Thanks for all your reviews! Here's the next bit…

Brooke and Carrie were lying on their beds in their room. Well actually, Carrie was lying on her bed. Brooke was in her bed, and was trying to go to sleep, but Carrie was finishing a paper that she wasn't really in the mood to write, so kept asking Brooke questions to coax her to talk to her.

"Have you seen Stacy's new bag? It's so gross. It's like velour and bright blue," Carrie shuddered as she tapped away at her laptop.

Brooke made a vague sound of agreement.

"Did you get those photos you took developed by the way? They seemed awesome."

Another sound.

Carrie rolled her eyes.

"So have you and Lucas had 'the talk' yet."

Brooke lifted her head of the pillow, and raised an eyebrow.

"I knew that would get you up! So tell, have you?"

"'The talk'? Which talk would that be exactly."

"The defining what the hell you guys are right now talk."

"We're friends Carrie."

"Right and I dye my hair, which as you know very well, I don't. Come on B, spill. What's going on with you two?"

"I just said, nothing."

"And you're cool with that?"

Brooke paused, thinking about this. "Yeah, I am. I mean, I've kind of got used to being on my own now. I'm okay with just being friends with him at the moment, it's just enough to have him back, you know?"

Carrie nodded, smiling. "So you're not going to get back together?"

"Well I'm not saying not ever. We'll just see how it goes…"

Freddie came into his room to find Brooke lying on Lucas' bed reading and Lucas at his desk working.

"Hey man," he greeted Lucas, "What's she doing here?"

Lucas laughed, "You'd have to ask her."

Brooke sat up, "It's nice to see you too Freddie. And I'm just hanging out, reading…checking out your porn stash."

"What!"

"Kidding. Jesus don't have a coronary. But actually I should go." She stood up, dropping the book back on Lucas' bed.

"But I think this weekend I'm going to show you round New York a bit," Brooke said, turning to Lucas as she stood up. "Assuming you didn't see it all when you were hiding out here on your secret basketball camp."

Lucas chuckled. "Nope, we didn't really get a lot of free time."

"Cool. Then I'll show you the sites!"

"Except not - "

"Yeah yeah, not the empire state building. Don't worry Broody, I won't be taking you anywhere vertigo inducing!"

Lucas grinned, "Okay, then I'm in."

"Cool. Well, I will see you later Broody. Freddie," she nodded to him.

"Brooke."

She gave them both a last smile and left.

"This is where we wanted to take you on the first day," Brooke said, as Lucas followed her through the door of a little coffee house on the corner of a small street in Greenwich village, "but we couldn't be bothered to walk. It's a pity it's not nearer campus - "

"It's like three blocks Brooke!"

"Well…we're lazy. Anyway, it would be good if it was nearer, but we love it anyway because it's so quiet and cosy. Except sometimes it gets really full of NYU students, in which case it's just like every other coffee bar in this area!"

Lucas chuckled and they ordered some coffee and sat down in large squashy armchairs near the back.

Lucas leant his head back, sighing.

"You can't be tired yet Luke, we've still got masses to do. I haven't even taken you to Barney's yet!"

"Oh god. You didn't say anything about shopping."

"Well you could have guessed! This is me we're talking about. Although, if the weather stays nice we could go to Central Park."

"Oh yeah, that would be cool."

Brooke nodded slowly and sipped her coffee. Lucas watched her over the top of his mug.

"Are we ever going to talk about us?" Brooke asked after a minute.

Lucas hesitated and then set his mug down, folding his hands in his lap. "I was wondering when that was coming."

Brooke gave a half smile. "I just figure we should at some point you know? We left stuff a little…"

"Awkward? Yeah, I know what you mean. And that was my fault, I'm sorry."

"No Luke, it was mine. We should have talked about it more, I just - "

"I should have brought it up earlier, not just sprung it on you before we left. And I'm sorry about Easter, I was just a little - "

"I understand. It's the past, it doesn't matter now."

Lucas nodded. "Yeah."

"So…what do we do about now?"

"You were right last year Brooke. We agreed when we went to college that it would be good to spend some time on our own. So I kind of screwed that up by coming here…" They both chuckled. "But I think you're still right. It's good for us to be on our own…I mean, I doubt I would have worked so hard at basketball if we'd been together, and then I might never have made it here…"

Brooke smiled. "Yeah…yeah, you're right. Just because we're both here doesn't change anything."

There was a pause as they both looked at each other, and then Lucas smiled and looked down. "Well…we'll see how it goes…"

"Yeah," Brooke smiled, "We'll see…"

Lucas managed to dissuade Brooke from going shopping in the end, and instead she took him to the park, as promised.

They walked round the outside, enjoying the scenery. Lucas dug his hands in his pockets as they walked and chatted about Tree Hill. Lucas was dying to see Nathan and Haley after he'd spoken to them on the phone the night before. Unfortunately they were really busy that weekend but they'd promised to come down and see them soon.

He smiled as he watched Brooke laugh about some memory from high school. Walking with her like this reminded him of when they used to take walks along the pier, or walk to school together when they were living in the same house.

Brooke pointed out a baseball field set out in the park, where some little boys were playing. She was about to drag Lucas over to watch when it suddenly started to pour with rain. Brooke gasped as drops of water soaked through her top.

Lucas grabbed her hand and they ran under a nearby tree, where they stood, shivering.

"This isn't the best place if we get lightning," Brooke said.

"Well then we'll have to hope we don't," Lucas said. Brooke chuckled and shivered, wrapping her arms round herself. Lucas reached out and rubbed her arm, her skin smooth and wet against his touch.

"Good thing this top isn't white," Brooke said laughing, "I'm wearing a black bra."

Lucas moved the edge of her top to look at the strap of her bra, "Oh yeah," he stated mildly.

"Luke!" she hit him.

"What! I've seen them all before," he said, laughing.

"You don't think I've got any new lingerie in a year?"

"Well have you?"

"Yes!"

"Well I need to catch up then. You'll have to show them to me one day."

She gave him a look and he laughed again.

"How long do you think it'll keep up?" she asked, changing the subject away from her underwear.

Lucas shrugged, "I dunno. We could always just go back anyway."

Brooke wrinkled her nose, "I don't want to get any wetter than I have to."

"So you don't want to go play in the rain?"

"No."

"Fine! We'll just sit under this tree then."

Brooke sighed, "Fine, okay. We can run for it. We can catch a cab outside the park."

Lucas grinned, "Okay." They looked at each other. "Ready?"

Brooke nodded. They started to run across the park, stopping only when they reached the street where cars were whizzing past. Lucas faced Brooke as she looked around for a cab.

There were drops of water on her face, resting on her eyelashes and lips. Her hair was beginning to curl and the long tendrils fell down her back. She looked beautiful and as she licked a raindrop from her bottom lip he fought the urge to kiss her.

"There's one coming," she said after a second, turning to face him.

He nodded, overcoming his feeling, and she flagged it down. They got in and were soon speeding back to the college.

Brooke looked at Lucas and laughed, "Okay. Well that was the park!"

Basketball practice was going pretty well, and Lucas had settled in well with the team. The captain was a tall African-american called Brett, who was a senior and seemed like a nice, easy-going guy (which made a change from the captain at Stanford, who had had his head so far up his ass Lucas was surprised he could see the ball).

It was cool to play with Toby as well, and even Mike, once Lucas got over his constant drooling at Brooke, was pretty fun.

There was just one guy who he didn't really get on with. His name was Drake, and he was a Junior. He had dark blonde hair and was quite tall. He was very good at basketball, but he had greeted Lucas a little coldly at his first practice, and had never really warmed up.

Lucas wasn't sure why Drake didn't like him exactly, or what it was about him that irked Lucas…for some reason he just rubbed him up the wrong way.

Anyway, he wasn't going to let it bother him because it wasn't like Drake was actually doing anything to him.

He thought about asking Brooke about him, but decided she'd probably just think he was being paranoid. Actually, she'd probably have a whole list of reasons why she didn't like him either, and some hot gossip to back this opinion up, but that was beside the point. He was a team-mate, and for now, Lucas would give him the benefit of the doubt.

After less than two weeks of practice with his new team, Lucas found himself facing his first game.

"Alright! Everybody gather round!" The coach blew his whistle and the players jogged up, all in their purple NYU kit.

Coach Michaels began his pre-game speech. Lucas had heard so many of these that he began to tune it out; they were all the same, something along the lines of 'if you lose this game, the sun won't rise tomorrow.'

He looked around the gym, his eyes drifting over the large purple banners on the wall, all reading 'Go Violets!'

He suddenly felt very out of place – he would give anything to just be back in Tree Hill, in blue and black, with Nathan standing beside him.

"Now get back to warm ups!"

The team jogged away again, and Lucas turned to join them.

"Lucas!"

"Yes coach?"

"Good luck in your first game son."

He nodded. "Thanks coach. Um…can I just get a drink?"

"Sure, be quick though."

He nodded and headed for the doors, wishing he didn't suddenly feel so hot.

Brooke saw Lucas leave from where the cheerleaders were stretching in a corner, and bit her lip.

"Hey Stacy, I'll be back in a minute."

The captain rolled her eyes. "Be quick Brooke!"

Brooke waved her away, and hurried out of the gym after Lucas. She saw him leaning against the wall outside, his head tipped back.

She approached him, and he looked down, smiling slightly as he saw her. She pulled him into a hug, chuckling a little. She didn't need to ask if he was nervous or not.

He closed his eyes for a second, concentrating on nothing but the feel of Brooke's hair against his cheek, and her arms around him.

She stepped back and looked at him pointedly. "Luke, you're gonna be fine. You're better than all the players on this team anyway, and even if you don't play your best this game: you're the new guy, it's okay. They won't hold it against you!"

Lucas chuckled and nodded, and Brooke reached out and placed a hand on his arm. "If you're still nervous, just forget about them all."

He looked up and met her eye.

"Just pretend you're wearing blue instead of purple…and we're still in the gym in Tree Hill. I'll be right there in the corner, and you can imagine it's Peyton and Theresa standing next to me instead of the others…and just do your thing."

Lucas smiled, and nodded again, more firmly this time.

"Yeah. Thanks Brooke."

"No problem. Now come on," she pulled him back into the gym, and he went to rejoin his team, throwing her a smile over his shoulder before he did so.

Brooke sat down next to Carrie, and started doing stretches again. Carrie raised an eyebrow, but Brooke just smiled at her, and shook her head.

"And it's game night here at NYU and the big excitement here tonight is new player Lucas Scott, wearing shirt no. 3. He's a transfer from Stanford where he helped the team to second place in the championships last year, and he's a new member of the junior Knicks program here in New York. Lets see what Mr. Scott has for us tonight!"

As soon as the buzzer went for the start of the game, Lucas' nerves faded away. Brooke was right, this was just basketball…and basketball was nothing for him to worry about.

The quarters ebbed away and the Violets pulled ahead, Lucas pulling of a couple of perfect three pointers and numerous baskets from inside the circle.

He kept an eye on Brooke during the game, his eyes flicking to her whenever the cheer of the crowd became oppressive or he felt lost in the players around him.

She caught his eye a few times and winked at him, her grin restoring his buoyant mood. It was shaken only at one point, not by any part of the game, but when he turned around having just met Brooke's eye, to see Drake behind him, his face stony.

Lucas shook himself and ignored it, but Drake's face, almost a sneer, hung in the back of his mind.

At the end of the game they had won by a good 12 points, and Lucas was the second highest scorer in the game.

"Not bad," Brett said, coming up to clap him on the back, "Although I expect you to beat my score next game!"

Lucas chuckled and hit Brett's fist, "Thanks man."

Toby came and high-fived him, and then he turned around to find Brooke standing behind him.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "32 points. Pretty good for your first game."

Lucas grinned. "Yeah, it's not too bad."

Broke chuckled and shook her head, and Lucas laughed too, pulling her into a hug.

Carrie came up and hugged Toby and then turned to Lucas. "Nice game Loverboy. Now, are you ready for the afterparty?"

Lucas looked up, eyebrows raised.

"Oh yeah…" Brooke said, grinning, "I forgot to tell you about the afterparty…"

So next up: well you can guess!
I'll UD as soon as I can. Please review!