Hey guys heres the next chapter. I wont be updating for a while, I have a lot of work for school, and so i really need to focus on that. So heres the next chapter. Hope you all like it,

Now im watching One Tree Hill. Got to go.

The only sound in the gym was the sound of sneakers screeching against the gym floor. The boys were running and thinking. One boy in particular was thinking pretty hard. Isaac Peters, known to all by Zeke, had just done something horrible. Granted it wasn't the worst thing he had ever done before, but ha had never felt this guilty ever in his life.

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Isaac Peters had lived in Tree Hill all of his life. His dad was a local contractor, with a really bad temper. His mom didn't stay around long; she was clinically depressed, and was checked in and out of rehab. Life at home wasn't exactly that comforting and it caused Zeke to spin out of control.

Starting in his elementary school days Zeke had been a really bad kid. He had been caught by the cops for shoplifting, breaking into stores; he even knocked down a woman to steal her purse. The cops had told Zeke he had to shape up, because if he was caught one more time he was going to juvie.

After that threat and one serious beating from his father, Zeke took the threat seriously. He ditched all his friends when they went out to have a smoke, and maybe steal some liquor. Instead, he would head to the river court and shoot around. He was pretty good; he used to play in junior league when he was younger. So the summer before high school everyday he came to the river court and worked on his game. Shooting, dribbling, pick up games with some older guys.

That's when Lucas first saw him. They played together along with a senior named Quentin. He had lost to them by five points. Needless to say, Lucas was impressed and looked into the kid. He learned that he was a trouble maker in the town who was currently on probation. He for sure didn't want a delinquent on his team causing trouble. After thinking about it a lot, he allowed Zeke a position on the team on condition that he changes his behavior completely.

That was exactly what Zeke did. He ditched all his trouble maker friends completely and became friends with the jocks. His grades, which had to be at least a C average in order for him to stay on the team, were close to a B+. The coaches noticed a big improvement in his behavior and playing skills, and his ability to play with a team. Of course, the attitude was still a problem, but it could be fixed. The coaches decided to offer him a position as co-captain.

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Lucas sat at the table at the edge of the court his head in his head. He had no idea that this was going to be so difficult. I mean he expected a little of it, but Zeke's last comment threw it all out of the loop.

"What are we going to do about him?" Asked Lucas.

"Well his behavior sure doesn't make him deserve his captain position. It's only the third practice and he already screwed up. Whitey made me share the captain position with you when I screwed up, but this…this is much worse." Nathan said sighing.

"He's right, I thought Zeke changed but it seems that he is still up to all his old shit. He doesn't deserve to be captain." Lucas agreed. "But who do you think should be in place of him?"

"Ryder or Jack." Skills replied. "Jackson was the only player who actually acknowledged her on the team, and he's a great player. Or Ryder because it would be cool to have the twins as co-captains. Ryder's really smart and also a really strong player. Plus he's a senior where as Jackson is a junior."

Lucas thought it over. They were both really good candidates, but Jack was pretty new to the team, where as Ryder had been here all of his high school career. He had made up his mind.

"Ryder. I'm stopping the suicides. They've done enough." Lucas blew his whistle. The running came to a stop. The boys were panting and heaving.

"I hope you realize that your behavior tonight was completely unacceptable, and I am pretty sure that it will never, ever happen again. That girl is a great player, and she's part of the team now, whether you like it or not. From now on you treat her like part of the team. That means actually passing her the ball, rebounding for her, assisting I her shots. She's going through a tough time, and you guys are all responsible to help her." Lucas was done with his lecture. "You're all dismissed. Zeke and Ryder stay back."

Zeke cringed. This cant be good he thought.

The team slowly walked to the locker rooms. As the door closed that's when Lucas' second lecture began.

"Zeke, I let you onto this team on condition that your behavior improves. You showed me last year that you had changed for the better, so I offered you to be co-captain of the team. Your behavior tonight showed me that you hadn't really changed, and that cant be the behavior of a team captain. I'm sorry to have to do this, but you can't be the co-captain of the Ravens any more. Maybe if you prove yourself again, Ill think about it for next year." Lucas saw Zeke's face fall slightly, he then turned to Ryder. "Ryder, we want you to take Zeke's position as captain. Hopefully you won't let us down."

Ryder was ecstatic. "I won't coach." Lucas nodded in return. He dismissed the boys to go to the showers. Turning towards Skills, and Nathan he let out a deep breath. "Now what about Sarah Preston?"

"Call Peyton." Skills suggested. "I mean Peyt went through the same thing. Maybe she could help the girl."

Lucas agreed, and flipped out his phone dialing a familiar number. "Hey Peyt, I was wondering if you could help me out…"

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Sarah had stormed out of practice. She was seething mad. That punk! How dare he! Finding her car she looked at it. It had been her dad "mid life crisis car." Her parents were so against getting her a car, even though they had three. One was her moms, and two were her dads. This car was a 2005 red mustang convertible, with black interior.

Sarah got in laying her head down on the steering wheel and cried. Her body wracked with sobs. After ten minutes she was cried out. That was it, ten minutes. That's how much she allowed herself to cry a day. She put the keys in and started the engine and drove home.

Driving home she remembered when her dad had gotten the car. He wanted it because it made him feel younger. She had laughed at him because he was young; there was no reason for him to need the car then. Now she was glad that he had gotten the car because he at least got to enjoy it as much as he could.

Going home Sarah parked the car in the garage, and went up the steps to the kitchen. On the fridge she saw a note.

Hey Sarah,

Will be home a bit earlier tonight,

Like around 8ish,

Don't order any food we'll go out tonight

Love,

Mom

Ugh, that was the last thing she wanted to do tonight, go out with her mom. She just wanted to sit at home and watch some movies, maybe The Notebook. Standing in the house she just listened. It was so quiet. It sounded empty. That's because it was empty.

Her father had been in the real estate business, and insisted on them buying this house. It was a new colonial style house with big windows and wood floors. But the house was too big for their family of three, now two. The house was now actually empty.

Sarah wondered what their family would have been like if she had siblings. Maybe her mom wouldn't work as much, and Sarah wouldn't be so lonely now. But then again, she wouldn't be who she was now. Her father had always wanted a son, one who he could play sports with, watch foot ball games with, and teach him so many things that fathers teach their sons. But he never got his son, so he taught his daughter how to play almost every sport, she watched football games with him, and he was really happy.

The memories were starting to upset Sarah more so she went down the garage and took out her lacrosse stick and a tennis ball. Standing at the edge of her driveway she threw the ball hard against the house. The more she thought about practice the angrier she got. That damn Zeke Peters! What right did he have to bad mouth her with out even giving her a chance! She threw the ball harder and harder against the house. She started to move back into the street using all her strength to throw the ball and catch it. Her anger was coming back, and she was taking it out on the house and the ball.

She grunted as she threw the ball really hard against the top of the garage. The sound of glass shattering had taken her out of her angered stupor. She had shattered the light on top of the garage. She shrugged, shed clean it up later. She continued throwing the ball against the house, angry, confused, and hurt. Soon though, Sarah stopped as she felt a tap on her shoulder.

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Peyton had been in her living room sketching with Brooke. She had been thinking a lot lately about her and Lucas. She felt incredibly guilty about Lindsey and ruining their chance to be together. But now, after making up from their fight, Peyton thought they were on track as friends. Maybe the "friends" part wouldn't have to last long.

Sitting just sketching Peyton couldn't help the smile on her face. For once she was happy.

Brooke looked up from her laptop and saw Peyton smiling, she smirked.

"Why are you all smiley Goldilocks?" She asked still wearing her smirk

Everything had been going great for Brooke as well. She had fired her mother and was running her company by herself, and was in the process of finding someone to help her out with that. She was also a mother now. She had adopted Maya, whose mother was a knocked up sixteen year old. Maya was adorable, a little girl with little blonder curls and blue eyes. Brooke was happy; she had everything she wanted right now. She was single, but it's hard to be a single mom and date, plus she is still waiting for the perfect man.

"I don't know," Peyton shrugged. "For the first time in a while I feel like everything is good." She smiled.

"That's great P. Sawyer." Brooke rasped. "I'm happy for you, I really am."

"What about you Brooke? Are you happy?" Peyton asked, dropping her sketch pad and pencil on the table.

"Yeah, I mean I have everything I need, yeah I'm happy P. Sawyer."

They sat there smiling when Peyton's phone starts ringing. Peyton looks down at the called Id and her smile grew.

"Hey Lucas" She said her smile still plastered on her face.

"Hey Peyt, I was wondering if you could do me a favor…"

Lucas went on to tell her what had happened in practice. Peyton was appalled at this boy's behavior. A banging noise was heard throughout the house, a little rhythmic sound. Suddenly a crash was heard.

"Hold on a sec Luke... Brooke what was that?" Yelled Peyton up the stairs. Brooke came down holding Maya.

"I have no idea, I thought it was you." Brooke said puzzled.

Then it came to her, Peyton went to the front window. There was Sarah Preston using a Lacrosse stick to throw a tennis ball against the house. She saw glass near the garage, and saw that the middle light was missing.

"We need to make our house more sound proof, this is insane." Said Brooke puzzled by the girls behavior.

"Hey Luke, yeah I'll go talk to her, I see her outside. She's slamming tennis balls against her house."

"Thanks Peyton, I owe you."

She laughed. "Ill speak to you later Luke, tell you how it goes."

Brooke looked at her, her eyebrows raised. "What was that about?"

"The story behind all that racket that girl is making. Apparently her first practice didn't go so well. Luke wants me to go over there and talk to her. Ill sees you soon."

Opening the front door, Peyton looked at the girl and sighed. She recognized the behavior from when the same thing happened to her. Anger, fear, confusion, self consciousness all of it was a reaction to losing someone you love. Walking down her front steps, Peyton could see the anger in Sarah's eyes. She grunted like a tennis player as she threw the ball against the house. Peyton tapped her on the shoulder softly. She jumped.

Turning around Sarah saw Peyton Sawyer.

"Hey, I'm Peyton Sawyer," she said reaching out her hand Sarah shook it firmly. "I live across the street." She pointed to her house.

"Sarah Preston," Sarah said gruffly. What is she doing here she thought. "You're the Peyton that Lucas wrote about in his book, right?

"Yeah that would be me," Peyton said bashfully. "Look I don't want to totally spook you out, but Lucas called me about practice this evening…"

Sarah cringed. She had tried to forget about practice. She then realized that she had run out on all the guys on the team, not just Zeke.

"I probably shouldn't have stormed out. He probably thinks I'm like this little cry baby or something..." Sarah threw the ball against the house again.

"Does your mom care that you're throwing ball seventy five miles per hour at her house?" Asked Peyton a little amused.

Sarah shrugged. "She doesn't know about it, she's not home when I do it."

"Do you mind putting down the trajectory weapon? Come here." Peyton sat on the grass, Sarah followed hesitantly. "When I was ten, my mom died in car crash on her way coming to pick me up from school. For years I was traumatized, everything I saw, everything I did reminded me of her. Small things like certain words, or colors, or numbers reminded me of her. I really couldn't get over her death. Kids would make comments, and whisper thinking that I couldn't hear them. It was awful; I couldn't get over her…"

Sarah nodded, not knowing exactly where she's going. Peyton continued. "Then as I hit middle school I got really into music, all kinds of it, like Indie and Classic Rock, anything, it just helped ease the pain. Then art became something that helped too. The pain soon became numb, so that I couldn't feel it. I know that you're in this place right now, that you don't know what you're going to do. Everything seems so new, and empty and lonely, and nobody understands. But just stick with it. Use your athletics to numb the pain. Basketball. I've seen you play, and you're awesome, your dad would be so proud."

Sarah smiled through her tears. Peyton was right, she described her feelings perfectly. The emptiness, the pain all of it.

Peyton had seen that Sarah understood. "Look Sarah," she said getting up. "If you ever need anything, just cross the street. I'm there for you, keep playing. Show that jerk on your team that you're better than he is. Oh, and take it easy on your house, it didn't do anything to you, no reason to strike it. "

Sarah smiled, that was exactly what she was planning on doing, beating Zeke.

"Hey Peyton!" Peyton turned around. "Thanks." Sarah said sincerely.

Peyton nodded and went home.

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