Chapter 19
Leaning against the counter, Brooke was tapping her foot impatiently holding the phone against her ear. She listened as it rang for the fourth time on the other end and then finally got picked up.
"Hello?" a groggy voice said from the other end.
"Tutorgirl?" Brooke whispered into the phone making sure it was Haley but also not wanting Ollie to hear them on the off chance she was awake and listening.
"Yeah Hi Brooke" Haley yawned into the phone. "Its 7:30 in the morning," she pointed out wondering whether Brooke was aware of the early hour in which she was calling.
"I know. Isn't it great?" Brooke said perkily, she always had been a bit of a morning person.
"Umm sure" Haley answered uncertainly not used to so much energy this early.
"Well anyway, the plan" Brooke carried on completely ignoring Haley's yawns. "Be at the mall at 10. I'll make sure Ollie and I bump into you, make it seem coincidental. She'll have no idea."
Haley groaned, "You're brilliant idea is shopping?"
"Yeah, its great right?" Brooke asked, incredibly proud of the plan she'd come up with. "Shopping solves everything." Just like in High School, Brooke was still obsessed with shopping and clothes.
"Right, Ok." Haley said uncertainly into the phone not really seeing how it was going to work but willing to try anyway. "I guess I'll see you at the mall then."
"Yep, trust me Haley it's gonna work." Brooke told her reassuringly. "See you there."
Hanging up the phone, Brooke grinned to herself, pleased to be giving both Haley and Ollie a little push toward each other. From Haley explaining what had happened with Daunte she now saw that Haley deserved a chance to be forgiven, mostly because none of this was really her fault anyway. She was also pretty sure that Ollie had heard at least the first part of the explanation also. But Ollie can't have heard about the plan to help Haley, because if she had, the young girl would probably have confronted Brooke about it, and as of yet, that hadn't happened.
After showering and getting ready herself, Brooke figured it was a late enough time to wake up Ollie. Being that she was a teenage girl, she wasn't going to appreciate being woken up on a Saturday morning, but she would get over it after a coffee.
Pushing open the door, she tiptoed quietly into Ollies room, noticing her still asleep figure wrapped up peacefully in the covers. Sleeping like this, she looked just like the happy little girl that she had been as a kid. Brooke loved her goddaughter like she was her own blood, this was why she was going to do everything she could to give Ollie the chance to have a normal complete family for a change. Because while Ollie would never say or show it, apart from the moment in the cupboard which Brooke had no idea about, it was obvious to her that Ollie had always noticed the role missing from her life. The gap that no matter how many people had tried to shrink, still remained gaping.
She took in the content and peaceful image for one more moment before jumping onto the bed and shaking Ollie awake.
"Ollie?" She called energetically bouncing on her knees up and down at the foot of the bed, "Time to get up."
Shuffling slightly under the covers, Ollie groaned into pillow, refusing to open her eyes.
"Ollie" Brooke called again shaking the girl.
"Mnn go away, wanna sleep." She murmured still keeping her eyes closed and her head down on the pillow.
"No you don't, were going shopping!"Brooke exclaimed to her excitedly.
Ollie opened her eyes with another groan and sat up briefly to glare at Brooke before flopping down onto her back. "Take Peyton." She said trying to get out of shopping. Going near any shops with Brooke was an absolute nightmare, what would start as a trip to the malls grocery store would turn into a full scale shopping spree, it didn't help that Ollie wasn't particularly fond of shopping either
"Peyton's away, remember."
"Fine, I'll come" Ollie huffed defeated, knowing that no matter how much she argued she would end up going anyway.
Satisfied Brooke said triumphantly "Good, be ready in an hour, kay?"
Ollie nodded dejectedly. With that, Brooke jumped off the bed and skipped her way out the room.
In Tree Hill mall, Ollie and Brooke had been wandering from shop to shop for the past hour. Brooke enthusiastically trying on clothes and chatting with shop assistants, while Ollie followed behind her, losing interest very quickly in all the clothes shops, that all pretty much seemed to have the same stuff in them anyway. The time was about 11:30am and Brooke was starting to wonder if Haley was going to show up at all. Over the phone, Haley had assured her that she would be here around 10am.
The two approached, the Tree Hill store of Brookes very own line, Clothes Over Bros, the label she had begun working on in High School. Brooke breathed a light sigh, seeing that Haley was in fact inside, even if it was a little later than planned.
Going around the back of the rack with Ollie, who hadn't seen Haley yet, following, she bumped directly into Haley, making it seem accidental.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Oh wow Haley it's you." Brooke acted dramatically, trying to make it appear to Ollie like a complete coincidental accident.
Ollie rolled her eyes, Brooke was a terrible actor and it was obvious that she had bumped into Haley purposefully. Assuming that the bumping was all there was to it and not that they had both actually planned it.
Haley smiled, trying not to laugh at Brooke. "Hey" she said, not completely sure where Brookes plan went next.
"Hey Haley, I'm sorry about that." She said dramatically still. "You like that?" Brooke asked gesturing to the top Haley was holding while sending a sidelong glance at Ollie who was rifling through a rack, looking far more interested in its contents than she actually was, in the hopes to avoid Haley.
"Umm yeah." Haley answered, still a little puzzled.
Brooke grinned, "Great, it's on the house. We just need to go talk to Janet, that's the manager. I'm the boss so she won't mind. Come on." Brooke pulled Haley away over the shop, leaving Ollie at the clothes rack, subtly glancing at them as her godmother pulled her mother round the store.
After a while of Brooke dashing round the store pulling Haley after her, chatting to the shop assistant and throwing various garments of clothing, Ollie felt like she had been staring into the rack forever. Sighing boredly she sank into the cushioned circular donut seat , leaning back and stretching her feet out on the ground in front of her and plugging her iPod into her ear to wait for Brooke to finish with Haley so they could leave.
Chatting enthusiastically to the shop assistant long enough for Haley to get tired of searching the store and waiting for her, Brooke watched as Haley sank down onto the donut chair close to where Ollie had been perched for the past ten minutes listening to her iPod, her eyes closed, softly nodding along to the beat. Boring the two out of their brains had been Brookes plan all along and it seemed to be going well so far, if there was one thing that had always been able to completely bore both of them it was definitely shopping.
On the seat, Haley was beginning to figure out what Brooke's almighty plan was, so decided to just go along with it. Sliding over so she was sitting closer to Ollie on the seat, she tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. At the feeling of someone touching her shoulder, Ollie jumped a mile, getting a massive fright due to not expecting the tap.
Ollie settled back down onto the seat after the fright and was fiddling with her iPod instead of looking at Haley. She did keep one ear free of the headphones though, giving Haley the opportunity to talk to her.
Haley smiled casually at her even though Ollie wasn't looking. Today she figured that maybe she shouldn't show too much of any emotion. So far, all of her encounters with her daughter had been packed with intense emotion, whether it had been admiration, anger or even grief. So for none of the emotional stuff seemed to have a good result. So this time she would keep it simple.
"Whatcha doing?" Haley asked friendlily.
"Nothing, just waiting for Brooke." Ollie replied her voice expressionless.
"You don't like shopping?" Haley tried to get a conversation started.
Ollie shook her head still fumbling with the iPod in her hands and refusing to look at Haley.
"Yeah me neither." Agreed Haley.
"You don't?" Ollie looked up a little, "But people like you always need the latest clothes and stuff."
"Yeah I guess but I always found it kinda boring." Haley shrugged. "Hey, you wanna go get some lunch? I think Brookes going to be a while."
Ollie looked over at Brooke, who had in fact picked up a customer and was shuttling them round the store and passing things to them in the changing rooms. And really it was about lunchtime and she was quite hungry.
She thought about it for a second. "Umm Ok." She answered much to Haley's delight. Stuffing her iPod into her bag, she stood and followed her mother out of the store.
Glancing over at the donut seat, Brooke noticed the two leaving and openly grinned to herself. Brooke Davis Adams plans never failed.