Basketball and cheerleading practice usually coincided. So as the ladies of the Tree Hill Raven's cheerleading squad sprawled out across their length of the school gym stretching, the boys of the basketball team were running suicides nearby. Brooke and Peyton sat estranged from the other girls, deep in conversation amongst themselves.

"But... Peyton, you don't even understand! If he's so great at it and loves it that much... why won't he just join the team?"

"Brooke, just because he loves basketball doesn't mean he should have to announce his devotion to the game by signing up with those idiots,"

"It just sucks because... I don't even feel like cheering... sometimes... because he's not there..."

Peyton gasped at her friend's small comment.

"Is that... is that emotion I'm feeling from the heartless, boys-will-never-do-me-in, Brooke Davis?"

"If this gets out to anyone, especially Luke, then I'll rip your curls out, one by one!"

"Ouch... totally unnecessary,"

"Sorry... but all I'm saying is that... it's weird... that as much as he loves it, I can't support him... by being his cheerleader, you know? God! I'm so corny that it makes me sick!"

"Yeah... you have turned really corny... but, it's cute!"

The stressed out look on the worried brunette's face changed back to her very familiar mischievous smile. She playfully tugged on her girlfriend's blonde curls.

"Watch it, Goldilocks!"

While the two girls joked with each other, they overlooked a fellow teammate who had managed to slide over to them. As if she had been involved in their conversation all along, she let a loud sigh before speaking,

"Do you think he'll say 'yes'?"

"Oh... hey, Rachel," Peyton greeted her.

Peyton tried to hold back a giggle as the melodramatic and lust ridden girl watched her Mr. Right Now, Nathan Scott, quite apprehensively.

Brooke rolled her eyes. She never understood how her best friend could ignore the deceptive wench that was Rachel Gattina. The redheaded bombshell, or more like bomb, had exploded all over Tree Hill when she had first moved in. But as team captain of the cheerleading team, she saw the talents of the girl despite her fake demeanor and approved of her joining. Since that day, she was viewed as nothing but a kiss ass through the eyes of Brooke.

"No," Brooke bluntly threw out.

Although Rachel wanted to strangle her, she turned to face her team captain with the saddest puppy eyes imaginable.

"You really don't think so?"

"Um... Rachel?" Peyton suddenly interrupted.

"Yeah?" she sweetly answered.

"It's not a soap opera. You're not going to freakin' die if he says 'no',"

"And to answer your question, Rach, I think he will..." Brooke began.

Rachel's eyes lit up at her comment.

"... I think he will say 'no',"

Peyton gave her best friend a pleading look while their supposedly hurt teammate turned her back on them. For the one time that she thought Bitch Davis, as she referred to her secretly, would be nice to her, she had to have seen that coming. She never cut her any slack. Rachel excused the girl's attitude for jealousy towards her. As heated as the girl was, she was about to be pushed over the edge.

Trying to remain calm and act as polite as possible, she turned right back around, seemingly unphased by Brooke's catty comment.

"I appreciate your honesty, Brooke," she quietly said while feigning sniffles.

The blonde-haired cheerleader nudged her friend giving her the at-least-pretend-to-be-nice look.

Brooke was tired of this girl's plastic role-playing. Who did she think she was? Anne of Green Gables? She knew the whole act only because she'd been there, done that. She was about to pretend to be nice, the Davis way, when something much more interesting came along.

The basketballs had been pulled out and the sound of squeaky sneakers and bouncing balls overwhelmed any sense of hearing within the walls of the gym.

"Hey, Peyton!" Haley tried to speak above the noisy gym.

The petite girl advanced towards the cheerleaders, slugging a couple of large textbooks.

Peyton smiled nervously at Haley. Giving a quick glance to the girl who had been on the brink of tears, she saw fire blaze her eyes. Brooke noticed the look that instantly appeared on Rachel's face when Haley had greeted them. The curly blonde rose on her feet and grabbed Haley gently by the arm, leading her away from the chaos.

"Hey! What are you doing here?"

Haley shuffled her feet, looking as if she were coming up with an answer right at that moment.

"Um... I tutor after school... and then when I passed by, I saw you and Brooke... so..."

"Did I hear someone mention my name, Holly?"

Suddenly, Brooke had popped in right next to Peyton.

"Haley,"

"Whatever... so... will you be making an appearance with us on this fateful prom night?"

Peyton looked on curiously at Brooke. Before she seemed way too nervous to even approach Lucas' best friend but now she seemed to be controlling that ego of her's very well.

Remembering how the blonde had confided in her earlier, Haley played along.

"Um... that's why I came here... to talk to... actually... Peyton... about it. Wait a second... were you, Brooke Davis, actually inviting me, Haley, not Holly, James, to hang out with you and your friends on prom night?"

Brooke smiled genuinely this time. That tutor girl's attitude was mildly similar to someone she knew very well—herself.

"Just announce it at our next pep rally, why don't you?" Brooke laughed.

"Just say 'yes'!" Peyton chimed in.

"Look... before I make any kind of decision... I'm warning you both right now, if this is some kind of sick joke, I'll come back with a vengeance twice as bad as Carrie's, okay?"

"Who's Carrie?" Brooke asked with a blank look.

Haley and Peyton laughed out loud.

"I'm there,"

Despite the fact that her best friend and this new acquaintance seemed to be laughing at her, she turned her head to meet the evil eyes of Rachel Gattina.

'Interesting... very interesting,' Brooke thought to herself.

Even though the envious redhead seemingly bore holes into the back of that stupid nerdy girl's head wishing that it would just pop, it never came true. Ever since the day she'd seen Nathan almost googly-eyed over that Holy girl or whatever the hell her name was, the bitch was already on her death list. Rachel never felt threatened, that is until Haley James stepped into the picture. Her thoughts were dispersed when she caught sight of her future prom date, as she liked to put it. He was standing near the bleachers, chugging on his water bottle. Getting up from her position on the floor she headed towards him.

"Gattina, where do you think you're going?"

She was stopped by a smiling Brooke Davis.

"I was just—"

"Save it! Get to your spot! Ladies! Positions, please!" She announced to the girls standing around, behind a stunned Rachel.

Rachel glared as she watched her Nathan, walking towards that geek girl. Her jaw clenched as she tried to maintain her fake demeanor but this time, it wouldn't work.

"Look, bitch! I'm not here to take orders from the likes of you. The next time you try to intercept any of my time with Nathan, I'll make up for it with the only other hot basketball player, who happens not to play for our Tree Hill Ravens!" She hissed through gritted teeth.

Brooke's jaw dropped but she came back quickly.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in—the real you! The slutty, conniving, twisted, pathetic, you!"

Rachel seethed with anger but held back any physical tension she wanted to relieve right into Brooke's face. Brooke flipped a lock of Rachel's red locks between her fingers before adding,

"Oh, and by the way, the real Barbie was blonde, so stop trying,"

Peyton knew how redheaded girl worked but she thought that if she continued to play nice, the girl could grow some kind of morals. The way she came at her best friend though, she couldn't stand.

"I had to bust my ass just so that you could join this team and you try to come in here and disrespect my friend, who by the way, is the team captain. I eat little shits like you for breakfast! So why don't you collect your sorry ass and sit down with the other girls or you can watch the routine from the sidelines!"

Now the entire gym was quiet as they had been watching the entire scene play out to Rachel's utmost embarrassment. So, she did what seemed like the best thing to do at the time; she left.

"P. Sawyer, I love you! But... 'I eat little shits like you for breakfast'? I almost died laughing if it weren't for the intensity in your voice!"

Brooke squeezed her friend tight.

"Haha... it came out not like I had expected to..." Peyton sheepishly replied.

--

"Uh... hey, Haley," Nathan greeted her while scratching the back of his head.

"Uh... hey..."

They were both still shocked by the display between the three cheerleaders. Looking over at the remains of Brooke and Peyton ripping Rachel a new one, he asked,

"What the hell was that about?"

"No idea... but, remind me never to get in the line of Brooke's fire,"

"Haha... I'll make sure of that. So, what are you doing here?"

"Ah... well... prom. Well... not because of prom but because someone asked me to go to prom with them. Well, no, I mean, not like that! But, you know... a group of girls actually asked me to go with them and then to some party afterwards. I thought that I might as well... you live once, right?"

Nathan chuckled at her adorable habit of rambling.

"You mean, Peyton and them?"

"How'd you know?"

"You were just talking to them. It's not a big secret. So... Haley James at a party? And one of Brooke's infamous parties?"

'What's the big deal? Is it really that weird of a concept? Me at a party? Well... besides the fact that I've never attended one...' Haley thought humiliatingly.

Trying to act distracted, Haley fiddled with one of her heavy texts. Her cheeks had begun to glow feverishly.

"So?!" She shot back.

Nathan grabbed both books to lighten her load.

"Aww... don't be mad. I'm just teasing. It's just that I can't imagine the studious, good girl, Haley James, tripping over her own feet while carrying around a plastic red cup. It's a compliment."

Haley made a face.

"No, thanks. Anyway, just because I'm not a party girl doesn't mean that I haven't drunken before,"

"I don't doubt that,"

Nathan smiled broadly, sending shivers down Haley's back.

"Well, I have to get back to practice... but, uh... do you want a ride home?"

"Uh... well... that'd be nice, but um... that's okay. I mean, you don't have to—"

"I don't mind, Haley,"

"No, really it's okay. Um... Lucas is giving me a ride today. But, maybe next time? Thanks, anyway. Well, I'll talk to you later!"

"Yeah, maybe next time. Later."

Even though it was a bit disappointing, Nathan shrugged it off. After handing back her textbooks, he jogged back to where the other players were.

Haley was just as disappointed, regretting that she'd asked Lucas in the morning to give her a lift home. If he knew that Nathan had offered her a ride, he would've been pissed! But what more could you ask for from an overprotective best friend?

She gave a quick wave to Brooke and Peyton. To her disregard, they had been entertaining themselves by watching the interaction between Nathan and herself. They waved back with cheesy smiles upon their pretty faces.

Exiting the doors of the gym, she made her way to the front lobby of the school, knowing that Lucas would be arriving soon. The tapping of her sneakers on the linoleum floors echoed through the empty halls. She looked at the familiar classroom doors as she passed, seeing all the lights turned off. Looking ahead, she saw the silhouette of a figure posted up against a set of lockers. An internal battle went through her head deciding whether to greet the stranger or to ignore them as she came closer. Realizing who the person was, she decided to the best thing to do was back off. Haley kept her head low and she attempted to steer clear out of Rachel's way.

"That's a bitchy thing to do," the redheaded stranger sneered.

Haley lifted her head, figuring that the girl wanted attention, after all.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. Too good to even acknowledge me?"

"No. I assumed that after what happened in there, you really wouldn't want to talk to anyone,"

There was a hint of a sour bite in Haley's response. She watched as Rachel removed herself from her position against a locker as she intruded Haley's personal bubble of space.

"Shut the fuck up. Don't act like your shit doesn't stink. I know all too well the act... how can I blame you? Nathan Scott has got everything that you don't—looks, popularity, and admiration from everyone around him,"

"Everyone... as in... mostly you?"

"Oh, don't be so quick to point fingers, Bookworm. I could say exactly the same for you,"

"Whatever uppers you're on, keep taking them because you don't have a clue about what you're talking about,"

Rachel clapped sarcastically as she came even closer.

"Did you learn that comeback from one of your stupid books?"

All of a sudden, the awful girl forcefully pushed one of the texts out of Haley's grasp, knocking it to the ground with a loud smack.

Then she continued,

"Just so you know, I asked him to prom,"

"Your point?"

"Stay away from my prom date,"

Rachel was merely inches away from Haley's face. She refused to be intimidated but she was blown that Nathan would be going with someone like Rachel. In fact, she was totally disgusted by his taste of women.

"What's going on here?"

Both girls' eyes fell upon Lucas, who had come right at that moment, furious to see what looked like some cheerleader threatening his best friend. He walked briskly over to Haley's side, picking up her book that lay on the floor.

"I suggest you get out of here," he sternly said to Rachel.

"For a hottie like you? Your wish is my command..."

Rachel gave a seductive wink to the boy as she turned away, strutting with purpose, back towards the gym.

Lucas wasn't even paying attention as he placed his comforting arm around Haley's shoulder.

"Are you okay, kiddo?"

Concern was etched into his facial features.

"I'm fine..."

"I was worried because you weren't out front like usual. Good thing I came in. You should only be so lucky," He boasted.

"Luke! I definitely had my own ass covered. She was just being the psycho bitch that she is,"

Haley sighed.

"C'mon, Hales, let's get you home,"

He grabbed her textbooks and backpack from her as she followed sulkily behind.