Thanks for every single review, since this was my first story I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but it certainly was a learning experience. Your reviews helped me a lot and hopefully my story Back to the Life will turn out as successful as this.

I wasn't certain how I wanted to end this story, but after much thought. I figured I spent enough time on the couples and not enough on the friendship, so this is what I came up with.

Chapter 10: Lessons learned
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"Haley…" Lucas whined, following her into their house.

"I already told you. I'm done talking about this."

"Haley… how could you have done that?"

"Nathan did too!" Haley pointed out as they reached her room. Ever since the news came out at the café, Lucas had been interrogating Haley.

"Yeah, but you're my innocent little cousin," Lucas pouted, holding her shoulders.

Haley walked to her closet and pulled out a suitcase. "And he's your innocent little brother!"

"How did you just put innocent and Nathan into one sentence without cracking up?" Lucas asked, going up to the suitcase and pulling out the clothes she was tossing into it.

"Lucas…"

"I just want you to be happy." Lucas sat down on her bed. Haley sat beside him and laid her head on his shoulder. "I'm happy with Jake."

"I'll miss you." Lucas laid his head on hers and sighed. "But if you're happy, I trust your judgment."

"Sorry about Brooke."

"It's your fault that she followed us half-way home, begging me to get married."

"It was pretty funny when we passed the old lady," Haley laughed at the memory.

"How ironic was it that she happened to be there when Brooke was offering sex everyday in the shower as a bribe for marriage?" They both laughed at the thought. Lucas turned and kissed Haley's head.

"I love you, Luke."

"Love you, Cuz. Or should I say Mrs. Jageilski?"
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Jake and Haley had now told both of their parents about the unexpected marriage. Jake's parents were nothing but supportive, while Haley's parents gave them a couple thousand dollars and took a red-eye flight to Paris. Haley had moved in with Jake and his family until they could leave for college together.

Peyton and Nathan were still both hiding in bliss from their problems. After they had fearfully told Dan and Deb Scott about being married, Nathan moved in with Peyton and got a job at the café working for Karen. They didn't really mind being cut off from Dan's money, but both knew that college would be difficult.

After much persuasion, Lucas had talked Brooke out of getting married and instead told her that they could rent an apartment during college and get a dog. Brooke had agreed and they had to look for a poodle and name it Princess Rainbow. They were still dating, but after Karen walked in on a half-naked Brooke on top of a completely naked Lucas, they spent a lot more time at her house.

The six of them were sitting in Karen's café a couple weeks later. They had all received their college acceptance letters and were ready to decide where they were going to go. All of them wanted to stay together, but the only colleges they all applied to were UNC and NYU.

"Who wants to open theirs first?" Haley asked looking at everyone, stopping at Brooke when she saw her nod. "Okay, Brooke, where did you get in?"

Brooke slowly opened her four letters before looking up at everyone and lifting two of them up, "I got into NYU and UCLA." Brooke looked at Lucas knowing that he had at least applied to one of them and smiled when she saw him pick his off the table.

"I'll go next." Lucas quickly opened his and looked up sadly. "I didn't get into UNC or NYU." Everyone frowned and Brooke felt like crying, never had she expected to go to college alone. When she saw her boyfriend smile she wanted to hit him; how could he be so happy about going to different colleges? "But… I did get into Duke and… UCLA."

"You… You applied to UCLA?" Brooke asked, getting a nod in response. "We're going to UCLA?" Lucas nodded again and took her into his arms. Shortly after, she pulled back and hit him in the arm.

"What was that for!"

"For making me think I was going to have to go to college with these losers alone!"

"Hey!" Haley reached over Jake to playfully hit Brooke.

"Sorry, Tutorgirl, I'm just trying to tell you the truth."

"Yeah, because I'm in denial," Haley deadpanned.

"You know what they say, baby, the first step is admitting you have a problem," Jake laughed.

Haley gave him an evil glare and smirked. "You know what they say, BABY, the first step is taking away the sex."

"I'd shut up if I were you, Jake." Nathan teased, earning a laugh from everyone. "Now, I'll go next."

Peyton was scared. She knew that he wouldn't normally leave her, but what if… no, he wouldn't leave her. It's not like everyone had left her, just her mom and dad. "Okay…"

"P. Scott, are you okay?" Peyton smiled, she would sure miss Brooke. The sad part is that she didn't even like Brooke until the beginning of that year. Now at least two of her good friends were going all the way to California for college. Of course she wasn't okay, but she wouldn't let Brooke know that she was the reason, so she rolled her eyes and nodded her head.

Everyone sat there silently once again while waiting for Nathan to read all of his letters. Every once in a while he would look up and frown. By the time he was done all five them were seriously scared. "Okay, so I got into NYU and Duke." Nathan whispered and two of them knew the true significance of what he said.

"Nathan… you don't have to do what Dan wants." Lucas said hesitantly.

"I know, bro, I guess I'll have to wait for Peyton to open hers."

Peyton rolled her eyes at Nathan's impatient tone and opened her envelopes so quickly that the laughter hadn't died down yet. "I got accepted!"

"Where?" Everyone asked watching Peyton with wide eyes.

"At this really good art school. It even has music studies." Peyton looked up expecting to she thrilled face, but instead was surrounded by frowns and faces of disappointment. "Oh yeah and its a couple miles away from NYU."

Haley stared at her two cousins and her two best friends. They were all extremely happy and here she was, jealous of what they had. She didn't even know if she and Jake had applied to any of the same schools other than NYU. She was torn from her thoughts when Jake put his hand on her shoulder and asked if she was ready.

"Yeah, but let's open them together."

"How cute, they are opening theirs together. Lucas… why didn't we open ours together?" Brooke whined.

"Hales, you and Jake have to stop making me look bad."

"Hey, Nathan and Peyton got married, too," Haley reminded him, laughing when Brooke pouted to Lucas again.

"Can we just get this over with?" Jake whined, mocking Brooke.

Haley looked down at her envelopes and nodded. As she opened them, she had to stop her heart from beating out of her chest. Jake looked at her when he was finished and saw that she hadn't opened hers yet. He picked her chin up with his pointer finger so that she was looking at him and gave her a quick kiss.

Haley finished opening hers and turned to Jake and showed him. He smiled while he looked up at the other couples. "We're going to Stanford!"

"Yay, Tutorgirl! Not only did we both get into schools with our lovers we also got on the other coast from those two losers." Brooke said pointing to Peyton and Nathan making out.

"Lucas, please control your woman," Nathan said while Peyton laughed.

"You're kidding right? Come on, she's got me whipped."

Nathan and Jake laughed while the girls just hit their respective men. "Hey, Peyton has Nathan by the balls," Brooke smirked at her boyfriend's brother, making a gesture with her hands.

Nathan looked at Peyton in shock. "Peyton Elisabeth Scott!"

"Don't worry I'm proud of her." Brooke reasoned. "I can't help it if I taught Tutorgirl and Goldilocks to use sex to their advantage."

The girls smiled at their men before Jake turned to Lucas. "Nathan's right, keep your woman in line, man! For the rest of our sakes, please!"

Two people stood outside watching the interaction with a smile on their faces.

"Do you think they all got into where they want to?" The man asked his wife.

"I think that they are already where they want to be."

"They look happier than I've ever seen them."

"Yeah, I used to see them around the café, but they were never having this much fun."

"What do you think they're talking about?" Keith asked as he turned to watch his wife smile at the kids.

"How would I know, it's probably some type of underage thinking that we wouldn't understand."

The End!

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Okay so that's the end. I know that it was short, but tell me what you think; it could really help me in other stories.