Chapter 4
"That's it, I'm waking her up," Karen proclaimed as she rose from the wooden chair at the kitchen table.
Keith and Lucas looked at each other from across the table apprehensively. "Maybe that's not a good idea, mom. Wouldn't it be better to just let her do what she wants right now?"
Karen turned her gaze to her husband when Lucas finished speaking. "What do you think?"
"I think Lucas might be right on this one. We should leave Haley be for a little while."
"Its eleven a.m. and she's been asleep for the past fifteen hours! I'm starting to get worried about her."
"Mom, I'm sure she's fine. I'll go and check on her though, because the last thing she'll want is you nagging her to get up," Lucas teased.
"Ha ha, very funny," Karen responded and glared playfully at her son as he walked out of the room.
Lucas walked softly up the old wooden stairs to Haley's room. The boards creaked with each step he took. He knocked on the bedroom door upon reaching it and entered slowly. He had expected to see his cousin sleeping soundly, but instead saw her curled up in a ball under her covers facing the door with her red rimmed eyes wide open.
"Oh, I didn't realize you were awake already. My mom just sent me to check on you."
Lucas was met with no reply or acknowledgement to show Haley heard him. He walked closer to her and sat on the edge of her bed. "Haley? Are you alright?"
This time, she responded by simply shaking her head slightly.
"Well, I was thinking maybe I could show you around town a bit today. I'm taking today and tomorrow off school and you're supposed to start on Monday. I thought if I introduce you to some of my friends and show you some places we hang out then school would be a little bit easier for you. Do you think you feel up to that?"
"I don't know Lucas, all I feel like doing lately is sleeping."
"It might make you feel better. I know it'll make my mom feel better – she's worried sick about you."
Sighing, Haley sat up and looked intensely at her new cousin. "I don't know if I really wanna feel better right now."
"Then do it for my mom, please? That way she won't be hovering and nagging you to get out of bed. I promise you'll have some fun," he tried to convince with a dashing smile.
"I guess. Give me a few minutes to get dressed. I'll just meet you downstairs."
Lucas nodded and rose from the bed. He glanced back at his sorrowing cousin once before he exited, wishing that there was something he could do to help her through the grieving process. When he made it back to the kitchen where his parents were still sitting at the table he sat down in his previous seat and looked grimly at his anxious mother.
"What? What's wrong with her?"
"Calm down. She's actually not doing too badly. She agreed to let me take her out and show her around town, she's just getting dressed right now."
"Really?" Keith asked surprised.
"Yeah and don't worry, I'm not going to let anything happen to her today."
Karen smiled at her amazing boy. "Thank you for doing this, Lucas."
Instead of objecting and telling his mom that he wasn't taking Haley out because he felt he had to, but because this girl was his family and she would no doubt soon feel more like a sister than a cousin to him and he cared too much about her already to see her hurting, Lucas simply nodded and smiled at his mom softly. His smile widened when he saw that Haley had indeed gotten ready and was trudging down the hall to the kitchen. He stood up immediately and Karen and Keith turned to face her with smiles.
"Good morning, Haley," they chimed together.
"Morning," she mumbled uncomfortably.
"Do you want some breakfast? There's leftover pancakes for you," Karen offered.
"No, I'm not really hungry actually," She quickly directed her gaze to the tall boy that had made his way next to her. "Are we leaving now?"
"Yeah, let's get out of here," he said with a smile and wrapped an arm loosely around her shoulders.
"First stop on the Tree Hill tour is Karen's Café," Lucas tried imitating a tour guide.
Haley smiled appreciatively at the boy's attempt to brighten her mood a little. "So, is this your mom's café?"
"Her and my friend Nathan's mom went into business a few years ago and they both own equal parts of the café and an all ages nightclub called Tric."
"That's cool."
"Yeah. Do you wanna go inside? You can meet Deb and I think I see Brooke and Peyton in there too," Lucas suggested.
"I don't know, I doubt your friends would really wanna meet your family's new charity case."
"What? Is that what you think you are to us, Haley?" he asked incredulously.
The girl shrugged and averted her eyes from her tall cousin. "Well it's not like you guys had a choice on whether or not you wanted me. All this shit happened so fast that I was pretty much forced upon you."
"Haley, look at me," Lucas stated sternly. "Under no circumstances do my parents and I think of you as some sort of charity case. We weren't forced to take you in either; we did it because you're our family. Regardless of whether or not we had met each other before this tragedy, we're still blood and we'll always look after each other. Don't forget that."
Haley bit her lip to prevent the tears that had formed in her eyes from falling. "Thank you, Lucas," she spoke softly and without hesitation the boy pulled her in for a short hug.
"Don't mention it."
The duo pulled away from each other and stood in awkward silence for a moment, taking in the unexpected emotional turn their minimal conversation had turned to.
"So do you want to head inside now? I promise all three of them will love you."
"Yeah, I guess. Shouldn't your friends be in school though?" Haley said still apprehensive of the idea.
"They both have a free period right now so they usually do something together," he explained and then cocked his head in the direction of the door; silently asking to go in.
Lucas smiled happily at her when she shrugged indifferently and held open the door for her. The over head bells chimed and Haley instantly felt as though the large amount of customers present were all staring at her. She shrunk back meekly behind Lucas when she heard the door close and watched as he began chatting with a middle-aged blonde woman who she assumed to be Karen's business partner Deb. She also noticed that two girls – a blonde and brunette – were eying her curiously. Haley tuned back into the conversation going on in front of her just in time to catch that Lucas was introducing her to Deb.
Deb smiled warmly at her and held out a hand. "Hi, I'm Deb. I've heard a lot about you."
"Hi, I'm Haley," she said quietly.
Deb offered her another kind smile before letting go of her hand. "You two have a seat anywhere you'd like. Brooke and Peyton just sat down over there, I'll be out to take your order in a couple minutes," she said, pointing to the blonde and brunette that Haley had seen staring at them.
Lucas thanked Deb and began leading Haley over to the booth that Brooke and Peyton were sitting across from each other in. He stopped beside the table and smiled down at his two friends.
"Brooke, Peyton, this is my cousin, Haley."
"Hi, I'm Peyton," the blonde spoke up with a soft smile.
"Which makes me Brooke, and you better not forget it!" the brunette said cheerfully.
Haley smiled at both girls. "Hi."
"Do you mind if we sit with you?"
"Sure, go ahead," Peyton told them both and slid over to make room for Haley to sit down when Lucas eagerly sat down next to Brooke.
He immediately dove into conversation with the pretty girl and Haley looked on slightly amused. Peyton nudged her gently to get her attention and Haley turned to look questioningly at her.
"Funny to watch them, isn't it? Lucas has had the biggest crush on Brooke since grade school, same with Brooke."
"They don't know that they both have feelings for each other?"
"I've tried telling them before but they're both too scared to do anything in case it ends badly. I guess they value their friendship too much to try to make a relationship work."
"One of them should say something before it's too late. You never know what could happen," Haley said soberly.
Peyton nodded in agreement, understanding that the girl was now also referring to the accident her parents were involved in. "So what about you. Do you have a boyfriend?" she asked in an attempt to keep her from becoming upset.
"You first."
"Right now, no. I'm kind of seeing this guy named Julian, but it's pretty casual still."
"I don't have one anymore. We broke up a couple weeks ago."
"What happened?"
Haley laughed cynically. "He was a complete asshole. I don't know why I dated him in the first place, but he ended up getting between me and my best friend so I ended it. Not to mention, he's the reason I'm here right now."
"What do you mean?" Peyton asked confused.
"He was driving drunk and hit my parents. He killed them," she said and further clarified as though she needed it to sink in for herself still.
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry. If I knew I wouldn't have brought it up."
"It's okay. I promised myself I wasn't going to cry over anything that's happened anymore, so I'll be fine," Haley assured with a fake smile.
Just then, Deb approached the secluded booth. She apologized about the short wait they experienced and promptly wrote all their orders down on her notepad. She estimated the time they would have to wait to get their food and offered a smile before heading to the kitchen.
Lucas and Brooke seemed to be finished having their own private conversation and were looking at Haley and Peyton to start up a new one.
"So Haley, where did you say you were from?" Brooke finally spoke up.
"It's this small town in California called Wasatch Valley, not too far from San Francisco," she explained.
"Surely it's bigger than Suck Hill though, right?"
"If it is, it's not by very much."
"What did you guys do for fun there?"
Haley laughed at the girl's obvious loathing of small towns. "Not a whole lot. The ocean was close so sometimes Jake and I would go for a day. Other than that, I usually spent a lot of time at Jake's because there was always something to do there."
Brooke visibly perked up significantly at the mention of Jake. "Whose Jake?"
"He's my best friend. I've known him since we were like five. He's basically like my brother."
After that explanation Brooke was uninterested again. Haley fell silent as she listened to Peyton start up a new topic of conversation and Brooke and Lucas immediately piping in. She stayed silent the rest of the meal, ignoring Lucas' concerned gazes he sent every few minutes. Haley was no longer interested in having a tour of Tree Hill; all she really wanted to do was talk to her best friend.
"Are you sure you're okay? You've been really quiet since lunch."
"I'm fine, Lucas. Can we just keep doing this tour," she said unenthusiastically.
Lucas sighed and stopped walking. He pointed at a large building beside them. "That's Tree Hill High. It's really not as big as it looks from out here though. This is where all my friends and I go to school and where you start on Monday."
Haley took in the seemingly large building. She noted that although it was much smaller than her old high school, Tree Hill High appeared to be very complicated, judging by its peculiar shape. Normally, she loved school. She excelled in all her classes and looked forward to attending each day. Under these circumstances though, Haley found herself absolutely dreading having to walk into that building everyday beginning on Monday.
The young girl looked away from the boring building to prevent herself from becoming too upset. Lucas noticed the apprehension written on her face and shuffled her down the quiet sidewalk so that the school was out of view. Haley quickly shook off her feelings of dread and attempted a grin.
"Schools aren't all that interesting, where to next?"
"We only have two more places to go, so do you wanna see Tric or the River court first?"
"Tric is your mom's club, right?"
"Yeah."
"We can go there first," Haley decided.
"Alright. Just so you know though, Tric isn't going to be all that interesting at one in the afternoon."
"Is that you trying to say we should just skip it?" Haley asked amused.
Lucas laughed and scratched the back of his neck. "Well, we can go if you really want to. It's just that Tric and the River court are on opposite sides of town and it's a lot of walking. Personally, I'd prefer to just go to the River court, but it's up to you."
"You make a good point, a night club isn't going to be interesting to see right now. I guess we're heading to the River court."
Lucas smiled happily. "It's my favourite place in Tree Hill. I hope you like it."
Haley didn't respond. She took in the various parts of the small town as they walked back passed Karen's Café along the river walk. So far that was her favourite part of Tree Hill. The Cape fear reminded her of the ocean back in California and provided her with a sense of tranquility. The duo walked alongside the river until crossing over a short bridge over railroad tracks. Shortly thereafter a basketball court next to the Cape appeared.
Haley smiled, understanding why this was Lucas' favourite place in Tree Hill. It wasn't exactly a short trip to get to and it was the only thing for a while on this side of the river. It was surrounded by trees and even had a few picnic benches off to the side. As Haley finished surveying the surroundings of the court she came to realize that a group of teenage boys were playing on it.
"Do you know those guys?"
"Yeah, we're all on the basketball team together."
"Why are they here? Your school actually gets out this early?"
Lucas chuckled. "You like school a lot don't you?"
"Why would you say that?" Haley asked confused.
"Well, both times we've seen my friends today; you've asked why they aren't in school. It's just kind of funny that that's one of the first things that comes to your mind."
Haley shrugged. "I do like school, but I'm asking because I'm not really used to people not going to class every day."
Lucas accepted her answer. "I guess it is kind of weird. I'm like you; I like school and don't normally skip. Some of my friends like to though."
"Is that what these guys are doing?"
"Yeah. Why don't I introduce you to them?"
Lucas didn't wait for an answer from the girl before he started guiding her across the grass to the court. They stopped at the edge and waited for the group of guys to notice them. It didn't take long for a goofy brunette to fumble the ball that was passed his way and cause him to look up stupidly and notice the new company.
"Yo, Luke dawg! What up?" he exclaimed loudly and held up his hand for a high five.
Lucas and the two other boys present rolled their eyes. "Just say hi, Tim," Lucas responded and appeased him by returning the high five.
Immediately following, Tim turned his gaze to the petite blonde standing next to his teammate. "Who's this hottie?" he asked while licking his lips in an attempt to be seductive.
Lucas and Haley both glared at the boy. "This is my cousin Haley, Tim. Don't even think about going near her."
"Waita make a good impression, Dim," another boy spoke up. "I'm Julian. Don't mind him; he tries to get with just about any girl he sees."
Haley laughed softly. "Hi, I'm Haley."
Julian nodded and turned to go talk to a sulking Tim by the picnic benches, leaving Lucas and Haley standing with a final brunette boy who had yet to speak.
"Nate, this is my cousin Haley. Haley, this is my friend Nathan Scott," Lucas introduced.
"Hi, it's nice to meet you," Haley said and outstretched her hand.
"Hey," Nathan replied and took her hand. Their eyes locked upon having sparks shooting up both their arms. Haley gasped quietly when she took in the intensity of the boy's deep blue eyes. She quickly dropped his hand and tried to shake off the weird feelings coursing through her.
Nathan pushed the confusion of what he felt to the back of his mind and cleared his throat awkwardly. "I'm, um, sorry about your loss."
Haley's eyes widened in surprise. This guy was the last person she thought would offer condolences to her. "Thanks," she said softly and averted her eyes from his.
Lucas smiled gratefully at his friend. "We should probably go, my mom will be wondering why we're not back yet."
"Okay, talk to you later man," Nathan said. "Bye, Haley."
"Bye," Haley said and allowed Lucas to lead her back the way they came all the way to his house again.
The entire walk home Haley failed to rid her mind of the feeling that ran through her body after shaking Nathan's hand and the image of his piercing blue eyes locking with her deep brown ones. Although she had just met him, Haley found herself curious and wanting to know a whole lot more about Nathan Scott.
Alright, so I'm going to offer my apologies in advance. Unfortunately I'm leaving tomorrow morning to go up to northern Ontario for two weeks and visit my biological father. I know, not very exciting for me either. If I had it my way, I would be on my lap top 24/7 writing the next chapters, but my mother refuses to let me bring it because it'll only cause me headaches from him when I get there. I'm going to try my very hardest to write free hand but who knows how well that will go down. That being said, I'm so truly sorry for yet another long delay in updating and I'll hopefully have chapter 5 up by somewhere around the 27th? Can I also add that right now, I'm in a very distraught state over the quickly approaching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 release. I'm going to the premier while I'm up north and cannot wait, I admit it has been distracting me from writing quite a bit. Anyway though, happy reading for the next two weeks guys!