I'm so sorry I haven't updated for a while, I've had a bad case of writer's block; I had some ideas, but the words would not come!
Today has been quite surreal. I thought I couldn't post without mentioning today's atrocoties. My thoughts and prayers are with all my fellow Londoners, and the friends and family of the casaulties.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter!
Amanda, you can add this to your story alerts (at the bottom where you review) if you want to know when I ud. Thanks for the review!Lonnie, I'm sorry you thought the last chapter was boring, maybe you'll like this one more.
Now, on with the chapter…
Lucas sipped his cup of coffee and shook his head as he watched Brooke bouncing up and down on her toes.
"Cheery, it is way to early in the morning to be hyperactive."
She looked over her shoulder at him sternly. "Broody, my best friend in the whole wide world is coming to visit, I am allowed to be excited."
Lucas chuckled and rolled his eyes, as Brooke turned back to the large departure board.
"Is she still looking?" Haley and Nathan came up, holding coffee and a newspaper they had just bought.
Lucas nodded, and saw Haley roll her eyes. "The flight's delayed, you'd think she'd calm down at least until they actually get here!" she said, laughing.
Lucas shook his head, "You should have seen her on the drive over here; I thought she was going to make us crash."
Brooke turned around from watching the board and came over to them, leaning her chin on Haley's shoulder glumly. "Why aren't they here yet?" she whined.
Haley wrapped an arm round her. "Because the flight's delayed sweetie, remember I told you twenty minutes ago?"
Brooke glared at her. "Is it not undelayed by now?"
Nathan chuckled, and took his wife's hand, pulling her and Brooke over to some seats. "Lets just sit quietly and wait for it to get in. We can all read about the Bulls' game last night." He opened the newspaper, and Lucas came and sat on the other side of him, looking over his shoulder as he turned to the sports pages.
The girls both groaned and Brooke's head flopped onto Haley's shoulder. She had suddenly come down from her high and the effects of bouncing around at six in the morning were starting to hit here.
Haley slid a page out of Nathan's newspaper and started doing the crossword, and so the minutes ticked by…
Brooke jerked awake and looked around. They were still in the airport. She breathed a sigh of relief and then quickly looked up at the clock on the board. Haley looked over at her, noticing she was no longer resting on her shoulder, and laughed as she saw Brooke's distraught face.
"Their flight got in fifteen minutes ago! Why didn't anyone wake me up!"
"They're in baggage reclaim Brooke, calm down. They'll be out in a few minutes."
Brooke waved her hands, trying to get more of a reaction, and then sighed and flopped back in her chair. She wasn't grumpy for long however; even to her a few minutes wasn't that long, so she was soon getting excited again.
After a couple of minutes she managed to drag the others over to the gate where everyone waiting for arrivals was standing. Lucas chuckled as he saw Brooke leaning on the edge of the barrier, her eyes peeled for signs of Peyton and Jake. He rested his hands on her shoulder and his chin on her head, and watched with her.
Finally Brooke saw a flash of blonde hair, and then Peyton and Jake were there, smiling at them all as they came over with their bags, Jenny in Jake's arms.
Brooke flung her arms round Peyton as she dropped her bag on the floor, and Peyton hugged her back tightly. "I missed you so much B. Davis."
Brooke grinned as she stepped back. "I missed you too P. Sawyer."
Peyton hugged Haley next, and Brooke's face lit up as she took Jenny, while Jake was clapped on the back by the other guys in their usual manly way. Peyton hugged Nathan and Lucas, and then they made their way out to the cars, Brooke refusing to hand Jenny back to her father claiming he got to see her every day.
Nathan and Haley got into their car, and Jake and Peyton joined Brooke and Lucas in Brooke's for the drive back to Nathan and Haley's. Brooke had fought long and hard to try and persuade Jake and Peyton to stay in the city with her, but there really was no space, and so they were staying with the others, but would be driving in almost every day to sight see and all hang out together.
Brooke held Jenny on her knee as Lucas drove, giggling as Jenny pointed to things and jabbered on about the flight.
"Do you like your pre-school Jen?" she asked her, as Jenny looked out of the window at the tall buildings.
"Yup. Miss Hanning's really nice."
"That's good. And are you looking forward to big school? Have you thought about any extra-curriculars yet? Because you know cheerleading is - "
"Brooke!"
"What? It's never too early to give her a head start."
Jake rolled his eyes. "Can you at least wait till she's like…five? Then I promise you can teach her your ways as much as you like."
"Really?" Brooke asked, turning in her seat, her eyes bright and a mischievous grin on her face.
"Well, maybe not all your ways…"
Brooke pouted and Lucas glanced at her and chuckled.
They arrived at the apartment and Jake and Peyton got settled in, only making a few jokes about how Haley was turning into Monica from Friends as she showed them their room.
Lucas and Brooke hung out in the living room while the others were unpacking and looking around. Brooke sat on the sofa playing with Jenny. She was particularly interested in Brooke's bracelet so she unclipped it and laid it out for her.
"Where's that one from?" Jenny pointed to a small red and gold charm of a dragon.
"My mom and dad got me that when they went to China when I was eight," Brooke said, smiling as the little girl's eyes widened.
"Wow, China is really far away."
"Yeah it is!"
Lucas smiled from where he was sitting in an armchair as he watched Brooke talk to Jenny.
"What about this one?"
Brooke glanced down, and saw that Jenny was holding up the silver heart that Lucas had given her a few years ago in high school.
"Um, Uncle Luke gave me that one." She glanced up and saw Lucas looking back at her; she smiled at him before turning back to Jenny.
"Really?" the little girl asked.
"Yeah, can you read the letters?"
Jenny frowned a little. "Um…B…"
"Uh huh, and turn it over."
"…L."
"Yup. Because Brooke starts with a B, and Lucas with an L."
Jenny nodded. "How come you don't have a J for Jenny?"
"You know what? I don't know. Maybe I should get one."
"I think you should," Jenny said firmly, and then saw Peyton come in. "Mom!" she called, and stood up on the sofa, holding out her arms.
Peyton smiled and came over to her. "Hey! Come see your room sweetie." She picked her up and went back to the spare bedroom. Brooke watched her go over the back of the sofa and then turned to Lucas, her bottom lip stuck out.
"I want one."
Lucas raised an eyebrow and shook his head, chuckling.
They all ate lunch together that day, and then Brooke and Haley took Peyton out shopping in the afternoon, while the guys went to see a basketball game that Lucas had managed to get tickets for.
Over the next couple of days most of them still had classes, even though it was coming up for Thanksgiving, and so they took it in turns to hang out with Jake and Peyton.
Lucas was having lunch with Haley and Nathan one day, waiting for Brooke to bring the others back from Bloomingdale's, when Toby came into the café.
"Hey guys, check out what my aunt just sent me." He held out a stack of photos and Haley took them eagerly. "Are these of that ball you guys went to? Which I'm so jealous about by the way."
"I didn't know anyone took pictures," Lucas said.
"There were some official photographers there, and I think some cameras on the tables and stuff. My aunt sent me all the ones of us; she said there are quite a few because she told the photographers to take lots of the 'young people'." He rolled his eyes. "Anyway those are your copies, I just wanted to drop them off. I gotta run, I've got a class."
"Okay. Thanks so much man."
Toby nodded and headed out again. Lucas turned to Haley, who was now fawning over the photos. "Oh my god," she said, reaching one of Carrie and Brooke taken outside, one arm round each other's waists, their long gowns just touching the floor.
Nathan looked at the photo and smiled. "She looks amazing man."
Lucas peered over his shoulder and nodded. Remembering Brooke that night always made him smile. She looked like something out of another world, her beauty radiating off her.
Haley continued looking through the photos and stopped on one of Brooke and Lucas. Whoever had taken it had done so without them knowing, and in it they were facing each other, Brooke with her hands slid under the lapels of his jacket. She was looking up at him, apparently asking him something, and he was listening, smiling at her with an expression of utter contentment on his face.
Haley shook her head as she put the picture to the back. Those two were just too cute for words.
Brooke was in her room getting dressed, having just had a shower. She pulled on a pair of dark jeans and put on her purple bra. Drawing her hair up into a pony-tail she started looking through her drawers for a top.
The door suddenly opened, and she looked up quickly.
"Oh, sorry." Lucas was standing there, but made no real attempt to leave. He'd walked in on her a couple of times before by now, and she always waved him in anyway.
"Hey Luke. Sorry I just had a shower."
He nodded and came in, leaning against the edge of her desk while she continued searching through her clothes. Eventually finding a top that satisfied her requirements, she slipped it on and turned to Lucas. "So, what's up?"
He shrugged. "Not much. I was bored," he admitted.
Brooke grinned. "Okay, well I guess we can remedy that. Do you want to help me with my Psych homework, or go get some coffee?"
Lucas pretended to think about, "Coffee…no wait…yeah coffee."
Brooke rolled her eyes and grabbed her jacket, leaving the room with him following…
"So what's been up with you lately?" Brooke asked, as she sat down on one of the couches in their nearest Starbucks.
"Brooke, I saw you yesterday, actually, I saw you this morning."
"Yes, but the past few days have been very crazy, and I have hardly had any time to talk to you. All this Peyton time means I'm missing out on Broody time. So what's up?"
Lucas chuckled and then shrugged. "Not much. I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving."
"Are you sad you're not going to be with your mom?"
"A little. But we're getting close to Christmas so it's not too long before I see her. And you guys are all here so it's cool."
Brooke smiled. "Yeah, it's good we can all be together."
"So I guess I'd better check up with you too then seeing as you seem to think so much can happen in a day. Anything new with you Cheery?"
Brooke considered this, then shook her head. "Not really. I've been…thinking about some stuff." She hesitated. "That I wanted to talk to Peyton about."
Lucas gave her a questioning look. "Anything I can help with?"
Brooke smiled. He was the only one who really could help her. "No, thanks. It's cool."
Brooke was in her room, finishing of her last paper before their short Thanksgiving break. She wasn't really concentrating much though because she'd been talking to Carrie about Lucas at the same time.
"Now, if I remember correctly," Carrie said, sticking the end of her pen in her mouth, "You were going to talk to him about all of this a few weeks ago…whatever happened to that plan?"
Brooke sighed. "There was never a good time."
Carrie groaned. "Brooke all the time is a good time! When are you going to realise how perfect you are for each other? You guys are like Will and Grace, except he's not gay. And you know what Will and Grace are? The perfect couple…if one of them wasn't gay. So you know what that makes you and Lucas?"
"I see where you're going with this, and you've said it before!"
"Yeah but you always tell me to shut up, so I thought I'd cleverly hide my point in an observation about a popular TV show," Carrie joked, grinning.
Brooke rolled her eyes, "I'm not talking to you about this."
"Because you know I'm right!"
Brooke didn't reply, and Carrie flopped onto her bed, looking very satisfied with herself.
"So man, how's life?" Lucas asked, as he and Jake strolled down Fifth avenue. They weren't really sure why they were here, neither of them being that big on shopping, but Lucas had been walking in the vague direction of the park and it had led them here.
Jake turned to Lucas and smiled. "It's pretty good…yeah pretty good."
Lucas hesitated and then asked, "How's it going with Peyton?"
Jake looked down. "We're okay. There's…we've got some stuff going on but we'll get through it."
Lucas nodded slowly. "Yeah, you will."
Jake looked up and smiled. Then he raised his eyebrows, "How about you, what's happening with Brooke?"
Lucas glanced at him and Jake grinned. "You knew I was gonna ask man!"
"Yeah, yeah…um, we're good. We're still just…figuring stuff out."
"Uh huh…you ever think about stopping figuring stuff out and, oh I don't know, getting back together?"
Lucas just gave him a look.
"Ok, I know. But think: if you just did it, we'd all stop talking about it!"
"So where's your room this year?" Peyton asked, as she and Brooke walked down the street that held many of the NYU dorm buildings.
"It's on this block here…" they reached the door and Brooke stopped, "Right here!"
They went in and Peyton followed Brooke to her room. "Now I don't think Carrie has a class right now so we can all hang out for a bit."
"So how'd you guys end up rooming together again?" Peyton asked.
Brooke glanced at her before answering. "We just asked if we could share a room again, and we got lucky! Most people try and request singles so I think they were all too happy to put us together."
Peyton nodded, and then smiled tightly. "Okay, well lets go see if she's here!"
They reached the room and Brooke went in, finding Carrie lying on her bed, reading. She lifted a hand vaguely in greeting and then noticed Peyton come in as well.
"Oh hi!" Carrie smiled and put down her magazine. She stood up and hesitated for a second before hugging Peyton slightly awkwardly. The two girls had met that summer when Carrie had come to stay in Tree Hill for a few days, but had not got to know each other that well.
Brooke smiled and went to sit on her bed, glancing between her two friends.
"So how's your stay been so far?" Carrie asked.
"Really good!" Peyton smiled. "Yeah, we've er, been to the Met, which was cool, and the Gugenheim and stuff."
"Oh yeah, you're an artist!"
"Well, art student…"
Carrie waved this away, "I've seen some of your stuff, you're an artist." Peyton smiled, and Brooke did as well.
The three continued talking, Brooke relaxing slightly as they did so. They were just thinking about somewhere to have lunch when Brooke suddenly noticed the time. "Oh dammit! Okay guys I'm really sorry but I just have to go and talk to this one professor really quickly."
"Is that Wienbaum?" Carrie asked.
Brooke rolled her eyes. "Yeah, he wants to suggest some book or something I apparently have to read." She waved it away and Carrie laughed. Professor Weinbaum was insistent that Brooke had a fantastic literary style, and was consistently trying to give her extra little assignments to develop her talent. Brooke always said it was just because he had a crush on her, but Carrie and Lucas knew he had a point.
"Well if he tries to rape you just call me and I'll come sort it out," Carrie joked, rolling her eyes.
Peyton raised an eyebrow, looking between the girls. No one offered any explanation however, but Brooke squeezed her hand. "Sorry to ditch you but I'll be really quick. You guys can…talk about me!" she grinned and then left.
Carrie chuckled and then turned to Peyton. "She's something, huh?"
Peyton nodded. "Yes she is."
They talked for a little while, swapping Brooke stories, until the subject of Lucas came up.
"Have you talked to her about him yet? I have been trying to get them to do something for weeks but it's totally hopeless!" Carrie rolled her eyes and grinned.
Peyton hesitated. "Um, I haven't yet. I don't know if I should butt in."
Carrie shrugged. "Sure you should. I mean, she just needs a little push; she knows this is what she wants she's just a little scared."
"Well maybe if she'd not ready then - "
"I see them both everyday; they are definitely ready!" Carrie insisted.
"I'm sorry but I think I know a little more about this than you! You've never actually known them when they were together!"
"Well maybe I would have if it wasn't for someone messing things up. As far as I can see half of their problems stem from what you did so you can't say you have more right to talk about this than me!"
Brooke had come back into the room to hear the tail end of their argument. Her face fell and she waved her hands between the two, separating them.
She had been afraid something like this might happen, but they seemed to have been getting on okay before.
"Brooke, I'm sorry okay, but she's acting like I have no idea what's going on in your life. Just because I'm not here - " Peyton began.
"I was just saying that you haven't seen her for a while, I know you're one of her best friends but - " Carrie interrupted.
"I am her best friend, not one of them - "
"Guys!" Brooke held up her hands, not wanting to here anymore. "We're not kids, we can work this out. Look, I love both of you so much; but Carrie you're going to have to except that Peyton and I have been through a lot together, and she's my best friend. And Peyton you have to accept that sometimes there's going to be stuff that I talk to Carrie about and not you. Because she means a lot to me too."
Carrie and Peyton both looked down.
"I'm sorry," Carrie said. "I get it. I just…never really had a best friend before. So I guess I don't know what it's like to have to balance your new and old friends. I didn't mean to go all judgemental and whatever. And…I'm sorry for bringing up…you know. It's none of my business."
Brooke nodded, and turned to Peyton.
"I'm sorry too," she said. "You're a really great friend to Brooke, and I should be thanking you for that. I didn't mean to get so possessive." She smiled slightly.
Brooke smiled, and wrapped an arm around each of them, hugging them. "I love you guys, ok? And I never want to have to drag you off each other again!" she laughed.
"I've got to go," Carrie said, "Toby'll be waiting." She paused, and then held out a hand to Peyton, who smiled and shook it.
"See you later," she said, and left.
Brooke turned to Peyton when she was alone, with a worried look in her face.
"Now what was all that about Pey? You liked Carrie before, and you know she could never replace you."
Peyton sat down on Brooke's bed. "I know, and I'm so sorry Brooke. It's just…I haven't really got a new best friend in California. But I had Jake and I was fine with that…but he's not talking to me right now, he's closing up about something. And then suddenly I thought you weren't talking to me either and I just felt like I'd lost you guys."
Brooke sat down, pulling Peyton into her arms again. "Pey, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were going through a rough time."
"It's okay."
Brooke looked at her, "It sounds like you should talk to Jake though. Tell him you want to know what's bothering him."
Peyton nodded. "Yeah, I will."
Brooke came into Lucas' room and collapsed on his bed face down. He looked up from his book at the girl next to him and chuckled. "Long day?"
She nodded against his shoulder and then turned on her side. "Carrie and Peyton had a fight."
Lucas raised his eyebrows, looking a little worried. "Really? About what?"
Brooke shrugged. "I don't know. Me I guess…and some other stuff. It's okay though, they made up." She paused. "Did you know Peyton was having problems with Jake?" she asked quietly.
Lucas frowned a little. "He said something about it the other day. He said they were trying to work it out though."
Brooke gave a little nod. She bit her lip and played with the edge of Lucas sweater. "I didn't know."
Lucas tipped his head on one side, looking at her sadly. "Brooke that's not your fault. How could you if she didn't tell you?"
"Because! She's my best friend, I'm just meant to know that kind of stuff."
"But there's no way you could tell when she was in California, and they haven't been here for very long."
Brooke shrugged. "I think I've been so wrapped up in other stuff that I didn't notice."
Lucas watched her, and then sighed and kissed the side of her head. "It'll be okay. You'll help her through it."
Brooke nodded again. "Thanks Luke."
She wrapped an arm round him and rested her head on his shoulder, thinking. He rubbed her back gently as she gradually fell asleep.
Please review! The next bit should be up soon including:
Thanksgiving
Peyton and Jake have a talk
Old school gang hanging out time!