Chapter 44

"Oh my god, thats her. Apparently she's Haley James' illegitimate daughter or something."

"If I were her, I wouldn't show my face around here for years, I mean pregnant at 15."

"Hey, that's the chick that got knocked up by that geek isn't it?"

"Her own mom didn't even want her, what's she going to do with a baby."

"What a slut."

In the crowded cafeteria, Ollie's back stiffened, hearing every single word that the merciless teenagers were saying behind her. She wanted to turn and scream. Scream that they had no idea what they were talking about. Scream at them to butt out. Not that it would do any good. She would still be the abandoned pregnant girl they gossiped about, only, the word psycho would be thrown into the descriptive mix too.

With her, sat the few of her friends who had believed her instead of the article. Jess, Ephraim and Kaleb, were there, of course, and also a few of her more loyal friends. The whole table was tense and stiff, all the whispers making there way to each of their ears.

Jess growled angrily causing the silent table to look over at her, "I am going to kick the ass of the next person who says something bad about you Olls." She warned them angrily.

"Don't look now then." Their friend Mel suggested, gesturing to an old friend of Laurens, who was approaching the table.

Ollie groaned, Laurens friends were already horrible to her, for being part of the reason she was sent to boarding school. She did not need an encounter with one of them right now. Guess she didn't have too much of a choice though.

"Hi Olivia," Kayla smirked evilly when she reached the table.

Jess snarled at her warningly, letting her know to back off, or cheerleading practice later, would turn into more of a boxing practice. Kayla simply rolled her eyes and turned back to Ollie.

"I just wanted to give you this." She handed Ollie a packet of condoms and a card for an abortion clinic. It could almost have been meant as a nice gesture. But it wasn't, "I mean, the nice thing to do would be to kill it. Your own mom never loved you, what makes you think you could do any better?"

Bursting from her seat, Jess leapt for Kayla, with only Ephraim's arms grabbing her at the last minute holding her back. Commotion erupted at the promise of two cheerleaders brawling, taking full advantage of the noise, Ollie melted away into the crowd and disappeared away from the hellish day of school.

Once out of sight of the school, she just walked, wondering how people could be so cruel. Half the people, who had been dissing her, had never before even spoken a single word to her in their life. Nor did any of them know a thing about Kaleb, or Haley. None of them actually had any reason; they were cruel just because they could be.

Ollie's legs carried her someplace very familiar. Someplace safe. The tattered old nets, flowed in the gentle breeze, and the words of the prior generation's memory faintly contrasted against the pale concrete. But for, the whistle of the wind in the trees, and the steady swoosh of the river, there was silence as she lay down like a starfish in the middle of the river court.

Nothing bad ever happened here. Sure, she came here when she was sad, or angry, but never, had the river court been the place where the bad happened. It was the refuge, never the hell.

She closed her eyes, and tried to remember what it felt like to be sure nothing bad was coming. To not having to always be prepared for the consequences when something good happened. Of course there had always been consequences to everything, but it felt like now, she was more aware of them. Once upon a time, not even that long ago; she would have been willing to share everything about her relationship with Kaleb, with all of her friends, regardless of what they thought. Now though she kept all that private. People just didn't seem good anymore. Name's and people flashed through her head, Daunte, Dan, Lauren, Kayla, Rachel, Kaleb's mom, Ephraim's parents, all bad. All instilling the fear of consequences into her. She just wanted to feel free again, free of the memories of all those people. Free like she had playing ball with her dad as a kid, or when she had played on the stage at Tric, fine with knowing that if people didn't like her music then they didn't have to listen. Today though, it didn't matter whether they like what the article was saying, people would definitely listen to it anyway.

"What are you thinking about?" she heard.

She didn't move. Maybe the person would go away if they thought she was asleep or something.

"Olllliie." The person called quietly, nudging her with their toe.

She groaned and blinked. Whoever it was, obviously had no intention to leave her alone. The face, fuzzy at first came into focus. She frowned, "Duncan? What are you doing here?"

He lay down a couple of feet away from her on the court, "I came to check you're OK."

Shutting her eyes again, she sighed, "Thanks. I'm fine. I sort of want to be alone though."

"No you don't."

"What?"

"If you wanted to be alone you wouldn't come to the one place that just about everyone who has ever met you, knows you go to when something like this happens."

Silence fell between them as they both lay in the sun.

"I want to tell the truth. Even if people don't want to hear it. Fuck the consequences."

He raised his eyebrows at her confession.

"Can you please drive me somewhere?"

He stood and dusted himself off, before holding a hand out to her and helping her up. "Anywhere Scott."

"Tree Hill Press Center?" Duncan questioned when she asked him to pull over.

"Yeah" she breathed, fumbling nervously with the handle of the door, "Are you coming in?"

He shrugged, "I can wait here if you want."

"Yeah Ok Thanks." She looked up at the building, "This shouldn't take long."

Holding her head as high as she could, she stalked in, and right up to the desk.

"Hello dear. What can I do for you? Are you lost?" the little old lady at the counter asked, peering at Ollie through thick glasses.

Ollie cleared her throat, "No, I'd like to talk to, uh, Ms. Penning." She recalled the reporters name from the article.

"Oh, do you have an appointment?"

"No. I'm her niece." Ollie lied smoothly.

The old lady looked a bit unsure, "Well… I guess if you're family. Her rooms up the stairs and the first on the right."

Thanking the lady, Ollie climbed the stairs, all the way psyching herself out. She knocked.

"Come in." she heard a bored voice call.

Entering, and staring the reporter direct in the face, she said, "My name is Olivia Scott. We need to talk."

Intrigue replaced boredom on Debora Penning's face at the name. "Really?" she replied sort of mockingly. "And what would we have to talk about?"

"You are going to write an article for me."

Debora raised her eyebrows at the commanding kid. "Don't want your 15 minutes of fame to end do you?" she laughed snidely.

Ignoring her, Ollie continued. "In this article you are going to say that Haley has been married to her husband Nathan Scott for 17 years, she went on tour in the first place for the wellbeing of her family and always had the intention to come back, that there is no substantial evidence that we were at the clinic due to pregnancy, and that any attempts to infiltrate my families privacy without permission again will be handled by the police. Oh, and all this comes from a primary source who wished to remain unnamed."

Laughing, Debora rolled her eyes at the young girl, "Ok ok. Why would I ever write that?"

Ollie smirked, "Because my mom has access to lawyers you could never even afford in this life time. I'm a minor and I'm pretty sure you didn't have my parents' permission to publish my picture in your last article. I mean, I wouldn't want you to lose your job."

"Are you threatening me kid?"

"Yes, I am. If it's not published by the end of the week my lawyers will be in contact with you." She warned, briskly stalking from the room, secretly wondering whether Haley actually had access to high profile lawyers and hoping it wouldn't come to that.

"Have a nice day dear," the receptionist called after Ollie as she walked past.

Turning to her and smiling, Ollie said, "Thank you. I will. You too."

Waiting for her just where she had left him, was Duncan. He smiled warmly at his little brothers girlfriend, "Ready to go home Scott?"

She grinned, "Yeah, I am."

1:30. School wouldn't be out for a couple of hours, slumping down on the couch; Ollie closed her eyes, her heart still racing from the encounter with Debora Penning. On the outside, she had seemed solid and threatening, but she had been terrified the reporter wouldn't listen or would see through her lies.

A throat cleared above her, making her jump.

"Why aren't you in school?"