Thank you so much for all the feedback so far! All your words have been absolutely amazing. :) Hope you like this part!

Chapter 4

Nathan strolled cockily into school the next morning with the biggest smile on his face. He adjusted his jacket and smiled at the few girls that eyed him, while Tim and a few others trailed behind him. Waving off the others, he pointed at Tim to follow him as they walked towards the little media room at the end of the hallway before bursting through the door.

Inside the small room, Mouth sat sorting out the morning announcement papers that he was going to announce over the PA system before classes began. When he saw Nathan enter the room, he instantly paled and began to quickly try to spurt some explanation after assuming Nathan was there to kick his ass for the tripping incident. However, to his surprise, Nathan just grabbed him from the collar and threw him out of the room without a word. He then plopped down on Mouth's seat, propping his feet up onto the main table and picked up the small microphone and casually placed it on his chest.

"What are you doing, Nate?" Tim asked curiously, as he shut the door. Nathan just shot him his smirk and put his finger to his lips, indicating Tim should be quiet. After clearing his throat, Nathan switched on the little microphone and grabbed a few of the announcement sheets off the table, before his voice erupted across the whole school.

"Good morning Ravens! As you all know, it's that boring announcements time again but today, I promise you guys that it's going to be anything but boring—because today you all get the honor of listening to my, Nathan Scott's, incredibly sexy voice. So first I'd like to introduce my co-announcer today—my good friend Tim Smith. Say hi to everyone, Tim." Nathan broadcasted, tilting the microphone towards Tim.

"Uhm…hi?" Tim stammered and Nathan laughed, moving the microphone back towards him and ruffling through the announcements.

"Well for all those geeks that care, Ms. O'Connell is sick today—probably pregnant or something and so all her classes have study hall today instead," He flicked through a few more sheets. "Mr. Gordon or whatever wants his homework handed in today blah blah blah lunch today is probably some dog crap they're pulling off as food blah blah…" Nathan continued as Tim laughed in the corner.

Nathan then smirked, a huge devilish smirk, causing even Tim to raise his eyebrow in confusion as Nathan threw away the slips of paper away with a flick of his hand and placed the microphone back on the desk and leaned in as close as he possibly could to it.

"And before I forget, I just want to send out my sincerest wishes to Haley James—you know that tutor person, who unfortunately got dumped by Jake Jagielski yesterday so he could once again be together with his one true love, Peyton Sawyer. Now I'm pretty sure we all saw it coming, but I've just got to say that I was pulling for you, James. Really I was," Nathan cracked arrogantly as he addressed the whole school.

His words echoed throughout the hallways and when her name was announced, Haley froze in shock as she walked down the corridor. Hearing Nathan's words echo through the speakers, the colour from Haley's cheeks flushed to a bright pink. She looked around, a small part of her hoping that no one had heard but to her horror students began to point and laugh at her as Nathan continued to broadcast details about her break-up across the school.

A few people came up to her to most likely jokingly give their apologies, but Haley quickly pushed past them—her cheeks getting redder and redder by the minute. They were all whispering and laughing, surrounding her now as she felt tears prickling at the corner of her eyes at the humiliation. Haley whacked them away telling them to get lost and to her surprise, soon people began to distance themselves from her. She curiously looked back at them as they dispersed away from her, their faces resembling one of fear as they looked behind her. Haley followed their eyes to see Lucas viciously shoving people to the sides.

"Lucas!" Haley shouted and right away she knew he wasn't coming towards her. Instead, he walked straight past her and right towards his target—Nathan. Haley shouted his name again and gripped his hand to make him stop, but he yanked it away.

"It's okay. I'll deal with it, Haley!" He bit out, as he stomped over towards the media room.

"Lucas—don't! Please! Not here!" Haley pleaded, as she ran after him, trying to pull him back again, but he ignored her pleas and continued to stalk towards Nathan.

Nathan was standing next to Tim, talking to some jock that had complimented him for his act when he heard shrieks and screams and turned to see Lucas storming towards him with Haley trying to pull him back. Haley tried to once again plea with Lucas to not fight Nathan there, but when Lucas and Nathan's eyes locked—seeing the intense glare they shared and Nathan's evident coolness at what he just did, she let Lucas' arm go, knowing she couldn't stop Lucas anymore.

"Lucas," Nathan greeted coldly.

Without a single word, Lucas lunged at Nathan giving him a hard right-hand to the jaw, knocking Nathan down to the floor. Lucas viciously threw another punch at his brother's face making Nathan's nose bleed as gasping students began to encircle them. A few more shots later, Nathan fought back with his own fists, pushing Lucas away and then pouncing on him.

Fist met bone as Lucas and Nathan slammed each other until Lucas kneed Nathan and rolled him so that he was over him. Tim ran towards them and futilely tried to pull Lucas off a now bleeding Nathan, but was only hurled to the side as the crowd around them started to chant.

Lucas hit Nathan with another fist to the jaw as Nathan's lip cracked and a few trickles of blood began to fall. Nathan punched Lucas back in the gut, to try to fight him off but to no avail. He threw a few more fists, but Lucas continued to hit him.

Haley stood quietly on the sidelines—like she always did when Tim suddenly rushed over to her and began pulling on her arm.

"Make him stop! You're the only one that can make him stop!" He yelled. Haley raised her eyebrow in surprise at the spluttering guy before looking back at the two brothers. She then noticed the dots of blood on the floor. Haley could feel her conscience yelling at her to stop the fight and as the screams around amplified, the voice grew louder and louder and soon she couldn't take it anymore. Haley rushed over towards the two and tried her hardest to pull Lucas off Nathan.

"Luke, stop! Please stop! He's bleeding. You'll get expelled!" She pleaded, but Lucas brushed her off.

"Let me go, Haley!" He shouted as he got up and tried to move her away.

And that was the opening Nathan needed as he kicked Lucas away and gave him a hard hook to the jaw. Lucas reeled back in shock as his lip now began to bleed. He looked back at Nathan who was shakily standing up and within a second, Lucas lunged at Nathan and slammed him against the lockers, yelling obscenities at him. Nathan tried to fight back and after a kick to the groin, he got an upper hand as Lucas slumped to the floor. Nathan then began to hit his brother and the two rolled around the hallway floor trying to beat the hell out of each other. What seemed like an eternity later, teachers finally arrived in the hallway and after a lot of struggling and cursing from the two, they were able to separate them and were dragged straight to the principal's office.

---

The principal's office.

Neither brother would ever admit it, but even they were afraid of being in that room like every other high school kid. Gloomy and depressing—it was made for punishment. One moment in that office and a student could have the past few years of high school wiped away, everything they earned and accomplished could become pointless with just one stain on their permanent record.

Lucas and Nathan straightened up when thrown into the room with Nathan trying his hardest to not bleed everywhere. Both tried to stand coolly, pretending that they weren't doing anything wrong, but yet continued to stare at each other as Principal Turner stood up from his desk.

"I won't have this!" He finally broke out angrily. "This is a school. People come here to learn, not to have family showdowns."

"He started it!" Nathan clipped, standing on one side of the office with Tim next to him, clutching his bleeding nose.

"Nathan announced…" Lucas began and Nathan started yelling at him and the two began bickering across the office until Principal Turner interrupted both boys.

"Stop it!" He yelled and the two quickly shut up. "I know what you did and I know what you did. But this is no place to settle family rivalries, understood?" He spoke, looking at both Lucas and Nathan. "I'm telling you that this is your last chance. We've had this talk before and this time I'm serious. I'm only letting you off, because I know your father and he's a respectable man." He continued, turning to Nathan, but knowing very well the same applied to Lucas. Lucas scoffed at his words, but after a glare from his principal he stood quiet again.

"But next time, not your father or your talent will change my mind. If you two try something like this again—in the middle of the hallway, in front of everyone, I will have to suspend you. And we all know I don't want to suspend the two best players on our basketball team do I? So I recommend you handle your issues, or in the very least don't act on them in school. Are we clear?" He asked and after much hesitation Nathan and Lucas solemnly nodded and left the office—shooting each other fierce looks before heading off in different directions down the hall.

---

"Has it stopped?" Nathan asked, as he squeezed his nose and lifted it up to show Tim.

"Yeah, man. I can't believe Pukas got let off for beating the crap out of you." Tim complained as the two walked down the hallway. Nathan suddenly stopped Tim with a hand.

"He didn't beat the crap out of me. I totally had him before they pulled us apart," Nathan declared and Tim awkwardly nodded.

"Uh yeah. Yeah, you did." He agreed. But as Nathan moved a few steps forward, Tim rolled his eyes behind Nathan's back before continuing to move in step with him.

"Oh look, Tim. It's our brilliant and gorgeous star," Nathan suddenly proclaimed to Tim, as he saw Peyton fiddling with her CDs a few feet away from them. She leisurely turned to face Nathan and rolled her eyes.

"You look like hell," Peyton stated dully.

"Yeah—well I definitely don't feel like it, Peyt and it's all because of you," Nathan exclaimed, a huge proud smile on his lips. "I mean I just told you to start working on Jake—but what did you do instead? Kiss him and have her watch. You made the perfect plan even better!"

"Better?" Peyton frowned in annoyance. "How the hell did it work out better, Nate? Was it better because we broke Haley's heart and then rubbed salt in it? Was it better because you got something to broadcast to the whole school to humiliate her with?"

The smile was suddenly wiped away from Nathan's face with Peyton's words and his eyes narrowed, "What's your deal, Peyton?"

"My deal is that we didn't need to treat her that way, Nathan." Peyton argued. Nathan gave her a disgusted look and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Lucas embarrassed me in front of the whole school. So I did it to his precious friend—why the hell does it matter?" Nathan disputed.

"It matters, Nathan. It matters, because your embarrassment didn't break your heart. God, no one even cares about it or remembers it anymore. But do you know how much Haley must be broken right now? Do you?" Peyton asked, looking at Nathan solemnly. "Because I do. A few months back Jake broke my heart too and it fucking hurt and I don't remember Lucas publicly displaying that."

Nathan chewed his bottom lip in annoyance at his best friend's claims. "Look, don't go all holier than thou on me, Peyton okay? You're the one who dug this grave that you so desperately want to escape from, so don't bitch at me for your doing. You're the one who made out with her boyfriend. I never told you to kiss him in front of her did I?" Nathan shot back.

"I didn't plan for it to happen, okay? It just did." Peyton grumbled shamefully.

"Yeah, it did and so the way I see it—you and Jake broke her heart. I had nothing to do with it. So save your remorseful shit for someone who gives a damn," Nathan bit out and then grabbed Tim by the arm. "Come on, Tim. Let's leave Ms. Perfect to think about what she did."

---

"I'm so sorry, Haley."

That was the thirtieth pitiful apology Haley had received that day. Haley sighed and looked grimly at the girl who had just spoken.

Long, blonde hair—straightened to perfection, eye-make up that made her look like a racoon and a skirt that was shorter than Haley's top. Haley didn't even know her name, but she looked like a cheerleader, talked like one too.

"Thanks," Haley replied sarcastically. A guy then came up from behind the girl and pulled her into him and proceeded to suck her face. Haley scrunched her nose in disgust as she looked awkwardly at the two—unsure whether her "conversation" with racoon girl had ended or not. She was about to turn away when the guy suddenly spoke to her.

"I'm sorry you got dumped," He said with a smirk and Haley rolled her eyes.

Thirty-one.

"It must suck—y'know being dumped for a much prettier girl," He continued and Haley turned to look at him with a glare, folding her arms across her chest. She could feel tears well up in her eyes, but she willed herself to not let them fall and instead gave him a sour look.

"It's a pity you have Lucas fight all your battles. I would've loved to see a catfight between you and Peyton," He stated with a smile as his girlfriend giggled in his arms. "'Though, you know I'm pretty sure that would end in like a minute—what with Peyton on top obviously. Just like she is now…or wait, she may actually be on top of Jake instead, right?"

And that was when the awful mental image sprung to her mind. Haley had envisioned it before—back when her and Jake were new and he had told her that he preferred their dates to Peyton's. Apparently those just ended up with them having sex. She had winced at that point as he tried to explain, but being him he had somehow accidentally ended up telling her that Peyton and him had a lot of sex, she was his first, and that it was good—and then Haley had thrown up. All over his shoes. It wasn't pretty, but Haley could never handle the sickening mental image of the two writhing around naked and it was because of that incident that Jake had vowed to her that he would never speak of Peyton again.

And now that image was back and so was that full-blown nauseous feeling that came with it as the annoying guy in front of her continued to mock her. She wanted to yell at him, tell him to go to hell, but all she could picture was Jake and Peyton.

Peyton and Jake. Thrusting. Writhing. Sweating.

Oh God, she was so going to hurl soon.

Haley tried to push the feeling down, but she knew she couldn't for much longer and so that was why she ran out of the corridor as fast as she could—knowing she couldn't stand further humiliation by puking in the middle of the hallway as well. Haley clung her books to her chest as hot tears fell from her eyes before she collapsed on the stairs outside of the school's main door and spewed into the bushes nearby.

It was a sign of weakness, a sign that Jake had gotten to her and Haley hated herself for letting him get to her—but that damn mental image just wouldn't stop running through her mind.

"Haley?"

Haley froze as a hand firmly pressed against her shoulder—she was caught and she knew she could never live this humiliation down. She slowly looked up to meet the inevitable laughter, but as she saw whom it was she let out a sigh of relief.

"Hey, you okay?" Lucas asked softly as he reached into the front pocket of his bag and pulled out a tissue.

"I-I'm just…" And now she was sobbing. God, she was so pathetic. But the tears wouldn't stop as she took the tissue from Lucas and wiped the grossness off her face. Lucas held his hand to her, as she took it and stood up.

"Come on, Hales. Let's just go home now," Lucas said, wrapping an arm around her and making them both forget about their last two classes.

Haley's tears continued to fall as they slowly walked towards Lucas' car. Haley was almost bawling now and through the tears she was sure she saw Lucas get angrier and angrier.

"Who was it?" He finally asked, rage evident in his voice, as they sat in his convertible and he sped out of the school. Haley sighed and dabbing fiercely at her eyes.

"Lucas…"

"Who was it, Haley?" He asked, determined to know an answer.

"I-It was…it was everyone," Haley cried. "Every single one of them. They're all vultures, Luke. They look for the weakest person to feed on—and today that was me. I'm now going to be the school's laughing stock for the rest of my life thanks to Nathan Scott."

"I swear I'll get him. I'll get all of them. Every single fucking bastard," Lucas asserted.

"You can't get them all, Luke," Haley sighed as Lucas parked his car in the driveway and they walked out. "Look what happened today. You almost got suspended and you know what that'll do to your record." She paused and shook her head, gazing out of the window before she quietly spoke. "You can't keep fighting for me."

"I'll never stop fighting for you, Hales. Especially against Nathan. He and all those asses will regret ever teasing you," Lucas declared as they walked into the house.

"Well you know what, they won't get the chance to." Haley stated and Lucas looked at her, confused.

"What do you mean?" Lucas asked, holding her back. Just then Karen walked into the room and shot them both a warm smile.

"Hey guys, why are you home so—what's wrong, Haley?" Karen noticed Haley crying and quickly pulled her into a hug.

"I'm never going back," She proclaimed, looking back at Lucas and then up at Karen. "I'm not going back to school—back to that hellhole. Home-school me or whatever—I'm never going back."

"Aw, Haley, what happened?" Karen asked softly, as she ran a hand over Haley's hair. Haley just broke down further in Karen's arms and so Karen looked up at her son for an explanation.

"Nathan, who else?" Lucas spat. "He told everyone—what happened with Haley and…you know…"

"Oh, honey," Karen sighed placing a soft kiss on Haley's forehead, but Haley just continued to cry.

"I swear I'm not going back there, Karen. Nathan tarnished it for me. All of it. No one will ever forget today. I'll be known as the dumped puker who can't even fight for herself for the rest of my life!" Haley said and her words only enraged Lucas further.

"I should've finished him off when I got the chance. Before they broke us up, I should've beaten Nathan to a fucking pulp," Lucas declared bitterly and that was when Karen knew she had to intervene with one 'child' breaking down in her arms and the other pacing around the living room thrusting his fist harder and harder against his palm.

"Lucas! We've talked about this before. Don't be crazy. Hitting Nathan is not the answer. You cannot afford to ruin your future over him—we both know that. Now go cool off, I'll talk to you later. Just let me talk to Haley alone right now, okay?" Karen spoke rationally as she let go of Haley and put a hand to Lucas' shoulder. Lucas turned to his mother slowly and then nodded.

"Fine. Sorry, Mom." He apologised and then walked over to Haley and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Haley gave him a weak smile before Lucas went off into the kitchen leaving Haley and Karen alone.

"Come on Haley, sit over here." Karen said, leading Haley into the living room and pointed to the couch. Haley plopped down on it with a sigh and Karen sat down next to her.

"I don't want to go back, Karen," Haley broke in a shaky voice. She couldn't go back—back to the humiliation, back to seeing Nathan mock her, back to seeing Jake and Peyton together. "I can't go back. I can't ever go back because of Nathan. Because of this stupid rivalry," Haley seethed.

"Honey, I know and I'm so sorry that you've been sucked into the middle of all this. I know that hurts with what Jake did to you, but you cannot let his betrayal get to you, Haley. It's better that you found out what kind of man Jake really is now than further down the road," Karen said, putting a comforting hand on Haley's knee. "I know what you're feeling right now. I do. I've been there. You know a long time ago—I did love Dan. I thought I knew him better than anyone. I believed in him and it took betrayal, a broken heart, for me to realise what kind of man he really was and that was when I got over him. What happened opened my eyes to who Dan really was and after a while the pain was gone, the love was gone and I found a way to deal with it."

"By shacking up with his brother?" Haley remarked coldly and seeing the flinch of hurt in Karen's eyes she realised what she had said. "I-I mean…"

"No, you're right, Haley. Moving in with Keith was my way of dealing with Dan. Keith made me feel better, made me happy, he made Lucas and me feel secure and most of all…it hurt Dan. I know it hurt him. After all, I was his girlfriend of many years. I knew him better than most, and when he found out about me and Keith—I know he was hurt, even thought it was probably just a little flinch—I know it got to him. It hit him right where it hurts most and I'll admit that…that made me happy."

"I-I don't understand what all this family history it has to do with me, Karen? I already know most of it." Haley sighed and Karen gave her a small laugh.

"Yes, you know. You're one of few who have actually seen what our family and his have done to each other. You know how we all work and unfortunately, Haley you're a part of it all as well. You're a part of this family and so you're a part of this enmity—this rivalry. I know you don't want to be, none of us really do, but we all are. Nathan's upset you and now you will have to do what anyone of us would do in your position. When someone hurts us, we get them back. It's twisted and wrong, I know. But you can sit here all day and cry about Jake and what Nathan did or you can let Lucas fight them for you, which he will. He'll make Nathan and perhaps even Jake bleed, but he'll only hurt them physically. Nothing Lucas can do will ever make Nathan sorry for what he did. Lucas can't make Nathan regret breaking your heart. Only you can, Haley," Karen ended and it was with those words Haley shot her head up to look at Karen.

"What?" She blinked, her eyes full of confusion.

"You said so yourself. Lucas cannot keep fighting your battles. If you want to revenge, the best way is one that makes no noise and is unexpected. If you want to hurt Nathan, if you want to get back at Jake—to make yourself feel happy, to stop the pain—you will have to do it yourself. Only you can hit Nathan directly in the heart, Haley." Karen ended. Haley chewed her bottom lip as Karen's words sunk in.

Only she could hit Nathan in the heart. Only she could get her revenge.

And that was when Haley smiled. Not one of her sweet, genuine smiles, but a smile that she had seen on the faces of Lucas and Nathan numerous times before.

A smile of a plan. A Scott smile.

A smile of revenge.

--

TBC (and I promise there shall be some Nathan/Haley interaction in the next chapter)