Hey, everyone and merry Christmas (or happy hanukkah... whatever your holiday is). :) How was everyone's Christmas? We celebrate it in Finland on the 24th so yesterday was the big day for us. Thank you ALL for the awesome reviews! You guys are the best!Anyways, moving on with the story. Here's chapter 3. :) Read and review, please.
Chapter 3
It had been one week since Tim's party. Every day was the same for Haley. She played with her guitar writing songs for few hours. After that Brooke and Peyton came over to keep her company while the guys played basketball.
The evenings and nights Haley spent hanging out with Nathan and Tim in the basement where they were playing NBA 2005. She couldn't spend enough time with them ever because Tim always kicked her out but things were getting better between them. Sure, they fought all the time but it was getting less and less serious. They even laughed at the same joke Nathan told them.
"Hello?" Haley answered the house phone. "Hey, mom! Where are you?... Bon jour, to you too!... It's been ok... No, we haven't fought... I'm not lying... OK, so maybe just a little... He's playing basketball with Nathan... Yes, he's nice... Yeah, he's cute... Oh, shut up, mom... Love you too... Yeah, I'll tell him... Miss you!" Haley said and hung up the phone laughing. Her mom always knew how to make her smile.
Haley went outside and jumped over the fence that separated the Scott and the Smith yards. Haley smirked when she saw Nathan and Tim playing ball. Since it was one of the hottest weeks of the year, they were both shirtless.
Haley had seen Nathan without a shirt many times for the past week and every time he seemed to have the same affect on her. Sweaty hands, a racing heart, butterflies on the stomach...
But Haley was realistic. She knew nothing could happen. She lived in Los Angeles, Nathan in Tree Hill. She probably had a second tour coming in the fall and she didn't believe in long distance relationships. And besides, she was certain that Nathan didn't even like her that way. He was just fascinated that she knew so many famous people.
If only she had known better...
"What's up, Haley?" Nathan asked when he saw her walking towards them. "Wanna play some ball?" he asked and handed the ball to her.
"You kidding?" Haley asked when she got the ball and almost dropped it. "I suck at basketball."
"Oh, you can't be worse then Tim." Nathan said while laughing. Tim threw his sweaty shirt at him.
"Very funny, Scott." Nathan dodged the sweaty short in horror. He did not want to get attacked by Tim's disgusting shirt. He kicked the shirt off the field and watched Haley bounce the ball a bit.
"You can score." Tim said to Haley.
"What planet are you living in? I can play guitar and piano. But basketball? Not if my life depended on it." she said laughing and threw the ball at Tim who caught it easily.
"Yeah, you can't play the game, but you can do a free throw." Tim insisted.
"Tim, do you remember that one Christmas in LA when you tried to play against me and I ended up throwing the ball from the 26th floor?" Haley asked.
"What!" Nathan asked in horror. "You could've hurt someone."
"Yeah, thank god for that one car that was parked below the window."
"It was a police car."
"Ooh, that's right. Mom talked us out of charges by giving the man 4 VIP-tickets to her club." Tim said remembering.
"Yeah, so you see my point?" Haley asked.
"No wait, it was that other Christmas. The first one with the She-devil."
"When was that?" Haley asked in confusion.
"Like 3 years ago. You were so bored that you were willing to play against me and I taught you-"
"-to do a free shot." Haley finished when she remembered.
"Free throw." Nathan and Tim said.
"Whatever." She said. Tim handed the ball back to Haley.
"Show us what you got." Nathan said grinning. Haley smiled a bit and went to stand on the free throw line. And with a smooth granny style, she scored.
"I told you you can still do it." Tim said while bouncing the ball.
"You taught her granny style?"
"Nate, my friend. Haley is the most un-sporty person in the world. She flunked P.E in fourth grade." Tim said.
"He's right." Haley said while trying to throw the ball through the net. She missed the whole basket and almost broke the garage window. Nathan quickly went to get the ball.
"I believe you." He said while getting the ball and protecting it from Haley. Nathan heard the house phone ring and went to answer it.
"Anyways, mom called." Haley said to Tim when Nathan disappeared inside his house. Tim bounced the ball but turned to look at her.
"Really? How's she?"
"Good. She's in France. Wanted to know what we wanted for our birthday." Haley said. Tim lost the control of the ball and sighed
"I don't want anything." He said and picked the ball up from the ground.
"What are you talking about?" Haley said smiling.
"I don't need anything." Tim said.
"Oh, don't give me that crap. Even I want something." Haley said.
"What do you want?" Tim asked.
"From mom?" Haley asked. Tim nodded. "A hot French guy, of course. What else?" Haley said joking.
"Funny." Tim said laughing.
"I know." Haley said and winked. Nathan came back that moment. He was followed by Peyton, Jake, Lucas and Brooke.
"Hey guys. What are you doing here?" Tim asked. They usually never hung out at Nathan's because they didn't want to run into Dan.
"No one answered the door so we tried Nathan's." Peyton said.
"You could've just come straight to the backyard." Haley said.
"That's what I said." Brooke said and glared at Lucas, Jake and Peyton.
"We didn't want to be rude." Peyton said and laughed at Brooke's expression.
"From now on, no need to knock." Tim said.
"So, who was on the phone?" Lucas asked from Nathan. Nathan had opened the door for the four while he was talking to someone on the phone.
"Actually, it was Peter." Nathan said while looking at Tim and Haley. Tim and Haley looked at him in surprise.
"Our dad? What did he want?" Tim asked.
"No one answered at your home so he called here. Wanted to let you know he's coming back tomorrow."
"Alone..?" Tim asked hopefully.
"With Shari." Nathan said. Haley huffed in disgust.
"Shari... How is that golddigging skank-of-a stepmother doing these days?" Haley asked from Tim.
"Still trying to convince dad to undo the prenup." Tim said disgusted.
"Any luck?"
"She's still married to him, isn't she." Tim said and smiled at her a bit. Dissing Shari seemed to be the only thing the two agreed on.
"You know, I bet that bitch didn't even tell dad that I'd come one week early."
"Wouldn't be surprised." Tim said.
"Is she really that bad?" Peyton asked.
"Worse." Haley and Tim said at the same time.
"She hates everyone who stands in front of her money." Tim said disgusted.
"Yep and since we are actually blood-related to dad she can't stand us." Haley said.
"Remember when Uncle Wayne died and she went to party because it was one less person on dad's will?"
"She bought first class tickets to Vegas and gambled 15 000 dollars." Haley said angrily. "Let's not talk about the skank anymore. Makes me wanna strangle someone." Haley said.
"Know the feeling." Tim muttered. Haley looked at him smiling.
"Hey, speaking of partying, how are we gonna celebrate our birthday?" Haley asked. Tim looked around embarrassed while his friends looked surprised.
"Tim, I didn't know you have a birthday coming." Brooke said.
"Yeah, me neither." Nathan confessed.
"You really don't know much about him, do you." Haley said again and turned to Tim. "So, how do you wanna celebrate?"
"I don't know." Tim said unenthusiastically.
"Oh, come on. Throw a big party like always." Nathan said.
"I don't care, whatever." He said.
"Well, then it's up to me that the Smith twins will have a proper 18th birthday party." Haley said her eyes gleaming.
"Wait, so is your last name Smith or James?" Brooke asked confused.
"I'm really a Smith, like Tim. I didn't want to use my real last name as my artist name. Mom's maiden name is James so I just used that." Haley explained.
"We can help you with the party, if you want." Brooke offered.
"Yeah, sure. Oh, we're definitely gonna need live music." Haley said.
"At our house?" Tim asked.
"No, we're not having the party at our house, stupid." Haley said smiling.
"Then where?" Lucas asked.
"Well, we need to rent a night club or a bar or something like that. Got any possible places here?" Haley asked and wondered why they were all grinning.
"I partly own a nightclub slash a bar slash a café slash whatever you want it to be." Peyton said smiling.
"Really? Do you think I could rent it for one night?"
"Yeah, of course. When's the big day?"
"August 8th so in about 2 weeks." Haley said.
"Yeah, I'm sure we're available that night." Peyton said.
"Good."
"So, when are you going back to LA?" Tim asked. Haley laughed.
"Trying to get rid of me already?"
"Always." He said smiling.
"Well, for your information, I'm leaving a week after our birthday." Haley said.
"Already?" Brooke asked.
"Yep, that's when mom comes back." Haley said smiling. "But before that, I will throw one kick ass party." She said grinning. Everyone cheered. "But I'm gonna need some help with the food, decorations, etc." Haley said. Brooke waved her hands in the air while grinning madly.
"Me! Me! I want to help! Me!" Brooke yelled enthusiastically.
"Have you ever seen the movie Madagascar?" Haley asked grinning. Nathan started to laugh out loud while the rest of them stared at them with weird looks on their faces.
"No, I haven't. Why?" she asked.
"Never mind." Haley said while still laughing with Nathan. Apparently they were the only two who had seen it.
"Anyways, Peyton and I will help you, right?" Brooke asked from Peyton.
"Yeah, whatever you need."
"Ooh, a project!" Haley said and clapped her hands enthusiastically.
"You're crazy." Tim said.
"That I am."
"I gotta go buy some food from the store." Tim said.
"Why now?" Haley asked.
"Dad left me 100 bucks for food and if he sees that there's no food on the fridge, he'll flip." Tim said.
"Go, go! I want some real food!" Haley said excited.
"Oh, I'm not going yet. We're not done with the game." Tim said.
"Well, how about you guys stay here while me, Haley and Peyton go shopping." Brooke said.
"Fine by me." Tim said.
"Fantastic." Brooke said and started to drag Peyton and Haley towards the car.
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"I don't know about this... Maybe I should just wait in the car." Haley said from the back seat while Brooke was parking the car in front of the store.
"Why?" Peyton asked.
"I have spent the whole week inside the house. I don't know if I'm ready for the public yet." She said quietly.
"You're gonna have to face them sooner or later." Brooke said softly. "But if you're not ready yet, we understand." She said. Haley thought about it for a moment.
"You're right, I can't hide forever. Let's go shopping!" she said while getting out of the car. She slammed the car door shut and started to walk towards the front door with Brooke and Peyton. When she opened the doors she instantly wished she had brought a pair of sunglasses of a hat or anything to cover her face. People were staring at her again. She took a deep breath.
"Let's get this over with." She said to herself and started to walk inside the store.
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"Finally some real food! I've been eating pizza and Chinese for the past week." Haley said while grabbing different items.
"Yeah, tell me about it. Lucas has been feeding me so much pizza that I feel I've gained like 10 pounds in a week."
"See, that's what I hate about guys." Peyton started. "They can eat whatever they want, whenever they want and they still don't gain a pound."
"It's the frigging metabolism." Brooke said. "Ooh, brownie mix." She said and grabbed the box from the shelf. Haley smiled at her. This isn't so bad she thought. Sure, people were staring at her but nothing more than that.
"I guess this could be worse." Haley said to herself when they were walking towards the check-out counter. She was definitely right about that.
"Ooh, raisins..." Brooke mumbled while grabbing boxes from the shelf.
"Brooke, we don't need raisins." Peyton said laughing.
"So?" she asked.
"Why would you buy something we don't need?"
"You mean shopping for more useless crap isn't the meaning of life?" Peyton and Haley just laughed.
They walked to the back of the line and waited for their turn. People were whispering to each other and looking at Haley but she acted like nothing was wrong.
Haley gave some money to Peyton and Brooke who were by the check out. While waiting for the girls to pay their food Haley looked around. Her eyes stopped at the cover of Us Weekly. She felt the blood run out of her face.
People in the store looked at her and the cover of the magazine and started to whisper even louder. Haley took the magazine and stared at the picture and the headline.
Chris Keller caught with another new girl.
The picture had Keller and some blonde girl in it. The girl was sitting on his lap, kissing him heavily and his hands were under her shirt. She wasn't even the same girl she caught Chris in bed with. Haley flipped the magazine with shaky hands until she reached the page with the article.
Only few weeks after his break up from his long time girlfriend, Grammy-nominee Haley James, Chris Keller was seen with another new girl in a night club in Los Angeles. We were told that they were kissing heavily the entire night and that they left the club together. Few weeks earlier James had caught Keller with another girl and ended the relationship with him. The girl that was seen in the night club was not the same girl he cheated James with. Neither Keller nor James was reached for a comment.
Haley let the magazine drop to the floor. She could feel tears on the corner of her eyes and she quickly blinked them back. She was determined not to cry in front of all the other people. She was determined not to cry in front of anyone. In fact, she didn't cry. Ever. Being in the music business for so long had taught her that crying was for losers and losers didn't succeed.
She slowly picked up the magazine and put it back where she got it. She turned to look at Peyton and Brooke who were looking at her with concerned looks.
"We should go." Brooke said and put her arm loosely around Haley and started to guide her out of the store. They finally got to the car and opened the passenger side door for Haley. Brooke closed the door and went to put the groceries in the trunk with Peyton.
"Did you see her face?" Brooke whispered to Peyton.
"Yeah, what can we do?"
"Try to get her to talk, I guess." Brooke said and opened the driver's side door. Peyton went to sit on the back seat.
"Are you alright, Haley?" Peyton asked concerned.
"Me? Yeah, just peachy." She said and smiled weakly. They all knew it was lie and she knew that they knew.
"I'm really sorry for forcing you to go to the store with us." Brooke said guiltily.
"It wasn't your fault." She said and smiled weakly again. Brooke and Peyton still looked at her concerned.
"Seriously, I'm fine." She said. Brooke smiled a bit and turned the ignition on and radio started to blare.
..dancing in my wooden shoes
and-
Haley hit the car radio hard to change the channel.
"Like I said, just peachy."
So, how was it? I know it wasn't that long and much didn't happen but I hope it was worth your time. :) Anyways, let me know what you think about it. Enjoy the holidays! I'm working every day so it's not much of a holiday for me. Anyways, take care and remember to review. :)
-Fes-