"Remember, we need clear pictures." Callie instructs the photographers as she is now sitting in front to get a clear view of the basketball game to write her report for the newspaper.
She is getting set up before she hears a voice that brings a rare smile on her face. "Hey, there, California." she hears the voice of Keith Scott.
She looks over to Keith, beaming and smiling brighter than ever. "Uncle Keith." she says as she gives him a hug.
"You here to see Lucas play?" she asks him. "It's his first game. So how are you, how's the school newspaper holding up? Anything new in your life?" he asks her. She decides to keep her lips shut about her relationship with Zach and partially tell the truth.
"Nope, just the same old stuff." she brushes off.
"It's nice to see you, Callie. Hope you don't become a stranger." Keith tells her as he joins up with Haley James, Lucas's best friend and probably one of the smartest people Callie has ever met.
Throughout the entire game, Callie can sense that Lucas seems a little...off. It seems like he was so messed in the head that Whitey benched him for the rest of the game.
Callie would bet a million dollars that Nathan and her father had something to do with this.
Later that night, Callie was getting ready for bed. She looks over at her wrist and the tight grip that Zach had on her is turning from bright red to a dark purple. She gently grazed the hand-shaped bruise, wincing when she touched it a little too harshly and making a mental note to not wear anything where it is on display.
The next day, she is at school and in her English class.
"Early in his career, Hemingway was frustrated. He was a good writer who wanted to be great. And eventually, he discovered that less was more." Callie's English teacher, Mr. Kelly, begins to explain.
"Brandon, describe Callie using just one word." the teacher tells Brandon. The tall boy takes a glance over at the disinterested blonde girl over by the window before turning back to the teacher. "Mysterious."
There were a lot of 'ooh's from the classroom, excluding Callie, Lucas, Nathan, and Peyton. In fact, Callie rolls her eyes and Nathan, who was sitting near Brandon, just hit him on the arm with the back of his hand.
"Callie, how do you describe Brandon?" Mr. Kelly asks Callie. The blonde twin of Nathan Scott, however, looks at Brandon, dead in the eye. "Douche." she responds, coldly.
The teenagers laughed, with some shivering at Callie's tone, and Peyton will admit that she did crack a smirk.
"Okay, let's move on. Peyton, how do you describe Lucas?" the teacher asks. It was silent before Peyton responded with, "Choke."
"Okay, be quiet please. Thank you." Mr. Kelly defuses the laughter that is emitted from the students and turns to Lucas. "Lucas, care to respond and describe Peyton?" he asks him.
Lucas looks over at Peyton, and without breaking eye contact, he replies with, "Lonely."
"Okay, be quiet, please." the teacher says, sternly, as the students were making noise once again. Nathan raises his hand, and from what was displayed moments ago, Callie can confidently deduce that it is not going to end well. "Yes? Nathan?"
"I can describe Lucas in one word: bastard." Nathan tells Mr. Kelly. It was enough for the tensions to come to ahead and a fight to break out.
Callie can feel her anxiety rising, so she does what she can do: leave the situation.
She quickly grabs her stuff and leaves the classroom as quickly as she can. She walks away from the classroom for a few moments to catch her breath and to wipe away any tears that have been shed.
Callie detests violence and is not the most confrontational person out there, and with her experiences with Zach, who is the complete opposite of her, the thought of violence makes her want to throw up.
A hand was placed on her shoulder, and Callie squeaks and jumps away, only to turn around and face Brandon.
Brandon, who noticed the frazzled state of Callie, was the only person that noticed Callie being a little uneasy and is the only one that ran after her.
"Woah, hey, there. I was just seeing if you are okay. You looked like you were gonna hurl." Brandon tells her.
"I'm fine. Not necessarily a fan of violence." Callie coldly responds to him as she rushes away from him.
The last thing she needs is Zach finding out that Callie was near Brandon again.
After school, Callie is glad that she works a night shift over at the diner, mostly because she can avoid Dan Scott's questions about how Nathan got into a fight and why she didn't back him up.
"Hey, Sunshine, can you get that table?" Bernadette, the owner of the diner, asks her. Callie makes her way towards the two figures at the table.
"Hi, welcome to Sunshine Diner. My name is Callie, and I'll be your server. Can I start you with anything to drink?" she starts off.
"Yeah, I'll have a Sprite." a brunette woman that is in hospital scrubs tells her before turning to the person in front of her. "Raisin Bran, you want anything to drink or are you gonna gawk at her until you're hydrated?" she asks, and when Callie turns around, she mentally groans because Brandon fucking Barnes is there once again.
"Oh, uh, yeah. I'll have a Coke." Brandon gets out as Callie is writing everything down. "Sure thing." she replies with a tight smile before turning around, the smile disappearing. "Dear, Lord, kill me now." she mumbles under her breath.
While she is making the drinks, Marcie, one of the chefs, pops her head out of the window. "What's goin' on between you and that twink over there?" her loud voice blares out, pointing over at Brandon.
"Nothing, Marce. He's just a nuisance who knows my brother." Callie responds as she is preparing the drinks.
"Between you and me, Cal, he hasn't taken his eye off of you since he stepped in." she claims as she goes back to the food.
The rest of Callie's shift is rather tame, with the usual dinner rushes and the last-minute walk-ins.
The following day, in the same class that Lucas and Nathan had their fight in, Mr. Kelly turns to face his students.
"Okay, we're going to try our little Hemingway project again." he begins as he is passing paper to his students.
"But in order to avoid a bar fight, we're going to do it on paper." he continues, directing that first statement to Nathan and Lucas. "Now you don't have to put your names on these. Simply write one word, one single word, to describe what you want most in your life right now."
Without a shadow of a doubt, Callie knows what she wants: Belonging.
She longs for the day where she gets out of Tree Hill and making sure that her dad is a distant memory.
She longs for the day where she attends her dream college and gets a sense of acceptance.
She longs for the day where she can ditch town with her boyfriend, never looking back.
Overall, she longs for a day where she doesn't feel like a ghost in a small town.
YOU ARE READING
United as One (ONE TREE HILL//OCxOC)
FanfictionCalista Scott is invisible when it comes to her family. Her mother is barely even home, her father is too laser-focused on her ignorant twin brother to even notice her successes, and her older half-brother detests her existence. Even though she does...
