Chapter Three: Overwhelmed
I dropped onto a sofa in the living room, breathing deeply. As Aidan had predicted, a house full of Scotts had turned out to be overwhelming. So far, my Aunts Jenny and Lauren had arrived, and their families, and Peyton and Jake. Nathan and Haley had yet to make an appearance, Lucy was the kind of person that was always late, and everyone else was unaccounted for except for Aidan, Brooke and Mouth.
"Wow, you look happy," said my grandmother Peyton, coming into the room with a diet coke.
"It's kind of intense, when everyone comes. I always feel like I haven't lived up to their expectations," I admitted.
"Scotts can give that impression. We're proud of you, kid," she said, sitting down beside me.
"Thanks. And you know whenever Jenny and Lauren come over, Mom and them are crazy close and it makes me feel almost guilty when I think about my relationship with Tara, if you can call it that," I lamented.
"Tara's a tough not to crack, but don't worry about it. They fought too, growing up. I remember when they all found out about Nikki, Lauren and Jen wouldn't speak to Callie for weeks," she reminisced.
"Wasn't it kind of hard, when Mom got married and moved away when she was so young?" I asked.
"Of course. Especially for Lauren-Jen had gone away to school, and she was completely alone for the first time in her life. Lauren always had a bit of youngest child syndrome, much like Lissie. But they saw each other almost everyday, and everyone knew from the beginning that it was supposed to happen," she explained.
"Everyone thinks me and Aidan are the same," I confessed.
"Do you?"
"No, but Mom said she never realized anything for Daddy until she was like, sixteen," I said.
"Jordan, people only think those things about you because of who your parents are. It doesn't matter," said Peyton.
"Ooh, doorbell," I said, uncomfortable as she was by the closeness of the moment.
I sprang up and ran to answer it, revealing Gavin, Zachary, Tess and John. Smiling, I hugged Aunt Tess. She was probably my favourite of 'the Aunts', partially due to the fact that she seemed as left out as I felt when we all got together, and the other Aunts all bonded.
Zachary ran off to find Charlie, I hugged John before he went off as well (perhaps to find Daddy, though there was always animosity between them, which I didn't totally understand. Perhaps due to him marrying his sister?) and Tess and I walked together into the kitchen.
"Tess!" cried Lauren in delight. They claimed they were best friends, and they were, but there was another touch of animosity.
They hugged, and Tess moved on to hug Jenny and Mom.
"Joey, where's Tara?" asked Mom.
"Probably upstairs with Gav and Aidan," I said.
"Why didn't you go with them?" asked Aunt Lauren. I raised my eyebrows.
"Please, have you met Tara?" I asked.
"Wow, someone's determined to be in a bad mood. However, I have to admit you couldn't be more different," said Jenny, taking in my sweatpants and t-shirt, my messily tied back hair.
"Yeah, how'd she come out of you?" chimed in Lauren, squeezing my shoulders lovingly as she spoke, to tell me silently that it wasn't me she was making fun of.
"She's more like Sawyer," said Tess.
"Much more," agreed Mom, as the doorbell rang. I ran to answer it, hoping for my other grandparents.
My hopes were dashed as I opened the door to reveal a tall guy with dark blonde hair and flashing green eyes.
"Hunter, what the hell are you doing here?"
"Nice greeting. So I'm not good enough for your family, Duchess? Your Mom invited me," explained Will.
"Remind me to kill her later. It doesn't bother you, being at an all Scott lunch?" I asked.
"Not particularly."
"Full of opinionated loud people who are well aware that they're Tree Hill royalty?" I pressed.
"Sounds good," he said breezily.
"All knowing each other, comparing family stories, bragging about their grandchildren…" I went on.
"As long as there's cake. You going to invite me in?" Standing aside, I glared as him as he walked in.
I walked back to the kitchen, and to my great annoyance, he followed me.
"Hey Joey. Who's your friend?" asked Jenny.
"Don't know, but this is Will Hunter. Hunter this is my Mom, Callie and my Aunts, Tess, Jenny and Lauren," I said, indicating them as I came to their names. He nodded, and as if he had flicked a switch, turned on his charm. He smiled and shook hands with each of them, exchanging pleasantries. He knew my Mom and Tess fairly well, because he was friends with both Tara and Gavin, but he'd never met Lauren or Jenny. Mom sent me a sympathetic look-she knew the 'relationship' between us.
As soon as I was able, I escaped upstairs to my own room. To my surprise, my bed was already occupied. Lissie was sitting on my comforter, staring tediously out the window.
"Well, you sure look like you're having fun," I said brightly, moving over to the bed. She slid onto my lap
"Isabel and Michael are with Charlie, Gav and Aidan are with Tara, Mom's with the Aunts and Uncle John's with Daddy. I'm all alone," she lamented.
"Why don't you go talk to Grandma?" I said, tasting the unfamiliar word on my tongue. Peyton had been about thirty eight when I'd been born, as my other grandparents had been, and none of them would hear of us calling them 'grandma' or grandpa' but they'd been older when Lissie had come along, so she called them by more traditional names.
"Which Grandma's here?" she asked suspiciously.
"Peyton," I supplied. She looked blank. "Uh, Mommy's Mommy."
Lissie nodded eagerly and slid off my lap again to go find her.
I jumped up when the doorbell rang, knowing who it would finally be. I flew down the stairs and reached the doorway before the Aunts in the kitchen could.
"Haley!" I cried, springing at her. Laughing, she hugged me back. I loved all my grandparents, but Haley was more special. Besides the fact that I was her namesake (Jordan Haley Scott) I looked almost exactly as she had at my age.
"Ah, mini Hales. How you doing kid?" asked Nathan. I grinned at him fondly. All my relatives had married young, but my parents had been almost eighteen, while Nathan and Haley had been barely sixteen.
Haley looped an arm around my shoulders and we went into the living room to talk. I told her everything about the last few weeks of school, Hunter's existence, Daddy's worries over Tara, Gavin, Hunter and Aidan, my plans for the basketball team.
"So, any boy news?" she asked, when I was finished recounting.
"I just told you all about boys," I said, innocently pretending to misunderstand.
"What, Aidan?" she said surprise. She knew how I felt about him, how I felt about other people feelings about my feelings for him.
"No," I said shortly.
"What, that Hunter kid?"
"No, I just mean I have no boy stories. Not right now. But I signed up for tutoring!" I said brightly.
"You'll be great," she assured me.
"Thanks. It's pretty weird, how freaky Daddy is getting with Tara," I commented.
"Not really. His wife, his mother, his mother in law, his sister, his grandmother were all pregnant teenagers. He's trying to evade fate," she said.
"I've tried that before. Never worked out so well," I said.
"So I'd imagine. By the way, if you started up a girl's team it would be fairly awesome," she said.
"I know. And there's no way in hell I'm going to be a cheerlead or a pregnant teenager so I've got to be some kind of Scott, right?" I said. She smiled.
"Right. It almost sickens me, how much this town sucks up to the biggest fish in the pond," she said.
"It must have been weird for you, having a life before and after… Scottdom," I said. She smiled.
"It was pretty crazy. Instant popularity. Now come on, lunch is ready," she said. I stood up and she looped her arm through mine and my grandmother and I walked into the kitchen.