A/N: First I want to once again Thank all of my wonderful reviewers. You guys never fail to make me smile! courtneylovejason, aa16mm, luvnaley23, TutorWife123, Naley, Duckygirl, Leann, naleysocute23 and ScOtt-bruthR-LuVr3-23 thanks you all soooo much. I also want to apologize for my days before updating, I've been busy with work, church and then my sister had a drill competition in Arkansas that went really well.

Disclaimer: I do not and will not ever own OTH or the characters. I wish I was that genius. Also the song used on here is "I'll Be" by Reba McEntire. It happens to be me and my best friends theme song.. I LOVE IT SOO MUCH..

Anyways, R/R and ENJOY

"So Haley J, you ready for day 2?" Peyton said onto the phone. I was laying down on my bed looking at pictures in the album I had taken out the night before.

"Ya, but do you think you can drive today?"

"Sure. Is something wrong? Is your car broke?" she sounded really worried.

"No, everything's fine. I just, well, I have something I have to do before school."

"All right then. See you at school H. James."
"Bye P. Sawyer."

I finished getting dressed and walked into the kitchen. "Bye mom! Bye dad!" I walked outside and got into my car. I turned on the radio and started singing along to it. As I was singing I pulled up into Karen's Cafe. Karen was Lucas' mom and all though I never talked to him anymore, I still had breakfast with his mom and his Uncle Keith about once a month. I shut off the car and walked inside.

"Hey sweetie, how are you?" Karen asked, looking up from the counter as the bell dinged.

I ran up to her and gave her a big hug. "I'm fine Kare. How are you? I missed you a lot."

She hugged me back. "I missed you to Hales and I'm doing good." We walked towards the table and she sat our things down.

"Where's Uncle K at?"
"Right here doll."I turned around and gave him a huge hug. He lifted me up. I screamed. He laughed. "You'll never be too big for that Haley James. Never." That made me smile.

We sat down and had a peaceful breakfast. They never mentioned the guys and Brooke to me. They never asked questions. The knew how bad it hurt me to think about it. They knew that whether or not I admitted it, that I missed them terribly. That's why I loved Karen Rowe and Keith Scott so much. They understood. I happened to look down at my watch and realized I had to leave and fast or I would be late. I gave them hugs bye and we made plans for next month.

When I got to school, I had two minutes to get to class. I grabbed my books and ran down the hall. I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing and I soon bumped into someone. I fell and my books fell with me. I looked up and my heart stopped. I really hoped that he wouldn't even take notice and would just walk away.

"Sorry.." he started. No such luck. He looked down and for a minute I got lost in his blue eyes like I had done so many times before. I thought I saw a hint of sadness in it, but soon decided I was imagining it. "Is what you should be saying to me. Watch we're you're going next time loser."

I stood up. Tried to make my five foot three inch stature match his six foot two one. "You know what Nathan Daniel Scott? You are an ass. You suck. You think your this big hotshot, but really your just a jerk." I grabbed my stuff and stormed off to my classroom. Leaving him in the hallway. I sat in my seat and looked over towards Peyton and smiled. I was late, but luckily the teacher wasn't in yet.

Nathan walked in shortly after and took his seat behind me. He leaned over towards Lucas and whispered, loud enough for just me and Luke to hear. "Some skanky girl ran into me earlier. I am so sick of all the sluts throwing themselves at me. They need to get a life and realize I'm not interested in them. Never have been and never will be."

"Who was it?"

"Just a loser."
My heart dropped. I don't know why but it did.

"All right class, get into your partners and I will hand out your new envelopes. You may do the project now, or you may work on it later, but you have to stay with your partners."

He handed them out and me and Peyt slid our desks together. I put the envelope into my folder. After what happened last night, I really didn't want to take a chance of breaking down in class. "So why were you late?"

I rolled my eyes and glared at Nathan and then looked back at Peyton to answer her question. Nathan and Luke had their desks near ours. "Some ass who thinks he is a hotshot but is only kidding himself, ran into me."

She only nodded and went back to her drawing. I pulled out my notebook and started studying. We shared a light conversation but other than that we were relatively quiet.

I'll be your shoulder when you need someone to lean on.
Be your shelter.
When you need someone to see you through.
I'll be there to carry you.
I'll be there.
I'll be the rock that will be strong for you.
The one that will hold on to you.
When you feel that rain falling down.
When there's nobody else around.
I'll be.

"Miss James, are you going to answer that?"
My face went red as I answered my phone. "Hello?
"Haley? This is Amy. I am so sorry to bother you at school, but your parents didn't answer their phone."
"It's all right. We aren't doing anything at the moment. What's wrong?"
"Skylar is sick. He has been vomiting and has a high temperature."
"Thank you so much for calling, I will get a hold of my parents.
I hung up the phone and dialed my moms cell phone number. "Sweetie, aren't you supposed to be at school?"
"I am in school mom. Amy just called, she's been trying to reach you guys. Skylar has a high fever accompanied by vomiting. You guys need to pick him up."
"We can't baby."
"What? Why?"
"Well we are on our way to Europe. Didn't we tell you?"
"No mother. You failed to mention this." I was frustrated now.
"Oh. Haley your father and I are taking a trip to Europe. We will see you in two months." I hung up on her. D
"DAMNIT!" I hollered the class looked at me. I turned to Peyton. "Look Peyt, I gotta go. Skylar's babysitter called, he has a high fever and is vomiting. I have to get him because the airheads I call parents failed to mention to me that they are going to be in Europe for two months. Come by after school." She nodded and I threw all my things in my bag, went and explained it to the teacher and left.
Two hours later I walked inside my house. The doctor had told me to give him some Pedialite to keep him hydrated along with children's Tylenol to break the fever. I took off his clothes, he had thrown up inside the car, and put him in the tub to give him a cool bath. After he was cleaned up, I took him out put on a diaper. His temperature was still at 101 so I gave him his Tylenol and filled his bottle with the Pedialite. I sat in a rocking chair and started to rock.
He was crying. His little cheeks were bright red, and his body felt like it was on fire. I just held him to my chest and rocked. I was lightly singing to him and waiting for the medicine to kick in. Finally at 11:30 he fell asleep so I laid him on my bed and started my homework.
I just got done when Peyton walked inside. "How's the little guy?"
I looked at Skylar's sleeping form. "He's asleep right now. As soon as he wakes up I need to take his temp, if it's still high I need to give him some more medicine. Here, can you fill this up with pedialite? I've been making sure it stays full." I gave her the bottle and while she was gone he threw up all over himself and my bed again. "Oh sweetie." I picked him up as he started crying and put him back in the tub. His temp was still 101. After I took him out, I gave him the Tylenol and walked back in my room. Peyton had returned and handed me the bottle. She had also changed the sheets on my bed. "Thanks Pey." I sat down and started rocking him and she took out the first card.
"What is your favorite food?"
"That's easy." I smiled. "Mac-n-Cheese."
She looked at me funny and I grinned.
"What? It's the food of the gods! I used to eat it all the time. My old friends used to make fun of me for it." I said as she shook her head.

Flashback
We were all sitting in Karen's Cafe. It was around noon and we had all been playing at the River court since about eight that morning, so we were all really hungry and tired.
"Hey kids. Did you have fun?"
"YES!" We all shouted. Jake and Brooke were sitting across from us and I was squeezed in between Nate and Luke.
"What can I get you guys?"
Everybody else ordered hamburgers and fries but I grinned. "Mac-n-Cheese please?" She laughed and walked off.
"Haley J!"
"What Jacob J?"
"Mac-n-Cheese? C'mon!"
"What about it?"
"Do you ever eat anything else H. James?"
"No B. Davis. Mac-n-Cheese is the food of the gods!" I hollered and raised my little arms in the air like everyone should know this.
"If your five." I threw my straw at Luke.
"And we're not five. We're seven!" A piece of ice miraculously got thrown from my cup at Brooke.
"Leave Hales alone guys!" Nathan draped his arm around my shoulder. I looked into his eyes and grinned. "If she wants to be five let her. Just don't tease her. We can do it later." I punched him in the arm.
Just then Karen handed us our food. "MOM! HALEY THREW HER STRAW AT ME!"
"She threw ice at me!"
"She hit me. Hard. But, it didn't hurt."
"She called me Jacob!"
End Flashback

"Haley, who are your old friends?"
"It's not important."
"It must be, because every time they are mentioned you go really quiet."
"THEY ARE NOT IMPORTANT!" I hollered at her.
"Okay. Okay. I'm sorry." She put her hands up in defense.
"It's okay Pey. I'm sorry. I just don't feel like discussing them too much. So what's your favorite food?"
"Hamburgers and fries." she shrugged.
"Figures" I laughed.
Just then Skylar got sick again. We got him cleaned up and as I was holding him I read the last card. "Take a picture of yourselves." So we took it just like that. Me holding Skylar in my lap and Peyton kneeling next to the chair. She went home after he fell back asleep and I told her to call me in the morning so I could tell her if I was going to school or not. After I made sure he was good and asleep I pulled out my journal.

August 2nd, 2005

So today Peyton came over and helped me take care of Skylar because my parents decided to take a road trip to Europe. I told her my fave food was Mac-n-Cheese but like my friends before her, she scoffed at me. Her's was of course hamburgers and fries. Another thing she shares with my old but not forgotten friends. This could either be very bad or very good. Fate has yet to tell.
Well I gotta go. Skylar is up again. Hopefully the fever will break soon. Until next time.

Haley Elizabeth James