Chapter Four

It was break time, and Lucas was sitting by himself in the corner of the playground, absorbed in his book, as far away from Nathan and his friends as he could possibly be. He hadn't spoken to Haley since their argument that morning.

"Hi," Lucas heard a soft voice next to him.

Haley. Oh, well. He supposed he would accept her apology. But, he looked up and found that it wasn't Haley.

"Er, hi." He said to the girl standing in front of him. He remembered seeing her in school, but he didn't know her name.

"I'm Brooke."

"Hi. I'm L-"

"Lucas. I know."

"Okay." Lucas wasn't sure where this conversation was going.

Now she was standing there, Brooke had no idea what to say to him either. "So…I heard about you and Nathan being brothers."

Lucas made a face. "So that's why you're here."

"Well, yeah…"

"You know, I've really had enough of people making fun of me so –"

"No, that's not why I came! I just saw you sitting all alone over here and I thought you might like some company. I always hate being alone."

"Oh." What surprised Lucas the most was that she looked honest.

"If you like being alone I can go…"

"No, that's okay."

"What's okay?" Brooke asked, not sure what he saw saying.

"You don't have to go. I mean…I'd like it if you didn't."

Brooke smiled. Lucas thought this made her look like there were small holes in her cheeks, but in a pretty way.

He moved his bag so there was space for her and she sat next to him. They looked at each other nervously, and Brooke laughed at the awkwardness of the situation. Then, she spotted his book.

"Good book?"

"Yeah." He handed it to her and she flipped through.

She gave it back to him. "I only like books with big pictures."

Lucas laughed.

"Well! They're boring otherwise." Brooke joined in his laughter. She decided that he probably thought she was a little silly, but at least he didn't look so sad anymore.

"Lucas?"

"Oh hi Jake," he said to the messy brown-haired boy who had walked up to them. "Do you know Brooke?"

"Yeah. Hi Brooke."

"Hey," she smiled.

"So, Luke, I just came over, 'cause Skills said you were gonna stop playing basketball," Jake told them. "Is it true?"

"Maybe," Lucas shrugged.

"You're not gonna play anymore?" Brooke asked him, with a frown.

"I haven't decided yet."

"Well, it's up to you, Luke, but I think you should. You're really good; better than me. And once you get to know each other, maybe you and Nathan might become better friends."

"Ha! Yeah, right," Lucas muttered.

Jake shrugged. "It could happen."

Brooke nodded. "Men have walked on the moon, you know," she said wisely.

Lucas and Jake looked at her.

"What? They have! Neil Armstrong and Buzz Lightyear!"

Lucas and Jake both burst out laughing. "Not Buzz Lightyear," Jake told her.

Lucas put his hand over his mouth, trying to stop himself from laughing too hard. "He's from Toy Story."

"And he's made in Taiwan," Jake said between laughs.

Peyton had been searching for her best friend for the past five minutes. Brooke had gotten bored with her when Peyton had stated that she wanted to spend break time finishing the sketch she had started that morning. Brooke had said that she would go for a walk and come back soon, but she hadn't and now, Peyton was worried. She wasn't sure why since the only place for Brooke to go was the playground, but Brooke had a tendency to get into some sort of trouble and Peyton would rather she knew where she was.

Finally, at the back of the playground Peyton spotted Brooke, sitting on the ground with her legs stretched out in front of her. There was someone sitting next to her, and someone else standing in front of them, but Peyton couldn't make out either of Brooke's companions.

She walked closer and recognized the person standing as Jake. She liked his hair and he was nice to everyone, unlike Nathan and Tim and their friends. Once when they were walking out of school the wind had blown one of her drawings away, and he had caught it for her and said he'd never seen something drawn as good as that before. He'd said it so nicely that she couldn't tell him she thought that was wrong English.

Jake was laughing hard at something, and Brooke was looking a little – embarrassed? That wasn't like Brooke. However, from her position Peyton still couldn't see the person Brooke was sitting next to. She thought that she could go up to them and say hi, but she felt odd, like she'd be intruding on something. So she just stood in her hidden spot, watching them, and waiting. Until eventually Jake moved a little, and Peyton saw that the person sitting next to Brooke was Lucas.

Haley was also searching for someone. Unlike Peyton, she found her person a lot faster, but Haley was faced with the dilemma – not that she knew the word yet – of whether or not she should go up to him.

Nathan was sitting amongst his friends on another side of the playground. Most of the time they played sports during break, namely basketball, but the last few weeks had caused too much injury to spectators (since a lot of the boys still couldn't aim) as well as one broken window so their teacher had taken the ball away from them last Wednesday. Instead, the boys had discovered marbles and were happily playing the game.

Except Nathan. He thought marbles was boring, and was therefore part of the group watching the others play, rather than playing himself. He began looking around, and ended up spotting Haley standing on a side watching them; more specifically him. When she realized that he had seen her she gave him a half smile, but didn't move. Somehow Nathan found himself getting up and walking over to her.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi." Nathan felt nervous, and he didn't understand why. He looked back over his shoulder and saw that his friends hadn't noticed he had gone yet.

"I didn't know you were Lucas' brother," she said suddenly.

"Ok."

There was another uncomfortable pause before she asked him, "Did you know I was Lucas' friend?"

"Yes," Nathan admitted, somewhat guiltily.

He was surprised when Haley smiled at this. "I'm so glad you're okay with the whole thing with Lucas," she said, causing him to frown.

"I'm not okay with him. It's all his fault!" Nathan blurted out.

"What?" Haley stared at him, shocked. "Then why did you talk to me?"

Nathan paused. He couldn't tell her the truth. The both of them had been getting louder, and soon some of his friends would notice him being over here, and want to know what was going on. But, more than that, Nathan just didn't want to tell Haley 'cause she'd probably get mad. If she wasn't mad already. Plus, he was starting to feel bad about his original 'plan'. Yeah, he was still mad at Lucas, but that wasn't Haley's fault. And she was really nice to him. Finally, Nathan shrugged. "I don't know. I was bored."

"You two really are brothers!" Haley yelled at him, before she stormed off.