AN:: Sorry that it has been so long since the last time I updated. And I'm really sorry about the wait. But keep the reviews coming and I promise that I'm working on the next chapter and it will be up soon!

Chapter 12

As soon as Brooke and Tim got into an argument Peyton gave Lucas the 'lets go sign' which consisted of her pointing towards the doors. Lucas nodded, these fights happened all the time, and could go on forever. The only thing to do was to leave without drawing any attention to yourself.

Being the new girl, Haley was at first hesitant to just leave the two in the middle of the hallway, however she didn't get the chance to think about breaking them up because she was being pulled in the same direction as everyone else by Peyton.

"Shouldn't we make them stop?" Haley asked as she was being dragged along.

"It's useless." Nathan responded.

"The only way we could stop that fight is by setting a bomb off." Lucas added as he put an arm around Peyton.

"Aww, Look at you guys finishing each other's thoughts, that's so cute!" Peyton exclaimed in an overly girly voice as she pinched Lucas' cheek in a grandmotherly fashion.

"Stop it!" The blonde boy growled out, and swatted her hand away from him.

Nathan and Haley looked at each other and rolled their eyes as Peyton giggled. "So let's go see this cute apartment of yours." Peyton suggested as their little foursome began to drift away from the rest of the group.

"Um… alright." Haley knew exactly why Peyton had mentioned that, she was a lot like Brooke when she wanted to be.

"Where is it?" Nathan asked looking down at Haley's petite form.

"I don't really know the street names; I only know how to get there." Haley lied a little bit; she wasn't ready to find out if she really did live near Nathan. 'You never know, he might not want to live near you' her mind reasoned. Peyton gave her a weird look which she did her best to ignore.

"Alright then we can ride together, how'd you get here?" Nathan asked once he noticed that Haley wasn't walking in the direction of one of the other cars that was in the parking lot.

"I took the bus." She said with a shrug of her shoulders. "What's the big deal?" She asked when she noticed that the others were looking at her somewhat incredulously.

"Well it's just that the bus isn't exactly safe." Lucas tried to explain.

Haley looked at the Nathan and Peyton who were nodding in agreement. When she road the bus she hadn't felt like she was in any sort of danger. There were only two other people on it, one was an old lady who had been knitting, and the other was a guy who had looked about the same age as her, and had gotten off at the same stop as she had. "What exactly makes it so dangerous?"

"The people that ride the bus, and go to our school, have a big problem with me and Lucas." Nathan clarified a little bit of what Lucas was saying. "It was probably fine for you this morning, but now that you are friends with us, they are going to have a problem with you.

"And what exactly is their problem?" Haley asked while in her mind she was wondering how she was going to be able to get around now, her parents had no plans to buy her a new car or of shipping her old one out here.

"It has to do with some of the guys on the JV team thinking that Luke and I had something to do with them not making varsity." Nathan said vaguely. "But the point is you can't ride the bus anymore."

"Then how am I supposed to get around?" she questioned looking up at Nathan's much taller frame, and quirking an eyebrow at him.

"I'll give you a ride." He offered, as he put an arm around her shoulder.

"You are going to give me a ride everywhere I need to go?" Haley questioned, her lips now forming a smirk.

"Yes, I will." He confirmed, with confidence.

"Even if I want to go get my hair done?"

"Sure."

"Even if I want to go shopping?"

"Um… sure."

"What if I need tampons? Are you going to take me to the store then?"

"Well… Peyton can take you then." Nathan said with a smile as he looked over at the blonde couple to see them laughing hysterically at the commitment he had unknowingly volunteered for.

"Thanks for the volunteer." Peyton said as she jabbed Nathan in the stomach. Nathan, being unprepared for the assault, had the wind knocked out of him and was struggling to breathe for the moment. "Any girly stuff you need, I'm there for you." Peyton said to Haley as she rolled her eyes at how easily boys were tricked. "Brooke will be too."

"Thanks." Haley said through a laugh as she put her arm around Nathan's waist when he finally caught his breath. "Let's go!"

"Alright, we will follow you over there." Lucas said to Nathan as he and his girlfriend walked towards his classic Mustang.

"Sure man, see you there." Nate said to his brother's retreating form. When the other couple was mostly out of earshot, he put his arm around Haley's shoulders, and turned her to walk towards his car. "I can't believe you said that," he laughed a little "when I met you this morning I thought you were this innocent girl from Colorado. Either I misjudged how innocent you really are, or Brooke has already corrupted you. So which is it?"

Haley laughed, "I'm thinking it's a little bit of both." She answered and leaned in closer to him, giving him a playful hug.

XXX

When Peyton and Lucas walked up to his car, Brooke was leaning against the hood of it. "You guys have to stop running away whenever Tim and I get into an argument." Brooke exclaimed with her arms crossed.

"Sorry Brookie," Peyton said using the name that she had called Brooke in elementary school, "but you know there is no other way to break up the flirty fights you two have."

Brooke was now glaring at her best friend, "I do not flirt with Tim Smith!"

Peyton just rolled her eyes, "Sure you don't." She placated, "Get in; we are going to go see Haley's apartment."

The brunette's face changed from furious to cheery almost instantly when she heard this. She stood up straight, walked to the passenger side door, and as soon as Lucas unlocked it she opened the door and climbed into the backseat. The other two weren't far behind. "Did she tell Nathan?" Brooke asked going into gossip mode.

"No, and I can't figure out why either." Peyton said while turning half way around in the passenger seat so she could face her best friend.

"Weird…" Brooke said through a sigh as she began to think of all the reasons Haley could have for not telling him, its not like it was that big of a deal.

"Tell Nathan what?" Lucas asked as he started the car and waited for Nathan to drive passed him so he could follow him out.

"That girl is definitely not telling us everything." Brooke said as both the girls completely ignored the guy driving them around.

"I know whenever she starts telling us something, like she was in the locker room, she gets this really sad look in her eyes and she stops talking. I wonder if she thinks she can't trust us or something…" Peyton thought out loud.

"What was she going to tell Nathan?" Lucas asked a little louder, once he realized that the girls were a little to enthralled in their own conversation to notice that he was even speaking.

"I really wish she could trust us, we are good people…" Brooke said as she grabbed onto the back of Peyton's seat when the car started moving, and she felt herself sliding backwards on the leather seats. This conversation was a little too intense for her to be sitting back in the seat and being buckled up.

"We are good people." Peyton confirmed, the girls paused for a moment just looking at one another.

"She may not know that yet." Lucas interjected during a quiet part of their conversation, when he knew that he would be heard. The girls turned to glare at him, and he quickly realized that they didn't really want his input. "What?" he questioned innocently, "She's only known us for a few hours, it's possible that she just needs to learn that you two can be trusted… It might take a couple days."

The girls looked back at each other, Brooke shrugged, and "He's kind of got a point."

Peyton nodded in agreement, "I'm pretty sure she wants to trust us though, you should have seen her in drama, at the time I thought what she was doing was pretty weird, but connected with everything else, it makes a lot more sense…"

"What was she doing?" Brooke asked; she couldn't resist not knowing something.

"Well I told her that I used to date Nathan and she got all weird, she started rambling about a 'girl code' and how she wouldn't do anything with Nathan if I wasn't okay with it." Peyton said she, really wanted to understand what was going on with the new girl.

"Oh No…" Brooke said under her breath as she started to get what Peyton was saying. "You know what that means… She had friend, and boyfriend issues." Brooke stated as if there were no other possibilities other than the conclusion that she had just made.

Peyton raised her eyebrow at her best friend as she considered the option that had just been put before her. "Are you sure?"

"Think about it, she wants to make sure its okay if she dates your ex-boyfriend, she moved here because she was having problems, and she's gorgeous." Brooke argued her hypothesis on the Haley situation.

Peyton raised her eyebrow even further when she heard Brooke's last selling point, "And she couldn't have been in the same situation if she was ugly?"

"No not really, it's the pretty girls that bad stuff always happens to." Brooke nodded again, "haven't you ever seen Dawson's Creek?'

With that comment Peyton laughed, the sound effectively broke the intense mood in the car, and Brooke laughed along with the blonde. Even Lucas had to smile at how easily the mood could be changed.

When the laughter died down, the blonde driver decided to ask the question he had wanted to know the answer to since they had all gotten in the car. "What was Haley supposed to tell Nathan?"

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