The Limit

By Brynne

PROLOGUE

Nathan Scott liked going to school. He didn’t care much for, or about, his classes or learning, but he is a popular guy, and where better to flaunt that popularity than school, where he is practically a god? At the very least, a demigod. And people worshipped at his altar, too. Boys wanted to be him, and the girls wanted to be with him. He knew it. He loved it.

The only people who didn’t fall at his feet were a few faculty members who didn’t know any better and The Bastard’s gang of ragtag losers. The faculty? Whatever. They weren’t important to him at all. And enough of them did defer to him that the others didn’t matter. But the fact that The Bastard had his own group, own friends, that dared to prefer The Bastard to himself, well, that was too much. Intolerable.

He hated The Bastard. He’d been taught that by their shared father. It was a learned behavior, although his father insisted it was something he was born with. Any ounce of happiness that The Bastard had these days was like a present that Nathan wanted to take from him and crush, destroy. Just like he wanted to crush and destroy his bastard of a half brother.

For so long, when it became clear that Nathan would bump paths with The Bastard occasionally, his father had gone out of his way to make sure Nathan understood that the other boy was the enemy. And he did understand it. Maybe not the motivation behind it, especially when he was younger, but he understood the concept very well. And more than that, he understands most of all that sticking it to The Bastard is one quick and easy way to gain his father’s approval.

And so when they were at school, Nathan would study him, biding his time. He knew who The Bastard’s friends were, he knew where they hung out, what ridiculous things they seemed to like, and even who the friends associated with. He knew their schedules. He knew it all.

There was only one wildcard in the mix, and that was that The Bastard had dared to join his team. This added pressure, not only from himself, but from his father and even the guys on the team, the ones who knew enough of the situation to know it was weird.

He was on his team, taking his position, and Nathan wasn’t going to stand for it. How dare The Bastard think that he could waltz into Nathan’s life and pick around, taking what he wanted. Act like it wasn’t a big deal when everyone knew otherwise – it was a huge deal.

The school was abuzz with gossip over it, which Nathan started himself. He threw out reminders of where The Bastard came from, and how he was just a freak that wasn’t good enough for the Scott family. Reminded their classmates that The Bastard and his mother were so unworthy that the kid shouldn’t even be allowed to have their last name.

He knew the rumors were heard and that the stares were felt by his unworthy half-brother, too. He watched, more closely than ever, just to see the results of his carefully spread truths, half-truths, and conjecture.

It was good. He got what he wanted out of it. The Bastard was uncomfortable, and it showed. He had him against the ropes already, with just a few rumors and the hell he made sure The Bastard was put through at practice. Now Nathan knew he was close, so close to getting the knockout punch in, he just had to figure what to use. Or maybe, who.

There was a girl. Haley James. Before he set out to ruin the life of his half-sibling, that was really all he knew about her. Her name. Now he knew more, just as he did with all his friends. He made it his business to know more, mostly because of how The Bastard looked at her, how he obviously protected her.

She was the way. The way to finally destroy his half-brother, put him in his place, get him out of Nathan’s world. He didn’t belong there, and through Haley, Nathan would make sure Lucas realized that.

CHAPTER ONE

“Get up,” his father’s voice coldly greets him, “You have five minutes, not a second more, to get your lazy ass downstairs, Nathan. Be ready to run.”

Nathan ignores him, enough though he is well aware of how little good that ever does. Dan will just come back in two minutes, yelling louder, calling him names, and tossing out a few threats. Reluctantly, Nathan drags himself out of bed, throwing on sweats and running shoes, then heads downstairs.

Noting the time on the clock, his hands reflexively clench into tight fists to see that he’s been awakened an hour and a half before the usual time that his father drags him out on their father/son fun runs.

“What the hell, Dad? Why are we going out so damn early today?” Nathan mutters as Dan appears in his line of sight. Dan is preening in the mirror in the hallway. He really likes himself a lot.

“You’re getting soft, Nathan,” he reprimands sternly, “Ever since that boy joined the team, you’ve been nearly worthless. And that stops now.”

Nathan stares back at him impassively. There is nothing that he can say to Dan to get him to ease up. He’s known that since he first picked up a basketball when he was four. Until Nathan gets his position back and The Bastard is off the team, there really isn’t anything he can do or say that will appease Dan.

What that means to Nathan is that he’s behind schedule. It is time for him to step up in his efforts to blow Lucas, oh how he hates to think of him by his name, and his little sham of being a basketball player out of the water.

“Are you even listening to me, Nathan?” Dan snaps, “You need to get your head out of the clouds and focus on what I am saying to you. Basketball. There is only so much I can do for you. Genetics have got you this far, but it’s time you broke down and put some damned effort into it. It’s a sad state you’re in now.”

“Dad, I know!” Nathan mutters back to him, “Can we just get this over with?”

Dan shakes his head, the disappointment in his eyes piercing into Nathan’s heart. He tells himself over and over that he’ll never be good enough for Dan, that it’s okay. That he should just brush it off and let go of the criticism and forget about it all, but that is one of the few things Nathan has never been good at.

The run goes the same way it always does. They start out at a brisk pace, Dan barks at Nathan to keep up even though he isn’t really lagging, and then when they get within sight of the house, a footrace erupts to see who can get back to the house first.

Dan wins, he always does. But Nathan lets him. The first time Nathan beat Dan at something, the way he acted afterwards was enough to convince Nathan that it wasn’t worth it. He’d rather listen to the ways he sucks and how he’ll never measure up than for Dan to lose.

“You’re slow, Nathan!” Dan says, shaking his head like it is the most pitiful thing in the world, “How do you expect to beat that boy when you’re so sluggish? You know, I understand what you’re thinking now. ‘Oh, it’s just a run, no big deal, I can slack’. But these runs, this effort that I make you put into it, that is what will give you that edge, Nathan.”

Nathan averts his gaze from his father, focusing instead on an imperfection in the paint on their house. He knows what Dan is getting at, and he can’t even contest the validity of it. He knows his father is right. He just doesn’t care anymore, or else he just doesn’t get it.  He isn’t sure which.

He figures it must be the former. Basketball is only about glory to Dan Scott. Not fun, not love of the game, just personal, individual glory. For all Dan thinks, basketball isn’t a team sport. It is something you play within yourself so that others can think you’re great. It has become as much a mind game for him as it is a physical game.

Maybe Nathan lets himself think that way, too, sometimes. It’s easy.  He likes the attention, the accolades, the adulation. He likes it when people look at him like he can walk on water, and he likes that he can get away with nearly everything.

“Hit the weights now,” Dan snaps, breaking into Nathan’s reverie once he’s caught his breath. Knowing it would be futile to do otherwise, Nathan nods and follows him into the house. It really is easier to give sometimes.

They lift weights for about a half hour, which brings them to the time they normally get up for their run. Nathan figures they’re done, and heads for the stairs, ready to get another hour of sleep before school. Dan grabs him by the arm, though, and jerks him to the door. Another run with Dad, where he can lecture his son on the evils of ‘that boy’ some more, as if Nathan didn’t already have it down.

By the time they get home an hour later, Nathan is exhausted and angry. They ran for two hours today, which amounts to more miles than Nathan would like to contemplate, and lifted for a half hour. And now he has to go to school. And then practice. How is overexertion to the point of exhaustion going to help his game?

“Want a ride to school, son?” Dan asks.

Nathan rolls his eyes to himself, thinking that’ll be the day. “Dad, in case you forgot, I have a nice, shiny SUV that you so kindly and generously gifted me with.”

“Sarcasm does not become you,” Dan informs him.

“Yeah, whatever,” Nathan mutters, “I’ll just drive myself, though. Thanks for the super-kind offer, Dad.”

“Don’t forget what we talked about, especially on that second run,” Dan calls after him as he heads up the stairs, “I want that boy off that team now. And I’m holding you responsible for it. Do what it takes, Nathan.”

Dan fixes such a hard and unwavering look on Nathan that clearly states ‘don’t cross me’, and Nathan gives in first, looking away. He might as well give him the satisfaction of dominance and superiority that he so craves.

Whatever. It sucks, Nathan knows, but he doesn’t really care. That’s what he tells himself. If Dan has to win, even at a stupid staring contest to feel better about himself, then Nathan wouldn't want to deny his ego the boost.

Dan let’s Nathan go then, knowing he’s won. Nathan is quick to get ready for school – at least that is one place Dan isn’t, and no one ever dares to try and one-up him. At school, people respect him, they like him, and they do what he tells them to do. It’s his school, and he’s one of the most popular students there, if not the most popular. It isn’t conceit that he thinks that, it’s just fact.

By the time he gets to school, just a few scant minutes before the bell rings, all of his closest friends, if he’s generous enough to call them that, are there waiting for him. Lucas, The Bastard, is standing not twenty yards away, with his friends. With Haley James. Nathan would probably ignore them now, but she’s there with him, and she captures his attention.

He hasn’t solidified his plans yet, but he knows they will involve her somehow. Because he wants them to now that he’s taken the time to notice her. Always so happy, always touching Lucas or laughing at something he said. He’ll take that away, from both of them. With a smile on his face.

Haley notices him staring at her – her eyes widen a fraction and confusion scatters across her face. She holds his gaze for a few seconds, but then rolls her eyes and turns back to Lucas, animatedly launching into some story that involves a lot of hand talking. She only glances back at him once, as if to confirm that he was indeed staring at her.

Nathan isn’t sure what to make of her. She’s so different than anything he knows, anything he’s seen in his world. She’s…open, he guesses. She smiles, and it looks like she means it. And for some stupid reason, she likes Lucas. Nathan doubts he’ll ever understand that last one.

He knows things about Haley now – he knows that she tutors. That is one way he might approach her. He knows that she likes to dip her apple slices in peanut butter. He overheard her telling one of her friends that in the hallway one day when he was eavesdropping, hoping to pick up a snippet about Lucas. He knew that she was the youngest child in her family, and that her parents were pseudo-retired and traveled a lot, leaving her alone. He’d overheard her tell Lucas that one day.

He knew things, not a lot, but he was hoping they’d be enough to aid him in whatever it is that he ends up doing.

“Brooke!” he yells, spotting and motioning over one of the most devious, manipulative people he knows, “Hey, I need a second.”

“For King Nathan?” she asks, rolling her eyes, “Let me get out my knee pads so I can worship the ground you walk on.”

“Be serious,” he bitches back at her, “I need your opinion on something. This is right up your alley, so I figured I’d come to the Queen, right?”

“Oh, flattery will get you everywhere.  What do you want? It better not be sex.  I’m still supposed to hate you for being a dick to Peyton.”  

“It’s not sex, Brooke.” She wishes.

“Oh,” she blinks, surprised, “Well, fine, what is it then?”

“If you wanted to get to someone, really screw their world up, and you knew you could do it through another person, what would you do?”

She still looks surprised, but definitely interested. “Who are we talking about here?”

“That’s beside the point,” he tries to brush off.

”No, it isn’t,” she argues with him, “For me to understand this fully and really give you good tips, then I need to know the major players.”

He doesn’t want to tell, doesn’t think he should. He’s seen her stare, lust evident on her face, after Lucas. Its unlikely Lucas, who acts the total prude, would ever go for someone like Brooke, but he isn’t sure he wants to take that chance.

”It’s your brother, isn’t it?” she asks tactlessly.

“Don’t call him that, Brooke.  You know better,” he reminds her, eyes narrowing in anger, “And what if it is? Are you so hot for him that you can’t even help out your old friend now?”

“That depends what you’re planning on doing to him,” she shrugs, obviously not so gone on him that she would be morally opposed to helping Nathan.

“I want him off the team. I want him humiliated beyond repair. And I want to do it through his friend, girlfriend, whatever she is to him. That Haley James girl.”

“Huh, I think I have a class with her. Isn’t she sort of nerdy?” Brooke asks, mind wandering vacantly in a way that has Nathan gritting his teeth wondering what he was thinking in asking her.

“Yeah, that’s her,” he shrugs, “But that’s beside the point. I’m only interested in her in terms of what I can do to Lucas through her.”

“And what exactly do you have in mind?” she asks, her interest recaptured.

“That’s why I’m talking to you, Brooke. How can I use her to hurt him the most?”

Brooke looks over to where Haley is standing with Lucas. “Are they together? I mean, word is they aren’t, but rumor is they are. Even I’m having trouble separating the fact from the fiction on this one.”

“As far as I know, they aren’t. But they, I don’t know, look like they might be,” he shrugs, not caring. He doesn’t know why she thinks that is relevant, but Brooke is smart when it comes to these things, so she knows what she’s doing.

“I need to know, so find out. Meet me after practice, and we’ll go from there. I’ve got some ideas either way. I think they could be beneficial to both of us.”

Normally, he would try and shut down her interest in The Bastard, but if she’s right and they can squeak out some mutually exclusive deal, then she can screw him until the cows come home. He’d lose major respect points for her, but it wasn’t like she had a lot to start out with anyway.

He nods, both of them quieting as they watch Haley wind her arms around Lucas’s neck and says something that causes him to laugh and pull her closer. Brooke and Nathan exchange looks, nodding at each other one more time before walking off their separate ways. Nathan makes sure to walk past Lucas and Haley, making sure that Haley notices him noticing her.

And she does. He sees that flicker of recognition, that flicker of something else. Maybe fear. Maybe she’s even smarter than he gives her credit for. He’ll just have to be careful with this one. The best part is, one of Nathan’s friends sees him and calls out to him. Watching Lucas’s entire body go rigid just at the mention of his name is worth the price of admission.

He smirks when Haley grabs his arm, pulling the dreaded half-brother down the hall the opposite way. Once they’re out of his sight, he turns to Tim, the idiot who was yelling his name.

“Yo, Tim, I think I figured out how to finally get Lucas off the team for good,” he grins, “I’m going to hit him where it hurts the most.”

Poor Tim just looks confused. “The balls? You’re going to hit him in the balls?”

“God, no, you freak!” Nathan shakes his head, figuring it isn’t any wonder that he doesn’t really consider any of these people his friends. “Jesus, you’re an idiot!”

“Well, that’s where it hurts the most,” Tim shrugs, looking wounded that Nathan, his idol, is mad at him.

“I didn’t – oh, fuck, forget it,” Nathan groans, “I can’t even talk to you about these things. What a waste.”

“Yeah, well. What are you going to do?” Tim asks, trailing after him like a puppy dog as he heads for class.

“Haley.”

“Haley? What’s a ‘haley’?”

Nathan fights the urge to pop him one, right in the mouth. “She’s the girl that Puke-ass is always hanging out with.”

“Oh. Oh, the mousy one with the dorky shirts and hats?”

Funny, Nathan hadn’t really even noticed that about her. “I guess so,” he shrugs, “But seeing as how I’m not a girl, I didn’t notice that shit.”

“What are you going to do with her?” Tim cluelessly pushes on.

“That’s where Brooke is going to help me,” Nathan informs him, “What I need you to do, is make sure he gets screwed good and hard at practice today. I don’t care what you do, just make sure it’s good.”

Tim beams like an idiot with pride at being recruited to do the dirty work of Nathan Scott. “Yeah, yeah, we’ll get him good today.”

“Whatever,” Nathan nods, walking off to go to class.

~*~

The day breezes by, and before he knows it, he’s in the locker room watching Tim and a few of the other guys trying to wash off the blue dye that they’ve managed to get all over themselves. Tim looks at Nathan pleadingly, but he’s ignored, as Nathan just changes into his practice uniform and leaves for the gym, letting the other guys deal with their fate as Smurfs.

“Scott, nice of you to show up,” Whitey calls as he trots across the gym to join his teammates that aren’t blue right now, Lucas included.

He shrugs, brushing off his coach’s comments. “I’m here, we can get started now.”

Whitey just rolls his eyes, sending them off to run suicides. Brooke smirks at Nathan as he sprints by her, nodding to him. Of course, knowing that he’ll be setting his plans for Lucas in motion soon causes practice to drag on like a run with his dad, but it’s over soon enough, and he’s dragging Brooke off to a corner of the gym.

“Quit manhandling me, hot shot!” she glares at him, “And Peyton is watching.  She’d have my head if she knew I was helping you in any way!”

“You’re not helping me for my sake, so cut the crap,” he retorts, “We both know you’re only here because you have intentions of getting something out of it, too.”

“Probably the same exact thing you are,” she shrugs, “So what? I mean, I thought you’d go for a, shall we say, more standard beauty, but if you want to hit it, hit it, right?”

“Is that the best way to get to Lucas?” he asks eagerly. He wouldn’t mind seducing Haley, if he thought it would upset Lucas. The benefits of that would be twofold, at least.

“Look, from what I can tell, they’re extremely close, but not dating. One or the other may have a thing for the other, also can’t tell that. But yeah, I think sex is the best weapon to use against both of them. Just a guess here, but most likely scenario is that at least one of them is a virgin, if not both, and the other has extremely minimal experience. They won’t know what to do with sex.  It’d be easy to use.”

Sex. Nathan knows a lot about sex, including how to use it as a weapon. Is that really the route he wants to go here? He isn’t sure, he knows that he could really fuck up that Haley girl’s life, but at the same time, if it meant getting the better of Lucas, wouldn’t it be worth it?

“Sex, huh?”

“Yeah, sex. I mean, that Haley girl is a tutor.  How much sex could she possibly have had?” Nathan nods, agreeing that she’s probably a virgin. “And Lucas, well, he’s tasty as hell – “

“Brooke, Jesus, don’t say that crap.”

“Right, sorry. Anyway, as I was saying, despite him having attractive features, he really keeps to himself. Besides Tutor Girl, I never see him with girls. Oh, except sometimes Peyton. But I don’t think she likes him, probably trying to piss you off.”

“Whatever.  No one wants to talk about Peyton,” he brushes off, really not caring anymore, “Do you have anything in mind other than sex?”

“Well, I think we need to employ a divide and conquer strategy. You take her, I take him.”

“Okay, but here’s the thing.  She’s his best friend.  She probably hates me, right? How am I supposed to divide or conquer anything?” he asks, peeved.

“That’s the tough part. I mean, I shouldn’t have any trouble buddying up to him.  I’m cute and he has no reason to dislike me. But yeah, you’re going to have a problem.”

He glares at her, willing her to focus. “Okay, Brooke? That’s why you’re here,” he draws out slowly, enunciating each word painstakingly in hopes that she’ll focus, “You’re supposed to help me figure this stuff out!”

“Hey, I got you a game plan! I’m even willing to sacrifice and take one for the team, and join in on your little plan here. Now you want me to hold your hand and walk you through it all? Can you not figure anything out?”

“Apparently, no, I can’t,” he snaps, “So just spell it out, Davis. This is getting old.”

“Fine,” she sighs, “You want to get close to Haley? Tutoring. You’re not the biggest dumbass on the team, but you don’t really do a lot of homework, do you, Nathan?”

Tutor. She’s a tutor. And wow, he’s obviously a big enough moron to need some tutoring considering he didn’t even think of that option.

“I’m getting at least a C in all my classes, though,” he shrugs, “I don’t think I really need tutoring right now.”

“You get it anyway, Nathan.” She tosses her hair over her shoulder. “How else are you going to get close enough to burn her otherwise?”

And with that food for thought, she leaves, stalking out of the gym like a lioness going after her prey. Nathan rolls his eyes having seen this act a thousand times, but he does notice Lucas noticing Brooke, or more specifically, Brooke’s butt.

Maybe this could work out after all. Tutoring. He could get tutored, and maybe he could do some tutoring of his own.

This could definitely work. He knows it could. It’s heartless, but surely that little priss has done something in her life that warrants being dicked over like this, right? Well, he doesn’t know that for sure, and he doesn’t even think he could stand to be on it, but a little thing like that isn’t going to stop him. This is about more than some girl’s virginity or even her close friendships. This is about him proving something to his father, no matter the cost.

So, he’ll do this. And he’ll do it right. He will blow Lucas and his ungrateful group of morons right out of the water, all the while getting the one thing he thinks he needs the most: Daddy’s love.

CHAPTER TWO

For a week or so after Brooke and Nathan decided the best way to go after Lucas, and subsequently Haley, was the divide and conquer method, Nathan took his time gathering more information about both of his intended victims.

Brooke did the same with Lucas, figuring she ought to know her prey a little bit better. She had the added advantage of not arousing suspicion by showing an interest. She’d be suspicious, Lucas would be suspicious – probably most of the school would be suspicious. Nathan Scott showing an interest in Haley James would be big news of exactly the kind he doesn’t want.

But Nathan knows it, too, and he’s willing to work around that little problem. He’s willing to let Brooke have the chance to get her sharp talons in Lucas a little bit in hopes that it will upset Haley. Anything that undermines their friendship is a good thing, very good, in Nathan’s mind. In fact, it is exactly what he is hoping will happen.

This is where it comes in handy that he’s been practically following Haley around school for the last few weeks. He gets to ‘overhear’ plans she’s made with Lucas occasionally. Like he knows that tonight they are supposed to meet at his mom’s stupid café about a half hour after practice is finished. So all Nathan has to do is prevent that from happening, which he knows won’t be too hard.

Before practice starts, he grabs Brooke and Tim, dragging them out to the hall to give them their instructions. Including Tim in this sucks, but Nathan really had no choice. He needed a lackey, and Tim was always eager to step up to that plate. He’s almost guaranteed to screw it all up, but with Brooke in on it, Nathan was hoping she could prevent a major Tim mess up.

“Party at my beach house tonight,” he informs them, “I need to make sure that Lucas is there. That is where the two of you come in. Get him there and keep him there. We’re playing it off as a team bonding experience. Got that, Tim?”

Tim nods eagerly in response, obviously thrilled just to be included. “Wait, why would we want him at a party, though?”

“That is something that doesn’t concern you, Tim,” Nathan blurts out curtly, “Just do as you’re told. Got it?”

“What do you have planned?” he presses on, not heeding the warning in Nathan’s tone, “Whatever it is, it must be good!”

“I said don’t question me!” Nathan snaps at him, “Now get your ass out there and inform the guys of the ‘bonding experience’. No, wait, don’t. You’ll fuck it up. I’ll announce it myself when we’re done with practice.” Tim stands there, staring at him. “We’re done now, Tim.  Run along. Just remember to make sure you take Lucas directly from here to the beach house. No phones, no stops.”

Tim nods, dejectedly walking away. Nathan rolls his eyes at the pathetic display of his sometime friend.

“And is it any wonder you have no friends?” Brooke cackles, earning a glare from Nathan. “What?  It’s true.”

“Whatever,” Nathan dismisses, “He serves a purpose.”

“Right. And what purpose do I serve in all this tonight?” she asks, astute at playing the game.

“Like I said, it will be a party tonight. Parties are your element, Brooke. I need Tim to get him there, but I need you to keep him there and occupied once he is there. No phones. He is supposed to meet Haley tonight, and I want him to stand her up completely.”

“My pleasure,” she smirks, “How’d you know they were meeting tonight, anyway?”

“I have my ways,” he shrugs, “Keep Tim in line, too. Especially on the way over there. He’s such a screw-up, but who else would do this without wanting to know why?”

“You aren’t coming? Oooh, going to show up in Lucas’s place? How romantic.  She can swap out one brother for the other,” she snickers, “I’m sure that will go over just great.”

“No, I’ll be at the party. I want a little distance between them before I approach her.”

“Very good, grasshopper,” she smirks, “I think you’re getting this down.”

“Getting it down? I’m the master, Brooke.”

She just shrugs at him. “Well, I’ll try and help you out some more on the distance thing. But I’ll tell you, that Lucas is a tough nut to crack. He doesn’t really seem to have much interest in me. Maybe he’s gay.”

Nathan rolls his eyes. “He’s not gay. You’re just coming on too strong. Probably scaring him or something. He’s a little mama’s boy, can’t take any overt sexuality.”

“So what do I do then?” she asks, her cache of weapons tapped out if sex is taken out of play, “I thought the game plan was to use sex?”

“And it is still is,” Nathan reassures her, actually beginning to look forward to this. Wiping that air of moral superiority, that he’s found constantly hovers over Haley James, away will be his pleasure. In more ways than one. “But it might take time and a little effort. Especially on my end. There is no way Haley James will just fall into bed with me.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Plus, the sooner we get them hot and bothered and then start keeping them waiting, the easier it will be to keep them apart.” She laughs, “And you’re right.  I’ll definitely have an easier time than you will. You know, we shouldn’t be seen talking anymore. Lucas will never trust me if he thinks we hang out, and I’ll need his trust.”

“Fine by me,” Nathan agrees, “You know my cell number. Call me with any progress you make.”

”Perfect. This will get Peyton off my back, too. She wants to know what kind of game we’re playing. Can you believe that? Oh, and did you know she’s started hanging around Lucas? What is that all about?”

“Tell her to mind her own damn business. What we discuss is between us, not her.”

“If you had any real friends, Nathan,” Brooke begins to lecture, “Then maybe you’d know that isn’t always an option. Besides, you’re her much-hated, little trusted ex. Of course she wants me to stay away.”

“Screw her, she has nothing to do with this,” Nathan dismisses.

“She thinks she does, mostly because she’s worried you’ll treat me like you treated her.” She pauses, rolling her eyes. “Which is dumb, because hello, as if I’d fall into any trap of yours. I’m sure the sex would be tolerable, but still.”

He doesn’t outwardly respond to that. What can he say? Well, there are a lot of things he could say, but none that he should. He knows the difference.

“Whatever, Brooke. You do your part, and I’ll do mine. Hell, when I have Pretty Boy’s world collapsing around him, you can even be there to pick up his broken little pieces.”

“Yeah, you’re too kind. Well, I better get back to the girls. God knows they’re worthless without me,” she sighs, acting like she’s above it all.

“Yeah, you know how hard it is to jump up and down and clap your hands without someone standing in front of you demonstrating it,” he mutters, “Just focus on Lucas.”

“Exactly,” she tosses back at him, “I’ll focus on Lucas, and you can focus on Haley. You’re getting way more out of this than I am, and you know you need my help. So don’t piss me off, Nathan, you know it isn’t pretty.”

He knows when he’s not in a position to argue or smart off, and now is one of those times. Brooke is a good ally to have, but she’s even better at being someone’s enemy. Formidable, on her bad days. Your worst nightmare, on her best. And Nathan knows that if he doesn’t keep himself in check, Brooke will be off and running to fill in whoever would listen to her about Nathan’s plans for Lucas and Haley.

“Right, enjoying this bit of power much, Brooke?” he sneers, unable to let go enough to let it drop entirely.

“A little, but I enjoy the game of it all more. The sport. Things are getting boring around her, and if my participation in your lame-brained scheme spices things up, then it might be worth it. Especially if I bag Lucas in the process.”

Nathan sighs, nodding. His reasons for doing this are infinitely different than hers, but stirring the pot isn’t a bad side effect. And he knows it will come to this. By the time he and Brooke are done with Lucas and Haley, life in Tree Hill should be at least slightly altered.

And in a twisted way, he even understands the appeal that Lucas holds to Brooke. He’s the new guy on the basketball team, and he’s untouched. He isn’t tainted by the glory like the rest of them are. Not yet. And she sees that in him – Nathan is sure that half of her interest is just in being near someone untainted, but he knows the other half is the desire to be the one to change him, open his eyes.

“Oh, and Nathan? You might want to ease up on Lucas a little. That Tutor Girl really seems protective of him.”

He watches as she goes, knowing that he’s picked the right person to work with in this. Brooke will go after Lucas with everything she has – she hates to lose, just as much as Nathan does. And now that she’s began taking a subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, interest in Lucas, it has become a pride thing. Brooke might think she holds all the cards, but Nathan knows he still has a few in his hand.

He eases up on Lucas at practice. No chucking the ball at him as hard as possible, no ‘bastards’ mumbled under his breath, no elbows to the neck or chin. Just lets him be. Ignores him, basically, which he’s sure Lucas thinks is an improvement. Brooke is right.  Sending his half-brother home with shiners every other week isn’t going to go far with Haley.

When practice is over and Whitey has left them to put the equipment away, which is usually left for Lucas, Nathan calls the team around and announces the bonding fest at his place. Aside from Lucas, all the guys know what that means, and all are immediately excited. Lucas starts to leave, and Nathan hides a grin when Tim and one of the other guys grab him and drag him towards the locker room. All Nathan can think is that Tim had better keep him away from phones.

He should follow them. He knows he should. But he doesn’t. He’s not sure why, but he wants to see Haley James, watch her wait for Lucas, who won’t show up, who won’t even call. He wants to watch her face, see if she cries. He doesn’t get it, doesn’t really get this need that he seems to be developing to see how this all effects her. It shouldn’t be about her, it isn’t about her. She’s just the unfortunate one caught in the middle.

It shouldn’t matter to him how she feels about this. He knows that. It does, though, and he isn’t even sure why. All he knows is that he wants to see it, wants to watch as she comes to the realization that her friend or crush or whatever he is to her won’t be showing up. He needs to see that look of realization cross her face.

He doesn’t bother to really examine it, though. He chalks it up to the need to be thorough. What good is it to go to all this trouble if you don’t know how your work is progressing? Since he can’t start buddying up to her yet, pulling a stalker move and watching her from afar seems like the next best bet for the time being.

So that’s where he goes instead of heading off with the team. When questioned, he promises he’ll show up soon, and just lets them know that he’ll be there shortly, and that he’s sure they should be capable of getting on without him for a few minutes. It’s probably not true, he knows, but he says it anyway. A lie is a lie, and it isn’t like they’re big deals to him.

He parks his car a half block down from the café that Haley is supposed to meet Luke at. He’s glad to see that she’s out on a bench in front of the café, wearing one of her dorky, easy to spot ponchos. Hey, all those bright colors come in handy, he has to admit. It is five minutes past the time that Luke was supposed to be here, and Nathan delights in the fact that she’s checked her watch twice.

He just sits there, watching her as she glances up and down the street, obviously on the look out for her pretty boy friend. Nathan could just puke at how obviously concerned she is over Lucas’s whereabouts. It just leaves him cold to see something like that, but he refuses to examine and accept the reasons why. That would involve admitting there might be things missing in his life, and he’s not about to think of those things.

When she begins tapping her foot in impatience and a distinct look of irritation flits across her pretty – where did that come from? – face, he grins, putting the car in gear and driving off. His work there was clearly done. He doubts it’ll cause more than a tiny falling out, but it’s a start. And every good plan has to start somewhere.

By the time he gets out to the beach house, Lucas is nowhere to be found, and Nathan is more than ready and willing to kill Tim.

“Where the fuck is he, Smith?”

“Who?” Tim asks, clueless.

“The person you were supposed to get here and keep away from phones. Puke-ass. Remember him?”

“Oh, yeah. Brooke dragged him off somewhere. Outside, I think.” Tim finishes that with a shrug and wanders back to hitting on some dumb cheerleader that Nathan slept with a year ago. Always with the sloppy seconds, that one.

The tension drains slowly from Nathan’s body as relief seeps into its place. Brooke will do the job, she’ll keep her end of the bargain. She now has as much riding on this as Nathan does, and he knows it. Plus, no one gets off on the chase quite like Brooke Davis. He just hopes that his apparently prudish half brother puts up enough of a chase to give Nathan time to get his in with Haley James.

The thing is, he doesn’t know what he’ll do with or to Haley once he gets in good with her. He knows he will. He has no doubt that with a little time, effort, and patience, he can charm her into whatever it is he wants. He just hasn’t decided how best to use her to effectively destroy Lucas. Oh, sex is going to enter the equation – one, he thinks the thrill of seduction is something she can’t resist. Especially from him. And two, he’s going to all this trouble, and eventually, there is going to have to be public time between the two of them – he’s going to get something out of this, beyond the pleasuring of ruining Lucas’s life and driving him off the team.

And he’s never had a virgin before. Not his style. Probably one of the very few concessions to respect that he makes in his life. Besides, as far as he’s concerned, an experienced girl or woman would have to have more to offer than an awkward virgin. But this particular virgin – the benefits of bedding her were too many to pass up.

All the cheerleaders are here, but none of them interest him, and the few that did, well, he’s been with them and they no longer capture his attention at all. Maybe what Brooke said about life in Tree Hill getting boring was truer than he realized. If he can’t even get excited about a party that isn’t shaping up to suck too hard, then he knows he’s got a problem.

That doesn’t even matter to him, though. All of his interest and attention has shifted to this girl that he doesn’t even know, doesn’t even care about. Someone he’s going to destroy. She isn’t even here now, and he knows he won’t be seeing her soon, but she’s still foremost in his mind.

He doesn’t really join the party, instead going up to his bedroom and relaxing. Planning. Waiting to see if Brooke comes up here when she’s done with Lucas to report her progress. He admits to himself that he is interested in finding out what happened between them tonight. And unfortunately, get Brooke’s opinion on what he should do next with Haley. How to approach her.

Nathan mingles with everyone, spending more time talking with a few of the guys on the team than any of the girls who have showed up. And they all try, of course, he knew they would – they always do – but he ignores them. He continues to ignore them, though. He’s pleased when Brooke rejoins the party, pulling a drunken Lucas along behind her. He wants to approach her, find out what happened and let her know that they’ve already got Lucas pissing Haley off, but he knows better.

So he waits until Lucas ends up passed out in the bedroom that Brooke dragged him off into. Nathan is completely pissed at having him sleeping in his house, but the sacrifice will hopefully be worth it in the long run. No, he knows it will be worth it. There is no way he’s going to give this up without giving the little bastard exactly what he deserves.

Brooke finally reappears, motioning for Nathan to join her out on the side deck where no one can see them and no one will bother them.

“So, tonight went well,” she smirks smugly, the only other person in the school who has perfected the look close to the degree that he has. But with her, he thinks it is a mask. A way to hide her true self, the one no one gets to see. Maybe it is for him, too, on some levels.

“I see that,” Nathan returns, grossed out by the thought of Brooke and Lucas, “Spare me the details, though.”

“Aw, you sure you don’t want to hear how good he is with his hands? I should’ve assumed,” she smiles coyly, enjoying having Nathan backed against the wall, “He is so good with that basketball, after all.”

“That’s sick,” Nathan bites out, clenching his fists into balls, “And what you do with that little bastard is your own business, and I don’t need details, really.”

“I guess you won’t be joining us in a sweaty, hot threesome then,” she asks, widening her eyes in mock innocence.

“You’re such a slutty bitch,” he throws at her, meaning and believing it.

She just shrugs, though. It isn’t a new opinion that he’s throwing at her. She’s heard it all before from parents, teachers, friends, and enemies alike. She knows what she is, and she’s at peace with it. She gets what she needs out of it, and him calling her out on her behavior is no big deal to her.

“I won’t argue with you on that,” she nods, “But we should talk about the rest of the stuff. We can leave the part out where I sucked – “

“Yeah, leave it out,” Nathan orders curtly, “That is the last thing I want to hear about.”

“You know, if it was anyone but you, I’d think you were jealous your brother was going one of the few places you haven’t gone,” she sighs, “But I know you better than that.”

“Sorry I can’t stroke your enormous ego,” he mutters, not wanting to talk about Brooke or even himself, really. Though, that last one might be a first.

“Whatever. So, how’d it go with Tutor Girl? She wait for him, crying her eyes out? Or is she the tantrum throwing kind?”

Nathan shrugs. “Neither, at least before I left. She just looked, I don’t know, irritated,” he relays, after finding the word that fit.

“Irritated,” Brooke muses, “Well, that’s a good start.”

He nods. “I didn’t stick around either. For all I know, she’s still out on that bench throwing a huge ass fit.”

“Right,” Brooke chuckles, “I’m sure that’s what she’s doing. Anyway, forget her for the moment. I guess that means she didn’t get Luke’s message.”

“Luke left her a message?” he mutters incredulously, “How the fuck did that happen? I gave you and Tim specific instructions on – “

“Chill out, big guy,” Brooke breaks in, “I let him call her after he’d had two drinks in the car on the way out here. Everclear punch.”

“Ohh,” Nathan smirks, “Very well played, Brooke.”

”Yeah, I know,” she agrees, “You know that boy can’t handle his liquor very well. I don’t think he drinks much.”

Nathan rolls his eyes at the obviousness of her statement. “He’s a sheltered little mama boy pansy, of course he doesn’t drink much. And of course he can’t handle his liquor. He’s a pussy.”

“Well, now that much I know isn’t true,” Brooke rebuts, smirking at him when he blanches, “Anyway, his message was pretty bad. If Peyton left a message like that trying to explain why she’d ditched me, I’d be pissed off. And little goody-goody Tutor Girl is even more likely to take offense to it than me.”

Nathan lets a wide grin settle over his face. “Yeah, she is, isn’t she?” Brooke nods. “What did the idiot say?”

“Well, it wasn’t so much what he said, but definitely how he said it. You know, the slurring and stuttering and rambling. Although I had a class with that girl last year, and she talked a lot, too, so maybe she likes that shit. Anyway, he just said that he was sorry he forgot her, which is funny because he didn’t forget her,” Brooke giggles, “And that he’d make it up to her when he didn’t have anything better to do.”

Nathan rolls his eyes at Brooke. “Sounds like it is definitely what he said, dumbass. How many people would appreciate being told that he’d see them when nothing better was going on?”

“Huh, that is so absolutely true,” she laughs, “I’m even better than I thought. Well, school might actually be interesting enough that I’ll have to get there early in the morning to see what happens when they bump into each other.”

“Don’t bother,” Nathan sighs, a little disappointed in missing just what she described, “She rides to school with him usually.”

Brooke raises her eyebrows at him in certain appraisal. “Well, you certainly know a lot about her and her habits, don’t you? This might start getting a little creepy if I find out you’ve been pawing through her underwear drawer and know what style of panties she prefers.”

“I’ll find that out without having to snoop,” he smiles confidently, “There’s no need for me to stoop to low tactics like that.”

“Yeah, well, I’m already one step ahead of you considering I know Lucas’s preferences,” she brags, oh so proud of herself. Proud to the point it makes Nathan a little ill. This is just a game, and the only prize is destroying Lucas. But he admits that Brooke is going to have to take her prizes where she can get them since his ultimate goal doesn’t do much for her. And Brooke is the kind of girl that will always get hers.

“I think I’ll request tutoring tomorrow,” Nathan muses, “I could use a little help in English, I’m thinking. Mr. Bradley is always telling me I can do better, and he’d be thrilled to recommend me for tutoring.”

She considers his statement, and then nods. “If she’s mad at Lucas, then now might be the perfect time to get her to agree to tutor you.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking,” he agrees, “How does this tutor thing work? If I can get a teacher to assign me to her, then she couldn’t refuse, right?”

She shrugs, “I really have no idea how that dorky tutoring shit works. But that sounds reasonable, I guess.”

“Well, I guess I’m about to find out,” he smirks. A loud crash from inside the house draws both their attention. “I guess it’s time to wrap this up. What’s your next move with Puke?”

“Get him home first, I guess.”

“Ha, his mommy will probably ground him,” Nathan laughs.

“At least his mommy cares,” Brooke shrugs, ignoring the angry scowl on Nathan’s face, “It certainly isn’t as if you could say the same, right, Nathan?”

“So fucking what?” he snarls, pissed she’d have the audacity to mention the one solitary short-coming in his life.

”Just saying,” she notes, “Better go find out what Tim knocked over, huh?”

He nods, turning around and stalking back into the house without another word to her. He knows that she’s standing behind him, probably with a dumb smirk on her face, thinking she got the best of him. He brushes it off, though, and continues into the house, beginning to usher all the loser idiots who have crammed themselves in here out.

Brooke comes in behind him, smirking as she heads down the hall towards the bedrooms, obviously going to grab Lucas. She reappears with him, a few minutes after everyone else is gone. He’s more alert now, apparently some of the alcohol having worn off, and to Nathan’s delight, he’s babbling about having not met Haley.

“She’ll kill me,” he insists to Brooke, “Supposed to go to dinner at her house since her sister was there. Be her buffer, ‘cause Taylor’s a real bitch.”

“I’m sure her parents stopped it,” Brooke grounds out, trying to be patient as he rambles on about some other girl. Nathan just watches, amused.

“No, they don’t notice. Taylor’s such a mess they’re just happy whenever she comes home. They love Haley just as much, but they worry more about Taylor.”

Nathan rubs his hands together in near glee. A drunken Lucas turns out to be quite the fount of information about Haley James. And that is exactly what Nathan needed tonight.

“Well, they won’t let her be too mean,” Brooke tries again, her arms around him as she supports him on their walk out of the house. She glares at Nathan when she catches his stupid smirk.

“Haley’s tough, but Taylor really tries to hurt her,” he sighs, to Nathan’s surprise actually looking like he feels bad about missing their dinner. Of course, the surprise fades quick enough when he reminds himself of what a pussy Lucas is.

“Then maybe Haley needs to get tougher!” Brooke snaps, nearly losing her balance when Lucas wrenches away from her. “What was that for?”

“You don’t know her, and you shouldn’t talk about her. I’m out of here,” he mumbles, stumbling towards the closet door.

Nathan stands back, just watches in amusement as Brooke finally convinces him that he doesn’t have a way home unless he wants Nathan to take him. Lucas finally gives in and consents to getting a ride home from her, but he still doesn’t look happy about it.

“What a damn mess,” Nathan mutters to himself, glancing around the beach house as Brooke and Lucas head for the door.

“What the hell is going on here?” Dan’s voice booms through the now empty room. Nathan freezes in his spot, hoping like hell Brooke has already got Lucas out of there. Turning around, luck isn’t on his side, and they’re still standing there, Lucas looking green with nausea.

“Basketball/cheerleading bonding party,” Nathan offers up as explanation.

Dan fixes his nastiest glare on Lucas. Nathan has seen that look plenty of times himself, and it is a momentary disappointment that his father uses the same one on both of them. He’d always figured Lucas’s would be worse.

Brooke looks a little shell-shocked, something Nathan can’t ever recall seeing her be, but she brushes it off and drags Lucas out the door, leaving Nathan alone with Dan.

“Son, I hope there is a damn good reason you would bring that boy into one of my properties,” Dan bites out, obviously angry, obviously ready, willing, and able to act out that anger.

“No, Dad,” Nathan responds in sarcasm, “I thought it’d be fun if me and big bro could hang out for awhile. Jesus, what the hell did you think?”

“Shut your stupid mouth, Nathan,” Dan yells, “You know better than this! What have I been telling you for the last six years? That boy is not a part of this world! He will never be a part of it, and he never should be! And for you to bring him here, into one of my homes, it is a slap in the face!”

“What’s your problem, Dad? I’m doing this for you! You think I like having him here or anywhere in my life? Because I don’t! You wanted me to get rid of him, and that’s what I’m working on doing,” Nathan responds quietly, “I’m just doing what you wanted.”

Dan shakes his head. “Leave it to you to even mess up something as simple as this, Nathan. I swear, you’re just as worthless as that boy is. Maybe I made the wrong choice seventeen years ago.”

If he’d sucker-punched Nathan in the gut, Nathan wouldn’t have been more caught off guard than he was by that proclamation. All his life, he’s never quite measured up to what his father wanted him to be, what his father expected him to be, but his father has also never said anything so horrible to him as he has now.

He doesn’t really know what to say to Dan now, after that gauntlet was thrown down. He knows that this changes things, that whatever little bit of love and respect he had for him is probably gone forever now, but he also knows that it won’t change anything from Dan’s perspective. The man is too oblivious, too selfish to realize how his words have changed everything for Nathan.

“Are you even listening to me?” Dan asks loudly, snapping Nathan back to attention, “This place is a mess. You’d better get it cleaned up. And be ready for our run tomorrow morning.”

“Tomorrow’s a game day,” Nathan reminds him, “We never run on game days.”

“We’re starting now, since you obviously need all the training and pushing that you can get your hands on, Nathan. You’re becoming lazier and more worthless by the day.” He shakes his head at his son, making a show of pointing out his obvious disappointment. “And this place had better look spotless, your mother and I will be spending the weekend here.”

And with that, he leaves his son simmering in his wake. Nathan just stares at the door his father walked out, almost unable to believe what happened here. He is, without a doubt, unable to believe that his father could say those things to him and then walk out like he hadn’t said anything out of the ordinary.

“Asshole,” Nathan mutters to himself as he starts kicking some of the trash thrown around the room into a pile. He gets the place pretty well cleaned up, at least most of the trash thrown out, but leaves the rest knowing Dan will send in a cleaning crew tomorrow.

It gives him time to think, to question his plan to do Lucas in. Why give his father the satisfaction of doing his dirty work for him? And on some level, he knows that is what he’s doing – his father’s dirty work. But at the same time, it has become his own mission as well. He needs to get rid of Lucas, get him off the team, to protect his own place. And the only way to do that seems to be hitting Lucas hard where it hurts. And after tonight, he’s more convinced than ever that Haley James is where it would hurt Lucas most.

CHAPTER THREE

The next morning, Nathan got to school early. Oh, he’d told Brooke that they wouldn’t get to see the fireworks of the Lucas/Haley confrontation because she rode to school with him in, but he was still hoping. As many of the moments that lead up to Lucas’s doom and ruination that he can witness, he’ll find a way.

Getting to school early was not something he did. Ever. So if this didn’t pay off, he was going to be pissed, and he’d make Lucas pay during practice in the afternoon. Or maybe he’d find a way to humiliate him in the hallway between classes. Shouldn’t be too hard, he figured – it had to pretty humiliating to be that dumb bastard anyway.

When he spies Haley at her locker, her movements jerky and angry, he thinks he might be in luck and his unprecedented early arrival might have paid off. Especially seeing that Lucas is not there, in his typical spot, beside her. He can’t help but grin at this development.

He takes a post across and slightly down the hall for her, just waiting for the dreaded half-brother to make his appearance. And he didn’t have to bide time for long – Lucas appeared not a minute later, looking all the worse for his little tutorial in jock partying of the night before. Nathan’s smile widened when he saw Haley’s eyes widen in surprise at Lucas’s appearance and then narrow in disgust as she turns her attention to shoving more books into her locker.

Nathan moved closer to them, for once happy not to be the center of someone’s attention. It made it so much easier to get close enough to eavesdrop that way.

“Look, Luke, there’s nothing to say right now,” Haley snaps at Lucas, grinning with pleasure when he jumps at the sound of her locker slamming shut, “Oh, I’m so sorry! Did that add to the pain of your hangover?”

Nathan has to bite his lip to hold the snicker in. This Haley girl can bring the pain. Maybe she won’t suck so much to hang out with. And maybe he’ll get more than just bagging a virgin and an improved English grade out of it.

“Hales, come on!” Luke protests, pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers and thumb, “Don’t be like this!”

“Don’t be like what, Luke?” she asks, looking down at the ground. Even Nathan, who is sure he lacks the ability to feel anything himself, can see that Luke’s actions last night hurt her. Well, he decides he can feel the emotion of ‘happiness’, since he’s pretty sure that’s what he’s feeling now. “Don’t be mad that you couldn’t bother to do more than leave a message? I waited for you, you jerk, and you just let me. So that you could go get drunk with people you say you don’t even like. What the hell does that make you?”

“Sorry, okay!” he bursts out, grimacing when that just causes more pain to shoot through his head, “I’m sorry. It was stupid, and I wasn’t thinking.”

She glares at him, and Nathan is sure she’ll shoot him down again, but then she sighs. “Yeah, I know. I just don’t get why you couldn’t have called? Would that have been so hard?” she mutters, smacking him upside the head and giggling when he groans, looking green.

“Hales, trust me, you don’t want to do that,” Lucas warns her.

“Gonna puke?” she taunts, and Nathan is disappointed that she’s forgiven him so quickly for this. The only person who’d do that for him is Tim, and he didn’t count.

“Maybe,” Luke grumbles, smiling at her gratefully when she links her arm through his. “I really am sorry. Believe me, it wasn’t even worth missing a night with the insane James clan.”

“Oh, but what is?” Haley quips, dragging him down the hall out of Nathan’s hearing range.

Nathan glowers at this turn of events, beginning to realize just how close those two hopeless idiots were. They really are friends, which is something that he can’t help but marvel at. How his idiot bastard of a half-brother can be such good friends with so many people, the best of which being a girl of all things, and he had no one in his life like that was beyond comprehension to him.

“Shit,” he mutters under his breath. This was going to be harder than he thought. He guessed that all he could do now was convince her to tutor him and hope that Brooke was successful in keeping Lucas occupied and away from Haley.

“And you said there wouldn’t be anything to see,” Brooke whispers in his ear from behind. He almost jumps in surprise, but stops himself just in time.

He turns around, smirking at her. “I was just on my way to see Mr. Bradley, actually,” he attempts to cover.

“Right,” Brooke grins, not buying it for a second, “And after school, I’m going to pick flowers to take the old farts at the nursing home.”

“You’re almost a real live girl, aren’t you, Brooke?” he mutters condescendingly, trying to hurt her. Not the brightest move, pissing off his only ally, but she’s such a bitch that he can’t help himself. Has to get the better of everyone.

She stares for a minute, trying to comprehend that he actually had the nerve to say that to her. She is the closest thing to a counterpart that he has in this school, after all. “Screw you, Nathan. And besides, in this case, it really does take one to know one, right? Everyone knows you have no feelings at all.”

He rolls his eyes at her and turns, moving down the hall. This time he acknowledges his classmates, allowing them to fawn over him like they always do. It is a routine for them, but one for him, too. He does as he told Brooke, and heads for Mr. Bradley’s classroom, rolling his eyes when he passes a now laughing Haley and Lucas.

When he enters, Mr. Bradley looks up, blinking in surprise. “Why Mr. Nathan Scott, if I were any older, the surprise of you appearing in my classroom before school might just give me a heart attack.”

Nathan suppresses the urges to roll his eyes or walk out. Instead, he grabs the chair next to Mr. Bradley’s desk and sits down.

“Mr. Bradley, I need help.”

The teacher stares at him for a moment and then bursts out laughing. Getting up from his desk, he claps Nathan on the shoulder as he passes him. “Good one, son, you almost had me going for a minute there.”

“What?” Nathan asks, “I’m serious, I’m worried about my grade in your class.”

Mr. Bradley stops in his walk toward the back of the classroom and turns back to Nathan slowly. “You’re serious, aren’t you?” He looks at him closer. “Why? I’ve been telling you all year that you’re so close to doing really great, and you’ve brushed me off countless times. Why the sudden interest now?”

Nathan fights to keep the deer in headlights look off his face as he mulls over the possible reasons he could give. “I, uh, see, my mom is coming to town this weekend, and she’ll, uh, ask how I’m doing in school. And when she finds out I’m not doing so great in English, she’ll, um, want to know what I’m doing to improve.”

Mr. Bradley doesn’t really believe him, something Nathan is well aware of, but they both know he can’t really contradict him, either. “So, what are you suggesting, Nathan?”

“That’s the thing,” Nathan shrugs, wanting the teacher to think it was all his idea, “I’m not sure what my options are. Extra credit, I don’t know?”

“Now, you know that I don’t offer extra credit, Mr. Scott,” his teacher reminds him. And of course, Nathan does know this. He also knows that Mr. Bradley is an advisor to the tutoring program, and thinks that being tutored is the answer to everything.

“Oh, right, I forgot,” Nathan mumbles, hoping he doesn’t look too pleased with himself.

“Might I suggest tutoring?” Mr. Bradley recommends, right on schedule. Nathan couldn’t help but think that it was just too easy.

“T-tutoring, sir?” Nathan pretends to look confused, “I’m not sure if that’s something that is really for me.”

“Oh, now, tutoring is for everyone!” the teacher enthuses, “In fact, I can’t think of a better option for you, Nathan!”

“Really?” he asks, feigning surprise.

“Yes, of course, in fact, I’ll meet you in the tutoring center after school.” Nathan opens his mouth to remind him he has basketball, but Mr. Bradley waves him. “Yes, yes, I know, basketball. It will only take a moment. In fact, I know the perfect tutor for you. She’s a genius. Did you know that one of the captains of the football team was failing three classes? She’s got him earning A’s now!”

“She, uh, sounds terrific,” Nathan mumbles, thinking that the teacher has to have someone other than Haley in mind. Sure, the girl was clearly a big dork, but she didn’t seem to be the bespectacled, pocket protector geek that some of the other offerings the school made.

“Oh, yes, she’s wonderful. All the tutees just love her.”

“Great,” Nathan grounds out through clenched teeth. He could kick himself for coming to the teacher like this. He should’ve just popped into the tutoring center one day and demanded Haley tutor him, not taking ‘no’ for an answer.

“So, right after last bell, be there, and we’ll get you introduced. And don’t worry about basketball, Haley works in the afternoons anyway. She’ll find time to get you in,” Mr. Bradley smiles confidently, turning away.

Nathan stays seated as Mr. Bradley goes about straightening the rows of desks, and then stands up, letting a smirk play over his lips as he stretches his big body. He can’t believe he’d doubted that things would go his way; after all, they always did.

And that’s why his mood has vastly improved by the time lunch rolls around. Even his bitch of an ex, Peyton Sawyer, can’t change that today.

“God, Nathan, don’t you have somewhere else to sit?” she snaps, apparently having grown something of a backbone since they broke up, Nathan notes. Of course, seeing as she broke up with him, perhaps she grew it while they were together.

“Peyton,” he bites back in the same tone, just with more condescension thrown in, “This is my table. You’re not a natural blonde – which, guys, I know for a fact – so why you have to act like one, I’ll never know.”

The other guys at the table laugh at his insinuations like it was the funniest thing they’ve ever heard. Even Brooke, who is sitting next to Peyton, has a hard time keeping the smile off her face.

”Nice,” Peyton mutters softly, giving Brooke a hurt look, “Thanks a lot.”

And with that, she jumps up, grabbing her bag, marching out of the cafeteria. Nathan and Brooke both watch her go, Brooke feeling bad, Nathan just glad she’s gone. He isn’t so glad when he sees her plop down at the table that Lucas and Haley are sitting at, along with the rest of Lucas’s river rat buddies.

Nathan’s gaze swings immediately to Brooke, who looks equally stressed about this new development. All she can do is shrug at him, however, as she is also clueless as to why Peyton would feel comfortable sitting there at that table. Although Nathan is pleased to see that Haley doesn’t necessarily look thrilled by the addition to her group.

Nathan’s cell phone vibrates in his pocket, and he pulls it out to find that Brooke sent him a message while he was watching Haley. She’s ordered him to meet her out by her car in ten minutes so they can discuss this turn of events. He nods at her, wrenching his attention half away from Haley – and Lucas – and starts to rag on Tim.

Nathan barely notices when Brooke gets up and leaves the table. So, why, he wonders, does he so readily notice the second Haley, who he has never said a word to, starts to thaw to Peyton’s presence? From across the crowded, loud cafeteria, he sees that, and wonders when he crossed a line that gave him a window, albeit a small one, into the inner workings of Haley James?

When the minutes pass that Brooke specified he waited, he gets up and heads out of the cafeteria and then out of the school, straight for her car. He again ignores everyone in his path, much more interested in finding out Brooke’s thoughts on Peyton’s defection to Lucas’s table, and just what that meant for the plan.

When he climbs in the passenger seat of her car, she glares his way. “Can you believe the nerve of that bitch?” she bites out, and Nathan suppresses a smirk – interesting to find out that even Brooke’s friendship with Peyton is pretty much worthless. At least to Brooke, if it comes down to Peyton getting something Brooke wanted.

He just shakes his head, though, knowing he’s pissed her off enough for the day. “What the hell is going on there?” he asks finally, “Is Peyton going after Luke?”

She shrugs, a look of panic flitting across her face. “I hadn’t thought so, but now I’m not so sure. I mean, God, what if she is? That really complicates things.”

Nathan’s eyes narrow as he responds to her, “In what way? Would you go chicken shit on me and not follow through with the plan?”

“No way,” she scoffs, “Peyton will just be a civilian casualty in your war against Lucas. Kind of like Tutor Girl, only, she’s probably more innocent than Peyton.” Brooke rolls her eyes when Nathan grins. “Not like that, pervy, I meant that Peyton probably is interested in Lucas, and Tutor Girl is just his friend.”

“Yeah, okay,’ Nathan mutters, “Whatever. How is this going to affect our plans here? That’s what I’m worried about.”

“Well, of course it is,” Brooke glares, “As if you’d ever be bothered to worry about anything besides yourself and your little whims.”

“Hey, this little whim is affording you the opportunity of nailing bastard boy, which is what we both know you really want,” Nathan shouts, his voice loud in the small car.

“And you want it more!” she counters, “Not in the same way, I suppose, although that could be pretty hot.”

“Brooke,” he grounds out, glaring hotly at her.

“Right, sorry. Gross. Anyway, this is what both of us want, not just you,” she reminds him, “And it doesn’t matter that the goals are slightly different, to accomplish them, we have the same objective. Shouldn’t be too hard.”

Nathan just rolls his eyes at her, knowing she’s nervous about the Peyton development. Brooke tries not to glare at him in response. She knows that he’s prickly, and she knows that if he’s dropping it now, she should let it lie.

“How does this affect things?” he asks her, knowing that Peyton will most likely be more of an obstacle for her than him. He doesn’t care about her now – he’s not sure if he ever did.

She shrugs, her brow furrowing as she thinks about it. “I really don’t know, Nathan. Sorry,” she sighs when he mutters something unintelligible under his breath, “I wish I did. I’m not giving up – you know I want him for myself – but this is just one more obstacle I’ll have to remove. This is turning into a lot of work.”

“And if anyone’s cut out for it, it’s us,” Nathan supplies, “Can you think of anyone we know that is more likely to get what they want than one of us?”

“Well, good point,” she beams in response, full enough of herself that she’ll take a compliment like that, even from Nathan Scott.

“Next move?” he questions.

“You get Tutor Girl to tutor you. I’ll get Peyton away from the both of them,” she shudders, obviously more concerned about why Peyton sat at their table than she’d care to let on. And she’s let on a lot, Nathan knows, so it makes him a little nervous that she’s trying to hide it now.

“Okay,” he agrees, “Not a problem.”

She raises her eyebrows at his cocky demeanor. “You’re so sure you’ve got her tutoring you in the bag? You might want to think again,” she cautions him, “You hate Luke and so your friends do, too, so does it not stand to reason that Tutor Girl and the rest of his friends hate you, too.”

Sometimes, Nathan thinks, Brooke is irritatingly smart. Or intuitive. Whatever. It doesn’t matter, he knows that in the end, she knows nothing. At least not compared to what he does. So her flashes of intelligence are just that, flashes.

“I’m sure it won’t be easy,” he concedes, “But come on, how bad could it be? It isn’t like I’ve done anything to her.”

She just stares at him, surprised by his lack of awareness on how things like this work. “Honestly, you have never had a friend, have you?”

“I have friends,” he mutters defensively, the lie hollow to his own ears.

“No,” she muses, “You have groupies, you have followers, you have hanger ons, you have fanatics, you have stalkers, you have a posse, but you don’t have friends. There’s a difference.”

“What does it matter?” he snaps, “It isn’t like you have much more than I do.”

“No,” she shrugs, “I really don’t. And after this, I’m probably going to have exactly what you do – nothing. But since I don’t have much now, it isn’t like it will matter if I lose the rest of it, right?”

He thinks it is sort of pathetic that her view on life and what she has is so pessimistic, but he has no words of encouragement to offer. Hell, he isn’t even so sure that she’s wrong, anyway. “Whatever, Brooke, just do your magic and keep Lucas away from Haley.”

He opens the door to get out. She stops him by laying a hand on his arm. “You better damn well do your part, too,” she threatens, “If you don’t find a way to get your little Tutor Girl away from him or get her into you, then this won’t work.”

“I get that, Brooke,” he snaps, having had enough of her, “I know my part in this, and I’m definitely going to do this. I’m just worried you’re going to get sappy and soft over Peyton. But don’t worry, she makes everyone soft after awhile.”

“You’re sick,” Brooke retorts, “Get out of my car. But just keep in mind, you spew that perverted shit to Tutor Girl, and you’ll never get anywhere.”

He rolls his eyes and gets out of the car without another word to her. To his surprise – and perhaps delight – he sees Lucas walking through the parking lot with Peyton. Haley isn’t with them, which Nathan can only figure is a good thing. If he knows how girls work at all, and he’s pretty sure he does, he knows that there is no way Haley is happy about Peyton horning in on her territory, even if her territory is as lame as Lucas.

He considers looking for Haley and approaching her now, but when he sees her, still sitting at the table with the rest of the river rats, he knows that won’t fly. He could kick the asses of all the guys there individually, and most in pairs, but he can’t take on all of them, and he knows they’re loyal to the bastard. He can’t even try. But he just has to sit through two more periods before he will meet with Mr. Bradley and Haley in the tutoring center. Not that she knows that, but he does, and he looks forward to it.

The rest of the afternoon passes like molasses to him, but finally, the final bell rings for the day, and he heads straight for the tutoring center, ignoring Tim and a few other guys on his way. Not that he ever really paid attention to them anyway. But it’s more of a deliberate ignoring today.

He takes a seat along the wall so that his back is to the window that faces the hallway. He’s not embarrassed to be getting help with classes. He doesn’t even care about that. But he knows that his presence here would open him up to a ton of questions from people who might actually be smart enough to figure out his motives. Peyton, maybe.

Haley comes in next, before Mr. Bradley. She doesn’t notice him right away, and so he gets to watch as she removes her slightly worn denim jacket and hangs it up along with her backpack. He’s pleased to see that under the jacket, she’s actually got a figure that he could get behind. Or under, or even better, on top of.

It only takes a second more before she notices him. She’s opening some notebook on the desk and flipping through it as he catches her eye. He can barely contain the smirk when her mouth falls open and an angry look crosses over her face. He looks away, knowing that he’ll bust out laughing if he keeps staring at the shocked expression on her face.

He can feel the heat of her gaze on him, but it doesn’t bother him. Quite the opposite, actually, which surprises him. In the rare times he can be bothered to be honest with himself, he’ll admit that sometimes the attention and stares he receives is daunting. He doesn’t really like it, although a part of him needs it.

But with her, feeling her staring at him isn’t such a big deal. It’s kind of a turn-on, actually, especially since he knows that all she’s directing his way is anger and confusion. She’s a challenge, and he likes a good challenge. God knows he doesn’t get many of them in his life, especially when it comes to girls. Most are only too willing to drop trou for him, not that he thinks that is a bad thing. He knows it isn’t, and he knows he’s lucky in that regard.

Sometimes, though, it’s nice to know that not everyone falls head over heels for him. He almost laughs out loud when he thinks about what the guys would say if they heard him say that. They’d think he was crazy – hell, Tim might be dumb enough to call a doctor for him so he could get his head checked out.

They just didn’t understand that being Nathan placed a lot of demands on him, and sometimes it was nice when a girl didn’t expect he’d sleep with them. It wasn’t like he was a blow-up doll, ready on command for any old girl who wanted to be serviced by him. Funny how he feels cheap over that sometimes.

He doesn’t think that he should – none of the guys he knows would, but then again, they don’t have this problem. Not that he thinks it is a problem. Well, all of the time. But it is enough of a problem that he’d rather participate in the chase with Haley James for a change than be the one chased, the one pursued.

Oh, he knows it would be easier to get to Lucas if she fell at his feet like the rest of them. But it isn’t disappointing that she won’t. So, it’ll take longer this way, but he’s beginning to think it might be quite worth the extra time, he decides, as he glances up to catch her still angry gaze on him. The confusion has left the building, but the anger is still there, simmering just below the surface.

At that point, Mr. Bradley walks in, nodding hello to Nathan as he walks over to the desk that Haley is now sitting at.

“Ms. James, my favorite tutor, I have a request for you,” he tells her, glancing over his shoulder at Nathan. Nathan isn’t looking at him, though; his attention is solely focused on Haley. He wants to see the exact expression on her face when Haley hears what the request is.

“And what is that?” she asks, mustering a smile for her teacher and adviser, “You know I’m always happy to help out a new student, Mr. Bradley.”

As soon as she says that, she blanches, and Nathan knows that she’s realized why he’s there. It takes a lot to keep the smirk off his face, but he thinks he manages it. Still, the expression on her face is priceless, and she looks like her mind is racing a million miles a minute trying to figure out a way out of this.

“Excellent!” Mr. Bradley beams, “Then you and Mr. Scott here should get along just fine. He’s a good student, but we want to make him into a great student. And you’re the only one who can do it, Ms. James!”

“Oh, um, but Mr. Bradley,” she blurts out, flustered, “I don’t know. I’ve got a full load right now, and I’m not sure who I could switch out. Plus, um, doesn’t he play football? I don’t know when we’d meet?”

Nathan grins inwardly, liking the flush of her cheeks and the way she pretends she doesn’t know what sport he plays. It’s sort of cute, actually. And then he wonders where that thought came from. Nathan Scott doesn’t do cute.

“It’s basketball, Ms. James, which you should know. You said hi to me and my wife at the last game, remember? You were there for Luke. And you work when he practices anyway. Can’t you work him into your morning schedule?” he asks, oblivious to the reactions of both Haley and Nathan when he mentions Lucas, the other Scott.

“Oh, yeah, of course,” Haley murmurs, “Silly me. I’m not good with sports.”

“No, you’re good with English, and that’s why you’re here,” Mr. Bradley laughs, “So, you get to help Nathan take his scholastic abilities to the next level. You’re the only one I think can do it, Hales. I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t important.”

She blinks at him for a moment, and Nathan knows she’s still wondering how to get out of it. “I – yeah, of course, Mr. Bradley. I’ll, uh, see what I can do.”

“Great, I knew I could count on you!” he grins, turning his smile on Nathan. “And you, just figure out when you can meet, and I can’t wait to see your grade shoot up!”

“Thanks, Mr. Bradley, I’m going to do you proud,” Nathan responds to him, not embarrassed to brown nose a little in front of Haley the Tutor. She probably knows a thing or two about brown nosing herself.

He watches Mr. Bradley leave the tutoring center, turning to move closer to Haley as other students pile into the room around him, most taking seats at tables or desks and pulling out homework.

“Why are you doing this?” Haley blurts out in a low whisper, “It doesn’t even sound like you need a tutor.”

“You don’t know what I need,” Nathan returns, his hands resting on the table so he can lean in closer to her, “But I’ll be glad to tell you. I need a tutor, for English. I want to get my grade up. I’m not failing, but I can do better. Is that a crime?”

“For the vapid and self-involved? Probably,” she informs him, fire in her eyes, “Do us both a favor and if you’re so set on having a tutor, ask Mr. Bradley to find someone new.”

“He said you’re the best.” He smiles when she blushes. She obviously knows she’s the best, but she’s not jaded enough that compliments don’t faze her. He sort of likes that about her. “And I want the best. I’ve never had anything but the best, and I don’t intend to start now.”

“And therein lies the problem,” she sighs, leaning away from him, “You think you have some right to something, that you deserve things handed to you. Well, guess what? I’m not stupid, I’m not one of your groupies who will fall in line with your wishes, and you can go to Hell! Or find a new tutor, your choice!”

“Mr. Bradley assigned me to you, and since I don’t know you, Helen, I don’t see what the problem is.” He purposely calls her by the wrong name just to bother her. Her eyes flash angrily, and he knows he succeeded.

“Who cares?” she mutters, “Mr. Bradley might not know what kind of low, scummy ass you are, but I do, and I’m not willing to associate with trash like you on any level.”

His fists form angry balls, but that is the only outward sign that her words affect him. “Look, I don’t know what your problem is – like I said, we don’t know each other. Where the big deal is in all this, I don’t know. It’s tutoring, not sex. Although, maybe to someone like you, they’re one and the same.”

To his huge surprise, hurt flits over her features before she puts the mask of stony anger back on. He actually feels guilty for a second over it before he reminds himself she brought his harsh remarks on herself. Couldn’t she be a tiny bit gracious about being chosen to tutor him? Mr. Bradley had practically crawled up her ass he was so effusive in his praise of her tutoring abilities. Nathan thought girls lived for that shit.

“And this is why I don’t want to tutor you,” she whispers, “You’re just a self-absorbed jerk. I don’t know why you’re here, but I don’t buy for a single second you care about your English grade enough to go to tutoring when you don’t have to.”

“It’s for my mom,” he says after debating for a minute. He doesn’t want to give her too much info now, but he knows she’s seriously unwilling to help him at this time, and he can’t afford to miss out on this opportunity. If she doesn’t tutor him, then he knows he has no other chance of using her to get to Lucas. “She, uh, isn’t around much, and she doesn’t really care about how good I am at basketball. But she really loves reading and stuff.” Reading and stuff? God, he can’t believe how stupid he sounds. “So I want to get my grade up before she gets back to town.”

“Nathan,” she begins, her eyes softening slightly at the reason he gave her, “I don’t care. It doesn’t even matter. Just find someone else. It’ll be better for both of us.”

“Better for you, you mean,” he corrects, “Because if you’re the best tutor there is, then I don’t see how finding a different one will do me any good. Besides, what the hell is your problem with me, anyway?”

She rolls her eyes at him. “Don’t play dumb, it doesn’t suit you. I’m Lucas’s best friend, and I know you’ve seen me with him.”

“A little full of yourself, aren’t you?” he smirks, glad to know for sure she’s noticed him. Even if it was just when he was watching her.

“No, I’m not,” she states bluntly, “And I don’t care if you were the dumbest person on earth and you genuinely needed tutoring, I wouldn’t give it to you.”

“But Mr. Bradley said – “

“It doesn’t matter. I refuse to associate in any way with someone who torments my best friend. Some of us aren’t that big of hypocrites.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nathan asks crossly.

“It means that it is sort of pathetic that you’re asking the best friend of your mortal enemy for help. Not that I understand why you hate him so much. He’s never done anything to you. Anyway, you’re a pathetic hypocrite. That was my point.”

“What if I said I’d stop?” Nathan asks, surprising them both, “Stop harassing Lucas, I mean.”

Haley gapes at him for a minute, and then bursts out laughing loud enough to draw a bit of attention from other people in the room. When she notices, she immediately quiets down and leans toward him. “I almost fell for that for a second. But I’m not stupid.”

“I mean it,” he mutters quietly, and he finds that he does. If it means getting in good with Haley, he’ll leave the torturing of Lucas to his teammates and Brooke.

“You mean you’d leave it to your idiot buddies to do. Well, screw that, I’m not putting up with anyone as cruel as you.”

“I can get them to back off,” he assures her, put off when she rolls her eyes, “I mean it. Or I can get them to come on stronger.”

Her eyes widen in shock and disgust. “You’re blackmailing me into tutoring you? You’re even more of an ass than I thought, and let me tell you, the dimensions on my original thinking were pretty colossal.”

“Hey, I didn’t want it to come to that, but you’re refusing to tutor me. What else am I supposed to do?”

“Find someone who wouldn’t mind spending an hour a day with you,” she practically growls, “Because I do. I do mind. In fact, spending the past few minutes with you has been damn near unbearable. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go to work.”

She grabs her jacket and backpack off the hook, and he moves back a few steps to block the doorway as she approaches. He holds his arms out so she can’t pass without touching him.

“Don’t go, Haley,” he pleads, his tone low and sexy. Low and sexy enough that she notices, and is affected by it.

“Why are you doing this?” she asks, sounding nervous as she hugs her arms to her body. He can’t help but notice her breasts thrust up towards him when she crosses her arms under them. He can’t help that he stares long enough that she catches him. And she can’t help but shiver when she notices him noticing her.

“I told you, for my mom. Look, she – I just want to impress her, like I said. She doesn’t care much about me, about what I do, and maybe this will be something that will make her proud. Don’t you ever want to make your parents proud?”

“Yeah, I do, but I don’t turn to my best friend’s worst enemy for help doing it,” she rationalizes, but he can see her softening.

“Well, have at it now.  Anyway I can help you make your parents proud, I’m at your command,” he smiles, leaning down to talk into her ear. She fights the urge to shiver again at the feel of his hot breath on her ear and neck.

“It would never work. I don’t like you, I’m sure you don’t like me, and when I tutor people, I’d rather have a decent relationship with them.”

“Come on, Hales,” he whispers her nickname, thinking it would sway her towards his side.

“Don’t call me that!” she snaps, jerking away from him.

He blinks, confused. “What? Why not? Mr. Bradley did, so what’s the big deal? You’d rather have a teacher give you a nickname than a peer? I have to tell you, that’s kind of weird.”

“It isn’t Mr. Bradley’s nickname,” she snaps, “It’s what Lucas and his mom, my boss and friend, call me. And you – you treat him so horribly that you will never use it again. Do you hear me? If you do, I’ll – I’ll – I’ll make you sorry.”

He lets her pass then, knowing that he won’t get anywhere else with her this afternoon. In fact, he’s pretty sure he blew his only chance to get anywhere with her, until she glances back over her shoulder at him. Three times. The third time convinces him that there is absolutely no reason why he should give up. She’ll come around.

He’s about to leave the tutoring center, when he notices the notebook she’d been looking in is lying open on the desk still. Grabbing it, he realizes that it is her tutoring schedule and notes and the students she tutors. There are only a few kids she’s tutoring at this time, which irritates him more that she was so unwilling to schedule him in. But she takes all the advanced classes and she’s tutoring before school and during lunch now, as well as after her shifts at the café, so he can sort of see where she wouldn’t want more of a tutoring load.

Not that he cares. Her schedule means nothing to him, except that he now knows where he’ll meet her next. Her notes are so detailed that he now knows that Alan Thompson, her morning tutee, always arrives early. So all he has to do is intercept Alan and make sure he doesn’t show up to their session so that Nathan can show up in his place.

“This is too easy,” Nathan smiles to himself as he walks towards the gym for practice, “I am the master.”

He realizes now that maybe he underestimated Haley a little. She’s even more protective of stupid Lucas than he’d figured, and she doesn’t seem too likely to budge on that. Which is where Brooke, and perhaps an inadvertent Peyton, comes in. Anything that separates Haley from Luke is what Nathan needs to see happening right now.

CHAPTER FOUR

The next morning, after a charming run with his father, who Nathan nearly shoved into the path of an oncoming car, he got ready in a hurry and hightailed it down to the docks where he knew Haley was tutoring Alan Thompson. He got there just as Alan, who was one of the dumber jocks on the football team, is getting out of his car. Nathan jogs over to him, grabbing him by the shoulder.

“Hey, Alan, man, I’ve got a favor to ask you.”

Alan eyes him skeptically. “Last time I did you a favor, I got busted for holding that fifth of vodka on the bus to Morrisville.”

“It isn’t like that this time,” Nathan promises, “This is more about you doing nothing, actually. I need to borrow your tutor.”

“What? Borrow my tutor? Man, get your own tutor, and anyway, you can’t just borrow a person.”

“Well, fine, maybe not, but what I meant was more that I’d just take over your time slot. Can’t you find someone else?”

He shrugs. “I could, but I don’t want to. I like Haley, she’s nice, and she never makes me feel stupid for not knowing how to do the math homework. More than most of our teachers can say, right?”

“Look,” Nathan pleads, lying through his teeth, “I have to get my grade up in English. It is just so freakin’ important to me right now. And Mr. Bradley said she’s the only one who can do it. This is the only mutual time we have available on a daily basis.”

Alan shakes his head. “I don’t know, Scott. You’re on the basketball team.  Just get ‘em to pad your grades a little. We all know they do it for some of the other guys, why not you, too?”

“Because I’m not one of the other guys,” Nathan snaps, “I’m Nathan Scott, and I’m not screwing around and needing my grades to be fixed. I want a tutor, I want Haley James as my tutor, and I’m going to get her. And you can stay here and keep putting up this pitiful, pathetic semblance of a fight, but we both know how this will turn out.”

“Semblance?” Alan repeats, rolling his eyes doubtfully, “If you’re using words like that, I doubt you need an English tutor.”

“Well, the point is, I’m going to get one,” Nathan informs him, “And it’d save a lot of time if you just got it through that thick, meathead skull of yours now.”

“Fine,” Alan shrugs, “Whatever. I’ll find someone else to be my tutor or I’ll see if Haley can find another time for me if this is that important to you, which for some reason it obviously is. What is that reason? You could at least be honest since you’re hijacking my tutor.”

Nathan feels irritation wash over him at Alan’s words – why should he care who Haley tutors? Why should he care if she’s doing more than tutoring with any of them? He knows she isn’t, which is probably the only thing saving Alan’s face now, though.

“That’s my business, Thompson, and you’d do well to remember that,” Nathan smirks, giving him a small wave as Alan walks back towards his car shaking his head.

There is a small picnic table at the end of the dock, and Nathan makes his way out there taking a seat. He glances at his watch, pleased to find that Haley should be there any second now. When he glances toward where she’d be coming from, he’s even happier to see her standing there, hands on hips glaring at him. Knowing that she is irritated and probably surprised to see him, he just cheerfully waves at her as she comes stomping towards him.

“What the hell are you doing here?” she asks as she approaches him, “And what did you do to Alan?”

“Hey!” he protests, offended when he sees her eyes scan the water on the sides of the dock, “I didn’t throw him in. Jesus, how lowly do you think of me?”

“Pretty damn low,” she admits, “After all, you stole my best friend’s clothes while he was in the shower, you generally go out of your way to make his life and the lives of countless others miserable, and you treated your girlfriend like crap. What’s to think high of there?”

“What did Peyton say to you?” he asks, focusing on the one part he might be able to counter, “I wasn’t that bad to her, just not interested enough to stroke her fragile ego the way she likes. It wasn’t my fault she’s so high maintenance.”

“And whose fault is it that you’re a raging jackass?” she snaps, standing a few feet away from the table. He wonders if she’s afraid to get any closer to him.

“Probably my dad’s,” he sighs, figuring the best way with this one was honesty. Flattery wouldn’t work, he knew that, he thought she seemed immune to his charms. But he thought there was the possibility that he could use his father, who she should hate for his treatment of Lucas, to his advantage. Play up the sob story of his dysfunctional and selfish parents.

She blinks at the admission, knowing he doesn’t give them often. She doesn’t have to be around him to know that it is obvious this isn’t something he talks about.

“Save it for someone with real daddy issues,” she orders him.

“Lucas doesn’t exactly have a monopoly on being treated like shit by our father, you know,” he mutters in response, “He’s pretty much more than willing to dump all over me, too.”

She looks flustered by that bit of information, pleasing him. “Why are you here?” she asks again, confusion and hesitation in her voice.

“I need a tutor, Haley, and Thompson said he could get a new one. So if it is a matter of scheduling, it doesn’t have to be.”

“Oh, my God, do you have a hearing problem or are you seriously this dense?” she shouts, “I already told you why I wouldn’t tutor you! Because Luke would hate it, and when you have friends, you don’t do things that would upset them!”

“It’s just tutoring,” Nathan tries again, “I’m not asking for marriage or sex or even a date. I just want a better English grade.”

She feels herself wavering. Oh, she knows she shouldn’t, she knows that nothing good will come if she caves and tutors him. But she wants to. And that scares her, because she can’t identify why. All night long after their encounter in the tutoring center, she thought of him. Wondered why he’d be okay with being tutored by his worst enemy’s best friend. It didn’t make sense to her. But it made even less sense when she realized that she almost wanted to be the one who tutored the dreaded Nathan Scott. Almost.

But she’s pretty sure that there is a song that says something about almost not being good enough, and if a song says it, then she’s going to assume it is true, at least in this case. There is nothing that Nathan Scott could offer her that would make it worth stabbing Luke in the back – and the heart. She knows that, so why is it still such a struggle to say ‘no’ to the surprisingly earnest boy in front of her?

“I can’t,” she says, wincing at the weakening resolve heard in her voice, “Nothing good would come of it.”

“I’d get a better grade,” he reasons, “And you’d get the satisfaction of knowing you helped some poor guy slog his way through ‘Pride and Prejudice’.”

‘Pride and Prejudice’? That’s her favorite book! Why does he have to be reading it? She loves going through that book with the peers that she tutors, and why oh why should it matter what he’s reading? She should be screaming the word ‘no’ at him at the top of her lungs.

Instead, it comes out as a whisper. “No, I can’t.”

He can sense she’s weakening. He knows it, he can feel it. He can see it written all over her expressive face and in her expressive eyes. “Come on, Hay, it’ll be worth it.” She blushes at his shortening of her name. “Look, like I said yesterday, I’ll stop with the pressure on Lucas. So will the guys.”

“I don’t trust you,” she mutters, “I don’t believe you. Why would you need tutoring so desperately that you would give up the thing that you seem to enjoy most in the world?”

He grins, leering up at her. “Believe me, it isn’t the thing I enjoy most, not by a long shot.” For more reasons than one, he can’t help but think. “Look, it was just a dumb territorial guy thing,” he offers, “And a little fun with the new guy. We’ll knock it off, I mean it. Hey, we already took him out to a team bonding session. That’s got to count for something.”

“I’m sorry,” she shrugs, “I can’t.”

She turns to leave, and he immediately reaches out and grabs her hand, pulling him back to the table. “Hay, come on, I need your help.”

“I just – it isn’t fair to Lucas.” He won’t comply when she tries to pull her hand out of his grasp, instead stroking his thumb over her knuckles.

“And is it fair to me that you’d sacrifice my English grade because you want to live by what your best friend thinks you should do? Is that even fair to yourself?”

She blushes, unused to people thinking that she was weak or dependent on others for guidance and motivation. “You’ll really stop all form of harassment against Luke?” she asks quietly.

He was so close now he could taste the victory. “I’ll make sure all of it stops. From now on, he gets to keep all his clothes, he won’t get dumped in the woods in his boxers, and we won’t be so rough on him in practice.”

“You’ll pass the ball to him?” she questions, “I mean, I don’t know much about basketball, but I know the way you guys practically played keep away at the last game isn’t how it was supposed to go.”

Damn, she’s demanding. He hopes she is that demanding when he gets her in his bed. He really hopes she will be that demanding, actually.

“Yeah, he’ll be a part of the team. And not just as the new guy.”

“I – well, okay then,” she sighs, the weight of this decision bearing down on her immediately, and hard. She knows in her heart that this isn’t going to end well, but she’s on the train now, and there is no getting off.

“Alright!” he enthuses, jumping out of his seat and pulling her up into a hug. She actually lets herself laugh a little when he spins her around once before setting her back on her feet. “You won’t regret this, Hay!” he promises.

He can tell that she doesn’t believe that by the look on her face, and he almost feels bad. Almost. But he doesn’t care about almost, he cares about ruining Lucas. And right now, things are happening according to plan, and he’s thrilled about it.

“So, I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” he grins, winking at her as he turns to leave.

“What? Why not now?” she asks, narrowing her eyes at him, “You’re here, and I’m here, so let’s just get started. The sooner you get your grade up, the sooner we’ll be rid of each other.”

“Well, I – see, my dad makes me run and lift weights every morning,” he tries to explain, even though it is an empty excuse. He’s already gotten that out of the way. “And he’ll be pissed if I miss it.”

“This isn’t going to work if you flake on me or goof around.” She gets mad when she catches him rolling his eyes. “I mean it, Scott! I have a job, my own school work, and other people to tutor! And I even have a family that likes to see me and friends that do, too. And I won’t let you or anyone else waste my time. That means you get here at the right time. Not ten minutes late, not a no show, not even a minute late. You get here on time and you stay for the whole session. Or we’re through.”

“You’re, uh, really – “

“Bossy?” she questions, interrupting him.

“No, I wasn’t going to say that. I was actually going to say demanding. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, though,” he’s quick to assure her as he sits back down, “In fact, I’m used to it. It’s something I can deal with.”

She nods warily, taking the seat opposite him. “So, you mentioned ‘Pride and Prejudice’?” she asks, appraising him. Everything about him makes every fiber of her being nervous. Is that just because she feels guilty that she’ll be lying to Lucas and going behind his back, or is there something more to it?

“Yeah, we start reading that next week. Why?” he asks, curious.

“It’s my favorite book,” she explains, taking a baggie of sliced apple out of her bag, “And I love having people to talk about it with.”

“So, is that what you and Lucas do?” he asks, his curiosity getting the best of him before he can reign it in.

She looks away, her expression shuttering, and he knows he shouldn’t have gone there yet. She doesn’t trust him, and she never will if she thinks this is about Lucas in any way.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbles, “I guess I don’t have a right to ask, but sometimes I do have to wonder. I mean, he’s my brother, right, and I know virtually nothing about him. In fact, I’ve been told my whole life that I shouldn’t even want to know about him. I guess that doesn’t make much sense.”

He knows he stumbled upon the right thing to say when her eyes soften and she briefly brushes her hand against his. “It makes a lot of sense, I guess. I mean – well, you know. But look, I don’t think we should talk about him. At all. It would definitely be for the best if we didn’t,” she rambles, “I mean, you don’t like him, hate him in fact, and he’s my best friend. A conversation between us about him could never go anywhere good. And then I might get mad and have to employ some of the moves my older brother taught me, and then I could get expelled.”

She says it all in one breath of air, and when her cheeks flush at the end of it, he really isn’t sure if it is from lack of oxygen in some way or because she’s embarrassed that she said all of it. He wants to ask, wants to brush his fingers over the pink of her cheeks to see if her skin feels as warm as it looks, but he can only imagine these tactics learned from her brothers, and he doesn’t want them used on him. She’s little, but he saw her torture Lucas when she knew he had a hangover, so he can only imagine what she’d do to someone she doesn’t even like.

“Okay, so we can leave him out of our conversations,” Nathan agrees, “We have plenty of other things to talk about anyway, right?”

“Like what’s going on in your English class? Right, yeah, we do,” she nods, nervously tucking a strand of hair behind her ears.

“Right, English. Right now we’re learning about gerunds. Do you think I’ll ever need to know about those at any point in the future?” he asks, his eyes narrowing at the thought of this on-going lesson. “I mean, what difference does it make if the –ing word is a gerund or a present participle?”

“Are you sure you need tutoring in English?” she asks, eyeing him, “It seems like you know an awful lot.”

He shrugs. “I just know the words, but I don’t know what they mean or how to apply them. But I do have a good vocabulary.”

“How nice for you,” she mutters, watching him. “Well, do you want a lesson on the gerund?”

He pretends to shudder. “I actually would prefer if you’d guarantee I never hear that word again. I mean, come on, Hay, do you really think that I’ll be sitting in a business class in college and get called out because I didn’t identify the gerund when I conjugated a sentence on my midterm?”

“I suppose not,” she giggles, the sound dying in her throat when she realize who it is that she’s giggling at. Nathan Scott is not supposed to make her giggle. He’s supposed to make her see red, make her want to kick ass and take no prisoners. He’s supposed to make her want to protect Luke. But he isn’t supposed to make her giggle.

“You can’t even laugh at my jokes?” he asks, perplexed. Is she really that close to Lucas that she can’t even laugh at a joke he makes?

“I – um, not to sound weak, but I probably shouldn’t. Luke would hate it, not that he wouldn’t hate me for just being here, but he’d really hate me if he thought I enjoyed any part of it. Not that I am. Enjoying any part of it, I mean.”

“Do you always ramble like that or is this a special treat for me?” he drops the other subject, recalling the earlier promise not to talk about Lucas at all.

“It is not an uncommon occurrence for me to be rambling,” she admits, a delicate blush staining her cheeks.

He thinks it is cute that she does that, and he almost mentions it. But he doesn’t. It probably wouldn’t go over well for starters, and it probably also wouldn’t be good to give away too much of his intentions already. She’s definitely skittish around him now, and he knows it is going to take a little time and patience to break her of it. He’s going to have to make her trust him. And she’s smart, he can tell, she’s going to be wary of him, especially when he does start making moves.

“Well, there are worse things than rambling, right?” Nathan shrugs, pulling his English book out of his pack.

“I suppose so,” she agrees, looking down at her hands.

“So, where do we start? How exactly does this tutor thing work? You do my homework, right?” he teases, trying to charm her a little.

“Jokes like that get old fast,” she mutters, grabbing his assignment sheet from him and skimming over it, “And if it wasn’t a joke, you’re going to be sorely disappointed.”

“It was a joke, I promise,” he sighs, a little discouraged that she’s so set against him. Maybe Brooke was right, and this is going to be borderline impossible for him.

“Fine,” she nods, “Let’s just keep this entirely about English. No joking, no chit chat about classes or teachers, just nothing.”

“Okay, English,” Nathan nods, rolling his eyes. “Let’s go, I guess.”

“You guess? Come on, if we’re going to do this, I need you to muster a little enthusiasm for me, okay? Because I won’t deal with the pouty crap.”

“Sorry,” he sighs, wondering what it takes to win with her. “What do I have to do to get in your good graces?” he finally just settles on asking.

He likes that she’s obviously surprised by this question. Keeping her on her toes will be fun, he realizes, and she might even return the favor a little bit.

“I – what are you talking about? You don’t need to be in my good graces, and I don’t want you to be there. You won’t be there. Gosh, you can’t!”

“Hey, Hay, I’m sorry,” he sighs, “I didn’t mean to upset you. I was just asking. It doesn’t have to be awkward between us during tutoring, right?”

"How can it not?" she asks in exasperation, "You've made it your mission in life to torment and torture my best friend. Did you think I'd shrug and smile and brush it off?"

"I guess not," he agrees, "But I just thought that we could be civil, friendly even."

"Have you ever been friendly to anyone?" she asks, eyes narrowing.

He glares at her, letting himself be a little offended. "Of course I have. You know, you - you aren't so perfect. I don't know why you're acting like I ought to be!"

“I know I’m not perfect,” she mutters softly, “If I was, I probably wouldn’t be here.”

“What does that mean?”

“If I was smarter, I’d have told you to go – go somewhere else. But I didn’t, and it’ll come back to bite me in the ass. Things like this always do,” she sighs.

Half afraid to know the answer, he asks, “Then why are you doing it?”

“If it means that you ease up on Luke, then it will be worth it. I’d rather he hated me for tutoring you than see you and your jerky friends treating him like crap more.”

“Oh,” he sighs, wondering what it is about Luke that she likes so much, what makes her so fiercely protective of him. And he can’t help but wonder why Luke seems to have it in spades between Haley and his mother when he doesn’t have it at all.

“Oh?” she echoes, “What does ‘oh’ mean?”

He shrugs, “I don’t know. I guess I was wondering why you’re so willing to hang out with me, when you obviously hate me. What’s so great about Lucas that you’d do this for him, that you’d do something you think is risking his friendship?”

“He’s my best friend,” she states, her voice even, but surprise on his face, “And that’s enough, don’t you think?”

Nathan doesn’t know what to say, and it makes him uncomfortable. Because he doesn’t know what to think about that. He doesn’t know what it is like to have a friend that he’d do anything for. There might be a couple of people in his posse who’d do anything for him, but they’d want something in return. Or they’d just be wanting to ensure they get to stay in the posse.

So, no, he doesn’t know.

“Nathan?” she asks after he’s been silent for a few minutes. He’s still too lost in thought to answer her, so she lays a hand on his forearm. “Did you fall asleep?” she asks lightly when he finally glances up at her.

“Sorry, just got lost in thought a little bit.”

“It’s okay.”

He nods, clearing his throat. “Uh, you know, there’s only twenty minutes until school starts, so we should probably go. Need a ride?”

She shakes her head fervently. “God, no!” she bursts out, appalled.

“I was just offering a ride,” he mutters, offended, “It isn’t that far to school, I doubt you’ll get cooties in my car during that time.”

“Look, it isn’t, I mean, this tutoring thing, this is the only place it is. Never during normal hours, never in a place people might see us, and we can never let it get back to Lucas. I mean it,” she warns.

“So, if I have a question before class, I’m not allowed to talk to you in school?” he asks, exasperated, “That’s so lame, Hay! I can’t believe you’re going to treat me like some kind of leper.”

“Look, no nicknames, either. No Hales, no Hay, no whatever else you come up with. Just keep this strictly tutoring.”

He holds his hands up in defeat. “Suit yourself. You’re more than welcome to walk to school on your own.”

“I have – “ she begins before giving up and nodding. “I’ll manage, thanks.”

He knows full well that she rides to school with Lucas usually, and he knows that’s what she was going to say. Obviously, this isn’t where he picks her up – otherwise, she’d be freaking right now. Probably push him off the dock into the water or something. She seems like she might be able to throw down the violence. And he gathered through his research that she has quite a few siblings, so she can probably fight.

He watches her gather up her books, shoving them quickly and haphazardly into her backpack before hurrying up the dock to solid ground. This time, she doesn’t look back. He isn’t thrilled with that, but he can’t help but think that maybe it is because she knows he’ll be there tomorrow. That’s what he can tell himself, anyway.

Every second he spends with her, it becomes clear just how hard this is going to be. He thinks she’s either in love with Lucas, which would either be really great or really, really awful for him – probably the latter. Or else she’s completely immune to him and his charms. Which could also be a disaster of epic proportions.

He sees her again as he drives off in his car. She glances up at the car, but quickly averts her gaze when she sees it is him. He slows down, lowering the window so that he can call out to her. “You sure you don’t need a ride, James? It looks like it might rain!”

“I’d rather drown than ride with you,” she calls back, her tone so cheerful that he’s not sure if the insult was meant strictly as an insult, or if it was at least partially a joke. When he doesn’t drive off immediately, she raises her middle finger to him, letting that clue him in.

“You don’t have to be such a raging bitch. I never did anything to you, and if you knew half the things the guys wanted to do to Lucas, you’d think that what we’ve done wasn’t really so bad,” he bites out before stepping on the gas and peeling out.

He’s mad. Mad at himself for letting her get the better of him since she holds the cards and is dictating how their arrangement will work. Mad at her for not giving in and doing things his way. Mad at her even more for liking Lucas so much better than him. And mad at Lucas for having the audacity to have something that he wants so badly for himself, even though he probably wouldn’t want her if Lucas didn’t have her.

It isn’t often that Nathan Scott has been deprived of the wonderful benefits of instant gratification. He had known going in that this wasn’t going to be easy, that it would take time and finesse, but he hadn’t thought it would be so hard. He hadn’t thought that Haley would provide so much resistance to him, and he hadn’t realized the extent of her protectiveness towards Lucas.

All of this was a hindrance to him and his plans, but it wasn’t insurmountable. In fact, it just gave him a little incentive to work that much harder at breaking Haley so he can break Lucas. Because that’s what it is all about after all, breaking Lucas. And this was definitely something he was capable of doing.

He’d find his way to hurt Lucas, to make him pay. And it might be even easier than he’d been anticipating, he realizes, when he sees Haley stomp over to her locker, Lucas walking behind her with a barely dressed Brooke hanging off his arm, Lucas not looking unhappy about it.

Brooke gives him a kiss on his cheek when they stop at his locker before continuing on her way down the hall. It takes Lucas a minute to shake himself out of the haze of Brooke’s over-perfuming and focus on Haley who is fiddling with her locker like she wants to kick its ass. Nathan is just happy to see that ol’ Lucas will be getting some of the frustration vented on him, too.

“What’s wrong?” Lucas asks her, his voice carrying enough for Nathan to hear from his perch across the hall.

“What do you think is wrong?” she bites out, rolling her eyes at him. “Luke, she has a car. A perfectly fine car that would get her to school and back with no problem. And yet you still encourage her to cram into the cab of a truck with us. Are you that hung up on her that you can’t even wait until school to see her?”

“This has nothing to do with being hung up on anyone, Hales! I was just trying to be courteous since it seemed like she wanted a ride.”

“Oh, and if she wanted you to jump off a cliff, would you ask if she wanted you to get a running start first?”

Nathan watches as Lucas blinks for a few seconds before bursting into laughter. “Oh, my God. That is so not the same.”

“It is, too!” Haley protests, huffily, “The principle of it is the exact same, Lucas Scott, and you damn well know it. And why you’re so hung up on her, I’ll never know.”

“I – I’m not hung up on anyone,” he protests, and even Nathan, who knows so little about him, can tell he’s lying to her.

“You know, there’s no need to lie to me about it,” Haley says quietly enough that Nathan really has to strain to hear. Leave it to her to make him work for it. Nathan doesn’t know her very well, but he’s pretty sure he can detect the notes of hurt in her voice. Somehow, that makes him hate Lucas just that much more.

“Hales, come on, I’m not,” Lucas protests.

“Luke, stop,” she sighs, “I’ve got to get to class.”

To Nathan’s surprise, he lets her go. That half-brother of his is even more of an idiot than he’d thought, he realizes. He pisses off a girl, and then he lets her walk away without apologizing or trying to reason with her? Idiot. No wonder he’s such an easy mark for a girl like Brooke.

Before he even realizes what he’s doing, Nathan starts following Haley down the hall, ignoring her cry of surprise when he grabs her arm and drags her into an empty classroom.

“What the hell are you doing?” she yells, glaring at him.

“Jesus, I just wanted to check and see if you were okay,” he mutters, regretting trying to be nice. Not that he really believes that was what he was trying to be, at least not out of the goodness of his heart. “I didn’t know that was a crime.”

“Well, it’s not like you’ve ever cared before,” she points out, her voice shaky, “And it isn’t like I really believe that you care now, either. What gives?”

He stares hard at her for a moment before shaking his head. “You know what? I was trying to be nice, trying to make sure you were okay. And you yell at me, treat me like I tried to trip you or kicked your puppy or something.”

Her face softens, and he can tell she might feel a little bad for yelling at him, but she puts her ‘tough’ mask back on. Her voice is soft when she continues, though. “I already told you, not a half hour ago, why we can’t be seen together at school. If you’ve forgotten already, I guess I can see why you need tutoring.”

“Wow, was that a joke?” he grins, pleased when she smiles, “Hey, I’ll take that over scathing comments about my manhood or something.”

“Are those the kind of comments you usually get?” she asks, arching a brow at him, “Because if they are, I’d be worried if I were you. Rumor has it you get around, and if you’re getting called out on that…”

“More teasing at my expense?” he questions, grinning easily at her, almost forgetting why he’s here with her, “You know, very few people are even willing to banter with me. I’m kind of impressed.” And turned on, but he doesn’t let that part slip to her.

“What?  You’d expect me to fawn over you? Please, I hang out with Lucas and his basketball playing friends. So, you being some big basketball star doesn’t really phase me,” she shrugs, still smiling a little.

“The fawning gets old anyway,” he notes, “I know a lot of the guys like it, but I don’t know. There’s no challenge in it, and that gets boring.”

“Is that what I am?” she questions, her gaze relentlessly intent on him, “A challenge? Because if I am, then you should forget it right now and get the hell out of here.”

“You’re just a tutor,” he assures her, “A means to a good English grade. Maybe a chance at getting my mother to notice something besides her charities for a change.”

“Your big gripe in life is that your mother pays attention to charities?” she questions, a borderline disgusted look on her face.

“It isn’t that I think she shouldn’t pay attention to them, it’s more that she’s never home. I haven’t seen her in six months, Haley,” he tells her, shrugging, “She calls once every week or two, but that’s it.”

“And your dad doesn’t care?” she asks, blinking in surprise, “I mean, I don’t think my dad would like it much if my mom were gone all the time and never called. Not that this is any of my business, of course, and I don’t expect you to tell me anything if you don’t want to. But if you do, I can listen. And now I’m rambling and will shut up now.”

He bites back a smile when she blushes, flustered. “It’s okay. Anyway, I don’t think my parents are really normal, like most parents. Hell, I don’t even know if they like each other, let alone love each other.”

“Oh,” she murmurs quietly.

“Yeah, well, don’t feel sorry for me.  They buy me a lot of stuff. Better than gay bonding sessions, right?”

“If you say so,” she agrees.

He shrugs. “I wouldn’t know any different, so I guess I have nothing else to say.”

She nods, sighing. “Um, I should go to class. The bell’s going to ring any minute now, and you know, people will probably come in here.”

“Yeah, I know, we can’t be seen together,” he sighs, “I’ll, uh, hang here if you want to leave first.”

He’s pleasantly surprised when she manages to give him a small, grateful smile as she steps to the door. He’s even more surprised when she pauses in the doorway and turns back to him. “We’ll get you that good grade, Nathan. Maybe your mom will come home to celebrate it with you.”

“I won’t hold my breath, but yeah, maybe she will,” he nods.

“Maybe we’ll just do it for you, then,” she offers, smiling again before turning and leaving the room finally.

“Maybe,” he echoes, sighing. He feels drained from the short conversation – but talking about his tedious and trying relationships with his parents does that to him – but he also feels like he might’ve made a little progress with her, and he’s glad for that. Glad she seemed to relax, if just a little.

~*~

His classes breeze by, and before he knows it, he’s being cornered by Brooke in the hallway outside the locker rooms.

“Davis,” he acknowledges with a smirk, “How goes the hunt? I see you scored a ride today.  Nicely done.”

“Yeah, pissed Tutor Girl right off,” she grins back, “And the cracks start to surface. What about you? Any progress?”

He could tell her. He probably should tell her; in some ways, they are in this together. But he finds that he doesn’t want her to know. It doesn’t matter if she does, he reasons, so why should he tell her?

“Nope, not really,” he shrugs, “Not yet, I mean. Maybe soon.”

“You haven’t even got her to agree to tutor you?” she asks, skeptical.

He shakes his head. “No, not yet. But don’t worry, I will. This is something that I’m not going to fail at, Brooke,” he tries to assure her.

“No, I’m sure you don’t intend that at all,” she nods, “You hate him way too much to just give up on this one. Just be careful.”

“What does that mean?” he asks.

“This isn’t a movie, Nathan. Don’t fall for your victim. It would never work in the real world.”

He glares at her. “Should I say the same to you?”

“I never intended to ruin Luke,” she shrugs, “He’s not a victim to me. He’s just something I want, a conquest. And I really don’t see myself falling for him, but if I did, it wouldn’t ruin the whole plan, right?”

“Yeah, right,” he echoes, knowing she speaks the truth.

“But you, if you fell for Tutor Girl, that would ruin all of your plans, Nathan. I guess you know that, though.” She glances at her watch. “Shit, practice is starting in five minutes, I have to go.”

He nods as she runs off, thinking about what she said. She was wrong to bring that up, he decides, since there is no basis for her to even think that he might fall for Haley. Nathan Scott doesn’t fall. He brings people down. And he would bring his brother down, no matter what personal cost he had to pay himself.

Chapter 5 - 7

1 :: 2 :: 3 :: 4 :: 5 -7 :: 8 - 9 :: 10 - 12 :: 13 - 16 :: 17 - 19 :: 20 - 23 :: 24 - 26 :: 27 - 30 :: 31 - 33 :: 34 - 36 :: 37 - 39 :: 40 - 42 :: 43 - 45 :: 46 :: 47 - 48 :: 49 - Epilogue