Author's Note: For the record, I swear that I had planned on posting this earlier, and I completely forgot about it. I don't even think anyone cares, but if you do, I'm sorry it took so long for me to update. This is the last prewritten chapter, so it might be a while before I get around to writing something else. Anyway, enjoy and please tell me what you think.
---OTH---
"This is like my favorite day of the whole year!"
Unknown to Haley, Brooke had set her alarm clock to wake them up at 4 o'clock that morning, so they could go for a run. After a half an hour of trying to get Haley up, Brooke finally just grabbed Haley by the hair and pulled her up. And, after kicking the crap out of Brooke for doing that, Haley begrudgingly had a shower and got changed into the closest thing she had to work out clothes and they went on their run.
"Well so far, mine's pretty crappy," Haley commented as she attempted to keep up with the ever-energized Brooke. She loved Brooke, she did, but she had to contain the urge to push Brooke under one of the passing cars more than a few times on their journey.
"Oh, you'll get used to it," Brooke promised her, not breaking a stride as she turned around and started to jog backwards so she could look at Haley as she was talking to her. She shook her head as she watched Haley struggle along, her breathing get unsteadier by the second. "You're pathetic, James."
"What do you expect?" Haley asked, swallowing a few times before she could continue. "I almost failed Phys. Ed last year, and I've never once gone out running in my entire life."
"How are you so hot then?" Brooke asked, decided to cut Haley some slack and started to slow her pace a little bit. Haley let out a small sigh of relief when she saw Brooke was slowing down. She just couldn't take this. "I mean, you've practically got a better body then I do, and I go running almost every morning during the school year, not to mention all the work out I get from cheerleading."
"Runs in the family," was the only answer Haley could offer. Luke had always bugged her about her ability to stay in great shape when she hardly did anything to stay that way, other than not pig out on junk food that often. "Brad and Trent were always able to stay in shape somehow, and Vivian and Quinn would never do anything but yoga in fear of breaking a nail. Taylor's the only one of us that actually does something to keep her body. She goes running all the time, not to mention all the sex she likes to have with strangers."
"Oh yeah, that really burns off the calories," Brooke nodded, remembering her slutty days with a kind of fond smile. She missed it sometimes, especially now that she was single, but she didn't want to go back to that. She hated the feeling she used to get the next morning when she woke up next to someone she didn't know.
"I wouldn't know," Haley mumbled, taking another few steps before stopping. "Okay, that's it." She bent down and rested her hands on her knees, inhaling heavily, trying to get her breathing even again. Brooke stopped moving backwards, but continued to run on the spot for a few minutes, waiting for her best friend to catch her breath. After a few moments, Haley stood up straight, but instead of continuing on, she limped over to the bench that was a couple feet back and plopped herself down on it.
"Hales," Brooke whined, bringing her jogging to a halt. She let out a sigh when she saw that Haley wasn't going to be able to make and started to make her way over to join the other brunette on the bench. "You aren't going to last a week on the squad if you can't even run three miles."
"I doubt that," Haley answered, taking on last deep breath before leaning back on the bench, resting her weight on Brooke. "I just need to get used to it, you know? I think you should start me off with half a mile first. I'll work up to three miles."
"If you say so." Brooke was starting to doubt Haley's ability to last on the squad after all. Oh well, she was going to pick Haley either way, she was her best friend after all. Maybe she could carry their pom poms or something. If worse comes to worse, Brooke was very confident in Haley's abilities to sit there and look pretty.
"I can do it," Haley promised, pushing herself off of Brooke's shoulder and nodding her head, confidently. "I'm Tutor Girl, I can do anything, remember?"
"Tutor Girl, you can't even run a mile," Brooke teased, shaking her head in amusement at just how tired Haley really did look. Haley glared at her as she pushed some hair out of her face, scrunching up her nose when she felt it sticking to her forehead. She hated to sweat, which is why she avoided any physical activity. "Okay, let's get you home."
"I need another shower."
"Yes, yes you do," Brooke teased her. Ignoring the glare she received for her efforts, she stood up and held out her hand for Haley to take. Haley took it gratefully and stood up, trying her best to ignore the shooting pains in her legs. She really was sad. "Come on, after you're showered, we should have time to go over the routine a couple times before we have to leave for school."
"What routine?" she asked, leaning onto Brooke as she limped along.
"The one for tryouts today," Brooke informed her, rolling her eyes at the fact that Haley couldn't even walk now. "Me and Pey do the routine once, then go over it a couple times with the girls, and then they have to do it for us. That's what we base our decision on; their ability to learn a routine quickly."
"Then why are we going over it at my house?" Haley questioned, not understanding what Brooke was getting at. Was Brooke suggesting what she thought she was suggested? Because if so, that would not be acceptable.
"Even though you're already on the squad, I think it'd be best if we at least make it look like your auditioning," Brooke answered, not realizing that Haley might not be comfortable with this little set up that she had already decided on. "You know, so the other girls don't think it's unfair or anything."
"I'm already on the squad?" Haley repeated. Brooke nodded her head and smiled brightly at her.
"Of course."
"But you haven't even seen me do anything," Haley pointed out. Sure, she didn't want to be one the squad in the first place, but she certainly didn't want to get on it this way. She'd never had anything handed to her before; she wasn't going to start now. "What could you possibly base this on?"
"Besides the fact that your two best friends are caption and assistant caption?"
"Tigger!"
"Come on, Hales," Brooke whined. She should have known that Haley wasn't going to let this slip by her. "You've got connections, you don't need to try out. That would be like Britney Spears getting a credit check before she bought a house, it's just not necessary."
"Brooke, I don't want special treatment," Haley told her, making sure that the other girl understood her completely. She saw Brooke give her a 'yeah, yeah' nod and she tugged on her arm. "You hear me! If I make it, it's because I was good, alright!"
"Okay, fine," she grumbled. Brooke just prayed Haley didn't make a fool of herself this afternoon. Haley smiled in thanks and they continued to walk down the path towards Haley's house.
---OTH---
"Hey, Haley," came the voice from around the corner. Haley immediately stopped her movements towards the gym at the sound. She slowly backed up to where the voice had come from. She rolled her eyes and let out a frustrated sigh when she spotted Nathan standing around the corner in his practice jersey.
"What do you want Nathan?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest and staring at him expectantly. She eyed him strangely, trying to figure out why she was practically hiding. "What are you doing? Why are you hiding around the corner?"
"Brooke's in the gym," he answered, tentatively leaned over to peek around the corner to the gym doors. When he saw a cheerleader open them, he quickly pulled back, afraid it was Brooke. He let out a sigh when he saw Bevin walk by him. Haley watched him with a raised eyebrow, confused at his actions.
"Yeah, so?" Haley answered, her confusion clearly evident in her voice. "It's cheerleading tryouts."
"She was giving me cut eye all English class," he answered, his eyes darting around the hallway for any sight of the girl. He felt like a loser, but he was scared. Brooke may be small, but he'd seen what she'd done to Tim before, he did not want to meet such a fate. "Did you tell her about what happened last night when she was gone?"
"Of course I did," Haley nodded, a smile on her face. She was still angry about last night, but the almost terrified look on his face was too amusing to ignore. "I thought you were being an ass, therefore I shared with Brooke. You had to know that she was going to press me for details the minute you left."
"Yeah, about that," he started, relaxing a little bit. He stopped looking around the hallway, not worried about Brooke anymore, and focused all his attention on the girl in front of him, the one that he needed to say a few things to. "Haley, I'm really sorry."
"It's alright, Nathan," Haley began. She was still hurt at Nathan's attitude about their breakup from the night before, but she really didn't want to have this conversation in the middle of the hallway, especially with all those cheerleaders walking by, they were sure to overhear and spread it around the school by tomorrow.
"No, Haley, it's not," he insisted, his face softening at her understanding tone. He hated that she was acting like this. Not once since they had broken up had she been bitter about anything. A really big part of him just wanted her to scream or hit him. When she was so nice to him all the time, it just made him feel worse about everything. "I had no right acting like that, saying those things to you."
"No, you didn't," she immediately agreed, some of the angry she felt last night returning. "But I think that after everything you've done this past summer, what happened last night is the least of our worries."
"Okay, I deserved that," he muttered, though he was a little relieved at the angry in her voice. He could deal with angry, he understood that, he deserved to be treated like that, and not the nice way Haley had been acting towards him lately.
"Yep, you did," she shot back. She saw the slight flinch he made at the comment and let out a breath. No, she wasn't going to do this here. "Look, I except your apology, okay? You didn't mean it."
"I wasn't lying when I said that I was hurting too," he replied, approaching the subject casually. She didn't exactly respond warmly to this conversation last night and the last thing he wanted was a reenactment of their argument in the middle of the hallway. "It kills me to see you everyday, knowing all the pain that I caused you. It's like a slap in the face everytime I realize that I can't wrap my arms around you…"
"Well, you know what, Nathan?" Haley cut him, already tired of this conversation. She didn't doubt that he regretted everything that happened, but wishing didn't change what he did. And she absolutely refused to feel any sympathy towards him. "You made your bed, and now you have to lay in it."
"I know, I know," he quickly nodded, looking down at the ground. He didn't want her to think that he was trying to get some kind of sympathy. "I just wanted you to…"
"Ahhhh!" His head snapped up at Haley's squeal to find Haley being lifted into the air by someone. He watched in confusion as she started to laugh. "Put me down, put me down!"
"Alright, sorry," Skills laughed, amused at her reaction. He immediately dropped her, pulling back and laughing harder when she started to smack him. "Sorry, sorry, I was just goofing around."
"You scared the crap out of me!" she scolded him, hitting him one more time for good measure before letting up. She was so caught up with the excitement of what just happened that she forgot all about Nathan standing until he cleared his throat, clearly annoyed at being ignored. "Oh, uh, right…"
"Oh, hey, Nathan," Skills greeted him, nervously. He wasn't aware that they were in the middle of a conversation when he attacked Haley. All he could see when he exited the gym was Haley standing at the corner. "I didn't realize you guys were talking."
"Yeah, well we are," he snapped, sending Skills an icy glare. He had never liked the way those two acted around each other, they were always so touchy feely, and it drove him nuts. Especially when Lucas told him that they used to go out. He hated feeling jealous, it made him feel so pathetic.
"Nathan!" Haley hissed, not believing that he was being so rude to her best friend. He had no right to act so childish, especially when he was trying to get her forgiveness.
"It's okay, Hales," Skills told her, tearing his eyes off Nathan and choosing to devote his entire attention on Haley. He didn't really care what Nathan had to say to him. He never liked Nathan, and right now he was finding it really hard not to beat on the guy for what he had done to his little buddy. "Brooke just sent me out here to look for you."
"Oh, are they starting already?" Haley asked, the nervousness seeping into her voice at the mere thought of what she was about to do. Skills nodded, sending her a sympathetic smile, knowing how freaked out she was. But he knew that she was going to blow them away, he knew what an amazing dancer Haley was, she could kick all their little freshmen asses. "Crap, I still need to change."
"Change for what?" Nathan asked. He had forgotten all about his annoyance at Skills' presence and latched onto their last comments. What the hell were they talking about? Oh, no.
"Skills," Haley asked, eyeing Nathan before turning to her old friend. She had forgotten how Nathan felt about her being a cheerleader. "Could you go tell Brooke that I'll be there in a couple minutes?"
"Yeah, sure thing, babe," he nodded, starting to back up. "And don't sweat it, I know you'll do great. You've totally got rhythm."
"For a white girl, right?" Haley laughed when Skills broke into a smile.
"You know me too well," he laughed. He shook his head and pushed the gym doors open. "I'll see you inside. Later."
"Bye," Haley laughed, watching after him for a second before she turned back to Nathan. She had forgotten how much she loved goofing around with Skills. She had really missed him this summer.
"What was that?" Nathan demanded, the moment Haley turned back to him. He tried to ignore the lingering smile on her face. He didn't want to think about that right now. Just thinking about Haley and Skills together was enough to make him want to rip his eyes out. "Please tell me that you two weren't talking about what I think you were talking about."
"We probably were," she shot at him, still angry at his behavior towards Skills. That had been totally uncalled for; he had no idea they were in the middle of a conversation. If he had known, he never would have interrupted them. "I'm trying out for cheerleading."
"What?" Nathan groaned. This was not good. Not only did he always like the fact that Haley wasn't a cheerleader, now that they were broken up, he didn't know if he could handle seeing her everyday, dancing around the gym in a mini skirt when he was trying to practice. "Why? You told Brooke that you'd never try out."
"I went to Susan and she said that if I wanted to get early admissions to any good colleges, I needed an extra curricular activity." She hadn't planned on telling anyone about her plans to leave early, but it just sort of came out, and she didn't really feel the need to hide it from him. It was because of him that she wanted to leave after all.
"Early admissions?" he repeated, his heart clenching at the thought alone. She couldn't leave early; he needed her there. Even if they weren't together and she never wanted to talk to him again, he didn't think he could handle not being able to see her everyday.
"I can't take this, Nathan," she breathed out, running a hand through her hair. She couldn't look up at his face because she knew that his eyes would just kill her. "Being here, seeing you all the time…I just want to get out of here as soon as possible."
"Haley, I…"
"Tutor Girl!" Brooke screamed from the door. Haley jumped at the voice and turned towards her best friend to find her waving a pom pom at her. "Get your ass moving! We're waiting for you!" Haley nodded and the usually bubbly brunette disappeared. She had forgotten about the Cheer Nazi.
"I have to go," Haley told Nathan, helplessly. He watched her move towards the gym. "Could you not tell anyone about this? I don't want the others to know that I'm looking into this, okay?"
"Um, yeah," he stuttered, still having a hard time wrapping his head and his heart around all of it. Haley was leaving? She couldn't leave, she just couldn't. "Sure."
"Thanks." With one last nodded and sad smile, Haley pushed open the gym doors and disappeared from his sight.
---OTH---
"Alright," Brooke cheered as her and Peyton finished doing their extremely complicated cheer for all the girls standing in front of them. "Did everyone get that?" She turned around to see almost every girl standing there slack jawed and wide eyed.
"Don't worry," Peyton laughed, seeing their shocked faces. She glanced at Haley and was surprised to find that she looked strangely calm. "We're gonna go over it a few times with you guys before we make you guys do it for us solo." A collective sigh was heard around the gym.
Brooke and Peyton had all the girls spread out in their end of the gym, so they could go over the complicated routine slowly, step by step. They went over it as a group for twenty minutes, not including the interruptions that came in the form of Whitey yelling at the boys to pay attention to their practice, before Brooke stopped them.
"Okay, girls," she clapped, motioning for them to come closer. "We're going to give you all half an hour to practice amongst yourself. Feel free to go anywhere to work it out. You can do it in partners, in groups or all together for all I care, just work on it until I tell you it's time," she instructed. "Everyone got that?"
"Yeah," they all replied. Brooke shooed them away, and she and Peyton made their way over to the table that they had set up for auditions. Once all the girls had moved around and partnered up, Haley sauntered over to join her best friends.
"Hey, Pey," Haley greeted, giving the blonde a warm smile. She glanced at Brooke and winked. "Madam Cheer Nazi."
"Come on, Hales," Brooke whined. "I'm not that bad." Haley and Peyton shared a look and laughed.
"Yeah," Peyton agreed with another chuckle. "You kinda are."
"It gets the job done, doesn't it?" Brooke asked, daring them to say that she was a bad caption. Fine, she could be a bitch when it came to the squad, and she would admit that, but she did it for the good of the squad, and no one could convince her otherwise.
"Can't argue with you there," Peyton nodded, patting Brooke on the knee to make her feel better. While most of the girls on the squad were terrified of the Cheer Nazi, Peyton just found her to be amusing, and made an extra effort to piss her off, just to see her hysterical reaction.
"You got everything down, Tutor Girl?" Brooke questioned, wanting to get the conversation off of her. She meant to watch how Haley was doing during the review, but she had forgotten to keep an eye on her. She was really excited about the idea of having Haley on the squad with them this year, and she would be very disappointed if Haley ended up sucking. "We weren't too hard to follow?"
"I think I'm good," she smiled at them. Skills had been right earlier when he said that she was a good dancer. Not many people knew that about her, but she was pretty good, if she did say so herself. She may not be very well coordinated, but when it came to dancing, it seemed that her feet just moved all on their own. It was one of the few physical things she was actually good at.
"You want to practice it with us?" Peyton asked, moving to stand up. She stopped when Haley shook her head and jumped off the table.
"Nah," she decided, sending them a confidant smile. She had been nervous as hell before, but after what Skills had said, she was surer of herself. She never really thought of cheerleading as dancing, but now that she thought about it, that's exactly what it was. And she could dance, so all should be good. Not to mention that after years of being Tutor Girl, she had a pretty good memory. "The boys are on a break, so I'll go drag Skills outside and see what he thinks."
"That sounds like a great idea," Brooke immediately exclaimed, a suggestive smile on her face. Haley rolled her eyes at the girl before throwing a quick goodbye to Peyton and skipping over to Skills.
"What was that all about?" Peyton questioned Brooke when Haley was out of earshot. She knew Brooke was up to something; she always was after all. Oh well, at least this should keep her mind off of a sexy looking Jake who was sitting on the other side of the gym. Brooke just smiled at her. "What are you up to?"
"Why, P. Sawyer, why would you ever think that I'm up to something?" Brooke asked, faking her innocence and holding a hand to her heart in fake shock. Peyton just gave her a doubtful look and Brooke broke. "Haley and Skills are totally meant to be!"
"Brooke," Peyton groaned, not knowing why she was even surprised.
"What?"
"Would you just leave the poor girl alone?" she begged, throwing her head back and letting out a sigh. She knew that Brooke meant well, but encouraging Haley to go after Skills right now, was pretty much the last thing she needed. "She just broke up with her boyfriend of two years, give her a while to get over it. Jesus."
"Come on, Pey," Brooke whined, not liking the blonde's attitude at all. "Just look at them, they're adorable together." They watched as Haley slid onto Skills' lap and wrapped her arms around his neck to whisper something in his ear. He nodded to whatever it was that she said, and stood up, shifting Haley's body so he could throw her over his shoulder and carried her outside, which had Haley in hysterics, begging him to let her down. "Aww! Tell me they aren't perfect for each other."
"I'll admit, they're adorable," Peyton agreed with a smile as she watched the scene in front of her, not missing the fact that an extremely pissed off Nathan was watching them as well. She had always thought Haley and Skills had a cute relationship, but she honestly could never picture Haley with anyone other than Nathan. Even after everything that had happened over the summer, she didn't think there was anyone else for Haley but Nathan. Just like there was no one else for her but Jake. "They always have been, but I just don't think that Haley needs to be diving into a new relationship right away."
"But, Peyton…"
"Just let them be," Peyton warn, giving her a stern look. Brooke was about to open her mouth and Peyton pointed her finger at her to keep her quiet. "Just let them be and see what happens. Okay?"
"Fine," Brooke grumbled, folding her arms across her chest and pouting. "You used to be fun. What happened to you?"
"Life," Peyton answered simply, her eyes wandering to where Jake was sitting on the bleachers, looking miserable, while he talked to an equally miserable Lucas.
"Life sucks," Brooke replied, following her gaze to stare at Lucas. Peyton grunted in agreement. They sat there and moped until it was time for performances. That would definitely brighten their moods.
---OTH---
"I still can't believe it," Brooke laughed as she slammed her car door shut. "I had no idea you could shake your ass so well, Tutor Girl!"
"Yeah, Hales," Peyton agreed, linking arms with Haley as they made their way up Haley's walkway, all three decked out in their brand new blue Raven's cheerleading uniforms. "You've got some serious moves."
"Thanks, guys," she replied bashfully, getting embarrassed by all the compliments they kept giving her. While most of the other girls completely blew their routines, Haley had nailed her perfectly, getting every single move exactly right and in perfect time, surprising the hell out of both Brooke and Peyton. "It wasn't half bad. I might just like this cheerleading business."
"This year is going to be so much fun!" Brooke cheered, as Haley unlocked her front door and they made their way inside the small house. Haley's house was probably the smallest out of all three of theirs, but they tended to spend a lot of time there for some reason.
"Yeah," Peyton agreed, following the other two up the stairs. "It'll be us three girls, together. Who needs those smelly boys, right?"
"Right," both Brooke and Haley responded, trying their best to sound optimistic about what their blonde friend was saying. They didn't really think that they'd be able to just forget about their ex-boyfriends, but they were going to try their best.
"Come on, girls," Peyton scolded, hoping to ignite some cheer from her fellow cheerleaders. How was she supposed to forget about Jake and all the pain that came with him, if Brooke and Haley were moping about Nathan and Lucas? "I don't want to hear that. We're young, we're hot as hell, and we're cheerleaders."
"Yeah," Haley agreed. She knew that Peyton didn't really believe what she was saying, but if the blonde could pretend, then so could she. She didn't want to be thinking about Nathan anyway. "Just look on the bright side; after all the drama that went down this summer, there isn't anything that could possibly make matters worse…"
Haley trailed off as she opened her bedroom door. She stopped her movements as soon as she spotted the familiar figure sitting on her bed, apparently waiting for her to return. Brooke and Peyton took at the figure in confusion, not knowing who it was, or why Haley was so surprised to see her.
"Hey, Haley-bub," she greeted with smile, clearly pleased with Haley's reaction to her presence. "Long time no see, huh?" Haley sighed.
Taylor.
---OTH---
Okay, that's it. I know, there's a lot of scenes and they're all kind of random. Oh well. Please tell me what you guys think. Peace.
