There's Only One, Tree Hill (Nathan Scott)

Chapter 3: The Internal conflict

Rae stood in front of the counter of the cafe, every so often pacing back and forth, waiting for Lucas to come by and let her know how the game went. Looking down at her watch she sighs and walks toward the front door flipping the open sign to a closed sign.
Turning around she walks back over to the counter and drops the towel from her shoulder onto it. Suddenly she hears the bell above the door chime, she quickly turns around and sees Lucas walk in with a blank look on his face. She looks at him, looking for any sign of what happened at the game, then a smile broke out on his face.
"We won. I got 12 points, 8 assists, and I scored the game winning shot."
"Good!" She squeals and jumps into his arms hugging him tightly. "That's great right?"She asks him while pulling out of the hug.
" Yeah it's pretty good."
" Awe! I'm sorry I missed it, come on, tell me about it." She says back to him, excitement resonating through her voice.
"Well the beginning wasn't so great, I ran into you know who." Lucas said, putting his hands into his hoodie pocket.
"Oh He who must not be named?" She brushes the hair from her face and crossing her arms, she cringes, he just nodded his head. "I'm sorry, wanna talk about it?"
"Not really, I was actually thinking of going to check out the burning boat, wanna join?"
"Oooo! Well I suppose I could be seen with you," she says jokingly. "let me just call home, let them know to not wait up." She said untying the apron from around her waist and leaning over the counter she hung it up before reaching for the phone and dialing.
"Hey Mom," she says getting the machine. " It's Rae, Raelynn Macfadden, your daughter." She makes a motion of drinking to Lucas; he just looks at her weird. " So I'm going out with Lucas after work but then I'll be home okay? Okay love you, bye." She hangs up the phone and grabs her sweater from the counter.
"Is your Mom back?" he asks standing up from the stool he was sitting on.
"Yup got back today." She smiled over at him.
" was she drinking when you called?" He says confused cause her mom was not a drinker.
" No, I got the machine." she walks past him and he just laughs following her.

***
" So is Haley meeting us here?" Rae asks Tugging on her fleece sweater,as they walk through the park, fairy lights spread across the trees.
"Yup she just said she had to change after the game." Lucas said looking around at the booths around them.
"Come one, come all to our annual Tree Hill burning boat festival.Burn all your bad karma, bad luck, and bad choices and start anew. We will be collecting items all week, nothing is too big, too small, too tragic, or too trivial..." The announcer said loudly over the speakers that were set up around the area.
"Hey good game Lucas." A random guy walking by says to Lucas patting him on the back.
"Thanks man," Lucas says back.
"Wow, you're just blowing up." Haley says as she walks up from behind them in a long sleeve crop top paired with a knitted sweater and jeans.
" Well yeah man, I'm a big star now. You guys better hope I'll keep you around." He says looking over at Haley and back over at Rae.
" yeah, I'll try not to lose sleep over that, thanks." Rae says, pulling some hair out of her mouth and reaching into her pocket she grabs a bright red knitted headband and pulls it across her forehead, covering up the bandage and successfully keeping her hair out of her face.
" So I was watching scandanavian week on the the history channel last night and-" Haley says walking next to Rae.
" Why?" Lucas asks, interrupting her.
" Because blond Viking guys are hot, come on Luke" Rae says looking over at him and lightly hitting him in the shoulder.
"Exactly! Thank you Rae! Well anyway, did you guys know that this whole burning boat thing is a total rip-off of a viking funeral." Haley explains to them as they got to the edge of the boat somewhat filled with stuff that was going to be burned at the end of the week.
" You know you're the bomb!" Joey walks up to them looking at Rae with a big smile on his face.
"Thanks." Lucas says thinking he was talking to him about the game like everyone else that had stopped them so far.
" Hey Haley." Joey says awkwardly to his ex girlfriend, noticing her standing there.
"Hey Joe," Haley says back scratching the back of her neck.
"Check it out" Joey says looking back over to Rae, ignoring Lucas and handing her a paper.
"Wow Joey! A B+ that's amazing! You did it! Good job!" Rae says looking down at the paper which was the most recent math test of Joey's.
" Yeah I just threw all my bad grades into the pot and I am never going back there," He says rolling on the balls of his feet.
" I know you're not, but still if you ever need help again I'm here."
" Thanks, I will definitely come back if I need any help again." He then turns to face Lucas
" I have had so many tutors and this girl is a miracle worker."
"No, this is all you man, congratulations." Rae says smiling at him feeling a happy warmth settle in her chest from being able to help him do well.
"Thank you again, I'll see ya later Raelynn." He says, avoiding Haley's stares as he leaves.
" Yes! I knew he could do it!." Rae says putting her fists up and does a little dance ignoring the weird looks from the people walking by.
"Nice work Rae Bans." Luas says to her, laughing slightly at her antics.
" Yeah, and thanks again for helping him out when I couldn't. It still hurts a bit seeing him even though it's been like a year." Haley says sadly looking over at Rae.
"Of course Hales I would never subject you to that pain." Rae says, giving her a side hug as Lucas just stands there rubbing his neck.
"What's kind of funny is I was burning this necklace he gave me," she scoffs and throws a silver necklace into the boat. "So what bad mojo are you guys burning this year?" Haley asks, changing the subject slightly sniffling and wiping away the tear that had escaped from her eye.
"Well I'm not wearing this on my jersey." Lucas says showing them both the name tag from the back of his basketball jersey that said Scott and tossing it into the boat. While Haley motions like she's doing a spell on the boat.
" Oh yeah that makes sense, I'm proud of you Luke." Rae says giving him a side hug.
"So are the three of us watching this together, or what?" Lucas asks, changing the topic seeing that Rae was not pulling out anything to burn.
" Hmmm... I don't know, I'll have to check my schedule." Rae says as Lucas looks at her with confusion. " Cause you know, word around is that I'm" She flips her hair and clears her throat. "The bomb" she then turns around and walks away leaving Lucas and Haley behind.
" Wow." Lucas says over to Haley rolling his eyes and chuckling before they both follow Rae.