Chapter Two

It was two days since it had been revealed to the Tree Hill public that Dan Scott of Dan Scott Motors had not just one but two sons, and the gossip between the adults was only rivaled by that of Nathan and Lucas' classmates. After two horrific school days neither boy thought they had been as happy to see the weekend arrive.

Nathan was looking out the window of his room at his parent's beach house. Dan and Deborah Scott seemed to think that a weekend trip to the beach would make up for lying to him about having a…urgh…brother. He usually liked the beach, but he wasn't going to give his parents the satisfaction of being cheered up. So, for the past few hours he had been doing exactly what he had been doing at their real house; staying in his room and ignoring his parents.

Through the window he could see a family on the beach. A mother, father and a daughter all playing in the sea, splashing water at each other. They looked happy. The complete opposite of his family, Nathan thought. But soon he noticed something else. Slightly apart from that family's towel and umbrella was another girl, building a sandcastle.

He wasn't sure how he knew, but he did. That was her family too, but…she was apart from them. Like an outsider. It was how he felt too. It took a few minutes before he recognized her.

Lucas stared at his ceiling grumpily, recalling the events of the past two days. Normally he enjoyed school, but with the recent revelations about his parentage it hadn't been so much fun. He had thought the weekend would be better, but so far his mum and his Uncle Keith had just kept bugging him about basketball when Lucas had casually mentioned that he wasn't going to play anymore.

There was a knock on the door; Lucas just turned over on his side, facing away from the door and didn't reply.

Keith came inside the room, and closed the door behind him. "Lucas?"

"What?" he spat out, still not looking at him.

Keith sighed, and sat down on a chair. "Lucas…I know this must be hard for you. And I know that you're angry at your mother for keeping it from you. But, she was just trying to protect you."

"Protect me from what?"

"From what people would say about it. You know, as hard as this has been for you, it's been hard on her as well."

"Why? Does nobody come to the café now?" he asked, worried even though he was still mad.

"No, people come. But a lot of people are talking about her."

"That means they're talking about me too."

"I guess it does…" Keith wasn't sure what to say next, so he kept quiet, deciding it was best to give Lucas a little time.

A few minutes later Lucas turned over to look at Keith. "When I was little-" He stopped abruptly when Keith started laughing. "What?"

"Nothing, Luke, it's just…well, you're still kind of little."

"I'm not little."

"You are to me."

Lucas wrinkled his nose, and began again. "When I was littler I used to pretend sometimes that you were my real dad."

Keith took in a deep breath and beamed at him. "Can I tell you something?"

"Yeah."

"I used to pretend that too."

"If you marry my mummy then you could be," Lucas said matter-of-factly.

Keith choked. "Well-I-"

"But, you like her."

"Well, yes, but…"

"But, then why won't you marry her?"

"It's not that simple Luke."

"It could be. You grown ups make everything more difficult by not telling the truth."

"Well-I-Er…Now, about you wanting to stop playing basketball, I don't think that's a good idea."

Lucas was too touchy about this subject to realize that Keith was trying to change the subject. "I want to stop. It's no big deal."

"It is a big deal. You're really good."

"So was he," Lucas said bitterly. "I don't want to be like him; I don't want to be like either of them."

"Then don't. But that doesn't mean you have to stop playing basketball."

"What do you mean?"

"I played basketball; still do. Do you think I'm like him?"

"No," Lucas said finally.

"Well, that's what I mean."

The moment Nathan saw her through his window his thoughts had gone in a whirlwind. He had managed to find out from Tim that her name was Haley. Nathan didn't really know her himself; the only time they had spoken was that time in the one class they had together when his pencil had broken and she'd given him her spare. She seemed nice, and she wasn't all girly like most of the other girls in their class. As he watched her playing with the sand all by herself he decided if he wanted to make her his friend now was the best time.

He left his room, closing the door carefully behind him. Nathan had thought that he'd have to be very quiet to slip past his parents but they were arguing so loud that they probably wouldn't hear if a thunderstorm broke out. He walked down the stairs and then out the house, without as much as a glance behind him.

It didn't take Nathan long to find Haley; despite the fact that the weather was good, there weren't many people on the beach and she and her parents were sitting on the other side of everyone else. He made his way towards her, and as he walked behind her family's spot they didn't see him. She didn't notice him at first either, as she was so engrossed in building a perfect sandcastle. Nathan stood behind her silently for a few minutes, discovering he didn't know what to say. Finally he choked out, "Hi-i."

She looked up and even though she was so much smaller than him, her big brown eyes staring at him made him feel…he wasn't sure. If he had known the word intimidated, then he would have realized that that's what it was, but as he didn't he felt all the more nervous. This feeling turned into confusion when she looked back down again, and went back to working on her sandcastle.

"Er…I said hi."

"My parents told me not to talk to strangers."

"My parents told me that too," he said, sitting down across from her. "But I'm not a stranger."

This caught her attention, and she observed him again. "But I don't know you."

"But I know you. Your name is Haley and you live in Tree Hill and you're in first grade."

Her eyes widened. "How do you know that?" she spoke with awe.

"Because I am too."

Her brow wrinkled. "Your name can't be Haley; it's a girl's name."

Nathan laughed. "No, but I live in Tree Hill and I'm in first grade too."

"Oh." She squinted her eyes and stared at him again. "I might have seen you before."

"I'm Nathan."

"Hi Nathan," she smiled. Then she added, "Why are you at the beach without your bathing-suit?"

"I just walked from home."

"You live near to the beach?"

He turned around and pointed out his house. "Over there."

"You live on the beach!"

"Only for this weekend, and some other times. Otherwise we live in our normal house."

"I wish I had a house on the beach," she said wistfully.

"It's kind of boring," he shrugged.

"But you could make sandcastles everyday if you lived on the beach."

"I'm not good at making sandcastles. They always break."

"I could show you how. You wanna make one?" she asked.

"Er…okay." He got onto his knees, and she handed him her bucket, taking the shovel for herself, and the two got to work.

Suddenly she asked him, "Shouldn't you go tell your parents where you are?'

He shrugged. "They're at home. They don't even know I left."

"Why did you?" she asked kindly.

"Because I'm mad at them."

"Really?" The way she said it made it sound like the concept of being mad at parents was foreign to her.

"Don't you get mad at your parents?"

"My parents are always leaving, and when they're here they forget me, but I get sad, not angry."

"My mum always leaves too. She's only here now because…"

"Because what?"

Nathan realized he was on the verge of telling her that he was her best friend's half-brother; a fact that had completely slipped his mind as he hadn't thought of Lucas once since he and Haley had started talking. His 'plan' had suddenly become the last thing on his mind. But now, it all came back.

Nathan could tell that she actually didn't know who he was, especially in relation to Lucas, and he decided that he didn't want to tell her. Not because that would interfere with the plan, but because he had actually enjoyed talking and playing with her the last few minutes.

"Just because," he replied finally.

She smiled understandingly. They returned to building the sandcastle and a comfortable silence descended between them.

Over five minutes later, Nathan finished patting down his last tower and exclaimed, "It's finished!"

"Not yet."

"What else is there?"

"We have to fill the moat."

"The goat?" Nathan made a face.

Haley giggled. "No, silly, the moat." She pointed out the space she had dug out around the castle. "You fill it with water."

"Oh. But why?"

Haley wrinkled her nose; something she had picked up from Lucas. If Nathan had known that he probably wouldn't have thought it looked so cute. "I don't know. But it's in all the pictures I've seen of castles. I'll go get some water for it," she told him, and he handed her the bucket.

Nathan watched her walk towards the ocean, before directing his attention back to the sandcastle. He knew that it was mostly Haley's work, but he was still quite proud of himself for having helped to build one that didn't break. Soon, Haley was back, and Nathan stood up, intending to help her fill the moat, but her bucket was empty.

"Why didn't you get any water?"

She looked sad. "There's a whole in the bucket, and the castle is too far away from the sea so it keeps spilling out."

Nathan took the bucket from her and, upon examining it, found that there was a small hole at the bottom of the bucket. He looked to and from the sea, thinking, and then coming up with an idea. He walked towards the ocean, and Haley stared after him, wondering what he was doing. She watched him bend down and fill the bucket, just as he had done, but when he stood up again, he was holding it funny.

He walked all the way back, holding it like that, and when he finally reached Haley she could see that he had put one finger underneath the whole to prevent water from dripping out. He bent down and poured the water into the space Haley had dug as carefully as he could and it filled, just as it was supposed to.

Haley gasped as her visionary sandcastle was completed. She clapped her hands excitedly and turned to Nathan who was looking very proud of himself. Without thinking, she stood on her tip-toes and kissed his cheek.

The next moment both of them realized what she had just done, and stared wide-eyed at each other. Then, Haley turned around and ran in the other direction to where her parents were sitting.