A/N: Hey guys, sorry its so late, but here's the next chapter. I've barely been in the house long enough this summer to actually get any writing done! But I hope to get the next chapter up soon. I'm going to bringing in more NH into the next chapters, after all this story is primarily about them.

Please Read and Review!

Chapter 7

"Do one thing every day that scares you." –Eleanor Roosevelt

Haley had now officially been here for a few days and was slowly easing into her new life at THA.

Walking out of Business she heard him groan beside her.

"This can't get any worse." She turned smiling at a pouty Nathan.

"The first damn lesson and we've got more work than we've learnt!" Nathan sighed dramatically.

"Oh come one, its not that bad." Haley countered.

Nathan scared incredulously at her smiling face, and proceeded to vent the whole way to the grounds. "…and I swear I didn't know half of what the dude was saying! What kind of moron has some stupid Scottish accent that no one could understand? And then he has the nerve to give us a crapload of homework that's gonna take at least a month to do!"

"Geeze, what's got his panties in a bunch?" Brooke asked as Haley and a grumbling Nathan sat down at their bench.

It was the bench right near the courts where they always hung out in good weather. Everyone knew it was their bench, so no one else ever came near it.

"Oh, he's just annoyed cause he can't keep up with the class," Haley dismissed.

"Hey, I can keep up just fine…in any normal class. But that dude seriously thinks we're robots or something. I don't know anyone besides you who actually got anything out of the class." Nathan looked at her almost accusingly.

"What are we talking about?" Lucas came over and sat down beside Brooke, completing their quad. Haley noticed Brooke seemed a bit awkward, before slapping a big smile on her face.

"Oh just about Haley's oversized brain."

"Huh…no arguments there." Lucas said. Seeing Haley's look he added, "Come on, remember yesterday in Calculus?"

"Vaguely."

"So basically everyone else is trying to figure out what the hell is going on on the board, when Mr Barns asks a question. No one says a word. Then little Miss James puts her hand up…to answer the question naturally…but no – she goes one step further, and corrects the teacher about some formula he got wrong."

Nathan and Brooke goggled at her.

"Hey! It's a simple mistake – anyone would've noticed…after a while."

"Guess again. Well Roomie, that's what you get for having a 4.2 GPA."

Nathan choked on his drink and Lucas raised an eyebrow.

"You been holding out on me James," the blonde brother smiled.

"Perhaps." The smirk dropped from her face when she looked next to her. "Nathan, you can stop staring at me like I'm a freak."

"It's…just…like…wow…you're…er smart." He uttered.

"And apparently you're not so much." Brooke added causing Nathan to glare at her.

"Really smart." He added, seeming to mull something over. Damn, she's beautiful, funny, sexy, and way way smart. He felt a little out of his league next to how perfect she was.

"Yes okay, I'm a nerd and proud." She misread their looks, and suddenly she was rambling, much to the amusement of the other three, "So I'm smart, we've established that. I actually like reading books, and doing word games, and all those sad little puzzles in the back of newspapers. And yes, maybe I did play pretend SATs when I was little instead of playing sports or doing my nails. And maybe I do put post-its all over my textbooks, and highlight my favourite passages in my literature books… cause lets face it, I'm not even a nerd, I'm a full blown geek. But I am proud of being a geek. And it's not like none of you guys have ever not done anything nerdy."

She looked over at the faces present. Brooke shook her head, still trying to follow the end of her rant in her head. Nathan mimicked her movement, although his face was just fully amused at her venting.

Turning her head to Lucas, she looked almost pleading.

Sighing he muttered something like "I'm so about to lose all my street cred."

He pulled out his literature scripts and opened them up. She could see that he not only highlighted his favourite segments, but there were post its and messages on the sides clearly listing themes, and his thoughts on what the passages meant.

Next thing he knew, she was hugging him while squealing something like, "I KNEW IT! You're totally a geek too!"

Laughing he hugged her back, insisting that he wasn't that bad, not a geek…a nerd maybe. He'd never even heard of anyone playing pretend SATs.

They continued joking as Brooke joined in, and Nathan suddenly realised he wasn't smiling so much. It was great to see Haley bonding with everyone, but for some reason, seeing her so friendly with his brother did not feel so great. He could feel a weird stirring inside of him at the thought of them bonding and such.

He'd never felt jealous of Lucas, or inferior to him. Ever.

And suddenly there's Haley. And she's smart…no, she's extremely intelligent and wise. She could quote the words of famous people; people that in his book would be Michael Jordan and such…but in hers would be Steingold or Steinburke – or whatever the hell that dude was Lucas was always going on about. She had so much in common with her brother. Seeing them talking now, he could see them having a passionate debate, no doubt about one of their other famous dudes. And he knew it wouldn't be the only one, there would be more to come.

How is it that some new girl that he barely even knew, could just come into his life and make him feel all these new feelings he'd never encountered before?

Okay, this is way too deep. I shouldn't be thinking like this, it's not like I'm actually dating her. Seeing a sudden smile break out on her face, he couldn't help but smile too. Yet.

Shrugging he realised he needed to get a hold of himself. After all, basketball practice had started back up, and the season beginning was coming soon.

And he couldn't afford to start sucking in basketball. That was the one thing he could do.

Looking over at Haley, he sighed wistfully. But would it be enough?

It was after lunch and Haley and Peyton were ambling on their way to Chemistry. Brooke was supposed to be with them, but she'd disappeared during lunch, dragging Mouth along with her.

"Alright, hmmm… best song by Jacks'?" Peyton turned.

"Now…could you be talking about Jack's Mannequin…or the Jackson Five?"

"I wonder." Peyton said dryly.

"That's tough…it's a tie between The Mixtape…and I'm kind of partial to Rescued."

"I hear ya. I would go with The Mixtape first though. The lyrics are just amazing plus every time I play it, Brooke goes it makes her want to bang her head on the wall." She laughed.

"Well it is 'headbanging' music," Haley quipped as they entered the class and took their seats.

"Hey Peyton! Hey Haley!" Two girls from the cheerleading squad called out and they waved back. Haley liked the girls on the squad. Some of them could be a little dense, but on the whole they were sweet; a far cry from the squad at her old school.

The teacher was just about to start the lesson when Brooke came running in late. Peyton and Haley shared confused looks.

As Brooke took her seat, they noticed she looked kind of irritated, and not from the mini-lecture that Miss Campbell was giving her on punctuality. Something had really annoyed Brooke Davis.

"Alright girls," the teacher passed out instructions on the lab they were doing, and placed them in groups. Since Haley had arrived, there had been an odd number of students in her class, but Brooke and Peyton assured Miss Campbell that Haley could work with them in a group of three.

"So , what's got that murderous look in your eye?" Peyton asked warily. There was no knowing how Brooke may react under the circumstances.

"Uuurgh…I could just kill Theresa!" She spat out.

"I don't think she literally mean't murderous Tigger."

"Yeah well she deserves it!"

"Wait, I thought Theresa was the girl whose place I took?" Haley asked, "Didn't she leave?"

"Exactly!"

"Ok Brooke, you're gonna have to clue us in over here. What's going on in that vengeful plotting head of yours?" Peyton joked.

"I spent lunch with Mouth auditioning the substitute cheerleaders."

"Oh," Peyton claimed while Haley was none the wiser. "Wait, I should've been there, why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I already knew it was going to be pointless, and I didn't want to waste both of our times."

"Sorry what's gone wrong?" Haley asked, passing Peyton the tubes she'd been filling for the experiment.

As Peyton carried out the next part Brooke filled her in. "Well see, the cheerleading squad we have a group of 10 girls. Every single cheer is choreographed for 10 girls. So since Theresa left, there is now only 9 girls. And of course, I auditioned all the subs that we have over lunch, but they're all too crap! The only reason I ever had subs was because the Dean said I had to, because it's fair and the basketball team has them too. And I only agreed because I knew we wouldn't ever need the subs because we had 10 girls! See my problem New Girl?" Brooke was practically hyperventilating at the end, causing several stares over their way.

"Okay, first of all Tigger –calm down." Haley sat her down, "Just breathe deeply. Yeah like that. Inhale…exhale."

Peyton chuckled at the intense look of concentration on Brooke's face over the simple act, and in return got a glare.

"Look, it's not that bad. Maybe the subs aren't as bad as you thought." Seeing her scrunched up face. "Or maybe they are. Well you could re-hold auditions again for the whole school, and you might find some new talent in another girl. Or maybe you could choreograph new routines with only 9 girls; we've still got a week until basketball season officially starts."

"But both of those would take too long. I can't work out new routines, when the whole squad knows all the old ones perfectly. And the only way to work in a new girl would be to have a new one right now. Auditioning the whole school before having to teach the new girl all the moves would take too long."

"We'll work something out Brooke." Peyton assured her as Haley rubbed her back before she started getting hysterical again.

"Yeah," Brooke smiled at Haley for the massage, "at this rate I'm thinking of trying to just trick Mouth onto the team. Heck we could get him to wear a wig; no one would ever sus-"

She suddenly stopped mid-sentence while talking to Haley. She stood up and continued gazing at Haley intensely.

"Er…Brooke?" Haley asked, a little confused at her actions, and seeing Peyton's expression she obviously felt the same.

"Haley…its you!" Brooke suddenly claimed before hugging the life out of her.

Turning to Peyton she repeated "It's Haley!"

The two blondes looked at her like she'd grown two heads.

"Well done Brooke…now who am I?" Peyton quipped.

Brooke rolled her eyes, but then beamed at them both. "No, you don't get it…Haley is our saviour! She's our tenth girl!"

Peyton smiled immediately liking the idea, whereas Haley suddenly felt a little anxious.

"Tenth what now?"

"You could replace Theresa."

Before Haley could respond, they noticed Miss Campbell coming to check everyone's progress, and immediately set about carrying out the work. Though Brooke suddenly seemed a lot more energised.

"You know I don't know why I didn't think about it before." Brooke claimed as the teacher moved on from the bench. "This is just perfect-"

"Er…Brooke."

"-I mean, you might have to work day and night, but with my kind of training, you'll be good as new…"

"Seriously Brooke."

"…and we're gonna have to get you a uniform, I'm pretty sure I can get the Dean to issue one for you. You don't want Theresa's; the girl seriously had a BO problem-"

"Dammit Brooke!"

Peyton held back a laugh as a startled Brooke looked over at an annoyed Haley in surprise.

"Oh did you want Theresa's uniform?" Brooke looked seriously confused.

"No, I don't want Theresa's uniform…in fact I don't want any uniform!"

Brooke looked over at Peyton, "I don't get it."

"I think what Haley's trying to say is-"

"Brooke I don't want to be a cheerleader."

"-that." Peyton finished.

Brooke looked even more confused. "Why?"

It was as if she couldn't fathom why someone wouldn't want this extreme privilege.

"Because…because I just don't."

"Well that clears things up." Brooke said sarcastically.

"Come on Haley, why can't you help Brooke out in her time of need?" Peyton laid on the guilt thick and Haley gave her a dirty look. "Don't look at me like that Missy James; you're the one with cheer fear."

Brooke smirked at that and Haley sighed. "It's just a really bad idea. I mean beyond normal bad…this is like utterly-embarrassing-hugely-impossible kinda bad!"

"Haley it's just cheering at basketball games, we're not asking you to go through kidney surgery or something…"

"You don't get it…I'm a klutz!!" Haley revealed as though it was some shameful secret. "I trip over my own feet, stumble every five minutes. I wouldn't be able to follow cheers to save my life…I mean; I even drowned in the ball pool at Chuck E Cheese when I was a kid." Brooke and Peyton shared an amused glance at that, but Haley didn't notice, "And I'm totally not cheerleader material, besides I probably wouldn't even fit into the uniform and look really fat-"

"Alright that's enough." Brooke interrupted. She had a grin on her face, but her eyes looked serious enough so that Haley knew she wasn't joking. Her expression mirrored on Peyton's face.

"First of all, how can you be so sure you'll do so horribly, when you've never tried it before? It's really not that difficult with some hard work and practice."

"And don't give us that 'can't follow a routine' crap." Peyton added, "We saw you busting all those moves on the dance floor at the party a few nights ago. You certainly did get a lot of attention…"

"Which brings me onto my next point Roomie…in what world would you call yourself fat??" She looked incredulous to the point that Haley wanted to retract her earlier comment. "Have you looked into a mirror? Or maybe you're completely blind, I don't know. The point is New Girl you have one hot bod there, and you'd probably put half the other cheerleaders to shame!"

Haley didn't really know what to say to that. Awww, that's kind of sweet. I think I actually love these girls…

She hadn't really had a lot of people compliment her like that before. In her old school, girls tended to be rather fake and slutty. She hadn't had any girlfriends before. Her sister Taylor had always told her that she was the "sexy girl next door" that all the guys panted after, but she never really saw it.

Though you can't be a complete loss…she told herself remember who your ex-boyfriend is?

"Haley" Peyton called, bringing her out of her thoughts.

"What?"

"You went off into Haley-land. So what's the verdict?" Brooke cut to it.

Sighing as she watched Brooke's helpless face, a clear pout set firmly on her lips, she made a decision.

"Ok…fine I'll do it."

"Oh YAY!!" Brooke squealed jumping up and down clapping. Of course this caught the attention of the entire class.

As Miss Campbell proceeded to lecture Brooke on the hazards of overexcitement in the labs, Haley saw that unlike before she just listened, the wide grin on her face not disappearing.

Oh great. What have I gotten myself into?

"So what's wrong?"

"Huh?"

"Haley, you've been staring at that sandwich for the last 20 minutes. At this rate, I'm going to eat it just to put it out of its misery." Nathan joked.

"Oh right." She took a bite almost cautiously.

"Are you ok?"

"Er…sure."

"Cause that sounds convincing." He said sarcastically.

She sighed…again. She knew it was stupid but she was really worried about this whole cheerleading idea. Brooke had already run off with Peyton to get her new uniform. She'd decided to wait for them in the grounds taking advantage of the few days of sunshine they have left before autumn begins to settle.

Nathan had seen her lost in thought as he made his way to the courts. Unable to resist this alone time with her (though his head was convincing him he was merely being polite) he sat down opposite her, only to find she barely noticed him arrive.

That didn't feel so great. He was the Nathan Scott; he wasn't used to not being noticed. A little irritated he'd decided to snap her out of her daydream.

"Sorry," she gave him an unsure smile, "I'm just a little distracted."

"I can see that, so what's the big problem?"

"What makes you think it's a big problem?"

"Well, it's got to be very important for you to be too distracted to check me out." And there was that smirk.

"And if I wasn't distracted, who says I would be checking you out?" Haley smiled a little despite herself.

"Because girls are always checking me out." He shrugged as thought it were obvious.

"You Nathan Scott are a little too full of yourself."

"Hey, I just have a good amount of self-esteem."

"Sure" She rolled her eyes.

Glad to have lightened the atmosphere he gave her what he hoped to be a reassuring expression.

"So now that I have your undivided attention, what's got you looking so lost James?"

He said the last part in a hushed tone, so as not to let any passers by overhear their conversation. In order to hear better Haley moved forward a little.

"Not lost…just a little nervous."

"Nervous? About what?" He'd moved slightly closer too.

Haley didn't know what to say. She didn't really want to tell him the real reason. Apart from Brooke and Peyton she didn't want anyone to know about her recently decided venture into the world of pompoms and too short skirts. But then she didn't want to lie to him - not when he was looking at her all concerned with those amazingly deep blue eyes. Did I mention Nathan looks really cute when he's concerned….and I mean really cute!

"It's just…I mean…I like trying new things, really I do. Especially when it's to help out a friend. But when it's something so different to what I'm used to, it can be a little scary…you know?"

Seeing Nathan's look she felt kind of stupid saying that. Of course he doesn't know…do you even know what the hell you're on about?!

"Urgh, sorry. I'm making no sense…erm..."

"Actually I think I get what you mean." He practically whispered.

"You do?" She unconsciously moved closer.

"Yeah," he moved closer still "it happens all the time with me. Every time Whitey – our coach, comes up with a new play. Some I can get the hang of soon enough, but sometimes…there's one or two that are completely different to what the teams used to. To what I'm used to. And there's always the feeling that I'm in way over my head with this one, and that something can so easily go wrong."

Seeing her face he chuckled, "Don't be so surprised, being a basketball player isn't as he easy as it sounds."

"Seems that way," she smiled.

"But the truth is Haley." She shivered slightly at the sound of her name in his husky tone. "Sometimes you have to go for things out of your comfort zone, and do things you're not used to. It's not guaranteed that you're always going to get it right, heck half the time I'm using a new play, the other team ends up scoring twice as much as us. And then other times, we win by a landslide. It's always a risk to try out new things, but sometimes you just have to, so you know how much you're capable of."

If Haley wasn't surprised before, she sure as hell was now. Who knew Nathan could be so…wise?

Nathan on the other hand suddenly felt kind of self conscious.

What the hell was that?

Since when did he spew all that psycho babble? That was Lucas' job. Or Dr Phil's. He wasn't the kind of guy who said things like that!

Looking down at the table he avoided Haley's glance. Though it was kind of hard, considering he could feel her breath on his lips.

They'd been leaning more towards each other as the conversation continued. And now they were literally a hair's breathe away from each other.

"Wow…who knew you could talk so eloquently?" She almost whispered, noticing just as he did that they were so close.

She was looking directly into his eyes, as he did hers. She had a sudden flashback to the night of the party. Why is it that they had this sudden underlying tension? The air was practically sizzling with chemistry around them. And it doesn't help that he's staring at my lips…

"There's a lot that you don't know about me." Nathan countered, although this time it wasn't followed by a smirk.

He was too busy studying her face. Her eyes looked so soft and warm, the chocolate brown captivating him completely. His eyes landed on her lips. They looked so soft and inviting. He was trying hard to resist the urge to pounce across the bench and crash his lips into hers.

She hadn't looked away from him at all. Not seemingly affected by his intense staring session. It was like they were-

Oh. My. God.

It was almost as if in slow motion, her teeth sank into her lower lip, biting on to it…almost nervously.

She was biting her lip.

Did she have any idea what a turn on that was?

He could practically feel his groin sparking to life. Dear God, this girl had no idea what effect she had on him. She made him react like no other girl had managed before.

He could have pondered over why that may be, but he was too distracted. His ran his tongue over his lips, trying to get rid of the sudden dryness that had overtaken them.

He heard her sharp intake of breath. She'd noticed and she wasn't backing away.

Slowly he could feel himself leaning towards her, filling up the last inch of space between them. She still wasn't moving away. That was a good sign...a very good sign...

"HALEY!"

GOD DAMNIT!!

They sprang back to life, and back from each other. Only to look up and curse Brooke Davis simultaneously.

Oh crap. Why Brooke why??

Haley had no idea what just happened, but she did know that Brooke definitely broke up something that she didn't think she would have been against.

She couldn't help but sigh and feel extremely annoyed. She tried to listen as Brooke went on about having found what they were looking for, obviously trying to be discreet around Nathan.

Nathan.

She looked over to find him expelling a loud puff, shooting Brooke and Peyton (who Haley hadn't even noticed until now) death glares.

Good to know I'm not the only one disappointed. Although...what does that mean exactly?

Before she had time to wonder, she found herself suddenly being lifted out of her chair and dragged along by two determined girls.

"W-What's going on?"

"Geeze, Haley were you even listening to what I said?" Brooke yapped on about cheerleading and Haley nodded along. She noticed Peyton giving her a knowing look, but what exactly was she supposed to know?

"So basically, we have to get you into the outfit and see how it looks."

"Now?" Haley moaned, they couldn't have waited till later? I was kind of in the middle of something!

"And of course, we have to give you a complete makeover." Brooke added.

"What??"

"Come on Haley, every cheer hoe had to go through it."

"She's right." Peyton agreed.

"Look I only agreed to help you out. For god's sake I'm already going to do death defying stunts in too short skirts for you guys. And now you guys want to play dress up on me like some kind of doll?" Not to mention you totally ruined a moment between me and Nathan Scott. Hear that? NATHAN FREAKIN' SCOTT!

"Oh don't be so dramatic. It won't be that bad." Brooke smirked, doing anything but reassuring Haley.

"Its not like we're going to make you look like a slut Haley." Peyton reasoned.

"Much," Brooke corrected.

"Oh no no no." Haley groaned the rest of the way.

"Hey shorties what's happening?" Skills walked up with Lucas and Jake in tow.

"Not now guys, we're busy. We have to get Haley ready." Brooke stated all business-like.

"For what? Torture?" Jake claimed seeing Haley's expression.

"Ignore her she'll be fine." Peyton said as they continued dragging her away with Haley in protest.

"What do you think they're doing to her?" Lucas asked curious.

"I have no idea dawgs." Skills said, "But I'd sure as hell like to know what it is that made Haley look like that." He commented on her horrified expression.

They chuckled and carried on walking.