The first few minutes of the dinner were calm, almost eerily quiet, the only conversation surrounded the passing of dishes. Being that this was the Scott family, the quiet didn't last long. Royal decided he had had enough of the silence and he knew he wanted to talk more with his granddaughter, he also wanted to know more about his grandson's girlfriend.
"So Cassandra, you and Ms. James here know one another?" Royal asked.
Cassie eyed Haley and then nodded in his direction. She had already figured out this was the guys Haley had asked her about in the cafe. "Yeah she and I have been best friends since kindergarten."
Haley nodded and Nathan sensed that she wanted to talk to him about something. "Ugh mom, would it be ok if Haley and I excused ourselves for a few minutes?"
Deb nodded. She knew that the spotlight would most likely be on Cassie for the next few minutes, so Nathan wouldn't be missed.
Royal continued to stare at his granddaughter, Keith sensed that Cassie was feeling a little uncomfortable because of it. So he tried to come up with a subject that the two could talk about.
"You know dad, Cassie's a straight- A student." Keith practically boasted.
Royal looked slightly surprised. "Is that right?" Cassie nodded not really sure what to say.
"Tell me Cassandra, what are your interests besides school?" Royal asked.
"Royal...sorry Mr. Scott, I mean Grandpa..." Cassie realized she didn't know what to call him. "Can you call me Cassie, I mean I'm only called Cassandra when I'm in trouble."
Royal smiled at the young girl. "Gramps is fine honey, thats what your brother Nathan calls me, and I'd be happy to call you Cassie."
Cassie smiled to. He really didn't seem like the monster Keith had made him out to be. "Thanks, and as far as my interests go I'm on the cheerleading squad at school."
Mae smiled at her granddaughter. "Is that right? So your always there to cheer on your brothers?" She looked at her husband. "You know Royal, as long as were in town, we should go to Nathan's game tomorrow night and watch Cassie cheer."
Cassie nodded. "I'd like that." She said sincerely meaning it.
Royal simply nodded, wanting to change the subject to basketball. It was the common interest of the Scott family, surely Cassie had inherited something from her father besides his smirk. "Do you play basketball?"
"Royal." Mae warned, not wanting to go to that subject while eating dinner.
"Its an easy question." Royal said even though deep down he knew it was one of those seemingly meaningless questions with a whole bunch of things connected to it.
Cassie looked nervous and looked at her Uncle Keith who just smiled reassuringly at her. "Well yeah I did play when I was in grade school. I stopped playing a few years ago to concentrate on my school work and now I just usually shoot hoops with my brother at the Rivercourt."
"So your not on any teams whatsoever?" Royal asked.
Cassie shook her head. "I don't have time between school, cheerleading and helping my mom at the cafe."
Mae lit up at the mention of Karen. "Oh sweetie, I've been meaning to ask. How is your mom?"
Cassie gave her grandmother a relieved smile happy to get away from the subject of basketball. "My mom's great. She was keeping herself busy with the cafe and right now she's in Italy at cooking school."
"Aw yes. Your friend Haley mentioned that to me when I went to the cafe to see your mother." Royal said.
Everyone looked at him in shock, no one had known he and Mae had kept in touch with Karen over the years.
"You've been talking to Karen?" Dan asked.
"She's never mentioned anything to me about it." Keith added.
Royal and Mae didn't understand why this was a problem. "Yes we have been for the last couple years. We just wanted to know how our grandchildren were. I think we have that right."
Keith smirked and shook his head. "What right? You've never once shown any interest in keeping in touch with Cassie or Lucas. If you have kept in touch with Karen, why didn't she say anything?"
"I'd like to know to, if you don't mind." Cassie said.
"We asked Karen not to say anything because we didn't want to complicate things." Mae said quickly.
"Complicate things how?" Dan asked.
"Well we'd never met our grandkids and we didn't want to confuse them with the details about why we stayed away for so long. Cassie you have to believe us, we wanted to get to know you, the timing just was never right to say anything to you or Lucas." Mae said.
Keith was now beyond angry. "That still doesn't explain why you never bothered with Lucas or Cassie. They deserved just as much of your devotion as Nathan has had."
"Son please lower your voice." Royal said. "And we agree with you, it was a mistake to never get to know Lucas or Cassie. It was a mistake that can never be taken back, but things can change now."
Keith just shook his head disbelievingly. "You two never change. Cassie, honey do you want to go home?"
Cassie thought about it for a moment and then shook her head. She knew her grandparents had made a terrible mistake, but they were trying to make up for it. "Keith, I want to stay please. I don't understand why they did what they did. But Royal is right, whats done is done, its time to move forward."
Keith couldn't believe how mature his niece had seem to become in a matter of a couple minutes. He sat down and smiled at her. "Ok, we'll stay."
Just then Nathan and Haley entered holding hands.
"What did we miss?" Nathan asked looking at all the confused faces looking at him.
Before anyone could answer a cell phone went off. Cassie immediately recognized the ring tone as hers for her mom.
"Oh geez. I'm sorry Deb. I forgot tonight was the night my mom was supposed to phone, do you mind if I take this in the other room?" Cassie asked.
"By all means." Deb pointed in the direction of the hall way, Cassie got up and excused herself.
"Mom?" Cassie asked.
"Hey, hows my favorite girl?" Karen's voice sounded a million miles away, which it basically was.
Cassie rolled her eyes. "I'm fine mom,really. How's Italy?"
"Beautiful as always. I just got back from a day trip to this little town called Oriveto. It was beyond beautiful. Cass, you would have loved it. All the old architechture, the people all of it." Karen said.
Cassie smiled. "It sounds nice. Maybe you and I can take a trip back to Italy someday."
"You bet." Karen said then sighed. "So how are things in Tree Hill?"
"Same old, same old. Lucas and I are still grounded, which I know Uncle Keith has already told you about." Cassie said.
"He told me he grounded the two of you, but I don't know why."
"Oh well then, you'll just have to see why when you get home. Luke will kill me if I tell you." Cassie said as yelling could be heard from the dining area. "Uh oh."
"What was that?" Karen asked confused. "Where are you?"
"Um I'm kinda at a dinner at Dan's house. His and Keiths parents are here, and Uncle Keith invited me to come with him as a guest." Cassie said knowing her mom would be angry.
"What!" Karen screamed. "You've met Royal and Mae?"
"Yes, and why didn't you tell me you've kept contact with them?" Cassie asked.
"I'm sorry sweetie, thats a story for a different time, right now I really need to talk to Uncle Keith, can you put him on?" Karen asked.
Cassie rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fine."
"Ok honey. You be good. Say hi to your brother for me and I love you both." Karen said.
"Love you too mom." Cassie said as she took the phone to Keith.
"Keith phone." Cassie handed him her cell. "Good luck." She whispered under her breath.
Cassie had walked in just in time to see Royal storm off.
"What's going on?" Cassie asked.
Nathan shrugged. "Just your typical Scott family dinner. Welcome to the family sis." Nathan laughed.
Cassie looked at Dan who was just sitting there staring at his plate. Deb stood up and started gathering things and Mae helped her.
"Come on Hales, I'll take you home." Nathan said then glanced at his sister. "I'll talk to you about this later, ok Cassie. I'll explain everything."
Cassie nodded as Keith walked back in.
"So how did it go with mom?" Cassie asked.
"You just had to tell her I took you to meet your grandparents." Keith said to her and Cassie took that as meaning things didn't go well.
"So what happened in here? I come back and everyones storming off, or making excuses to leave." Cassie said.
"Yeah and I think we better be doing the same." Keith said. "My mom revealed that Dan didn't really have a permanent leg injury that kept him from playing basketball. He faked it."
"What?" Cassie said in shock. For all her life she had been hearing about Dan Scott, the great basketball player, and now he was Dan Scott the quitter. "Wait till Lucas heres about this."
Keith laughed and shook his head. "Come on Cass." He grabbed her by the shoulders and guided her to the entrance where Deb met them to say goodbye.
"Dinner was great, Deb." Keith said.
Cassie nodded in agreement. "It was awesome. You should cook at the cafe more often. Well I guess I'll see you tomorrow." Cassie said.
Deb smiled and nodded. "Again thank you both for coming, and I'm sorry for this."
Cassie shrugged. "Nah, it was kinda fun."
Keith looked at Deb and rolled his eyes as he and Cassie exited the mansion.