Whoa, its an update! Surprise, surprise.

(I watched the season finale…finally, and I loved it!!!! Best season finale to date…can't wait for next season. It's going to be so different from anything that has happened on television)

Okay, now…I hope everyone likes my update..Enjoy!

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Chapter 7

"Friendship doubles your joys, and divides your sorrows."
- Unknown

Haley had decided that she would head over to Nathan's since it was the weekend and hang out with him for a bit. She pulled on a pair of jeans and a Tree Hill High shirt that her brother had got for her when he went to Tree Hill High.

On Wednesday night after they both had fallen asleep, Haley woke up to find Nathan gone and somehow she was covered in blankets from head to toe. The next day Nathan had told her that he didn't want her to get sick even though it was summer and there was no need for blankets. All Haley could do was laugh and say that he was mental.

She lightly knocked on the door of the Scotts instead of ringing the door bell. And to her dismay, Dan Scott opened the door and he didn't look happy.

"Hey, Mr. Scott. Is Nathan around?" Usually she would just go up to his room but Dan's mood right now didn't seem too inviting.

"Yes, he is but he will not be able to go out. He has some serious work to do; he slacked off this week in his conditioning, so we're doing extra this weekend."

"About Wednesday, the reason he was late coming home was cause of me. I needed someone to walk me home and no one else could. It was really sweet of him and I was so grateful. And I am really sorry if that caused you problems."

"Correct me if I'm wrong Ms. James, but are you not thirteen years old. I would think by that age you could walk home by yourself."

Haley flinched slightly and was taken back by how exceptionally rude her best friend's father was being. "Uhh, my parents usually don't want me to walk home alone. It takes around half an hour by walking and at night time…uhh….they want me to be careful."

"Well you being careful should not interfere with my son's responsibilities at home and since it has, I know you must realize that you're coming here and interrupting him much too often."

"What exactly do you mean by that?" asked Haley in a timid voice

"Just stay away from Nathan especially now. Next year, you are all going to high school and he has to make varsity basketball. This is the time for him to step up his game and he can't do that with you around." Dan said rather harshly

Haley couldn't stop the tears from coming so she quietly excused herself and ran out the door.

Fifteen minutes later, Nathan decided it was time for a snack. He was in his bedroom doing crunches and push-ups with his new Kanye West CD in his stereo system and the volume was way up.

He descended the stairs and headed to the kitchen. But then decided to change his decision and search for his dad. If Dan was out then Nathan was gladly going to stop killing himself with conditioning and actually relax for a bit. But sadly, he found his dad reading the newspaper in the living room. On his way back from the living room, he saw that even though the screen door was closed, his front door was open.

Nathan walked back into the living room and said "Dad, did you go somewhere?"

With a questioning look, Dan responded with a "No, why?"

"The front door is open, did somebody come over?"

"Nobody important, shouldn't you be conditioning?"

"I was just taking a break. I came down for a snack. Did somebody come over to see me or did they come over for you?"

"It was for you but don't worry I talked to her and told her that you were busy."

"Was it Haley?" Nathan asked. He remembered not seeing Haley in her room when he was upstairs and he doubted that Peyton or Brooke came over.

"Yes actually, it was."

Now Nathan was getting pissed, why hadn't his father told him that she had come over and where was she now. Why didn't she just come up?

"What happened?" Nathan questioned

"Nothing, I just put her in her place, that's all."

"What do you mean? Her place is here, with me. Don't tell me you said something to her."

"She just came clean about Wednesday and I told her that she had done enough and she should stop hovering over you."

Nathan was about to explode, "She was not hovering, Dad. Get a grip. It's bad enough that you push people away but don't start pushing people away that are close to me. Haley is my best friend and I am never going to stop seeing her." With this, Nathan ran out the door to make sure his dad hadn't done too much damage.

Nathan was going crazy trying to find her. He checked her house, Brooke's house, and Peyton's house. Then he called Jake and Luke and Mouth to make sure that she wasn't with them. He didn't know what to do; what is a boy supposed to do after his maniac father scares his best friend away?

When he finally found Haley, it broke his heart when he saw what she was doing. She was sitting on the swing at the playground they used to go to everyday six years ago. Her face was in her hands and her body was shaking. She was crying quietly to herself and it seemed that she was alone in the world but nothing could be farther from the truth; Nathan was never going to let her be alone and have to face the world by herself.

From where he was standing, about five feet away from Haley, he could see that the top of her shirt was wet from all the tears. Nathan lightly said, "Hales..?"

She quickly raised her head and Nathan could see that her eyes were red from crying.

"Nathan, you shouldn't be here."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I think….I think that we shouldn't hang out so much. I don't want to ruin your chances of being on the varsity basketball team in high school; I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I did."

"I know my dad talked to you, Hales. And please tell me you're not actually listening to the crap he said."

"Ummm.." Haley still couldn't stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks. She just looked down at all the woodchips on the ground and kicked her feet which barely reached the ground.

"No, Haley. Don't listen to him. I don't want you to and you know that all you do is make me play better."

Haley couldn't hold it in anymore. "Nate…." was all she said before jumping off the swing and running to him.

He enveloped her in a hug and held onto her while she soaked up the front of his shirt but he couldn't care less as long as she was in his arms. He tried to ignore the funny feeling that urged him to never let her go. Looking down at the beautiful girl in his arms, he realized things he never had before. Like the way her nose was scrunched up and how every time she raised her fists to wipe away tears, a few strands of hair would fall, covering her angelic face. Nathan tried to shrug that off; he had more important things to deal with.

Suddenly, he heard a quiet whisper, "You agreed that you were never going to let me be alone with him." She sniffed, "And you did today.."

"I'm sorry, baby. I was in my room and the music was on loud and—"

"It's okay. It's not your fault. I still love you." Haley smiled weakly through her tears.

"You sure you're okay?" All Haley could do was nod

"Alright, let's go." Nathan and Haley walked home in peace with Nathan tightly holding Haley's little hand.

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The gang decided to go for a movie that Sunday night to cheer Haley up. Besides, Brooke forced everyone too. Karen had agreed to give all the kids a ride to the movies so right now all seven kids were arguing on who was taking up the most space. Brooke and Peyton were sitting in the front basically sitting on each other while Jake, Lucas, Nathan, Haley, and Mouth were sitting in the back seat…crushing each other.

All Karen could think was that she should thank Keith when she got home. After all, he was the reason they had tinted windows. Keith had practically forced her into getting tinted windows on her new car; who knew that her husband was so smart. The tinted windows was the only thing saving her from getting pulled over. But you can never be too careful; she was going at a speed of 20 miles per hour.

"Ma…you can go a little faster. We kind of want to see the whole movie." Lucas said

"Excuse me, Lucas Roe but it's bad enough that I'm carrying an illegal amount of passengers since I only have three seatbelts back there with five pasengers. Please tell me Haley at least is wearing a seatbelt."

"She better be, if anything happens, tutor-girl better be safe." Brooke stated

"Gee thanks, Brooke. We feel the love." Mouth laughed

"This thing is killing me. How come I am the only one who has to wear a seatbelt in the back? I want to live life dangerously too!!" Haley shouted

"Dangerously? Yeah, from the girl who brought five pencils to a 3 question quiz. Did you actually expect to break at least one pencil every question?" Lucas laughed loudly

"HEY! Shut up okay? Haven't you ever heard that anything is possible?" Haley defended herself.

"It's alright, Hales. We know you're special." Nathan said while ruffling Haley's hair. Haley quickly smacked away his hand, "I'm not five!"

"You're not!? Alert the media, Haley James isn't five!" Jake exaggerated

"OMG, Karen can I borrow your phone. I just have to call the New York Times and give them the scoop of Haley's sudden change of age." Peyton said joining in.

"Yup, I guess she isn't five. After all, if she was, where is her blanky!?" Brooke teased her.

"Hey…..stop! I loved that blanky, you're not allowed to make fun!" Haley interjected

"We're just joking with you little one." Luke assured her

"Who are you calling little one? Did you all forget that we are all the same age."

"Yeah but Hales, you are the youngest one here." Nathan mocked

"Scott, you better keep quiet." Haley glared at him

"Yeah, I don't think you should be talking Nate. You're like just as young as her. I'm the oldest one and in turn, the most wise." Peyton said while grinning

Peyton was born on March 3rd followed by Jake and Lucas on July 5th. Brooke graced the world with her presence on July 21st. Nathan was born on August 17th and Haley was born on August 23rd. So being the youngest one in the group, Haley was teased a lot.

They finally reached there and Karen promised that when she came back, she was going to bring Keith and his car so that they could ride home legally.

After tons and tons of arguing between Lucas and Brooke who were the representatives from the boys and the girls, they agreed on a movie: Evan Almighty.

"Being the wonderful, young friend I am, I'll get the snacks. Just save me a seat, okay?" Haley smiled

"Sure tutor-girl." Brooke headed in with the rest of the gang

"I figured I stay with you; you know, to keep all the dumb guys from hitting on you." Nathan came up behind Haley.

"Aww…you're so nice." Haley replied sarcastically

"I know." answered Nathan while lazily draping an arm around Haley and leaning onto her.

"Excuse me, fatso. Can you not lean on me? I'm like half your size and I don't feel like falling to the floor with you on top of me."

"Sheesh, a little support is all I need and you won't even give that to me." Nathan said with a fake sad face still leaning on her,

Finally, it was Haley's turn to order so she moved up to the counter looking up at the menu full of unhealthy snacks. As she moved up, Nathan lost his balance and fell on his butt on the floor.

Haley turned around and smirked; "That's what you get for checking out those girls when you should've been listening to me." A pang of jealously had hit Haley when she had realized what he was doing but she didn't know that he would lose his balance and fall on his behind.

She realized she could have some fun with this and pretended that she had told Nathan some heartfelt secrets when he was checking the girls out. But in all reality, she hadn't said a thing but it would be fun to fool him.

Haley gathered the snacks and headed off to the theater leaving Nathan behind.

"I'm sorry, Hales. I didn't realize you were talking."

"FINALLY!" Brooke had made her way out of the theater to check on Haley and Nathan and the snacks, ofcourse. "Let me help you." Brooke grabbed some snacks out of Haley's hands and headed in. All Haley had left in his hand was two sodas.

"I'm really really sorry. Please forgive me…" Nathan said again

"Forgive you for what?" Haley smiled mischievously

"Uh, for what I did back there; not listening to you."

"Oh that….I didn't really say anything. I was just playing with you." Haley said with a wink and headed into the theater following Brooke.

Nathan just stood there dumbfounded before heading in.

He grabbed a seat next to Haley who was sitting on one of the ends. He grabbed a handful of popcorn from the bag that Haley was holding and started eating some.

"Hey Hales..open your mouth, I want to see if I can make some in." Nathan suggested while gesturing to the popcorn in his hands.

"Boys……." Haley tiredly said while opening her mouth.

Nathan threw all the popcorn in his hand at Haley's head, purposefully missing her mouth, so that he would make a huge mess.

Nathan keeping a straight face, even though it was killing him not to laugh, looked at Haley's death glare and said, "That was payback."

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