Authors Note: Hey guys, thanks again for the reviews. I know I said I would update twice this weekend, but I've had a lot going on so it looks like it'll only be once. I'm sorry. But anyway here's Chapter 4. Let me know what you think. Thanks - EC

Chapter 4: Rethinking Things

Haley flipped carelessly through her stack of mail, until she came across a post card. From Hawaii. Her sister, Taylor, was already on Spring Break and she had gone to Hawaii. Lucky bitch. Haley's Spring Break was in a week, and so far she had no plans….at all. She had the money, but all of her friends already had plans and she wasn't going to travel by herself. She considered visiting her parents, but since they were currently in Australia, she ruled that out. She wanted more than anything to get away from campus for a little while, but for the second year in a row, she didn't think it was gonna happen.

She read the post card quickly out load. " Miss you, wish you were here. It's amazing, blah fricken blah…." Haley mumbled.

" Are you talking to yourself again? First sign of insanity." Haley turned around and noticed Lucas had walked into her dorm room. "Oh, hey Luke. Just reading a postcard from Taylor. She's in Hawaii over break." Haley sighed, crumpling it up and throwing it out. "Oh, that's cool." Lucas said. "So Luke, where are you going for break?" Haley asked. " The whole basketball team is going to Florida. We're staying at this hotel on the beach." Lucas said. " Am I the only one in the entire school who doesn't have plans?" Haley pouted. Lucas opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted when the door swung open.

Brooke came flying in and was stomping around, throwing things, and sighing heavily. "Is she PMS'ing ?" Lucas whispered quietly to Haley, if Brooke heard him, she would definitely tear his head off. Haley just shrugged.

" Hey Brooke, you ok?" Haley asked softly, a little scared. "It's about time you asked !" Brooke yelled. Haley just rolled her eyes. " No, I'm not ok! You wanna know what happened?" Brooke asked with her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. "I know you're gonna tell me ." Haley whispered. " I'll tell you what happened, one of my cheerleaders broke her leg ! She broke her leg! Now I only have nine girls! I need ten Haley! My routine is perfect with ten girls and it won't work with nine !" Brooke yelled. " Okay, okay, calm down, remember to breath. We can figure this out." Haley said , encouragingly. " How? I can't just pull a cheerleader out of my hat. I would have to host auditions and that would just be a nightmare." Brooke said, falling back onto the bed. "Well, do you know anyone who cheered in High school?" Haley asked. "No, most of those girls are already on the team. You're like the only one left -" All of a sudden, Brooke got the biggest smile on her face and Haley knew exactly what she was thinking. "Hell no!" Haley said quickly before Brooke could even ask. " Come on Hales! Please? You were awesome in high school and you had fun. Remember?" Brooke said, trying to be persuasive. "Yeah, but that was high school, and I had a lot less going on. Now classes take up a lot of my time." Haley said. Brooke put on her saddest and cutest puppy dog face and Haley thought that was just so unfair.

" Haley! It doesn't really take up that much time. Practice is only two and a half hours. And, most of the girls on the team are really nice. You could make new friends." Brooke said, trying everything she could to get Haley to give in. It didn't seem like it was working, which was odd because Brooke could be very persuasive. When Haley just shook her head and stood there with her arms folded, Brooke knew she had too try harder. And she was so not ready to give up yet. "Did I mention that many of the basketball players are often shirtless during practice? One of them being a certain blue eyed boy." Brooke said. "Oh my gosh Brooke! I do not like Nathan!" Haley said defensively. "I never said that. I just said he would, occasionally, be shirtless. You were the one who twisted my words around." Brooke said putting her hands up innocently. " I'm still not joining the team. Those cheerleading uniforms are tighter and the skirts are even shorter than in high school." Haley said, running out of excuses. "Seriously Haley? That's the best you got?" Brooke said, her hands now on her hips. "If I recall, you don't have anywhere to go for Spring Break." Brooke pointed out. Haley just looked down and mumbled a simple "Yeah." Brooked had one more shot and if this didn't work, she was screwed. "Well, the cheer team gets to go to Florida with the basketball team, and if you happened to, say- join the team, then you would get to go…. to Florida….. for Spring Break….. with the team." Brooke said, hoping it would work. She knew how much Haley hated that she was going to have to stay at UNC for break, by herself, considering most of the other kids all had plans.

Haley hesitated for a minute, thinking about Brooke's offer. She really wanted to go to Florida and spend a week on the beach. Getting away from all the drama and stress from school sounded perfect. And even though she would never admit it, a small part of her was almost excited to spend a week at the same hotel as Nathan.

"Fine." Haley gave in, like she had so many times before when Brooke tried to get her to do something. Thinking back Haley couldn't remember a time when she hadn't given in too Brooke. "Really?" Brooke asked surprised. " I thought it was gonna take a lot more than that." Brooke said proudly. " This is gonna be awesome. You are gonna look so good in that uniform. Nathan won't know what hit him!" Brooke squealed. " Brooke !" Haley yelled at her. "I mean…. You know what? That's exactly what I meant. Even if you don't realize yet, I do. That boy likes you." Haley just stood there with her arms folded, glaring at Brooke . Neither of them noticed Lucas get up from the bed and slip out of the room. They also didn't notice that he had been sitting there the entire time and heard there whole conversation. If they did, they never would have brought up Nathan because, well, Lucas is his roommate and brother.

" Everyone, I'd like you to meet Haley James. She will be replacing Theresa." Brooke introduced Haley to the squad. They were at Haley's first practice. To say Haley was nervous was an understatement. She hadn't cheered since high school and she also was afraid the girls wouldn't like her. But she was a little relieved when she noticed that she, in fact, already knew some of the girls on the team.

Haley waved to everyone and said hi to a few close friends she knew from the team. "Okay girls, practice starts in five minutes, so just talk or whatever until then." Brooke announced, and then walked over to the radio to fix the music for practice.

Haley scanned the gym and noticed the basketball players had already started to warm up. They were running around, shooting freely. That's when she noticed Nathan. He was standing behind the three point line shooting over and over again. She couldn't get over how graceful he looked doing something he loved so much. She stared at him for a couple minutes and watched him make four in a row. Wow. Was all she could think. She had been to a few of the school basketball games before, but not many. And this was back when she wasn't to fond of Nathan.

( Nathan's Perspective)

Nathan ran over to the bench to quickly get a drink and then get back to his warm ups. He looked around the gym and then noticed her. With the cheerleaders? He was certain she hadn't been a cheerleader before today. He definitely would've noticed her by now. How could anyone not? She was gorgeous and extremely hot in her (really) short shorts and a tank top. Nathan remembered back to earlier when Lucas walked into their dorm room and told him that he overheard a conversation with Haley and Brooke and his name was brought up a couple times. After thinking about this, he smiled.

Nathan was walking back to the court and on his way he passed the sidelines where the cheerleaders were talking. As soon as he passed Haley he whispered " Nice legs James." And walked back over to shoot again. Haley just stood there with her mouth wide open. Had he really just said that to her? Was Brooke right? Maybe he did like her. Or maybe he was just trying to be annoying. Who knows? Haley certainly didn't.

" Alright girls, get in formation. Let's get started." Brooke ordered. Haley had never seen Brooke in cheer captain mode and according to some of the girls on the team, it was not something you wanted to see.

Brooke and Haley walked back into their dorm after what felt like a ten hour practice, to Haley. She dropped her bag on the floor and walked straight to her bed, flopping down on it. "Oh my god, I am so sore." Haley groaned. Brooke stared at her, amused. " Hales, it was your first time cheering in a while, you're supposed to be a little sore." Brooke encouraged. " A little? No, I don't think you understand. I cannot feel my arms." Haley whined. " Well look on the bright side, in less than a week, you'll be soaking up the sun in Florida. Woo!" Brooke pounded her fists in the air. Haley just buried her head under her pillow and groaned. Even though she was extremely excited about Florida.

Three days had gone by since Brooke forced Haley to join the squad. Well she technically didn't force her, but Haley knew she would never have given up trying. She had also cheered at her first game and didn't mess up once. She was pretty proud of herself and the fact that she still remembered some things from high school. Her classes had been stressful lately, well more than usual. She felt like her professors were cramming as much material in as they could before break started. Haley had started packing a couple days ago and joined Brooke on a couple shopping trips. She was excited about her wardrobe for break. With Brooke's help, she had cute new outfits and bikinis. And much too her pleasure, she hadn't had a nightmare about Cole since the day Nathan nearly broke his nose. She wasn't feeling as sorry for herself as she used to, and overall her and Brooke noticed that she was doing a lot better. She knew that Nathan had a lot to do with that. She had been thinking about him a lot lately, too much for her liking. She would run into him a lot to and they would share a light conversation. Haley couldn't stop thinking about spending her break at the same place he was spending his. She also couldn't stop thinking about how scared she was to like someone again. Did she even like him?

Haley got up from her spot at her desk when she heard a knock at her door. She walked over and was very surprised to see who was on the other side when she opened it.

" Hey Nathan, What's up?" Haley asked, feeling a little to excited that he was in front of her, looking very good in his jeans and a polo. "I was wondering if you've seen Lucas. I've been looking everywhere for him and his phones off." Nathan said. " Actually, I think him and Brooke went out for a little while, but Brooke just called me and said they'd be back soon. You can wait here if you want." Haley offered, wanting him to say yes a little to much. " Uh, yeah sure. If you don't mind?" He said. " Nope, not at all. I actually have NBA Live." she said. "You do not !" Nathan said, very surprised that a girl actually had that game. " I do too, and I'm pretty good so you better be careful." she teased. " Oh, you are so on!" Nathan challenged.

Two hours and five games of NBA Live, later, Nathan and Haley were still sitting on her couch laughing. "I cannot believe you beat me twice." Nathan whined. "Why? Just because I'm a girl, I can't be good at video games." Haley asked. "No, it's just that….no one ever beats me. Like ever." Nathan asked, pretending to still be in shock. " There's a first time for everything, besides, I have a lot of brothers." Haley said. Nathan laughed. " What are you laughing at?" Haley asked. "Well, you've had popcorn in your hair for the last three games." Nathan said. Haley tried to get it out but was failing miserably. "Here, let me get it." Nathan scooted closer to her on the couch and reached to the top of her head. As soon as he touched her, her body temperature rose a few degrees instantly.

All of a sudden the door flew open and Brooke and Lucas walked in. Brooke took one look and Nathan and Haley and then spoke. "Maybe we should come back later." Brooke said. Then, Haley realized how close her and Nathan were. She sprang up from the couch. " Uh, no that's okay. How was the movie?" she asked nervously. Brooke could sense Haley's nervousness and smiled. "It was pretty good." Lucas answered, completely oblivious to what had just happened. He was a guy. Duh!

" Um, Luke we should get going." Nathan said and Lucas nodded, saying goodbye to the girls. " Thanks for hanging out with me Hales." Nathan said, looking directly into her eyes and finding it hard to look away. " No problem, I had fun." Haley said. " Yeah, me too." Nathan said and smiled his beautiful smile, before walking out with Lucas.

" Well, well!" Brooke said as soon as they were gone. Haley rolled her eyes, knowing what was coming next. "You guys hung out?" Brooke said, emphasizing the words 'hung out '. " Yeah. He was looking for Lucas and I told him he could wait here until you guys got back." Haley said, innocently. " Okay, If that's your story." Brooke said.

Authors Note: There's Chapter 4! Again, I'm sorry for not updating twice like I said I would! I wish I could have but life got in the way. Just a little heads-up, there will be more Naley when they go on Spring Break. A lot more ! So let me know what you think and keep checking for Chapter 5!

Thanks - EC