Disclaimer: I don't own One Tree Hill or its characters

Chapter 2: Playing the Part

Haley stood at her locker watching all the people who walked around her. They were all so… blissfully naïve. She had yet to see any couples making out, which was just weird. At her school she would have seen about 10 couples making out already. The truth was she hadn't seen any couples doing anything but holding hands. Except for Brooke and Lucas. But Brooke had freaked out when he had just kissed her cheek. This whole town or world or whatever it was… it was messed up. How could this have ever been normal? And why was she here now? God Jake messed up everything. As usual. She couldn't believe he was her brother, let alone her twin. It was so embarrassing.

Haley crossed her arms over her chest as she watched the people around her. Some of them smiled and waved at her like they knew who she was. They probably did. But that didn't change the fact that she had no idea who any of them were. She looked up next to her when she felt someone stop right by her. When she did she was met with a tall, really good looking guy. "Hey Haley Sue," Nathan said and she couldn't help but smile when she saw him. He was so hot! He totally didn't belong here. She knew that if he were back at her school he would have been a total heartbreaker.

"Hi Nathan," Haley said and turned so that she was looking in her locker. She didn't really know what she was looking for, but she didn't want to seem too interested that he was talking to her. That was how she always acted with the boys who talked to her at school. "And by the way, you can just call me Haley."

"Oh," Nathan said, "ok. So I was wondering if… well I know that we've been kind of good friends for awhile and… so this may be odd coming from me, but-"

"Whatever it is," Haley interrupted, "you can just say it." She shut her locker door and leaned against it with her arms crossed over her chest again. He was so cute. And he was nervous, which just made him even cuter. She chewed the gum that was in her mouth and blew a large bubble while she waited for him to continue. She already knew what he was going to ask her anyways. She smiled again, "go on."

Jake stood at the end of the hall watching them talk and he knew that it was no good. He ran down the hall dodging the crowds of people. When he made it to where Nathan and Haley were he ran into the back of Haley. Nathan reached out and grabbed her shoulders steadying her before she could fall. Haley turned around and faced him and Jake could see the anger written all over her face. "Jake! What the f-" she started but then remembered that no one, not ever, not once in their lives did anyone swear here. "I mean, are you ok?"

"Uhh," Jake started, "yeah, uh I just tripped, I didn't mean to run into you Haley Sue." Jake looked back between Nathan and Haley and he could see the irritation threatening to show itself on Nathan's features. Since Jake had been watching this show so long, he knew all of the characters personalities and mannerisms, and Nathan Scott never got angry or annoyed. He was the captain of the basketball team and he wore a constant smile accompanied by a good mood. But Jake had clearly interrupted something and now, Nathan was annoyed. "Yeah, so sorry about that. But Nathan," Jake said looking at the boy who was a few inches taller than him, "we have practice so you should probably get going. And I need to talk to you Haley Sue," he said looking back at his sister.

"Oh yeah," Nathan said before looking back towards Haley, "I guess I'll talk to you later then Haley."

"Ok," she said and leaned back against her locker while she watched him walk away. He turned his head and looked back over his shoulder at her and sent her one more smile before walking towards the gym. Haley couldn't help the large smile that appeared on her face when he left. But then she remembered her brother standing there and suddenly her annoyance was back. She faced Jake again and shoved him in the chest as hard as she could. "What the hell is wrong with you?" she asked in a quiet but harsh tone.

"Ouch," Jake said rubbing the spot on his chest where his sister had hit him. "I told you!" he said, "I told you to stay away from him! I told you that if you mess with them and their world you're going to ruin everything! You have to let their world play out the way it's supposed to!"

"Well you said it yourself! He likes me! He's supposed to like me! And he's supposed to ask me out and now you're saying I'm not supposed to go out with him?"

"He's supposed to like Haley Sue! He's supposed to go out with her! Not you! You don't belong here!"

Haley scoffed, "yeah that's what I've been trying to get you to realize since we got here! We don't belong here Jacob but you seem content in pretending like we should be in there sick messed up little world!"

"I never said that we belonged here! All I said was that we had to pretend like we did until we can get home. We can't act like people from 2009! They wouldn't even know how to respond to that. They don't know all the things we know Haley and if they did, it could change everything here!"

Haley listened to what her brother was saying. "Fine," she said, "if he asks, I'll say no. I won't go out with him."

"Thank you," Jake said, "I gotta go to practice."

"Practice?" Haley asked.

"I play basketball here."

"Hmm," she said, "I guess you're kinda cool here."

"I guess," Jake said and laughed.

"Haley!" they turned their attention to Brooke who was running down the now empty hall. Now Jake knew why he liked her so much. When he'd been watching the show he never really paid much attention to Brooke, but now he saw why Jake liked her. It made so much sense now. She was so beautiful. Even in black and white. "You ready Haley?" Brooke asked when she stopped next to them in the hallway. She turned her attention from Haley and looked at Jake and smiled. "Hi Jake!" she said with a cheery tone. "How are you? don't you have basketball now?"

"Uh, yeah I do. I guess I should get going then, huh? I'll see you guys later."

"Are you working tonight?" Brooke asked before he left, "at the diner?" she added when he didn't say anything.

"Yeah," he said, "I guess I am."

"Well then I'll see you there. Lucas and I are going tonight."

"Oh," Jake said and Haley could hear the disappointed tone in his voice, "I'll see you guys there then."

"Ok!" she said and waved as he turned around to run to practice. "So are you ready?" Brooke asked again when she turned to Haley. She had convinced Haley to come over after school with Peyton and Lindsey. Haley thought it would be awkward since she really didn't know any of them, but they all knew her. But she just couldn't say no to her. There was something about Brooke that made it impossible to say no to her. She probably couldn't even do it if she tried.

"Yeah," Haley said, "let's go."


Jake walked into the gym. He bounced the basketball in his hand against the gym floor and watched all the other boys in the gym. All of them, every single one of them was good. He watched as they all made every free throw they tried for and every lay up. Nathan stood on the three point line and shot the ball towards the hoop. It looked so effortless. He grabbed the ball again and dribbled it before shooting it again and it went in… again. Jake looked down at the ball in his hand and walked towards the hoop on the other side of the gym. He shot it towards the hoop and it bounced on the rim a few times before going through the net. Jake looked around to see if anyone had seen that, but no one acted like that was anything but normal.

Jake rested the ball against his palm and threw it towards the hoop again, but this time with one hand. And it went in. When the ball came back he grabbed it again and turned around before throwing the ball over his shoulder. He didn't even have to look to know that it went in. He could hear the swoosh of the ball through the net. "Nice shot Jake," Nathan said as he jogged up to him. Jake looked down at the ball in his hand and he wondered how that was possible. How did he make every shot? Jake had played before in Tree Hill, but he was never the star player.

"Thanks Nathan," Jake said and bounced the ball before shooting it into the net again. Nathan stood there tossing the basketball in his hands in the air a few times waiting for Jake to give him his full attention. "What can I do for you?" Jake asked when he saw Nathan still standing there. He obviously was waiting for something.

"Ok," Nathan said and rested the ball on the ground under his foot. "So what I'm wondering is… well you know that your sister is, well she's amazing. And I was wondering if you thought that if I asked her… I mean if I were to go up to Haley and say-"

"Oh God," Jake said, "you want to ask her out on a date don't you?" He already guessed that from what happened in the hall but he thought maybe Nathan would wait awhile before trying to ask her out again. Maybe by the time he got the nerve to ask her again, it would be the real Haley Sue and Haley and Jacob would be gone. But obviously he wanted to ask her out sooner rather than later. "Is that what this is about?"

Nathan smiled, "well yeah. How'd you know?"

"Look Nathan, I'm sure that Haley likes you, but I just don't know if she'd go out with you."

The smile on Nathan's face fell instantly at Jake's words. "She wouldn't go out with me?" he asked and Jake could hear the tone in his voice. He was upset. "But you said it yourself, she likes me. Why wouldn't she go out with me?" Nathan grabbed the ball off the ground and squeezed it between his hands.

"It's just a weird time for her right now…" Jake said, "maybe in a couple of weeks-"

Nathan took the ball that was between his hands and threw it at the net roughly. It bounced against the backboard and circled the rim a few times. Jake was sure that in a few seconds it was going to fall into the net. But he, and everyone else was shocked when it didn't. It fell from the rim to the ground and bounced a few times before rolling away. Nathan stared at the ball and then back up at Jake. "That's never happened to me before." The coach and all of the other players stared at Nathan like something was wrong with him. Well clearly there was something wrong with him. He was feeling horrible about the fact that Haley wouldn't go out with him. And apparently that had an effect on his game.

"You know what?" Jake said, "I'll talk to her. I'm sure that she'll go out with you."

Nathan smiled again and took the ball from Jake's hands before shooting it towards the net. It went straight through the hoop. Nathan smiled, "thanks Jake. I really appreciate that." Nathan patted Jake on the shoulder before running off to the other side of the gym where he continued to practice his free throws.

Jake groaned as he went to go grab the ball that Nathan had thrown. Now he had to tell Haley that she did have to go out with him. He was sure that she would be ok with it, but she was going to be mad at him still. He'd been telling her not to get involved with Nathan and now he was going to tell her that she had to. But he'd been wrong before. He thought if they just stayed out of their lives as much as possible, everything would be ok. But he was wrong. They needed them in their lives to keep everything on track. Without Haley, Nathan felt worthless. Hopefully Haley would understand that and she would do what Jake was asking her.


Haley sat on Brooke's bed while Brooke sat at her vanity. Peyton and Lindsey also sat on the bed with Haley. Haley took the time to look around the room. Of course it was all black and white. But there were pictures of famous actors on her walls and there were fluffy pillows on her bed. There was make up and endless amounts of perfume on the vanity. Along with pictures. There were some of Brooke and Lucas. And there were even some of her and Haley. Haley was a little freaked out by those. Because they truly were pictures of her. Of course she'd never remembered taking them, because she never had. But they were there. None of this made any sense.

"So Haley," Peyton said, "did Nathan ask you out?" she asked with a smile and all the girls turned their attention to Haley. She didn't really understand what the big deal was. Obviously Nathan was hot, but why were they all so interested in it. It was her business. But then again, apparently they were her friends. But it was still weird. She didn't feel normal talking about her personal business with girls she didn't even know. It was just too weird. "I'm dying to know!" Peyton said and smiled even brighter. Haley couldn't help but laugh when she looked at all of the girls. They really were nosy. But that's just the way things were here. Even if she wasn't ok with it. She thought about what Jacob had said earlier. That she had to pretend like she belonged there until she could go home.

"No," Haley said, "my brother sort of interrupted him in the process then he had to leave for Basketball. So who knows if he even will now."

"Of course he will!" Brooke said, "Haley that boy is crazy about you! And you must be so excited that he's asking you out! You've liked him for such a long time!"

"Yeah I guess," Haley said, "but I mean what would we even do on a date?"

"Well you know he's going to give you his pin," Lindsey said.

Haley shrugged, "yeah but I mean, not the whole date. It wouldn't take that long. I just mean what would we do? Where would he take me? And what would happen after? I mean would he kiss me? Would he want to do more?"

"More?" Brooke asked confused. Haley looked at Peyton and Lindsey but they too seemed confused. Haley looked at them, now she was confused. They had to know what she meant. But by the looks on all of their faces, they had no idea. "What do you mean?"

"Are you serious?" Haley asked, "you know… more. Wouldn't he want to have sex?"

"What's that?" Lindsey asked.

Haley's jaw dropped. They didn't even know what sex was. What kind of place was this? How do you not know what sex is? Everyone had to learn about it in the awkward as hell sex ed classes. But these girls in front of her had never even heard of sex before. How in the world was that possible? Didn't they know that's how they got here. "You guys are serious aren't you?" Haley said, "you really don't know what sex is?" They all shook their heads. "But… how is that possible?"

"What is it?" Brooke asked.

"Well," Haley said, "this is sort of awkward… sex is…" she trailed off. She'd never had to explain to anyone what sex was. She had no idea how she would ever explain it to her kids when that time came. "Well you know when a guy and a girl really like each other and there are all those feelings rushing around and you want to do more than just kiss each other." The girls looked at her waiting for her to explain more. "Do you know what I mean? Haven't you ever felt that way? Just like… every part of your body is on high alert and you're just excited and you feel alive and it feels amazing."

"Ok," Peyton said, "but that's how it feels… but what is it? What happens?"

Haley sighed and looked down at her hands in her lap. She knew that she was going to have to explain this to them. She wasn't sure how to do that. She could only explain it the best way she could. Even if that was awkward. These girls didn't know anything about sex and if they were asking her about it, she had to tell them. Where else were they going to learn about it? They clearly weren't teaching sex ed in school here. And they probably weren't going to do that anytime soon.

Haley started off by telling them the basics. It was awkward of course, like telling little kids about the birds and the bee's for the first time. They all seemed so shocked when she explained it. It didn't make any sense. How was it possible that they had never experienced sex? Didn't the teenagers here have the same hormones and feelings here that they did in 2009? Apparently not. It was ridiculous that they didn't even know about it. Brooke, Peyton and Lindsey were shocked when they found out that's where they came from. Apparently they were still believing the theory about being delivered by a bird. It was time someone set them straight. Every other teenager knew the truth. Hell, a lot of them were experiencing it first hand. Just because these kids were behind on the times didn't mean they didn't need to know the truth.

"Is that true?" Brooke asked, her eyes wide.

"It sure is," Haley said.

"Wow," they all said in unison. Haley couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her lips. They were all clearly in shock. But, come on, everyone had to know what sex was at some point in their lives. It was time these girls knew too. After all, they weren't little kids anymore.

"I guess," Haley said and shrugged. She already knew all about it so it wasn't like she had anything to be shocked about.

After they all got over the shock, another thing crossed Haley's mind. What else didn't they know about?


Jake stood in front of the mirror in his room trying to get his bow tie right. He had to be at work in 20 minutes. He wasn't really sure that he liked the idea of going to work right now. It seemed like his time could be better spent trying to find a way to get them home. This day had been ridiculous. Everyone there was so cookie cutter perfect. Of course he'd seen that over the years watching the show. But it was something else entirely when you experienced it first hand. He couldn't believe that people like this had ever lived. People who never swore, who were never in a bad mood. They were perfect.

He heard the door shut from downstairs and when he didn't hear a voice accompany it he knew that it was Haley who had returned. He ran from his room and down the stairs. She was beginning to walk up the stairs when he reached her. He nearly knocked her down again. She looked at him like he was crazy. She crossed her arms over her chest and waited for him to speak.

"You have to go out with him," Jake rushed out.

"What?" she asked. He could hear the tone in her voice. She was irritated and confused. "Are you crazy or something? You told me not to!"

"I know I did. But I was wrong! You have to go out with him!"

"Why?" Haley asked and leaned back against the wall. "Why do I have to go out with him?"

"If you don't, it's gonna throw their entire existence off. Just the thought that you wouldn't go out with him threw his game off. And then when I told him I would talk to you about it, his game was perfect again! You can't not go out with him."

"So I have to go out with this guy so they win some basketball games? Are you kidding me?"

"I thought you liked him? You said he was cute."

"I know I did," she said and dropped her arms to her sides, "and he is cute! I would just like for you to pick one thing to tell me to do and stick with it. This is getting a little ridiculous. And this is just too weird! This whole town is insane. Do you know that they don't know what sex is?"

"Of course they don't," Jake said, "why would they?"

"Oh I don't know," Haley said, "because everyone over the age of 12 knows what sex is! And you know what else, I was in the library today-"

"What were you doing in a library?"

"I got lost," she said before continuing, "the point is, I was looking through a book and there's nothing on them. They're blank! All of them!"

"Hales," Jake said in a whispered tone, "they're a made up world. They do not exist. Nothing here is normal."

"I gathered that."

"But you have to play along or we could throw off everything and we may never go home!"

Haley sighed and crossed her arms over her chest again. "Ok," she said, "I'll go out with him. But how am I supposed to get him to ask me out again?"

"Trust me," Jake said, "he will. I guarantee the next time he sees you he'll ask you out. He was already thinking about it earlier."

"Ok, well where would he be now? Maybe I can pay him a visit and get him to ask me out now."

"He's probably working?"

"Working where?"

"He works at the library a few minutes away from here."

"The library?" Haley asked, "the ones with all the blank books?"

Jake nodded. "That's the one."

"Ok," she said, "well I'll go down there."

She walked back down the stairs towards the door and opened it. As she walked out of the house she heard Jake yell something to her. It sounded like he told her not to mess with him too much. Haley laughed and continued to walk down the sidewalk. She walked for a few minutes before a short, long building came into view. Pleasantville Public Library was in chrome letters at the top of the building. She walked down a few cement steps until she got to the doors. She expected them to open automatically for her, like most doors did now a days. But then she remembered, she wasn't in those days.

She pulled the door open and looked around the library. There were a few kids sprawled around at tables with text books and she knew they must have gone to her school. She noticed the librarian sitting at a large desk. She had glasses on, and from what Haley could tell, too much lipstick. She walked farther into the library and walked towards the stacks of books. As she made her way through the aisles, she ran her fingers over the spine of some of the books. It was sad to her that all of these books were here, and on the inside they were empty. Some of them she knew were classics. But there was absolutely nothing on the inside.

It didn't seem right.

She continued to make her way through the books while keeping an eye out for Nathan. She saw him a few minutes later when he walked into one of the aisles towards the back with 3 books in his hands. Haley looked down at the sweater she was wearing and rose an eye brow. What was he going to find sexy about this? This wasn't exactly an outfit that screamed, "ask me out!"

She undid the first two buttons and pulled on the shoulders of her sweater. It gave a view of her cleavage. Not a great view, but, better than before. Hell, anything would have been better than before.

Haley walked into the aisle that Nathan was in and saw him putting books back on the shelf. He wore a pair of dark jeans with the cuffs rolled. His pair of white Nikes were on his feet and he wore a black t-shirt. His dark hair looked as if he'd ran his hands through it quite a bit that day.

She walked closer to him and stood next to him. He still hadn't noticed her standing there so she cleared her throat. "Nathan?" she said gaining his attention. He looked up at her and she smiled down at him. He stood up quickly almost knocking off a few books from the shelves beside them. He laughed nervously before pushing them back into place and looking at her. She smiled when she saw how nervous he was. It was really cute. She was used to the boys at her school being overly cocky when it came to talking to her.

"Hey Haley," Nathan said and smiled, "can I help you find something?" he asked.

She smiled and shook her head. She drew her arms behind her back and walked closer to him. "I actually came here to talk to you," she said and smiled. "I'm really sorry about Jake interrupting us earlier."

"Oh it's alright," Nathan responded with a smile. "He was probably doing me a favor anyhow. I would have been late to practice and Coach would have chewed me out big time. Besides, I think it gave me more time to gather the right words to use when I talked to you next."

"Oh good," she said with a smile, "so maybe you'd wanna tell me what it is that you were gonna ask me before?" she bit her bottom lip and waited for him to say something.

"Well," Nathan started, "I was thinking maybe you'd wanna go out with me sometime. Like on a date or something?"

"I'd love to," she said, "I was getting to wondering when you were gonna ask me out Nathan Scott. Took you long enough."

"I would have asked you before," he said, " I just couldn't get past my nerves."

"Well I sure am glad you did," she said and took a step closer to him, closing the distance.

"Me too," he said and released a shaky breath as he looked down at her. He couldn't help but let his eyes wander to her chest. She couldn't help the smirk that came to her lips. His eyes traveled back up to her face and he cleared his throat before speaking, "so, I was thinking tomorrow night maybe?" he asked, "if- if you wanted."

"Sounds great to me," she said and took a step back. "Well I should probably let you get back to work."

"Oh," Nathan said and then nodded, "yeah that'd probably be best."

She saw the happiness in his eyes as they looked into hers. How badly she wished that she could see them in color. She was sure they were beautiful. She took another step towards him and put her hands on his shoulders before leaning in to whisper in his ear. "I can't wait for tomorrow night," she said before placing a kiss on his cheek. She knew that she was just supposed to be playing the part that Jake had told her to play, but she couldn't help but be excited for tomorrow night.

"Me either," Nathan said quietly.

She sent a wink in his direction before turning around and walking out of the aisle of books they were standing in. The smile that came to her face when she was out of his view was unlike any one that she'd had before. She didn't know why, but she couldn't seem to stop smiling when she was around him.