Author- Emily-Grace Mendes (Brookebynature)
Disclaimer- I own none of the characters or the show. So now you can'r sue. Ha!
A/N- Okay, so I wrote this with a hangover, so I appologise if there are any spelling mistakes, but I have checked it over. It's my favourite chapter of this story so far, so I hope you'll enjoy too.
Oh, and thank you so much to you reviewers. Keep them coming guys!
Play The Game
Play For Fun
"What's this?" Brooke asked as Nathan handed her a white envelope with her name scrawled in black biro on the front.
"Invitation to a poker party at mine."
"Why the formal invites?"
Nathan shrugged. "Thought I'd make an impression on that new cheerleader of yours. She seems to like formal."
"And you seem to like her" Brooke smirked.
He walked away, handing out a few invitations to other guys on the basketball team before he called back "Just for fun."
----
"So are you up for a party at UNC tonight?" Peyton asked Lucas as she backed against the locker next to his, twirling a strand of curly blonde hair between her fingers.
"He's got plans." Nathan cut in, slapping a white envelope against Lucas' chest. "And so have you."
"What's this?"
"Poker party. Tonight. My house" Nathan answered before walking away, a high five here and there, winking at a few girls, until Peyton could no longer see him in the crowd.
"Great!" Brooke clapped her hands together in fake enthusiasm. "Now we've got man-whore and ….just regular whore coming, it's a party!" She rolled her eyes before walking away. "I can't wait."
Lucas smirked as he watched the brunette walking down the hallway, running a hand through his hair as he too, made his way to the next class- the only one he shared with Brooke other than history, and besides, the last time they'd had that class together, she'd spent her time chewing on her pen rather than conversing with him. And Lucas couldn't understand that. He had plenty of things he wanted to say to her.
----
"This is a scientific experiment so no joking about" the teacher warned as the class begun to talk loudly with excitement. They were to be paired up and each pair was to be given a doll with human-like features. It cried, it needed feeding, and it needed it's diaper changing. In other words, they were all going to be 'parents' as the teacher put it, for a week.
"You are all to be assigned a partner, and those of you who think a crying baby is an excuse to either be late or miss class, you'll be in detention every night for the following month if that happens."
A loud chorus of groans and exchanging of looks went up throughout the classroom, boyfriends and girlfriends looking at each other uneasily, trying to decide whether it would be better that they were paired together, or paired with someone else.
"And no switching partners." the teacher added before reaching for her list to recite the pairings to the class.
"Peyton Sawyer and Tim Smith"
Both Brooke and Nathan tried to hide their laughter as Peyton's expression went from a smug smile, to that of horror.
"Daddy Tim's in da house!" He shouted, before collecting the already crying doll from the front desk. "We can name him T.J"
Peyton rolled her eyes at the boy next to her. "Great."
The teacher begun reading from the list again. "Nathan Scott and Haley James."
Brooke wasn't sure whether she was happy about this, or pissed. Either way, she saw a small smile creep across Nathan's face as he glanced over at the shy girl across the classroom, already biting her nails before she stepped forward to 'claim their child.'
And Brooke's heart begun to beat way too fast as there were only a few people left without partners, Lucas being one of them.
"Ah, we're in luck. Our new arrival Lucas makes the numbers even. Lucas, you'll be paired with Brooke Davis. Have fun."
That's what she'd been afraid of, and of course, this was Brooke's life, so naturally, it had to go wrong. The crying of the dolls seemed to fade from her ears as all she could see was Lucas' smirk, as he lifted up the doll, supporting it's head so that it stopped crying.
"Aww, this is going to be an easy task for you fag." Nathan shouted, which was met by a chorus of laughing from most of the class, apart from Brooke, who was trying to decide what to say to Lucas first.
"So." He leaned in to Brooke as the rest of the class focused their attentions on the brood of crying dolls, a noise which, now that Brooke was fully tuned in, was beginning to hurt her ears. "How does it feel to be a Mommy?"
"Screw you." she shot back, snatching the doll from him which instantly begun crying.
"I would babe." He started "But you've already done it for me."
----
"We have a boy" Haley tried to joke, but her voice came out a little shaky, especially when she saw Peyton staring at her with a very pissed expression on her face.
"I guess we should name him then." Nathan smiled.
"You can pick." Haley told him. She didn't want to do anything that might piss him, or anyone else he hung out with off. This was her first week, and already she'd joined the cheerleading squad. Granted, she hadn't meant to, and she didn't even want to, but Nathan and Brooke seemed to own this school. She wasn't going to argue with them.
"We'll both pick."
"Well now that we're the proud parents of a little girl, as they say." Lucas begun "Don't you think we should name her?"
"Whatever. Just don't name her Peyton." Brooke snapped. "I hate that name."
Lucas grinned as he watched Brooke try and hold the doll's head in the same way he had done. In the end, she gave up, practically throwing it at him.
"How about Katie?"
"No. That reminds me of my Mom and I'd rather not…." She trailed off, not wanting to divulge any more information to someone she knew damn well she couldn't trust. Besides, everyone was entitled to their privacy.
"We'll name her Tori."
"Okay, Tori Scott."
"What the hell makes you think I'd give her your name?"
"It's a doll Brooke." Lucas chuckled.
"Her name's Tori Davis. It's very 21st Century, end of discussion." A small smile spread over Brooke's face as the doll finally stopped crying, but she quickly hid when she realised Lucas was staring at her.
"Whatever you want babe."
"And can you stop calling me babe? It's getting kinda irritating."
----
"What about your poker thing tonight man?" Tim asked Nathan. "You calling it off?"
"Nah." he shrugged. "There's never an excuse not to have a party. Besides…I have it all planned."
"Cool, I'll see ya."
"Damn this piece of plastic." Brooke threw the doll down onto the lunch table, receiving confused looks from the rest of the cheerleaders who weren't part of her class.
"Since when did you have to look after a doll?" Bevin asked, highly amused at the whole situation.
"Since biology lessons constituted being a 'parent' to a lump of screaming plastic." Brooke muttered, stealing a handful of fries off Bevin's plate when she wasn't looking.
She noted Haley at the end of the dinner queue, struggling to hold her 'child' while carrying her lunch tray. She almost passed the table when Brooke called out for her to sit down. After all, this was where she should sit from now on.
The only slightly amusing entertainment for the day was when Tim knocked 'T.J' onto the floor and then accidentally stood on him, making the thing cry louder than the rest of the dolls put together.
----
Everyone was at Nathan's by the time Brooke arrived with Tori, crying mainly because she was being held upside down and Brooke hadn't realised. She was more concerned with lugging the bag full of vodka into the house.
"A responsible parent doesn't drink." Peyton shot at Brooke, along with an icy glare that both Nathan and Lucas saw. She knew full well that Brooke was trying to get back at her for the whole Lucas thing, even though she said she didn't like him all that much, but it wasn't her fault they'd slept together. After all, Brooke had slept with Nathan, and anyway, she liked Lucas just as much as Brooke did. Didn't she?
"I never said I was responsible." Brooke smirked and raised her eyebrow. Man was this night going to be good.
The dolls had mostly been abandoned after only an hour, as the crowd realised poker wasn't going to be any fun with them crying all the time. Besides, the alcohol was flowing and most were too drunk to care.
"The rules" Nathan begun "Are as follows."
The rest of the teens looked at him expectantly, a small smile crossing Brooke's face as he kept them in suspense. She knew all too well what he was about to say.
"Each time you loose, you remove an item of clothing."
The guys mainly cheered as they realised the girls they liked, or were dating were about to remove what little clothes they were already wearing, revealing skimpy underwear to expectant eyes.
The girls however, were less than happy, silently telling themselves they should have known Nathan to host a strip poker night, rather than just regular poker. Brooke meanwhile, was grateful that she had that wax the other day, meaning that she could show Lucas exactly what he was missing.
Nathan winked at Brooke before stealing a glance at a very very worried-looking Haley. "Play the game."
----
A few more vodka's later, and the girls were all too eager to remove their clothes, throwing favourite shirts and brand new skirts into a huge pile of colour on the hardwood floor. The guys too, had had their fair share of beer, and cheered loudly every time one of the girls had to remove something, the loudest of all cheers coming when Brooke was reduced to her red bra and matching panties.
Lucky for Haley, she knew exactly how to play poker, more so than Nathan, who was impressed that she'd managed to keep all of her clothes on, even though he kind-of wanted to see what was underneath them.
"I slipped a little vodka into her drink." Brooke told Nathan while they were taking a break.
"Who's drink?"
"You know damn well who I mean." She raised her eyebrows at him. "Haley"
"Why?"
"So that you'd have a chance with her."
"I thought you wanted me." He smirked, pouring himself another beer from the keg.
"I wanted you to help me make that skank jealous." she replied, taking a large gulp from her glass as she looked over at Peyton laughing with Bevin and the rest of the squad.
"Whatever. Just…." Nathan trailed off, as he watched Haley stumble to the bathroom.
"What?"
"Just leave her out of it."
----
"New rules." Nathan informed the group as they all resumed their places at the table with new drinks and all of their clothes. "Once you loose your clothes, the next time you loose a game, the winner gets a kiss."
"Kinky" Brooke giggled. "This night just got so much better."
Haley looked uneasily at the rest of the crowd who seemed so up for the challenge, so confident about what could potentially unfold.
Brooke made sure to loose her games to Nathan, each time resulting in a kiss that she deepened, a smug smile on her face as they drew back for air, Brooke knowing that Peyton would be watching the entire time.
But she too, had lost her game, but to Lucas, who was only too happy to reciprocate the kiss, but when he caught Brooke's eye as he pulled away, a small stab of something ran through him. Brushing it off, he took a swig of beer, forcing a smile at the blonde across the table, who looked pleased to have gotten to beat Brooke at her own game, at least, for now.
After a very tipsy Bevin left with some guy off the team, Haley excused herself, saying that it was time for her to leave, taking the plastic doll that her and Nathan had named Tristan, with her.
Prior to Nathan's party, Lucas had agreed to keep Tori for the night, much to Brooke's pleasure. Her plan had worked perfectly.
She kissed him, hard, just when he was about to look at Peyton, and after Brooke opened one eye to see her closing the door behind her, leaving only herself and Nathan, she took full advantage of the empty house and plush bedrooms.
They had sex, quickly and without passion, but it was enough to get Brooke through the night, removing the image of Lucas and Peyton kissing practically naked across the table from her head.
It was comforting, knowing she could fall asleep in his arms, even though she would expect nothing less than for him to move to another bed when she wouldn't feel the bed shift. Still, it was the nights when she thought the most about Lucas, planning what to do next in her head, and even if Nathan was just a distraction, which she knew fine well he was, he was still a cute one. And, Peyton still liked him, Brooke knew that.
This was all just payback, she figured. A game. And Brooke played for fun.
Review please guys xxx