Chapter Nine

The first grade class trip had ended without much excitement, and by three o'clock they had returned to school. Yet, despite the fact that his mother had been a chaperone on the trip, Nathan had still not left school. He was with Tim and Mike and bored out of his mind as they were playing marbles while he sat next to them wondering what was taking his mother so long. On top of that he was worried about Haley. He felt kind of bad about saying that, especially because it wasn't true, but what else could he have done in front of everybody?

"Do you wanna play?" Mike asked, interrupting Nathan's thoughts.

He shook his head. "I don't feel like it."

Tim looked up from the game. "What's the matter? You thinking about that girl?"

Mike sniggered.

"Shut up," Nathan snapped.

"Gee, you don't have to get so mad."

"Yeah," Tim agreed. "Unless you really do like her," he added with a cheeky grin.

"So what if I do?" Nathan blurted out angrily.

Mike gasped, while Tim dropped the marble in his hand. "What did you just say?"

Nathan stared at them for minute, only just realizing himself. Then he stood up and marched off without replying.

"Where do you think he's going?"

Before Tim could answer Mike, his name was called so he turned around.

"Who's that?" Mike asked.

"Nathan's Mum."

"Hello, Tim," Deb said, having reached them.

"Hello, Mrs. Scott."

"Do you know where Nathan is?"

"He was here, but he ran that way," Tim pointed the direction to her, "'cause he got mad at us."

"Oh? What was he angry about?" Deb asked, worried that he was upset she took so long.

Tim shrugged sheepishly. "We made fun of the girl he liked."

Deb's expression now mirrored that of Tim's and Mike's when Nathan had let it slip. "Oh."

Haley was sitting on the green field just outside school. Peyton's dad had picked up Peyton and Brooke, Jake's parents had taken him home, and Karen and Lucas had left just a few minutes ago. So, for all the new friends she had made, she was sadly very alone.

After she had left the blanket, Brooke had followed her, but not mentioned the incident except for giving her a brief hug, which Haley had very grateful for. They had realized that since there was five of them, one would have to sit alone on the bus ride back. Jake had done that on the journey to the gardens so they all agreed that it shouldn't be him the second time around. However, no one wanted to sit by themselves either. In the end, Lucas had come up with the idea that they'd all get on the bus first so they could sit right at the back, where the row was really long; just enough for five to sit comfortably.

When the rest of the class had got on after them, Haley saw Nathan come in and walk towards the back. But she looked down at her trainers as soon as he looked at her. Because of that she hadn't noticed that Brooke had glared at him again, and Peyton had observed this, although Lucas and Jake hadn't. After that, the bus ride had been fun, but sitting alone here now wasn't. The sandbox was nearby, but had lost its appeal.

Haley saw a pair of legs coming towards her, and for a moment, she was extremely happy thinking that one of her parents was actually there to take her home. She looked up with a huge smile on her face, but it fell as soon as she saw the person standing there was Nathan.

She looked away from him, but he still took a few more steps towards her until he was standing right next to her, making it much harder to ignore him.

"Hi," he said finally.

"You don't have to try to be nice to me Nathan. And, if you're just bored, well, I really don't care."

"I'm sorry."

This time, she looked at him, but not pleasantly. "You say that a lot."

"I know, but…"

"But what?"

"I'm just…I'm not used to having to be nice. My Dad doesn't care what I do as long as I can play basketball good when I'm bigger. And my Mum isn't here a lot anyway."

Haley felt a little sorry for him, but she was still upset. And hurt. In the end, she said, "You mean, you play basketball 'well', not 'good'."

"Oh," Nathan looked down. He had expected at least a little more from her. "I guess I'm just dumb," he said bitterly.

"You're not dumb," she replied immediately, and gave him a small smile, because she hadn't meant that at all and she didn't want him to think she did. "But what you said about your parents isn't an excuse to be mean."

"I know that. And I don't want to be like that."

"Well...what do you want to be like?" Haley asked.

"I dunno…maybe like you."

"Why would you wanna do that when I embarrass you?"

"You don't embarrass me," Nathan said genuinely. "They're just a little…well, they don't matter."

Haley saw that he was being honest and smiled a little more before looking back at her lap. "Well…you can't be like me." At Nathan's confused look she added, teasingly, "No one can be like me."

Nathan laughed. That was probably true. "I just want to be…better. And someone who you'd be friends with maybe."

Haley looked at him shyly. "Maybe."

Nathan smiled at her happily, causing Haley to look away, but she did move her bag from where it was on the grass next to her, to put it in front of them. Nathan took this as a sign to sit down. As he lowered himself onto the grass, his right hand accidentally came on top of her left, and they both jerked their hands away quickly.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"It's okay."

They sat silently for a few moments, not knowing what to say. Nathan glanced at her, and saw her gaze was intently fixed on the tree straight ahead of them. Slowly, he purposely put his hand over hers again.

Haley had been about to ask him if he wanted to play in the sandbox, but as soon as she felt his hand she turned her head to look at him. Now, he was staring at the tree, making no move to take his hand off hers. It felt…kind of weird. But not a bad weird.

The silence continued, but it felt better now; more peaceful than quiet. Nathan was the first one to interrupt, asking her a question that had been on his mind since he had come up to her. "Friends?"

She smiled. "Friends."

Nathan grinned back. Remembering something, he leaned over and placed a soft kiss on her cheek.

Haley blushed and giggled slightly, but neither made any move to run away. Somehow she found herself kissing his cheek back.

Smiling, Nathan moved to kiss her cheek again, but Haley had turned her head at the same time and his mouth collided with hers.

They kissed for a whole two seconds, before pulling away simultaneously and stared at each other. Then they both ran away.

Deb had spent the last ten minutes looking for her son, and she was on the brink of getting seriously worried. Since finding Tim she had been given a direction to her search, but she had soon found that there were many places on the school grounds he could have walked to. Just as she was about to try a new place, a short figure came barreling at her. As they were running without looking where they were going, the figure ended up colliding with Deb, their head hitting her stomach, before they fell onto the ground, landing on their back.

"Hi Mum."

"Nathan? What are you doing?" Deb asked, both relieved and concerned, as she helped him stand up.

"Um…I was looking for you."

"Well, we should get going. Everyone has gone home."

Before he could stop himself, Nathan added, "Not everyone."

"I saw Tim and that other boy leave earlier. Who else is here?"

"Oh…just one of my friends."

"When is his mother coming?"

"I don't know."

"Well, let's check up on him." Deb immediately strode in the direction Nathan had come from; leaving Nathan no time to tell his mother his friend was a 'she'. Deb soon found out for herself, however, when a short walk later she saw a girl picking up a bag from the ground.

Haley blushed as soon as she saw Nathan and his mother. She hadn't intended to come back to that spot until, soon after she had started running away, she realized she had left her bag there, and had returned to get it.

Deb and Nathan were a few steps away from her. Deb looked down at Nathan and asked, "Is this your friend?" in the back of her mind, remembering Tim's comment.

He nodded, keeping his gaze firmly on his feet. "This is Haley."

Deb knelt down and smiled at her. "Hi Haley, I'm Nathan's Mum."

"I know. I saw you on the trip with Lucas' Mum," she told her.

"Aren't your parents coming to pick you up?"

"They're supposed to, but sometimes they forget."

"They forget?"

Haley nodded. "But it's okay. Whenever they forget Mr. Durham takes me home 'cause he lives near by me."

"Oh. Well, if you want, we can drop you home," Deb offered

"You don't have to..."

"It's fine. Isn't it Nathan?"

Nathan nodded.

Haley smiled. "Thanks. I'll just go tell Mr. Durham."

As Haley walked into the school building, Deb looked down at her son. "She seems nice."

"She is."

"How does she know Lucas?"

"She's his friend too," Nathan said.

Deb smiled. She had worried that Lucas and Nathan wouldn't be able to accept each other, like she and Karen were learning to do. Maybe with the help of that little girl, that wouldn't be the case.

Haley came back soon, and slung her bag over her shoulder, carrying two books in her hand, before they all made their way to Deb's car.

"I'll carry that," Nathan told her.

She smiled at him as he took the books from her hand. "Thank you."

Against his will, Nathan looked up because he felt like Deb was looking at him. She had a grin on her face that Nathan found very annoying. When they got to the car, Nathan moved to let Haley get in first. Deb smiled at him again, this time raising her eyebrows. Instantly, he realized that she knew, causing Nathan to blush.