Author- Emily-Grace Mendes (Brookebynature)

Disclaimer- I own none of the characters, or the show, or the song. But I DO own this story.

A/N- Here it is guys, the FINAL CHAPTER! Longer note at the bottom, I'll just let you read. I have a feeling you might like this one...

Play The Game

Play To Win

The volume of noise on the bus had already begun to piss Brooke off, who was trying to catch up on some much-needed sleep. It wasn't her fault that the previous few nights she'd been thinking about Lucas too much to even shut her eyes, much less sleep. But with the classic tomorrow, she sure as hell needed as much sleep as possible on this bus ride.

"Brooke it's your turn for a truth." Bevin told her excitedly, having just found out that Tim had a crush on her, not that she would even take him up on his offer of 'getting cosy with the Tim' but still, it was always nice to be admired.

"I'm not playing." The brunette mumbled sleepily.

"Aww come on Brooke." Peyton chipped in slyly. "I'm sure you have loads of truths you could share with us."

Brooke rolled her eyes. Her former best friend's attempts at trying to humiliate her were weakening.

----

"Alphabetical order, no switching!" Whitey barked at his players, who were mostly suffering from headaches caused by the girls high pitched excited screams, or exhaustion from intense practise.

Both Lucas and Nathan groaned when they realised they were sharing a room, a little something Whitey had concocted in hope that they might magically 'bond' in turn helping the team.

Luckily for Brooke and the rest of the cheerleaders, their rooms hadn't been assigned alphabetically, meaning that they could choose who they shared with.

"Haley we need to plan, you're sharing with me."

Had she had anyone to exchange worried-looking glances with, Haley most certainly would have done so upon hearing Brooke call her name. "Sure" She muttered, forcing a smile as the suddenly perky brunette grabbed her arm, leading her to their room.

"What do you mean by plan?" Haley asked as she flopped down onto the bed, which she was surprised to find was a comfortable queen size double.

"Double beds." Brooke said, mainly to herself. "Things could get kinky."

"Hello? Brooke?" Haley asked again.

"Hello Haley." She giggled, bouncing on her own bed to test its firmness.

"What's the plan?"

"Well I'm glad you asked, because there are several."

Haley rolled her eyes as let her head sink further into the pillow, all the time regretting asking.

"So if you pin Peyton down after the competition, I can beat the crap out of her right before I win my trophy."

"Yeah…I don't think so."

"Well then you think of some other way I can get my revenge."

"You don't think you should just let this whole thing go?"

Brooke looked taken aback as she let Haley's words sink in. "Let it go?"

"C'mon Brooke, you must have heard how stupid that plan sounds. You were only kidding."

"Yeah I was, but I can't just let it go."

"But why?" Haley was almost pleading with her now, and she didn't quite know why.

"I'm going to get Lucas. I'm going to give her the payback she deserves, and I'm going to win that God damn trophy."

"That's a lot to win." Haley said lowly, unsure of whether Brooke heard or not, but apparently she had.

"Game on."

----

Naturally, the students had been given a curfew, so even more naturally, they felt the need to disobey Whitey's strict instructions for lights off at 9pm sharp.

"I've got speakers set up in the pool area." Nathan told Haley, who was busy trying to stretch before practise in the gym. "And Tim's got the drinks."

Haley nodded, looking across the room to Lucas, whose eyes were firmly fixed on...her actually. "Sounds good" She mumbled, suddenly feeling even more uncomfortable with two pairs of blue eyes on her.

He stared at her, all the way through their practise sequences, not to mention their break, where Brooke handed out bottles of Evian faster than Haley had ever seen anyone move before.

She was unsure as to why he wasn't staring at Brooke, and even more unsure as to why he hadn't made any sly comments or smirked, or even raised his eyebrow. Lucas actually looked a little…distressed, worried even.

"Haley can I talk to you?" He stopped her as she was leaving the gym, Brooke's arm linked with her own as they chatted about how much of a bitch Claire Young was. Well actually, Brooke told her how much of a bitch she was, Haley having never met the girl, was in no position to judge.

She looked between Brooke and Lucas, and when Brooke gave her a nod and unlinked her arm, Haley stood aside as the rest of the squad walked past.

"Moving on to Haley now?" Peyton smirked. "Brooke must be super pissed."

Lucas ignored her comment to the best of his ability, looking around before talking.

"What is it Lucas?" Haley asked impatiently-clearly another of Brooke's attributes she had picked up.

"I need to talk to you." He said quietly "About Brooke."

"Look this 'game' or whatever it is you're all playing." She air quoted. "It's getting out of hand and it's pointless."

"I like her you know."

"Loads of people like her Lucas."

"But it's more than that." he protested. "I feel…things."

"How romantic." She rolled her eyes sarcastically, waiting for him to finally say that he wanted Brooke. She wasn't being harsh-Lucas deserved it, besides, she figured that if he couldn't even tell her how he felt, he sure as Hell wasn't going to be able to tell Brooke.

"You're not making it easy for me." He tried to joke in that same manner he'd been comfortable with when first moving to Tree Hill.

"It's not supposed to be easy."

----

Brooke had made sure that she was dressed in a killer outfit, consisting of…well not much really. Her jeans skirt was covering the top of her legs, while underneath she had on her red bikini, one that had only a little bit of string to hold it together. Unfortunately, Brooke had bought it back when her boobs were firmly C cups, not bordering on D's, as was now the case.

She wore the red silk top from the party when Lucas had so effortlessly unhooked her bra, a top that would always remind her of him, no matter how much she tried not to think about it. Of course, her feet hadn't been left out of the occasion, and with her nails painted a pretty pink, they looked perfectly manicured in the matching red flips flops. An outfit worthy of any pool party.

Haley on the other hand, hadn't packed for such an event, and was biting her nails while pacing her and Brooke's room in the borrowed blue two-piece.

"You look hot and I just look frumpy." Haley whined, grabbing at the material and curling her nose up.

"Well you're going to make it worse by stretching it!"

Had Brooke brought a spare bikini, she would have gladly leant it to Haley, but she hadn't, so instead, that had fallen on Theresa, who Brooke declared 'Must have been shopping at Target or something'.

Most people were already in the pool area when Haley and Brooke arrived, receiving many wolf-whistles, much to Brooke's delight and Haley's embarrassment. She was really regretting letting Brooke force her to join the squad.

"Looking hot ladies." Nathan shouted from across the pool. Haley couldn't help but smile, and when he offered to get her a drink, she accepted, leaving Brooke to mingle with the rest of the cheerleaders.

She saw Lucas, who was quite obviously watching Brooke, but when Nathan caught her, she quickly turned away, averting her gaze back to the activity in the pool.

"He's a loser." Nathan commented, nodding in Lucas' direction.

"Why do you guys hate each other?"

Nathan let his own gaze wander as he tried to think of an answer, at least, one that he could tell Haley.

He wasn't going to let on that the reason he hadn't liked his half-brother was because he had found photos of him in his father's desk drawer. That wouldn't have been a problem if Dan hadn't missed Nathan's birthday due to the fact that he was paying other son Lucas a visit. He'd promised him tickets to see the Charlotte Bobcats, and Nathan had waited and waited for him to come home from work to take him. It was only due to overhearing his mother's phone call that he found out that his dad hadn't been in an unavoidable business meeting. He'd been with Lucas.

"I just do." Nathan blurted quickly, changing the subject. "You wanna dance?"

They joined a few others at one end of the pool room, which was growing increasingly hotter by the second, meaning that many of the girls had stripped down to just their bikinis, much to the guys' satisfaction.

----

Lucas had watched Brooke get pretty much wasted before he made his way over to where she was grinding up against Bevin, who was being eyed up by a very eager Tim.

"Looking good." He bent down just enough so that his voice vibrated through her ear, and a small smile unwittingly crossed her face. She turned, so that he was incorporated in their dancing, and Lucas was glad that he hadn't changed tactics, that he hadn't been honest straight away. The truth could wait…for now.

Bevin dropped out of the dancing one song later, stating that she needed another drink. Brooke continued to let her arm drape over Lucas' shoulder however, and as he felt her hips push into him just that little bit more, it was all he could do not to moan out loud.

"I remember that top." he told her, against pressing his lips against her ear so that she could hear him. Brooke was now sure that it wasn't just the alcohol that was making her want to fall down there and then, and as he let out an uneven breath, she had to bite her lip just to stop herself from attacking him with her own.

Peyton stared at them the whole time, from her position in the Jacuzzi, and Brooke and Lucas were now really starting to piss her off.

"Good luck tomorrow." Nathan shouted to Haley as she made her way to the doors of the pool room, ready to hit her bed with Brooke, whose body was still practically on top of Lucas'. "With the classic and everything."

Haley smiled warmly at him, a little stab of something running through her once again. She mouthed over 'thanks' as she ran a hand through her hair, narrowing her eyes when she caught Peyton sending a death-glare Brooke's way.

Brooke groaned inwardly as she saw Haley waiting for her beside the doors at the time, she herself had instructed them to meet.

"I gotta go." She told Lucas, who was beginning to feel himself loosing control very quickly.

"Good luck tomorrow." He whispered to her as she let her breath out against his skin one last time. "I'll be watching."

----

"So what was up with you and Nathan tonight?" Brooke raised her eyebrows at Haley as they collapsed onto their respective beds. "I saw you guys flirting."

"Well if that's what you call flirting, then what the Hell was going on between you and Lucas?" Haley half-asked, half-exclaimed. "You were practically having sex on the dance floor."

"We were not!"

"Whatever." Haley rolled her eyes at the girl on the bed next to her, who had a look of satisfaction across her face.

----

The girls had busy practising that next morning while the guys had too, been working hard for the basketball final they were due to play after the Classic. Time had (too quickly) rolled around for the competition, and Brooke was pacing the floor as the Bear Creek Warriors performed their sequence in front of the judges, and the crowd who, unfortunately, seemed to love every second of it.

"This is going to suck if we don't win, you know that right?" Brooke shouted, chewing her lip.

"Way to make us feel less nervous." Peyton muttered, offering a scowl in Brooke's direction, but the brunette was too busy worrying whether a Beyonce remix was the best choice of music.

The crowd however, roared when the Ravens were called onto the floor by the announcer, and as Brooke caught Lucas winking in her direction, it was all she needed to deliver the kick ass routine they'd been working so religiously on over the past months.

"We kicked ass out there!" Bevin squealed, high-fiving Theresa who was more concerned with the dark-haired guy in the audience whom she'd seen before at last year's tournament.

"You guys did it!" Brooke added, hugging Haley who wasn't sure whether she wanted to jump or scream or run into Nathan's arms.

----

There was another party by the pool that night, a celebratory party for which Whitey had lifted curfew so that the winning ravens, both cheerleaders and basketball players could enjoy their evening.

Excited girls ran along the corridors, many in just their bras and panties, some, such as Haley with dressing gowns covering bare flesh in order to switch outfits and steal make up.

"Damn Haley!" Brooke exclaimed as her friend emerged from the bathroom wearing a red bikini borrowed from someone who had better taste in swimwear than Theresa.

"Not enough skin coverage?" She smirked, knowing fine well that with her hair lightly curled from earlier that day, she looked hot.

"Nathan's not going to be able to keep control!"

Haley simply smiled, hoping that that might well be the case. "Well look at you."

Brooke surveyed herself in front of the floor-length mirror. The emerald green halter neck bikini she had borrowed from Bevin was certainly doing her curves favours, and as she slipped a short skirt over the top, she smirked at her own reflection.

"I'd like to think I look kinda hot" She giggled, running a hand through her hair one last time before they exited the room.

----

As had been the case the previous night, the music was blaring in the pool room and dancing was in full swing. There were, of course, a few people hitting a beach ball around the pool while splashing each other and play-fighting, something both Haley and Brooke had never understood about guys.

"Drink ladies?" Tim asked.

"Actually, I think I'll pass."

Haley looked at Brooke, a little startled at her refusal of a drink, but rolled her eyes when the brunette then said "Who am I kidding? Of course I want a drink God damnit!"

She was dancing when Lucas approached her from behind, removing the empty cup from her hand as he handed her another one full of vodka and cranberry juice.

"Are you trying to get me drunk Mr Scott?"

He smirked a little and shrugged. "Only if you want me to get you drunk."

She turned into him, letting her arms fall over his shoulders as they moved to the loud beats of Christina Aquilera's 'Dirty'.

I don't wanna talk
About the things we've gone through

"Look" Haley nudged Nathan to look in Brooke and Lucas' direction.

"He's…"

"Yeah yeah.." Haley interrupted, smirking in a manner that Nathan found both intriguing and seriously sexy. "He's a loser like you keep saying."

Nathan smiled as nodded towards where the students were dancing. "I'm glad we're on the same wavelength."

She smiled as they walked to what could have been described as the dance floor, as a very very pissed Peyton looked on from her position at the edge of the pool.

I've played all my cards
And that's what you've done too

"Look Brooke." Lucas began, lowering his lips to her ear in order for her to hear him. "About everything, I'm sorry."

She shook her head, mumbling "it's okay" onto his neck as he let out a breath of anticipation, of want. And it was then, that Brooke reached up, all inhibitions gone as she let her lips crash onto his, a sweet mixture of strawberry lip gloss and cranberry juice smearing across his mouth. Lucas groaned, just a little, as she slipped her tongue part way into his mouth, digging her nails every so slightly into his back.

Nothing more to say
No more ace to play

"So I guess you got Lucas then." Peyton slurred as Brooke walked past the drinks table. She shrugged and let her gaze avert to the boy in question, the one that gave her a nod and a small smirk.

"Guess so."

"You know it was all just a game." Peyton began. "I was only playing along."

Brooke shrugged again. "Yeah me too." She glanced again at Lucas, who made his way over, cup in hand. "And I play to win."

He led her away, back to where they had been dancing, and as he slipped a hand around her waist as she fell into a comfortable grinding rhythm, one that sent waves of lust and passion up her spine, Brooke caught Peyton's eye, shooting her a satisfied smirk.

The winner takes it all

Okay so I just want to ask a question: You can choice whether you want a sequel to this story (I have a few ideas alreday) or a totally new story (again I have some ideas) so it's up to you guys. Just let me know which you'd prefer. I'm also trying to write a new chapter for 'Just the Gardener'

And it's the last time I'm going to say it, so please review because you know how much it means.

Emily-Grace xxx