White Knight (PG-13) OTH Nathan/Haley AU part 3

[starsthatshine]

When Nathan got back he saw that his mother and father were standing outside, talking about something. And on the look on their faces he drew the conclusion that it was important and left it at that: he had no interest in their business.

He walked right pass them, ignoring the hellos that were made and went straight up to the room that they had chosen to be his. It was in light blue and according to his mother the colour went nicely with his eyes. He dumped himself on the king-sized bed, as the only child of Deb and Dan he had the advantage that he often got the biggest room in the house, sort of a compensation for him not having siblings.

He sighed and flipped on the TV, tomorrow he was going to start school and he couldn't say he was looking forward to it: he just wanted to throw himself in a hole and stay there. He was going to try out for the basketball team and for once he hoped that he was bad enough that they didn't let him in, but if Nathan knew his father, he wouldn't settle for that. Nathan's father would tare up every hellhole on the planet to get his son into the basketball team.

He sighed: why did he have it like this?

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Haley James was what you called a special girl, but there was really nothing that made her standout if you just looked at her. She have had the same hair due since she was old enough to have hair (besides this one time when she had a huge depression day and told her mother to cut the hair really short), her skin wasn't flawless but it wasn't bad either, she wasn't wearing any special brands of clothes and she didn't really have a special style. She was just - Haley James, someone that you were best friends with right before a pop quiz.

Right now Haley James were sitting in her room, watching the new episode of 'The O.C'. Suddenly she laughed at something Seth said and she heard her father say something from downstairs. She loved TV, it made her forget about her problems around her, she could just stay in her own little world, pretending that she was a part of the TV show or movie she saw: she pretended that she mattered.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door and her father's face came out of the doorway. "Is everything alright?" he asked, gently but very firmly.

"Everything is fine dad." Haley snapped annoyed, but with a sweet tone.

"Not that tone to me missy." Her father commented seriously and gave her an evil glare. "You know I don't like it when you do that...." He changed the subject. "It makes me worried."

"What exactly makes you worried?" Haley was confused, she had just watched TV, that was the only thing she was doing and she saw no reason why her father should be worried about that.

"That." He nodded towards the TV. "Laughing at that, it's not healthy for you. Now turn that off and do your homework."

Haley sighed and she tired to make protest: "I'll do it later; I'm just going to watch this through."

"Haley..." her father's tone was warning and Haley knew at once she shouldn't have done that. She looked at him, and then looked on a spot on the wall, fighting away the urge to do just the opposite. She turned off the TV. And with that her father left, and Haley could hear her mother protest at her father's choice of action:

"Come on Jimmy... She's had a rough day; can't she just watch some TV?"

Suddenly the air downstairs became dead silent and Haley heard nothing. Suddenly she heard something drop on the floor, a lamp or something like that. Haley sighed, she hated when her parents fought. After the lamp there were high voices. She could clearly hear who her mother’s was and who her father’s voice was.

In the middle of all the chaos she heard the phone ring. She quickly grabbed it and hurried to say that they had reached to the James residence, hoping that whoever was calling didn't hear the loud voices in the background.

"Hey Haley. It's Lucas." A cheerful voice said on the other end of the phone line and Haley had wanted to smash his face for a second because he sounded so content.

"Hey Luc. What's up?" Haley had told Lucas about her parents' fight but she wasn't sure that he believed her.

"Ohhh... nothing. Can't a friend call his best friend?" Lucas answered mischievously and Haley couldn't help but giggle.

“That depends on what the friend wants.” Haley mocked with equal mischievous in her voice as Lucas’ had a moment ago.

“Nice one.” Lucas commented. “I was thinking that maybe we could go to the basketball court, I was gonna teach you basketball remember?”

Haley sighed deeply, she had no wish to learn it whatsoever but it she had promised Lucas ages ago when they had made a bet, which she lost. Lucas had cheated and taken help from Keith but he still had won so Haley had to teach basketball someday.

“Don’t sound so excited.” Lucas commented calmly at the expected reaction of his best friend.

Haley laughed. “You’re right, but I can’t go out… I’ve got homework to do and well… my dad wants me home.”

“What are you talking about? You have been nothing but home for three weeks.” Lucas sounded concerned but Haley didn’t have time to ease his concern at the moment. She needed to stop talking as soon as possible and start doing her homework before her father came in the room.

“I know… But you know how parents are..:” Haley tired to joke the thing away, but didn’t have much success, because Lucas still sounded concerned: but he didn’t press the matter. With that they said their goodbyes and promised to meet first thing tomorrow morning.

- - -


The next morning Nathan woke up, exhausted, he hadn’t gotten any sleep at all. He was uncomfortable in this house and everything seemed ache after a worried sleep. He had a feeling in his gut, though, that this day was going to be a cool day. He didn’t think about basketball, he just thought in general. A lot of people to meet, but none that really interested him, but still it was new people to meet.

He got up and got ready to school. Downstairs he was faced with his mother who was making pancakes for him, not that American stuff but some Swedish pancakes she had learned from a cookbook. “Good morning sweetheart.” Deb smiled to his son, just ready with the pancakes. The years of being a housewife she had learned which time Nathan got up and just when to start making the pancakes so they were ready just when he got down.

Nathan thought to himself, he was wondering how school would be. A new place – filled with opportunities.