Hello wonderful readers! (and even more wonderful reviewers!) Thought I'd be uber quick with this update, bet you're proud of me, huh? ;)

Thank you for your fab title ideas, as you can see I now have a title (thank you Alex -start revieweraward!), but every one of your ideas were great (you should all write your own stories, BL obviously, and use them!)

Mrs Mariano, I sent you an e-mail, but my account's been a bit messed up recently, so let me know if you haven't got it :)

Now with no further ado…(except to say, this jumps ahead a little in time – all will be explained, but just to warn you)

"So, what do you think? Pink…or red?" Carrie held up two bottles of nail varnish for Brooke's inspection.

Brooke looked up from a paper she was writing on subjective reporting, and tipped her head on one side. "Pink's not very 'fall'."

"Well it's only September. I prefer to still think of it as Summer until at least the second week of school."

Brooke shrugged, "Fine, cling to the remnants for a few more days." She sighed and got up to search for her text book. "I swear everyone said sophomore year was easier. It's only the first day and I already have so much work!"

Carrie shrugged sympathetically. "I guess the professors just want to give us a shock…make us forget about the summer and get back to work."

"Well I'm absolutely fine with forgetting about the summer. No offence."

"Offence fully taken! I know Iowa isn't exactly the funnest place in the world, but California was pretty awesome."

"You're right, sorry. It was, it's just - "

"Lucas wasn't there."

"That wasn't what I was going to say."

"Oh please. You were broody all summer."

"Well I mean, come on! Who does he think he is going AWOL all summer?"

"It's not like you guys were exactly the best of buddies the last two quarters."

Brooke gave her a look and she held up her hands. "Sorry, sore point."

"That wasn't my fault."

"I know I know, he went all weird on you at Christmas…you tried to patch it up at Easter…I've heard the whole thing B."

"Only because you dragged it out of me!"

Carrie grinned, "You've got a point there. Oh well…I'm sure you'll get back on track eventually. He seemed okay when he came down here at Easter."

"Yeah, for like the two days I saw him. I swear he could have stayed here instead of at Nate's."

Carrie looked pointedly around their room. "Where exactly Brooke? In your bed perhaps?"

Brooke threw a pillow at her but smiled. "I guess you're right." She sighed. "I was just so sure that we would work everything out this summer and then he goes and disappears off somewhere. And now school is starting and it's months till Christmas."

Carrie gave her a sympathetic look. "There's always the phone. I've heard that's pretty good for working out ridiculously complicated cross country relationships/friendships."

"Yeah I guess."

"And in the mean time, you could find something to help pass the time. Not that I'm encouraging you to forget about Loverboy in any way, as you know I am the greatest supporter of you just moving to Stanford and getting it on with him, yes I'd miss you, but at least you'd quit brooding…what was I saying? Oh yeah, passing the time. Dave's still interested."

Brooke rolled her eyes. "Dave will always be interested."

"And it's been a while since you dated anyone, or even had some fun at a party with me, and he's pretty hot, you know."

Brooke shrugged, "Yeah he is, and he's nice and all but…meh," she shrugged.

"God girl you're so spoilt. You know we don't all have gorgeous blonde haired, blue-eyed ex-boyfriends professing their love for us. Most girls would be over the moon if Dave was interested in them."

Brooke laughed and Carrie cracked up with her. "No I know what you mean though. No X factor…never fear, I'll think of something. Your official 'forgetting about Lucas till you can see him again' guidance counsellor will provide."

Brooke rolled her eyes, "Okay Carrie. Alternatively, I could just spend my time concentrating on passing this semester…something makes me think that'll be quite enough to keep me occupied. Maybe I'll just swear off guys for a while…"

At that moment there was a knock on the door. Brooke chuckled her pen on her bed and stood up to open it.

She stood shocked as she saw who it was.

Carrie looked up. "Or not…"

Brooke opened her mouth, her heart doing flips. Her voice came out hesitantly, "Lucas?"

He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, and gave a half smile, "Hey Brooke."

Lucas was wearing a pale blue T-shirt and jeans, and he seemed taller than she remembered. His hair was longer than it had been in a while, about the length it was when they first dated all those years ago.

"Oh my god!" She flung her arms around him, and Carrie smiled to herself as she saw Lucas close his eyes as he turned his head into Brooke's hair.

Brooke stepped back, noting that he seemed a little more built since she'd last seen him as well.

She stared at him for another second, and then shook herself, and hit him hard on the arm.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?"

"For disappearing all summer! Where the hell have you been?"

Lucas chuckled and bit his lip. "I was, at a basketball camp."

"Where? In Timbuktu?"

"No…um, in New York."

Brooke's eyebrows shot up. "You were in New York? You were right here and you didn't call me once? Luke! What the hell!"

"Brooke, I'm sorry okay. I got asked to this New York Knicks training camp...it's kind of a big deal actually, and my coach said I had to stay focused while I was there. Which meant no friends, no going out, no distractions."

Brooke narrowed her eyes. "Hmm…that's…kind of a good excuse. So why were you on a Knick's camp? Aren't they like, NBA?"

"Er yeah. I've kind of been selected to join their junior training programme," he said slowly.

"Wouldn't that mean you'd have to be in New York?"

"I kind of also transferred to NYU."

Brooke's draw dropped. "Are you serious?"

Lucas grinned sheepishly.

"Luke!" Brooke hugged him again, wrapping her arms tightly round his neck.

"Um…I'm kind of feeling totally like a third wheel so I'm just going to leave you guys to talk through some stuff and I'll be back later." Carrie got up of her bed, smiling at them both.

Lucas released Brooke from his arms and turned to her. "Carrie! Hey, how's it going?"

"Good!"

"There's no need to leave, I have to go and find my room and stuff actually. But I'll see you guys later."

"Yeah, okay," Brooke said. "Where's your room?"

"Just upstairs, with a guy called Freddie."

Brooke raised her eyebrows. "Freddie's cool. Okay, well go get settled in and we'll meet up later…it's really good to see you again Luke."

He smiled. "You too. See you later."

He left and Brooke turned to Carrie. Both girls were silent for a second looking at each other and then huge grins broke out on their faces. "I cannot believe he's here!" Brooke exclaimed.

Lucas hesitated outside the door of his new dorm room. He wasn't sure whether to knock, or just go in. It was his room after all…but he didn't want to just barge in…

Finally he turned the doorknob and opened the door slowly, peering round it.

A tallish guy with medium brown hair looked round from where he was sitting at a desk. His eyebrows raised very slightly, and then he smiled. "Hey, you must be Lucas! I'm Freddie."

"Um, yeah, hey. Good to meet you." Lucas came into the room and slung his bag down on the bed that didn't look like a bomb had just hit it.

"Oh, yeah, sorry. I meant to tidy up a little but then I started writing this paper and the words were flowing and…well you know."

Lucas chuckled. "It's fine, I don't have very high standards."

"So I haven't heard much about you, I just got told this morning I had a new room mate called Lucas. You've come from Stanford? Something about a basketball scholarship?"

"Yeah, that's right, I just transferred."

"Cool. Well I can't say I play basketball myself, but I'm a big fan. I'm a law major by the way, oh, and I'm gay." Freddie added.

"Really?"

"You sound surprised."

"Oh, well - "

"Yeah, I'm not Jack from Will and Grace, huh? I prefer to think of myself as more of a Will."

"There you sounded like Jack."

Freddie narrowed his eyes, "You seem to know the characters pretty well…you're not gay too by any chance, are you?"

"Er…no."

"Pity. Because in case no one's ever told you you're really fine!"

Lucas raised an eyebrow. "Well now that you've made sharing a dorm with you not at all awkward…"

Freddie laughed. "No don't worry. I'd never make a move on a roommate – way too tacky. And I learnt from my experience with the last guy in this room…"

Lucas turned to look at him sharply.

"I'm kidding. He left because he flunked out. God he was so annoying, the biggest stoner ever and not one for personal hygiene. You don't smoke…anything, do you?"

Lucas shook his head.

"I guess it doesn't really go well with a basketball scholarship. You should meet some of my friends later, they're on the team."

"Cool, yeah that would be good."

There was a knock on the door and Freddie went to answer it. "Oh, hey Brooke. What's up?"

"Hey. Is Lucas here?"

"That was fast."

Brooke gave him a weird look and pushed past him, bounding up to Lucas instead. "Hey. Um, me and Carrie are going to grab some coffee later, wanna come?" Freddie noticed she interlaced her fingers with his as she talked.

"Yeah sure, I'll come meet you."

"Great, come down in a about half an hour."

Lucas nodded.

"Kay, bye!" She let go of his hand and left, waving to Freddie on the way out.

Freddie turned to Lucas with an intrigued expression. "So you know Brooke?"

"Yeah…we were friends in high school."

A look of comprehension suddenly dawned on Freddie's face. "Wait a second, did you say you were Lucas Scott?"

"Er, yeah," Lucas wondered what on earth he could know about him.

"Of Scott Motors?"

"How did you…?"

Freddie laughed, "Oh my god, well you're going to be really popular here," he said sarcastically.

Lucas still looked confused.

"The grey hoody you gave Brooke? Every guy she's been out with has wanted to burn that thing…you're a bit of a legend here man!"

"Why?" Lucas asked, laughing.

"The first semester Brooke and her roommate, Carrie, got a bit of reputation…you know, as being those girls everyone wants?"

Lucas raised an eyebrow, unable to decide whether this pleased him or not.

"Well some guys on the football team dated her and stuff, and soon word got round that she's got this hoody that she always sleeps in, and then it turned out it belonged to her ex-boyfriend. And well…the guys kinda felt a bit threatened."

Freddie laughed again, "I can't believe that's you! Everyone is gonna love this!"

Lucas shook his head, "I can't believe she still wears that!"

Freddie shrugged, "She always refused to wear guys football jerseys, you know how some girls do, but she wears that thing a lot."

Lucas smiled slightly.

Lucas met Brooke and Carrie outside their room a little later, when he'd unpacked some of his stuff and got to know Freddie a little more. He seemed like a pretty cool guy, and had a dry sense of humour that Lucas greatly appreciated. His roommate at Stanford hadn't exactly been the funnest guy ever.

Carrie had been unsure whether she should come out with them, but Brooke persuaded her that it would be easier at first if she was there, so she and Lucas could avoid having to sort through their history.

Lucas was met with a chirpy smile from Brooke as he approached them. "Now, we wish we had some great unique New York coffee houses to show you…but it's pretty cold outside right now and Starbucks is nearest. So we'll have to save that experience for another day!"

Lucas smiled. "That's okay, we've got lots of time."

Brooke grinned. "Yes we do!"

They spent a couple of hours in Starbucks, lounging around on the big sofas, drinking large cups of coffee. Brooke filled Lucas in on where she'd been that summer.

"So all in all it was pretty fun."

"Except for the total lack of anything to do in Iowa," Carrie said, smiling to herself as she noted that Brooke seemed much more upbeat about her summer now she had Lucas back.

"We made our own fun! And southern California is awesome Luke."

"I'm sorry to have missed it."

Brooke mock glared at him over mug, "You'd better be."

He grinned and took another sip of his coffee.

"So what did you get up to there?" he asked.

Brooke grinned. "What didn't we get up to?" She launched into telling him about trying to learn how to surf, going crazy at the shops in Beverly hills, and getting lost several times driving up and down the coast.

Carrie watched Lucas as she talked. She shook her head as she saw his smile as Brooke cracked up laughing at some memory or other.

"Did you leave anything at all for everyone else to buy?" Lucas asked, chuckling.

Brooke gave Carrie a guilty look and giggled. "Maybe a few things."

"There was that top you decided not to get."

"No I went back for it!"

Lucas shook his head.

"Well my parents had one of their guilt trips for neglecting me so I had to do something with all the cash."

"How about save it?"

"You know me Lucas I'm terrible at that. But I am kind of regretting not saving some of it now we're facing another year living on crappy food."

Carrie shrugged. "Oh well, if the worst comes to the worst we'll just have to get jobs."

Brooke grinned. "God we sound so spoilt."

Lucas chuckled. "Yeah you do!"

Brooke hit him playfully and he laughed. "No but hey, it's cool. I fully plan to live off your parents money too for the next few years Brooke."

Brooke narrowed her eyes. "Well we'll have to see about that. It depends on whether you plan on running off again any time soon."

Lucas placed his hand over his heart. "No way, I'm sticking around. Trust me."

Brooke smiled at him and he returned it.

"God this stuff is so addictive," Carrie said, looking into her empty mug. "I'll be back in a second." She went off to get herself another caramel mocha, and Brooke chuckled.

She glanced at Lucas and found he was looking back at her.

"I missed you Cheery," he said, smiling at her.

She smiled back, and said, her tone sincere, "I missed you too Luke."

"Ok guys, I have some news," Freddie entered Dave and Toby's dorm room, to find them sitting on the floor playing on their Playstation.

"Can it wait till I've annihilated these last two towers?" Toby asked.

"No. Dave, how's your mission for Miss Davis going?"

"Fine, why?"

"Because it's about to be going a whole lot worse. Guess who my new roommate is?"

"Who?"

"Lucas Scott."

Dave paused the game and turned round slowly. "Lucas Scott?…Brooke's Lucas?"

"Yup. And, not meaning to sound totally gay - "

"You are totally gay Freddie."

"Yeah, not the point. Anyway, as I was saying, he is smokin'."

"Aw crap."

Please review!

Anticipating questions: Carrie and Lucas have met before when he came at Easter, and got on really well, in a totally platonic way of course.