Thank you to everyone who has taken time to read and/or review. I really appreciate it.

I apologize for any spelling or punctuation errors.

Chapter Five

Haley sat at one of the round tables at the docks; gazing at the water, just enjoying the beautiful view and the peacefulness that surrounded her. She had just finished going over some notes for a quiz that she was going to have later this morning morning and Nathan should be there to meet her her soon.

She had called Lucas last night and told him that Nathan had requested that she tutor him and she agreed to do it. He had sounded genuinely happy that she was going to be helping Nathan.

He was hoping that since they would start to get to know one another, because if he was going to have a closer relationship with his brother then Nathan would need to get to know Haley. Lucas considered her one of the most important people in his life. Haley and Lucas had always had a special bond, one that only grew stronger as they got older. Haley would even go so far to say that their relationship was the strongest and most stable in her life. Even before her parents had left she had always had Lucas to count on; she just had too many siblings for her to expect her parents to be able to focus on her. And being the youngest she had sometimes been a burden to her older siblings who wanted to go out and do their own thing.

Glancing at her watch Haley felt her smile slip into a slight scowl. Nathan was late. It was only three minutes but their tutoring session was official off to a bad start. If he even shows up. She knew that Nathan being late wasn't that big of a deal, but she didn't like that on their first session they had he couldn't be bothered to show up on time. What am I getting myself into?

At about 7:10 a breathless Nathan ran up to the table and set down two cups of take-out coffee. He sent Haley a charming smile as he sat down.

Unimpressed, she rolled her eyes, "You're late."

"I know, I just wanted to pick us up some coffee. I didn't expect to take so long for them to make," Nathan explained while he passed her one of the cups.

"Whatever. Let's just get started. Math first?"

Nathan shrugged indifferently, "Sure, sounds good to me." He reached into his backpack and pulled out his book. While his hand was inside of the bag it bumped into something, and he pulled the bag closer to see what he had touched.

"Score!" Nathan pulled out a box of Cracker Jacks he had put into his bag a couple of days ago and tore it open. Popping a few of the treats into his mouth, he then pulled out package containing the prize, and hopefully said, "please let this be a cheat sheet."

Tearing open the package he pulls out a colorful plastic bracelet. Glancing at Haley he grabbed a hold of her hand and slipped the bracelet onto her wrist, it's for you."

Haley tried to pull her hand away, "Stop it."

Nathan managed it get it on, "Don't say I never gave you anything."

An irritated Haley held up her math book, "Do you see this book? Because this book is me. I am math."

Confused, Nathan asked, "What's the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It's supposed to mean that you can work your whole 'I'm Nathan Scott, Mr. Big shot, scoring my touchdowns' on somebody else, because I don't-"

"I don't even play football," Nathan interrupted amused.

Haley rolled her eyes, "Whatever. Look, the point is at the end of the day, all your bluster and BS don't mean anything to math because math don't care, and neither do I."

"Well, does English care? 'Cause I really suck at that, too," Nathan joked.

"Please don't waste my time. I am already taking a huge chance on you because I don't trust you and I really don't want to be doing this," Haley said seriously.

Nathan nodded, he knew he should be irritated that she falling for his charm but instead he found himself intrigued. Most girls never spoke to him like this, they would have been grateful that he was even spending time with them. Or they might try to think of way to get him to take an interest in them. This girl was unique. It was slightly ... interesting.

"Let's just get started, okay?" Haley handed him the math book. "Go to page 81."

After Haley got to school she spied Lucas at his locker, walking up behind him she yelled in his ear, "Hey Buddy!"

Startled, Lucas jumped a little and turned smiled at his friend, "Hey Hales, how's it going?"

"Oh good. I just wanted to make sure that you were still going to give me a ride to work today, my car is still in the shop."

Lucas cringed at the thought of Haley driving.

"Yeah, it's no problem. I'll meet you at the gym after practice, okay?"

"Sure, thanks Luke."

"Hey, how come you didn't want a ride to school today?"

"Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you that my first session with Nathan was this morning. He ended up giving me a ride."

"How was it?"

"It was okay. He was late, and that was annoying. I decided to let it go thou-"

"Hey handsome," came a husky voice from behind them.

Turning they saw that Brooke had come up behind them.

Lucas smiled at her. "Hey gorgeous," he teased back.

Haley mouthed "gorgeous" to herself behind his back, amused.

Brooke flushed with pleasure, and turned to his companion, "Hey tutor girl."

"Haley," she said automatically. "Oh hey, thanks for letting me borrow the shirt for the party. I've already washed it, but I forgot it at home. I'll bring it tomorrow?"

Brooke wave a dismissive hand, "Don't worry about it. You can keep it, it looked great on you."

Haley was slightly uncomfortable with accepting the shirt but decided that it would be stupid to make a fuss about it, "Thanks Brooke, that's really nice of you."

Brooke eyed Lucas and trailed a finger down his arm, "I have to be going to class now, but I'll be seeing you later." She gave him a wink and waved to Haley. "See you later tutor girl."

"Hal... oh, what the hell. It's not like she going to listen anyways. So what is going on with you and Brooke, Lucas? Anything new happen after she showed up naked in your car?" Haley blushed slightly when she remembered the encounter in the car.

"Oh, um, no. Nothing else has happened," Luke said, feeling a bit flustered.

"Well? I know you've been in love with Peyton for years and years, but Brooke could turn out to be a pretty cool person too. Are you sure that there isn't anything there?"

"Look, I like Brooke. I don't know her very well, but from what I've seen she seems like a pretty cool person. Does she come on a little strong? I would have to say yes. Peyton isn't like that Hales, she's true to herself no matter what," Luke said honestly.

"Going after who or what you want isn't always a bad thing, Lucas. At least she goes for it, she isn't afraid of not getting whatever she's after. But... that really wasn't a answer to my question. Brooke, Peyton, someone else, nobody... Who's on Luke's mind?"

Lucas mumbled something while looking down.

"What was that buddy? I can't hear you!"

"Peyton! Alright? Look I know that I've always had a thing for her and that I should probably get over it by now, but there something about her Hales. She's not like other girls, she deeper. She has more on her mind then who's her boyfriend and the next new game."

"Lucas... I love you, but are you sure that you just haven't built her up to someone that isn't real? I can count on one of my hands how many times you two have had a conversation. And for someone who doesn't care about who her boyfriend is and about partying, it sure is funny that her boyfriend is the most popular guy in school and she goes to all those parties she doesn't care about," Haley sighed, already regretting that she brought this up. "Just be careful, okay? I don't want you to get hurt."

Lucas was slightly hurt that Haley thought that about Peyton, but he didn't want to make a big deal about it so he just nodded and slung an arm around her shoulder. He's Peyton's ex-boyfriend...

Haley exited the tutor room and walked to the gym to wait for Lucas. After she had gotten out of class and before he first tutoring session she had taken care of what she usually did when she got a new student. She went to all their teachers and familiarized herself with the coursework and how the student is doing. Surprisingly she found out that most of Nathan's teachers found him to be very smart. He just lacked the focus and motivation to do the work, in most classes he was barely turning in any assignments.

If all Nathan had to do was pick up some better study habits then maybe if she wouldn't have to tutor Nathan for very long. Haley couldn't decide if this was a good or bad thing. Haley didn't like Nathan, and though he was horrible so she didn't want to spend to much time with him, but on the other she did want to see what his intentions were. God, my life would be so much easier if I had never heard Dan talking.

Reaching the gym doors she pulled one open and took a seat on the bleachers and watched the boy's team and the cheerleaders practice.

Lucas and Nathan were off to the side discussing something she couldn't hear, but she could tell that there was no tension between them. Both bodies seemed totally at ease.

Eyes drifting she caught sight of the cheerleaders sitting down, obviously in the middle of a break. She saw both Brooke and Peyton staring at the Scott brothers. Peyton had her eyes narrowed in suspicion while Brooke's gaze was predatory. Ewwwww, time for new thoughts. So don't need to think of my buddy that way. Haley quickly shifted her eyes back to Peyton. Hmmmm, I wonder why Peyton is looking at them with so much distrust in her eyes. It must be because of Nathan. They did date for a long time, maybe she knows that Nathan is trying to get Lucas off the team. I'll have to try and find a time to have a talk with her soon.

Settling back she waited for practice to be over. Soon enough the whistle blew and Coach Durham sent the boys to the locker room. As he turned to follow them he noticed that she was in the stands and his face broke out into a grin. "Well, well, look at what we have here. Ms. Haley James. How are your brothers doing?"

When Haley was younger her brothers had played for the Ravens and she had gotten to know him. Since there were so many siblings sometimes her parents had to go to a soccer game or some other activity, but she had wanted to watch her brothers play ball. The perfect solution had popped up when Whitey's wife had offered to watch her during the games. After the game when the games she would go over to their house and wait for her parents to pick her up. During those years she had gotten to know the older couple well and had been heartbroken when Camilla died. While Haley had lost a surrogate grandmother and the frequent trips to the Durham household she still made time to see Whitey over the years and keep him up to date with everything that had been going on in her life and her families.

"Good, the twins are enjoying U Conn and Matt has really loved becoming a father. He has had to cut hours but it doesn't seem to bother him. You know him, family has always been more important that having the best law practice in 'Frisco'."

"Good, good. We might have a road trip out to San Fransisco later in the year, I might have to give him a call so we can meet up. So what are you doing here? Ah, I know. You're waiting for your boyfriend," Whitey quirked a wicked grin at her.

"Whitey! You know that Lucas is just my friend. Why don't people get that a guy and a girl can just be friends, there doesn't have to be any romantic feelings involved. People always assume that because you enjoy being around a certain person or spend time with them that mean you want them. I hate that! I mean geeze, if hanging around a person is all it takes to start crushing on them then that Mike guy or Tim Smith obviously has a crush on Nathan!"

Haley heard someone snicker behind her and she whipped around to see Brooke with a hand covering her mouth. Haley quirked an eyebrow, silently asking what was so funny. When Brooke didn't answer, Haley burst out with, "What? You know it's true. With the amount of time those three spend together it wouldn't be a surprise if they were really were in the closet!" For some reason this just caused Brooke to laugh more. Shaking her head Haley caught some color out of the corner of her eye and with a sinking feeling in her stomach she turned to see what it was. It figures, just freaking figures. Make one joke and who's here. Nathan Scott and Tim Smith and Mike whats his name. Closing her eyes briefly she opened them and gave them a weak wave, the three of them were still standing there mute. Haley decided to take the opportunity to leave quickly. With a mumbled goodbye and glare to the still laughing Brooke she left the gym to wait for Lucas outside.

Brooke followed her out still giggling, "Oh that was just priceless. An absolutely fabulous momen-"

The slamming of the gym door cut her off and left Mike, Tim and Nathan alone.

They stared at each other.

Finally Tim stammered out, "I don't have a crush on you man. I'm NOT gay!"

"Good to know," Heads whipped around to see Whitey standing on the other side of the gym where Haley left him. They had forgotten that he was still in the gym. He was still staring at them with amusement, "Oh that Haley James, always was a firecracker." Chuckling he left the gym.

Mike didn't say anything but he was inwardly fuming. Once again that bitch had embarrassed him. He was going have so much fun messing with her head.

"Hey Haley! Wait up," Brooke rushed to catch up with Haley. "Don't worry about that, it was funny and I'm sure they know you were joking."

"I don't really care what they think of me, and I don't really think that they're gay. I mean nothing wrong with it if they were, I just never really thought of it one way or the other. It was just an example. I mean really, why can't a guy and a girl be friends? I mean we do things that friends do, why should we ha-."

Brooke started laughing again, "Stop! Don't start that again Tutor Girl, I believe you."

Haley grinned back at her, "You do? Finally an intelligent one in the bunch."

"Was there ever any doubt?" Haley wisely kept her mouth shut and Brooke continued. "So Peyton decided to do her broody art girl thing and I'm bored. Did you want to go shopping with me? I could help you find some killer outfits."

"Sorry Brooke, but I have to go to work. Lucas should be out any minute to take me to the cafe." Haley was surprised to find that she actually did regret that she couldn't go. She didn't have many girlfriends but Brooke was turning out to be a lot of fun.

"Work, pfft, skip it and come with me," Brooke pleaded without much hope for success, Tutor Girl didn't seem like the type to ditch work.

"No can do, babe. Maybe another time?" Haley offered.

"For sure," Brooke thought about waiting for Lucas so she could talk to him again, but sometimes it was better to keep them wanting. "See you later Tutor Girl."

Haley waved goodbye to Brooke who walked to the parking lot. Since she was facing away from the door she didn't notice that it was opening until it hit her in the shoulder. Wincing a bit, and admonishing herself for not moving out of the way earlier she turned and saw a guilty look on the guy's face.

Immediately she said, "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have been standing in the way."

"Are you alright?" He peered closely at her and she nodded her head. He smiled crookedly at her, "I've see you around right? You're Luke's best friend?"

"Yeah, Haley James," Haley stuck a hand out to meet Jake's offered one.

"Well, Haley James, I'm Jake. I'm on the team with Lucas."

"Oh yeah, I remember you from the last game. You were one of the players who was on the court when the game began."

Jake nodded, "Yeah, I'm a starter. So are you waiti-, hold on," Jake answered his ringing phone, "Hello? Really, how bad? But she's okay? No, no, I want to be there. I'm still at school so it's take a couple of minutes." Jake closed the phone with a slightly worried expression.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, just a family problem. I'll talk to you later, bye."

"Bye," Haley echoed.

"Hey Buddy, you okay? You're just standing there staring into space."

"I'm fine Luke," Turning to face Lucas she grabbed his arm and started pulling him to the parking lot. "Come on, I need to go to work."

They settled in the car and started to go to the cafe. Luke sometimes took the role of dishwasher when they needed one, so most nights he could be found at the cafe himself; either partaking in dinner, doing homework, or helping with the cafe.

"So, I met a guy on your team while I was waiting, Jake. He seemed pretty nice."

"Jake's a good guy, he was the first one on the team to reach out to me. It's actually a good thing that you met him, I wanted to invite him to go to 'The Crescent' with us tomorrow, is that cool?"

"Sure, are we still meeting at seven?"

Lucas nodded as he pulled up to the cafe.

Haley gave Lucas a mischievous smile, "It's my turn to pick the movie." she said before she rushed toward the door of the cafe.

Knowing what kind of movie's Haley enjoyed he yelled after her, "No chick flicks, Hales!" She smirked at him over her shoulder before she closed the door and left him standing by the car alone. "Haley!"

Haley was once again waiting at the docks, but unlike the previous morning she was hoping that Nathan was late. She needed a couple more minutes to before she was ready to deal with him. Her parents had called the previous night, they told her that they weren't going to visit her for at least a couple more weeks. They had postponed their trip to see her because Vivian had just announced that she was pregnant again. Haley was happy for her sister, she really was. She just missed her parents, and she couldn't help but feeling that after this "special occasion" there would be more before her parents made it back to see her. The twins would have an important game, or Taylor would have a crisis. For once I would like to be the once that they can't postpone seeing. It is my fault I guess, they never would have been able to go without me.

Glancing at her watch and see that it was five to seven she pulled out the folder she had started for Nathan and shifted through the papers until she could find the practice test that she had made for him. As she was placing it on the opposite side of the table she heard footsteps behind her and saw Nathan walking up, again with two cups of coffee.

"Hey, went a little earlier today so that I could be here on time," Nathan said, explaining the extra trouble he had went through for her.

Sitting down he handed her one of the cups and pulled the sheet in front of him closer. "What is this?" he asked curiously.

"A practice quiz, I made it up from the reading you were supposed to do last night. I've talked to your most of you teachers and I found out that this chapter is going to be heavily featured in your next exam. We have to make sure that you remember most of the material before we can move on," Haley said patiently.

He smiled, pleased that he had take the time the day before to do the reading. He went through the quiz, answering as best as he could. He was slightly unsure on some of his answers but for the most part he thought he did okay. When he had finished he passed the paper to Haley.

When Haley got the paper she pulled out a red pen and started grading it. Once she was done she looked at him and said, "Good job, you were shaky on some of the details but you got all the major points down."

Nathan smirked, pleased with the compliments. Finally, Haley was being nice to him. He would never win the bet if she didn't warm up to him.

"I know, I'm awesome," He popped the collar of his shirt before looking at her smugly.

She look at him amused. "Don't write your valedictorian speech yet, big boy. We still have a long road ahead of us. Now lets go over your English work."

Nathan nodded, and Haley moved the textbook so it was laying between them, "Chapter two basically covers..."

Brooke flipped through her magazine, her eyes taking in the latest fashions. She absolutely adored pursing the latest mags, and seeing what was new. Of course, some of the latest "hit" items were horrid, but even then she had fun mentally redesigning it to a more pleasant ensemble. Glancing over she noticed that Peyton had stopped sketching.

"You okay, P. Sawyer?" Brooke was slightly worried about her friend. Peyton had been different since the night Nathan broke up with her. Personally Brooke thought it was for the best, they had brought out the worse in each other. Peyton was taking it harder than Brooke had predicted, so maybe Nathan was the right guy for her after all?

"What? Yeah...just hit and artistic block, or something. I should take a break," setting the pad and pencil aside she laid down next to Brooke on the bed.

Deciding to change the subject Brooke brought up her newest infatuation, "What do you think about Lucas?" They hadn't gotten much of a chance to talk since the party. When Brooke woke up Saturday morning there had been a note from Peyton that she had went out and she'd call Brooke later. After Brooke went home she hadn't heard from Peyton until school Monday.

"Lucas? He's alright, I guess..." Peyton trailed off. She felt unbelievably guilty about not telling Lucas or Haley about the bet. She had seen Nathan being friendly to Lucas at practice the previous day and it made her sick to think that Nathan was just lulling him into a sense of false security. Soon Lucas would be crushed and she could have stopped it. I want to help but I don't know what else I can do to stop it; at least not without screwing myself over in the process. Looking closer at Brooke she thought of something, "So, did you, um, give Lucas the welcome to the squad?"

Brooke grinned, "Naked in the backseat Brooke? Yep, but then Tutor Girl showed up and we ended up going to the party."

Thank you Haley. "Too bad," Peyton commented.

Brooke's smiled never wavered, "It's not a big deal, He turned out to be a pretty interesting guy. Anyways, it's going to be so great when he sleep with me!" Brooke practically squealed before she went back to her magazine.

Yeah, great. Shit. Peyton rolled over and sighed.

Disclaimer: I own nothing; not OTH or its characters.