I Don't Want To Be

Standard Disclaimers Apply.

------- … scene change/break or indicated flashback

Italics … thoughts

Bold … emphasis

I Don't Want To Be: Chapter 12: A Mystery and Its Lies (Part I)

Haley had been wandering around for about an hour, looking for her best friend. First, she paid a visit to the café to see if the boy was in there. Deb, his mother, was the owner. Lucas was a momma's boy if she had ever seen one, though he had better reasoning than most, so it was logical to think that he'd be hanging around in there.

No such luck. Deb had told her that he had gone out today and was probably just jogging down a trail with his walkman or something.

It was kind of breezy outside, a cold fall day. It didn't seem like a good day to go for a jog. Haley was bundled up in a coat with a fuzzy scarf, gloves, and hat set. Though Lucas often went wandering out in what Haley considered 'bad weather', she didn't think he'd do it today.

So the young sixth grader went to see Keith. It was Saturday and Lucas often went to his uncle's garage on the weekend. The older man had seemed surprised to see her. His surprise at her popping up was lessening as the days went on though.

Unfortunately, that was a dead end too. Sure, Lucas had been there, but he wasn't anymore. In fact, the blond had left half an hour ago. He was not at home reading. That really left one other place.

The Rivercourt.

Upon reaching the old court, Haley was not happy to find it empty. Was he not – ah, there he was. Haley managed to spot her blond-haired buddy by the river, his sunny strands a bright contrast to the dark bark he was leaning against. It was a good thing she had been standing on this spot. Any other angle would have hidden the silent boy from view.

The spunky brunette ran over to him, wondering what he was doing. Surprise, surprise, Lucas wasn't really doing anything. The boy was just sitting there, staring into space. She plopped down beside him with a sudden grunt. Haley didn't bother trying to scare the crap out of Lucas anymore.

Okay, she did, but not as often. The blond hardly reacted, ever, and seemed to have more success in turning the tables by scaring Haley. The boy insisted that he didn't do it on purpose, but that secretive smirk of his made her wonder sometimes…

"What are you doing?"

Lucas glanced over at his friend, her curious brown eyes looking back at him. "Thinking," he replied simply.

There was a pause. And then, "You think a lot. Did you know that?"

Lucas turned his head to look at Haley. "I…have a lot to think about."

"Does it make your head hurt?"

What kind of question is that? Mind you, this was Haley, and she often asked him questions he thought were odd. So really, he should be used it by now. But back to her question. "No. Should it?"

"My big sister told me that she didn't do her homework because it made her have to think. She said that thinking a lot makes her head hurt."

Lucas blinked. "Oh, well…thinking a lot doesn't make my head hurt." It did mean that one of them was weird though. Thinking a lot either hurt or it didn't, right? Well, his sixth grade logic said it was either one or the other. "Maybe something's wrong with your sister."

Haley seemed to consider this seriously. "You know what?"

"What?" She didn't look mad or offended, so that meant she wasn't about to go off. Or so Luke supposed.

"You're probably right." She nodded, as if re-confirming it. "She is a bit weird. This shouldn't be any different. Thinking a lot doesn't hurt. She's probably just lazy or something."

Lucas smiled slightly, shaking his head. The relationships between Haley and her many siblings were always quite entertaining to him. It was lonely sometimes, being an only child... The blonde lay on the grass, his feet inches from the riverbank. Haley copied his move. And the two simply laid there in peace, watching the clouds pass by.

"So…what were you thinking about?"

The peaceful silence had lasted all of five minutes before Haley broke it. Lucas supposed she couldn't stand it. The tiny brunette always seemed more talkative around him. She had become more sociable, Emily had told him once. "I think it's for you. Or maybe it's for our group of friends," the blonde speculated during lunch one day.

It had been just the two of them, but not because everyone else was gone. It seemed that the two of them had been thinking alike that day, opting to skip lunch in favor of hiding out in the library with a good book. He had asked what she had meant by that. The blonde was silent and Lucas had been thinking that she didn't have an answer.

Then, seconds after that thought, she spoke. "It'd be weird to have three really quiet people in a group of eight, wouldn't it? That's almost half the group. Two is better, or less awkward anyway."

He had asked her if that 'two' was to be him and her. The blonde had shrugged and went back to reading without answering him. Lucas wanted to ask what she meant by 'awkward', but let it go. He'd seen it before in some books and believed it meant 'weird' or something similar. Oh well, whatever.

Back to the present then.

"I was thinking about something," Lucas told her.

He received a snort in reply. "Obviously. But what exactly were you thinking about?"

"A strange man from a few weeks ago." ((Hah! You thought I was going to jump up a few months or a year or so right? Right? No…oh. Well then, you can at least pretend…you know, just for my sake, right? Right.))

"Where did you see him?"

"After basketball practice. Remember when mom was suddenly set on pulling me from the team?"

There was a pause as Haley tried to remember. "Oh yeah, it was after that thing with your ankle or something right? She totally freaked," the girl said with a laugh.

Lucas shot her a sour look. It had taken a lot of begging, pleading, pouting, and sulking to win her over. Playing down his injury a lot helped too. "Not funny, but yeah it was that day. He was looking at Uncle Keith and me really weird, and I saw the way Uncle Keith had looked at him when he thought I wasn't paying attention. I don't think Uncle Keith likes him very much."

"And you do?" she asked, trying to get a feel for whatever problem there seemed to be.

Lucas immediately shook his head, staring at the sky again. "No, he was just looking at me funny. It…I didn't like it." It had made him feel insignificant, like he didn't deserve to be there or something. It was an unsettling feeling of sheer unworthiness that put Lucas on edge.

"Did the man say something to you?"

"No…not really."

"Well, he must be some kid's dad. All you have to do is avoid that kid and you should be set for life." She paused here. "Well, maybe not set for life because there's no reason to think that you'd be stuck knowing this kid for life, so you wouldn't have to worry about being 'set for life' with not running into the kid's dad."

"Uh…Haley?" She was doing that rambling thing again…

"Of course, you're on the basketball team and he's probably one of the dads, which means you'll probably being seeing him at the games a lot."

Oh come on, not again! "Haley."

The brunette went on as usual though. "…Unless he's one of those unsupportive parents that don't like to go and watch their kids play. Or maybe he'd just be mean like that. You don't like him, so he can't be that good of a person, so maybe he is just mean like that."

"Hales!"

She shut up.

It didn't take her as long to notice when he was trying to stop her rambling. It took a few tries, but at least he didn't have to yell so loud that everyone around him, even himself sometimes, was startled.

Lucas wasn't a loud person by nature, so yelling wasn't really the norm for him. Being loud at all, even in Mia's harmless manner of loud, wasn't his style. He was a quiet kid – end of story.

"I'm sure it'll be okay. But it would be good to know whose dad he is."

Suddenly, Haley rolled over to face him.

Lucas stared at her. "What?"

A determined expression was fixed on her cute face, not that Lucas cared for such things right now – or ever in Haley's case.

"What?" he repeated.

"Detective Haley James is on the case!" she declared while pumping a fist into the air.

Lucas sighed. He'd forgotten that Haley was on a Clue kick. Those detective books of hers… He sighed again, mentally this time. Oh well, he might as well humor her, right? No need to shoot the odd girl down. "Okay, so what do we do?"

Ecstatic that Lucas would cooperate with everything, Haley thought for a moment, ready to put her detective skills to work. "Okay, so what does this guy look like?"

Deb was wiping down the counters. The usual after-lunch lull was occurring and she took the opportunity to clean up a little in the mean time.

The blonde-haired woman did not look up as the jingle of a bell reached her ears, signaling the entrance of a customer. She heard one of her few employees greet the customer properly. The sound of the reply, however, made her look up.

Numbly, the rag slipped from Deb's grip and onto the floor. She steeled herself, picking up her rag and wiping at the counters again – roughly.

"Oh come on Deb, you're not still mad are you?"

Deb ignored the man, continuing her cleaning.

"Deb." The man took a seat. "Come on Deb. We need to talk; this is just ridiculous now."

She huffed, turning to grab a knife and cut some sandwiches. It continued this way for several minutes. She went about cutting up sandwiches while the dark-haired man pleaded for her to give him a chance to talk to her.

Fed up, Deb turned to walk to the back. A strong arm reached over the counter and Deb found herself caught by a strong, but non-bruising, grip. She looked back at the man. Her eyes went from the arm, to the hand, back to the arm, and then up to the man's face. His expression was that of a man who was sorry and desperate to patch things up.

Deb was proud that she remained strong for all of one minute before her shoulders slumped as she let out a long exhale. She yanked her wrist free and waved the man around the counter and towards the back.

He followed, obviously nervous.

As Deb allowed him to enter the back room ahead of her and closed the door behind them, it became apparent that he had good reason to be nervous. Her arms were folded and her face said that he didn't have a lot of time before she blew up at him and walked. "You wanted to talk? So talk Keith, talk."

This was a bad idea. Too early maybe. But it was too late now. He had to fix things now or she'd hold this over him forever. Keith Scott swallowed as he prepared to face one of the scariest types of people on earth.

An angry, highly protective single mother.

With a big knife in her hand.

"Okay, tall, muscle-y, dresses like a man that might work in a fancy office or something, dark eyes, dark blue eyes, really mean-looking." Haley frowned as repeated the key features. "That's, like, half the team's dads Luke."

The blond boy shrugged. "That's what I saw. He had dark brown, maybe black hair. His eyes were this…this…" What was the word? Got it! "His eyes were this intense blue. It made me really uncomfortable. And he had this whole 'I'm better than you and the rest of the world too' attitude to him. I could tell even though he didn't say anything to me."

Haley scratched her head. That didn't help her any. She had met or seen everyone on the basketball team, but not all of their parents. She had met/seen enough of them to think that she would be able to name this mystery dad. So much for that, she thought sourly.

"I'm not sure who that could be Luke."

"He reminds me of someone, really he does. I just can't figure out…" a frown here "..who…"

"Lucas? Lucas what is it?"

Lucas was thinking. He was now getting that feeling he always got when his highly-active brain was onto something. So, for a moment, the boy ignored Haley and continued thinking.

Then it struck him.

Nathan's dark hair, blue eyes, and haughty attitude popped into his mind, followed by the image of that strange man that had been standing behind his uncle. Same dark hair, same blue eyes…same cocky, snobby attitude. He grimaced, covering his eyes with his crossed arms, and groaned.

Haley pried her friend's arms from his face, pouting at his inattentive actions. "Lucas, what is it??"

"Not what – who." And part of him felt that he really shouldn't be all that surprised.

"Okay, so who is it?"

"Nathan."

Aaaaaand….cut! Lucas has one part of the puzzle figured out. Will it only be a matter of time until he figures out everything else? Why is Deb so mad at Keith? Review and you just might find out next chapter!