"So what are you and Luke doing for your anniversary?" Brooke asks the next weekend when she comes to visit and look at wedding cakes, just one of a few things left to do before the three months is up and the wedding was here.
"I don't think that we have anything planned really... we convinced Jamie to start a swimming league, so that has really been keeping us busy."
"Look at you being the soccer mom!" Brooke says, laughing at her friend.
"Yeah, well, swimming, but... the doctor says that Jamie is doing really well, and his nightmares have died down a lot, so we're trying to do everything that we know Nathan and Haley would have wanted him to do."
As Peyton continued to describe all of the things that they had been doing once the school year started, Brooke took the time to take in all that was her best friend. She's known Peyton her whole life, been with her through all the crap that happened to her that shouldn't have happened to one person so young. She had changed though. In the past year, she had changed for the better, finally happy with what she was doing career wise and happy in life thanks to a man that she couldn't have been more happy about as the guy for Peyton. In the past months, it was a totally different story.
They had been best friends since they were Jamie's age, and never had she seen Peyton so happy as when she was with her "family". Unless you knew the situation, you would have thought that Jamie Scott was her very own, and you would have thought that Peyton and Lucas had been married for years. They were so comfortable with each other and all that they did for Jamie was amazing.
Mid rant about something with elementary school field trips, Brooke stopped her. "Peyton..."
Peyton stops for a moment, looking up to meet the eyes of her best friend, "yeah?"
"I don't know if I've told you this lately, but you are doing a great job with Jamie, and you and Luke are already amazing parents. You fit in this, Peyton..."
She doesn't say anything, choosing to digest what her friend said for a moment, then meeting her eyes, and smiling before turning back to the catalog that she was looking through.
Their moment was interrupted at the sound of a door being slammed, a backpack being thrown, and shoes running into the house.
Just a few seconds later the door slammed again, but no voices were heard.
"I better go see what's up." she says and Brooke nods in understanding.
She finds Lucas in the hallway outside Jamie's door, trying to get him to let him in.
"Jamie, you need to open the door."
"I don't want to." he calls from inside the room. "I don't want to talk to you!"
"What happened?" Peyton whispers.
"I don't know, but apparently he flipped out today at school and started tearing up other kids' work in class. I had to go into the principal's office to get him out."
"What?" she asks with eyes wide, almost not believing that Jamie would do such a thing.
"Jamie, it's Aunt Peyton... can I come in?"
"NO!" he screams again through the door.
"Well, one way or another kiddo, you are going to tell us what happened, or we are going to call your teacher to find out exactly what happened, and I can assure you that it will be a lot easier if you just talk to us." Peyton says through the door to him.
"I don't want to."
"Well then I guess you don't want to go out to dinner tonight with Brooke either, cause this is not working, buddy." Lucas says in the same manner.
"Can I talk to Brooke?"
"Are you going to tell her what happened?"
"Yes... I'll tell her what happened."
Brooke, having heard the whole thing from the family room, came into the hallway, stepping past Lucas and Peyton to knock on Jamie's door lightly.
"Jamie, come on buddy, it's Brooke."
He opened the door just a bit to let her inside, and she was quickly ushered into his space, sitting on his bed.
When she looked at him, she could tell that this wasn't just a temper tantrum thrown by a mad kid, but something else. There were some tears left in his eyes, and his lips held a sad pout that she hated knowing the reason for.
"What happened today Jamie?"
"Are you going to get mad at me like Uncle Lucas?"
"How about you tell me what happened, and then I can figure out what I'm going to do with you." she says, poking him in the side to lighten the mood.
"Parents' Day is coming up." he says, not looking up from the spot his eyes were fixated on the floor.
"Oh..."
"And then all the kids were talking about how awesome their parents were and how their parents were going to come in and talk about their cool jobs."
"Well, you know, your mom and dad had some pretty cool jobs... your dad was a basketball star and mom was a great singer. You have nothing to be ashamed of."
"I know, but then my teacher came over and said that if I wanted to, I could bring Aunt Peyton and Uncle Lucas to parents' day."
Brooke considered this for a moment, "Okay, I know that they aren't your mom and dad, but they could probably tell some pretty cool stories about their jobs and stuff too."
"I know." he says, with that same sad tone.
"I still don't get what the slamming doors and yelling at your Uncle was all about though."
"I got in trouble today."
"For what?"
"I tore up Michael and Sam's papers... they were stupid anyways."
"Jamie!" Brooke says, surprised at the boy.
"They were being mean! They said that it wasn't fair for me to bring Aunt Peyton and Uncle Lucas, and then they said that I was stupid because it was just supposed to be my mom and dad. And then Sam said something about me not having a mom and dad anyway, and..." he says getting more and more agitated as he talked, letting tears start to flow down his cheeks.
Brooke took him in her arms then, hugging him to her as tight as she could while he cried.
"Shhhh." she whispered in his ear, trying to calm him down. "Jamie, can I tell you something?"
He nods into her shoulder in response, and she begins, "Jamie, I know that you miss your mom and dad, and I know that your Uncle Lucas and Aunt Peyton can't replace them. But, you have great people around you that love you, and you do have a mom and dad. They can't be here so you can see them, but they are here with you every day."
"But they can't come to school and come to my swim practices and see me play basketball with Skills."
"Yeah, but you do have people that do get to see you do all those things... in fact one of those people was just telling me how much she loves going to your swimming stuff."
"It's not the same."
"I know that, and they know that... but is getting mad at someone else going to make anything better?"
"No."
"Now, what those two boys said and did was not right, but you can't be mean right back at them, because that is not something that your mom and dad or your Uncle and Aunt want you to do. So tomorrow, when you go to school you are going to apologize for what you did, and you are going in early to tell your teacher what those boys said to make you so upset... got it?"
Starting to understand what she was saying, he looked up, and smiled at her, "Yeah, I got it."
"Now, I'm going to go out there and talk to Lucas and Peyton, and then you are going to come out here and you are going to apologize for how you acted when you got picked up."
"Can I just go talk to them?" he asks, standing up and motioning for her to stay where she was.
"If that is what you want to do, then you go for it, buddy."
He nods, walking out the door to see his Uncle and Aunt sitting on the floor in the hallway. He moves over to them, sitting against the wall opposite of them.
"I'm sorry for being bad today at school Uncle Lucas..." he started, and then proceeded to tell them what happened.
When parents' day finally rolled around, Jamie had decided that he wanted his Uncle and Aunt there, but insisted that he did get to talk about his parents, much to their surprise.
"So, I brought my Aunt Peyton and Uncle Lucas today, because they are like my parents, but I want to tell you about my real mom and dad, even though they are up in heaven and they couldn't come to my parents' day."
A few gasps could be heard from those who didn't know about what had happened to the Scott family, and a few of the moms as well as Jamie's teacher wiped a stray tear as the boy started to talk about his parents.
Holding up a promotional picture of Nathan in his Bobcats uniform, Jamie started with his dad, "This is my dad, Nathan Scott, and he played basketball for the Bobcats in the NBA... he is pretty much the coolest dad ever because he can do things like slam dunks and all that cool stuff. He always took me to the rivercourt to play with him and his friends when he was home, and my Uncle Lucas would play with us when he was home from where he lived in New York. He grew up in Tree Hill, and he and my Uncle Lucas were on the team that won the state championship six years ago, so they are both pretty awesome."
Then, grabbing an old copy of Haley's first CD, he put it into the small CD player he had asked to bring and pressed play. "And this is my mom, Haley James Scott. She was a teacher at Tree Hill High School, but her secret job was that she was a really awesome singer. When she was in high school, she went on a rock tour, and then after she met my Aunt Peyton, she started to record a new album on Aunt Peyton's record label, Red Bedroom Records. My mom was a cheerleader for Tree Hill High and she was best friends with my Uncle Lucas."
Stopping the CD, he looked up at his Aunt and Uncle, who were sitting there with split-your-face grings plastered on and he smiled, "The end."
The parents and students all clapped, and then they spent the rest of the time listening to other student's presentations. Since it was the end of the day, Peyton and Lucas just decided to take their nephew out right before school ended.
Once they were in the car, Jamie was the first one to ask about his speech. "What do you think? Do you think that Mama and daddy liked it?"
"I personally thought that it was the best out of the whole class." Peyton says, smiling back at him.
"Really?"
"Oh yeah! It was great... it had good visuals and you were a wonderful speaker."
"You did a great job Jamie." Lucas says, smiling at him in the rear view mirror as they drove.
Noticing that they were taking a different route home, he asked where they were going.
"Well, since we knew that you were going to do such an awesome job, we thought that you might like to celebrate with your cousin Lily, and grandma Karen is making some dinner, and then later we're all going to go out for ice cream. How does that sound?"
"The Jamie likes that idea...." he says, rubbing his stomach for emphasis.
The two adults chuckle in the front seat, "He has to stop hanging out with Brooke." Peyton says.
A few minutes into the car ride, Jamie shouts from the back seat, "Hey!"
"What's up buddy?" Lucas asks.
"That's the house!"
"What house?"
"Isn't that the house that you and Aunt Peyton wanted to buy?" he asks, pointing out the window as they pass the house.
"uhh... yeah, it is."
"Can we drive by it again?"
"Sure."
Lucas turns the car around, this time stopping in front of the small brick house.
They step out of the car, Jamie leading the way to stand in front of the house for a few moments, "I'm sorry you guys didn't get to get this house. It is pretty cool."
Looking over Jamie's head, Lucas and Peyton share a conversation with their eyes, and Lucas digs into his pockets for something.
"What if I told you that we did get this house?" Luke says, kneeling down next to him and holding out the keys.
"You did?"
"We know that you liked it when you got to see it, and we really liked it, so we thought that we would get it, just in case you changed your mind about moving to a new house."
"hmm..."
"What are you thinking my man??" Lucas asks, patting him on the head.
"Can I see it again?"
He shrugs his shoulders and hands the boy the key to get in, letting him walk up to the door.
Peyton and Lucas held back, staying near the doorway, letting Jamie explore the empty house by himself. After a few minutes, he comes back down the stairs.
"Can I still have the same room I picked out?"
"Yes."
"Can we still move the swingset here?"
"Yes."
"Are we still going to make the whole basement into a video game room?"
"Now, wait a minute... I'm pretty sure that we said that part of the basement could be a video game room."
He looks up shyly, with a grin on his face. "Maybe that's what you said."
"and yes, we would still make part of the basement a video game room."
"Okay." he says with finality, turning away from them and walking out the door and back to the car.
"What just happened?" Peyton turns to Lucas and asks.
"I have no idea."
They shake their heads in confusion and make their way to the car, not really wanting to bring up the subject, and waiting for him to mention it, which he did... in the middle of dinner.
"Hey, Lily... did you know that our new house is going to have a video game room?"
"No way!"
"Uh huh, and I have the best bedroom and it has lots of windows and a cool, creepy closet."
Karen raises an eyebrow to Lucas and Peyton, who sat watching Jamie interact with his cousin about the house he was so excited for.
Apparently, he was ready.
–
I know, I know... more fluff. And I really haven't figured out the exact timing of everything, as far as months and everything go. Leyton is about to have been together for a year, and they have been married now for like 3 months, with the wedding being 3 months away. So, I'm thinking that Naley has been gone now for almost half a year.... yeah, that makes sense to me. All right... anyways... hope that you are enjoying it!!
Keep reading and keep reviewing!