Chapter 30

Oh sorry, this is Kaleb by the way."

"Hi Mrs, uh, Scott." He said uncertainly, "Nice to meet you."

Haley sure hadn't expected that. No one had called her by the name Scott in years. She found it especially surprising considering it came from one of Ollie's friends.

"Yeah, you too Kaleb, call me Haley though."

He let out a small breath, relieved that at least one of Ollie's parents didn't want to murder him. Also though, it was obvious to him that he didn't know the full story behind Ollie and her mom.

"So I take it you met Nathan?" she asked them figuring that was Ollie's reason for calling her father an ass.

"Hardly. All dad did was shout at us, so we just left. I hope you don't mind." Ollie told Haley.

"Not at all. You're welcome here any time you want. You too Kaleb," she said winking at Ollie, knowing exactly what Nathan was like.

"Thank you Haley" Ollie said genuinely.

Haley smiled and nodded, "Well I'll just be in the other room if either of you need anything," she told them, standing, figuring that the two teenagers wanted to be alone. Also, unlike Nathan, she thought Kaleb and Ollie's relationship seemed sweet and innocent, not completely dreadful.

"Wow, she seems really nice Ollie," Kaleb was a little surprised; he didn't think someone as famous as Haley would seem so, normal.

"Yeah, not as psycho as my dad right?" she chuckled.

"Definitely" Kaleb agreed, pleased Ollie was still able to joke about it. "He's probably just protective though. I mean I definitely don't have any kids but I think I'd be pretty mad if I caught my little sister kissing someone."

"I didn't know you had a sister. Does she live back with your mom?"

"No. Here with dad and her and Duncan's mom. She's actually my half sister."

"Really?" Ollie questioned, "I never knew Duncan had a sister either and I've know him a couple of years."

"Yeah. Becca is only 3."

"What?" Ollie laughed confused, thinking his sister was in junior high or something.

"I know. It's all those preschool boys I'm worried about." He said with his voice deadly serious.

Ollie looked at him for a second with one eyebrow raised and didn't say anything before bursting out in laughter, "Did you just make all that up?" she asked, amused.

Now it was Kaleb's turn to raise his eyebrows, "What? No," he protested.

"Seriously. Do you even have a sister?"

"Of course I do." He defended himself while laughing, "Why don't you believe me?"

"Well honestly. What could two three year olds really get up to?"

Kaleb looked thoughtful for a second before shrugging with a grin on his face as he came up with nothing, "I guess I don't have to worry then," he smirked.

As he chuckled, Ollie studied him, fairly sure that he was watching her too. His eyes squinted at the corners when he smiled as he was now, showing only their nearly black colour. His normally neat, semi curly hair was still damp after being rubbed by the towel and flicked in all directions around his face. He wasn't very tall, taller than her, but that wasn't really much of a feat. Something about him drew her to him though, something that seemed different to all the males in Tree Hill. Kaleb didn't really fit with the people she was friends with; maybe that was part of the attraction. Mostly though, it was probably the kindness and gentleness that he radiated as opposed to competitiveness that seemed to be part of most demeanours of the guys that she knew.

"Hey Ollie?" she vaguely heard Kaleb say while nudging her shoulder and breaking her from her thoughts. "I should probably get home. The rain looks like it will hold long enough to get there."

"Ok" she smiled, "Haley would probably give you a ride."

"No, its fine. I don't mind walking."

"Ok" she said getting up and following him to the door after he said a quick goodbye to Haley.

"Well see you" he chuckled.

"Yeah, soon" she told him and he kissed her on the cheek to say goodbye. "Bye"

She stood in the doorway waving as he disappeared into the street. No matter what her dad said, she didn't care. She would keep seeing Kaleb anyway.

Vaguely, from her place by the front door, Ollie could hear Haley talking to someone, presumably on the phone seeing as it had rung a moment ago.

In fact, Haley was actually on the phone to the very person Ollie was angry with, Nathan. Just a few minutes ago he had rang her.

"Hi it's Nathan" he had started, "Have you seen Olivia?"

He sounded cross and there was a blunt edge to his voice. She had also never heard him call Ollie, Olivia.

"Nathan calm down."

"Haley! Have you seen her?"

"Yes she's here. Bu…

Dial tone cut her off as she was about to continue speaking, clearly Nathan had hung up on her. Ollie had been right, he was angry.

A small shuffle near the exit of the room caught her attention. Ollie, after seeing Kaleb off and hearing Haley on the phone had come into the room, sensing from the tone of the conversation that it was her father on the line.

"So that was dad right?" she asked taking a seat at the table where Haley was. Seeing Haley nod, she continued, "Did he sound mad?"

"Yeah, he hung up pretty quick though."

Ollie nodded grimly and Haley could tell from the girl's expression that she was pretty mad with her dad right back.

"So," Haley began lightly to try and get Ollie's mind off her dad, "You really like Kaleb, huh?"

Just the question brought a smile to Ollie's face, "Yeah he's great. He's so much different than all the other guys around here you know? Like he actually cares about things more than sport."

"That's good," Haley smiled, "He seemed to be pretty into you as well, the other night at Tric."

Ollie blushed remembering her rather promiscuous dancing; she hadn't really thought that people other than her dad would notice. But, at school, her friends had already made a big deal about it, and now it seemed Haley had too.

"Um….." Ollie chuckled awkwardly, "That was sort of to annoy dad. I didn't like how he was tre…" she stopped speaking suddenly realising that she was about to admit that it had been because of how Nathan had been treating Haley. Stammering pretty much un-understandable gibberish in an attempt to cover what she had been saying. It came as a great relief when they both heard a car pull in, bringing a halt to their conversation. Not such a relief to Ollie however, was the driver of the car who was now banging mercilessly on the front door. Nathan.

The second Haley opened the door for him; he stormed right past her to where Ollie was sitting.

"Get up" he ordered, ready to march her straight to the car, "You are grounded."

"What?" she spat completely outraged that Nathan thought he was the one that was right in all this, "You can't ground me."

"I can and I am," Nathan threatened angrily, as much as he hated being angry with her, he felt she was completely out of line, firstly for ignoring and walking out earlier and for her backtalk now. To him, she never used to be like this, he had no idea what had caused the change though, "Go, get in the car right now Olivia."

Haley could hear everything they were saying in their heated argument from the other room where she had stayed, feeling a little like an intruder. Honestly, she did feel Nathan was being completely unfair and really felt for Ollie. She just didn't know if it was her place to intervene though.

"No!" she heard Ollie shout at her father.

A second later Ollie appeared in front of her with Nathan just behind. Neither looked overly happy.

"Tell him Haley" Ollie pleaded, "Tell him I did nothing wrong, please. You met Kaleb."

Haley glanced helplessly with wide eyes from Nathan to Ollie with no idea what to say. While she felt that Ollie was probably right, if she agreed with her, Nathan would never trust or forgive her and if she sided with Nathan, Ollie would never trust or forgive her.

Using Haley silence to her advantage, Ollie, still with anger in her voice, told Nathan, "See, she agrees with me but knows you'll get mad at her."

Nathan grunted furiously then practically yelled, "Well I am your father and I am telling you that you are grounded.

"Yeah, well she's my mother so she gets a say too," Ollie yelled back.

Haley remained silent.

"Well then maybe you should live with her seeing as her rules are so perfect," he shouted bitterly.

"Fine" Ollie screamed.

"Fine" Nathan snapped and stormed back out the door, very similar to the way he had stormed in.

The door slammed behind him causing both Haley and Ollie to jump and their eyes to connect at the sudden movement,

"Wait, What?" They both stammered at exactly the same time, both only then realising what had just happened.