Note:In this chapter, italics, stand for whats happening in a dream.

Chapter 7

Two days had passed in Tree Hill since the Haley James concert, since the Haley James' big announcement. That Saturday night as she prepared to end the concert, she had told everyone at Tric that she, was retiring from music to live, permanently in Tree Hill.

At that moment it all became clear to Ollie why such a big star was offering to help her, a teenage girl with her music. Haley was trying to give other people the opportunities that she had had. And Ollie felt like the most privileged person in the world that she wanted to give her those opportunities. Well, that's what Ollie was sure Haley's intentions were anyway.

"Ollie, you have to get up. We have school." She heard Ephraim call from outside her door.

Groaning, she got out of bed. She ran a brush through her honey blonde hair and threw on a clean top with some jeans. Quickly making sure she was at least presentable she left her room.

Down the hall she could hear muffled snores coming from her father's room. Ollie had been slightly worried about her father a few days ago, but that was nothing compared to now. She had barely seen her father the past two days and the few times that she had, he always had some kind of alcohol in his hand.

She also knew from some of the guys on the basketball team that he hadn't turned up to practise the past two days. He just stayed in his room sleeping all day.

On Sunday night he had briefly appeared in the kitchen to grab another beer. She had tried to talk to him, ask him what was wrong. He'd just grunted and disappeared into his room, slamming the door as he went.

Her father seemed to be falling apart and she had no idea why.

"Dad?" She knocked softly on his door. "Me and Rai are going to school now. I love you."

Ollie waited at the door hoping for any kind of response; although the snoring abated she received no answer.

The feeling of hand on her shoulder prompted her to turn. Ephraim was behind her, she looked sadly into his eyes, seeing that he felt exactly the same way about what was happening as she did. She pulled him into a tight hug.

"There's nothing we can do Oll, he'll come out when he's ready", Ephraim said trying to comfort Ollie.

The truth was though; Ephraim was just as scared by the way Nathan was acting as she was.

Bouncing. The sound of a basketball echoed all around him. Nathan was alone on the river court. It was dark. A lone streetlight was illuminating the court. He could hear the thump, thump, thump of a basketball bouncing but he couldn't see where it was coming from. Over by the net he saw a flash of orange in the corner of his eye. He stared at the spot. There was nothing there. He was by the bleachers now.

No wait, he was in a hospital, Tree Hill hospital. The thumping was a heart beat. A chorus of angels stood weeping behind a window looking in at the room. Haley was lying in the bed with a doctor standing over her. Suddenly, silence. The thumping disappeared.

"Time of death 4.37."

That voice, so familiar. The doctor turned only it wasn't a doctor. It was a hooded man. Nathan couldn't see who it was. He wanted to know who it was.

The hooded man disappeared.

Nathan was in the backseat of a car. Lucas was driving, Ollie in the passenger seat. He was shouting to them to stop but they couldn't hear him. He tried to reach out to them over the seat. His hand hit an invisible something that he couldn't get through. Banging on the barrier, Nathan glanced out the window.

They passed a petrol station. It burst into flames as a horned beast with a bright red halo above it's head stood laughing it with a guitar in its hand.

Lucas and Ollie were gone. They were standing on the side of the road looking in at him sadly. No-one was driving the car. It was spinning out of control. Everything was spinning out of control. Bang! Nathan screamed, his throat burned.

His throat burned. He wondered what was going on. Where was he?

A red neon clock light glowed at him. 11:14.

Something soft was underneath him. A bed. He knew where he was. Thinking about the dream Nathan shivered.

Haley, he remembered back to the other night. He felt hung over? He didn't want to be hung over. Glancing around frantically his eyes found what they were searching for. The half empty bottle of vodka on his bedside table.

Grabbing it, he cradled it to him. Then he took a long, wonderful drink.

There was no way he was going to be hung over.

Tree Hill High School hadn't changed a bit. Haley stood outside her ex school, trying to gather up the confidence to set foot inside its teenager full gates. Principle Turner was still the principle after all this time, and this morning she had a meeting with him. She was Tree Hill High's brand new music teacher.

Since she had been standing there, which had only been a few minutes, 11 people had asked for her autograph, 4 for a photo with her and, everyone who had walked past either whispered about her or stared at her. She really did feel like she was in High school again, what with all the gossip going on.

"Miss James?" Haley heard someone say shyly, thinking 'Not again' she turned and was pleasantly surprised when she found herself face to face with Ollie and not some star struck kid wanting her autograph.

"Hi, um I'm Olivia Scott; we met at Tric the other night." Ollie said nervously.

"Yeah, I remember. You and your friend opened for me right?" Haley replied; covering up the fact she was thrilled to be talking to her daughter and tried to act normal.

"Yeah. Well I was going to call you but your here so I figured I would just ask you now, but umm what you said about working with us on our music. Do you still want to? Because, I mean I talked to Ephraim and he said he wanted to. I know your probably busy and everything but..."

"I'm not too busy." Haley said cutting Ollie off, knowing from self experience that the girl probably wouldn't stop rambling until someone interrupted her. "Are you?" Ollie looked at her blankly. "Busy I mean, after school?"

"Ohhh", Ollie finally got what she was talking about. "Nope I'm free and I think Ephraim is too."

"Great, I'd love to hear some more of your stuff." She smiled and gave her address to Ollie, telling her to stop by after school.

Ollie took the piece of paper the older lady was handing her just as the bell for home room went.

Haley watched the young girl wave goodbye to her before hurrying off to class. Watching the young girl leave, she felt a sense of happiness, unlike anything she had felt in a long time, from knowing that she was finally going to get to know her daughter, even if it wasn't as her mother.

At that moment she also felt enough courage to finally enter the school.

"Guess who Tree Hills newest Striker is?" Ephraim sing-songed, sliding onto the outdoor bench where Ollie sat with some of her friends during lunch period.

"What? Like soccer?" Ollie scrunched her nose thinking of the sport that she considered being far inferior to basketball.

He rolled his eyes at her, "Not everyone's born with a god given talent for basketball Ollie."

"I know, but soccer, really?"

"I like soccer," he defended, noticing her still slightly condescending expression. "Chase taught me back in New York. Well anyway I have practice my first practice this afternoon."

"This afternoon?" her expression changed to one of wide eyed worry. "You can't"

"Why not?"

"Haley James wants to listen to some of our music this afternoon." She told him dramatically, "It's a once in a lifetime opportunity Rai. We have to go." She was practically begging.

"I can't miss my first practice. No reason you can't still go though. She could get us more gigs like the one at Tric. That was awesome. Come on, you have to."

"But dad might ..." Ollie tried to fish for excuses as she was too nervous to want to go alone.

He interrupted her, "Nathan probably won't even notice."

"Fine, I'll go" she grumbled knowing he was right.

"Good," he chirped, pleased with himself for having convinced her. "I'll see you at home after soccer."

He got up and threw his bag over his shoulder, before heading to the library to catch up on some of the massive pile of work he had received due to being new mid term.

"Pfft, soccer." She muttered under her breath mockingly before swivelling in her seat to turn back toward her friends.

In her new classroom Haley was eating her lunch also. She had been going to visit Lucas at the English department to try and sort things out with him, but she had learned from another teacher that he didn't stay for lunch. So here she was alone in her classroom yet to talk to anyone from her past.

What she didn't notice however was the dark haired, dark eyed boy staring suspiciously in at her through the tiny door window.