Songs to Love and Die By Chapter 1, an one tree hill fanfic

Title: Songs to Love and Die By.

Rated: M

Characters: All.

Time Frame: Senior year of HS, although everything is as it was in the beginning of the series.

Summary: This is story that you probably think that you know. A story that you've come to memorize and fantasize about. The story remains nothing more than a simple tale of love and betrayal, of longing and lust, and of liars and cheaters... The simple story that we all have grown to love, although rewritten and edited with twists and turns that you never saw coming by the fans.

Notes: Will update, but I update SLOW. Bare with me. It'll be worth it. (:

Nathan Scott and Peyton Sawyer where looked upon as the "perfect" high school couple. Although for them to be held to that standard, one must first define perfect. They had their arguments, loads of them on that note, but they also had their perks; at times their relationship seemed almost normal, stable for that matter, and beyond that, the sex was fantastic. In a way, one had to speculate that that was the very reason that they had hung on for so long.

Nathan Scott was known for being a star. He ruled over the "galaxy", known in other terms as Tree Hill High School. He was a bit stuck up, unfaithful, often rude, and a simply unpleasant person to be around. If you're not exactly like him, and you're vulnerable, you're most likely going to end up his next victim. Yes, Nathan Scott could be vicious, verbally and physically, but no one really seemed to care. He could simply get away with whatever he wanted.

Brooke Davis was known for other reasons. She had the public reputation of being a bit promiscuous. Sleeping around with no strings attached. It had always been more appealing to Brooke; for one, she had no relationship drama to deal with, and secondly, she was able to play the field… no sticking to one man for too long. She was a force to be reckoned with to other girls. If you're looking for a verbal slap down, a dosage of public humiliation, and a red-hand mark across your face, you may be just the person who tries to stand up against her and her friends. A cheerleader: yes. A slut: yes. A good friend: yes.

Lucas Scott and Haley James had been best friends forever. Haley James, coming from a large family full of kids and lacking her own personal attention, had decided that the Karen Roe, and her son Lucas Scott, needed her more than her own family did. Since then, she had spent a vast majority of her time brightening the lives of Lucas and his mother, who's family consisted of only the two of them. They had grown up together, through the good times and the bad, and it seemed as if they would never need part.

Lucas Scott was, unfortunately, it seemed, related to Nathan Scott. His brother was an ass, just like his father. And from a very young age he had been shut out of their lives. His mother, whom became pregnant at a very young age, just a senior in high school, and was then later, abandoned by his father, Dan Scott, upon his mother's announcement of her pregnancy. Although the Scott brothers attended the very same high school, and where forced into the same classes, they made sure to keep their distance from each other; for each was equally embarrassed of the other's mere existence.

Haley James, as stated previously, came from a very large family. A majority of her time had been spent growing up with Lucas Scott. She had been best friends with Lucas Scott since she was young, and they had grown up side-by-side. Haley takes pride in being smart; for the only other option at her school seemed to be being a moron.

-----

Nathan sighed, tuning out the conversation of the two girls that he walked side-by-side with towards their high school. He held onto Peyton's hand, their fingers entwined, although he wasn't quite sure if it was an honest gesture any longer.

"So will you come shopping with me after school or not, Peyton?" Brooke's voice was cheerful and so full of energy for the morning hours. Peyton wasn't feeling the same way. Her eyelids where feeling rather heavy, and she honestly wished that she could crawl back into her bed.

"By force, I guess," Peyton responded, causing a smile to unravel across Brooke's awaiting face, "but I refuse to be there all night!" Her words went unnoticed by Brooke, whom had already squealed with delight, bounced off of her high-heel-clad toes, and spun off to head the opposite direction. Peyton heaved a sigh.

Nathan looked over at Peyton now, ceasing their movement in the center of the quad. "So you're not coming with me and the guys to the party tonight I guess." His voice was accusing, and Peyton raised her eyebrows, allowing her eyes to trail away from his locked gaze for a moment before she answered him, once more looking into his eyes, "No, you know what, I'd rather not spend my night watching you and your asshole friends get shit faced."

Nathan snorted with agitated laugher, continuing to penetrate into Peyton's. She had been a complete bitch last night, and it seemed as though she had yet to get over herself, "Fine then, you can sit at home alone and listen to your loser emo crap that you call music."

Peyton released a few notes of quiet laughter in his face, annoyed over his pompous attitude. "You know what? I will. It'll be better than hearing that crap you listen to." She made to walk around him, not in the mood to have an argument in the middle of the quad. Nathan pursed his lips, hands pushing into his pockets nonchalantly. His eyes followed her as she walked off,"Hey Peyt," He used the nickname that he knew infuriated her, "call me what you're not so PMS."

Peyton did not even bother to stop, she simply shouted back over her shoulder, "No, you call me when you're not such an ass!"

Nathan rolled his eyes and moved away from where he stood, pushing into his familiar circle of friends and easily pushing the conflict to the back of his mind. He had better things to do than deal with Peyton Sawyer's daily dose of crap right now.

As Haley and Luke were walking toward the school, they saw the "evil threesome". Brooke Davis, head bitch of the school, had exited the scene, and now Nathan seemed to be getting into it with Peyton about the daily drama. Lucas suddenly steered off course, and Haley mistakenly took a stride alone before she noticed that he had left her side. Lucas Scott was avoiding again, like he always did when Peyton Sawyer was around. His disgusting, pig of a half-brother, Nathan, he could walk past, but when it came to Nathan's girlfriend who most likely was uninformed about Lucas' mere existence… he chickened out. It was something that happened often, and although it slightly humored Haley, it was beginning to get on her nerves.

"Lucas," Haley held out the 's' in his first name as she matched his stride once more, "Why don't we go that way for once?"

"You can, I just have to get to class," Lucas was a horrible liar, and despite the fact that Haley knew perfectly well that his first class was on that side of the school, he was willing to walk a whole lap extra through the halls to avoid running into Peyton Sawyer.

"Suit yourself," Haley commented dully, stopping and watching as Lucas walked off towards a set of doors into the school. As Haley glanced back towards the region inhabited by jackass and his girlfriend, she saw Peyton stalking off into the school. The cost was clear. Lucas was just too terrified to even be in the same vicinity as his life-long crush. She sighed and headed across the landscaping towards the doors that Lucas had avoided, following Peyton Sawyer into the school.

Nathan glanced over his shoulder; his gaze, unfortunately, found his scummy half-brother, Lucas. He hated Lucas... a lot, and most everyone knew that. Their history was complicated, and he had his own father to thank for that.

Pushing his hands back into his red sweatshirt pockets, Nathan turned his head back around and joined in a conversation about the party he was throwing at his parents' beach house in just around eleven hours. It was supposed to be one of the biggest this year. Girls and alcohol was all he needed to have a good time. He knew one thing for sure, and that was that Lucas Scott would not be walking through the doors of his house. He never has, and he never will.

Nathan heard the faint ringing of the bell ring through the hallways. Laughing, he hurried towards the building with his friends. As always, he found himself late for Chemistry.

-----

First period was dragging on, and Nathan was dying in a deep sea of boredom. Could this class get much worse? From behind someone tapped him on his broad shoulder and, picking his head up off of his arms, he turned around in his chair to see who it was. Seated behind him was Bevin Mirskey, and she mumbled something about tonight, but he was barely paying attention.

Bevin was one of Peyton's friends from cheerleading. She had blond hair, blue eyes, a great body, and was pretty absent-minded and ditzy. Bevin was attractive as hell, and the worst part was that she knew that. She was known for being somewhat like Brooke Davis, and that led her right down Nathan's ally. Although, without Peyton knowing about it, of course, they had already gone there.

"Nathan? Are you even listening to me?"

"Huh?" Nathan was jerked out of his fantasy, and he looked up from her low cut V-neck shirt, "Oh, yeah, that sounds good." Bevin was slightly skeptical, and she had an eyebrow kinked. Nathan shot her his famous, crooked smile before he spun around in his seat once more. His head fell back into his arms, finally resorting to staring at the white wall he was seated next to. It seemed as if just mere seconds had passed before he was taken away into sleep.

Although before he knew it, Bevin's voice broke through into his dreamless sleep and pulled him out of the realm and back into reality. The end-of-the-hour bell stopped ringing as he raised his head. Neck feeling stiff, Nathan was forced to grab his Chemistry things and head towards the hallway.

-----

Haley James was seated in her second period class early, listening to the obnoxious yelling of those who where still in the halls. How much louder can you yell? Honestly. Four minutes passed rather quickly, and the bell chimed. But, not to her surprise, a brain-dead jock came strolling through the doorway about twenty seconds late.

Nathan Scott had a smile still plastered on his face, from a previous joke dished out in the hallway, although it was fading as he showed up late for his second class of the day. Nathan was last to enter the room, and had the only seat left, front row, smack dab in the middle. He heaved a sigh and headed for it.

"Mr. Scott, thanks for blessing us with your company." The woman's voice was sarcastic and dull. Nathan nodded as he slid into the seat, "My pleasure," he retorted smugly.

He was obviously paying her no mind, and the teacher shook her head, taking the class attendance while the whole time mumbling to herself the names of each student. Written behind her, on the chalkboard in loopy cursive writing read, 'Please have a pencil and notebook out.' Nathan turned around in his desk to address the girl behind him. He paused, taking her in for a moment. She was nothing impressive, a pretty face, yes, but not his type in the smallest amount; not to mention the fact that she was obviously not into making herself look better by taking time in the morning. Although, everything aside, he knew her; she was that girl who always hung around Lucas. His girlfriend or something of that sort. After an awkward pause he finally whispered, "Hey, do you have a pencil?"

Haley said nothing at first. She simply held out a spare pencil for him to take. She knew this guy, and his stupid, ass of a reputation. Want a waste of human race? Well he qualified as just that. "I want that back at the end of the class," Haley hissed, her eyes narrowed slightly, "You didn't bring a pencil on the first day of school?"

Nathan reached out and took the offering from her, responding quickly with a small smirk, "I didn't think I'd be sitting in the front." Haley scoffed, rolling her eyes at his obvious enthusiasm to learn.

"Thanks, babe," Nathan jeered, reaching out to touch her hand gently. It was his nature to be completely flirtatious, although right now he was aiming just to be an ass. Anyone associated with Lucas deserved it. Haley pulled her hand back, disgusted that he had touched her skin. Nathan chuckled, muttering something that she couldn't catch as he spun back around in his seat.

Nathan sighed at the simple unpleasant day that he had been experiencing so far. Haley couldn't help but notice that Nathan was just sitting there, ignoring every word and problem that Mrs. Hawthorn wrote on the board.

Nathan leaned back in his chair, and decided to re-write the newest problem in his notebook. Although he just stared at it, unsure of what he was supposed to do, and unmotivated to even make an attempt. He could hear the faint scratching of pencils around him as people worked out the problem. He hated math. Math seemed to hate him. If it weren't for basketball, he knew he wouldn't have a chance in hell at getting into college.

Haley was sitting on the end of her chair, neck craned to look over Nathan's slumped shoulders. She couldn't understand what he was doing in an Advanced Placement Calculus class. She had finished the problem rather quickly, while he just sat there staring at it as if he was waiting for the numbers to sprout legs and create the solutionfor him.

Thanks dad, I love that you got me put into this class, Nathan thought coldly of his father. His dad, after talking to a shrink about Nathan's dropping grades the year previous, had consulted in his principle, whom he had wrapped around his finger, and had Nathan placed into and AP Calc class. It was all a plan to "challenge him". Nathan rested his head on his palm and stared out into the hallway through the open doorway. Before he knew it, Mrs. Hawthorn had asked him to share his answer with the class. Oh shit, Nathan glanced down at the open notebook on his desk. His mouth for a moment, and then closed once more; he had the sudden urge to laugh, but restrained himself. Nathan picked up his notebook and shielded it, "Well… I got six thousand... and two... squared. No, wait… Just six thousand and two." Someone laughed quietly in the back of the room.

Haley raised her hand and spewed out the correct answer. Her teacher applauded twice enthusiastically, which was also rather embarrassing. Haley did not feel bad for Nathan because he was not even trying. Maybe if things where a bit different, and she showed some sign that he was actually interested, then maybe, just maybe, she would feel slightly bad that he didn't know what he was doing.

Nathan glanced back at Haley, "Good job, sexy." He cooed under his breath with a sarcastic seductive tone for only her to hear. Haley grew mad as Nathan turned back around in his seat, obviously feeling good about himself for being such a ladies man, or whatever the hell he was trying to portray.

"Don't waste your breath," she had leaned up over her desk so that she could whisper into his ear, "You're just a lazy jock, and it's not going to be a very big shock when you fail this class. You're a…" she faltered, substituting the first word that had come to mind, "…jerk, Nathan, and you know it. So stop wasting your breath with your crap, and leave me alone."

Nathan rolled his eyes and glanced back at her again as Mrs. Hawthorn put up a new problem on the board, "You don't know a damn thing about me, Hally, so don't pretend that, just because you're stuck being Pucas' girlfriend, or whatever you two are, that you know me."

"I know that you're a jerk. And I know that you could care less about this class, wait, I lied: you could care less about school in general."

Nathan rolled his eyes once more, "Why do you even care?"

"I don't. But you just made a fool of yourself by guessing. You couldn't even take the time totry and get the answer? What's wrong, Nathan? Is math too good for you, too?" Haley watched him get mad for a second, but then, to her surprise, he dropped his own act and answered her with what she was assuming was…honesty.

Nathan had pulled Haley's notebook towards him, spinning it around so that he could look at her work. She didn't protest, because… well, she didn't exactly know why she didn't snatch her book back from him, but she didn't. "I'm kinda stuck in this impossible class," he noticed her questioning expression, "It's a long story, but all in all, I'm bad at math… but I'm guessing that you already figured that much out." Nathan stopped, but didn't let her have time to make a reply. His tone shifted back to nasty, and he asked her, "But wait… how's your boyfriend?"

Haley fumed, feeling stupid for thinking that this guy was being decent for a few seconds, "He's not my boyfriend, Jesus, why does everyone always assume that?"

Nathan shrugged in a pompous way, a small smirk forming on his expression. But now it was Haley's turn to cut Nathan off just as he opened his mouth, "Why are you in this class then… if you can't handle the work?" She had calmed her voice down, but her eyes where still harsh.

"You're dating Pucas, or did you two break up?" He was smirking, clearly enjoying himself. But at the same time he replied to her question, a bit snappy, but all the same he replied,"I don't belong here because I'm not smart enough. I didn't earn it... I just happen to have a dad who has connections."

Nathan shifted, glancing away from her for a second, then back. Haley clenched her teeth, although ignored the remark about 'Pucas'. Her voice started up again, catching Nathan's attention for just a few seconds longer, "Well, if you're not smart enough for this class then won't you fail?" She cocked her head, eyebrows raised again as she scooted forward a bit, waiting for his answer.

"Look at you go," Nathan responded in that same smug tone, "You've got me all figured out." Nathan made to turn around, but he thought of something else and added it in, "You should tutor me sometime… and who knows? Maybe you'll get lucky." He had a crooked-ass smile on his face, and Haley felt like punching him. Yeah, because you, the Walking STD, are such a good catch.

Haley rolled her eyes, and Nathan laughed quietly, spinning around to face the board again.

Ten minutes passed, in which the class worked, with the exception of Nathan who doodled out small shapes and useless brainstorms of game plays, and then the bell rang. Haley stood up quickly, walking past Nathan and taking her loaned pencil from his fingers. Nathan stared up at her from his seat, smirking gently. Haley cocked her head, a very unmused expression painted over her face, "I doubt that you'd use it anyway."

She left him sitting there, mouth slightly open as he watched her walk away. Nathan shook his head, laughing quietly to himself as he gathered his things and stood up. Nathan sighed as he made his way out into the hallways.

I'd love to know what you guys think about the first chapter... so please, leave a comment! ((: