Chapter 3

Peyton and Luke had already met a couple of times to "work on their project", in other words talk about Brooke as they made no effort into their PowerPoint presentation on World War I. Luke had opened up to Peyton and it was easy to see that he was as crazy about Brooke as Brooke was about him. Peyton was happy to hook them up and now they are a happy couple; holding hands and kissing every chance they got. They couldn't be happier.

Brooke however, was having some trouble getting Jake to open up. She had gone over to the library to pick up a couple books on their topic, the French Revolution. She drove over to Jake's house in her silver convertible bug, and found him on the front steps playing his guitar.

"Hey Jake." Brooke said as she got out of her car and held the books in her arms. "I thought we could maybe work a little on our project." She had no intetion of talking about History with Jake however. Her intentions were clearly to get him to confess about his feelings for Peyton, if he had any, which Brooke thought, he definitaly did.

"Oh, well..." Jake glanced back at his house, which seemed to be empty. "Now's, uh... now's not really a good time, Brooke." He said, trying to sound casual. Jenny was at home, sleeping, and he didn't want Brooke to find out about her.

"Yeah, I can tell you're really busy." Brooke stated, sarcasticly.

"Brooke, please, can we just do this another time. I promise, we will get this project done eventualy." Oh please, Brooke thought, as if she cared about the project. But her and Lucas were already together and she owed it to Peyton to at least try to get Jake to talk.

"Jake Jegelski! I just busted my $$ off getting all these books from the library. I am Brooke Davis! I don't normaly go near a library but now it's time for you to work a little too. You do not say no to me, mister! You can play your little songs later, Okay? It's not like your really busy? Unless there is something you're not telling me. Man, you need to decide who you are. Half the time you're Mr. Nice guy, the other half you're Mr. Mystery. Just choose one already! But we really need to work, so you are gonna let me in!" Brooke yelled. She wasn't actualy mad and she thought it was kind of snoty of her to play the popularity card on him, but desperate times called for desperate measures. And she was going to talk to Jake if it was the last thing she did! She gave off the appearance of being sweet and fragile, but she liked acting tough from time to time because it always had a great impact on the person's reaction. Jake was no different. He was shocked out of his skull! He didn't even say anything. "Come on, Jake," Brooke softened up a little and pouted, "please."

Jake sighed and muttered, "Come on in, Brooke." He settled down his guitar on a chair on his porch and opened the door. Brooke followed him into the living room where she saw a baby crib. Wow, his parents must have had Jake when they were really young if their still reproducing, thought Brooke. But she welcomed the thought of Jake having a baby sibling, because she loved babies.

"Aw, Jake! You didn't tell me you had a baby sister!" Brooke squealed, guessing the sex of the baby by all the pink that surrounded her in the crib. The baby was sound asleep and the cutest baby Brooke had ever seen. "What's her name?" she asked.

"Jenny," Jake said, he sounded a little nervous, "and, uh, she's not my sister." Jake stated, slowly. He glanced at Brooke's face, hoping that he didn't need to go any further and that she would get it.

"Wait... Are you saying she's...? Is she?" Brooke couldn't even say it. She was too shocked.

"Yeah, she's all mine." Jake said. He thought he would be scared to admit it, but it actualy felt really good to finaly tell someone. He started to rethink his idea about keeping Jenny a secret. Jenny was his beautiful baby girl, and she was nothing to hide.

"Wow, Jake. That is incredible. But how...?" She didn't feel she needed to finish. She felt a little weird prying into Jake's life, they weren't even really that great of friends, but she needed to know.

"Um, well, it's kind of a long story. Let's just say, it's just me and Jenny now." Brooke nodded.

"She's beautiful." Brooke said. She was starting to forget about why she even came there.

"Yeah, isn't she?" Jake chuckled a little as he admired for the ten-thousandth time, how adorable his daughter really was. "You're not going to tell Peyton, are you?" Jake asked, really worried. He wasn't doing too well with Peyton, and he thought that if she knew about this she would for sure never consider him for being... well anything at all.

"No." Brooke stated, getting an idea. "But you are." Jake looked at her confused. "Jake, I'm not going to lie to you. She likes you. Or, I mean, she's interested. This'll interest her even more, trust me. But if you want to have a shot with her, then you have to be honest about this before you make your move. If you want a good relationship with Peyton, then you can't hide Jenny from her, and you know it." Brooke wasn't scolding him. She said all this with an honest, peaceful look in her eyes. And Jake knew that she was right. Heck, he was tired of hiding Jenny. It would be a relief to show her off to his new friends. He knew that the true ones would stick by him. He also knew that he needed to tell Peyton fast. He could tell that the occasional smile he gave her was definitaly not enough to keep her interested in him. Jake made a check-list in his mind: 1) Tell Peyton about Jenny, 2) Tell Peyton how you feel about you, 3) Take really really cold shower. He decided, after Brooke had left, to go with number 3 first, he really needed it now.

Jake was trying to think up a plan. How to tell Peyton, when, where, etc... He didn't notice that he was just letting the days past and soon it was already Octobre and he had no idea what to do about Peyton. He couldn't just go up to her and tell her, could he? He was woken from his thoughts at the sound of Jenny's cries. It was early morning on a Saturday, and he was still in bed. He climed out and walked over to his daughter's crib.

Once Jenny was calmed, and asleep, he picked up his guitar and started to walk outside. When he saw that it was pooring rain he stoped dead in his tracks. It wasn't that long ago that it was summer, and all of a sudden it's raining like there's no tomorrow! He sat down, no longer in the mood to play his guitar. He heard the incecent tapping sound the rain made when it his his roof. For some reason it really annoyed him, he wanted to just tear the roof down and let him get soaked. What did he care? It'd actualy be refreshing, Jake thought. He had had enough of all this stalling around. He searched his room for the school directory and found it under his bed. He flipped it over to the 'S' section and saw that the first name there listed was infact, Peyton Sawyer. Even though that was the name he was looking for, it still made his heart jump when he saw it. He took several deap breaths, glanced over at Jenny, still asleep, and dialed the number quickly while he still had the nerve.

"Hello?" Peyton answered, after a couple rings. Jake could hear Rooney playing in the background.

"Uh, ya, Peyton, hi." Jake stumbled with his words. Great job, he thought to himself.

"Who is this?" Peyton asked. Jake felt like an idiot. Of course she isn't gonna recognise your voice!

"Oh, oh right. This is Jake. I'm, uh, in your History class. I sit-" He was interupted by Peyton's words.

"Next to me. Yeah, I know who you are. What's up, Jake?" Peyton was surprised to hear that it was Jake who called her. What did he have to say to her? He had been ignoring her pretty much for weeks. She just figured that Brooke had told him that she had feelings for him but that he didn't feel the same way. But now with him calling... Snap out of it Peyton! she thought, he could just want to know the homework or something!

"Um, well," Jake said, wondering if he had the nerve. He just decided to go for it, "It's kind of hard to explain over the phone. Can, um, do you think you could come over?" Jake said, hoping the answer was yes. Peyton agreed, directions were given and Peyton was now, already on her way there.