Disclaimer: One tree hill and it's characters belongs to Mark Schwahn and the WB. Only Isabel and Gerald belong to me.

Summary: My own version of 'lifetime piling up'. Contains spoilers if you haven't seen season 2. This is basically about how things would've been if Dan had married Karen instead of Deb.

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"God, Haley wait up!" Nathan jogged after her, "don't be mad! I'm sorry, okay?" Haley spun around, fire in her dark brown eyes, "well, sorry doesn't always cut in Nathan!" she shouted.

"Look Hales, I'm sorry that I ended up talking to Isabel when we were supposed to hang out okay? Now can't we just stop fighting." "No Nathan! You clearly don't have your priorities straight, cos some pretty girl is more important than your best friend."

Nathan paused, "you really think she's pretty?" Haley looked at him angrily, "God! You are so insensitive." Nathan started jogging after her again, "but you didn't say anything in the cafe!" He stood infront of Haley, blocking her way.

Haley beat his chest a few times, "its called giving you face, Nathan. Manners, you might like to learn some." She glared at him angrily. "Aw, c'mmon Haley! Don't be like that." Nathan pleaded as he watched his best friend walk away.

- - -

"Hey are you alright?"

Peyton looked up through her tears, the figure was kinda blurry, so she wiped her tears away. It was Jake, one of the guys on the basketball team. "Hi Jake." She smiled, embarrassed for him to see her crying like this.

He reached out an arm and helped her out. "What happened?" He asked, his brow furrowing with concern. She shook her head, "it was nothing." Obviously, he didn't believe her. "It was Lucas, wasn't it? Come on, I'll give you a ride home."

She got into his truck, and Jake continued, "Peyton, Lucas is my friend too. But sometimes he gets kinda out of control. You've got to learn to put your foot down and stand up for yourself."

That's exactly what she had done. And look where she'd ended up. She glanced at him, "Jake, can we please not talk about this?" Jake raised his hands of the steering wheel in his defense, "okay, I'm just saying." He turned and looked at her, Peyton wasn't sure why, but the way he looked at her made shivers of pleasure run up and down her body.

"Peyton," he said softly, "if you ever need anything, just look for me okay? I'm here for you." Then he grinned, kinda ruining the moment for her, and started driving.

- - -

Brooke stretched lazily and woke up, a contented smile on her face. She looked at the sleeping figure by her side, Alexius Rowley, 26 years old, complete with fancy sports cars, lots of money and named by People magazine as one of America's top 50 bachelors under 30. Number 27 to be exact.

She got out of bed, and headed towards the bathroom, "you can let yourself out," Alexius murmured sleepily. Somehow, that made Brooke feel slightly.. hurt? She tried to shake the feeling off. It was a casual thing, just sex. It's not like she needed roses and fine wine. Did she?

She groaned. All this thinking was giving her a headache. She was going home to have a long and nice nap. She highly doubted her parents would've noticed that she'd been gone anyway.

- - -

Karen Scott woke up with a smile on her face, as she often did. Sometimes, it was hard for her to believe that her life really was this perfect. She had gotten nearly everything she ever wanted in life. A great business, owning many successful clubs and cafes, a devoted husband who was still hot and hot for her after 17 years and two good looking, well-rounded kids. She giggled girlishly to herself, just thinking about it.

"Good morning smiley," Dan kissed her on the cheek, wrapping his arms around her waist, "and what are you so cheery about?" "Everything," Karen replied, kissing him. "Our life, is just too perfect." She smiled, showing of her pearly white teeth.

- - -

Peyton got up early, she couldn't rely on Lucas to take her to school today, she doubted he'd show especially after last night, yet, she was surprised when she heard a motor outside her house, 'maybe Lucas has changed! Maybe he feels bad about yesterday!" She thought hopefully to herself.

But when she opened her door, she just saw a truck outside her house. Jake's truck. He opened the door and got out, "Hey Peyton!" He smiled cheerfully, "I thought I'd give you a ride to school, since I was just passing through.

Peyton tried to suppress the smile on her face, but she found that she couldn't. "Thanks." she smiled happily. Jake opened the door for her and helped her into the truck. As she got in though, she felt a familiar morbid sensation take over her originally happy mood.

"Look, Jake, thanks for being so nice to me and all, but this doesn't make us friends or anything, y'know?" Jake laughed, "sure, Peyton, whatever you say." She blushed and turned away, 'why did that boy have to be so god damn happy and hard to offend?'

Maybe she just wasn't used to nice guys.

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A/N: well, that's done :D review please. Email me at narinenia at yahoo. com