A/N: Thanks for the reviews. And some of you are right, drama is ahead of them. I know it seemed like everything was gonna be all nice and good in college, yeah, not so much lol. I'm kind of juggling with some ideas, and I would ask what you guys thought, but that would be giving it all away. So if there is a couple of people who aren't going to spoil it, then message me or whatever so I can let you know what I'm thinking. Chapters are also a tad bit shorter, just letting you know.

Like I promised, this chapter is mainly everybody hanging out and talking together for the first time since the boys have been gone. You'll kind of see how everyone has been doing for the past months and how their relationships are kind of different than how it was in the last story. I'm not really sure, but maybe some of you are kind of disappointed that I'm bringing Kyle's cousin back into the mess, and you know what that means. Sorry if you're not liking the whole mob scene, but it's gonna have to play a big part in how things turn out, so I think it should be brought back. Bryle is still gonna be together, but expect them to be facing some stuff. Enjoy and Review!!

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Chapter 3: Back Away From the Edges

It was eleven o'clock at night, and surprisingly, Rachel wasn't out partying. Actually, she hadn't partied hard all summer, and believe it or not, it didn't really bother. Not only that, but she had been celibate for just as long. Call it what you want, but Rachel Gattina was actually behaving herself during the summer, whether it be with her body or her alcohol tolerance, she was handling it. All except her credit cards, or, her daddy's credit cards.

Ever since Rachel had decided to turn her life around, she had replaced alcohol and boys with clothes, shoes, handbags, the works. It wasn't exactly different, but at least she wasn't at some random party letting a guy grope her because she was too drunk to even speak up. Just thinking about it made her shiver in disgust, she didn't want to be like that anymore, and thank god she had a roommate who didn't want that either.

Living with Brooke had its upsides, and Rachel was just experiencing them. Ever since she had started going to therapy and pouring her soul out whenever the hell she felt like it, she finally understood why Brooke had thrown her old life away, not for a boy or for her friends, but because her life sucked. She didn't want to be that type of girl anymore, so she grew up and wasn't. It sounded easy, but to Rachel, it was the hardest thing she ever had to do. So with Brooke living with her, she no longer had the urge to drink or to do anything remotely scandalous.

As she parked her car in the driveway, she wondered if she would've believed anyone that had told her how her life would be now. She would've laughed in your face, and then called you fat, and walk away. It was that simple.

The light was on upstairs, so she assumed Brooke was home from seeing Kyle. Brooke had been nothing but a life size bouncy ball since morning, squealing and giggling all over the place. For about the first five minutes Rachel considered it cute, but then it was to the point where she had to kick her out, so Brooke could go bother Haley.

"Well, I'm surprised to see you home," Rachel said as she entered the girls' room, throwing all her bags onto her bed and kicking off her shoes. Brooke was on her own bed, surfing the web on her laptop.

"Yeah, well I thought I'd give Kyle some time to unpack and stuff. I get him all to myself tomorrow though," she smiled slightly, eyes still glued to the screen. Rachel stared at her for a moment. This thought had been reoccurring to her for some time now, but she just never thought to ask. But seeing as Brooke was home at 11 at night, and Kyle was home, but they weren't together, she thought that a bit weird. It was then Rachel came to the conclusion.

"Alright, so I'm assuming that you guys haven't done it yet, right?" she asked simply, putting all her new clothes away. She smirked as she heard Brooke close her laptop and lay her forehead on it.

"Rachel, shut up. It's bad enough Nathan and Haley are wondering the same thing, I don't need it from my freaking roommate," Brooke moaned.

"Brooke calm your ass down. It's not that big of a deal. I mean, look at me, I used to be a slut, right? And so far I haven't had sex in four months. So don't worry, you're not alone in this. Although my situation is completely different since I don't have a hot, gorgeous boyfriend who's in love with me and who I haven't seen in a week and looks just as hot as he did before he left, so when you think about it, it's really not the same thing."

"Okay, what was the point in that? And may I remind you that Kyle was the last person you slept with, so if I wasn't so worried about this whole sex thing, then I would pour alcohol down your throat and stick you in a room with a guy."

"Rawr, but seriously Brooke, stop getting all bothered by this thing. It's stupid and there's really no need for you to be freaking out. Kyle loves you and you love him, so you shouldn't have to come up with a reason why you guys haven't done it yet."

"Well it didn't really start to bother me until Nathan asked Kyle. It doesn't bother him, but for some reason that's like, all I think about now. That and something else. But I don't wanna seem like a prude..."

"Trust me, you're not a prude," Rachel grinned, receiving a glare from Brooke.

"Anyways, as I was saying. I don't want to seem like this girl who doesn't do anything with her boyfriend, THE boyfriend in which I am completely devoted to, it's just not right if you ask me."

"Brooke, if Kyle wanted to sleep with you, he would have no problem initiating it. So maybe you're thinking the same thing he is. Plus, aren't you guys supposed to be in love or something? Shouldn't sex be like, the last thing on your mind?"

"Well yeah, but now that I think about it, I can't stop. Rachel you know how I am, once I start thinking about something I can't get it out of my head!" she exclaimed, throwing herself onto her pillows.

Rachel raised an eyebrow, "Wait, so you're meaning to tell me that you think about you and Kyle having sex? Jeez, I wonder if you brooked yourself too since you were thinking about it--"

"RACHEL!!!"

-

Going from future college basketball player to a father in a whole span of a day wasn't as hard for Nathan as he thought it would be. It was one thing to be out there on the court, under pressure to win, but it was another to be a good father. Some would think being a good father wouldn't be that hard, all you had to do was love your kid, but to Nathan, being a good father was everything, a life long job. It was more important than having a basketball career, which was something that his own father never really understood the concept of.

It was three o' clock in the morning, and instead of sleeping in a soft bed with his wife, he was in the nursery, rocking his son in his arms until he fell asleep. He had been at this for about thirty minutes now, and James was just starting to droop his eyes. When he first heard the little cries of his son, his immediate goal wasn't to get him to stop, but to make sure he got there in time before Haley woke up. He loved her for taking over for the time being while he was gone, and he knew that he was going to have to help contribute too.

They had this talk before, about college and about the team, and Nathan didn't want it to come between him and his family. And if it did, then he would quit. There were no 'and's' or 'buts' about it, he would stop as soon as he could. As much as he loved basketball, his family was more important and he didn't want to lose them ever. If he ever did, then basketball wouldn't even be worth it.

As James' eyes slowly closed, Nathan smiled in satisfaction. The little kid had fallen asleep faster than he had expected. From the way Haley had been talking this past week, she had gotten absolutely no sleep the whole week. It could've been the fact that she was exaggerating, so he wouldn't be looking forward to it, or maybe James just liked his father better, but he would never even want to mention that to Haley.

It was hard to believe that not even a year ago Nathan wouldn't have cared if he ever saw Haley again. He was once nothing to her, and all he wanted was to get a scholarship to Duke and get as far away from his dad as possible. Little did he know that his whole attitude would change as fast as it did when he first met Haley.

"Looks like you're getting better at that," a voice whispered from behind him. Haley leaned against the doorway with her loose pajama pants and tank top.

He smiled softly, setting James back in his crib, "Yeah, although thanks for telling me that I would be up till the crack of dawn."

Haley shrugged, "Well I had to make you feel a teeny bit miserable."

"Even if I had to stay up all night, I don't really think I would care. That whole camp kicked my ass Hales. If tihs is the way things are gonna be this season, I don't know if I can handle it."

"Don't even think about dropping out Nathan. You've worked your whole life for this, you can't just give up because the conditioning was a challenging. Plus, James can't brag to all his friends about how cool his daddy is beacuse he plays basketball 'with the big boys,' Haley explained.

Nathan nodded, "I guess you're right. My whole life would be a waste if I didn't stick this out huh? I don't think Kyle would let me quit either now that I think about it."

"Yeah I don't think you could get away with it. And it Kyle won't let you, then Brooke definitely won't. And then there's Lucas, and Whitey..." Haley trailed

"Alright you rest your case," Nathan interrupted.

"Oh by the way, did you tell Kyle anything about what I asked you that one time?" Haley grimaced.

"You mean, did I ask Kyle if him and Brooke had done it yet? Well, yeah I did, and no, they haven't," Nathan smirked.

"Nathan!" Haley hissed, hitting his shoulder. "I can't believe you asked him that? Great, now Brooke's gonna kill be tomorrow."

"Haley calm down alright? Sure, Kyle thinks that we're getting way too nosey, but whatever. It's not like Brooke won't tell you whenever they do have sex."

"I kind of feel like bad friends now. I mean, we're talking about their sex life you know?"

"Whatever, they'll get over it. Plus, you know when you see couples walking around together and you just know that they did it last night? I think we'll be able to tell if they did it or not."

"Yeah, you're right. Brooke will tell me too."

"Can't say the same for Kyle, though," Nathan said.

"Speaking of Kyle, is he alright?" Haley asked as Nathan closed the door and the pair walked down the hall to their bedroom.

"Why? Is Brooke telling you something's wrong?" Nathan asked.

"Well, she's been kind of freaking out about some stuff. Like how Kyle isn't letting her in and she doesn't want to be in that type of situation again. I don't know, I just thought that since he's kind of been with you all week, he would've told you something? I mean, I know it's none of our business, but I'd just hate to see them fall apart from something that could've been prevented," Haley said.

Nathan sighed, "There is something. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but Kyle's been kind of freaked too over something. Like he's having these really bad dreams that something's happening to Brooke, and he tries to save her, but he can't. It's to the point where I've heard him yelling in his sleep. I don't know, I told him that if there's some way he can find reassurance, then he should do it before he tells Brooke something. He called somebody, I'm not really sure who, but he said things were alright now."

"Kind of like the night before our wedding day? When you told me to stay away from water?" Haley asked quietly.

Nathan nodded, "Yeah, so I told him to look into it, because eveyrone thought I was just making it a big deal, but look what happened. I don't know if it's the same thing, but I don't know. But I think it's alright now, well, that's what he's saying."

"This is one of those things where we just have to wait and see, huh?" Haley asked shortly.

"Looks that way, babe."

-

Baby, seasons change but people don't.

And I'll always be waiting in the back room.

I'm boring but overcompensate with

Headlines and flash, flash, flash, photohraphy.

With Fall Out Boy blaring through her Ipod headphones, Peyton smirked. It was hard to believe that she had actually hooked up with Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy. She remembered it like it was yesterday, everybody not believing that she had actually made out with him, and then everyone's shocked faced of realization when he drove up in his stretch limo to Rachel's cabin. Of course then she was also hiding harbored feelings for her best friend's boyfriend, but those days were over.

She glanced up at her alarm clock next to her bed, 7:32 A.M. She didn't know what force in her body decided to wake up at a such god forsaken time, but once she was up, she was up and there was no stopping her. So she pulled out her Ipod and sifted through her albums and remembering which ones were Ellie's and which were hers. Then she sat on the foot of her bed, considering doing something new to her room. Summer was close to being over, and she had yet to do anything to it. Maybe she didn't need to, but the thought would remain in her head.

Peyton considered stopping by Kyle's earlier to catch up, but she figured that he would be hanging out with Brooke, so that could wait another day or so. Kyle and Brooke needed some stuff to figure out, and if they didn't do it now, then they would never get around to it. Peyton only immersed herself in other people's problems only when there was nothing dramatic happening in her life, and in this case it was a very good thing because for the first time in almost forever, Peyton was stable.

Linking Peyton to the words 'stable' or 'content' were either way out of reach to even comprehend, or just not happening at all. It was hard for her to believe herself that she was finally happy with the way things were. There were no things that she felt were missing, and not regrets or things that she had screwed up on. Only thing she wish she could take back was not being with Jake sooner.

Ever since their get together a couple of months ago, life had been smooth sailing for Peyton. Her and Jake's agreement to take things slow turned out to work out for both of them, not just them but Jenny as well. Peyton loved her like she was her own daughter, and she was glad to be that person in Jenny's life. Call it reiterating the fact that Peyton grew up without a motherly figure, but Peyton knew that as long as Jake was around, so was Jenny. And if Jenny was around, then Peyton would make it her job to look out for her, and get her into music.

And then there was her ever so BFF, Brooke. Compared to how they were a few months ago, it was a good thing Brooke didn't murder Peyton in her sleep. Their friendship had been even stronger than it was before the love triangle happened. Peyton didn't know how she did it, but Brooke managed to completely forgive Peyton, like it had never even happened. She didn't think anyone was capable of being that forgiving, but Brooke did have the biggest heart out of anyone she had ever known. Peyton felt that after Brooke had broken up with Lucas, it really solidified their friendship since Lucas was out of the picture and neither were harboring feelings or a relationship with him.

But even though she had her own little family and her best friend, Peyton couldn't help but wonder what Lucas was up to. Sure, they lived in the same town, they had graduated, they went to that killer party on grad night, but other than just being around each other, they hadn't had much contact, let alone a normal conversation. Lucas had immediately gotten together with Brooke, and when that didn't work out, he kind of disappeared behind the scenes of some sort. Peyton knew that there was a possibility that Lucas still had feelings for Brooke, and that might potentially be the reason of his lack of existence. She herself knew what it felt like to feel like you were alone, isolated basically, from everyone else because they had something you didn't.