Chapter Four: If Only We Could Turn the Hands of Time

Sarah Dessen once wrote that 'There comes a time when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your own heart. So you'd better learn the sound of it. Otherwise you'll never understand what it's saying.' But for me, when that silence does descend upon my soul, I don't plan to understand what my heart is saying. I plan to outrun the silence.

"Okay, ladies. On your mark, get set, go!" the girls' track team coach yelled and blew her whistle.

And so I began to run. When I reached the finish line, I looked over my shoulder to find her staring me, the whistle hanging from her lips and stopwatch held tightly in her fist. The other girls were still pretty far behind me. I had no idea how fast I'd run but given the looks on everyone's faces, I realized I must have already set a pretty good record.

"Congratulations, Scott!" the Coach yelled, "You made the team. Practice after school today."

And despite the heavy silence that I could feel crashing down around me, I felt a flicker of happiness. It had been a long time since I'd felt that emotion.

I found Jamie waiting for me next to our lockers. He grinned at me and said, "The word is you set a new record for the 100m dash."

I smiled back, sheepishly, "I like running. It was kind of easy, you know."

"Well, congratulations, Lily Roe Scott," he said, throwing a jersey at me, "You're officially one of us now."

I looked at the jersey. It had "Scott" written on it, with the number 3 and I frowned at him, "Hey! This is Lucas' old jersey."

"Yeah. I found it among my parents' old things this morning. I thought you'd like to have it."

"Thanks," I said, "But I kind of like the number 12 more than I like 3. And it is Roe-Scott for me."

Jamie laughed. "Deny it all you want. You're a true Scott too. Keep the jersey. You never know when you might need it."

The bell rang signaling the beginning of first class. I hastily stuffed Lucas' old jersey into my locker and went off to try and find my History class.

"Well, hello, Graveyard Girl," said Ryan when I found myself taking the seat next to him in my History class.

"And hello to you too, Graveyard Guy," I greeted, "How has the school week been so far?"

"Pretty annoying actually," he said, "I'm trying to get an exclusive for the school paper with this new girl that moved to town. But she's been dodging all my advances."

I frowned at him. "So you do work for our notorious school paper."

"I do," he agreed, "But the girl I want to interview isn't you, so don't freak out. It's Peyton Sawyer Scott."

"My sister-in-law?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Listen, I know it's really weird for me to be asking this…."

The teacher entered the classroom and began to talk to us. "Good morning, class. Today should be like any other day…."

"…but I have a deadline and if Peyton…."

"…when I speak you will not speak, and if you have questions, you will raise your hand…"

"…doesn't agree to an interview, I'll get kicked off the paper for good!"

"Alright," I said, in a rather fierce whisper.

"Really?" he asked, sounding thoroughly overjoyed.

"And is there anything you would like to say to the class Mr. Summers and Ms. Scott?" he asked us.

I should have probably shut up but I heard myself saying, "It's Roe-Scott."

"Is it?" he asked, "Well, you can tell me all about it in detention after school. And Mr. Summers can join you."

It struck me briefly how badly the situation had turned out because I had my first practice after school and now I had my first detention. And my brother was here as the substitute English teacher for the week. There was no way I could let him found about any of this.

Predictably, I found Jamie at the parking lot with his friends from the basketball team. His arrogant teammate, the one who'd thrown the basketball at me, was also there.

"Jamie," I called, as I walked over to them.

"Oh, hey, Lily," he said, getting up from his seat and walking over to me, "What's going on?"

"I am kind of in trouble, and I need your help." I said, dancing a little on the balls of my feet. "Please?"

"Sure. What's wrong?"

"I have my first track practice today after school and I kind of landed myself in detention after school too."

"Excuse me?"

"Mr. Harrington. Ryan was talking to me and then Mr. Harrington asked if anything I would like to add, Ms. Scott and I told him it was Ms. Roe-Scott, and next thing I know, I'm in detention."

"Okay, okay. Calm down, and you talked back to Mr. Harrington. Are you insane?"

"No. I'm new."

"And this Ryan guy…"

"Please help me? Also. Lucas cannot know I got detention my first week in school!"

"Fine. I'll help you. But only because we're family. Not because I think what you're doing is right."

"Yaay! Thank you." I said, giving him a quick hug, "See you after school."

"The things I do for you, Roe-Scott," muttered Jamie, as he helped me climb out of the window of detention. "Are you sure we're not going to get into trouble for this?"

"Only if we get caught," I answered, "Come on. I have a window of forty-five minutes for showing up for practice and getting back inside detention."

"And what makes you think none of the other students are going to tell on you?" asked Jamie, as I stood next to him now, closing the window behind me.

"It's the funniest thing," I said, "It turns out than only Ryan and I got into trouble today. And he better not tell on me, if he knows what's good for him."

It was a good thing the detention classroom was in the ground floor. Sneaking out was quite easy. I rushed off to practice, thanking Jamie and saying that I owed him. He shook his head and went off to his own practice.

"You're late," my Coach said, when she caught sight of me, "And you haven't even changed for practice. Planning to run in jeans today, missy?"

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," I said, "I lost track of time."

"Well in that case, you can run in your jeans today," she said, "maybe that will help you keep track of time the next time?"

"Goddammit," I muttered.

I didn't know that from afar Lucas stood and watched this rather strange scene of seeing me practice in my regular clothes. I caught a brief glimpse of him, when I pretended to be winded and the Coach was forced to let me off.

"Running in regular shoes," she scoffed, "the next time you turn up for practice, Ms. Scott, make sure you're wearing the proper attire."

"Thanks. I will. This won't happen again," I panted, and hurried off.

I found Jamie waiting for me by the detention room window again. He opened it and boosted me up saying, "You ran in your jeans?"

"How did you know that?" I hissed.

"Uncle Luke saw you, and I overheard him telling Dad. Lily!" he said, sounding dismayed, "I'm not going to lie to Uncle Luke for you."

I rolled my eyes as I clambered in through the window, "You won't have to. I'm not going to get into trouble again."

Getting inside, I tumbled down inside. Jamie took off again, and just as I sat down at the desk I'd previously abandoned, the door of the detention room opened.

"I hope you two learned your lesson," Mr. Harrington said, coming inside the room, "Do not speak out of turn in my class ever again."

We nodded our heads, in agreement and he added, "You may go now."

Ryan and I did not speak to each other till we reached our lockers. Then he asked me, "Did you really manage to skip detention to go run in your jeans?"

"Ha-ha," I replied, "You better not talk to me during class for the rest of the school year."

"If you take me to go meet your sister-in-law," he said, extending his hand, "Do we have a deal?"

Struck by sudden thought, I took his hand saying, "Deal. In fact, let's go right now and talk to her."

I didn't know who was more bewildered when we stood at the front door of Nathan's old home: Haley or Ryan.

"Hey, Lily…what's going on? Are you looking for Jamie?" Haley asked me, sounding rather confused.

"Not really," I answered, "You see my friend Ryan here said he wanted to meet my sister-in-law."

"I…I meant…." Ryan stammered, as he realized he stood in front of his English teacher from school, "You set me up, Lily Roe Scott."

"Well, you didn't say which sister-in-law," I pointed out.

Haley looked at like she didn't know what to say. I guess that was the moment she realized that I was learning to begin accepting Nathan as a part of my rather weird family. It was also the moment I realized that maybe I wasn't as alone as I thought I was in this world. I really did have more family than I knew what to do with it!

Author's Note: I cannot thank you guys enough for favorite-ing and following the story. :) And even though the reviews aren't as many as I would like, it means the world to me to know people are reading this story and enjoying it too! ^_^ I really do think OTH should have a spin off series for real. And it wouldn't hurt if they hired me to write the screenplay for them either. :P

This chapter title is borrowed from the song "What If" by Kate Winslet from the movie A Christmas Carol.