Haley couldn't get him out of her head. She knew it should come as no shock to her; she had married the guy, for the love of God. But even when he had been an arrogant jock, he had at least always been nice to her, which was what was really driving her over the edge.

So, even as Haley entered her nine thirty class the next day, she couldn't seem to take away the picture of Nathan Scott from behind her eyes. He looks so good, she thought unwillingly.

And he's such a prick, she rationalized back with herself.

Handsome prick.

"Stop it!" she whispered to herself, going to take a seat in the lecture style hall. Haley was pulling out her books for the class (British Lit), when she was distracted by the girl in front of her. She had short blonde hair, flat-ironed to perfection. She was sketching on a pad with a dark marker. A distinctive number '23' was shaping up on the paper, with some other things she could yet to make out.

She knew that artist immediately. Only one person had such a trademark style.

"Peyton?" Haley asked, watching the stick straight head of blonde hair turn to face her.

"Excuse me?" Peyton Sawyer replied, looking back at her.

"Oh my God, it's you!" Haley said, scooping up her book bag in her arms and jumping over the row of chairs she was in so she could sit next to Peyton.

The blonde was giving her an odd look, as though she was not quite sure what to make of her behavior. "You're from Tree Hill, right?" Peyton asked, looking Haley over.

"Yeah, Haley James."

"Lucas Scott's friend?"

"Yeah, you remember me."

Peyton looked around. "Well, you have been in this class with me all semester and you haven't said a word to me, but I thought you looked familiar."

"Oh." Haley shrugged. "Well, I'm sorry about that."

"Whatever," Peyton replied, turning back to her sketch. Haley tilted her head slightly and could just make out signs of a body being squashed by the 23. And that body just happened to look like it had curly hair.

"I like your sketch," Haley said.

"No."

"What?"

"The answer is no. I can't get you Nathan Scott's autograph. I don't care how big of a fan your little brother is of him. If I do it for one person, it'll never end. And I'm not starting. I don't care if your little brother has Type I Diabetes. It's not happening." Peyton slammed her sketch pad closed to prevent Haley from studying her drawing any further.

"Believe me, the last thing I want is Nathan Scott's autograph," Haley replied, thinking of that look on his face when he had demanded she stay away from him.

Peyton looked up at her with an eyebrow raised. "Oh yeah. You're Lucas Scott's friend. Sorry, I forgot." She gave a small smile. ""Peyton Sawyer. But I guess you already know me."

"Yeah. Haley," she repeated.

"I know. Where'd you get the rock?"

"Huh?"

Peyton pointed to the wedding ring on Haley's left hand. Haley unconsciously took it from sight.

"Just a gift."

"That's a wedding ring."

"No, it's not."

"That's your wedding finger."

"Whoops." Haley slipped off her wedding and engagement rings and put them on her right hand. She felt odd taking those off her finger. She hadn't taken them off since she'd come back from her music tour after her junior year. It seemed ironic that she wouldn't take them off again until her marriage was in serious jeopardy again.

"So, how's Lucas?" Peyton asked, putting her sketch book back in her bag.

"He's good," Haley said, trying to think of a discreet way to ask Peyton about Nathan and their apparent 'long-term' relationship. "We live together."

"Really?" Peyton asked suggestively. "Did he give you the ring?"

"Oh, no, there's nothing like that between me and Lucas," Haley replied, automatically feeling for the inscription on her ring that Nathan had gotten specially put on.

"Uh-huh." Peyton did not look convinced.

"What about you and Nathan?" Haley bit back, as much as it pained her to say it.

Peyton shrugged. "Really, what is there to say? Nathan's Nathan."

Haley felt this was a very unsatisfactory response. Never in a million years would she have wanted to discuss Nathan and Peyton's relationship in-depth. And she especially didn't want to upset Peyton by prying into her private life, but at the same time, she knew she would not be pleased until she knew why they were still together; what could have possibly prompted this spit in the universe's face.

Haley gave a small grin. "I heard you moved back in with Brooke," she said casually.

"You try living with Nathan Scott."

Haley had always thought, until very recently, Nathan was rather pleasant to live with. She was on the verge of telling Peyton this when she caught herself. "But I thought you two were in love. That's what it sounded like during the basketball game the other night."

Peyton rolled her eyes. "If I hear one more thing about that stupid comment he made, I will kill myself. 'Oh Nathan's so sweet,'" she mocked, in an extremely high-pitched voice. "Come on, you and Lucas can back me up, Nathan's a jerk."

"Then why are you with him?" Haley asked, genuinely curious.

"I'm a bitch. He's a jerk. Perfect combination, right?"

"Ugh-yeah. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the point of a relationship supposed to be to make the other person better?" Haley asked tentatively.

"So, you're one of those people," Peyton responded. "One of those true love people. I guess it's easy when you have a rock that size." She pointed to Haley's ring again.

"No," Haley responded just as sarcastically. "I just don't see the point of staying with someone if you're not happy. I would never keep up a relationship I didn't think was worth it."

"I supposed you wouldn't." Peyton thought about Haley's genuine words and took heart to them. She fiddled for a moment with her bag. "Have you ever just woken up one day and realized you were somewhere you didn't intend to be? That somewhere along the lines, you had lost control of your life and you had ended up with something you never wanted?"

"You have no idea." Peyton gave Haley a small smile.

Their professor was now entering the classroom and Peyton looked away from Haley and into her bag for a notebook. Haley did the same and took notes for the rest of the hour period. As the teacher finally dismissed the class, Haley felt Peyton tapping her shoulder.

"Look, Haley, I don't usually do this whole nice bit, but I just want to say thanks for talking to me."

"Yeah."

"I mean, it's hard for me to talk about this stuff with Brooke because she thinks I've got it made. The guy, the school, everything. Anyway, the truth is, I'd rather you not tell anyone I said that stuff because it would be chaos if that stuff got around. And you know how Nathan would get if he heard anything."

"Trust me; I don't want to be the one that start's the gossip that Duke's dream couple is breaking up." Haley forced a laugh.

Peyton made a face. She went to grab her bag to leave the class and Haley caught her attention one more time.

"Look, if you want to come see Lucas' and my apartment sometime, you should."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, look, here's my number," she said, jotting it down on a slip of paper and handing it to Peyton. "Just give me a call sometime. Whenever you get tired of Brooke and Nathan or whatever."

"Really?" Peyton gave her a look, feeling like this girl somehow knew the real her. It was an odd connection she felt.

"Yeah. But, look, I have to go. I have tutoring with some jock in fifteen minutes. So, I'll see you later."

"Bye."

----------

Haley entered the tutoring center with ten minutes to spare and went to sit down at a table by herself. Today was her first tutoring session with Marcus. She had researched him on Duke's website and found out he was a basketball player. Every two weeks, they met for an hour long tutoring session for his Creative Writing class. Haley had an idea what he looked like, but she thought it would be better to let him find her.

Haley was pulling her laptop out when she heard the chair in front of her shifting. She looked up to see a very tall dark-skinned boy giving her a toothy smile. "Hey, Hales."

"Marcus! Good game last w-" Haley's words stopped on the tip of her tongue as she saw another figure pulling out the chair next to Marcus.

"Oh, yeah. This is Nathan Scott. He's one of my teammates and he's in my creative writing class too. You've probably heard of him."

Haley locked eyes with Nathan. "No, I don't think so."

"Oh," Marcus replied, obviously not catching on to the tension between Haley and Nathan. "Well, he's my brother from another mother and he's a superstar. Anyway, he was having some trouble in the class and I told him I have the kick-ass tutor named Haley James and he said he was there and so here he is."

"Nathan Scott," Nathan said, sticking his hand out for Haley to shake it.

"Haley," Haley replied, trying to remain professional.

"Yeah, I know," he returned.

"Haley can look over your last paper and tell you everything that is wrong with it. She's a miracle worker, Nate." Marcus flashed a paper up to them and Haley saw her own handwriting all over it. "Anyway, Haley, our next class we're getting this prompt and we're going to have to write it in class. It's supposed to be a huge grade."

"Marcus is freaking out about it," Nathan threw in.

"Man, I've never written a paper without Haley looking over it before. I love this girl."

Haley felt herself blushing. It wasn't everyday an attractive college athlete said he loved her…oh wait. Fine, an attractive college athlete that wasn't married to her.

"Well," Haley said, trying to ignore the fact that Nathan wouldn't stop staring at her. "I could give you a prompt and we could talk through it. So you'll know the sort of thought process you need to go through to write a good paper on the spur-of-the-moment. I can give you a few pointers."

Haley flipped through her Creative Writing book and found a prompt that she thought would be fairly easy to write during an hour long class. She read it off to the boys and gave them enough time to write a general summary of what they were going to write about. During their five minutes, she couldn't help but watch Nathan work. She had a sneaking suspicion he wasn't taking this very seriously. She even thought he might have come just to annoy her. After time was up, she listened to Marcus' outline first, giving him tips as he read it off. Then, it was Nathan's turn.

"So, Nathan, what did you write?" Haley asked, finally having to look at him.

Nathan picked up his paper and held it in front of his face, clearing his throat dramatically. "I am going to write about a girl who desperately wants to meet the star basketball player at her school- we'll call it Ruke- so she makes up a story about how the guy is really in love with her and just hasn't realized it because they never met. So she cancels his-"

"Hold on," Haley said, holding up her hand to stop him. "I think we need to reevaluate this."

"Hell yeah, we do," Marcus said, looking confused. "Man, that don't have nothing to do with the prompt, Nate."

Haley shook her head, looking back toward Nathan. "What we should really consider is that if this guy is indeed the star basketball player, his head's probably so big, he's convinced that every girl wants to get with him. The girl probably thought he could help for some reason and he takes it as some elaborate scheme to hit on him. He's living in some fantasy world. Are you trying to write from that angle, uhm- what was your name again?" Haley replied.

"Actually, it would be the girl who's living in some fantasy world. She tries to convince the guy that she's from some alternate universe where 'everything's different,'" Nathan said, making air quotes.

"Well, what strikes me as really pathetic is that the guy keeps following the girl around after she says she wants nothing more to do with him."

Nathan obviously didn't have a reply for this so he just sat, glaring at Haley.

"Haley, did Nathan and me have different prompts?" Marcus asked, looking back and forth between the two.

"Marcus, I'm sorry, but do you mind if I talk to Mr. Scott for a moment? I don't know if I can handle tutoring two people at once. I'll be back in just a minute."

Haley got up from the table and walked toward the back of the room. Nathan threw Marcus a smirk and followed her.

"Problem?" he asked casually, stopping in front of her.

"I thought I told you to leave me alone."

"Look, Miss James, you started this so don't try to call me out now that I'm continuing it."

"You told me to stay away from you. Why would you come here?" Haley asked, feeling thoroughly perplexed at his intrusiveness.

"Because I want to know what you're up to."

Haley looked up into his face and was able to read him like a book. She could tell from that oh-so-classic Nathan Scott look that he was intrigued by the whole situation. She matched him smirk-for-smirk. "Come on, Nate, you don't have to lie to me."

He knitted his eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"

"You're curious, aren't you? You want to know how I know so much about you. You think I might be telling the truth and it's killing you that you don't know."

"Whatever," he replied, not wanting to lose the upper hand in the conversation.

"You can't lie to me, Nathan. I know that look. Think what you will but as long as you still have that face, I'll know what you're thinking."

"Fine, what am I thinking now?" he asked, looking at her.

Haley tilted her head sideways, as though she was really studying him. "You're thinking that you hope I can't really tell what you're thinking. Also, you're thinking of a way to turn this conversation back around in your favor. Lastly I sense a hint of," she took one finger and touched his face with it, "lust." She ran her finger the link of his face, then put her hand up under her chin. "How was that?"

"Obvious. Just like I know right now you're thinking that you're getting to me. Does that mean I really 'know' you too?"

"You tell me." Haley finally got frustrated and gestured towards the door. "Now, I'm not tutoring you anymore. Leave me alone so I can actually help someone who needs it."

"How do you know I don't need it?" Nathan asked.

"Maybe you do, but I refuse to tutor you. Conflict of interests. I can't possibly tutor you when I want to strangle you."

"Fine, I'll appeal to the Tutoring Councilor. Hmm," Nathan put up a thoughtful face, "star basketball player wants girl who continently already also tutors his teammate. Tutor doesn't want him. Who do we think win this one? Hmm, Haley?"

"Fine, whatever. But do not interrupt me while I'm tutoring Marcus."

"Marcus who you just met for the first time?" Nathan asked.

"You're catching on."

"Please." Nathan rolled his eyes as he followed her back over to their table.

"You two made up?" Marcus asked, eyeing them both and grinning.

Neither of them returned the grin as they sat down on opposite sides of the table.

Haley picked her book back up and turned towards Marcus. "Ok, Marcus-"

"Wait, what about my outline?" Nathan interrupted.

Haley turned to him with an incredulous look on her face. "You wrote an outline?"

"Yeah."

"A real outline?"

"Yeah, I told you. I'm making a D in Creative Writing.

Haley sighed. "All right, let's hear it…"

------------

Later that night Haley found herself sitting on the floor of her room. Her mind had traveled back to the second experience with this new 'old' Nathan she'd had in two days. Once again he'd been rude, arrogant, and just downright unpleasant towards her. Marcus had even told him to back down a few times for off-color comments he had sent in Haley's direction. He was so rude, Marcus had apologized for bringing him to the tutoring session, commenting that he didn't know what had gotten into him.

Haley kept trying to tell herself she didn't care but it was hard to continue to lie to herself. However much of jerk he might be, he was still Nathan Scott and there was something she couldn't resist about that boy. Just the fact that he looked like her Nathan, occasionally acted like him, and had his same unreadable expressions.

Well, unreadable to everyone but her.

So she sat on the ground of her room with her wedding ring and engagement ring laid out in front of her. She rolled them around on her fingers sadly. She was so glad she had something the real Nathan had given her to bring to this world with her. But seeing the clone of him the past two days had simply made it hard for her to forget how much she was missing her son.

She felt a tear slipping down her face. She just wished she had one thing to prove that Jamie was real; that she had a son. The rings proved there was a Nathan somewhere that loved her, but she had nothing to show that she had a four-year-old boy that she adored.

The tear ran the length of her face and dripped onto the diamond of her wedding ring.

She couldn't help but wonder if life was going on without her at home. If this was real, who was to say something equally as odd wasn't going on there? She felt so confused. I would take the shell of a Nathan there to the cold one here, she thought. I would take my son over it all.

She heard a soft tapping on her door and looked up. "Haley?"

"Come in," Haley said, wiping away her tears and plastering on a fake smile.

Lucas opened up her door and looked at her, quickly becoming concerned. "Are you all right, Hales?" he asked.

"Fine," Haley replied, sweeping up her rings before Lucas could see them and slipping them on her right hand.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I was just coming to check on you." He looked hard at Haley's face again and leaned against the door frame. "Is there anything I can do?"

She laughed humorlessly. "Nope, Luke. I'm afraid even you can't fix this."

"Ok. Well, I'm here for you." She nodded. He turned and walked out, closing the door softly behind him.

Haley shook her head. This new Nathan was a jerk- cocky, arrogant, clearly an all-around bad person dating a girl he was probably stringing along.

Why had it been so easy to open up to him?


A/N: So, I'm not crazy about this chapter but I think I have some good stuff up my sleeve for the next one and maybe just a hint of Naley for all you crazy kids.

Oh, and Brooke! And more Peyton! And a little Lucas!