Rescue Me

A Lesson For A Sister

Haley opened the door and when she saw her eldest sister immediately threw her arms around her.

"Quinn!" Quinn stumbled back.

"Hey, Haley Bob, it's okay. I'm here." Quinn held her little sister close. "Now what is going on? Tell me slowly." She led her little sister over to the couch and they sat down together.

Haley sniffed. "Lucas started dating Brooke Davis, the most popular girl at school, and at first I didn't get it. He really liked this other girl Peyton, Brooke's best friend, who I easily liked, but then he decided Peyton had too many issues and dated Brooke instead. He snapped at me, telling me to give her a chance, and I finally did. She isn't what I thought, what anyone thinks, she is. But anyway Lucas started cheating with Peyton and Brooke found out. Then everything just spiraled out of control." Haley started crying again. "Brooke is suicidal and Peyton knew this, but she went after Lucas anyway. Lucas didn't know, but he still shouldn't have cheated. Brooke is a mess and to make matters worse she is pregnant with Lucas' baby and now because she overdosed the baby might not even survive this pregnancy so Brooke was going to get rid of it, you know." Quinn nodded. "But her and Lucas talked and now she decided to have the baby. I wanna be happy for her, but she has quickly become my best friend and I'm just so scared."

Quinn took both of Haley's hands in her own. "Hey, it will be okay. I'm here now." She said knowing that even if she couldn't change what was happening she could at least offer comfort through it. "So, where is this Brooke?"

"Still at the hospital. Karen is going to sign her out, but only after a night of supervised rest."

Quinn nodded. "So Karen had her put on a 24 hour suicide watch?"

Haley gave a little chuckle. "Of course, it's Karen we're talking about. Brooke should be glad she didn't tell them to put her on a 72 hour suicide watch." She laughed then became serious again.

"Or 96." Quinn chuckled. She only met Karen a few times, but she knew Lucas' mother was a strong non-nonsense type.

Haley nodded. "Yeah." She sniffed again. "I don't know how to handle all of this. There is a whole other side to the world and becoming friends with the popular kids has really shown it off." She sighed. "A whole other side to Lucas too and I hate it."

"I always tried to tell you the world isn't just black and white."

"I know, but I thought you meant race wise." Haley sighed.

Quinn chuckled a bit at how innocent her sister still sounds even in high school. "No, I meant there are a lot of gray areas. The grass is never greener on the other side unless it's fake. We all stand on the same gray ground."

"The ground is brown under the grass." Haley corrected her.

"You know what I meant. Don't judge a book by it's cover and don't judge a person by their shoes. Dad always told us that while we were growing up."

Haley scoffed. "Well I don't care about shoes, but I did judge Brooke before I knew her and I feel really bad about that."

"Not literal shoes. It means don't judge them from where they've been or where they stand. Judge their character, their personality, their heart. That tells you who they are as a person."

Haley nodded. "I get it. I guess no matter how many A's I get you'll always be the wise older sister."

Quinn smiled. "You have book smarts, and that's good, but out in the real world that gets you no where. You need street smarts and world smarts. You need to understand the people that surround you, or try to, and you need to understand one basic lesson about the life we live."

Haley sighed. "What's that?"

"Take it one day at a time. If yesterday was bad, and today's not that great, there is always tomorrow. Have hope for a better day and it'll come eventually."

"Thanks." Haley smiled.