ONE WEEK LATER

"Mommy, where are we going again?" Lilly asked Brooke from her booster seat in the backseat of the silver Jeep Liberty.

"We are going to meet my friend from the reunion and his daughter at the park." Brooke replied as she applied the gas after the traffic light turned green.

"What's your friend's name?"

"Mouth, well actually his real name is Marvin, but all of his friends call him Mouth."

Lilly giggled before she said, "That's a funny name. Why do they call him Mouth?"

Brooke thought for a second before answering, "I don't know, actually. And I'm surprised I don't know that."

"Was he my dad's friend too?"

"Yes he was." Brooke replied with a smile as she thought about Lucas and Mouth in high school. "He was a really good friend of your dad's."

Lilly asked no more questions in the next three minutes that it took to get to the park. Once there and out of the car, Brooke walked towards the playground, holding Lilly's hand and looking for Mouth. On the opposite side of the jungle gym, by the long, slightly rusty swing set, Mouth spotted Brooke just as Brooke looked at him. They both smiled and walked with their daughter's towards each other.

"Hi." Mouth said when he had finally reached Brooke and Lilly.

"Hey." Brooke replied. "How are you?"

"I'm great. And you?"

"Great."

They stared at each other smiling, while both little girls smiled shyly at each other.

Finally, Brooke and Mouth acknowledged they still hadn't introduced their children.

"Brooke," Mouth began as he looked down at his blond hair, brown eyed daughter, who smiled up at him with two missing front teeth, "I'd like you to meet my daughter, Noelle. Noelle, this is my friend Brooke from high school."

Noelle smiled, revealing her missing teeth again and said, "Hi."

"It's nice to meet you, Noelle." Brooke said, smiling. "And this is my little girl, Lilly. Lilly, this is my friend Mouth."

"I thought his name was Marvin." Lilly replied, looking up at her mother curiously.

Brooke and Mouth both chuckled. Mouth knelt down to Lilly's level and said, "You're right. My name is Marvin. But I like Mouth better. So how about you call me that?"

"Okay." Lilly answered with a smile. Then she looked back at Noelle and asked, "How old are you, Noelle?"

"Six." Noelle replied. "How old are you?"

"Almost five. My birthday is in July. You can come to my party if you want."

"Okay. Want to go play on the slide?"

"Sure!"

The girls went running to the jungle gym where groups of other children were already at play. Brooke and Mouth watched.

"Well they sure hit it off fast." Mouth observed.

"I'm not surprised." Brooke said with a sigh. "Lilly is very outgoing."

"Just like you."

Brooke chuckled and said, "Come on…let's go sit down and talk."

As he and Brooke walked to a bench close to the play area, Mouth spoke again, "So at the reunion, we ended up talking more about me and my life now then we did about you and your life now, which is strange because it was a reunion."

"Well we can talk about me now if you really want to." Brooke said as they sat down on the bench.

"Sure I do. It's been ten years since I last spoke to you, and five since I last saw you. Although that last time doesn't really count considering the circumstances."

Brooke nodded and Mouth continued, "So you said you opened up a clothing store last year. How's that going?"

"Very well. Business is booming and the customers and my employees are so great. People really seem to like my clothes. It has turned out much better than I could've hoped."

"That's great. So you make the clothes and sell them?"

"Yes, well I design all the clothes and make them, but my employees, who just happen to be good friends, help me sew. And some of them have their own designs as well. And I've been making clothes for my own fashion line for about three and a half years."

"Wow, I'm impressed. You even have your own fashion line. I always knew you'd do something really great with your life."

Brooke smiled and blushed at her friend's flattering comment.

"So tell me about this fashion line of yours. What's it called? What sort of clothes do you design?"

"Well up to this point I've only designed clothing for women, adults and teens. And that's part of my 'Clothes Over Bro's' line, and it includes jeans, tops, dresses and pajamas on occasion. And a few months ago, I began sketching designs for younger girls and infants and now that I have a few finished, I'm seriously considering making the designs real and a part of second line of clothing strictly for young girls and babies."

"Sounds like you have everything worked out."

"Almost. I just hope 'Two Hearts' meets as much success as 'Clothes Over Bro's' has once it is developed."

"I'm sure it will." Mouth said confidently.

Brooke smiled amd after a moment spoke again, "So what about you? Did you ever make that dream of becoming a sports announcer come true?"

"Yes, actually. And I have enjoyed it very much, but it doesn't feel quite as satisfying anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"Well sports announcing was a big dream of mine in high school, but now it doesn't feel like enough for me since my life has changed so much lately. My dream now is to…make a difference. I want to do something more fulfilling, not just for me, but for someone else…lots of someone elses."

"Like what?"

"I've seriously been considering teaching. I really think I could make a difference in that way."

"Of course you could. What do you want to teach?"

"Television Broadcasting. In college, I double majored in Education and Television Broadcasting, so I already have my degree to teach. I think it would be a fun subject to teach."

"It sounds like it would. You know, Haley said the high school is introducing a Media/TV Broadcasting class for the coming school year."

"Yeah, I know." Mouth said with a smile. "I brought the idea to the school board a few months ago and they supported it and agreed to offer the class to students. I am the new teacher."

Brooke smiled and said excitedly, "Mouth, that's great! So that's why you moved back to Tree Hill?"

"Well, partly. I've been working this teaching thing out for a few months now. But I really did miss this place and with the reunion I was remembering how much I loved growing up here and going to school here. And I want Noelle to have memories like I have. Tree Hill is definitely the place for us."

Brooke smiled and said. "I totally agree. This is the place for me to. There's no place like Tree Hill."