Chapter 5: Having Fun Yet?

Brooke walked into Fashion Design and saw her friend Laynie but paid her no attention. She immediately went to the teacher's desk where Nora was seated.

"Mrs. Anderson?" Brooke said to get her attention.

Nora looked up, her normal bright smile on her face widening as she recognized one of her new students.

"Only in class. Mrs. Anderson sounds so formal." Nora said, wrinkling her nose.

"Good." Brooke smiled.

The bell rang and a few students straggled in late.

"Time for class. We'll talk later okay?" Nora told her quickly, standing up.

Brooke nodded and sat next to Laynie Ross.

Brooke had met Laynie in the fourth grade and they'd been friends ever since. She was a petite girl with bright blue eyes in a pretty, heart shaped face framed by short black hair.

Laynie leaned toward her and whispered "You know her?"

"Yeah. Long story." Brooke replied.

"Well you will never believe what I just heard." Laynie told her, a devilish look on her face.

Always curious about gossip, Brooke inquisitively asked "What?"

"Amy heard from Natasha, who heard from Megan, who heard from Katie, that Eric broke up with Lily!" Laynie informed her happily, a huge smile on her face.

Eric McCallum was Laynie's latest crush and Brooke had to admit, he was one of Laynie's better choices. He was tall, slim, and athletic with curly brown hair and blue eyes. He had played on the varsity soccer team and the track team at their middle school.

"Really? So what are you going to do now?" Brooke conspiratorially asked her friend.

Laynie tucked her short black hair behind her ear before answering.

"I've been thinking about it a lot actually. There are so many different ways I could handle this, but trust me, he'll be mine."

Nora gave them a look and they both shut up and started paying attention.

Haley sat in her Spanish class, carefully paying attention to her new teacher, Mr. Rodriguez. She could tell by the way most of the girls were looking at him, they had a crush on him.

Mr. Rodriguez was cute, she had to admit. He looked very young, in his early twenties probably. He had tanned skin, longish black hair, and intense dark eyes. He told them he was Mexican and had come to the U.S. at the age of sixteen.

The intense way he looked at people reminded Haley of Nathan and she instinctively smiled. Haley couldn't remember a time when Nathan hadn't been a part of her life. His face was as familiar to her as her brothers and sisters.

She'd known Lucas, Peyton, Brooke, and Jake just as long but Nathan was special. He had been her first kiss when she was eight years old and her first 'boyfriend.' Their parents had thought it was cute up until they were ten or so.

"Ms. James? Please pay attention." Mr. Rodriguez told her in his soft accent.

Haley blushed and nodded. He smiled at her, showing off his dimples. A couple of girls actually sighed.

Mr. Rodriguez was cute and all but no one could hold a candle to Nathan in her mind.

Nathan slouched in his seat, already bored. He silently swore to get his class changed if it was the last thing he did.

His teacher was a short older woman who was very soft spoken and spoke English with a heavy accent. He couldn't even pronounce her name. On his schedule it read 'Jzelhgren'

One guy sitting two seats over was listening to his iPod and another was actually snoring. He checked his cell phone and noted there was exactly twenty-seven minutes left in class.

"Ms. Teacher Lady? I have to go to the bathroom." Nathan called from his seat.

The teacher mumbled something that sounded like an affirmative answer.

Nathan picked up his stuff and walked out of the classroom. He had some time to kill and he decided to go to his locker first.

They had assigned lockers alphabetically so his locker was on the same hallway as Lucas and Peyton's. He had to check the combination which turned out to be 27-42-12.

He put all the stuff in his hands into his locker and shut the door. Nathan checked his cell phone again and there was fifteen minutes left.

He was wandering the hallways aimlessly, trying to kill some time when he ran into his brother.

"Hey Luke, why aren't you in class?" Nathan asked, surprised.

Lucas sighed and said "It's a long story."

"We've got time." Nathan told him.

"Well, you remember David right?" Lucas asked.

"That waste of space? Yeah, I- hold on. Don't tell me he's in your English class. Peyton must have freaked." Nathan sympathized.

"Yeah, she did. He really got to her this time and she slapped him in the face and ran out the class." Lucas started.

"Good for her." Nathan broke in, a smile on his face.

"I went after her and she was in the hallway. Peyt was all upset and started to cry." Lucas went on before stopping abruptly.

"And…" Nathan prompted.

"Well, one thing led to another and I kissed her." Lucas said.

Nathan looked momentarily surprised but then looked thoughtful. "What did she do?"

"At first she kissed me back but then she freaked out and ran."

"You know Peyton. She probably just needs some time to think." Nathan replied.

"The thing is, I don't know why I did it. Now things are going to be all weird between us." Lucas told him, frustrated.

"Good luck with that." Nathan said with a wave before walking away.

Nathan knew they would figure it out. Besides, it wasn't his business.

Jake was glad it was basically a free period. They could do whatever they wanted as long as they didn't leave the gym.

A couple of guys had started a basketball game and of course Jake decided to play. Most of them were just okay, nothing special.

He hit another three pointer, boosting his team's lead to eleven points.

Some girls were watching the game in the bleachers and they clapped loudly.

Jake threw a smile in their direction and went back to the game.

Haley was one of the first people out of her classroom and Nathan was waiting for her. Just for a moment, she allowed herself to admire him.

Over the summer he had really shot up. He was now the tallest of the group at around six feet, give or take a little. His black hair was cut short, which she loved because it made his startling blue eyes stand out even more in his handsome face.

"Having fun yet?" Nathan teased, referring to the fact that she was one of the few people who loved the first day of school.

Haley just smiled and hugged him and he wrapped his arms around her. In that moment, that was all she wanted.

AN: I know, not my best but I really struggled with this chapter for some reason. It's more of a filler because I already had the next chapter mostly planned out. And I crashed the computer and I'm continuing this sentence almost a month later. My computer has been acting weird since we rebuilt it so I have to use school computers. Much apologies. I'll post the next chapter tomorrow probably.