Sorry this took so long. And I was doing so well updating before... sighhh.
Chapter 21: Problems of the Privileged
The bell jingled as he stepped through the Dan Scott Motors glass door. A few stray stares lingered on him as he walked past with a stern look of determination spread across his features. An assistant stood to protest his swift ambush of Dan's office, but he ignored her and strode into the room. Noticing his father on the phone, he began pacing the length of the room. Back and forth, back and forth. "...Make yourself happy..."
Dan gave his son an inquiring look. "Tom, I'm going to have to call you back." He half chuckled into the phone before turning his focus to the obviously distraught man in front of him. An amused smirk played at his lips as he said, "Lucas, something wrong?"
"Why did you have to say it? Huh, why? Did you just know it was going to eat away at me like some kind of freaking parasite until I gave in? Did you know that it would make me waltz in and quit my job? Did you? Because let me tell you something Dad, I now have a wife in college, a baby on the way, and no job to support them!"
"Lucas, calm down. This is an easy problem to fix. I told you that you can have a job here until you find a better one."
Lucas groaned, "Oh, because you would just LOVE that wouldn't you? Then we could bond until I wouldn't want to leave. So then when you croak, someone can carry on your precious family name. Isn't that what you want, Dan? Isn't it?"
"Actually, no." Dan said simply, standing from behind his desk and taking some files to the cabinet. "It's in my will that the company's funds will be split between my grandchildren. I had figured Nathan surely didn't need the money, and Brooke and yourself seemed to be getting along fine, financially and otherwise."
Lucas's anger had lessened and was now standing quietly with his hands stuck in his pockets. "We are... getting along I mean, but what we have saved is not even enough to last us a few months." He paused before laughing cynically at himself, "So what do I do? I quit my job and blame it on you."
"Oh, I take the blame." He said plainly, taking Lucas by surprise. "I told you to quit. So you will come work for me, write that book, and support your family. Problem fixed."
"Yeah, uh. Okay, thanks." Lucas stammered in confusion, turning slowly to walk out the door.
Just as Lucas reached the door, Dan turned, "Oh, and Lucas? You start next Monday."
-.-.
"Owen Daniel James! If you do not get off of my couch and out into daylight I will call Taylor and tell her you need a date. You know how many "friends" she has." Haley sneered, using her fingers to make quote marks in the air. "Just come to the park with Meg and me. You haven't left the house in a week. You are starting to look pathetic."
Owen barely blinked, his attention never steering from the television in front of him. "The game is on, Haley."
"Owen! Forget the game!" She shrieked at her unresponsive brother. From the kitchen she heard the phone ring, and moved to get it, but it stopped ringing. "Come on, O. You are either going to tell me why Meredith hasn't been around or you are coming to the park."
He chuckled, "Or what, baby sister? You are going to throw me out? Highly unlikely."
"Well, no, but.." She sighed in frustration.
Owen groaned. "It's nothing, Haley."
Haley stamped her foot like an angry child. Sometimes having a brother that thought the world owed him something really sucked. She felt a tug on her shirt and looked down to see Megan holding the phone out to her.
"Hello?" Haley sighed into the phone, rolling her eyes at her brother and walking out of the room.
A distressed male voice sounded through the received, "When did she start answering the phone?"
"Two days ago," Haley smiled instantly at the man on the other end. "Brooke taught her."
Nathan scoffed, "Figures she'd do something like that."
"Hey, remember you are talking about one of my best friends." Haley scolded with a teasing hint laced into her tone.
"She might be your friend, but it doesn't make her any less crazy."
Haley giggled, "Nate, our entire family is crazy." There was a long pause on the other end. "Nate?"
When he spoke, she could hear the smile on his face, "Nothing, just sometimes hearing you say stuff like that makes me really miss you."
"What? Calling your gene pool unstable?" She raised an eyebrow as she walked into the kitchen. She kissed Megan's temple as she walked past the counter. "Because Nathan, no offense, but you are lucky I am so in love with you because otherwise your family would have scared me off long ago.."
"Actually," he interrupted, "I was going to say that I love hearing you call my family "our" family, but I guess you have more claim to them than I do." There was a crash on his end of the phone and he muttered a long train of inappropriate four letter words. Just when she thought he was about two seconds from throwing the phone at a wall, he shakily smirked, "And trust me, I know I am lucky."
"You better." She laughed, "Everything okay there?"
He cleared his throat like he had been caught and he answered back with a panicked voice, "Of course, Hales. Why wouldn't it be?"
A brief look of worry crossed Haley's face, "I just heard a crash, that's all." She turned to Megan, "Meg, put the crayons in the bag. And get your shoes on."
"Nothing, Haley. Nothing at all. It's just my ...uh.. My PR just got here and she scared me, that's all, Haley. That's all." He finished with a smile.
"I'm sure." She teased suspiciously. Her eyes landed on the microwave clock and she did the time change math quickly in her head. "Get ready for practice, Nate."
"I'm...nearly, almost, kind of ready for practice, it's alright. I'll be there on time." He said more to himself than Haley.
"And you got your plane tickets for Thanksgiving, right?" She reminded him as she checked off the day on the calendar. A little voice from the living room told Haley that Megan was ready for the park and she was quickly getting bored waiting.
"Yeah, I did." Nathan shook his head laughing. "Coach wants a late night practice Wednesday night, but my flight comes in early Thursday morning. I'll just take a cab to your house. Don't worry, I might not be the smartest guy, but I can book a flight."
"It's driving you crazy how anal I am being about it, isn't it ?" She snorted. He denied it, but she could hear that stupid patronizing smirk growing on his face. "I'm just trying to make sure you can get a flight. We have a nice Thanksgiving here together and I don't want you to miss it."
He kept his voice low, "Hales, I won't miss it. Even if the worst happened and I missed the plane, I could get bumped to the next flight. It might only be my second year in the NBA, but 'standout rookies' get perks too."
"Yeah, yeah." Haley murmured. "Your daughter is getting restless. I must take her to the park now. Call us later and if you're lucky I'll pick it up. I love you, bye." She clipped happily and then quickly turned off the phone. She proceeded to throw it at her brother. "Call her you idiot."
Haley smirked as she took her daughter's hand and her brother cursed.
-.-.
Peyton let out a nervous breath as she knocked on the plain brick building's door. The way it blended in with the rest of the storefronts made her worry that she had mistakenly wrote an incorrect address. It was devoid of a sign and lacking appeal. The door swung open and a smile of relief broke out on the man's face.
"Peyton," he grinned, "thank you for calling me. I was terrified that I would be without any employees."
She shrugged and stepped inside, "I need the money, Matthew, and it's a plus that I get to find out if the house you moved into is really haunted."
"So far there is no paranormal activity, sorry to disappoint." He laughed and gestured to the coffee machine as an offering. She declined. "And you can call me Matt. Please."
"Okay, Matt," She said dramatically. "What exactly is it that I will be doing?"
"Well, I have writers from Boston who will just e-mail me their stories. Then you, will be finding or making the illustrations to go with. If they provide pictures, you need to fit and format them to the pages. Your boss at THUD said you are quite an artist so I figured you would rather work with pictures than do the editing."
Peyton raised an eyebrow skeptically, "You're being nice. Too nice." She paused as his eyebrow furrowed. "Obviously, the Tree Hill power trip/drama vortex has not gotten to you yet. Maybe there is still hope for you, Matt."
He cleared his throat uncomfortably, "Maybe I am just trying to keep you on my side so that you will start tomorrow."
She chuckled, "If you order a sign to spice up the outside, you got yourself a worker."
He nodded his head, "It's being delivered in two days. Now, I can offer you sixteen dollars an hour to start with, plus benefits. I'll issue you a laptop with the formatting program installed so that you can work here or at home. Is this okay for you?"
Peyton's blonde curls bounced as she nodded enthusiastically, "Matt, this is more than okay."
-.-
Rushing to the bakery, Brooke decided that periods were not the only thing a pregnancy caused women to be late for. She internally groaned at the length of the line as she stepped inside. Tree Hill's only bakery was recently named one of the Top Five Pie Bakeries in the area. Rich socialite's wives were flocking from miles around to get their hands on the heavenly pies for their Thanksgiving dinner extravaganzas. Had Brooke known this, she might have prepared properly and ordered her pies sooner.
"Do Tree Hill residents get to cut in line?" She summoned her best enticing smile and aimed it at the teenage boy behind the counter. He smirked evilly and pointed her to the end of the line. Scowling at the Gucci purse clad blondes in front of her, she stood angrily at the back of the time-wasting procession.
Still in the same spot ten minutes later, Brooke impatiently switched her weight from one foot to the other as another poor soul lined up behind her. "Is this going to take a while?" The little voice whispered in Brooke's ear.
"If a while is a freaking lifetime, then yeah." Brooke pouted bitterly. The brunette behind her moaned morosely. Brooke turned to the girl, "I can't believe this line. You'd think these girls could afford cooks to make their own pies."
As the girl nodded angrily in agreement with her, Brooke got a chance to give her a quick look-over. She sported the late twenties look: simple jeans and a plain shirt. She seemed trustworthy, but Brooke eyed her with caution. She might be one of them, she figured, sending a glare to the front of the line. "Have you lived in Tree Hill long?" The girl asked of her.
Brooke tossed her hair to one side, "All my life, minus college. You?"
"I grew up here, but recently moved back." She laughed, seemingly at herself, "It's nearly impossible to leave this place, isn't it?"
Brooke sent mystery woman a 'I Know' look, "It must be something they put in the water. I'm Brooke Scott, by the way."
The unidentified woman smiled, "Meredith Clark."
Brooke's eyes widened with remembrance,"Clark? Like Charles and Cassandra Clark? Like huge brick house over on Willow street?"
"That's my parents." She admitted, chagrined. "How did you know?"
Brooke sighed, "I grew up two houses over. I never knew they had a daughter." She paused and then added for clarification,"And I know everything."
"I wouldn't call myself a daughter from their viewpoint. I was more of a perfectly sculpted trust-fund kid, that is, until my 'rebellious' stage when I found out that guys were more fun than honors classes and student government." Meredith rolled her eyes and then sighed happily when they moved up another spot in line.
Brooke grinned with a conspiring glint in her eye, "So you are one of us then. The rejected ones. What did you do, marry an artist or something?"
"Nah, not married, yet." She said, flashing her left hand. "I broke a really minor law, and the cops escorted me home during my parent's largest dinner party. I dated a guy from the 'other side of the tracks' and I went to college to become a public school teacher."
Brooke smiled genuinely, "Way to go." A moment of silence rushed over them and Brooke grasped onto anything to keep from having to be forced to listen to the blonde in front of them squeal into her cell phone. "So what are you here for?"
"To buy a pie." She frowned as if it was obvious.
"Just one?"
"Yeah, there is no way I am having Thanksgiving with my family." She shook her head in horror of the idea.
Brooke grinned like the Cheshire cat, "Come to my Thanksgiving." Meredith started to interrupt, but Brooke stopped her, "Trust me, there ends up being so many of us that no one cares. It's all amazing food and hilarious fights that don't get remembered the next day. Puh-lease!"
Brooke gave her most appealing look and Meredith felt herself weakening, "You have that convincing look down, Brooke Scott."
"Well, you have that ex- tortured rich kid look down, Meredith Clark. And you are coming to the Scott Thanksgiving."
I hope to get the next update up by the end of next week. : Thanksgiving with the Scotts. Who's there and who isn't?
Shout Outs:
Naleyluv: Haha. Thanks for the review. The dress shopping from the last chapter will remain a mystery for a while. Sorry if that's disappointing. Mowen is a really good combination of Meredith and Owen. More of them in the next chapter, if you couldn't tell from the Brooke/Meredtih scene.
HaleynNathan23: Oh my gosh. Your review is so long. It makes me so happy. Haha. Alright, Nathan's need to buy Haley and Megan's love will be played out just a tad more. It was an intresting concept to me and I want to explore it a little more. Nathan is such a fun character to write. I'm glad you agreed and understood Peyton's financial struggle and why she needed to take that job. It is going to give her a storyline as well as a human connection. Thanks for the review, and as always, I hoped you liked this chapter.
deli41321: Thanks for the review. It's appreciated. Nathan wanting to be with his family will be shown further in more chapters. I haven't really decided if Peyton's new boss will be trouble or not. Haha, and thanks for adding that you liked the Megan/Haley/Nathan scene..
Review, puh-leeeeze.