''Did you just say Julian Baker?'' Nathan asked incredulously. When Brooke returned from L.A. she told all of her friends about Julian, so even Nathan remembers who he is.

Tim nodded, ''Appartantly he moved here from L.A. or something, what a snob.''

''Shut up Dim,''

Lucas quickly opened his bag and pulled out his phone. He texted Brooke quickly so he could let her know as soon as possible, also so Whitey doesn't catch him. He just looked to his left, ''Lets hope it's the same one.'' he said to his brother, who nodded in agreement.

Brooke sat in her class and filed her nails, she got there slightly earlier so she could sit at the back, the seat she sits in on the first day can be hers for the rest of the year.

The teacher walked in and set his books down, not surprised that not many students have turned up. But to his surprise Brooke Davis was already sat in the room, with her books out and pen ready. ''I never thought I'd see the day, Brooke Davis on time for my lesson.''

''Don't get used to it, I just like the corner seat.'' she said with a shrug and put the nail file back in her bag.

Five minutes later, the rest of the class had arrived and the teacher was about to start the lesson, when there was a knock at the door. Brooke then heard a beep on her phone and grabbed it out of her pocket.

''My name's Julian Baker, I'm new here, this is my class.'' a strangely familiar voice said from the doorway.

Brooke glanced up and saw no other than the Julian Baker stood at the doorway, handing her teacher a slip. He looked as gorgeous as ever, but this time he just had a nervous expression on his face. Which was strange, because the Julian Baker she met didn't act nervous, he acted like a tough guy, she liked seeing this side of him. She just liked seeing him.

She looked back at her phone and saw the text message from Lucas.

There's a new guy, his name's Julian Baker. Is it your Julian? This is great!

Brooke did the only thing she could think of right in this moment.

She ducked under the desk.

Bevin saw her and gave her a confused look. Brooke just brought her finger to her lips, silently telling her not so say anything. The glare on Brooke's face also said that if she does, she's so off the cheer squad.

She stook her head out and saw that Julian had now sat down, luckily at the only spare seat at the front. She's now extra relieved that she got the corner desk. She slowly got up and sat down, trying not to grab any attention.

The rest of the lesson was spent with Brooke trying to stop her hands from shaking, and trying very hard to concentrate on what the teacher was saying. She didn't answer any questions or cause any trouble so the teacher had no excuse to say her name. She also spent the whole lesson trying to gather her thoughts.

If Lucas was right, if Julian had played her. Then why is he here? Does he know she lives in Tree Hill? Did he come to Tree Hill for her? But he didn't know she lived here, so did he stalk her? Why hasn't he talked to her already then? Is he mad that she didn't get his number?

Is he as crazy about her as she is of him?

Well, that cleared things up.

The bell rang and everyone gathered their things, Brooke was relieved when Julian was first out of the door. She had time to get her things which would make him way ahead of her in the corridor.

But she'll have to face him sometime.

Haley James walked down the corridor with Peyton and Jake, she was in abit of a hurry because her next class was with Brooke and Nathan. So they wanted to get seats near eachother. As she was walking she bumped into someone, as she was about to apologise she realised that she didn't recognise him. Haley knows who everyone is in the school, the freshmans to the seniors. So she decided to introduce herself.

''Sorry. Are you new here? I'm Haley.''

He was surprised that this girl actually apologised, people had been bumping into him all day and not cared. Also he was shocked that she introduced herself, everyone else had just stared at him, not bothering to act friendly.

''It's okay. Yeah I'm new, My name's Julian Baker.''

Haley froze, so did Peyton who was stood next to her. ''Did you just say Julian Baker?'' Peyton asked.

He nodded, ''Yeah. Why, is there something wrong with that name?''

''We've heard of your dad, he's a movie producer, right?'' Haley quickly recovered, remembering something that Brooke had told her about Julian. She wasn't exactly sure if it was the same one, but now she'll find out.

Julian sighed, of course they knew him because of his dad. ''Yeah,''

''Hey Hales, Curly, Jake.'' Nathan greeted walking over to them. He'd saw them talking to a guy he didn't recognise, he was hoping that it was Brooke's guy. ''Who's this?'' he asked, wrapping his arm around Haley's shoulders, even though they're not together, it would be still nice to pretend, even just for a couple of minutes.

''This is Julian,'' Jake said, ''the new guy.''

Just like his two best friends did before, Nathan froze. So this is Brooke's guy. He couldn't really see what Brooke would see in him, his short curly hair was messed up, and his jumper wasn't that nice. But it wasn't up to him who Brooke decides to date, or fall in love with. Or whatever the hell she wants to do.

''Oh, you're the guy that lived in L.A. right?'' he asked, he to wanted to make sure it was the right Julian Baker.

Julian nodded, he then noticed that the hallway was almost empty. ''I've got to get to class.''

''Shit.'' Nathan muttered. ''Come on Hales, I'm in your next class.'' he grabbed her hand and they ran down the hallway.

''So it was him?'' Haley asked in their class, Nathan was sat next to her wondering the exact same thing. The class were all working on a group task, luckily they got asked to work in three's, but they weren't doing much working.

Brooke nodded, ''Yeah, he looked exactly the same. I should have pinched myself, because I was fifty percent sure I was dreaming. But you guys saw him, right?''

''Yeah, he is so cute.'' Haley gushed.

Nathan shrugged, ''He was okay.. I guess.''

The girls giggled, ''Nathan. When we're talking about cute guys, you don't comment.'' Brooke stated.

''Noted.''

''So Brooke, how do you feel right now?'' Haley asked softly. In their group her and Lucas often took the wrole of therapist, they're the ones who are most concerened for peoples feelings. And right now Haley wants to know what might happen with Brooke and Julian.

Brulian. Nice.

''I don't know. All summer I was just wishing I'd turn a corner and see him there, or when I'd answer the phone he'd be on the other line. And now he's here, he's actually here. But now.. I don't know.'' she explained. ''I just have so many questions to ask. Do you think he came here for me?''

''Brooke, he didn't know you lived here remember.'' Nathan reminded her.

''Then why is he here? He lived in L.A. Why would he come to little ol' Tree Hill?''

''Ask him.''

Haley said that so simply, like she could just waltz up and ask him. But it isn't that simple.

It never is.

''You so owe me.'' Julian reminded Mouth at the end of the day. They're on the way to Julian's first mathletes practice, he was slowly warming up to the idea. He never really had a clique in his old school, even though mathletes isn't exactly what you would call cool, it would be good for him. Everything has been pretty crazy lately, with Brooke, his parents divorce, moving to a new town. It could be good for him to have something stable, maybe even normal.

But nothing's ever really normal, is it?

''I know, I know.''

They arrived at the door and Mouth walked in. He smiled when his eyes landed on Rachel, who was sat on one of the tables writing something down. Julian followed behind, there was a girl with red hair sat down, and three guys asking eachother maths questions.

''Hey guys, I got us a new member.'' Mouth announced proudly.

''We've already got a new member, this is Owen.'' Chase said, pointing to the beefy guy next to him.

Mouth shook his head, ''That's not fair, Julian wanted to join too. Did Owen even try out?''

Julian didn't even object, and say he didn't want to join. Because right now, he does. It's not fair how this guy can take his place on the team, he's not going to lose another thing that he wants. He's not going to back down this time.

''No, but he got here earlier.'' Michael said.

''What has that got to do with anything? Look, I want to be on this team. But if you don't let me, and this guy turns out to be hopeless. Then I'm not coming back, it's your choice. Just let me try out?'' Julian offered.

''He's right.'' Rachel spoke up. ''We don't know for sure if Owen's that good. How about we ask you five questions, who ever gets three questions right wins?''

''Fine.'' Chase said. ''Owen sit there, and Julian, you sit there.'' he ordered, pointing to two desks that were facing eachother.

Julian and Owen both sat down and glared at eachother.

Nope, Julian was not backing down.

''Okay,'' Michael said. ''Whoever says the answer first and gets it right, gets a point. If you get it wrong, then the other one will answer. Whoever gets three right wins.''

They nodded in understanding and waited for Michael to ask the first question.

''How many liters of 20% alcohol solution should be added to 40 liters of a 50% alcohol solution to make a 30% solution?''

Julian and Owen were both silent as they worked out of the question.

''80 liters of 20% alcohol is be added to 40 liters of a 50% alcohol solution to make a 30% solution.'' Owen said quickly.

''Correct.'' Michael said.

Owen smirked at Julian. As Michael read the next question from his piece of paper.

''Sterling Silver is 92.5% pure silver. How many grams of Sterling Silver must be mixed to a 90% Silver alloy to obtain a 500g of a 91% Silver alloy?''

''200 grams.'' Julian said nervously.

''Correct. Find all real solution to the quadratic equation .. x2 + 2x = -1.''

''x = -1?'' Owen guessed.

''Correct. Add and express in the form of a complex number a + b i ... (2 + 3i) + (-4 + 5i) - (9 - 3i) / 3.''

''-5 + 9 i.'' Julian stated confidently.

''Correct. Final question, who ever gets this right wins.'' Julian rolled his eyes at how dramatic this all was, but played along. ''A circle with center (4,-5) is tangent to the y-axis in the standard (x,y) coordinate plane. What is the radius of this circle?''

Just as Julian was about to answer, Owen beat him to it. ''16.''

''Wrong.'' Michael said. ''Julian if you get this right, you're on the team.''

''4.'' he answered.

''Correct. Congratulations Julian, welcome to the mathletes.''

''So guys, who's in for it this year?'' Alex Dupre asked the cheerleaders and basketball players as they stood in the gym.

Lucas and Haley sighed, they definetely don't like what's going to happen, but If they don't go along with it, they're of the teams.

''Mathletes.'' Nathan announced.

''What is it this year?'' Bevin asked, she didn't want it to be to bad. Her friend Mouth is on that team, she doesn't want him to get hurt.

''Well this year, Brooke was a little preoccupied and didn't have time to think of a really good prank. So we're keeping it simple-ish this year. When they come from their practice, we egg them in the parking lot.'' Peyton said. She wasn't against this, she thought it was kind of fun.

''But that will take ages,'' Damien moaned, ''I'm not waiting in the parking lott until they come out. Someone needs to lead them out, make an excuse about the janitor needing to lock the school early or something.''

''Brooke should go.'' Theresa said. ''She was the one who was supposed to think of a really good one, we done this one in freshman year. What were you preoccupied with?''

''Stuff.'' Brooke lied. The truth is she couldn't think about anything other than Julian, so when she realised she had to think of what to do for this year, she just told someone else to think of one. Because she really couldn't think of anything good enough. She kept thinking What would Julian do? And it wasn't working. And apparantly no one else thought of one.

''That's not good enough.'' Alex huffed. ''All in favour for Brooke to go and get them?''

Everyone except Peyton, Haley, Lucas, Nathan and Jake put their hands up. Brooke's best friends didn't want her to be majorly involved with it, because they know she doesn't really like pulling these pranks either. She only has to think of them 'cause she's the cheer captain, and that's the tradition. Jake could tell that she didn't want to do it, and Peyton would kill him if he put his hand up, so he left his down too.

Unfortunately, six people objecting isn't enough. ''Go on Brooke, we'll be waiting outside.''

Brooke walked out of the gym and to the room where the mathletes practice, all the while thinking...

I don't wanna do this.

AN: I'm not to impressed with this chapter, but I hope you liked it. Sorry for the cliffhanger again:/, but I promise there will be Brulian in the next chapter. I just didn't want to rush into things with them.

This story will now be updated every MONDAY. and On A Lonely Night will be updated on Fridays.

Thanks to all the reviewers, you guys really rock.

Please, Please, Please review!