A/N: The drama starts to unfold in this story. Angry Nathan must look past his anger and work with Lucas to find Brooke after the school is shot up by a disgruntled student. They split up and he stumbles upon someone he does not expect. Leave some words. Enjoy )
Chapter 2Neil Young walked into Tree Hill High the next Monday morning wearily. As he passed down the hallway, he noticed several of his fellow classmates glaring at him. Some were angry at him and others pitied him. Ever since the time capsule had been released and people had heard what he had to say about everyone, high school had been different and it had not even been a whole week. In fact, it was the first day back. The school had given them a half day and a full day off in order to do some damage control.
On Saturday and Sunday, Neil's phone had rung a lot and when he picked it up, the person on the other end would immediately hung up. He wasn't stupid. He knew they were crank calls. And on Sunday afternoon, he had gone to the local music store to pick up a CD; he had run into some of the football and basketball players. He shuddered as he remembered what happened in the alley they had chased him into.
He was at his locker and fumbled with the combination. He always seemed to forget the middle number. It was 20 and for some reason, he would always put it to 30. Once he got the combination right, he opened his locker and began emptying his bag, exchanging books and putting his lunch on the top shelf. The hair on the back of his neck stood up and he froze in fearful anticipation of what was about to happen. But for some reason, nothing did happen.
There were whistles as someone walked down the hall and Neil was curious so he turned to see Tim Smith walking down the hallway, staring at the floor. Some of the other guys on the basketball team were making comments and Neil felt a twinge of guilt. It was his fault that Tim was being harassed. He had let it slip that he was gay on the time capsule. Neil decided to turn back around before he antagonized Tim. Tim looked so agitated; Neil was surprised that he didn't explode. That was when it happened. A deafening sound exploded and Neil felt a something hit him or rather, go through him. It hit his back and Neil reached down and wiped his hand against his right chest. He brought his hand back and widened his eyes at the red fluid on it; blood.
Three more shots rang out in the air. Other students in the hallway ran in every direction to get away from the gunman. Neil slumped against his locker and the world went black.
Nathan was in the weight room lifting some weights with Skills standing over him. Then someone came into the room and Skills moved away. Nathan looked up to see Lucas standing over him. He put the weight back on the bars and got up. He grabbed a towel and wiped his neck. He got up and started for the door. "Nathan, come on," Lucas said. The desperation in his brother's voice made him turn around.
"What?" he asked. His nostrils flared in anger. He could barely stand being in the same room with Lucas right now. He would not look him in the eyes.
"Where were you this weekend? Mom was about ready to call the cops and report you missing," Lucas asked.
"If I stayed under the same roof as you, it would've ended with me punching the living daylights out of you and I figured it would be hard on Mom to see that. So, I decided to stay away," he said. Lucas looked down.
"You could've called and told us where you were," Lucas said.
"I called this morning," Nathan said.
"Oh," Lucas said. Nathan started to leave. "Anna dumped me." Nathan turned around and smiled wickedly at him.
"And I just dumped Brooke. Funny how those things happen when you fool around. But look on the bright side: now you two can be together," Nathan said. Lucas sighed.
"We didn't want to hurt anyone, Nate," Lucas said. Nathan laughed bitterly. "I'm serious. You're my brother and the last person in the world I wanted to hurt."
"Not anymore, I'm not," Nathan said
"Nathan," Lucas began but Nathan cut him off.
"And what about Anna, Luke?" he asked. Lucas looked at him in confusion. "Before I met Brooke, I was an asshole. I treated girls like they were around for my convenience. I used them and then threw them away. I even saw more than two girls at a time. But I changed once I met Brooke because I wanted to be a better guy for her. So, in a way, I guess I had this coming. But Anna?"
"I didn't want to hurt Anna. I really care about her," Lucas said. Then they heard a loud noise followed by screaming. "What the hell?" Lucas walked to the door to open it, but Nathan stopped him. Then three more shots rang out.
"Those were gunshots," Nathan said. Lucas' eyes widened with fear as he grabbed his cell phone and dialled 911. He started talking to the operator but the operator thought it was a crank call. Lucas turned it on speaker phone.
"This line is reserved for real emergencies," the operator repeated.
"Does it sound like I'm ordering Chinese?" Lucas exclaimed to the woman. Then Nathan grabbed the phone from Lucas and opened the door a crack so the operator could hear the people screaming in the hallways. He closed the door again.
"Did you hear that? Yeah, those were our classmates screaming in terror because someone has a gun in our school and is shooting. If that's not a real emergency, then what is?" Nathan growled into the phone. The operator apologized and told him to stay put and Nathan scoffed at her in response. "Maybe you can sit around while the people you care about our scared or possibly bleeding to death, but I can't." He hung up the phone and looked around for something. He smirked when he saw a bat and grabbed it.
"Nathan, what the heck are you doing?" Lucas asked as he watched his brother going for the door.
"I'm going after Brooke. She's here somewhere," Nathan said. He opened the door and Lucas closed it. "What?"
"Nathan, you can't possibly think you're going to be the big hero and save Brooke. A bat is no match against a whacko with a gun," Lucas said.
"I'm certainly not going to sit on my hands. Brooke could be hurt or trapped with that psycho. I'm going after her and if you really cared about her like you say you do…" Nathan started.
"I love her, Nathan," Lucas confirmed.
"Then you would help me," Nathan said. Lucas needed no more encouragement as he grabbed two bats and followed Nathan out into the vacant hallway. They came to the end of the hallway and could either go right or left.
"Which way?" Lucas asked.
"Both," Nathan replied, looking down the hall to the right.
"Come again?" Lucas asked.
"We should split up," Nathan said.
Lucas kept going down the hallway until he reached the library. He tightened his hands around the bat and headed in slowly and cautiously. He checked down each row of books until he came to the study area. A book fell off one of the tables. He walked over to the sound. He neared the corner.
"Lucas, it's me!" Brooke exclaimed. Lucas sighed with relief and put the bat down. He kneeled down and Brooke threw herself in his arms.
"Are you hurt?" he asked.
"No. Oh, I'm so glad to see you. I heard the shot and people came running in this direction. I turned around and headed for the closest exit but it was chained shut. Then more shots rang out and I thought they were coming this way so I headed in here," Brooke said brokenly into his shoulder.
"It's ok. We're going to get out of here," Lucas promised though he had no idea how he was going to get out of here.
Peyton Jagielski wandered the halls in a panic. She was looking for Jake but couldn't find him. "Peyton, what are you doing?" A voice exclaimed. She turned around and saw Nathan, with a bat in one hand, walking towards her.
"I'm looking for Jake. We were in our English class with other students. Jake left to get help ten minutes ago and I got worried so…" Peyton said.
"So you decided to wander the halls, looking for him, with a psycho with a gun on the loose," Nathan finished for her. His tone was full of disapproval. She narrowed her eyes at him.
"I went looking for my husband because I'm worried about him. Kind of like how you're looking for Brooke," Peyton shot back. Nathan nodded in understanding. They turned into another hallway and Peyton felt her heart jump to her throat. Jake was bent over with blood stains on his shirt.
"Jake!" she exclaimed quietly and went running to him. Jake turned just in time for Peyton to throw herself into his arms.
"I told you to stay put," he said as she continued to sob against him.
"Jake, are you all right?" Nathan asked. Jake gave him a confused look and Peyton gestured to his shirt.
"Oh. It's not my blood. It's his," Jake said, gesturing to the form lying behind him.
"God, is that Neil?" Peyton asked, looking at him. Jake nodded.
"Is he…?" Nathan asked and Jake nodded.
"He's dead," he replied. Nathan explained that he was going to keep looking for Brooke. Jake called after him. "Thanks for bring her to me safely." Nathan nodded. He turned another hallway and found a trail of blood. An overwhelming fear that it could be Brooke's blood shook him. He followed the trail to the tutoring centre.
He opened the door slowly to peak to see if anyone was inside. It looked empty but he saw the blood trail go to behind the large oak desk. He walked in and held the door until it closed. He walked carefully to the desk and was about to turn and face whoever was behind it when he felt something hard slam his chest. He went down in an instant. He groaned in pain while still on the ground. He looked over and saw Haley James.
"Nathan, I'm so sorry. I thought you were him," Haley said. Her voice shook with emotion like she had been crying. He looked around to see where the blood was and then his eyes rested on her leg. Haley followed his gaze and chuckled.
"You were shot?" he asked. Haley nodded.
"Not once, but twice, in the leg," Haley explained. Nathan looked down at the leg and sure enough, the tourniquet Haley had made had blood coming out of it in two places. She started to explain brokenly how she had been walking to her locker when the window of the door that she was about to open shattered. That bullet had ricocheted off of the wall and hit her in the leg. The second bullet hit her after she was on the floor from the first one.
"And you crawled into here," Nathan said. Haley nodded. He started to get up and held out a hand for her. "Well, we need to get out of here." Haley shook her head.
"I can't walk on it, Nathan. I already tried before I got in here," Haley said.
"I'll carry you," Nathan said. She shook her head.
"There's no way I'm going out there to get shot a third time. I'm staying here until the police come and get me," Haley said.
"Well, I've got to find Brooke," Nathan said.
"Good luck," Haley said. Then his phone went off. He looked at it and sighed with relief.
"Brooke's in the library with Lucas," Nathan said.
"Are they ok?" Haley asked. Nathan nodded. "Good."
"Have you seen Anna?" Nathan asked realizing he hadn't seen her anywhere. Haley smirked.
"Smart girl stayed home today," Haley replied. He walked closer and sat down beside her.
"Then I'll stay and wait for the police with you," Nathan said and smiled at her. Haley nodded.
"Nathan," Haley said a few minutes later.
"Yeah?" he asked, looking at her.
"The shooter," Haley said, "It's Tim Smith."
"Oh, man," Nathan said.