A/N: If anyone would like to volunteer to be my beta reader that would be awesome. Just e-mail me, my address is on my bio page.

Chapter Two

Peyton Sawyer loved springtime. She loved watching the flowers blossom and the grass and trees turn green again after winter. Spring showed the full beauty of nature and for that it was her favorite season. If she didn't have school she could have spent all day in the park drawing different sceneries of plants starting their journey back to life. As she stepped onto the sidewalk near the school, her mind was far from textbooks and homework. She begrudged having to stay inside all day when the weather was so nice.

She was jarred from her thoughts when she saw her friend Jake walking towards the school's main entrance. She hurried to catch up with him, pushing through the waves of traffic. She didn't reach him until he got to his locker, halfway down the first main hallway.

"Hey Jake!" she greeted with a warm smile. He looked back at her and returned the smile, but she noticed it didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Hey, what's going on?" he replied.

"The usual. Life around here is so incredibly dull."

"Yeah, I hear that." Jake's smile faded a bit, reminding Peyton of why she wanted to talk to him.

"Hey, is everything okay? You've been really distracted for a few weeks now."

"Yeah, I'm cool. Just life stuff, you know?"

"You're sure? Because, you can talk to me if there's something going on." Peyton was good at reading people, and from the time that she had spent with Jake she knew that he was beating around the bush. "Listen, I just feel like we've become friends in the past two months, and you told me you were around if I needed anything. Just don't forget that it's a two-way street, all right?"

He closed his locker and was silent for a minute. "Jenny's mom is back," he told her quietly. "So far she hasn't done much but come around to visit Jenny, but… she wants Jenny for herself, I know she does."

Jake was a teenaged father and Jenny was his daughter. Peyton had seen first hand how much he loved Jenny, but he had never before brought up the subject of her mother.

"Wow. I'm so sorry, Jake. I know how much you love Jenny." Peyton paused, trying to find something comforting to say but coming up empty. "Is it possible that she just wants to be a part of Jenny's life in any way possible? Do you know for sure that she wants to take Jenny from you?"

With a heavy sigh, Jake shook his head. "Nikki is an all-or-nothing kind of girl. She's like that in every area of her life. She wanted nothing from me or from Jenny in all these months. She's back for a reason. What else would that reason be but to take Jenny for herself?"

"Jake, I really don't know what to say…"

"It's okay, Peyton. You don't have to say anything. I'm just waiting for the moment when she announces that she's taking Jenny. What will I do?"

"Fight her on it. You're a good dad, Jake; anyone can see that. This Nikki girl hasn't been around at all, no court would make you give up Jenny to her."

"I hope you're right, but—I guess I just have a really bad feeing, you know. A sense of dread about the whole situation."

*****

"So how do you like living on your own?" Haley asked her boyfriend as they met up by the basketball court, where they always met fifteen minutes before the first bell rang.

"It's all right," Nathan replied with a frown on his face. "I'm still getting used to it. You should come over tonight, we'll hang."

"Cool. Are you all unpacked already? It hasn't been that long since you got your own place."

"Haley, I have a one-bedroom apartment, and not that much stuff now that I'm on my own. A tornado could go through it and it wouldn't look that much different."

"If you say so," Haley said with a laugh. "Okay, I'll come over tonight and you can cook me dinner."

"Oh no. No, no," Nathan protested, a look of fear on his face. "I don't want to burn down the apartment complex in my first month living there."

"You are not that bad," she insisted as they started walking towards the school.

"You've never seen me cook, Haley."

"Nobody is that bad unless they're grossly inattentive," she said but got no reply from her boyfriend. He just looked at her with pleading eyes. "Oh, fine. We can cook dinner together but don't think you get off. I'm not doing all the work."

"All right, all right. If those are your terms, I accept."

The two turned towards each other and kissed. Nathan took the ends of a few strands of her hair, sifting them in his fingers.

"Nathan…" Haley said, unsure of bringing up the topic she wanted to ask him about. It had been on her mind lately, and more importantly she knew it had been on his. "Have you talked to either of your parents at all?"

She almost regretted the question when he inhaled deeply, taking a step back from her.

"I talked to my dad this morning," he answered. He gave a cynical chuckle. "He's still trying to control my life. He doesn't get it. For him it's about what he wants and nothing else."

Haley rubbed her boyfriend's shoulder sympathetically. "What about your mom?"

"I talked to her on Sunday for a few minutes. She keeps saying how much she misses me. She wants us to have lunch soon."

"Well hey! That's a great idea, Nathan," Haley exclaimed. He just gave her a dreadful look. "Oh come on. You need to bridge the distance that's grown between you two."

"No, that distance has always been there. That's the problem. She handed tome to dad to do whatever he wanted because she couldn't stand up to him. That's how he started controlling my life, Haley."

"Well he isn't anymore, Nathan. You control your own life."

"I know I do, I just… I want a little more time to get my head around all of this."

The happy couple walked into the high school together, avoiding the large crowds that amassed near the main entrance. Instead they walked around to the east door, which saw much less traffic. On their way to History, which was their first class and the only one they shared, they passed Lucas at his locker.

"Hey Lucas!" Haley greeted, stopping herself and Nathan and turning to the blond.

Lucas shut his locker and turned to the two. "Hey, what's going on?"

"You've been a stranger lately," Haley told him with a frown.

"Yeah, I've been busy. I'm finally starting to lift weights and stuff in physical therapy, and between that and homework…"

"How is the shoulder coming?" Nathan asked, genuinely interested. He and his half-brother never had anything to get along about but Nathan was trying. Lucas was Haley's best friend and that meant a lot to her.

"Slowly and painfully," Lucas replied, also trying to get along. "But I might be able to play for finals."

Nathan merely nodded, not exactly happy but not unhappy by the news either. Lucas had taken his spot on the basketball team when he joined, and Nathan's bruised ego was still slowly healing.

"Hey, I uh—I heard you got your own place. How do you like it?" Lucas asked tentatively, also trying to get along.

"It's nice. No one bosses me around, you know? I had to get a job to be able to afford it, but that's life, right?"

Lucas nodded and then turned back to Haley. "Do you want to have lunch today? We both have fifth period free. Thursdays are pizza days."

"Yeah the only decent food our school ever has," she replied. "Yeah, I'll meet you in the cafeteria. I have to stop by the library first though, I need to return the book I checked out for my English essay."

"That's cool. I'll get us a table and stuff."

"Hey, Nathan, you have fifth free right?" Haley asked, already knowing the answer. "Do you want to join us?" While she was happy that the two were at least attempting to get along, Haley wanted more than that. The two were brothers and they were both such great guys. She knew them both well enough to know that they needed each other. Dan's abandonment of Lucas had vershadowed his entire life, and she knew he wondered why he wasn't good enough to be accepted or ever acknowledged. And Nathan's rejection of his brother, and his tendency to rub Dan in Lucas' face at every possible moment, had made those wounds deeper. Dan would do nothing about it so Nathan was the only one who could heal Lucas in that area.

Nathan needed someone in his life who had stability—someone who was not her. Something she worried that Nathan depended on her too much. She truly loved him but knew she could not be all things to him. He needed something from his family to show him what having a strong family was like: Lucas was loyal and loved whole-heartedly. If they would only accept each other as brothers, they would do each other a world of good.

"No, no, that's okay. You and Lucas should have some time. I'll eat with the guys," Nathan insisted. He did not care much for the idea of spending more time with Lucas than was necessary. He could see by Lucas' face that he wasn't pleased with the idea, either, so he didn't feel bad about cutting out.

"Besides, what would we have to talk about anyway? We could share sob stories about being abandoned by our parents."

Once the words were out of his mouth Nathan knew he shouldn't said it. Haley smacked him lightly, giving him the annoyed look she always did when he said or did something stupid. It was the look on Lucas' face, however, that made him wish he'd kept his mouth shut.

In Lucas' expression was a strange mix of anger, hurt, and vulnerability. He glared at Nathan. "Your mom not abandon you," he seethed.

"What would you know about it?" Nathan barked angrily.

"I know, okay? Your mom loves you; she came back for you! Her leaving didn't even have anything to do with you, and she came back before you even knew!"

"No, she left me with him. You have no idea what went on that summer, or the things that went on for years after that because she did what she did."

"Okay, hey stop!" Haley cut in. "Don't argue about this! Geez, you two turn everything into a fight! Come on, Nathan, we have class."

*****

"Hey Brooke!" Peyton hurried to catch up wit her former best friend, who actually turned around and waited for her, even if it was with a cold glare.

"What do you want?"

"I'm going to have a get-together with all the girls from the squad tomorrow night. Do you want to come?"

"Why would I want to come and hang out with you at your place? We both know about the company you keep, but I don't like hanging out with betrayers."

Peyton sighed as Brooke walked away. Brooke had been this hostile ever since finding out that Peyton and Lucas had been seeing each other behind Brooke's back, while Brooke and Lucas were together, and then in secret after Lucas had broken it off with Lucas. Peyton knew she had hurt her best friend but didn't know how much longer she could take the verbal abuse.

Brooke, meanwhile, fumed as she stormed down the hall but when she got to her Biology class, she had calmed down. A month and a half later, the betrayal still hurt, and while in Peyton or Lucas' presence the anger was what came out, when she was alone it was more pain and loneliness that she felt. Peyton and Lucas had been the two most important people in her life. Her mom barely paid attention to her so they had been all she had. What was worse was that they knew how much they meant to her and still had betrayed her. Brooke could not fathom ever forgiving either of them.

*****

By the time fifth period rolled around, Lucas was starving. He headed for the cafeteria, briefly contemplating going to the library to meet Haley there instead. He decided against the idea because he knew if he didn't get in line for food fairly quickly he'd end up waiting forever before he could eat.

He was among the first of the students to get to the cafeteria so the line wasn't too long yet. He picked up two trays to get food for Haley as well. Whenever they had lunch together the first one in line would always get food for the other. As he recalled this, he realized how long it'd been since the two of them had lunch together. It hadn't been since the beginning of the school year.

Once he'd gotten their food, Lucas headed towards an empty table near the middle of the cafeteria. He could watch the door for Haley from there without being too close to the peppy cheerleaders who always liked to eat near the door. He knew Brooke had this hour off and he didn't really want to see her. Every time they encountered each other Brooke's mood always crashed and his was quick to follow. They were better off not coming face to face.

As he sat down some guys from the basketball team took seats two tables away. Jake called out to him and invited him over.

"No, thanks, I'm meeting Haley and we're eating together. Catch up, you know?"

Lucas looked over at Nathan, who was staring at him with an unreadable expression. The two stared at each other for a minute, neither forgetting their words from that morning. After a minute, the blond turned back to Jake.

"Thanks for the invite, though. Hey, how's Jenny?"

"She's good. She's such a happy baby," Jake replied with a smile. "Sometimes I just want to protect her from the world you know?"

"Hey you've got a few years before you even have to worry about that."

Jake nodded, his expression falling slightly. Lucas wanted to ask him if anything was wrong but he never got the chance. With his back to the doors that led outside, he never knew anything was amiss until the gunfire first began.

TBC

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