Disclaimer: I do not own OTH or any of it characters places or such. I am simply borrowing them
AN/ Here is the next chapter! Don't forget to review!
Thanks so much to Deli41321 for your awesome review. I am really glad that you enjoyed the last chapter!
As always suggestions are welcome!
Karen rolled over in her bed the next morning to turn her blaring alarm clock off. 20 minutes later she was standing in front of the mirror above the sink in her bathroom, her hair wrapped in a towel and a towel around her body; she looked back herself and watched tears run down her face. Usually after her shower, she would be opening the bathroom door to yell at her husband to get out of bed before he was late. The realization that Keith was not in that bed hit her hard. Her morning routine would never be the same.
Karen quickly wiped the tears away before opening the door and walking towards her closet. She pulled out her clothes for the day while trying to stop the tears. When she couldn't stop them, she sat down on her bed and let them overwhelm her.
Karen's bedroom door opened 30 minutes later and a fully dressed Karen emerged. Her hair pulled back into a clip and holding her shoes and socks in her right hand. She walked towards Meredith's bedroom and opened the door. She found daughter's bed empty. She walked towards Nathan's room and opened the door preparing to wake her son. As she walked towards her son's bed her smile reached her eyes. Her daughter was sleeping peacefully with her brother clutching the teddy bear that Keith had given her. Karen quietly placed her hand on her son's right shoulder shaking him softly with her free hand.
"Hmm…" Came Nathan's response
"Nate, it is 6:45. We need to get Meredith up and ready for school"
"Okay" Nathan replied as he opened his eyes to look at his mom. "You okay Mom?"
"Yea, I am fine" Karen replied. She had hoped that Nathan would not see her bloodshot red eyes, but he had. "Get your sister up. I have to go to the café"
"Okay. Love you mom"
"Love you too" Karen said as she walked out of his room and towards the living room.
Nathan turned in his bed to face his little sister. "Munchkin" Nathan said softly
He received no response
"Munchkin" Nathan said again a little bit louder
Still he received no response
"Munchkin, Time to get up" Nathan said louder this time
"I don't want too"
"I know, but you have to go to school"
"I don't want to go to school"
"You have too"
"Okay" Meredith said as she finally opened her eyes.
"Come on, up and at them. Maybe you can say goodbye to mom before she leaves if you hurry"
Meredith pulled herself into a sitting position before getting off the bed and walking towards the opened door. "If I have to get up, so do you"
Nathan laughed before pulling himself from his bed also.
"Come on. Let's go get some breakfast," Nathan said meeting his sister at the door. They walked down the hallway as Karen was grabbing her purse and keys.
"Morning Mommy"
"Good Morning, Sweetie" Karen said as she leaned over and kissed her daughter's forehead.
"Are you leaving?"
"Yea, I have to go into work. Nathan is going to take you to school"
"Okay"
"I will see you after school. Have a good day"
"Okay. Bye mommy"
"Bye. Love you"
"Love you too"
Karen opened the front door and locked the bottom back before closing it behind her.
"What do you want for breakfast?"
"Cereal"
"Okay" Nathan said as he walked towards the kitchen, his sister behind him.
Meredith sat at the table as Nathan got down a bowl and the cereal. He walked towards the refrigerator and pulled out the milk and took all three to the table. He realized that he had forgotten a spoon and walked back towards the counter to grab one from the dish drain.
"Why the long face?" Nathan asked as he poured cereal into the bowl
"I don't want to go to school. I want to spend the day with you and Lucas"
"We will be here all week"
"I know, but I want to stay with you guys"
"I tell you what. You go to school and Lucas and I will come there for lunch"
"Really?" Meredith asked as her face lit up
"Really"
"Cool. There is this boy in my class named Michael. He doesn't believe that you are my brothers. He thinks that I made it up because we have the same last name."
"Well, I guess he will have to believe you when you show up. Now, eat."
45 minutes later, Nathan was walking with Meredith into the elementary school. He wanted to check with the front office to find out what time Meredith's class had lunch so that Lucas and him would be on time.
"Alright, you go to class and we will see you at lunch" Nathan said as he knelt in front of his sister as they entered the front hall of her school
"Okay. Bye Nate"
"Bye Meredith"
Nathan watched his sister skip down the hallway filled with students towards her class. He turned his attention back to remembering where the front office was. He walked into the front office and was surprised at how busy it was.
"Can I help you?" The receptionist behind the long counter asked.
"Yea, My brother and I are going to come to eat lunch with our sister today and I wanted to make sure that we had the right time for her lunch."
"What's her teacher's name?"
"I don't know"
"Okay, what is your sister's name?" The receptionist asked turning towards the computer
"Meredith Scott" Nathan answered
"Meredith Scott is your sister?"
"Yea"
"Nathan Scott. Well, look at you" Nathan turned his head to see who was talking. He came face to face with his third grade teacher, Ms. Mitchell.
"Ms. Mitchell"
"Well, it is Mrs. Young now"
"Sorry"
"What brings you into the elementary school?"
"Lucas and I were going to come up and have lunch with our sister, Meredith. I was trying to find out what time she had lunch"
"Oh, well how nice. Mandy, did you find it?" Mrs. Young asked the receptionist
"Yes, she is in Mrs. Cruz class. They go to lunch at 11:45"
"Thank you." Nathan said
"Mandy, I want you to meet Nathan Scott. He was one of my students my first year teaching. It seems so long ago."
"Nice to meet you Nathan" Mandy said
"You too"
"Nathan, would you mind coming down to my class for a few minutes? I would like to show you off to my students"
"Sure, I have some time to kill"
"Just come back here when you come for lunch and I will give you visitors tags," Mandy said before they left the office.
"Okay, I will"
Karen sat in her office in the back of the café, her two hired employees were taking care of the morning rush and that left Karen to deal with a mountain of paperwork. Karen shifted through the smallest mountain that contained the pending bills for both the café and the auto shop. Keith never remembered to pay the bills on time so he would bring them to her. Karen smiled as she found a note in with the current electric bill, it was written two days before Keith had been killed. 'Here is the electric bill. It is due next week, but you know me. I forgot about it. Skills found it at the bottom of a long pile of work orders that needed to be filed. OOPS!' Karen laughed at her husband's note. She could hear his voice as she read it and it brought fresh tears to her eyes. Before the tears could hit at full force, she stood from the desk and walked towards the front for a cup of coffee and to greet some of their regular customers.
"I am sorry to hear about your dad" Ms. Young said as she and Nathan walked down the hallway towards her classroom
"Thank you"
"How your brother? Haley? Peyton?"
"All good. As you know Lucas is also in the NBA. Haley is a teacher in Montana and Peyton works around here for a marketing firm"
"Haley is a teacher?"
"Yep. She teaches at a small mountain school"
"Here we are" Ms. Young said as they reached her classroom
"Still the same place"
"Yep, I am a creature of habit" Ms. Young said as they entered the classroom.
Her teacher aide was calling role. The young children gave her their full attention and all faced the front. No one noticed the two people who had entered the room.
"Thank you Ms. Jackson" Ms. Young said as she walked towards the front of the class. "Good morning class"
A chorus of 'good morning' was heard
"Class, today I have brought as special guest in with me. Special guest would please come up front"
Nathan walked towards the front of the class as he heard a young boy say, "You are Nathan Scott"
"Good morning class." Nathan greeted them, "And yes I am Nathan Scott" replying to the little boy
"Mr. Scott was a student of mine when I first started teaching. He used to sit in these very seats that you do. Mr. Scott would you like to say a few word?"
"Sure" Nathan replied, "Well, my name is Nathan Scott. Ms. Young was my third grade teacher. My brother, Lucas and two of our best friends Haley and Peyton were also in her class. I don't want to bore you with things that you don't want to know so does anyone have any questions?"
Nathan's question was met with a dozen hands being raised.
"Okay, how about we start over here on the left side of the room? This young lady will go first"
"Do you really play in the NBA?" The young girl asked
"Sure do. I played for the Orlando Magic"
The questions continued around the room until they came to the last young boy to Nathan's right
"My little brother said there was girl in her class who says that you are her brother. We think that she is making it up since her last name is Scott."
"Is your brother named Michael?"
"How did you know?"
"My sister told me about him this morning. Yes, I am her brother. She also has another brother who is in the NBA"
"His name is Lucas, right?" Came a response from the back of the room
"Yea, his name is Lucas and he plays for the Charlotte Bobcats."
"Well, thank you very much Mr. Scott for stopping by" Ms. Young said as she walked and stood by Nathan.
"Always a pleasure, Ms. Mitchell. I mean, Ms. Young"
Ms. Young smiled as Nathan waved to the class and left the room. He headed towards the front door and on his way to the café.
Lucas was pulled from his deep slumber by the annoying sound of his phone ringing. The ring that he heard meant that it was Nathan calling. Lucas rolled towards his end table while pulling the covers from over his head. He grabbed his phone and hit talk
"You had better be dying somewhere"
"Were you sleeping?"
"Of course, I was sleeping Nate. It is only 9:30"
"Oh, sorry"
"Is there a reason why you are calling me?" Lucas said becoming irritated
"Yea, we have a date with our little sister at her school for lunch today"
"Huh? Plain English please"
"Be at the elementary school at 11:40" Nate replied
"Okay. Bye" Lucas said as he hung up the phone before pulling the covers back over his head, his phone still in his hand.
Karen looked up as the bell rung. The morning rush had died down to just a few tables and she was wiping down the counter.
"Hey mom"
"Hey you" Karen replied to her youngest son, "Meredith get to school alright?"
"Yea, she didn't want to go, but I convinced her to go when I told her that Lucas and I would come up there for lunch today" Nathan replied as he sat down in the stool across from where his mom was standing
"I know she will like that. She misses you two when you are not here"
"Yea, I know. I ran into Ms. Mitchell in the front office"
"Did you? You know she got married. Her name is now Ms. Young"
"Yea, she told me. I went into her classroom for a few minutes and answered some questions that her students had"
"I am sure that they enjoyed that. Have you talked to your brother?"
"Yea, I woke him up. Man he is so irritable in the morning."
Karen laughed, "Yea, he gets that from your father"
Nathan sat silent for a few minutes running his fingers along the countertop his mom had just wiped down
"Nate, Is something wrong?" Karen asked
"Mom, Can I talk to you about something? I need your advice"
"You know you can talk to me. What is going on?"
"Well, I think I might have screw up things with Haley"
"What do you mean?"
Nathan sighed before answering "Haley told me that she was in love with me when we were juniors in high school. I told her that I didn't love her like that, even though I did. We were talking about it the other night and I admitted to her that I did love her then. Now, she won't talk to me"
Karen looked into the hurting eyes of her son, "Nathan, you know they say history repeats itself."
"What do you mean?"
"The same thing happened with your dad and I. Your dad and I had met the summer before my freshman year of high school at the river court; I liked your dad. I mean really liked your dad. So, one day in the middle of year we were down at the river court and I told him how I felt. He told me that he didn't feel the same way and that he just wanted to be friends. I was heartbroken. Two years later, I started dating Dan. You know that whole story. Well, about 6 months after you were born. I was at home taking care of Lucas and Keith came over like he did most days to check up on us. He had this look on his face and when I asked him what was wrong, he wouldn't tell me. It took me a while, but I finally pull it out of him. He admitted to me that he had felt the same way about me back then. He hadn't said anything because of Dan."
"So, dad liked you too?"
"Yea"
"What did you say to him?"
"I told him to leave me alone. I didn't talk to him for a few days after that. I was so hurt. I remember blaming him for the hurt that Dan had caused me, but then I remembered the gift that he had given me. Obviously, I talked to Keith again, but he had to earn my trust back. The way I looked at it was that Keith had lied to me. I bet that is the way that Haley is looking at it too. She needs to regain her trust in you before she can let you back in"
"I lied to her then because I didn't want to ruin the great friendship that we had, but now that lie is ruining the same friendship and keeping us from being more than friends. Mom, what should I do?"
"Give her time, Nate. I know Haley. I know that she is hurt and I know that she will trust you again, but you have to give it time. She is much more forgiving then I would be."
"I know. I know she probably feels like a rebound from Bevin."
"Yea, I bet she does. Nate, you lied to her and then married one of her really good friends. Then years later when her really good friend is gone you tell her how you really feel. She probably feels like she wasn't good enough for you then and she won't be now."
"How did this all get so messed up? All I wanted was to be with the person I love"
"I know honey. Life doesn't always work out the way that we want it too." Karen said as she placed her right hand on her son's cheek tears coming to her eyes.