I'm so glad you all like my story now, and I guess it's just hotting up! Hopefully I don't disappoint! Please review if you like it, or even ifnot.

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Chapter 9- Playing games.

"So are you ready then Natey? I'm kinda getting restless, after your brother trying to spoil all of this for us."

"There isn't anything to actually spoil, we just do this and then we leave, and if you didn't do this, I'd find somebody else. Now just hurry up." It was then that they both heard the door go, but Nathan chose to ignore it. If it was somebody important, then Lucas knew what he was doing, he'd distract them or whatever. So Nathan started to unbutton his trousers, and he could see the whore in front of him getting excited, as her eyes danced all over his body.

She leaned in to kiss him, her rough lips trying to part his, but he pulled away before she could actually do anything, or do any damage. It was his rule, if he'd invited them over, then there would be no kissing, it was too personal. After all, this was her job, and he just needed a fix. It was a necessity. It didn't mean anything, soon it would be over, he'd be feeling better, and if he didn't want, he'd never have to see her again.

He had to remember, whatever happened, this didn't mean anythng. The first time he had done this, he was all over the girl, Sara her name was though he ouldn't be sure. After she left, he began to have withdrawal symptoms, and he kept calling her, begging her to come back. Then he learned that she'd been screwing some old dude, who gave twice the money he gave, and though she told him he wouldn't be able to live without her and the pleasures she gave him, he moved on.

He knew how to handle it now, that's why he never chose the same girl twice in a row. He might get addicted, and if he did, he wasn't sure what he would do.

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Brooke headed into Luna's, the boutique where she worked. She loved her job, her boss was amazing, and she often got new clothes for a fraction of the price. She even got to help with some of the design, as Luna's designed their own clothes, and then made them. She had no idea why Luna wanted her to go into the shop that day, they always had assistants working on a Saturday, who didn't really know what they were doing, but Brooke figure that if there were enough of them, they couldn't really go wrong, could they?

She walked through the door, which had pink curtains on the inside, a little touch that she had made. In reality, Luna hated pink, but Brooke had insisted that the colour needed to be included, and eventually Luna started to include the pink in her designs, though she never tired of complaining to Brooke about having to include it.

Then Brooke stopped. The pink curtains had gone. She'd taken it for granted that they'd be there, as they had been for the last 18 months. But they'd gone. There wasn't even a scrap of material in place of it, which made the door feel unwelcoming. Brooke decided that she would have to have a few words with Luna once she was inside.

But when she got in, there weren't only a few minor surprises in store for her, it was as if the shop had been taken over by aliens. It was deathly quiet, and they had not one customer in there, something Luna hated, and if they didn't have a customer in the shop, she'd go out onto the street, find a good-looking girl, and charm her with the idea of a free pair of earrings, and so when more people walked past the shop, they'd see the person, and think the shop would be good. It was simple really, and Luna had it down to atee.

The 2 assistants were lined up behind the counter, and they kept making looks at the mannakin in the corner, which was sporting a hideous grey shawl looking like it had been used for a dog blanket the second before it had been used for the model. She tried to catch the eye of one of the assistants, butneither of them were looking at her.

"FREAKING HELL, WHAT HAVE WE GOT THERE? A MOVING MANNAKIN?" Brooke was shocked, and had let out an almighty screech. The model had just moved sideways, and for a second she'd thought they had a robotic model that was the reason for all of the changes. It turned out to be what was behind the mannakin that was the cause of the change.

"Oh why HELLO darling,YOU must be Brookie, Luna has told me ALL about you, and your credits she's given you REALLY are MARVELOUS, honestly, i don't know WHY you stayed here in this DUMP, you could have OBVIOUSLY have been somewhere TOALLY more worthwhile than HERE!" Oh god, it was Brooke's worst nightmare. It was one of those women who REALLY couldn't stop SPEAKING like THIS as EVERY word needed to be made more IMPORTANT than YOU.

So where was Luna? And who was this devil that had replaced her? Okay, so Brooke had to admit, she was pretty, gorgeous in fact, with her stupid foreign accent, and just from seeing that much of her, Brooke hated every little thing about her.

"It really is GREAT to see you, and though you OBVIUOSLY know who i am, i have NO idea who the HELL you are!" Brooke could see the assistants in the background giggling, they'd picked up on Brooke's teasing, but it didn't seem as though the stranger had noticed at all, she just carried on in her own little world.

"WELL darling, i'm FRANCESCA, and i'm going to be your NEW boss!-"

Wait, raincheck.

"What?Erm, so at the moment i'm completely happy with my job, as i am half boss, and I'm pretty sure that Luna, the main half boss is happy as well." Brooke knew that none of what she had just said made sense, but she was in one of her places, where she had no idea of what the world was doing around her, and she also had no idea what she was doing herself.

"Oh... I'm SO sorry, hasn't Luna told you? I was sure that she would have told you, you know with you being half boss and all," Francesca gave a huge dazzling smile, sh certainly knew how to put you down, without being able to be proven guilty, because she hadn't 'meant' to say anything offensive, " Luna is in hospital, she's broken both her arms and one of her legs whilst snowboarding, oh didn't you know she was snowboarding this week? and so she's taking a lot of time off, and she's not even sure if she's ever going toc ome back, she knows all will be well under me, and she can just be the owner in the background, and I'll be the frontrunner in all of this."

Brooke was now fuming, she couldn't believe this woman had the audacity to come and boss her around, and she was sure that there must have been some sort of mistake- Luna would have left her in charge if anyone, not somebody who had no idea of the business that she was joining, and by the looks of things couldn't have taken care of any business at all, anywhere. But Brooke decided to keep her head up, and she started to form the plan of how she could get back in charge and stop the business running into a dire state. She put on her best smile, on to rival even Francesca and started moving things around.

"Oh I' m SORRY, but i don't think you should be MOVING all my things around," Francesca started to intervene but Brooke fended her off.

"I'm trying to find a bloody phone around here, i'm sure you have the number of Luna's ward, i just need to check a few things out with her." Francesca obligingly gave her her mobile, and Brooke headed outside to make the call. The more she thought about it, Brooke didn't see anything right with the situation at all. Why would the lovable Luna leave a horrible frog like Francesca in charge of Luna's, when she could have left everything to the bubbly Brooke. Brooke got sidetracked for a second, she knew Haley would be proud of her. See, Brooke had never listened in English, and now Haley was giving Brooke lessons on how to make her writing and speaking more ineresting, and she'd just given a perfect example of using similes. Or was it metaphors? She couldn't quite remember. The only thing she knew was that it meant putting the same letter at the start of the words, and it made it sound good.

Brooke remembered what she was doing, and it had taken herso long, that the number she had written in had now been erased, so she had to do it all again. This time she had no interruptions and she got through to the ward.

"Hello? Is that Luna?"

"Yeah, sure it is honey. Is that my favourite girl Brooke?"

"Yeah, is sure is, i was just wondering, well it's quite a long wonder but anyway, i might as well just start- who is this girl Francesca?SHe thinks she's oh so smart, but really, she has NO idea of what to do around here, and she'd taken down the pink curtains that i know you now love, becasue you haven't complained about them in the longest time. And what is it with her always stressing her words? It REALLY is getting SO annoying you know, and don't laugh! And one more thing, she said you broke both your arms and your legs when snowboarding, but you don't snowboard!" Luna laughed, and Brooke pouted.

"Look Brooke, Fancesca is prefectly qualified for the job, and she had the best references frm everywhere around. And i told her to make herslef welcome, so maybe she just doesn't like the pink curtains. And finally, the whole point is that i don't snowboard, I was tryin it out at the local sports place, and it seems I have broken almost every bone in my body." Brooke hmmfd. It seemed that this Francesca character could not be squished, and there was no controversy around.

"Well why didn't you just tell me to get on with it? I've looked after the shop before by myself, and there hasn't been a frie or anything!"

"I know that Brooke, but I really needed someone else to help. And also, if you were boss, you wouldn't be telling me all that's going on 'cos it would be all your fault, and i still need my spy. And of course , for the most important part, if i amke you boss, you'll go onto bigger and better things, and I don't want that!" Brooke sighed, she didn't know how, but Luna always seemed to get her own way,and she made you feel good about it in the process.

"Alright, alright, but it doesn't mean i have to like her does it?" Luna giggled, Brooke always was a character.

"Whatever Brooke, see you soon!" And she hung up the phone.

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"Ugh, so I don't think he's really ready for visitors at the moment..."

"Yeah? Well that's my fault, and so i really need to sort it out." Lucas was in a very awkward situation, he couldn't tell Haley why Nate couldn't see Nate, yet he didn't know how he could stop her entering the house, as the small woman looked very determined.

"Well, you can't see him, see, he's out, yeah," Haley narrowed her eyes, he was contradicting himself.

"You just siad he wasn't ready for visitors...?"

"Yeah, 'cos see, he's out, so he's obvioulsy not ready for visitors,"

Just at that moment, they heard a loud cry of 'that's it!' from upstairs, fuelling Haley's desire to get upstairs.

"Well Luke, he doesn't seem to be out, and he also seems quite happy, so, if you would just let me past..."

"You can't! He's uh, playing playstation..."

"And is that suppposed to stop me? A playstation game?"

"Yeah, well all guys hate being interrupted from their game, and he will get angry,"

"Well i think he's probably angry with me already, so will you please just let...me...past!" She pushed her way through his arms and up the stairs. There was no way he'd be able to protect Nathan. All she needed to do was to talk to him, and say sorry, and then maybe everything would be back to normal.

She opened the doors through the house, and found no-one in the ifrst threee, but as she went towards the fourth door, she could hear movement.

She opened the door, and it was there that her whole world came crashing down on top of her.