A/N: Hey, well, as you've probably guessed by now if you're reading this, I decided to continue this story. I got a few reviewers that were extremely kind and gernerous for their words. Thank you very much if you reviewed! I've got a few things planned out already for this story but not much time to type it all out and post it, so sorry if I'm really slow with updates. Hope you enjoy chapter two.
P.S. Just wondering, does Katherine seem a little all over the place or different from the last chapter? Maybe it's just me but if anyone notices anything off about her, please tell me. I'm open to all kinds of criticisms, even flames. Well, enjoy( hopefully...)
There are many unknown things in the world that even the things we believe to be the truth are questionable. But what do you do when all that you have known to be truth is, in fact, a lie or, at least, hidden.
He looked at her astonished. "But I thought you said he does not know you."
"That he doesn't."
"But-"
She held up a hand to stop him. "It's a rather long story. Well, in actuality, it's more of a soap opera thing but long nonetheless."
Mr. Brodhead chuckled, entertained. "Well, I must say this is intriguing. You have to come back one day and tell me."
Katherine laughed. "Sure. Maybe in the summer, when there's nothing much to do. Trust me, it'll give you something to think about. I can tell you one thing for sure though, it's definitely not boring."
"Oh, I would not disagree with that for one second."
"Well, I'm going to be leaving now."
"Trying to sneak out before they ask you who you are?"
"You could say that."
Too bad for Katherine that the whole group noticed her leaving and followed her to the parking lot. "Hey you!" Nathan yelled. "Katherine!"
Katherine turned around, smiled at him, and started her car. Waving goodbye, she backed out of her parking spot.
"Great, now what?" Nathan asked them.
Lucas stared after Katherine's car. "We follow her."
Everyone ran back to the cars( Haley kind of wobbled. After all, she is about nine months pregnant) and pursued Katherine, who hadn't gone far. In fact, Katherine drove in the direction of Tree Hill and stopped at a café just a few miles outside of the town.
Nathan and Lucas went into the café first. Once they saw Katherine in a booth in the back, they all cornered her there. Panic registered into her eyes when she saw that she was trapped. "Uh…hi?"
"Hi, Katherine." Brooke said, "How do you know so much about Nathan?"
"Uh…Peyton's pod casts?"
Nathan, Haley, Lucas, Brooke, Skills, Mouth, and Whitey looked at Peyton. "Hey, I took those off after…well, you know!"
"Nice try, girlie. How do you know so much about my husband? And my pregnancy? And my brother-in-law? And-"
"Don't forget your ex-roommate, your future sister-in-law, the guy who has your baby boy's back, the sports announcer, and the coach who's helped all of you somehow."
"Okay, how do you know all of that?" Lucas asked, blushing over the 'future sister-in-law' part that Katherine said to Haley. He hoped Peyton let that go right over her head. Everyone else as well, or he'd be teased relentlessly.
"I…Uh…internet?" All the teens started talking at the same time, protesting and demanding answers.
Whitey spoke up, shutting all of them up. "Let me talk to her. You all are scaring the poor girl."
"Coach Durham's right." Mouth stated. "Let's give them some space. Might as well go order something."
They murmured words of agreement and stalked off towards the registers and Whitey called out to them, "Nathan, I like my coffee black with sugar."
Katherine laughed. "You always seemed like a funny guy."
"Really? I do? Tell me how you came to think that."
She sighed and took a sip of her coffee. "There's no way I can get away with not telling you, is there?"
"No, but it is good that you know that."
"Fine, I guess you're the best candidate to tell first anyway. As you know, my name is Katherine." he nodded. "But what you don't know is that my last name is Scott."
His eyes widened and Katherine's smile weakened. "Yeah, it's a long story but I am Dan Scott's daughter. I'm about one year younger than Lucas and Nathan."
"How? Well, Danny did always have a way of sowing his oats in places he shouldn't."
Katherine's smiled widened, her confidence beginning to grow again. "Yeah, you think he'd stop after abandoning one kid but I guess he wanted an abandoned kid of both sexes."
This time, Whitey was the one to laugh and the group made their way back to them. Nathan handed a cup to Whitey. "Here, Coach. Uh, so, what…?"
"I think I'll let Katherine here explain."
Katherine's eyes widened in surprise and she jumped in her seat. "I don't think I-"
Skills cut her off. "Yo, you know so much about us, make a speech that gets Nate-dawg his scholarship back, and you ain't going to tell us who you are at least? Man, that's messed up right there."
"Okay. I'll tell you who I am then. My name is Katherine-"
Brooke rolled her eyes. "We know that already."
"Brooke, you might want to let her finish her sentence." Peyton looked at her.
"Oh, right."
Peyton rolled her eyes, muttering, "B. Davis…"
"Anyways," Katherine watched the exchange, torn between wanting to laugh or be worried for Brooke's mental welfare. "my name is Katherine Scott."
"What?" Nathan yelled.
"Uh, yeah, I think I heard you wrong. What's your last name again?" Haley asked.
"Yo, I think we all heard that." Skills said, his eyes wide. Then, he asked, "how could you be a Scott?"
Katherine furrowed her eyebrows. "You mean, you haven't been given 'the birds and the bees' talk? Because if you haven't, I'm not sure I'm the right person to give it to you."
Mouth cut in before someone else could. "I think you know what we mean, Katherine."
"Well, of course I do but I just couldn't resist. It was too funny."
"Someone better explain now or I'm going to explode." threatened Haley.
"No need for threats here. Look, I don't know exactly what kind of things you and Nathan be doing, but this is a public place. Save that for the privacy of your bedroom or, heck, the privacy of any room. Whatever floats your boat."
Haley was speechless, as were the other girls. Nathan, Lucas, and the guys were amused. "Well, I didn't mean it that way." Haley finally managed to get out.
"How did you mean it then?"
"I meant, that someone should explain soon because I really have to go pee!"
"Okay, then, how about you go pee and I leave."
Brooke yelled. "No way! You have to tell us how you know so much and why your last name is Scott."
"Well, obviously, Dan can't stop spreading his seed long enough to actually realize the repercussions. Although, personally, you ask me, I say that Dan wanted to abandon a child of both sexes. You know, make it even or something. Either that or he's a hell of a horny bastard."
"Do you always talk so…?" Lucas started but wasn't sure how to word it.
"Vulgarly? Yes."
Mouth chuckled nervously. "You're really straight-forward, aren't you?"
"Yup. Life's short. We should be more truthful. Besides, if I wasn't so blunt, that meeting never would've happened and Nathan wouldn't have his scholarship back."
"Yeah, and I'm grateful for that but if you…ugh! This is crazy!"
"You think? I found out on my eighth birthday."
Skills winced. "Damn. Really?"
"Yeah, this was my mom: 'happy birthday, Katherine. By the way, your father is not who you think he is and you have two brothers. One he abandoned and one he kept around.' That was basically how it went."
"Wow. Was your mom drunk or something?" Peyton asked.
"Nope, she was just herself. Look, I was serious about the leaving thing. I have to be somewhere soon."
Everyone looked at her skeptically. "Is this just an excuse to run away?" questioned Lucas.
Katherine rolled her eyes. "Please, if that were the case, I would've been gone already. Since you guys are being rather persistent on finding out my exact connection to Dan, you can come with me. I'm sure it's somewhere you've all been before."
"Sounds good to me. Hales?" Nathan looked at his wife, peering into her eyes searchingly.
She nodded. "Yeah, but, first, I need to go to the bathroom!" Haley jumped up, half-running and half-wobbling to the restroom.
Minutes later, while driving, Skills furrowed his eyebrows, "She's going right into Tree Hill."
"Well, she did say it was somewhere we've all been before." Mouth stated.
"Is this…" Brooke gasped. "This is the road to the cemetery! Is she planning to kill us or something?"
"Brooke, you do realize that this explains the flowers she bought before we drove off a while ago." Haley said, laughing and somewhat astonished to how Brooke can act at times.
Whitey guffawed. "You think the girl would kill us?"
"We outnumber her." Mouth pointed out.
Nathan laughed. "Not to mention, we out-muscle her. Right, Luke?" he flexed a muscle jokingly.
"I know I do. But I don't know about you, little brother, looks like you've been slacking."
They laughed but stopped as Katherine parked her car a few meters ahead of them. She got out and walked through the graveyard, stopping only at her destination.
The Tree Hill group followed her quietly. Everyone realized whose grave Katherine was visiting but didn't say anything.
"Hey Keith. It's me…Katherine. I guess if you could see me right now, you'd see Nathan, Lucas, Haley, Peyton, Brooke, Mouth, Skills, and even Coach Durham. Quite the crowd, huh? I finally told them…
They kinda forced me but I know you're glad I told, right Keith? You always wanted to let them know. Well, now they do. If only you weren't…I miss you, Keith but if you tell anyone I said that, I'll be good the rest of my life just to get back at you in heaven."
None of them had a clue what to say. It was already overwhelming news to find out that Lucas and Nathan had a sister, but Keith knew her. The Scott brothers were shocked and because they didn't know what to do next, they were angry.
Nathan and Lucas were about to say something to her, but Katherine beat them to it, never taking her eyes off of Keith's grave. "Keith used to visit me the first Saturday of every month. He rarely missed one. If he did, he had a good reason, like when Karen went to Italy and he stayed with Lucas. Otherwise, he was always there.
It's funny…I hated Keith at first. He'd nag me to let him tell you; both of you but I'd say no each time. Keith said you had a right to know. Then, he'd try to make me feel guilty by telling me about you guys, saying that I had a right to know about my brothers like you guys have a right to know me.
I just rolled my eyes at him all the time but he never stopped. Never stopped calling, never stopped visiting, never stopped telling me about you guys. At one point, it got on my nerves so much that I bet Keith if I could find out more things than him, then he'd have to stop telling me stories.
I went to such extreme efforts to win that bet, I'm pretty sure it violates at least ten state laws. In fact, I learned more than I ever could want to know but that's what I get for setting up all those cameras."
"Wait, cameras?" Brooke asked. "So you've been watching us? Like some kind of reality TV show?"
"Yup, fascinating how the animalistic, irrational side of the human can be so entertained by the invasion of people's privacy."
Brooke and Skills looked at her with blank looks on her faces. "Yo, this ain't the SATs. Plain English, please."
"Sorry, it's a tendency. But, anyways, uh…eventually, I won the bet and he stopped with the stories but he still came to see me. Keith never stopped with the nagging either. I swear, if I didn't threaten to leave if he told you guys, you would've known the day he found out and called me. I was thirteen then. It was at least two years before Lucas joined the team.
Look, I hope you guys won't be mad at Keith. If anything, be mad at me. I'll tell you guys everything. Answer all your questions but let me have some time with Keith. Besides, Keith doesn't deserve anyone mad at him, especially not in…
Um, I promise that I won't run away. Here." she said, then threw something in their direction. "Keep my keys in exchange. Guarantee you I won't leave without those. After all, Keith gave me that car."
The group decided to relocate to the river court, deciding it would be the best place to remain isolated from anyone else who could stumble upon them, especially Karen, Deb, or worse, Dan.
The river court was also the place where they could be found in case there were an emergency. This way, they were secluded but not completely cut off from the world( of course they have their cell phones, but, for now, that will be conveniently left out). Whitey volunteered to stay behind and wait with Katherine. Lucas, Nathan, Haley, Peyton, Brooke, Mouth, and Skills agreed out of pure shock and because none of them knew what to say if they were left alone with her; or in Lucas' and Nathan's case, were afraid of what they would say if they were alone with her.
"That was some deep shit there." Skills admitted, a few minutes after everyone merely sat in silence. "Man, just when you think your family couldn't get even more messed up."
"Thanks a lot, Skills." Lucas replied sarcastically.
Mouth chuckled. "Got to love Skills for being blunt."
"Yo, man, I ain't as blunt as the Scott sister over there." he pointed out, pointing his thumb in the direction of the cemetery.
"How can you guys joke at a time like this?" Nathan yelled.
Brooke sympathized with him, but not only with him. "Yeah, Nate, I'm sure you and Lucas are going through a lot right now but what about Katherine."
"You're siding with her?" Haley asked.
"It's not about sides."
"I remember saying that to you when you were fighting with Peyton a few months ago."
Peyton looked down and Brooke flushed. "Hey, that's totally different! Besides, this is their sister and you heard her, she found out about them on her eighth birthday. I don't know about you guys, but that's a pretty sucky way to find out."
"Being eight sucks if you ask me." Peyton concurred. Brooke looked at her sadly and rubbed Peyton's knee soothingly, thinking back to how Peyton's mom died when they were eight.
"It does, Peyt. It really does." Lucas' expression softened when he remembered the age Peyton was when Anna, her mom, passed. He thought, 'Being eight does suck. That was the same age I was when I broke my arm.'
"Yeah…" Haley said, wistfully. "Luke broke his arm that year when we were racing to the library. Idiot wasn't paying attention."
"Why?" Mouth asked, not able to reminisce as to the reason. All he could see mentally was Lucas' arm in a cast.
Haley smiled mischievously. "He was going on and on about Rambo."
"Hey, Rambo's cool!"