Chapter Twenty-Four

The following morning Nathan was sitting in the principal's office once again, but this time his nervousness wasn't because he was afraid to face the wrath of Mr. Durham. In fact, Whitey wasn't even going to be present. Nathan was about to talk to Jake and Whitey had said they could use his office.

A few minutes later, Jake walked in, apologizing for his delay. "So what did you want to talk to me about?" he asked, leaning against one of the filing cabinets.

"Well, there are two things actually. Firstly, Lucas wants to try out for the basketball team. He's good and he'll probably get a place and we thought that if he can talk to the guys and find out more about them, then you'll know which ones to look out for, rather than trying to take on them all by yourself."

Jake nodded as he listened to Nathan present his argument. "That's a good idea. As long as he tells one of us whatever he finds and doesn't get too involved with anything potentially dangerous."

"That's what I told him."

"Okay, so, what's the other thing you wanted to talk to me about?"

Here, Nathan paused. "Well, you see…we were discussing this last night… in Lucas' room."

Jake looked curiously at Nathan when he didn't continue. "Okay…"

"And, well…"

Jake grew impatient. "'Well what, Nathan?"

"We were sort of overheard."

"But Lucas' parents already know about the case."

"Not by them. By Brooke."

"Brooke? Your friend? What were you doing talking about the case in front of her?"

"We didn't know she was there!" Nathan tried to explain. "We were just in Lucas' room after dinner, talking, and Brooke came over to see Lucas, Aunt Deb let her in, she came upstairs and his door was slightly open so she overheard."

"Didn't you hear the doorbell ring?"

Nathan shook his head. "No. We didn't know she was coming either."

Jake sighed, his hand on his head as if he had a headache. "Did you at least come up with a good cover?"

Nathan grimaced.

Jake's eyes grew wide at Nathan's expression. "You told her the truth!"

"She had heard too much already, Jake," Nathan told him. "She won't tell anyone."

"Isn't this the same girl who knows all the gossip in school and is why we found out about Rachel in the first place?"

Nathan paused. "Well, yes, but she promised she wouldn't tell anyone about this."

"Oh, well, if she promised, then I'm sure we can believe her," Jake deadpanned.

Nathan stood up. "We can believe her, Jake. Catching this guy is important to Brooke too – she got drugged that night, remember?"

Jake stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked around the small office. "How much did you tell her?" he asked finally.

"At first I only told her about me, but when Lucas and I were talking I had mentioned you because I was going to call you, so I had to tell her about you as well."

"So, basically, you told her everything."

"Almost," Nathan admitted, watching as Jake remained quiet and stared out the window for a while. "Well? Jake?"

Jake shrugged. "There's nothing I can do about it now."

"So, I guess I should go then?"

"Yeah, you should probably get to class."

Nathan picked up his bag and was about to leave, but turned to look back to Jake. "Hey, you okay, man?"

"What? Yeah, I'm fine." He shrugged again. "I just didn't sleep well last night."

A thought popped into Nathan's head, and he wondered whether or not to talk to Jake about something else that had been on his mind for a while. Finally, he decided to take the opening. "Girl problems?"

Jake immediately caught Nathan's gaze. He was smirking, as usual, but Jake could tell that his friend was being serious. "Er…no."

Nathan kept smirking. "Then your lack of sleep has nothing to do with a certain blond-haired art teacher?"

Jake was shocked, but couldn't help but smile. "How did you know?"

"Well, you're not the most subtle of guys, Jagielski. And even if I hadn't noticed I still wouldn't have forgotten that one time Brooke complained about the hot history teacher being taken."

Jake raised an eyebrow. "Hot?"

"Her words. She was slightly embarrassed when she found out that you and I were friends."

"Well, at least Brooke has good taste." Jake sighed and composed himself. "I was going to tell you about Peyton, Nate. But, at first, I didn't even know if anything would come of it and when it did get serious…" Jake trailed off. "I haven't told her about the case. She thinks I really am a history teacher."

"I'm guessing you're trying to put that conversation off as long as possible."

"Pretty much. Thanks for being so cool about this. I know we're not supposed to date, but…"

"You like her a lot, don't you?"

Jake looked up from the spot on the floor he was staring at. "Actually…I think I'm in love with her."

Nathan was surprised. "Wow."

"Yeah, it is."

"You know, I never thought that you…"

"I never thought that I would either," Jake admitted. "But, Peyton's just…Peyton. You would like her, Nate."

"Well, maybe when this thing is over I'll get to meet her properly – if she's forgiven you by then," Nathan added.

Jake tried to smile, but wasn't very successful. "Let's hope so. So it was really obvious?" he asked a second later.

Nathan shrugged. "A little, but I guess it was easier for me to notice some of the signs since I know you."

"You know, even Whitey noticed."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he talked to me about it after our meeting with him yesterday."

"Looks like nothing gets past the old man. Was he mad?"

"No, he was cool with it. He said he'd be more worried if he thought you were dating some high school girl."

"What?" Nathan exclaimed, and then couldn't help laughing.

"You're not, are you?"

Nathan raised his eyebrows. "You have got to be kidding me. Jake, man, tell me you don't seriously mean that."

"Well…" Jake began.

"What!"

"Look, you've been hanging out with 17 and 18 year olds a lot, and not all of them are going to be really immature, so it would be understandable if you were slightly attracted to someone."

"So you think that I like someone in the twelfth grade?"

Jake waited for a moment. "Well, you do mention that Brooke an awful lot –"

"Holy shit, man! Forget that Brooke is in the twelfth grade; she is totally Lucas's girl."

"Lucas's?"

"Yeah!" Nathan nodded his head for emphasis.

"You never said they were dating."

"They weren't. They liked each other and then Rachel screwed that up, but now that she knows I guess they'll work things out as long as Lucas doesn't wait for too long. I'm sure I mentioned that Lucas liked Brooke or she liked him – or just something about them to you," Nathan declared.

"Yeah, I think you did. But that didn't mean you couldn't like her as well –"

"I don't! That is, not like that. Brooke's cool, but she's just a friend."

"A 25-year-old man friends with a 17-year-old girl?" Jake wondered.

"It doesn't make sense to me either," Nathan stated, "but that's all there is."

"Okay. So, then, there's no one at all?"

"I-er-no."

Jake grinned. "Who is it?"

"I just said no," Nathan told him, and reached for the door handle. "Bye, then."

"No, you muttered something before you said no, and that means that you're not telling me something."

"I wasn't muttering. I-I think I'm coming down with something. A small cold. I just coughed a little."

"I know the difference between a cough and speech. Some cop you are if you can't think of a good cover. That's twice in two days," Jake reminded him.

"You think maybe you're reading too much into it?"

"I think you're awfully nervous if there's nothing to hide. Tell me, who is she?"

"She…she's a teacher," Nathan finally groaned.

"Thank God."

"Huh?"

"Well, I was a little worried for a second that it was a student with the way you were acting."

"Er, no. She's just a teacher."

"Okay. Wait, she's not my –"

"No, she's not your teacher," Nathan cut Jake off when he understood Jake's expression.

"Well, who is she? What's her name?"

"Um…her name…"

"Well?" Jake prodded.

"Haley."

"Haley? As in Haley James? My girlfriend's roommate Haley James?"

"As far as I know there aren't any other members of staff named Haley."

"Whoa." Jake contemplated this for a few minutes. "How did that happen?"

"What? Nothing happened she thinks I'm her student –"

"No," Jake interrupted, "I mean, how did you start liking her? You two aren't exactly similar. To be perfectly honest I can't really picture the two of you together."

"Oh. Well, thanks."

"No, I didn't mean it like that. I just…I'm kind of surprised."

"Yeah, well…I guess we'll both be in trouble when the truth comes out, right?"

"Yeah. Although you not so much," he added. At Nathan's questioning glance, Jake continued, "You know, since Haley doesn't really have a reason to be mad at you. It's not like you two are dating. She doesn't like you."

"Oh, right." Nathan forced a smile. "No, I guess not."