembered, she just wanted me to tell her again.
"I stole all the coffee filters in the entire café and decorated every one of them."
She laughed.
"And then I hid them in the bathroom in the back of the café."
Haley kept laughing. I grinned, too.
"She asked me if I had seen the filters and I swore that I hadn't, but then she found them like two weeks later."
Haley laughed harder.
"She was soooo mad at me for lying to her."
I grinned, remembering all the hell I put her though. I'm sure she wouldn't take back any of it. Well...not all of it, anyway.
"But you are so incredibly charming."
"I started crying and I told her that I made them for her and I was saving them for her birthday."
"And of course, she let you off the hook."
"Of course! I'm just too damn cute to punish."
"Right," Haley said sarcastically, "How long did that last?"
I smiled. "Until middle school. Remember that time I got in trouble at school?"
"Yeah, during sex education. I'll never forget that."
"Mr. Jenkins was talking trash about teen moms."
"He was trying to scare us into not having sex because we'll all get pregnant."
"And he was talking about all teen moms are losers who go nowhere in life."
"You snapped."
"Well, yeah! I told him my mom made it just fine. He said that she never really had the potential to be anything more, so it was okay for her."
"And that's when you told him to go fuck himself."
"Actually I said for him to go to hell and I stuck up my middle finger."
"So you never told me what happened after that, by the time I got to see you again, I had forgotten what you did in the first place."
"I was livid. Mr. Jenkins stopped the lecture about sex ed and dragged me to the principal's office."
"That much I remember. You refused to go."
"Until he threatened me with life imprisonment or something like that."
"I think it was suspension that he threatened you with."
"Go to hell, Mr. Jenkins!" I said loudly.
His eyes got really wide and he pointed toward the door. "Principal's office, Mr. Scott."
I shook my head, "You have no right to talk about my mom like that! She made it a lot farther in life than you did. At least she has a kid that loves her. Who do you have?"
"Her kid is going to be suspended if he doesn't go to the principal's office right now."
I still didn't move.
"Now, Lucas."
I shook my head, "I'm not leaving until you apologize. That's not true about my mom."
He pointed at the door again, like I might have forgotten the way out of the gym. "Go to the office. Now."
I stood my ground.
Mr. Jenkins sighed and turned off the television that was showing us the movie. "I'll be right back, kids," he told the rest of the class like it was the biggest hassle he had ever encountered to take me to the office.
He walked up to where I was standing in the back of the classroom. "This is your last chance, Lucas." He whispered in my ear.
I didn't even flinch. He grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the classroom, all the way to the office. He sank into a chair in the waiting room, dragging me into the seat next to him. Neither of us spoke until the principal came out of his office.
"Well, it worked. The principal gave me a lecture on respecting authority and all that bs, but it pissed me off cause he wasn't there and he wouldn't listen to me."
Haley's eyes were huge. It didn't matter that it happened in 7th grade, she wanted all the details.
"Then I told him he didn't know what he was talking about, and that pissed him off. He called my mom to come pick me up because I was suspended."
"And how did she take that?"
"You didn't see me for weeks."
"Oh yeah."
"She was pissed. She couldn't believe I would talk to my teacher like that, much less my principal." I sighed, "She did hear me out, though, and she let me tell the whole story before punishing me."
"So why didn't you get off?"
"I couldn't tell her."
"Why?"
"I couldn't tell her that Mr. Jenkins didn't think she had any potential. He's the one that's teaching sex ed to 7th graders."
"So what did you tell her?"
"That I disagreed with what he was teaching us, so she grounded me for life...or actually until I got on her nerves too much and she had to let me go somewhere."
"Is it true, Lucas? Did you really say that to your teacher?" Mom asked me quietly when we entered the house.
I nodded.
"And your principal?"
"He wouldn't listen to me! I tried to explain, but he just wanted to lecture about how he had more control than I did."
"Well, Luke, I don't care. That doesn't give you the right to be rude to him."
"Mom-"
"Yes?"
I looked at her sadly.
"What, Lucas, tell me what happened. What made you go off on your teacher like you did?"
I shook my head.
"You wanted a chance to explain, well here it is, baby."
"I- I- I just didn't like was he was teaching us."
She looked disappointed. "You know, Luke, I thought you had something better. You can't yell and curse your teacher just because you don't like what they're teaching. You know better than that."
I looked at my shoes.
"You're grounded, kid."
"What?! But Mom-"
She gave me the look of death that I swear she should patent and sell, it gets any kid to shut up really fast.
She looked so disappointed; there was no way I could tell her what Mr. Jenkins really said, about how teen mothers don't get anywhere. Was I the reason she never left Tree Hill?
"Mom?"
"Yes, honey?"
"Why didn't you ever leave this town?"
"I never needed to. This has always been my home, and then it became yours."
"So you never wanted to leave?"
"Well sure I did, honey, but things just didn't work out that way."
"Did you ever tell her the truth?" Haley asked
I shook my head. "Nah, I'd rather stay grounded than tell her what that bastard said."
She smiled. "You're a good son, Luke."
"Maybe, but now I have no parents."
"You have Keith...and Whitey." She said "Whitey" like it was a question.
"Whitey? Whitey!" I looked at my watch 3:14. "Shit!"
"What?" Haley asked.
"I have basketball practice. Dammit, Whitey's gonna ream my ass."
"Run, Luke, I'll talk to you later."
I took off before she finished her sentence.
I sneaked past the secretary's office. No one tried to stop me. They must all knew about my mom. I could probably throw a stink bomb while swearing at the principal and no one would stop me. Too bad I was in no mood to take advantage of the situation.
"Haley!" I spotted her in the cafeteria. She got up and ran to me, wrapping her arms around me.
"Where have you been? I've been so worried about you! Keith told me about your mom, I'm so sorry, Luke." There were tears streaming down her face. That didn't take long.
"Why wouldn't you talk to me?" She asked when she finally let me go.
I shrugged, "I really didn't want to talk to anyone."
"Oh, Lucas!" she hugged me again. "I miss her so much, you know?"
I nodded. "Let's get out of here," I suggested.
"What? Just leave?"
"Yeah, my mom just died, they're not going to stop me."
She nodded. "You always were the little sneak," she smiled.
"And that's why you love me," I smiled too.
"Sure, let's go, just a second."
She went back to her table and stuffed her books in her backpack. It was bulging like always, I think she went through at least 3 backpacks a year because they all rip at the seams.
I followed her. Nathan walked up carrying two sodas. He handed one to her.
"Nathan, I have to go," she said. She gestured at me. "I'm leaving with Luke now. Call you later?"
He looked like he wanted to argue, but he didn't want to upset me. Was anyone going to treat me normally?
"I'm not going to break, Nathan. You can talk around me."
"I'm sorry about your mom, Luke."
I was shocked.
"You're being nice to me?"
"Well, yeah. We need you to come back. The team sucks without you."
He was pissing me off, and I couldn't explain why. "Yeah, well I'll be at practice today."
He nodded.
"Bye, Haley," he kissed her. I wanted to punch him. Wait, was I really mad at him for being nice to me? I need help.
"So what have you been doing the last few days?" I asked her.
"Calling you, crying and then calling you again."
"Sorry, Hales, I really just didn't want to talk to anyone."
"It's okay," she said.
We walked to our elementary school. Children were playing on the older kids lot, so we took the kindergarten playground. They must be napping or something.
We each took a swing.
"So what have you been doing?" She asked me cautiously.
"Crying, beating up on Keith, crying some more."
"You know, Luke, in all the time I've known you, I've never seen you cry."
"Yeah, well you will, her funeral's on Saturday."
"Yeah, Keith asked me to speak."
I nodded. "I told him to. She loved you a lot."
Haley started crying again. "God, Lucas, it's not fair."
I got off my swing and hugged her. I thought I was all cried out. I guess not.
"I had never seen Keith cry, either."
"How's he handling it?" She asked when she calmed down.
I shook my head. "He loved her, too. I know I haven't been much of a help."
"Luke, your mom died. No one is expecting you to help."
"I stayed out all night," I told her, "Peyton came over and I spent the night at her house. Keith was pissed to say the least."
"Ouch. What did he say?"
"I don't really remember, there was yelling. He yelled, I yelled, we both yelled."
"I get it," she said.
"And then he hit me."
"What?!"
"I called him a goddamn alcoholic or something equally horrible and he hit me."
"Why did you say that?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. It seems like I'm always about to explode now."
She nodded.
"Anyway, child services saw."
She gasped. When we were kids, I loved telling Haley stories. Her reaction was always so exaggerated. Mom would tell us ghost stories and every bone she possessed was always shaking by the end.
"Yeah, Keith is under investigation now. I'm not allowed to live with him anymore."
"Why?"
"They think he's abusing me or something."
"So what happened?"
"This lady took me to the child services office, and she was going to take me to stay with Dan."
"Why?!"
"Because he's my father."
"But Nathan didn't say anything"
"I didn't stay with him. Whitey came and took me. I'm living with him now."
"For how long? I don't want to go to visit you at Whitey's house. It's kind of weird."
"I know! I don't want to live with him, either."
"So what happens now? I mean, did your mom leave a will saying who you should stay with?"
I shook my head. "Keith wants to adopt me."
"Wow, that's huge." She slapped my arm.
"OW! What was that for?"
"You're not allowed to keep stuff like that from me! When did that happen?"
"We talked about it last night. But it might not happen."
"Why? You don't want to live with Keith?"
"No, I do, it's just, Dan doesn't want to sign his parental rights away."
"Why?"
I shrugged, "Ask your boyfriend."
"Lucas, that's not fair. Nathan is not his father."
I didn't want to argue with her.
"I talked to him this morning."
"What did he say?"
"Um, he said- He said he'll think about it."
"Well that's a start."
"I guess."
We got back on the swings. She started swinging really high. I copied, except that I was going higher than she was. "Ha! I'm still a better swinger!"
She laughed.
"I dare you to jump," I said.
She laughed.
"No way, Luke, I remember when that happened last time."
"You actually did it."
"You dared me to!"
"I didn't think you actually would!"
She laughed.
"Your brother was there, Trevor or Brady."
She shook her head, "It was Ryan."
"He carried you to the café and my mom bandaged you up all nice."
"She made me my first milkshake."
"And you said it was the tastiest delicacy you ever had."
She laughed, "Trevor used to say that to my mom when he wanted something."
"Well it worked. She loved you."
"She put a sesame street bandaid on my arm. She said they were your favorite, but she made me promise not to tell you she told me."
"You never told me that!"
"I promised!"
"You watched Sesame Street until you were in 5th grade," She held her hand up to her mouth like she was trying to hide her laughter.
"When did she tell you that?" I was smiling, too. Jeez her laughter was contagious.
"When I would run away to your house and you weren't home. My brothers used to get everything they wanted and they left me out of it. So I would go to your house."
"You still do that."
"Yeah, but now it's cause it's too quiet."
"So anyway, when you weren't there she would cheer me up with a milkshake and a story about you."
"What else did she tell you?"
"She told me when she took you to the zoo you were afraid of the flamingos."
"They're big and pink! Don't tell me those things aren't scary."
Haley laughed.
"And when she sent you to your room one day because you were destroying the living room, you tied every shirt you owned together to make a train."
"I thought she was going to get mad at me, but she didn't want to hurt my creativity."
"And when you tried to make her breakfast in bed and you set the microwave on fire."
"No one told me you weren't supposed to heat foil!"
She laughed.
"And when you were like 3 you decided you didn't want to wear clothes anymore."
"I wore clothes," I objected.
"You would only wear your superman pajamas."
"That's clothes."
"Sure, Luke."
"She played along. She let me wear pajamas until I was ready to wear clothes again."
"And then you decided that you were only going to eat milkshakes."
"They are a tasty delicacy."
We both laughed.
"How long did she let that one slide?"
"She didn't. She threatened to spank me, so I ate normal food."
Haley laughed.
"What an amusing childhood you had, Lucas."
"I still can't believe she told you all that stuff."
"She only did it to make me feel better."
"How does that make you feel better?"
She laughed, "Cause you're so funny. They way she told the stories...man, Lucas, you gave her so many headaches."
I smirked, "Yeah, she never found out about the tattoo."
"I was so jealous of you two. My house, no one even noticed when I disappeared, and you were her whole life. She knew everything about you and there was nothing she wouldn't do for you. That's powerful."
I slowed down and jumped off the swing when it was close to the ground. "That's how it's done." I said, landing in perfect gymnasts pose.
Haley laughed and jumped after me. "See Brady doesn't even need to carry you to the café."
"It was Ryan!" she exclaimed.
"Whatever! I can't keep track of your brothers."
"There are just three of them."
"I remember your sister's name."
"Yeah, cause you had a crush on her."
"Did not!"
"Oh yes you did. Remember that summer when she was the lifeguard? You were at the pool every single day."
"Ok, fine, but it's not like I ever had a chance with her." I sighed and looked down for the sake of the story. She laughed. "She was too old for me."
"Yeah, that's true."
Amy and Trevor, the twins, are the oldest at 23. Then comes Ryan who's 21 and Brady, 20. All are now in college, leaving Haley with the house to herself.
We sat down on a picnic table.
"So Brooke is worried about you, also, Luke."
"You talk to Brooke now?"
"Well, she asked me how you are doing because you won't answer her calls either."
"What did you tell her?"
"The truth. I hadn't heard from you. She said that Peyton had, though."
I looked away.
"What's going on, Luke?"
"Nothing," I said quickly, too quickly.
"Lucas," she said warningly.
"What?"
"You're not cheating on her are you? You and Peyton are just friends, right?"
I said nothing.
"Right?"
"Right." I lied.
"You're lying to me."
"Why would you think that?"
"Because you are the worst liar I have ever come into contact with."
"Do you have a story for that, too?" I prayed that she would be distracted and forget what she originally asked me. It never worked on Mom, but Haley was easier. It worked.
"Actually, yes," she smiled.
"Let's hear it."
"What was that art thingy that your mom taught us to do?"
It was a testament to well I knew Haley that "art thingy" made sense.
"Coffee filters. She showed us how to make designs on them with markers and then the marker spreads when you put the tip in water."
"Oh yeah!"
"She had so different craft books from the library just to keep me occupied."
"Cause you were a monster when you were bored," Haley said.
"Yeah, that's probably true."
"It is true! Remember when we got in trouble for something and she didn't let us play together for a whole two days."
"I showed you how to set leaves on fire with a magnifying glass." I laughed, "Two days was an eternity."
"And what was it you did for those two days again, Lucas?"
She remembered, she just wanted me to tell her again.
"I stole all the coffee filters in the entire café and decorated every one of them."
She laughed.
"And then I hid them in the bathroom in the back of the café."
Haley kept laughing. I grinned, too.
"She asked me if I had seen the filters and I swore that I hadn't, but then she found them like two weeks later."
Haley laughed harder.
"She was soooo mad at me for lying to her."
I grinned, remembering all the hell I put her though. I'm sure she wouldn't take back any of it. Well...not all of it, anyway.
"But you are so incredibly charming."
"I started crying and I told her that I made them for her and I was saving them for her birthday."
"And of course, she let you off the hook."
"Of course! I'm just too damn cute to punish."
"Right," Haley said sarcastically, "How long did that last?"
I smiled. "Until middle school. Remember that time I got in trouble at school?"
"Yeah, during sex education. I'll never forget that."
"Mr. Jenkins was talking trash about teen moms."
"He was trying to scare us into not having sex because we'll all get pregnant."
"And he was talking about all teen moms are losers who go nowhere in life."
"You snapped."
"Well, yeah! I told him my mom made it just fine. He said that she never really had the potential to be anything more, so it was okay for her."
"And that's when you told him to go fuck himself."
"Actually I said for him to go to hell and I stuck up my middle finger."
"So you never told me what happened after that, by the time I got to see you again, I had forgotten what you did in the first place."
"I was livid. Mr. Jenkins stopped the lecture about sex ed and dragged me to the principal's office."
"That much I remember. You refused to go."
"Until he threatened me with life imprisonment or something like that."
"I think it was suspension that he threatened you with."
"Go to hell, Mr. Jenkins!" I said loudly.
His eyes got really wide and he pointed toward the door. "Principal's office, Mr. Scott."
I shook my head, "You have no right to talk about my mom like that! She made it a lot farther in life than you did. At least she has a kid that loves her. Who do you have?"
"Her kid is going to be suspended if he doesn't go to the principal's office right now."
I still didn't move.
"Now, Lucas."
I shook my head, "I'm not leaving until you apologize. That's not true about my mom."
He pointed at the door again, like I might have forgotten the way out of the gym. "Go to the office. Now."
I stood my ground.
Mr. Jenkins sighed and turned off the television that was showing us the movie. "I'll be right back, kids," he told the rest of the class like it was the biggest hassle he had ever encountered to take me to the office.
He walked up to where I was standing in the back of the classroom. "This is your last chance, Lucas." He whispered in my ear.
I didn't even flinch. He grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the classroom, all the way to the office. He sank into a chair in the waiting room, dragging me into the seat next to him. Neither of us spoke until the principal came out of his office.
"Well, it worked. The principal gave me a lecture on respecting authority and all that bs, but it pissed me off cause he wasn't there and he wouldn't listen to me."
Haley's eyes were huge. It didn't matter that it happened in 7th grade, she wanted all the details.
"Then I told him he didn't know what he was talking about, and that pissed him off. He called my mom to come pick me up because I was suspended."
"And how did she take that?"
"You didn't see me for weeks."
"Oh yeah."
"She was pissed. She couldn't believe I would talk to my teacher like that, much less my principal." I sighed, "She did hear me out, though, and she let me tell the whole story before punishing me."
"So why didn't you get off?"
"I couldn't tell her."
"Why?"
"I couldn't tell her that Mr. Jenkins didn't think she had any potential. He's the one that's teaching sex ed to 7th graders."
"So what did you tell her?"
"That I disagreed with what he was teaching us, so she grounded me for life...or actually until I got on her nerves too much and she had to let me go somewhere."
"Is it true, Lucas? Did you really say that to your teacher?" Mom asked me quietly when we entered the house.
I nodded.
"And your principal?"
"He wouldn't listen to me! I tried to explain, but he just wanted to lecture about how he had more control than I did."
"Well, Luke, I don't care. That doesn't give you the right to be rude to him."
"Mom-"
"Yes?"
I looked at her sadly.
"What, Lucas, tell me what happened. What made you go off on your teacher like you did?"
I shook my head.
"You wanted a chance to explain, well here it is, baby."
"I- I- I just didn't like was he was teaching us."
She looked disappointed. "You know, Luke, I thought you had something better. You can't yell and curse your teacher just because you don't like what they're teaching. You know better than that."
I looked at my shoes.
"You're grounded, kid."
"What?! But Mom-"
She gave me the look of death that I swear she should patent and sell, it gets any kid to shut up really fast.
She looked so disappointed; there was no way I could tell her what Mr. Jenkins really said, about how teen mothers don't get anywhere. Was I the reason she never left Tree Hill?
"Mom?"
"Yes, honey?"
"Why didn't you ever leave this town?"
"I never needed to. This has always been my home, and then it became yours."
"So you never wanted to leave?"
"Well sure I did, honey, but things just didn't work out that way."
"Did you ever tell her the truth?" Haley asked
I shook my head. "Nah, I'd rather stay grounded than tell her what that bastard said."
She smiled. "You're a good son, Luke."
"Maybe, but now I have no parents."
"You have Keith...and Whitey." She said "Whitey" like it was a question.
"Whitey? Whitey!" I looked at my watch 3:14. "Shit!"
"What?" Haley asked.
"I have basketball practice. Dammit, Whitey's gonna ream my ass."
"Run, Luke, I'll talk to you later."
I took off before she finished her sentence.