"Haley, come in please," said Mrs. Malone.

Haley quickly scooted in the office and sat in the chair furthest away from her father. She looked around the room. It looked like her mother had been crying. Shit. They must know. Her father was drenched in sweat. She could tell that he was about to explode. Then there was Mrs. Malone, the principal, with a smile still plastered on her face. How does that lady do that? She always acts so annoyingly happy. She continued looking around. Why was there a TV in the room? She had never seen that before. That's just weird.

"Haley, we need to talk to you about something," Mrs. Malone began. "Your grades have been slipping lately. Mrs. Jones says that you failed your last English test and you didn't even turn in the paper that was due last week…" Mrs. Malone continued on going into great detail about the other 4 classes that she was all failing. Haley just breathed in a sigh of relief. Thank God they didn't know. Mrs. Malone continued, "…if this doesn't change soon, you'll have to repeat the 7th grade."

Mrs. Malone's last comment snapped her out of her state of relief. Repeat the 7th grade? Hell no. "I'm so sorry. I can do better, I know I can. I've just been really stressed lately…"

Haley's father busted in, "What the hell do you have to be stressed about?"

Haley's face turned red. It was one thing to be yelled at when she was at home, but in front of her principal, that was just embarrassing. Her mother grabbed her father's arm and pulled him back.

The principal continued as if she hadn't even noticed the outburst from the man sitting in front of her. "Haley, this is not something to be taken lightly. There are only two months left in the semester and if you can't bring your Fs up to As, I'm afraid you'll have to not only do 7th grade over, but also find a new school." Mrs. Malone's smile finally disappeared from her face. Okay, maybe the smile wasn't so annoying. It's much worse when she doesn't smile. "That's not all."

Mrs. Malone turned around and turned on the TV. She pressed the play button on the VCR player. Haley saw herself at her locker on the TV screen. Oh Shit, when did they put cameras in the hall? Haley watched herself on the screen as she pulled out the hotel-sized vodka bottle & poured half into her water bottle and half into another girl's. She and the other girl giggled as they turned around and went back to their classrooms. Haley sat in shock watching herself on TV. This was definitely not the way she wanted to make her theatrical debut.

Mrs. Malone broke Haley from her stupor, "Haley, this is very serious. You know our rules about alcohol. Obviously, you will no longer be able to participate in any extra-curricular activites. That means no volleyball, basketball, or softball. You will also be suspended for one week, in which time you will complete all of your make-up work and be doing extra credit in efforts to bring up your grade. This incident could very well have meant expulsion for you, but I believe that you have it in you to do this. I see something special in you Haley and if we can just get you on the right track, I know you can excel."

Haley looked over at her father and finally noticed the checkbook that was still in his hand. Bullshit. She didn't have potential, she just had a rich father. She didn't say anything, she just looked at the floor until she heard her father clear his throat pushing her to say something. She looked up at the principal, "I'm so sorry Mrs. Malone. I promise you, I will try much harder from now on. Thank you for giving me another chance."

"Now, if you'd go and get your things from your locker, I will collect all your school work for the next week. I look forward to seeing you next Monday."

Haley walked out of the room and back to her locker. She looked around the hall. Where the hell were the cameras?

When Haley got home, she went straight to her room. She knew that her parents needed to talk to each other before they could talk to her about it. She knew the ritual all too well after going through this so much, but she had never screwed up this bad. Thinking back to it, she realized how stupid she was being. She is only 12 years old after all. But she just wanted people to think she was cool. That was the only time the popular girls would ever talk to her besides for when they insulted her. Maybe if it had just been the drinking or the grades it wouldn't be so bad, but it was both and she knew she was in for it. She could hear screaming downstairs. She was used to her father screaming, but not her mother. She could only make out a few words here and there, but she knew it wasn't good. All that she could gather was that her father hated her, but it's not like that was anything new. She could hear her mother making excuses for her saying that she was confused, but her father just got louder calling her a failure saying she could never be anything in her life because she was a fuck-up. Sure, it was true, but that doesn't mean hearing it hurt any less, especially from your father.

An hour after listening to their screams her father came into her room. He yanked the TV cord out of the wall and threw the TV down the stairs. He did the same with the stereo and computer monitor. Luckily for her, he wasn't smart enough to remember the computer that was tucked inside the cabinet. He didn't say anything at all to her. He only gave her a quick look of disgust. He then left and slammed to door causing it to break. At this moment she just was thankful that he found other ways to take out his anger, otherwise he probably would have beaten her to death right now, not that dying would have been such a bad thing, she thought for a split second. She felt horrible and just cried into her pillow before she heard her mother walk in.

Her mother had obviously been crying which made Haley cry even harder. She hated hurting her mother, she really didn't mean to, but she just somehow always ended up in trouble. Her mother sat on the bed next to her.

"Well, obviously, you're grounded, just in case he didn't make that clear enough to you. that means no TV, no music, no phone, no computer. This week, the maid will not be coming. You will be cleaning the entire house by yourself. Don't even think of asking Lucas for help or he will be grounded right beside you. When you are not cleaning, you will be doing your homework. I will not be going to work this week, so I will be standing over your shoulder the whole time. Lucas and Nick will be checking it to make sure you have every answer right. We are very disappointed in you, but I want you to know that we do still love you and we always will. I need to know where you got the alcohol though."

Haley sat there in silence. She had a lot to register from her mother's little speech. Disappointment is always worse than hate.

"Haley, who gave you the alcohol?" she repeated

"I can't tell you."

"Haley, if you don't tell me we're gonna have to tack on another month to your grounding." She waited another minute for her to respond, "Haley?"

"Mom, I'm sorry, but I can't tell you. I can't do that to a friend. I know you'd report it to the police and I won't put a friend in jail. Even if I did, then every one would hate me or I could get beaten up. I'm sorry, I just can't tell you."

"Honey, if they are giving you alcohol, they are not your friends and if they would hurt you they definitely are not! You are being childish about this."

"Well, I am a child!"

"Which is why I don't understand how you got involved with this in the first place. You are too young to be doing these things. You want to grow up so bad, but the more you act like this, the more you show how immature you are. You need to start your paper, I'll call you when it's time for dinner."

With that, her mother stood up to leave the room, but before she fully walked out the door she stopped without turning around and said softly, "If your father and I get divorced, it's your fault." She then left Haley to her thoughts.

She may hate her father, but for some reason, her mother loved him. It was something she could never understand. Sure, she would love to have her father gone, but she couldn't do that to her mother. Her mother had never spoken to her like that. She didn't know what she could do, so she just curled up into a ball and fell asleep while tears streamed down her face.

"Knock, knock," Lucas cautiously said as he entered her room. "You okay in there?"

"What do you think?" Haley responded groggily. She looked at the clock. Dang, she'd been sleeping for three hours, definitely longer than she had meant to. Her mother was going to be even more pissed now that she hadn't done any homework.

"So… Mom told me what happened. She's pretty upset. I'm supposed to come and check on your progress which seems to be nonexistent. Where's your science book? We can start there."

She pointed to her bookbag and Lucas went over and pulled out a book, examining it. "Earth Science, not my favorite. So what chapter are we doing?" He pulled out a notebook and pen and went back to sit on the bed by his sister.

Haley sat up in her bed dumbfounded. Was he really not going to lecture her? This was definitely a first. Not that she wasn't thankful, but she was thoroughly confused. She realized that she hadn't said anything for a minute when Lucas's eyes started bugging out of his head, silently repeating his question. "Seven."

"Here goes nothing…" An hour later they were still sitting on the bed only now they both had huge smiles on their faces. "That wasn't so bad was it?"

"I guess not, it just takes so long to do. I mean, Lucas, if I have to spend an hour EVERY night on science alone, how the hell am I supposed to do all my other subjects too?"

"Well, it wouldn't take you an hour if you did it when it was assigned. We just did an entire week's worth of homework in one sitting. Hales, you're too smart to not be doing your homework. You should be getting straight As without a problem."

"I don't want to Luke! That's not me! That's you and Nick and Quinn and Viv. I just can't live up to y'all and I don't want to try. Why try when I'm just going to fail? I can't disappoint them if they don't expect anything of me."

"I beg to differ, wise one. I'm pretty sure you've completely disappointed them even with your brilliant plan."

"Way to be an asshole big brother. Get the fuck out of my room."

"Truth hurts little sis. Dinner should be ready in a few minutes. I'll see you downstairs."

Dinner was quiet. Their father still hadn't come home. Not that Haley wanted him too, but it sort of worried her. Her mother looked tired. It was obvious that she had spent the last four hours worrying and cleaning up the destruction her father had caused around the house.

All through dinner she just received evil glares from Taylor, but tried to ignore it. Meanwhile, the look on Nick's face was sheer disappointment. That was much harder to ignore. Haley had barely eaten anything before she asked, "May I please be excused?"

Her mother looked up from her plate for the first time in several minutes, "No, you may not. You will wait until everyone is finished, clear the table, wash the dishes, and then return to your room."

Haley sat back down dejected. "Yes ma'am" was all she could muster.

After all the dishes were done Haley was sitting in her room staring at the glow-in-the-dark stars on her ceiling.

"Hey little bit," Lucas said walking into Haley's room.

"What do you want?" Haley said, not taking her eyes off the ceiling.

"Cease fire?"

Haley sat up and looked at him, "You know I can't stay mad at you for long big brother. Besides, you were just saying what I already knew. Thanks for helping me with science. You know how much I hate it."

The phone rang, but they just ignored it.

Lucas walked over the join her on the bed, "They'll get over it, you know? Mom and Dad. They won't stay mad forever."

Just then Nick busted into the room, "Luke, come on, we gotta go to the hospital."

They both jump up to go, but as they do Nick looks at Haley and says, "Not you."

"What is it?" Lucas asked.

"It's Dad. There was an accident," Nick said hurriedly.

Haley's face went white. What have I done? "I'm coming too."

"No, you're not," Nick said and shot Haley the look of death. "You're staying in your room. You're grounded remember. Come on Luke. We gotta go. Now."

Lucas looked at his sister apologetically, "I'm sorry. I'll call you as soon as we know anything. It'll be okay. I promise."

"You can't promise me that. You don't know what's wrong. It's all my fault," Haley said barely above a whisper.

"It's not your fault Hales. You can't think that."

"Luke, NOW!" Nick shouted from the hallway.

"I gotta go. I'll call you in a little bit. I love you." Lucas said and left her room.

As he met up with Nick in the hall, Haley could hear Nick say, "I don't know what you get from lying to her, but you know as well as I do, this is all her fault."

Haley soon resumed her position on her bed, staring up at the stars, feeling worse than ever. Nick's words rang in her ears as tears fell for what seemed like the hundredth time that day.

"Finally!" she screamed as she ran to answer the phone. She had been waiting for three hours to hear something. She didn't bother looking at the caller ID, she knew who it was. "Luke! What's going on?" she waited a minute. When she didn't hear a response she checked the caller ID. It was him, so why wasn't he talking? "You're scaring me big brother. Say something. Anything."

He finally spoke in a whisper, "Hales, it's bad. It's really bad." She could hear him crying on the other end of the line.

"How bad is bad?"

"He was driving drunk and he hit another car. He's in a coma right now. They did some kind of emergency surgery on him. I'm not sure what really, but they said he lost a lot of blood and the fact that he was incoherently drunk made it a lot harder for the blood to clot."

Haley couldn't breathe. It felt like her heart was beating 1,000 times per minute. Her head was spinning and she couldn't feel her hands. She couldn't feel her mouth or her feet or anything for that matter. She dropped the phone to the floor.

It had been quiet for a minute and it was beginning to scare him. He heard the phone hit the floor. "Haley? Hales? Haley, talk to me Haley! It's okay. Haley! Answer me!" by now he was screaming.

Haley fell to the floor. She was barely able to mumble a "help" before losing consciousness.

Lucas heard a loud crash and what he thought to be his little sister asking for help. He shut his phone and ran to find his brother. "Give me the keys. Haley's in trouble. I need to go check on her."

"She'll be fine. She thinks she's such an adult, she can take care of herself," Nick scoffed.

"Stop being an ass and give me the damn keys. Something is not right and she needs help. Get over yourself. Everyone makes mistakes. Even your precious little Haley."

"Especially Haley," Nick muttered as he threw the keys harshly at Lucas.

Lucas didn't even bother to respond. All that mattered at that moment was Haley and he knew that she needed help.