Haley stepped out of her car and walked to the rich Scott's door. She had barely finished ringing the doorbell when the door swung open. There stood Dan Scott, in his seething and demeaning stance, almost enough to scare her. Almost.

"Hello, Mr. Scott. Is Nathan here? We're supposed to go over the trig review for the finals next month." She was trying to sound as innocent as possible, even though she knew that no amount of sugary sweetness would ever get through to him.

"He's here Haley. Instead of going up to his room though, I'd prefer it if you two worked down in the dining room. It's not appropriate for a young lady and man to spend time in a bedroom with no parental supervision," Dan said. He finished with a smug look on his devilish face.

"How would you know about appropriate, Dan? You got two teenage girls pregnant within six months of each other, in their bedrooms if I'm not mistaken?"

How she wished she could mutter those words to him.

"Sure Mr. Scott. Whatever floats your boat!" She grinned and pushed past him to see Nathan already sitting at the dining table with his books spread in front of him. He seemed to be already working on a problem, his brow furrowed, and sweat developing on his forehead. It was pretty cute, if you were into that sorta thing.

"Hey Nate, how ya doing with that," she walked over to where he was sitting, "long division problem? Come on Nathan! We learned long-div in the third grade!" She shook her head in disbelief.

"No Hales, you learned in third grade because you are three years ahead in math, remember? I am in Pre-Trig, you are in Trig 3-4!"

Dan left the room.

Nathan continued, "Come on, let's go to the pier and work, I can't stay here with dad's drinking and my mom's bitchiness," he stood up and gathered his books, dropping them in his bag.

"But Dan said that we had to stay here…" She didn't want to do anything Dan said not to, for fear of what he could do or say to ruin Haley's life.

"Like I give a damn what he has to say. And if we're gonna make it out of here then we need to leave now." He reached for her hand and guided her out the door and to his Corvette. She got in and he drove like a maniac towards the pier.

What should have been a 15 minute drive turned into a 7 minute one, what with all the "saved up horse power" Nathan said needed to be used.

Everything has been normal since their first kiss. The kiss after all was over three months ago, so Haley didn't expect anything exciting to happen. She wasn't exactly Brooke, with her charm and charisma, who always had the perfect words and phrases to seduce the guy of the week. And she wasn't like Peyton with her sexy way of being sensitive and passionate in her own reserved way. All Haley wanted was to be a sort of mixture of both of them. She could have Brooke's hair, lips, figure, charm… and she could have Peyton's eyes, nose, sensitivity… it would be like the perfect girl. No guy would be able to resist!

She was in the middle of picturing herself in the life of Breyton when Nathan slammed his door and slammed her back into reality.

They got to the pier and picked out a table that was the closest to the water but had the least light. The sun was almost set, but according to Haley, the best part was yet to come. To her, the best part was when the sky turned purple, with streaks of blue and pink and a little ball of yellow in the center.

"It makes you think that there's something bigger out there, something more than…" she paused.

"Life? Love? Happiness?" He was watching the sunset too, finally seeing what she was seeing.

"All of those… it's like, you know that there's compassion in this world, you know that everything is going to be alright in the end. No matter how bad it gets, no matter what kind of thing is going on to make you sad, it will all be OK.

"That's cute that you think like that," he almost whispered.

"What do you mean, "cute", don't you think that too?"

"I guess that I sort of do, but I mean, after you've been through all the shit I have, you start to think that there's not all good and sweet in the world. There's bad and worse," he sounded like he was getting angry.

"Nathan, not all the world is like your father." She knew that that was a pretty bitchy thing to say, but it was true, and he needed to hear it.

"Haley, not all the world is sugar and spice and everything nice, either. The point is everyone has some sort of mystery that they keep to themselves. You have to figure out if that one person you choose is the one you really want to spend you time figuring out how to solve that mystery."

"Oh yea? Well if you have all the answers, who am I supposed to figure out?" She was shaking from the wind and from the anticipation of whom he would say.

He paused then spoke slowly,

"Me."

Brooke sat on her best friend Peyton's bed painting her nails a combination of sex kitten pink and gothic angel black, a new creation made by Peyton that Brooke called P&B Swirl. Perhaps not that original, but hey, it was all she could thing off. It could stand for Peyton and Brooke, Pink and Black, Punk and Bitch… all things that had to do with P. Sawyer and B. Davis.

Peyton was on her computer, with her web cam on and her record player on full blast. Brooke wasn't exactly sure what she was listening to, but she assumed that it was some sort of indie/emo/alternative rock… something Peyton-ish.

Just then, Peyton's doorbell rang, and Brooke skipped down the stairs to the front door and used her palms to grip and open the door. Standing in his uniform gray hoodie, baggy jeans, and his ever-present headphones, was Lucas.

"Hey hon! What are you doing here?" She leaped up to kiss him, because although she had here biggest platform shoes on, he was still a good five or six inches taller than her. Oh well, less is more, right?

"Hey baby, I came to see if Haley was here?" he leaned down and kissed her back.

"Not here to see me?" She expertly applied a hurt look.

"It's kind of important, I need to talk to her. Is she here?" He looked like he was serious so she gave up her act.

"No, she's not. But what do you need to talk about? Is everything alright?" Curious and nosy as always, that was Brooke all right.

"I think it's alright, but I'm not sure. It's got to do with me and her, and possibly you. But that's all I'm going to say. Don't ask me anymore, I need to go. Goodbye, Brooke." He kissed the top of her head and rushed back to his truck.

She whispered, "I love you too, Lucas," and walked into the house.

A/N: I'm trying to make each chapter a little bit longer than the last, and this one was 1,234 words (I though that was lucky, so I decided to stop.) I was thinking that I wanted to do about 20 – 25 chapters. Is that too much or too little? Feedback would be much appreciated!

So I want to take a vote. I want to know the direction of the relationships that you want. You can pick two (2) of the following choices:

Lucas/Brooke

Lucas/Haley

Lucas/Peyton

Nathan/Brooke

Nathan/Haley

Nathan/Peyton

Now keep in mind, you can choose # 1 AND 2, because you know me by now (I love controversy), but I have to say that right now I want to make it Lucas/Haley and Nathan/Haley. This way it fits to description, but I can always change it.

When you vote please type as follows:

My Vote:

1: Your Choice

2: Your Choice

Please do not type just the number, it takes longer for my brain to process (hee hee).

Thanks so much for all the reviews and your votes!