Chapter 5

It was now Monday morning and it was time to go to school again. Haley really wasn't up for it but she knew that she eventually had to go back so it might as well be now.

"Haley! Are you ready"? Nathan called from the other room interrupting Haley's thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm almost done," she called back.

'Nathan…' Haley thought. Last night had been another night that he had left her alone in their bed to go sleep in their couch instead. 'In other words, he'll go to school with me but he won't sleep with me. That's just great.' Haley took her bag from the closet and then went to meet her husband outside where he was waiting for her.

"You ready?" he asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be." she said and grabbed her jacket and her things.

Since they didn't have a car anymore they walked in silence to school, wrapped up in their own thoughts. They both wondered how their day was going to be but they knew that however it would turn out, it was not going to be a pleasure.

When they got to school about 20 minutes later they immediately saw people staring and pointing at them, but thankfully they also saw their friends heading straight for them.

"Hi guys!" Brooke greeted them.

"Hey."

"How are you holding up?" Lucas asked Haley.

"Pretty much the same only now the whole school treats me like America's most wanted."

"It's not that bad."

"Actually it's worse. But thanks for asking."

"It's what I do. Anyway, we should get to class. It starts like in 5 minutes."

"Okay, let's go."

They five of them walked their way through the halls of Tree Hill High with even more people staring and pointing at them. That was at least until they heard a very familiar voice behind them.

"Scott!"

The five friends turned around and saw coach Whitey Durham standing in front of them.

"Coach," Lucas and Nathan said at the same time.

"I need to talk to you."

"Sure," they both said and making their way towards the coach.

"Not you two idiots! The Mrs!"

When Haley realized that the coach was talking about her she walked up to him a little confused.

"But coach, I have class. If I go with you then I'm going to be late."

"Then you'll be late," was all Whitey said and left the hallway, forcing Haley to go after him.

"I'll just see you guys later," Haley said before she left, leaving Nathan and the others confused behind.

"What could Whitey want with Haley?" Nathan asked Lucas on their way to class.

"I don't know but I'm sure Haley will tell us later. Right know we have class," Lucas answered and opened the door to one of the classrooms.

"Nice of you to join us Mr. Scott", said the English teacher. "Both of you."

"Yeah, whatever," Nathan said.

"Where is Haley?"

"Whitey wanted to talk to her," Lucas answered.

"Okay, then we are just going to have to begin without her. So..."

Meanwhile Haley was now in Whitey office looking nervous which Whitey noticed.

"There's no need to be nervous, darling," he said.

"Okay...So why did you ask me to come?"

"First of all, I don't ask, I tell and second of al,l I wanted to know how you've been since the accident."

"Oh. Well I'm happy that I don't have to go to jail but I also feel really...guilty."

"That's understandable."

"Yeah..."

"And how is Nathan and your friends handling it?"

"I'm not sure...I heard them talking a few nights ago and they said that it was going to be really hard, not just for me but for them as well. So that kind of made me feel even worse."

"I'm sure they will be fine."

"I don't know. Nathan is really freaked out. He won't even sleep in the same bed as me anymore. He just goes and sleep on the couch when he thinks I'm asleep," she confided.

"I'm sure he'll get over it."

"It's not that easy. I don't even know why I'm telling you this."

"Maybe it's because you have wanted to talk about it for a while now but you haven't had anyone to really talk to."

"Maybe you're right."

"Of course I am."

"Right," Haley smiled at that.

"Well if you want to go to class now, you are free to go. Just remember that if you need anything, you know where to find me."

"Thanks, coach." With that, Haley left to go to her class.

It was now lunch time and Haley was sitting alone in the cafeteria since Nathan, Brooke, Peyton and even Lucas had left her to do something else. But of course Haley had said that it was okay when they had asked. She shouldn't keep them here if they didn't really want to, right?

She saw a girl walking towards her but couldn't really place her even though she looked familiar.

"Excuse me, Kelly Clarkson? Sorry, I meant Haley."

Now Haley remembered. It was the bitch who had pushed her earlier this year after she had gotten back from the tour.

"What do you want?"

"I just wondered if you could tell me how it feels to actually kill someone?" she asked with a smug smile.

"Leave me alone!"

"Oh, feisty!"

"You got ten seconds to get out of my way or..."

"Or what?"

"Just leave me alone!" she warned.

"Fine...but it isn't over!" the other girl said and walked away in a huff.

Haley ignored the girl who she still couldn't remember the name of. All she knew was that she hated her. But she wasn't going to let her ruin her day. And neither would the other eight students who made some kind of stupid remark on her way to the next class either.

On the other side of the school there was another fight waiting to happen. But this time it was between Nathan and another student whose name was Jason Bradley.

"So Nathan...How does it feel having a killer for a wife?" Jason asked Nathan.

"I'm going to pretend that I did not just hear that."

"I can ask you the question again. How does it feel...?"

"Shut up!" Nathan told him sternly and gave him a threatening glare.

"What? I'm just stating the truth."

"You don't know the truth."

"What? She didn't kill a man?"

"Mind your own business!"

"Maybe I should just ask your wife."

"That's it!" Nathan was on his way to hit Jason hard when Lucas stopped him.

"Come on, Nate, calm down. He's not worth it!" Lucas said.

"You leave Haley and me the hell alone, you hear me!" Nathan said, pointing at Jason.

"Or what?" Jason challenged him, walking closer.

"Or I will kill you. Trust me." Nathan said and you could tell that he was being serious. After that he walked away with Lucas.

"Can you see all these people staring at us?" Brooke whispered to Peyton.

"Unfortunately."

"This isn't fair! We didn't do anything!" Brooke whined.

"I know but think about what Haley's going through."

"I know but still!"

"Shh! Haley's coming," Peyton said when she saw Haley coming from the gym on her way home.

"Hello, Tutorwife!" Brooke greeted her friend.

"Hey! What's up?" Haley asked her friends.

"Um...nothing much. Where's Nathan?"

"He still has practice."

"Okay. Wow, look at the time," Brooke said, looking at her watch. "I really have to go. Peyton do you wanna come with?""

"Sure...?"

"Okay. See ya later Haley!" Brooke said and walked off with Peyton.

"See ya!" Haley called after them and watched her friends go...somewhere. 'Okay, that was weird...No one has ever ran away that fast from me before' she thought while she was walking back home.

The rest of the week was pretty much the same. People making stupid comments, Nathan sleeping in the other room thinking that she didn't notice, her friends ignoring and avoiding her at school, even Lucas who was the most supportive one and so on...

Haley didn't know what to do. She just wanted things to get back to normal. With the guilt of killing a man and not having any of her friends support anymore, she honestly didn't know how to keep on going.