The Up Hill Battle

12. 1PM NOV 24th- Oak Island, North Carolina - Brooke POV

 Everything is in place. People are here and I need to just move the seats so that the boys are at the head.

"Brooke, everything is fine," Julian said as he hugged me from behind. I sighed and watched as the boys talked to a few of their friends. Jude looks a bit disappointed. I looked at Julian.

"Is Jude okay?" I asked. Julian looked at me and to Jude.

"He's waiting for his friend. The really cool one who reads comics," Julian said.

"Right, last name McGrath," I said.

"Strauss," Julian said, "Red hair, skateboard."

"Yeah, McGrath," I said.

"No, I put Strauss on the invitation," Julian said.

"Strauss is fine. I understand the confusion," I heard and turned around. Lindsay was looking around and then to us. Her hands where on the shoulders of a red headed girl. "This is Lena."

"Another fan of Harry Potter?" I asked.

"No," she deadpanned, "But Jude's really into it, so I guess I can make a sacrifice for today," she said. Julian smiled and Lindsay laughed a bit.

"Go say hi," Lindsay said and her daughter walked away.

"I didn't know your...she was yours," I said. "I mean I kind of thought that maybe she was a friend of the blonde one, or that she was a neighbor's daughter."

"She's adopted," Lindsay explained, "I adopted her."

"Yeah, we have the same father, but different moms," the blonde said. "Moms my mom, some Irish evil temptress is hers."

"AJ," Lindsay said. The blonde just smiled and went to sit down. "Anyway, I have to go into the office; AJ is going to stay here with Lena."

"Will Mia be here?" I asked.

"No, she will not. She's with her friends," Lindsay said. I nodded and Lindsay went to check on Lena and then on AJ. She left and AJ sat down at a booth and opened a book. She started to read it.

"You can sit over here," I said. She shook her head.

"No, it'll get annoying and distract me," she said. Julian laughed a bit.

I watched as she turned the page on the book. I then looked towards her sister and saw that Jude was smiling while they talked together. Jude waived at me and I waived back. Jude took her hand and led her around introducing her to some people.

"I think he likes her," I said and Julian just smiled. I saw Lucas and Peyton arrive and Sawyer just went towards the boys to say happy birthday. I saw Peyton turn her head to AJ and look at us.

"Why is she here?" Peyton asked.

"Uhh, her sister is the one with Jude," I said and they both looked at Jude.

"Boys got some game," Nathan said as he grabbed a pretzel.

"My sisters going to break his poor heart," I heard AJ say. I looked at her.

"What do you mean?" I asked she put her book down.

"I mean that us Strauss girls are heart breakers. We don't mean to be, we're just blunt and matter of fact... Plus she looks up to Mia way to much. Mia is practically a god in her eyes and Mia breaks hearts, her last boyfriend... She dumped him at Winter Formal in front of everyone. I was in eight grade and even I heard the rumors at my school. She poured soda over his head, made him look like an idiot. He had it coming, especially since he ditched her the week before in Sleepy Hollow, just left her there and when he tried to explain himself after winter formal he, well he ... what's the juvenile version of a restraining order...it was more like my mom threatened and his dad agreed, never went to court. But god...so yeah. Lena Thea McGrath will break his poor little heart."