Brooke looked across the picnic table and smiled. Chase had his nose buried in his Calculus book but the minute he noticed her staring at him, he looked up and returned her smile. It was all she had not to squeal. The boy was cute and it didn't stop there. It had been a week and a half of Clean Teen meetings, eating lunch together, faux tutoring sessions, and hours of chatting on the phone. But there was just something about Chase Adams that Brooke Davis really liked. He was different from the other guys, if she dared use that overused cliché.

It was Rachel that had gotten her mixed up with those God awful, annoying Clean Teens but Chase had made it not so bad. In fact, Brooke actually began looking forward to those after school meetings. They'd sit in the back and chat and she'd pretend to really be interested in what was going on, constantly volunteering for this or that and adding in her valued opinion. Chase, equally participative, would look on with shy adoration as Brooke's heart did flip flops.

She had also taken note of his lunch time activities. He usually ate something somewhat healthy from a brown bag from home before jumping right into his favorite past time of skateboarding. Brooke had just so happened to walk by him a few times and he had invited her to sit. They had laughed and talked and she had cheered him on as he performed jumps and tricks, and begged her to kick off her designer high heels and give the board a try.

Then there had been the tutoring sessions. She had tried to pay extra attention to Haley but it had been of no use. Calculus was just not her thing and it never would be. It had been on the tip of her tongue to tell Haley exactly what she had gotten herself into. They were friends and Haley would understand…or would she? Brooke wasn't so sure. Haley lived by the "honesty is always the best policy" motto and took her job at the Tutor Center very seriously. Along with her raging, swinging pregnancy hormones, it was highly unlikely she'd go along with Brooke in a Calculus tutoring scheme just so Brooke could snag a few dates with the cute new guy. So Brooke had kept her mouth shut and asked for extra help, anything she could get that would aid her in teaching while she pretended to be Chase's tutor.

But the best part had been the phone calls. She had appeared so non chalant on the outside when he first asked for her number but it was a strong contrast to the joy she was feeling on the inside. It had been a long time since Brooke had waited with excitement for a phone call from a boy but Chase did not disappoint. He was sweet and funny and interesting and she found herself happily gabbing with him for hours into the night. She really liked him and things couldn't be going better.

"Hey Brooke?"

"Yeah?" she gave him her best dimpled smile.

"I hate to bug you again but I have another question."

Brooke cringed. Another question? Damn, Chase had a lot of questions and she was running out of answers. How the hell did Haley do it?

"Another question? Sure. Shoot. That's what I'm here for," she said, silently mouthing a quick prayer.

"Okay," he rubbed his temple. "I feel like an idiot because I just can't seem to get this. Leibniz law…now what's it for again?"

Brooke subtly tried to glance down at her notes. She had no earthly idea what he was talking about. She knew nothing about Calculus. She was horrible at it. She was barely surviving the class herself and that was only with Haley's help. Brooke would take notes and Haley would do her best to prepare her for material on upcoming tests. At best Brooke would make a D, a welcome step up from the F that would surely keep her from graduating with her class.

"That darn Leibniz law. So many laws and rules in Calculus. Um, that's a tricky one," Brooke tried to stall until her prayers were answered and she saw Haley's neat penmanship on a piece of nearby notebook paper. "But luckily I have the answer. When you think about it, it's not so bad. It's actually the product rule of calculus. It governs the differentiation of products of differentiable functions."

"Huh?" he gave her a confused look.

"Let me show you an example…"

Brooke inconspicuously copied the very model Haley had used to explain it to her. Using her letters and her parentheses along with the real tutor's notes, Brooke surprised herself and managed to bullshit her way into explaining it to Chase.

"Wow."

"Make sense now?" she asked hopefully, hiding her crossed fingers.

"Actually, it does."

"It does? Oh. Yeah, I mean of course it does. Duh."

He smiled as he shook his head.

"You're pretty amazing, you know that?"

"Oh Chase…" she blushed.

"I mean it. You know, Brooke, moving to a new town and starting a new school my senior year was pretty scary at first. I had mixed emotions about it. But this place hasn't been so bad at all. In fact, it's been pretty great and I can't deny that you had a lot to do with that."

She looked up at him with genuine surprise. She liked Chase and she had jumped through hoops in order to score some one on one time with him. Of course he flirted back with her but there was something different about him from the other guys, something she really liked. With her track record and past heartbreaks, she dared to even imagine that she might actually find something real with a nice guy for once.

"Really?"

"Really. I like hanging out with you. You're so sweet and you're fun. You even make Math interesting and that says a lot," he joked.

"This isn't all me…trust me. You don't give yourself enough credit."

"Neither do you. You're really something, Brooke Davis and I mean that. I'm glad I met you and I'm glad we've been hanging out. I, I look forward to it."

"You do?" she grinned.

"Of course I do."

"Chase…"

"Can I tell you something Brooke?"

He looked right at her and her heart fluttered a bit.

"Sure," she cleared her throat. "What's up?"

"I have a bit of a confession to make."

"What's that?"

"You're a nice person and we have a good time and you've really been helping out with my homework but um…it's more than that."

"What do you mean?"

He shrugged.

"I'm a guy. I'm human. And you are this totally incredible, beautiful woman. I don't want to make things weird but I like you. I mean, I really like you."

"You do?"

"Yeah. I do. I just hope that doesn't creep you out or anything."

Brooke couldn't help but laugh.

"It doesn't creep me out. Actually, it's kind if cool because I feel the same way."

She hadn't felt that giddy since those first days with Lucas.

"So, um, are you seeing anybody?"

Brooke shook her head.

"Single as single could be."

"Me too. I've been single for a while. At my last school, I dated the same girl for like two years."

"That's a long time."

"I know."

"What happened?"

A sad look washed over his face.

"A lot of stuff. I really don't want to get into it now but it really sucked. I got hurt and that was a hard thing to go through. It's really bad when you care for someone and they hurt you."

Brooke closed her eyes. How she knew the feeling.

"I'm sorry. Broken hearts…I guess we've all been there."

"I'm in no hurry to go back. I've had this wall up for a while but um, I don't know," he chuckled. "This isn't a marriage proposal or anything but I'd like to get to know you better. Maybe we could hang out sometime, get some dinner, catch a movie, talk…you know about something other than integrals and substitution theories."

She flirtatiously raised one eyebrow.

"Chase Adams, are you asking me out on a date?"

"Depends on whether or not you're going to say yes."

She could barely contain her excitement.

"Definitely yes. I'd love to."

"Then that's settled. How about Saturday night? Gives me a few days to plan something cool and romantic."

"Sounds like fun."

He nodded.

"You're one of the coolest people I've met in a long time, Brooke. You're not like the other girls. I've met a lot of girls that were so pretty on the outside but not so much so on the inside. You're about something. You're deep and you're smart and sensitive and caring. I really dig that. It's refreshing. There's something just so real about you and that's important in any relationship or friendship."

Brooke bit her lip, suddenly feeling a tad bit guilty. But it was just a tiny white lie. More like a game of pretend. It wasn't so bad and he was getting the help he needed. What was the harm? Besides, it was just a date, like he said, not a marriage proposal. She wasn't doing something terribly wrong. In the meantime, she was going to have some well overdue and long deserved fun with a cute, nice guy, this time without all that other drama. After all, didn't she deserve it?