Disclaimer: Characters are owned and produced by The Almighty CW. I am just playing with them for now. I'll put them back I swear. Original characters are owned by the author of this story.

Author Notes: After much worrying and fretting, I have posted my first fic in a very very long time. Thanks to Trips for the nudging and Colleen for the shove lol. Any reviews would be loved. And away we go with umm this. There is more to come. Honestly. Really. Maybe lol

Chapter One – Welcome to the Tree Hill

From the second he walked into the tutor center, he knew he had fallen for her. She hadn't even spoke to him or even looked at him. He was drawn to her on some sort of invisible thread. She was about 5'5 maybe. Her hair was a light brown and pulled back into a ponytail. She was wearing grey t-shirt that hid her curves and a pair of faded jeans. The shirt was a little too loose for him to tell what her build actually was. Her eyes were light and pleasant. Like she could make you feel like you were the only person in the room.

He was frozen in place. He knew he needed to say something to her. Maybe say something like….

"Hey."

He rolled his eyes at thought of that. Here he is at a brand new school in a brand new town and his best opening line is 'hey'. No way. At his last school, a girl like her would reside just outside of his weight class. Meaning she would talk to him but never go out with him. But now thanks to his mom getting a new job, he had a good chance of being the coolest guy at Tree Hill High.

If he was going to pull this off he only had one shot at pulling this off. He had a try out with the basketball team later on and getting this young lady to acknowledge his existence would be a boost to his confidence. Although, he was still stumped on what to say for an opening line.

"Hi, welcome to the tutoring center. My name is Haley. What can I do for you?"

Well that takes care of the opening line.

"Yeah…Umm, I just transferred here and I am a little weak in Math. The principal gave me these for you to look at. And my name is Devon." He handed her the sheet and instantly her eyebrow quirked up.

"Just math, huh?"

She looked at him and gave him a warm smile. The smile gave him a feeling that she wouldn't judge him. And that was a feeling he was more than willing to wrap himself in. No point in hiding anything from her. After all she was holding the transcript.

"Math…English….and ….look don't make me say anything else. I am beyond embarrassed about this."

"No need to feel like that ok? You know I have seen a lot of students come into the tutoring center and feel the same way. And I always say the first step to becoming a better person is asking for help. Everyone has the potential to be good student but its going to take some work."

She gave him another smile and Devon actually believed every word she said. Hell, he was starting to think he could write a 3000 page novel if Haley asked him to. Her words had this honest and warm feeling to them. He never met anyone like her. She was almost too good to be true. And he could get used to having this feeling around him.

'Let's see who we have available to give you a hand, ok?"

She walked over to the binder on the file cabinet. And just like that he could see he chance to get to know her slipping away. No way. There was no way he was going to let the chance to get to know her slip through his fingers. And for just a second his old insecurities started to rise up inside of him again. The same silent thoughts that have followed him around everyday at his old school. Even now he heard them in the back of his mind. He looked at Haley as she started flipping through the binder and suddenly the noise and the doubt faded. Not this time. He walked up to opposite side of the cabinet.

"Haley, can I tell you something?"

She looked up from the book. She looked a little surprised but willing to listen.

"Sure."

Devon took a deep breath. He went over to her and exactly what he was feeling.

"Well, Principal Turner said you were in charge of the center which means you have to be the best student here. The only chance I have that to make it out of this school with better than a 0.0 is you. Will you help me?"

Haley looked into his eyes and to him it felt like she was scanning his aura to see if he was lying to her. It sent a strange shiver down his spine to have her looking into his eyes. Devon felt connected to her in some way. It was almost like it was there in the background of this moment and that it needed to be acknowledged to prove it was there. He stared right back into hers. His hand unconsciously drifted to her hand and to his surprise, she didn't immediately pull back from his touch.

"Ok." Haley said softly.

"Really?"

"If you really need me, then I'll be more than happy to help you. It's why I'm here."

He smiled at her and sighed. "Thanks, Haley."

"Don't thank me yet. We have got a lot of work to get you caught upon and I am not going to give you a free ride. We can meet here in morning. How's seven-thirty?"

"It works just fine. I can't tell you how much this means to me."

"I think I am getting the idea." Haley looked at his hand on top of hers.

Devon gently pulled his hand back from Haley's hand. And that's when he saw the ring on her finger. Of course she was married. Or was she? Sometime girls wear rings to just scare guys off. But the more he looked at it the more he was sure in the fact that it was definitely a wedding ring. He figured there was only way to know for sure.

"Well it was nice meeting you, Haley. See you in the AM. Nice ring by the way."

Haley looked at the ring and a flash of regret flashed across her face. "Thanks."

Devon walked out of the tutor center. The look on Haley's face had him confused. The ring meant something to her. There was something definitely going on with her. He shook his head and with only one word on his mind.

"Shit."