In Tree Hill, North Carolina, their high school basketball games are always the games to go to.
Everyone gets pumped up before the game and when the Tree Hill Ravens get an inevitable victory. And it seems like they are unstoppable with Nathan Scott, the son of basketball prodigy Dan Scott, as their captain.
"Nathan, remember. 20 shots – no less." Dan drills into his son. "Got it, dad." Nathan mutters as he continues to do his practice shots.
Calista Scott, who just prefers to be called Callie, who has a notebook in her hands, rolls her eyes.
Her and Nathan definitely do not look like brother and sister. While Nathan got the majority of their dad's looks with his dark brown hair and blue eyes, Callie mainly got her mom's with her blonde hair.
Dan might be unaware of it and Nathan might not notice it, but Callie can see that Nathan is slowly becoming disillusioned with basketball, thanks to their dad.
"Quit yakking and warm up." Coach Whitey Durham commands, and Dan takes his cue to get to his seat in the bleachers. Callie makes sure that she is as far away from her dad as humanly possible.
And besides, he doesn't even notice her, so why would she care?
For a good long while, the Ravens were kicking ass in the court. Callie is practically deafened by the cheers from everyone around her as she is writing down what is going on. She doesn't notice what happened, as Whitey is now irritated with his team.
"You guys are stinking up the place! Time-out!" Whitey yells.
Callie didn't know what happened because the next thing she knew, Tim Smith, Nathan's best friend (or parasite, according to her) replaced Nathan.
For some time, the Ravens were not performing as good. Even though Nathan can be ignorant and arrogant, Callie does not deny that he has a talent in basketball. Whitey then lets Nathan back in the game with 20 seconds left of the game.
And in the end, Nathan makes the winning shot.
Callie writes up the last of her notes before booking it out of the gymnasium.
The blonde is now sitting patiently on the bench. "Hey." she hears someone say to her. Callie looks up and sees that it is Peyton Sawyer, Nathan's girlfriend and a cheerleader for the Ravens. "Hey."
Callie and Peyton do not really know each other. All that Peyton knows about Callie is that she is Nathan's sister and that she is a part of the school's newspaper. Though Callie has no room to pry in someone's relationship, she notices how Nathan can be a real shitty boyfriend to Peyton and that she deserves a lot more than that.
"You okay?" Peyton asks. She is one of the only people that noticed Callie leaving as soon as the final shot made it in the basket. "I kind of had to get out of there. I didn't want my head to explode." Callie responds to her.
"Hey, you need a ride?" Peyton asks. She knows that Nathan is going to be unaware and she doesn't want to leave Callie by her lonesome. However, the blonde shakes her head. "It's fine. I already have a ride." she tells her.
As if on cue, a black Camaro rolls up in front of the two. "Hey, Callie, you ready to leave?" the driver asks, it reveals to be Zach Hyde.
Zach Hyde is an enigma to everyone in Tree Hill. It seems like the high school senior doesn't care about anything and everyone seems to avoid him because they all think that he is antisocial. The students in Tree Hill high would call him a freak because of all of those reasons and the fact that he lives on the wrong side of the tracks.
It was two years ago in his sophomore year when spotted the lonely soul of a freshman Calista Scott.
Within those two years of dating, nobody is aware about the relationship between the two and nobody suspects a thing.
Callie grabs her stuff and before she enters the car, that no doubt is going to smell of cigarettes and alcohol, she turns to Peyton.
"Nathan doesn't know about Zach and I." she mentions. "Don't worry. Your secret's safe with me." Peyton reassures her.
Callie gives her a small smile before she joins up with Zach in the front seat of his car. Callie also doesn't notice that someone watched her get into Zach's car.
Throughout the weekend, everyone in the small town of Tree Hill kept talking about how the basketball team stole a school bus. Only a handful of the guys, that includes Nathan, Tim, Brandon Barnes, and Jake Jagielski, got off scot free. Everyone else got suspended from playing basketball for the rest of the season.
The next day at school, Callie is at study hall in the library, and like any other normal day, she is by herself. She is doing her homework for her AP Psychology class when a tap is presented on her table. She looks up to see that it is her brother's best friend, Brandon Barnes.
According to Callie, Brandon is not like Tim and she genuinely believes that he is Nathan's best friend. She doesn't know what is going on in his personal life, but there have been times where Brandon has crashed in the guest room in the house.
"Hey. You mind if I sit here?" Brandon asks. "By all means." Callie responds, curtly, as Brandon takes a seat across from her.
"Scott." the voice of Coach Durham calls out. Callie just keeps working on her homework, knowing full well that it was not directed to her. Nathan, on the other hand, automatically assumes that it's for him. "What's up, Coach?"
"Not you. You." Whitey dismisses Nathan and points over at the half-brother of Nathan and Callie, Lucas.
The gist of the story that is Tree Hill's scandal is that Dan Scott got Karen, Lucas's mom, pregnant before he left for college. It was while he was at college when Dan met Deb, Nathan and Callie's mom, and not long after, she got pregnant with the twins and they were born six months later.
It is no secret that Dan abandoned Lucas, and left Keith Scott (Dan's older brother and the uncle of Lucas, Nathan, and Callie) to raise him.
There is no relationship between Callie and Lucas. Callie doesn't know Lucas, but it seems like he despises her existence.
Callie didn't ask to be born, so why does Lucas hate her?
Uncle Keith, on the other hand, has a consistent relationship with her. If you were to ask Callie, Keith was more of a father than her actual dad. However, she doesn't spend much time with him, and she understands it because Dan treats Lucas as if he is an afterthought.
Lucas grabs his stuff as he follows Whitey. "You, read a book or something." he tells Nathan before he and Lucas left the library.
Callie puts her hands to her mouth to stifle her laugh, which comes out as a snort. She is able to compose herself as she gets back to work.
Throughout the rest of the day, the word that is going around the school is that Lucas got an offer to join the Ravens Basketball team, and he turned it down.
Callie is gathering her stuff to get to her Pre-Calculus class when just after she closed her locker, her arm was in the tight grip of Zach and he was leading her to an empty classroom.
He harshly presses his lips against her, taking her by surprise and taking her breath away. His bruising kisses are now leading down to her neck.
"Zach, I have to go to Pre-Calculus." Callie tells him breathlessly as he continues to suck harshly on her neck. She would not be surprised if there is a hickey there.
"Zach, seriously. I need to go." she tells him, sternly, as she pulls away from him. Callie is about to walk away from him but Zach has a tight grip on her wrist, and she winces at how tight it is.
"Why the hell is Brandon Barnes sitting with you, huh?" Zach asks.
Another thing about Brandon Barnes is that he is a notorious player with an on-and-off relationship with Brooke Davis, captain of the cheerleading team and the best friend to Peyton.
"He needed somewhere to sit. We didn't talk." Callie attempts to assure Zach. Attempt being the key word.
"You better not be lying to me, Callie. You know what happens when you lie to me." Zach growls out as she is able to yank her wrist out of his grip and leave for her class.
She makes sure that her hair is all at one side, hiding the mark that her possessive boyfriend left on her and she sees on her wrist it is now burning red because of the hand that was on there seconds ago.
The youngest Scott lets out a shaky sigh before she goes to her class.
After school, Callie has got a shift over at Sunshine Diner. Over a year ago, Callie wanted to make her own money, so she saw the opportunity when she first saw the 'Help Wanted' sign and she took it.
Ever since then, she has been saving her tips in a shoebox that is hidden in her closet to save up to go to college. Never once did she even touch it or the money that her paycheck comes in.
After she closed up the diner, she walks over to her boyfriend's car and he is now taking her home. The ride is silent, filled with tension with what happened at school.
"Hey, I'm sorry that I overreacted. You know how much I love you, right?" Zach apologizes.
He apologizes for his violent actions so many times that it is a default for Callie to automatically forgive him. "No. I'm sorry. I should've moved to a different table or not been at the library."
"It's okay, Callie. You're safe with me, and I'll always keep you safe. I would never dream of hurting you." he tells her once they are parked outside of her house. Callie just plasters on a smile. "No, I understand." she tells him.
She just left his car and is about to go up to her house before Zach calls out her name. When she turns to face him, he gives her a more loving and passionate kiss.
Nathan, Tim, and Brandon were about to leave to the Riverside Court to do what Dan told Nathan to do: encourage Lucas to not play for the Ravens.
Brandon was the first one out the door when he spotted Zach kissing Callie. He had his suspicions when he saw Callie get into the passenger seat of Zach's car, but Zach frenching his best friend's sister confirms it all.
"Uh, Nate, you might want to go back inside." Brandon tries to tell Nathan. "Why?" Nathan asks, and after he looked over, he now understood why.
Zach Hyde is making out with his little sister.
In the middle of the kiss, Zach looks at Nathan, dead in the eye, as he proceeds to stick his tongue in Callie's mouth, dominating the kiss.
"Holy shit, the freak is getting some action." Tim mindlessly comments.
Nathan, on the other hand, is pissed. "With my sister." he growls out.
Callie squeaks as she pulls away from him. "Thought we were trying to be discreet." she points out.
"I know. I just really love you." Zach smirks, giving her cheek one last stroke with his thumb before he departs to his car.
Callie smiles to herself as she walks up to her house. Her euphoric mood is dampened when she bumps into Nathan.
"Are you serious, Cal? You're seriously hooking up with that guy?" Nathan was asking her. Callie is now glaring at him.
"Don't start." she simply tells him as she is about to open the door.
"Callie, the guy is a freak. Why on Earth would you be with that guy?" Nathan asks again before she whips around to face him.
"I have a lot of opinions on your relationship with Peyton, but I don't pry. You are not entitled to get in the middle of my relationship, clear?" Callie venomously points out before slamming the door.
Callie took a moment to calm down before she fixed herself a cup of Hibiscus tea with the heart tea infuser her mom bought for her from one of her many trips.
Throughout the week, it was known that Nathan challenged Lucas to a one-on-one game, with the following catch: if Nathan wins, Lucas doesn't play. If Lucas wins, Nathan quits.
Callie got home from another successful shift at the diner, right around when she heard her dad and Nathan talking.
"So you could abandon her, too?" she hears Nathan retort. "Just a joke, dad."
Callie clenched her jaw at the so-called "joke" that Nathan made, knowing that the abandonment is the truth.
"Yeah. And this bet tonight – is that a joke, too?" Dan asks his son. "Or would you really quit the team? You have everything to lose here and nothing to gain." Dan begins to harp on Nathan.
"Sometimes what you call "everything", I call "nothing."." Nathan points out. "I just think it's best if you don't do this, Nathan. We'll find another way." Dan tells him.
What Nathan never really understood is that Dan never really harps on Callie. It's as if Callie is a ghost.
"You know, you never seem to give Callie a hard time." he points out.
"This isn't about your sister. Calista is a lost cause." Dan claims.
So, that's what Dan Scott really thinks about her, huh?
She wastes no time in running upstairs to her room. She grabs the shoebox full of money and places the tips in there.
She lies down on her bed after changing out of her uniform, tears streaming down her face.
No matter what Callie did, it was never good enough.
Moments later, a knock is presented on her door. "Go away." she calls out. However, the door still opens.
"Callie, are you ready to go?" Nathan tells her. "No." she mumbles out.
"Callie, come on. It's 11:30." Nathan persists. Callie gets up from her bed. "Great. Now I don't have a choice." she snaps at Nathan as she shoves her way past him.
That is how Callie got in the position of being in the backseat of Nathan's car.
Nathan drives to the Riverfront and she gets out of his car very quickly as soon as the car is in park. She makes her way to a bench that is being occupied by Junk Moretti, Marvin McFadden, and Jimmy Edwards.
The game is now afoot, with Lucas already making the first shot after doing a fake out. "Oh-ho! A 25-footer rips the silk like Jimmy Edwards in a size 3 dress." Marvin, who is better known as Mouth, commentates.
"Go ahead, man. I'll give you that all night." Nathan taunts Lucas, giving him the ball. Lucas, in turn, makes another shot. "What happened to all night?" Lucas taunts right back at him.
It seems as if the taunt is biting Lucas in the ass, because that is when Nathan makes his first shot. Callie notes that this is going to be a long night.
There is a back-and-forth between Nathan and Lucas, making shot after shot. Throughout that time, Callie just situates herself with simple claps instead of the raucous cheers from everyone around her. The back-and-forth seems to be at a halt after Nathan elbowed Lucas right in the nose, causing Callie to wince.
"No foul. Basket counts." Lucas notes as he reaches him. "Besides, you won't score again."
"Oh, the basket counts, and it's 14-12. Game point for Nathan. Nathan for the win." Mouth commentates as Nathan was about to make the winning shot, but Lucas intercepts it.
"Holy crap! Did you see that?! Someday men will write stories about that block. Children will be named after it. Argentinian women will weep for it." Mouth continues.
Lucas makes his shot, and the game is all tied up. "Come on, Nate! Come on, shut him down, Nathan!" Tim cheers for Nathan.
"He's never mentioned you, man – not once in all these years." Nathan tries to get into Lucas's head. "This is for my mom." Lucas simply tells him as the nail-biting game is almost at its end.
"Luke for the win!"
Lucas makes his shot and the rest is history; Lucas wins.
Everyone that is on the bleachers rush over to Lucas to congratulate him. Lucas locks eyes with his younger half-sister, who gives him a smile, essentially telling him congratulations. She looks over to see a familiar black Camaro across the court.
Callie runs over to the car to see a smirking Zach in the car, in which she gets into. "I thought you weren't into these kinds of things." she says to him.
"Believe me, I'm not. I'm just here to see your half-brother shut your twin brother up." Zach tells her, causing her to chuckle.
What the couple didn't know is that Lucas saw Callie getting into Zach's car. He doesn't know the guy, but he has heard a lot about him.
Lucas knows that he has no room to voice his concerns, but he hopes that Callie is in any way, shape, and form not involved with Zach Hyde.