The Things Rule The Earth

S01E06

A black screen fades in. "12 Hours Earlier."

The Tree Hill High sign announces that the team will be playing an away game tonight at 7:30 against the Pickerington Pirates. Then it screams, "Go Ravens!" Because basketball rules in this town, in case you haven't noticed. The kids mill about, holding hands, wearing jeans, doing teenager stuff. Haley comes up to Luke and says, "Hey stranger!" Luke quips, "No stranger than you." She harrumphs. Then she throws her hands up in the air. Luke asks, "Did you get my message last night?" She says no, because she was at the library until late studying for midterms. Luke asks cockily, "Yours or Nathan's?" Haley replies, "Both actually." He snarks, "Good luck with that." Then she turns to face him and they stop walking. "You're cool with this, right? Last week, when you said you didn't trust me --" Luke cuts her off: "I know, I didn't mean that, I meant that I don't trust Nathan." Peyton saunters up: "Hey, you got a second?" Haley whines, "Speaking of," and then disappears. Peyton raises her eyebrows. Shut up, Peyton's eyebrows. She continues, "So, last week sucked. But I just wanted to say thanks." She hands him a CD that she burned, illegally -- do you think someone's going to come down and arrest her? Please, please have someone come down and arrest her for music pirating. It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of, but it would be worthy of her character. Anyway. Luke says, "Wow! You made me a mix?" She says, "I just wanted to clear my karma." What-freaking-ever. Does Peyton even have a clue what that means? The CD is entitled, "P.S. Whatever." See, now that's art in motion. Yawn. Luke jokes, "Does this mean we're dating?" She tilts her head and smiles, "Listen, you've got a long bus ride tonight. I had some free time. Don't read too much into it."

Nathan jogs up to Haley and says, "Hey." He's a man of few words. And when he does deign to speak, it's usually about basketball. Case in point: "Are you coming to the game tonight?" Haley doesn't know. "You should come, we always beat the crap out of the Pinkerington Hicks." She scrunches up her eyebrows. "They're called the Hicks?" Nathan laughs. "Well, no but they should be, that place is all pickup trucks and mullets." She laughs. He looks down at her like he's a boy and she's a girl and he's popular and an athlete and kind of cute and she's a smart girl who no one really notices even though she's very pretty. It's all so Sixteen Candles. He says, "It's definitely worth the road trip." She says, "Okay," kind of quietly, and Nathan jogs off to dribble something or other. Do-see-do to the left, and swing your partner around.