"All right girls, let's go to break!" Brooke instructed her fellow cheerleaders as she was captain of the Ravens cheer squad. "We'll pick up in ten."

"Brooke, we barely even started," Peyton pointed out, although she didn't mind. She'd been a cheerleader since she was little and her interest in the sport had declined over the years. She kept with it because she felt closer to her mom. It was something they could have in common.

"I know," Brooke said, grabbing Peyton by the hand pulling her away from the group and their wandering ears.

Yesterday, Brooke had practically gotten on her hands and knees and begged for Peyton to forgive her. She explained her jealousy and insecurities to Peyton and how they got the best of her over the weekend. Though Brooke loved Peyton, she was jealous of her. Peyton was able to do two things Brooke couldn't: maintain a relationship and attract the attention of a genuinely good guy.

Peyton wanted to be more angry at Brooke. Brooke had meddled in her love life for Brooke's personal gain rather than acting in the best interests of Peyton. Yet seeing Brooke cry and apologize for being a terrible friend softened Peyton. Brooke truthfully was her best friend and only close friend she had; however, Peyton sometimes considered herself a better friend to Brooke than Brooke was to her. Despite this they had been through so much together. Peyton accepted Brooke's apology and gave her another chance.

Between all the groveling, Brooke didn't get a chance to find out how Peyton's weekend actually went. She had gotten a call from her mother, making her leave Peyton's sooner than she wanted to.

"So what happened with Lucas this weekend?" Brooke asked. Currently, she was working on getting over her crush on Lucas. It was delusional of her to think he would feel a modicum of what she felt for him. Peyton always came first in Lucas' eyes. Once she accepted that, Brooke was able to heal. Though a piece of her heart still resided with Lucas, she was working on regaining it back while shifting her efforts to focus on finding someone who wanted her like Lucas wanted Peyton.

"Brooke," Peyton whined. She didn't want to say anything to hurt Brooke. They had just gotten back on good terms with one another and Lucas drama would just ruin it. "Are you sure you want to know?"

"Of course," Brooke assured her. "Just because I had a fleeting crush on Lucas doesn't affect anything. He obviously cares about you and treats you better than Nathan ever did."

"He does."

"So spill, what happened? And don't leave out any of the details." Brooke had a genuine interest in knowing about Peyton's relationship with Lucas. Since she no longer sought after Lucas, Brooke simply wanted to see Peyton happy. Since breaking up with Nathan, Peyton had been smiling a lot more.

"We kissed." They kissed a lot, but Peyton thought it was best not to rub it in Brooke's face. Though Brooke assured her that her feelings were gone, Peyton knew from experience that it is not easy to stop liking someone. "And talked."

"That's it?" Brooke was slightly disappointed. She wanted to hear all the juicy details and to know if they hooked up. Talking certainly wasn't what she had hoped to hear.

"What did you expect Brooke? I kissed him on a dare. He followed me and we kissed some more. Then he wanted to talk so we did. We didn't get very far after that as you forced all of us to watch that video."

"Don't remind me of that." Though Brooke had smoothed things over with Haley, she still felt immense guilt over the situation.

"Anyways, Lucas left midway through. I hadn't seen him until today. I tried calling, but he said he wanted to be left alone. Even today, he barely talked to me."

"Still that upset about Haley, huh?"

Peyton nodded. "I tried to talk about it with him, but he refused to even discuss it."

"So you're not mad about it then?"

"God, no." Though the hookup between Nathan and Haley happened while they were still together, Peyton really didn't care. Nathan cheated on her all the time and in her eyes the relationship was already over after the party had ended. It wasn't official until Monday though. "As someone who has had sex with Nathan, I know how alluring it can be."

"That good, huh?" Brooke wiggled her eyebrows.

"I'm not answering that." Peyton dismissed the question. Basketball practice was just about to start and she didn't want Lucas to hear what she had said about Nathan. They weren't dating yet, but they had agreed to take things slow and not rush into anything. Lucas, who had waited a long time for Peyton, didn't mind the her request as long as he knew there may be a future with the two of them. "I just feel bad for Haley. You should have seen her at the party. She was crying so hard and Lucas didn't show her any sympathy. You know she didn't show up for school today."

Nathan walked onto the basketball court feeling like a moving target with all eyes on him. Today had been much worse than he expected. Since Brooke leaked the video at his parents' party, he had been on the receiving end of proud smirks and disgusted scowls. It was just another day as Nathan Scott, nothing he couldn't deal with. It was Haley he was worried about.

She hadn't bothered to show up for school that day. Nathan knew it had to be about the video. She was sick a couple days last week and went to school in spite of it.

Though he was not responsible for the video getting out, he still felt guilty. He could have easily gotten rid of it per Haley's initial request, but his pride and determination to attack Lucas got the best of him.

Dan got in his head and won. And last weekend Dan got what he wanted. Nathan found Lucas' weakness and attacked it. Dan was impressed, but disappointed that it had to blow up during his party. Parents started to talk about Nathan's video and it looked bad on the family.

Nathan couldn't win.

Lucas even showed up to practice, so the exposed truth video did not do what it was set to accomplish. However, Lucas had kept to himself all day, from what Nathan could see, only talking to Peyton on occasion.

Lucas ran out onto the court and practiced drills by himself before practiced officially commenced. He stayed far away from the other guys on the team, especially Nathan. Like Haley, Lucas couldn't look at him without feeling violently ill. He had blinders on all day and just tried his best to get through it. With those precautions in place, he didn't even notice when Nathan came up to him.

"Is Haley okay?" Nathan asked. Since she ran away from him Saturday night, Nathan hadn't seen her since. He tried calling her but she ignored his calls. He wanted to know if she was okay after the fallout of the past weekend. Nathan assumed that the one person who would know about Haley's wellbeing was Lucas.

Lucas shrugged, trying not to let the rage overtake him. "I don't know. Why don't you ask her yourself?" Lucas suggested, dribbling the ball to shoot a three pointer.

The venom in Lucas' voice did not go unnoticed by Nathan. To Nathan, it was evident that Lucas had pushed Haley away. Nathan knew how much Haley valued her friendship with Lucas and would try to salvage it after Lucas discovered the truth. Lucas' reply showed that he hadn't forgiven her mistake.

"I know you're mad at me, but don't take it out on Haley. It was a mistake," Nathan said, grabbing Lucas' forearm to prevent him from leaving.

Lucas shook out of Nathan's grip. "You don't get to talk about Haley. Stop pretending to care. You didn't seem to care about any of your other one night stands."

"You right." Nathan paused. Lucas wasn't wrong, but there was no way he was going to let Lucas get away with a comment like that. Nathan decided to get back at him the only way he could. "Why should I care? She was okay at best the first round, but that's what you get with virgins. It's the second and third time around that they start getting the hang of it. You should've seen her. How she fit so perfectly around me. Begging for more, screaming my name."

It was another low blow. If Haley was there she would've slapped Nathan for saying such things. Nathan didn't mean it all, but he knew it would strike a cord with Lucas.

And it did.

Lucas reacted instantaneously. Dropping his basketball, he lunged at Nathan tackling him to the ground. With Lucas on top, he wailed away as he punched Nathan. Nathan raised his arms up to cover his face waiting for the opportunity to overtake Lucas.

Nathan saw the perfect opportunity when Lucas started aiming for his stomach. Gaining the upper hand, Nathan flipped their positions to be in control and the victor. By the time Nathan was atop Lucas, a crowd started to draw near. First it was the basketball team, whose allegiance was to Nathan, so they remained on the outskirts not intervening. Not long after, the cheerleaders came rushing.

"Lucas!" Peyton exclaimed. Her eyes went wide as Nathan hit Lucas repeatedly in the face and stomach. She and Brooke scanned the room to see if there was anyone around who could stop this. As much as they both wanted to intervene, getting involved in a Nathan-Lucas brawl was detrimental. Brooke accidentally got caught in the crossfire a few weeks ago and was concussed. Thankfully, Peyton saw Whitey entering the gym and called him over.

Seeing the large crowd and the two Scott boys missing from the perimeter confirmed Whitey's suspicions. He charged towards the crowd as fast as he could and parted through the throng of students.

"Scott!" Whitey bellowed. Nathan's fist raised in the air ready for another hit froze as he looked up to meet Whitey's gaze. Lucas, who was on the ground with a split lip, tilted his head back. "Both of you. My office. Now!"

Nathan stood up and dropped his hold on Lucas' shirt. Dusting themselves off, the boys proceeded to walk in silence as they followed Whitey into his office, each taking a seat across from Whitey.

"You two are lucky you're my best players," Whitey began, staring daggers at the boys. "Otherwise, I would have booted your asses off the team weeks ago."

"Sir," Lucas tried to explain.

"Shut it, 'cause I don't want to hear it," Whitey said. Nathan cracked a quick chuckle and immediately quieted at Whitey's gaze. He had heard rumblings at Dan and Deb's party and throughout the school day about some video that involved Nathan and Lucas' friend, but he never interjected himself in teen drama unless it started to affect his players. "I heard what happened and frankly, I do not care. You take care of your business outside of this team, you hear me? I won't have some girl tearing this team apart. You understand?"

It wasn't that Whitey disliked Haley, he barely knew her, but thought she was a lovely girl from what he had heard. How she could get caught between two Scott boys baffled him.

"Yes, sir," Nathan and Lucas said in unison.

"Good, because I'm this close to putting you both on probation," Whitey informed them. "Now get out of my office and back on the court." Nathan and Lucas nodded and headed towards the door. "Boys, I've seen this once already with Keith and Danny. I'm not going to let it happen again."

Lucas and Nathan shuddered simultaneously but both for different reasons. Lucas knew Whitey was referring to his mother. It was no secret to him that his Uncle Keith was in love with his mother and had been for a while, probably since before he was born. The thought of Haley, him, and Nathan repeating their families mistakes terrified him. Nathan, on the other hand, was feared another possible truth. Was he becoming like Dan? The thought had shook him to his court. He vowed years ago that he wouldn't be like Dan, yet he often sought his approval, and look where that got him - he's the new Dan Scott.

"Hey," Lucas greeted, walking up to Jake's house with his hands shoved in his pockets.

On his porch, Jake sat with a guitar in his hands as he strummed softly on the strings. Pausing, he tore his head away from the song he was playing and noticed Lucas. "Hey, Luke, you okay?"

Though Lucas's lip had stopped bleeding, it remained spilt and an additional bruise was starting to form under his right eye. "Yeah, you know how Nathan is. Although you would have known that if you were at practice today," Lucas pointed out, joining Jake on the porch.

Jake glanced back at his front door which was cracked open slightly. "Something came up," Jake said.

"What are you grounded?" Lucas joked.

"No, no not exactly," Jake replied.

"You sick?" Jake looked down avoiding Lucas' questions, not knowing what else to say. "Alright cool, you know what? You don't wanna talk. You barley show up to practice anymore. I get it. You're over it, but that doesn't mean you have to cut your friends out of your life. Alright? I'll see you later man."

"Luke. Come on in," Jake encouraged, preventing Lucas from leaving. Jake led Lucas into his house and dropped off his guitar in the hallway. They headed towards the living room, where a crib currently took up a large section of the space. Jake went straight towards a crib with Lucas trailing not far behind. In the crib, there resided a baby girl. Jake picked her up from the crib carefully by supporting her neck. "So this is Jenny."

Lucas smiled at the baby girl in Jake's arms. He waved at her and she smiled, then buried her face into Jake's neck. She was absolutely adorable. "Is she..." Lucas began to ask.

"Yeah. Yea, she's all mine."

"Wow that is unbelievable. How old is she?"

"She's 6 months. 9 days and a couple of hours." Jake loved his daughter. Whenever given the chance to talk about her, he got a twinkle in his eyes.

"Who's the mother?"

"Uh, that's, that's a long story, but let's just say she's out of the picture."

"So you're raising her all by yourself." Lucas sympathized with Jake. Being a single parent so young was something he knew a bit about. Jake was in the same position his mother was seventeen years ago.

"No, my parents they work nights. And they help out a lot, between the three of us we're handling it." However, with basketball season ramping up and school, Jake was struggling to balance it all while raising Jenny. His teachers and Whitey were all informed of his current situation and often cut him some slack, which is why Jake was able to miss practice or be late more often than his other teammates. He was planning to go to practice today, but his parents got called into work last minute and he had to stay home and watch Jenny.

"That explains a lot about you man. But um, why keep her a secret?"

"Oh come on, you know how people are." This weekend had proved it with Nathan and Haley, people talked and were relentless. Any bit of gossip, the student would attack like leeches. He didn't want his daughter to be talked about in an anyway.

"Yeah, but if you treat this like it's something to be ashamed of, your daughter will carry that around with her for the rest of her life." Lucas spoke from experience as he had felt the same way throughout his life. His mom had done the same thing Jake was doing. When Lucas found out the truth, about who he was and his father, a part of him always thought she kept it a secret because she was ashamed of him. Ashamed of having a kid so young. Karen had lost her family because of it. Her only support system was Keith.

"Well no, I'm not ashamed of her. I'm just trying to protect her." Everything he had done since Jenny's birth was for her and in her best interests. "But something tells me you didn't come here to rip me a new one about my parenting choices. So what's up?"

Lucas huffed and sat down on Jake's couch. "I need your opinion about something."

"Haley," Jake surmised.

"How'd you guess?" Lucas joked. Jake didn't need to be a genius to notice the revelation of Nathan and Haley had deeply affected Lucas. He saw him walking around school without his partner in crime and with his head hung low earlier that day. It was quite sad to witness. "I don't know if I can forgive her. She slept with Nathan. Of all the people in the world she could have chosen from she chose him. Then she lied about it for a month. How could I possibly forgive her?"

"Because she's Haley. She's your best friend and thinks the world of you and values your opinion. You love her and she loves you. She wouldn't have purposefully done this to hurt you." Jake paused, bouncing a fussy Jenny in his arms to calm her. "You don't have to forgive her this instant, but don't cut her out of your life completely. Give her a second chance."

"Come in," Haley said, inviting the person, who was knocking on her door, into her room.

When Lucas opened the door, Haley immediately straightened herself up from her semi-laid position on her bed. She had expected her mother to come in with another bowl of chicken noodle soup, not Lucas. The surprise visit was welcomed though. It had been over twenty-four hours since they last talked and she thought he would not speak to her ever again. "I hope you don't mind, but your mom let me in," Lucas said.

"Of course, you're welcome any time," Haley replied, treading lightly on what to say. She was just happy he was there with her, giving her another chance.

"Haley," Lucas began, sitting on the edge of Haley's bed. "I wanted to apologize." Haley sucked in a breath, not expecting Lucas to say that. "I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. I should have listened to what you had to say first. I know that now. I still don't understand how it happened or why it happened, nor do I agree with it at all. I'm not sure if I can forgive you yet, but I can't not have you in my life. You're my best friend, Hales. These past few days have sucked without you." Haley tried her best not to cry during Lucas' speech, but her emotions got the best of her. She had been waiting for him to come around. The distance and tension between them was killing her. "Are you crying? Please don't cry."

Haley flung herself at Lucas, wrapping her arms tightly around his torso. Lucas held onto Haley, supporting her, as she cried in his arms. Neither said anything for a moment. He just let her cry.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. You needed me and I pushed you away," Lucas continued. "When I didn't see you at school today, I thought it was because of this weekend or something I've done. But when your mom let me in, she said you were sick. Is everything alright?"

Haley sniffled as she wiped away a few more tears and tore herself from Lucas. Her mom was partially right, she wasn't feeling well this morning, but she had also wanted to delay the inevitable of facing her peers. Haley could not deal with the whispers about her and looks girls at school would give her.

Taking a deep breath, Haley stared at Lucas. Though she could delay seeing her schoolmates as long as possible, she could not avoid this interaction.

"Lucas, I think I'm pregnant."