Chapter 28

In her class room at Tree Hill High School, Haley was sitting on the floor eating her lunch alone, an almost daily occurrence. If she wanted to, she could eat in the staff room instead of alone, but whenever she did, it felt completely strange. Firstly due to the fact that most of Tree Hill's current teachers had been here back when she was in High School herself and she felt a little uncomfortable mingling with them. And secondly, all those that hadn't taught her, seemed to look down on her and treat her like a bit of a diva. So she stayed away.

Sometimes Luke came by and ate with her, but most days he went home to see Peyton and Larry during lunch period or was busy marking paperwork. However, unlike Luke, Haley had no one to go home to and being a music teacher, there wasn't ever much paperwork that needed marking.

Absentmindedly picking at the wrapping of her sandwich with her thoughts miles away, she was startled to hear the handle of her door move. Flicking her eyes upward toward the window on the door, she found Nathans eyes looking back at her. She felt an intense sense of Déjà vu as she opened the door, almost expecting him to hurriedly continue down the corridor like he had a few weeks ago, the day before the Herons Beach trip. But he didn't.

Instead, he smiled at her and asked, "Want some company?"

Haley's heart soared. For, although she and Nathan had agreed to be civil and get along, she hadn't expected him to voluntarily spend his time with her. Trying to lessen the massive grin, she knew had probably erupted onto her face, she answered happily,

"Sure."

Following her into the class, Nathan couldn't help but watch her, taking in everything that had changed about her and everything that hadn't. She took a seat on the floor, causing him to look at her in confusion.

"Why are you sitting on the ground?" He gestured to the desk and multiple chairs in the class as he asked.

She shrugged, "There's so much more room on the floor than stuck in a chair."

Nathan chuckled, finding it a little strange but taking a seat on the floor as well.

Pleased that he had decided to sit on the floor with her, she playfully asked, "So what do you have for lunch?"

"Uh Ham and lettuce sandwiches," he told her. He felt like a little kid again, sitting on the ground with his sandwiches. "What about you?"

"Egg on mine." she scrunched up her nose, even though she had packed it herself, Nathans sounded so much better, "Wanna trade?"

He laughed as he nodded and handed her his sandwiches. Even after all this time, Haley still had the innocent and sometimes childlike personality she had had in High School.

"Thank you," she smiled happily. Just being near Nathan, and him not being angry was making her feel so good, giddy almost.

"So, you don't like the staff room either?" he asked, making conversation.

"No! It's so weird in there right? Some of those teachers must have worked here forever."

"Yeah, I know. Ollie has the same math teacher I had freshman year and I'm pretty sure he wasn't very new back then." Nathan chuckled.

"Well how long have you worked here?"

"Oh, a few years," he answered vaguely, avoiding answering. Now that he thought about it, he had worked here for a pretty long time too.

"How long are a few years?" Haley grinned curiously.

"I've been head coach for about, uh 12 years," he muttered the last bit.

"What's wrong with that Nathan?" she asked sensing he wasn't too happy about it.

"Nothing." He told her truthfully, he loved his job. "Just seems like a long time."

"I know. We are so old"

"Oh" he scoffed, "Maybe you are, but I'm not."

"What?" Haley laughed, liking him playfully teasing her, much like they used to a lot, "You're two months older than me, grandpa!"

Nathan's smile dropped and he turned a little pale, "Don't even joke about that. Ollie's only 15!"

"Right, sorry. I forgot how protective you could be."

"Yeah umm actually Haley, about Ollie, I don't know what you said to her, but when I got home the other day after talking to Luke, she was on the drums. It's the first time since, well, since she found out about you that she has gone anywhere near an instrument. So thanks."

His words, made Haley feel warm inside. She now knew the reason for his friendliness and spending time with her today. Before, trust and fear had stood in the way of their ability to be friends. But by taking Ephraim's advice on how to talk to Ollie, Nathan was finally staring to see that she didn't want to hurt them. And because of that was beginning to trust her. That, she knew was why he was starting to let her in again.

Just like her parents, Ollie was too eating sandwiches. Unlike them however, she was not on the floor, instead, she was with her friends sitting on a bench in a courtyard.

In the distance across the courtyard, Kaleb was working up the courage to approach the group of girls. It was really bothering him that none of them ever seemed to go somewhere alone. Ollie had broken from the group a couple of times, but each time she had been accompanied by one or two of her friends. He was finding it quite unnerving really.

Taking a deep breath he resolutely set his bag on his shoulder and started walking over toward them. Being only his second day at Tree Hill High, none of them except for Ollie had met him, but as he approached, all of them turned to look at him. Under their gaze, he blushed, feeling rather self conscious.

Ollie blushed too, knowing that her typical teenage girl busybody friends were loving this.

"Hey Kaleb" she smiled, feeling the questioning glances from her friends burning into her.

"Hi Ollie," he answered nervously.

There was an awkward silence neither Ollie nor Kaleb wanting to say anything in front of her friends, and all of her friends too nosy to stop listening. Rolling her eyes at her friends, Ollie jumped off the bench and grabbed his hand to pull him away from their eager ears and across the courtyard where they could be alone.

"Sorry," he mumbled, feeling like he had embarrassed her in front of her friends. He had always been a bit socially nervous, but at Tric the other night, Ollie had seemed to enjoy dancing with him.

She laughed, "It's ok. They're just nosy. So how you liking schools far?" she asked sitting down against a tree they had come across.

His cheeks turned slightly pink again. He wasn't used to beautiful girls like her taking an interest in him, "Yeah, its ok. I got a bit lost yesterday though."

Ollie nodded smiling, finding his nervousness cute, "I can show you round if you want?" she offered.

"Umm thanks but I think I've got it now"

"Oh OK," Ollie's head dropped. She felt a bit rejected by him turning down her offer. Considering he had kissed her at Tric, she thought maybe he felt something for her as well. Even though they had only met a few days ago, she felt like she wanted to be near him. Obviously he didn't feel the same way.

Kaleb noticed her gaze drop almost dejectedly and finally saw that she might have actually asked to show him round, not because he got lost, but because she actually wanted to spend time with him. But, he'd just turned her down. Due to this, and because it had been what he had originally planned to say, he smiled, gathered up the courage and said,

"I had a really good time the other night though. Maybe, if you want to, we can umm, I dunno…?" he trailed off nervously not knowing ho to ask her out.

The smile returned to Ollie's face. He felt the same way as she did, when they were dancing, he'd felt something too, "Yes"

"Yes?" he asked happily, not 100 percent sure whether it had actually been said, or whether he had just wanted it to be.

"Yes."

His face changed from its nervous smile, to a genuine grin, "Wow, umm great."

Ollie laughed at his strange answer. "Yeah. Are you busy after class?"

He shook his head.

"Ok, meet here after the bell? She asked.

"Yep, I'll be here." He told her, mentally high fiving himself.

Ollie stood back up and glanced over at her friends, a lot of whom were looking over in her direction.

"Hey Kaleb?" she said walking closer to him, "Lets give them something to really see."

His eyes widened, just as she leaned in and for a second time they kissed, both feeling the soft spark they had felt doing the same thing a few nights earlier.