Brooke glanced around the cafe. She was just gonna order her food from Karen and then get out of there before Lucas could spot her.

"Brooke?" Lucas asked.

"Damn it!' she cursed under her breath, she then pasted a fake smile on her face and said, "Hey Lu- Les. Sorry."

"It's cool." he said shaking his head, "What's up?"

Brooke grinned sheepishly, "I went two years without your mom's fries and after having them this weekend... I can't stop thinking about them."

"Same old Brooke Davis." Lucas chuckled going behind the counter to grab some fries.

"Not really." she said shrugging, "None of us are the same. Except maybe Haley."

"Yeah, I know." he said.

"Thanks for these." she said holding up the bag, "See you in school."

"So James, how'm I doin?" Nathan asked Haley during one of their sessions.

"You're alot smarter than your test scores suggest. You're just not applying yourself." Haley said.

"Story of my life." he said sadly.

"Cut the crap Scott. We grew up together. You're a privileged little boy who is too lazy to do anything except aim for the net." she said annoyed.

"Whoa, a bite to go with that bark." Nathan laughed.

Peyton walked around town alone. That's how she lived her life now. Alone. Well she had a few friends, but they were mostly just so she didn't have to sit alone at the table at lunch, like Brooke.

"Arrggg!" Peyton yelled, she hated thinking about Brooke. Especially when it came to how horrible it felt to think about Brooke eating alone day after day. The whole school against her. Peyton, herself, against her.

"Whoa." a voice said as Peyton let out another yell.

"Jake." Peyton said.

" Hey." he said, "Does it help?"

Peyton shrugged, "Sometimes." She looked around surprised to have found herself at the bridge. As she wondered how long she'd been here Jake let out a yell which surprised her.

"I do feel better." he nodded.

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, before Peyton turned to him, "I hate my hair. I hate my new friends, they're all pot heads. I hate that despite the two years that have passed I still haven't left that day in my room behind." She let out one final yell of frustration before getting up and headed in a different direction then where she'd come, leaving Jake to stare.

Les paced in front of the Davis house. He'd been inside so many times throughout his childhood, but for some reason he just couldn't make himself walk up the path and knock on the door. As much as it killed him to admit... he missed Brooke. He missed her craziness. He missed Haley and Nathan and Jake and Peyton too. He liked his life, but... he missed his old one.

Brooke watched him from her first floor rooms window. She prayed he'd go away. It's not that she didn't want to see him... she kinda liked the fact that the six of them had been running into one another lately, no matter how much she protested she didn't. It's just that if he came in he'd find out her secret, and she couldn't have that.

Nathan stared at Haley as she graded his paper. In truth he really didn't know why he was being such an ass to her. It was fun to see this girl who was pretending to be Haley snap back. He knew missed the real Haley and that was probably why he kept poking her with the stick, if he poked hard enough maybe she'd come out.

Peyton stared at herself in the mirror for a while. She didn't know why she'd told Jake all those things. They weren't friends anymore. They hadn't had a meaningful conversation in over a year. It's just that she still felt that connection to him. The one they'd forged eleven or twelve years before. She picked up her hair straightener and threw it in the trash, and then she grabbed the hair dye she'd bought.

Haley placed all her books in her bag in the order in which she'd need them the following morning. She brushed her teeth the same way she had every night before. She brushed through her hair 100 times. She changed into her pajamas, the ones with pink cupcakes on them. She looked down at her wrist and felt an unfamiliar feeling flare up in her. That damn bracelet that Nathan had given her was still in its place. She angrily took it off and threw it on her dresser.

Jake attempted to shadow the pillow he was drawing. He looked over at the next table to see Peyton. He had to do a double take to make sure it was really her. All traces of the Goth girl he'd spoken to yesterday were gone, and in its place was his childhood friend. Blond curly haired Peyton Sawyer. He walked over to her table and bent next to her, "I still carry that day around with me too."

"Did you switch rooms in your house so you wouldn't have to be reminded of it?" she shot back. Off his look she added, "Didn't think so."

Jake returned back to his seat. That wasn't how he'd expected that to go. He went back to his pillow.

"So Teach, what time you wanna meet today?" Nathan asked Haley loudly in the halls.

"Shut up." she sighed, fumbling nervously with the bracelet around her wrist, "We'll meet the same time we have been for the past three days, Nathan."

Brooke observed Nathan teasing Haley from across the hall. Every time Nathan said something annoying Haley, the real Haley would flare up and come out, "Good for him." she thought then turned and walked right into Jake.

"Oh hey." he said.

"Hi." she said awkwardly.

They stared at one another for a full ten seconds before Jake spoke up, "Peyton's back... kinda."

"What?" Brooke asked confused.

"Her hair... she's not the bride of Frankenstein anymore." Jake said.

Brooke grinned, "She's a fake blonde again?"

"She looks the same as she did the first time you guys experimented with hair dyes in the fourth grade. Did I ever mention how creepy you looked with pink hair by the way?"

"If memory serves you, Nathan, and Les hid under Haley's bed for a half hour." she laughed, "Speaking of, looks like Nate's pulling Haley out of robot mode." she added pointing to a very angry Haley smacking Nathan in the arm numerous times.

"Jake! There you are Bunny." Nikki said walking over to the two.

"Nik, this is Brooke. We uh... we used to be friends." Jake said.

She looked Brooke up and down for a minute then smiled, "You're the girl who walked out of the cheerleading championship thing aren't you?"

Brooke turned slightly pale, and nodded, "It was fun catching up, bye Jake."

Jake wanted to go after her and continue talking about old times, but he knew Nikki wouldn't allow it. Plus Brooke was already gone. He glanced to where Nathan and Haley were only to find that they were no longer around either. He gave up and followed Nikki towards the cafeteria.

Les watched as Brooke walked over to a deserted table and sat down with her lunch tray. A couple of the other guys on the basketball team were talking about which cheerleaders they could get with. When they mentioned the transformation in Peyton he looked away from Brooke to see what they were talking about.

He almost choked on his macaroni as he watched the blond girl completely ignore the drug table and head over for the cheerleader table. It was Peyton. The Peyton he used to know.

He then noticed his brother and Haley at another table. She was laughing. Haley James was laughing. First the return of Peyton, now Haley laughing, the world must be coming to an end.

Even Jake who was eating with his girlfriend had an expression that reminded Les of the wiseass boy he used to be friends with.

The four of them all reminiscent of the fourteen-year-old kids in the pictures he kept hidden in a box under his bed. He wondered fleetingly if this was how they had always looked but he just never cared to notice. He looked back to Brooke sitting by herself. She looked nothing like the girl in the picture that he kept in the desk drawer next to his bed. All happiness was gone from her eyes. The color from her cheeks had been lost long ago. He watched her scribble into her notebook, and he wondered which side he fell into. With all his old friends looking like somehow not a day had passed, when really two years had, or like Brooke, who appeared to be carrying around twenty years more than the others. He wondered what had happened in the past two years to change Brooke from the girl he used to know to this new unfamiliar person.

I'm sorry it's been so long guys. I have a little bit of writers block with this story. I know where I want it to go, I'm just not sure how to get there. Anyway please review.

-Em