Chapter 1. Enjoy :)
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ONE TREE HILL OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS PORTRAYED IN THIS STORY
"…Today, is a very special day and believe it or not just the beginning of a long, hard, stressful life. Just look at my face, it shows" The crowd burst into light laughs as Couch Durham recited his speech to the Tree hill graduating class.
He scanned the crowd resting his eyes on each individual he had come to know over the last four years, connecting each story to each face. "You know… after coaching for as long as I have, you start to appreciate how great of a sport basketball is… and over the course of these four years I have come to realize that the players, not just the sport but the players are the best part".
"I may or may not have just felt some water roll down my cheek" Lucas mumbled sitting two rows back from the stage
"Awww lukey baby it's called tears" Haley and Peyton said in unison
"It's not funny" He said as they resumed laughing and teasing him
"These set of kids have given me many memories, a state championship after twenty years and lots of stories to tell in whatever I decide to pursue next. Ladies and gentlemen …Please stand up and congratulate the Tree Hill graduating Class of 2007!"
The auditorium erupted into applause and cheering and hooting and all sorts of noises as the students hurled their caps into the air unable to contain their excitement. Finally, the day they had all imagined had arrived and they couldn't help but feel that it had come too soon. After tonight everything for them would change. With Brooke boarding a flight out of Tree Hill the very next day and Lucas preparing to leave soon for a couple of months as well, there was no doubt they had to spend these last moments together before starting these new chapters in their lives.
"I'll ride with Nathan and Haley" Brooke volunteered to the group as they stood in the parking lot discussing their plans for the party tonight. She turned towards Peyton who gave her a thankful look and nodded back. Lucas and Peyton had just rekindled whatever they had going on and she wanted to give the new couple some space together. They'd been on an off for some months now and she wanted to help out, plus it was just a car ride and they'd all be meeting up later on anyway.
Nathan felt an arm tug on his.
"Hey I see my dad over there I'm just gonna go over real quick before we head out" Haley said to him
"Of Course" Nathan smiled down pecking her on the lips. He was glad to see Haley's dad show up. She'd taken it really hard after her mom had died two years ago, and today was a special day so he was sure she was happy that he could make it.
"Umm guys. I'm gonna be right back. My parents keep staring at me so I'm guessing they want me to go over to them even though we're all gonna be stuck together starting tomorrow when we leave but whatever" Brooke spoke all in one breath and the rest of the gang laughed
Lucas, Nathan and Peyton were all left leaning against their cars when they saw four figures approaching them. It was Karen, Keith, Deb and Peyton's Dad.
"We're so proud of you!" Karen and Deb squealed as they went in to hug Lucas and Nathan
"I'm proud of you too Peyton" She smiled. Hugging her father close "Thanks dad"
"Lucas and Nathan" Keith shook his head in disbelief and stood back looking at the new graduates.
"I can't believe how fast time has gone by. Look at you guys already graduated about to go to college, start your careers" They all smiled "Come here" Keith motion and all three of them hugged.
"We're so proud of you guys" Keith Said
Lucas let out a small chuckle "Yep we made it"
"Are you guys already packed for tonight?" Karen asked "We stopped by and made sure the heater was working at the beach house for you guys okay"
"Thanks mom" Lucas muttered
"Yeah we're all packed up" Nathan breathed out "We're just waiting for the girls and then we're off"
They shared a few more words, and laughs before Haley and Brooke came back to join them.
"We'll see you guys tomorrow. Stay safe and if anything goes wrong call us okay" They all hugged and the group got into their respective cars.
They arrived at the beach house and settled into their rooms. Brooke decided to stay in the den on the first floor while Lucas and Peyton and Nathan and Haley shared the upstairs bedrooms. Nathan and Lucas immediately got to getting ready while the girls chatted around the kitchen. Tonight was going to be one of the best nights they'd had in a long time, they were finally done with high school and could move on to do the things they'd only dreamt about before now. Soon enough the guys were ready and the girls decided to get themselves ready as well.
"I like the way you wear that shirt hales" Nathan said as the three girls emerged into the living room
Haley laughed and smirked at the comment "I try" she replied running her hands through her hair and eyeing down Nathan himself
"You're not too bad either" The rest of the group silently rolled their eyes at the affection
"Well it was about time, let's go" Lucas lifted from the couch grabbing the car keys and walking over to Peyton
"You look great by the way" He complimented
She ran her hand through her hair mocking Haley "I try"
They pulled up to the house party where you could hear the loud music blasting from the inside. All the seniors were there, it was packed. People were outside on the porch, some hanging around the many parked cars even sitting on the low branched trees.
"Guys you ready to have fun!" Brooke yelled after shutting the car door and catching up to the rest.
They walked inside together and barely made their way past familiar faces, the house was crowded. They ended up finding a spot next to skills and mouth in the backyard.
"Man it's crazy how time flies" Skills said taking a sip of his drink and budding up a conversation
Nathan and Haley ventured off to another room together and Brooke excused herself to go get a drink.
"Dance with me" Lucas said holding out his hand to Peyton as the music changed to Usher's 'Yeah'
Peyton let out a chuckle and grabbed his hand "Sure"
"I might have to teach you some dance moves Scott" She said before swiftly turning around and moving her hips along with his.
At this point he couldn't think straight with her moving against him like that. The smell of her soft blonde hair intoxicated him as he lost himself to her movements. She turned around to look at him and he got lost in her eyes. She did that to him a lot.
"Hey you still here" Peyton said lightly slapping his face and laughing at how hypnotized he was. She turning back around and began to dance even harder against him.
They had been at the party for a little over forty five minutes now.
Brooke had made her way into the kitchen to grab herself some punch and decided to stay in the less crowded room. She moved along to the music and stared into the other rooms which were now super jam packed. She could see Nathan and Haley dancing, more like grinding into each other. She laughed to herself and looked into the other room to see Lucas and Peyton doing the same. Brooke couldn't help but to laugh and shake her head at the two couples.
"Hey beautiful"
She looked up from her cup to see a tall blonde guy she hadn't recognized from school
"And you are?" She questioned
"Does it matter baby girl, I just wanna talk to you" He said moving closer to her
Brooke watched his movements carefully as he slid his hands in his pockets and came uncomfortably close to her. How is it she always ended up in these situations? This guy creeped her out on so many levels. She moved back and crossed her arms.
"Well I'm not interested. And I'm NOT your 'Baby girl'"
"If you'd just tell me your name then maybe we can start this conversation over"
"Listen dude, I said I'm not interested. There will be NO conversation, now please leave me alone" Brooke said annoyed, grabbing her phone off the counter top and turning around to walk away until she felt an arm swing her body back around and a large, smelly body become attached to her own.
"I SAID IM NOT INTERESTED"
"I won't hurt you, I just wanna get to know you. Now quit acting like a little bitch and talk to me" He demanded, spewing his hot, smelly breath into her face.
"LET GO OF ME!" Brook squirmed trying to loosen his grip
"Relax baby gir-"
"HEY!? She said she's not interested, now how about you back off and go find someone else to bother. Someone preferably your own age, why are you here anyway this is a high school party?"
The tall blonde turned around to see Lucas who was now facing him.
"And who are you?" The guy chuckled "This is my house if you didn't know and I think you should be minding your own business" He walked over to Lucas meeting him at eye level.
Lucas peered over his shoulder to see if Brooke was okay before motioning for her to come over on his side.
"Luke it's alright I'm fine, let's just get out of here" Brooke whispered lightly grabbing onto his arm. The situation was getting heated and the last thing she wanted was for Lucas to get himself into trouble over her.
"What's going on here?" Peyton said walking in with Nathan and Haley right behind. By now the commotion was enough to attract spectators and a circle of people had gathered around them.
"Nothing is going on, we are leaving, let's go" Brooke said tugging on Lucas's left arm as Peyton tugged on his right
He eyed the tall blonde one more time before turning around to leave.
"It was nice talking to you beautiful" The guy remarked before smacking Brooke on the ass
That was enough to get Lucas more than heated and before he knew what was coming, the tall blonde fell to the ground after his face connected with Luke's fist.
"You son of a bitch!?"
"LUKE!?" Peyton called out, Lucas stood over the guy's body holding his fist tightly and waiting for him to even try to get back on his feet
He stood up and pushed Lucas back into the cabinets and in the midst of throwing punches and the pushing and shoving, the tall blonde's hand managed to connect with Peyton's lip.
By now both Nathan and Lucas, even Skills were in the middle of the fight and all the girls could do was try to get it under control.
"Nathan! NATHAN!? Stop it!" Haley screamed tugging on his shoulder
"Nathan!? That's enough!" She was finally able to pull him off of the other guy and dragged him out into the front of the house.
"Are you crazy?! Natha-"
"What Haley! I'm not gonna stand back and watch Luke get beat up on like that!"
Haley sighed and watched Brooke and Peyton emerge from the house, with Lucas not too far behind. His shirt was torn open and his hair was a mess. Peyton on the other hand was bleeding from her lip as Brooke held a rag out to her.
"Let's go home" Brooke said and they all piled into the cars
"You should have stood back, I could've handled it" Lucas uttered stopping at the red light
As far as he knew it could have been much worse, and Peyton was lucky she hadn't passed out right then.
"I was just trying to de-escalate the situation, I didn't know the dude would actually swing on me" She said frustratingly as she held up the iced rag to her lip which had now swollen
"Let me see your lip" He glanced towards her and she slowly took off the rag
"Is it bad?" Peyton exclaimed after Lucas let out a wince
"Ugh its um-"
"Luke Stop it" She cried out "It's bad isn't it" she frowned
Lucas chuckled and looked up to see the red light had now changed to green
"Not too bad. You'll be fine" He mumbled lowly, driving forward
They got to the house and everyone got ready for bed. No one spoke of what had just transpired, they just all went to their separate areas and got ready for bed. Brooke was fixing up her bed when Peyton walked in.
"Hey you sure you don't wanna move in upstairs with me? There's plenty of room" Peyton let out, emerging in her pajamas
Brooke giggled while opening her bed sheets on the pull out sofa.
"I'm fine Peyton. Plus I'm sure I don't want to see or hear what you guys do at night"
"hahaha you're funny" Peyton sang playfully
"I'm just checking up on you. I can't believe you're leaving us tomorrow" They both sat down at the edge of the bed and Peyton wrapped her arms around Brooke
"I'm going to miss you so bad" Brooke laid her head on Peyton's shoulder
"What's happening here" Haley inquired walking into the room, removing some pillows and sitting with the duo.
"Just cuddling" Peyton remarked "Spending some quality time before this one abandons us" She spat squeezing Brookes shoulders. Brooke smiled appreciating the love her friends were showing her.
"Sweet I'm in" Haley yelped before scooting closer to them
"So um shouldn't you be with Nathan right now?" Peyton and Brooke Teased causing Haley to blush and give them the side eye
"He's in the shower if you must know" Haley said, unknowingly biting her lip and spacing out for a few seconds
"Earth to Hales!" Brooke called
"Oh sorry"
"Is he ok though? I mean after the fight. And is it bad that I feel bad about it?" Brooke asked feeling a tad bit responsible for what had happened.
"He's fine. Just a bruised knuckle but he'll be ok."
"Ugh, this whole thing just makes me feel-"
"It's not your fault Brooke, I'm actually glad Lucas got in a few punches before we broke it up"
"Same here" Haley chimed in
Brooke smiled. "Thanks"
"I'm gonna miss you guys so much. You have no idea" She pulled them in for a long hug.
They sat around sharing stories and laughing together for almost thirty more minutes.
"Alright I'm gonna head up to bed now" Peyton said standing up.
"Me too" Haley said letting out a loud yawn and standing up.
"So um are you gonna be ok down here by yourself? Nathan and I have plenty of room u-"
"Ohhh no no no no no, I definitely don't want to hear what you two do at night either." Peyton and Brooke both laughed
"Fine" Haley said getting red
"I'll see you guys tomorrow. Night night" She turned around giving both Brooke and Peyton a hug and marched upstairs.
Haley walked into the bedroom where Nathan was wrapping his hand in a gauze. She walked over to where he was.
"I don't like seeing you get into fights like these Nate" Haley said opening the draw and pulling out the scissors to cut a piece off for him.
"You could've gotten hurt really bad"
"Yeah and so could Lucas" He said wrapping and tying the gauze in place.
"Then break up the fight not join in" She said giggling a little to lighten the mood
"But I'm not gonna lie I'm kind of happy you beat up that jerk. There's no way I wouldn't help Brooke, It just scared me that's all"
Nathan turned around and pulled Haley closer to him.
"I love it when you care so much" He said lowly, placing a light peck on her lips.
"Always" She whispered and leaned in to give him a passionate kiss. The kiss intensified, and Nathan wrapped his arms around Haley's back bringing her even closer, if that was possible.
They began to inch towards the bed and Nathan opened his eyes to look at a flustered Haley James. All he could think of was how beautiful she looked.
He leaned in again and their lips began to mesh together into another kiss until something caught his eye at the edge of his shoulder bag on the verge of falling out. Earlier that day he grabbed the mail out of the box and stuffed it into his bag before rushing to his graduation ceremony but he didn't bother checking what it was. He slowly pulled away from Haley and walked over to the night stand where he soon realized it was a letter.
"Hales" He called out staring at the envelope. He turned around and held it up for her to see.
"It's from Duke! Ohhh my goodness Babe open it!" She roared
Nathan couldn't believe it either, he had dreamt of going to this school ever since he picked up a basketball and researched their great athletics program. He even visited the campus last year with Luke on a school trip. But Him? Nathan Royal Scott at DUKEE? How lucky could he have been to receive this letter on the night of graduation. A faint smile formed on his face and he gently tore the letter open and began reading it.
"You made it in?"
A/N: So I was able to find free time to write this chapter. I didn't think school work would get so busy but I hope you guys enjoy this read. I'm still looking for a beta reader possibly because I'm not too great with my writing skills :/ . This is actually the first fan fiction I have ever written…so please if you are a beta reader PM me :) Also Leave reviews please Thanks guys!