Chapter 5: Tree Hill Hall
She closed the door behind her and quickly hugged herself. It was cold outside, probably the coldest she could remember it being here since she moved down here. Chastity "Chase" Burke walked down the hall toward the windows that overlooked the woods and the small inlet called Murphy Inlet. Tree Hill Hall was built on the old remains of the foundations of Tree Hill Plantation and was Chase's present to her husband J.L. "Huck" Burke when he graduated from the Fire Academy. This was the "ancient" home of his family and gave the name to the small city they lived in.
Chase remembered the cold, she was born and raised in New York City until she was seventeen, and that was when as her Mom would say, one of the moments that changed everything happened. Looking in the mirror she looked at her dark hair and hazel eyes, so much like her Mom, right down to her issues with addiction, pills, drink, you name it. It was a generally unhappy time for her, and she would learn later that she really tried to kill herself those three times when she OD. Her Mom panicked, well that's what Chase thought at the time, but found out later she had been planning it for a while and moved her and her sisters down here, back to her hometown. The first night in town she met Huck and it might not have been love at first sight, but they were each other's soulmates.
When they got married and she was pregnant with their first child. It was during a walk in the woods with her sister-in-law Kelly, and stepdaughter Brett, they came to this part of land Kelly just inherited and found the remains of Tree Hill. The idea came as she looked at the remains to build a home for her new family. Now Chase found herself a tenant to her sister-in-law and the mistress of a six-bedroom house, which always seems filled.
There was a loud crash and Chase shook her head and took her right hand and placed it on her forehead. She now got why her Mom was the way she was when she was growing up. Chase had three daughters and a son, plus Huck's daughter from a previous relationship. Brett was seventeen, which caused its own problems, but her own children, the oldest was only eleven and having three girls, wow, no wonder why her Mom was going gray.
"PJ, Key, BB, and Col! Which one of you did that!" Chase yelled to the ceiling, which there was no response. Chase shook her head, and went to the stairs, but found it strangely quiet. They weren't upstairs, so she headed to the other side of the house where the kids had a playroom, something that Chase insisted they have, to keep the mess contained. Once she walked through the door, she saw a pile of toys and bins and four dark-haired children standing around it.
Chase sighed and again lamented none of her children inherited their Dad's red hair. The dark raven Davis mane came with each child. She never planned on having four children, Chase was a diabetic and pregnancy was rough on her, but stuff happened, and they had four, Col, her son was the accident. Well, that problem was fixed, now. She loved each one of her hellions, even though they were intent on destroying the house.
"So, what happened?" Chase asked.
"It was an accident, Mommy," Colin "Col" Burke, the only boy and baby, said. Chase smiled typically, send the baby as the spokesman, parents wouldn't get as mad. Chase did that with her sisters all the time.
"I'm sure it was an accident Col, I just want to know what happened, and if everyone is okay," Chase said. She also kept her Mother's eye trained on her daughters, one of them would crack. Col was a team player, but one of her daughters will feel guilty. Which one would break?
"I'm fine Mommy," Col said.
"I'm good, Mom," Keelan "Key" Burke, her middle daughter, said. Chase had to keep an eye on Key.
"I'm good, Mom," Paige "PJ" Burke said, she was the oldest, and Chase nodded at her little clone. Chase was the tallest of her siblings, except her brother who only had an inch on her. Huck was over six feet tall, so all the kids were tall, and PJ was showing that she was the tallest girl in her class, she also had that same look in her eyes that Chase had. Another thing Chase lamented all her children got hazel eyes, unlike; her sister Izzy's two which got their Dad's blue eyes.
Chase turned to the youngest of the girls, BB, her name was Bridget Brooke Burke, taken her Grandmother's name as her middle name, that was where she got her nickname BB. She looked up at Chase, "I'm good Mommy," she said.
Chase nodded, "Well, clean up the mess," she said, and turned around and walked out of the room. Once she was out of the door, she heard them talking and shook her head and then smiled. They were good to each other, that's what Chase cared about.
Walking across the house and came to the stairs. Coming down the stairs was a tall, strongly built young woman, with bright red hair, messy from sleep. Chase looked at the seventeen-year-old, who looked like she was having a rough morning. Brett Pierce-Burke, Chase's stepdaughter, came over here from the party at Beaulieu Manor and instead of heading all the way back to her Mom and Stepdad's house near the beach. Chase often lamented how her stepdaughter inherited her Dad's red hair and blue eyes and her four kids were dark like she was.
"What was that noise?" Brett asked, holding her head.
"The kids knocked something over," Chase said.
Brett closed her eyes and rested her hand across her face and nodded, "For a dry house, they served a lot of alcohol," she said.
"Brett, why were you drinking last night?" Chase asked.
"I think I was drinking the wrong punch," Brett said.
Chase nodded, "Don't mess up your scholarship, Brett," she said.
"I won't, is there coffee?" Brett asked.
"Yeah," Chase said, "Did you stay here last night, so you wouldn't hear about your drinking from your Mom?"
Brett shook her head slowly, "That and it was closer," she said.
"Come on, let's get you awake," Chase said and helped her towards the kitchen.
The two women walked into the kitchen and Brett went right for a ceramic coffee mug and the freshly brewed pot of coffee. Chase watched as the first cup went down pretty quick and black. Brett was very much her Dad's daughter in that respect. Ashlyn, her Mom, wouldn't power drink her coffee. Shaking her head, Chase watched, as Brett poured herself another cup and sat down after she fixed this cup up.
"Can I interest you in something to eat?" Chase asked as she poured herself a cup of coffee.
Brett nodded slowly as she finished the mouthful of her second cup of coffee. "Yes, please, do you have any of those really good blueberry muffins, Mama Chase?" Brett asked.
Chase nodded, "Yeah, I do," she said, "Don't you have a workout today?"
Brett nodded, "You mean that SEAL Team work out that Auntie Tall taught me?" she asked.
"You mean the program Angela worked out for you, then yes," Chase said.
"Exactly, Auntie Tall's SEAL Team work out, you remember, Church was a SEAL," Brett replied.
Chase nodded, again she thought about it. That damn year, not even four years had passed, but that year came up again. It was there Annus horribilis, as Lucas said that New Year's Eve. Is it behind them, yet? Will they ever recover from it?
Chase nodded, and looked at Brett, and sighed, she was the rebel so far. Her Mom, didn't want her to play basketball, wanted her to be a little lady, a Southern Belle, and in some respects, she succeeds in that, Brett cleaned up very nicely, like her Mom, enjoyed the more feminine, things, but also like both her parents, had a fiery competitive side, with her step-dad playing professional basketball, as well as her Godmother, aka Auntie Tall, aka Angela Scott, she wanted to play, and one day suckered her step-granddad to teaching her, and never looked back. Now she was almost done with her final season at Tree Hill High School, and last year she had signed her national letter of intent for college.
Chase smiled, as she places a plate in front of Brett. There was one blessing, Brett always having younger siblings, her Stepdad, and Mom has three more kids, she always dressed more modestly, then the next oldest in the family. Chase laughed when she thought about her sister Keni, and Sawyer, who was her sister-in-law in the tumbleweed of family trees that was Tree Hill. Brett wore lounge pants, and a tattered T-shirt, black and said CLUB TRIC on it.
"You're Aunt called," Chase said.
Brett nodded, "Which one?" she asked.
Chase laughed, that was a valid question, Brett had four aunts by blood, five by marriage, and one by adoption, and Brett was closest with the one by adoption, her Auntie Tall. "Aunt Kelly," Chase said.
Brett nodded, "So, what is new with Aunt Kelly?" Brett asked. Chase wondered why Kelly and Brett had a rough relationship. Maybe there were some personality differences, between them; Kelly seemed to have that issue.
"She has to run over to the far side to check on some tenants, and she's bringing your cousins over so I can watch them," Chase said.
"Where's Uncle Andrew?" Brett asked.
"I asked, Uncle Andrew, is in the Port, The Nightshade made port last night and he had some issues to sort out with them," Chase said, "That's what Aunt Kelly told me anyways."
Brett nodded, "Momma Chase, please don't take this wrong, but I'm going to finish my breakfast and head over to Momma's house," she said.
"Don't want to hang around with all your cousins?" Chase asked.
"There's a gym at Momma's House, and it's cold outside," Brett said, "I have to do my SEAL work out."
"That joke isn't funny," Chase said.
"Neither is the McMichael cousins," Brett said, "Maybe except Rian."
"Rian's a baby," Chase said.
Brett laughed, "Exactly," she said and chewed on a bit of her muffin. After a swallow, she looked at Chase, "There's more, isn't there?"
"Well My Mom called and was thinking of bringing Nomi and Ellis over, with Sawyer and Keni in support," Chase said.
"You know what a group of people is called?" Brett asked.
"What?" Chase asked.
"A No Thank You," Brett said.
Chase snorted, "Okay and there is one more thing," she said.
"Could it get any worse?" Brett asked.
"We never really talked, but I wanted to know why you picked Notre Dame for college. My money was on Duke or UCONN," Chase said.
"I almost went UCONN, Auntie Tall hard sold me on them. Momma hard sold me on Duke, but what's my last name?" Brett said.
"Pierce-Burke," Chase said.
"People seem to forget the Burke part. My Granddad wanted us all to go to colleges with a religious background," Brett said.
"I know that's why Your Dad went to Georgetown," Chase said.
"Well I'm as much a Burke as I am a Pierce, an Adams, or a Scott, so I wanted to honor my Granddad's tradition and Norte Dame is a good school and a good basketball program," Brett said.
"How did Auntie Tall take it?" Chase asked, not really caring where Brett went to school. Just that she went. It did matter to some people, though, and Angela had worked with Brett getting her ready. When you have three professional basketball players coaching you up, Brett had advantages that no one else had.
"She was disappointed, but when I explained it, she understood," Brett said.
Chase nodded, "I get it, finish your breakfast before the herd from Murphy House arrives," she said.
"What about the herd from Tree Hill Hall?" Brett asked, hearing the running of four sets of feet.
Chase laughed, "They're your siblings," she said.
"Your kids," Brett pointed back.
Just as Brett finished talking Chase's four youngest bursts into the room lead, by PJ, and Brett smiled. All four stopped and looked at the table and saw their older sister sitting there. Chase watched as all four faces lit up.
"Brett!" came out of four mouths in a chorus and they rushed her. Brett put down her cup of coffee just in time to be hit by a wave by her Burke siblings. It melted Chase's heart the tangle of dark hair surrounding the flame-red hair of the group hug. That was one thing Chase was proud of, how all five of them got along.
"Hey Y'all," Brett said, trying to get her head above them, and BB and Col were trying to climb into her lap.
"Come play with us," Key said.
"Yeah, Brett, play with us," BB said, as she finally got into Brett's lap, which caused Col to fight for space in Brett's lap.
Col hugged to his big sister, and Brett looked over and saw PJ standing there smiling at her. "Yes, PJ?" Brett asked.
"Are you going around?" PJ asked.
Brett sighed, "I do have to work out, but I promise, cross my heart and hope to die, I'll back later and spend a whole lot of time with Y'all," she said.
"No, don't go," Key said.
Quickly Brett adjusted herself and stood up holding her two of her younger siblings, then put them down. She looked over at Chase.
"I do have to go, and as I promised I'll be back later," Brett said and worked her way out of the room.
Brett extricated herself from the younger Burkes and walked out of the kitchen. Chase walked over to the table and sat down. The kids looked at her.
"Mommy, why does Brett have to leave?" BB asked.
"Yeah, Mommy," Col said.
Chase looked to the two older children. Key was picking at the remains of the muffin Brett was eating. PJ had sat down and shaken her head.
"You have to remember we have to share Brett," Chase said.
PJ nodded and looked at Key. Key looked at Chase. "We miss her, Mom," Key said.
Chase sighed and knew the kids really loved their big sister. They also loved their Dad, and when he came home from work, he would be attacked by the kids. Even the older ones, would rush him. Chase rapped his fingers on the tabletop.
"I talked with Aunt Kelly, and the Burke Cousins are coming over," Chase said.
"Yay!" Col said, sarcastically.
"Also, Grandma might be coming by and bringing the Scott Cousins over too," Chase said.
They nodded and sighed. Chase shook her head and stood up. "Now go do your chores before Aunt Kelly comes over," she said.
The four kids nodded and wandered off to do their chores. Chase walked out of the room and went to a window and looked out towards the driveway. She sighed and wished that Huck wasn't working today; she really missed him, especially when the kids were up in arms about something. Usually, it was Brett.
Chase nodded, she got it, and Brett was seventeen and wanted to be on her own doing her thing. She was good at spending time with her siblings. Ashlyn also wanted her time with her daughter and wanted Brett to spend time with her other kids. Chase always tried to be the cool step-mom and would back most of Brett's plays, hence why Brett stayed here last night. Also, she knew that all this had to be hard on Brett. Ashlyn had fought hard for Brett to go to college locally, even go as far as suggesting UNC-Wilmington. Brett did ask for advice about which college to sign with, and Chase said, follow your heart. This is what Brett did, which made Chase proud.
Chase stretched and walked away from the window and checked her wristwatch. Chase still wore wristwatches, an old habit she never broke. Eventually, she would have to go to work. But now it's time to work around the house. Forward on with the day, Chase nodded and walked toward her small office and got ready to work.
