Chapter Seven

When the bell rang signaling the end of the only lesson he enjoyed being in – despite the fact that he didn't understand a thing – Nathan started packing his bag along with the rest of the class.

He got up to leave, but on his way out as he passed the front desk, someone stopped him.

"Nathan, could I have a word with you?"

"Uh, sure, Miss James." Nathan glanced at Lucas and Brooke but they were so involved in their conversation that neither noticed him staying behind. Once everyone had left, he asked, "What do you want to talk about?"

"Your homework. Or rather your lack of homework," Haley said with a smile. "It's a few of weeks into the term Nathan and you haven't handed in anything."

Right. Nathan knew that was true and he did have a good reason for it – he didn't have to do it – but it wasn't like he could tell her that. "Er, yeah, I know."

"Well, are you finding the subject hard?"

"Yeah." Nathan nodded, grasping onto the excuse she gave him. "I guess I didn't inherit the same skills as Lucas did."

"You don't have to inherit it. Lucas is only where he is now after he worked a lot last year, and you can get there too if you work hard at it."

"Yeah, I guess I should try harder."

Haley smiled at him. "You should. And if you have any problems you can always come and ask me."

"I can?" Nathan had thought she was going to tell him to get a tutor or something.

"Well, yeah, that's what I'm here for," she said, laughing. "So will I get this essay in?" she asked, referring to the homework she'd just given them."

"Uh…sure," Nathan replied, not certain if he really would do it, but just because he couldn't say no. Well, he supposed, he could always just do her homework.

"Okay then." Haley collected her books in her arms, the pile so high it almost reached her chin.

"Do you need any help?" Nathan offered.

"Oh, you don't have to do that." Haley shook her head, but the top two books then fell off, and the others started slipping.

Nathan picked the books off the floor and then took a few off her pile. "I'll take these."

"Thank you. I'm only taking them to the faculty room, which is just down this hall."

Nathan followed Haley, deciding to walk alongside her, rather than behind so that his gaze didn't stray downwards again.

"How are your other classes going, Nathan?" Haley asked conversationally to disrupt the awkward silence as they walked.

"Okay." Nathan shrugged.

"So what else do you like to do?"

"Huh?"

"Well, you clearly have little to no interest in school," she remarked, and Nathan couldn't help but smile.

"Maybe a little," he said.

"Just a little? When you're older you'll miss being at school," she told him.

Nathan didn't have to think about it much to see where she was coming from. When he was actually at school he had a lot less responsibility than he did now, although the fact that he had to work meant he had a bit more than most of his friends. Still, there were some bad memories associated with school too. Nathan decided that he would have enjoyed school more if Haley had been at school with him. The thought struck him that if Karen had never moved to Charlotte then they would have been at school together; when he was a senior she would have been a junior. Maybe they would have dated… Realizing that he hadn't said anything for a few moments, he asked her, "Is that why you came back?"

"God, no." Haley laughed. "School is completely different when you're a teacher. And don't think marking those essays is any easier than actually doing them."

"Maybe you could stop giving them," Nathan joked. "Save us all the trouble."

Haley turned to face him and gave him an amused look. "Do you want to graduate?"

Nathan smirked. "Good point." They had reached the faculty room by now so Haley tried to open it by pushing her back against the door, but her weight wasn't enough to push it open fully. Nathan transferred all the books he was carrying into one hand, and put his free hand over her to hold it open. "I got it."

Haley smiled at him. "Thanks. I'll just put these down and be back for those in a second."

Nathan nodded and watched her go inside, balancing the books carefully. She went over to a table at the back of the room where a man and woman were already sitting and put the books down there. They both looked at her and started talking, and it was then that Nathan noticed the man was Jake. He realized that the other woman was the one who had come out of Jake's room that day. Peyton. If Nathan recalled correctly she and Haley shared an apartment. Having a longer time to look at her here than that day, he decided she was pretty – not a pretty as Haley, but not bad.

Haley turned around and started to come back to him and Nathan realized that he couldn't stare at her as he had done when she had gone inside the room. As casually as possible he gazed around the room and, again, noticed Jake and Peyton who were talking to each other. Looking on, Nathan saw Jake seemed to be taking over the conversation, and she actually appeared interested in what he was saying. Wait…is he flirting with her? It looked like Jake was doing that weird thing with his hands that he was did when he was telling a funny story, which he always did with girls he…Oh, no. He didn't!

"Nathan?"

"Yeah?" Nathan whipped his head around to face Haley, glad that at least this time he hadn't been staring at any part of her body.

"Thanks so much for carrying these for me," she said as she took them from him.

"Anytime," he replied without thinking. "Er…I mean, no problem."

"Ok-ay. Bye, then." She smiled.

God, she had to keep smiling didn't she? "Bye." Nathan turned away from her, all the while debating with himself whether or not to ask her for a little help with the poem now. He had just convinced himself to ask her, when he turned back around and found that the door hadn't closed itself just yet and through the gap he saw a man's arms appear from the right and drape itself over Haley's shoulders.

"Chris! Not in school," she protested.

"We're in the lounge. It doesn't…" Nathan didn't hear anymore as the door closed. He turned back around and walked away.

Jake was turning on the TV in his temporary apartment late that night as the phone rang. "Hello?"

"Hey, it's me."

"Oh, hey, Nate," he replied as he plopped down on his bed. "What's up?"

"Nothing much. I'm just checking up on you."

"You are checking up on me?"

Nathan ignored the amused tone in his voice. "Aunt Deb says to tell you that if you ever want some home cooked food to sneak over here."

Jake smiled. "Alright, tell her I say thanks. And as soon as I get fed up of re-heated pizza I'll definitely be doing that."

"So how's the apartment?"

"Oh, it's a total dump. You would think since the department doesn't have to spend money on your accommodation that they could give me a nice place, but no. There's no division between the kitchen and the bedroom so it's like there's only one room plus the bathroom. Even you wouldn't live here."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Come on, Nate. Your first apartment you lived there with only a sleeping bag and a television for weeks."

"That's all you need!" Nathan protested.

Jake scoffed. "Whatever. So how's school?"

"School's school. So, really, man, how are you?"

"Nathan, are you…worried about me?"

"It's just I have Lucas, you know. You don't really have anyone," Nathan said.

Jake faked 'awed'. "You are worried about me!"

"Shut up."

Laughing, Jake replied, "Well, I'm fine."

"You sure. The teachers aren't picking on you? No one stole your lunch?"

"Okay, that happened one time at the station and you know that was just a joke!"

"They were totally picking on you, newbie."

"I'm not exactly a newbie anymore, am I?"

"Well at Tree Hill High you are."

"Maybe so. But, no, I'm…I'm good."

Nathan decided it was time to prod. "Made any friends?"

"Well…yeah, I told you, remember?"

"Oh, that's right. Miss James, and the…the art teacher, right?"

"Peyton, yeah," Jake coughed out.

"That's cool. I mean, like I said, I've got Lucas. And then there's Brooke."

"Who's Brooke?"

"I told you about her. She's a friend…sort of. She's new; she's got a thing for Lucas."

"Oh, okay."

"So…you want to meet up at the station tomorrow night?"

"Oh…I can't tomorrow."

"Why, you got a hot date?" Nathan asked, only after which did he remember Keith asking Lucas the same thing.

Jake coughed. "No, ha," he laughed, "I just got a lot of papers to mark. How about Sunday night?"

"Sunday should be okay, I think. But, why can't you just mark the papers on Sunday instead?"

"Er…you know me; I wanna get it out of the way."

"Ok-ay. See you Sunday night then."

"Yeah."

Nathan hung up straight after, leading Jake to bite his tongue for lying. Well, it wasn't like he could tell Nathan that he really did have a date tomorrow night.

A/N: Okay, so this chapter was a little Nathan-centered, but all the characters (and couplings) will be in the next chapter.