Tonight was Lucas Scott's first basketball game as a Tree Hill Raven, Rens whole family had shown up to cheer him on and their spot right next to Keith and Haley.

"So that's the boy that beat Nathan?" Brooke looked over at her two friends, who simply gave her a nod, "He looks good from behind"

"Ravens on three! One, two three"

The players ran out to the court, taking their respective roles. The ravens get the ball first, passing the ball to Nathan and then he passed it to Lucas but instead of grabbing it, the ball slipped out and almost hit Peyton Sawyer.

"Nice hands"

"Nice legs"

Ren let out a disbelieved gasp, looking over at her friend who was turning a shade of pink.

The game didn't get any better, Lucas kept missing the ball or missing the hoop and Dan was loving it, he made smug looks every time Lucas missed a shot and Ren knew that he would go straight to Whitey and start trouble.

After the players walked off the court, the parents or friends got up and left. Leaving the gym filled with disappointment and confusion.

"Well that was a hell of a first game" Her Dad said, walking up with the whole family.

"Yeah, I'm sure Lucas feels the same" Ren sighed, she hoped that it was just a little first game nerves and he would be right back to normal the next game.

"Shame. Everyone at school was talking about him today and now their opinion based on him is solely because of this one game" Vee crosses her arms together, she felt bad, all of the Harlows felt bad.

"I'm sure if Karen could've made it tonight, that would've made it a lot better for Lucas" Gwen shook her head, in all their years of being friends, she never thought that Karen would do this to Lucas.

"There's always tomorrow, Mom" Val said, giving them a little optimism.

"Speaking of, I'm gonna head home so I can get some light reading in for English tomorrow" Ren grabbed her cheer bag from the floor and placed the straps on her shoulders.

"Okay, well. I think we might grab a bite to eat, if you want to come" Gwen looked at her daughter hopeful but knowing that she was going to decline the offer.

"Sorry but Chicken with rice and some veggies are just waiting to be cooked" Ren gave her a sad smile, pulling them in for a hug, "I'll see you guys when you get home?"

"You will. We love you, drive safe" Her Dad called after her, making her turn around and wave goodbye.

She headed to her Jeep and saw that Brooke was already in the front seat waiting for her.

"What are you doing in my car, Brooke?" Ren asked, opening the back door so she can place her bag in and then walking to the drivers side.

"I was waiting for you, silly"

"Okay... but why?" Ren looked at her, confused.

"I'm thinking of sleeping over tonight, no need to run to my house though, I can just borrow some of your clothes" Brooke shrugged her shoulders, turning her body to grab the seat belt and clicking it in.

"I have some English reading to do and Ballet to work on but if you don't mind then cool" Ren told her, looking out the back window to see if there was any cars driving by before pulling out of her parking space.

"What do you think of that Lucas kid?" Brooke curiously asked.

"I don't know, he's just Luke. I've known him forever" Ren shot Brooke a weird look.

"Right"

"What's with the sudden interest?" Ren asked, making her way to the Harlow estate. 

"I don't really know, actually. Just curious" Brooke shrugged again, leaning forward to turn the radio up a little louder.

They didn't talk for the rest of the car ride home, it seemed like Brooke was in deep thought and Ren didn't know where her friends head was at. Stepping foot into her house, Ren dropped her cheer bag onto the table next to the door and step her car keys in the bowl.

"Are you hungry? I was just gonna cook some Chicken and Rice for tonight" Ren turned her neck to look at Brooke as they walked into the kitchen.

"I was actually thinking of going for a little dip in that spacious pool of yours" Brooke smirked, unzipping her cheer jacket and setting it on the marbled island.

"It's September in North Carolina, it's freezing out" Ren said trying to stop her from getting pneumonia.

"You've gotta let lose, Verena! Come with me" Brooke grabbed Rens hand and dragged her outside to wear the pool was.

"Absolutely not, Brooke Davis" Ren said, yanking her friends hand off of her arm, "If I got sick, my life would be over and well I can't let that happen"

"You won't get sick and besides missing one day of school won't kill you, Miss 4.0 GPA" Brooke tried again, this time she took off her cheer shirt.

"No, I haven't ate all day and I'm starving plus I have some school stuff to catch up on and I need to practice my Ballet routine" Ren backed away from Brooke who was now soaking wet in the pool.

"You're such a loser, V. Harlow"

"Yeah well you're using this losers 'spacious' pool, you're welcome by the way" Ren rolled her eyes and headed back inside so she could cook herself some dinner.

It only took her about 10 minutes to make herself dinner and Brooke still had not came back inside. Ren grabbed a napkin and her drink and placed it on the table and sat down, taking her fork and nice she cut into the chicken and brought it up to her mouth, only for Brooke to finally make her appearance, naked.

"Brooke, get some clothes on" Ren sighed, chewing her first bite of food.

"I cant get my cheer uniform wet!"

"Then go ipstairs and get some clothes from my room, my parents could be home any minute and I don't want them to see a naked Brooke Davis walking around the house" Ren pointed upstairs, silently telling her to go now.

"Well it would be be so bad if your Dad walked in first" Brooke gave her a smirk as Ren choked on her food, grabbed a single Brussels sprout, she through it at Brooke hitting her square in the face making her let out a gasp.

"Go!" Ren laughed, watching Brookes bare body run through the house.

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Ren sat next to Peyton like she normally did in English class, there subject today was Hemingway and although she was never fond of any of his book, she couldn't help but love The Sun Also Rises.

"You know, early in his career, Hemingway was.. he was frustrated. He was a good writer who wanted to be great and eventually he discovered that less was more" Mr. Kelly walked around the class, "Peyton, describe Lucas using just one word"

"Choke"

The class laughed, "Okay, quiet, please. Thank you. Lucas, care to respond and describe Peyton?" Mr. Kelly asked.

"Lonely"

The class erupted in 'ooos' and 'ahhhs' before Mr. Kelly silenced them. Ren rolled her eyes at her friends and the immature juniors in her class. She watched at Nathan raised his hand, "Yes, Nathan?"

"I can describe Lucas in one word. Bastard"

"Alright, alright, alright, alright" Mr. Kelly said to the class. Once they stopped another commotion began, Lucas tackled Nathan to the floor and Mr. Kelly spring into action to try and break it up.

Ren turned her head and looked at Peyton, giving her the 'what the hell' look which she only got a shrug in response. This was gonna be a long year.

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Ren walked into Peytons room and groaned, jumping to lay on her bed she groaned some more.

"What's wrong with you, baby spice" Brooke asked, looking at Peyton with furrowed eyebrows and then back at Ren.

"Nothing really, just wondering when Nathan Scott will finally grow up and act like a normal human" Ren turned her body so that she was facing the girls and then stared at Peyton.

"Hey, why you looking at me? It's not like I did anything" Peyton asked, getting defensive like she always got when it came to Nathan.

"If you wouldn't have called Lucas a choke in English today then Nathan wouldn't have said anything. You set the fire and Nathan added the fuel"

"You know, it's really time of had that Lucas is poor and he can't play because he is fine" Brooke butted in, trying to stop the girls from arguing.

"You know, I really hope for your sake that you never become poor, I just don't know what you'd ever do!" Ren sassed out.

"I would never wish being poor on anyone, I think I'd die" Brooke drawled out the die, making Ren and Peyton laugh, "Hey, I think it's really good you're fighting with Nathan again"

"You do?" Both Peyton and Ren said at the same time.

"Yeah! Every time you guys fight I get to hear new music" Brooke held up the stack of cds in her hand and laughed, "Hey, did you guys buy the new Beyoncé?"

"Absolutely not"

"No"

"You know, Peyton, I know you're all Gwen Stefani plaid skirt, 'I'm a badass' and Ren, I know you're all Nina Ananiashahi-"

"-Nina Ananiashvili"

"Right, you're all like classical music, don't eat any junk food, in before 9 pm but we love you guys anyway and you know why? Cause when it's Friday night and it's game time, there you guys are, one of us" Brooke smiled at her two friends, not realizing how shallow she was actually becoming.

"PS, Gwen Stefani is not a badass"

"Do you ever look past it, Brooke?" Ren turned again, this time she was laying on her back.

"Past what?"

"All of it. High school, basketball and everything that comes with it; drama, fighting to be popular" Ren explained further.

"Yeah. I mean I think about the future sometimes and it scares me but then I think, I'll go to college, I'll join the right sorority, I'll marry a rich guy... unless I get fat" Brooke answered honestly.

"You can not be serious!" Ren called out, turning once again to look at Brooke, "It's like you never think for yourself without money somehow being the key factor, if you want to be rich Brooke cool, great, but why can't you just put in the work and make something of yourself? You don't give yourself enough credit"

The three girls sat in silence for a moment before bursting out in laughter, Brooke grabbed the pillow next to her and threw it at Ren making her laugh harder.

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Ren had offered to drive Peyton down to Keith's body shop so she could check up on how her car was doing. The blonde stepped out of the Jeep and stomped over to Lucas who was looking at Peytons sketches.

"Those are my sketches!" Peyton yelled at him, yanking the folder out of his hands.

"Peyton-"

"I'm, I wasn't looking" Lucas told her.

"This is personal, alright? I don't read your diary" Peyton continued to yell at him, which was making Ren very uncomfortable so she was thankful that Keith was standing close by.

"Hey, Keith" She smiled at him as she got closer.

"Verena" He nodded, "Karen passed over the dinner invite at your house, I'll make sure to mark it on the calendar"

"Honestly Keith, I keep telling you that you don't have to come. We all come together a couple times a month and it's cool if you miss one dinner! Besides, it must be awkward sitting next to Karen and having my Dad joke about you two getting together"

"And face having Mitchell Harlow come down to my shop? Yeah right" Keith laughed at the thought of his friend coming all this way to give him crap about not coming to dinner, "I'll be fine, Kiddo"

"Sure. I'll talk to my Dad, maybe try and get him to lay off the jokes. Even though practically everyone wants you and Karen together" Ren let out a little chuckle, winking her left eye before making her way back to Peyton.

Ren followed Peyton to the car, both of them getting in and sitting in silence.

"Are you ever going to show anyone your work?" The brunette asked, turning her steering wheel to turn down the main road.

"I show you my stuff"

"Someone important, who could really help you get your stuff out there" Ren encouraged.

"Just because your dreams aren't coming true, doesn't mean that you can push me into doing this" Peyton snapped. Ren jumped back in surprise, furrowing her eyes brows in sadness, she looked forward and payed attention to the car in front of her.

"Look I'm sorry, Ren-"

"Just because you're pissed off at Lucas who has the slightest interest in you, doesn't mean you can treat me like crap. I am not going to fall victim to your mean spurts because I'm your friend, that's not how it works" Ren held her hand up, silently telling Peyton to shut up, "Just because Nathan is an ass to Lucas, doesn't mean you get to be"

The two girls sat in silence once again, not bringing up Lucas or Peytons art or Verena failed attempts to make it in the Ballet industry. Driving down the main road of Tree Hill, Ren spots Thud Magazine and pulled over into the last stall available.

"I have a couple more years to become who I want to be as a Ballet dancer, I haven't had an opportunity to show people what I can do but that doesn't mean that I won't in the future. You may not want anyone knowing that it's you in the magazine but just by walking in there, you already have your foot in to be something amazing" Ren didn't bother looking at Peyton, she was still kind of upset by the comment and how Peyton wont see how inspiring her art truly is.

Peyton didn't say a word, grabbing her portfolio, she threw it into the trash can next to the car, "It doesn't matter"

Verena let out a sigh, grabbing the prindl, she put her car in reverse and headed back to Peytons house.

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Ren stood there with her cheerleader uniform
Like she didn't every Friday night but this time she couldn't help but go back to her conversation with Peyton. She began overthinking her life and how she was going to actually make something of herself. Being a junior in high school, they encouraged them to know what they wanted to do and how they were gonna do it.

Verena knew what she wanted to do but she struggled to know how to start, she began spiraling in a pit of self doubt, maybe she wasn't good enough or maybe she didn't put in enough work. She thought about college, something she's never thought about but somehow even thinking about something so simple makes her want to crawl into something smaller then herself.

She felt an elbow touch her side, looking over she saw Brooke Davis giving her a smile, trying to muster up enough happiness to at least give her a presentable smile, knowing that she failed.

The game began and Ren put on the strongest fake smile and cheered. Looking over at Lucas she noticed the black fabric on the back of his jersey where 'Scott' used to be and she couldn't help but actually smiling at that.

"Let's go Lucas!"

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Not surprisingly, Lucas Scott had played an amazing game and a lot of people hated that so it wasn't surprising when Ren had overhead a couple of basketball players talking about making Lucas's like a living hell.

Walking with Brooke down the hall, they began talking about Brooke's crazy night last night.

"I can't believe you did that" Ren let out a shocked laugh, normally hearing these things coming out of her friends mouth weren't shocking but hearing that she did it to Lucas Scott, well that was shocking.

"Hey, Girl" Brooke said to Peyton as they stepped next to her and Lucas as they argued, "Hey, you didn't happen to find my, um. Thank you, Gorgeous" She gave him a smile when he reached to hos locker and pulled out a cheetah print bra. Linking her arm with Ren's, they walked out of the hallway and outside.

Feeling Peyton run up and standing beside her, she gave her a small smile, "Whatcha got there?"

"What?" Brooke asked, pretending to be innocent in a situation where they both knew the truth.

"You know what, the Brooke Davis leopard bra. The things like a welcome mat. Anyway, I heard you were naked in his car" Peyton said, looking at her expectingly.

"No. I was partially naked. At one point, I had mittens on cause it was cold. Oh, did you see my-"

"Focus, Brooke. You're partially naked in his car with mittens on, them what happened?" Ren grabbed her arm, silently telling her to get back on track.

"Well, then nothing. He was very sweet, he drove me home, said 'goodnight,' waited till I got inside"

"Maybe he's gay" Peyton expressed loudly, making Ren roll her eyes.

"No, I think he's just nice" Brooke smiles, stepping back momentarily to think about Lucas, "Anyway, it's gonna be so great when he sleeps with me"

"That is not something I want to hear!" Ren groaned. She watched Brooke squeeze Peytons arm and then grab Ren's and pull her along.

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Ren and her sisters piled out of her car and headed inside, since their Mom was at a meeting at her law firm and their Dad was in the other town over, they kind of had to fend for themselves until one of them got home.

"I don't know when Mom or Dad will be home so I'm just going to assume that it won't be until later so if you have any dinner recommendations let me know" Ren said to her sisters, setting her bag down on the counter as they walked into the kitchen.

"I thought you wanted to head to the studio and get some practicing in? You said something about a program at the University of North Carolina School of the art?" Val asked, sitting down on the barstools I front of the island.

"That was before Mom and Dad got caught up at work" Ren pointed out, letting out a frustrated sigh.

"Go. We are old enough to feed ourselves" Vee told her, walking up and slinging her arm around her shoulder.

"Seriously, it's fine"

"It's not fine" Violet exclaimed, "You always talk about wishing that you had a shot at something big and now you have it. Go practice your ballet routine, get it down to a T and then record yourself doing said routine and send it in!"

Ren pondered the thought, maybe her sister were right. She complained about Peyton letting an amazing offer go and now she was doing the same.

"Fine but I'm calling Ms. Roe, I'm not letting you guys stay here by yourself so either you go to the cafe or she can come here"

The three sisters mumbled out an okay. Ren didn't waste any time running upstairs and grabbing her duffel bag, storming out of her room and back downstairs quickly.

"I just talked to Ms. Roe and she said that you guys are welcome to go down to the cafe and have dinner over there. I can drop you guys off if you want"

"It's too early for dinner, we can walk down there at like 5ish" Violet told her, looking outside to see that it was still daylight.

"Right, well. If you need anything-"

"Verena, we know. Go!" Val yelled, letting out a chuckle at the end.

Ren smiled at her sisters before storming out of the house and into her car, making her way to Tree Hills dance studio.

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Ren heard the familiar chime above the door as she opened it, smiling at the front desk lady before walking back to the ballet room. She looked around the dance studio, stopping when she saw her reflection in the wall of mirrors.

Setting down her bag, she walked to the middle of the room and began to stretch, knowing that it was the number one thing to do before starting a routine.

Getting back on her feet she walked over to the stereo and looking up her iPod, clicking through her music until she found the song she had been practicing with for weeks. Turning it on full blast she quickly went back to the middle of the room, waiting for the count in.

She sat on the floor out of breathe, her back facing the door and her eyes closed still feeling the music. Maybe that's why she didn't hear him come in until he began to clap.

Ren turned her head quick, startled by the sudden noise, she furrowed her eyebrows, "Charlie?"

He stepped forward with a smile, his clapping hasn't stopped but Ren wished it had, "That was amazing, Rena"

"What are you doing here, Charlie" Ren stood up from the floor and crossed her arms, her voice was hard and she made sure her faced matched.

"I live here" He said simply.

"No, last I remembered, you moved halfway across America without saying goodbye" Ren didn't make any moves to give him a warm welcome, he didn't deserve one anyway.

"Well I'm back, Rena" Charlie Lernout a soft sigh, this was not how he wanted things to go but he couldn't blame her either.

"Don't be, go back. Tree Hill is doing fine without you" Ren couldn't help but tremble, her words were strong but she was not feeling it.

"Ren I-" He began to plead with her, watching as she bent down and grab her back, "Please" Charlie watched as she left and he wished he had stayed.

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For the first time in her life, Verena Harlow didn't know what to do. Desperately wanting to talk to someone about the events that had happened tonight but also knowing that hers and Charlie's relationship was kept a secret. Maybe it couldn't hurt to tell the girls since they had broken up.

She debated her choices, go home and feel alone with the thoughts or head straight to Peytons house. As of her mind had already been made up, she was almost to Peytons, driving down her street she noticed Brookes blue convertible beetle. Pulling into the drive way, she put it in park and yanked to keys out of the ignition and ran to the front door, not bothering to ring the door bell, she just headed right in and ran up the stairs.

"I need help" Ren breathed out, her chest was rising and falling as her heart continued to race.

"Yeah you do, girl" Brooke laughed, looking at the state that Ren was in; sweaty clothes and black mascara running down her face.

"Charlie is back"

"Archer? Charlie Archer is back?" Peyton set down her sketch book and sat up.

"Thank god, Tree Hill was getting a little boring" Brooke smirked. Ren couldn't help but let out a small whimper, she didn't want to cry but she couldn't help herself.

"Verena?" Brooke called putting softly, "What happened?"

Ren walked over and sat next to Brooke on the bed, sitting there for a moment to collect her thoughts and mustering up all the courage, she said "I thought I loved him"

The two girls didn't say anything, not know how to begin or what to say, "What do you mean?"

Looking up at Peytons ceiling, she began to laugh, "He didn't want his Dad to know, he said that he wouldn't approve of a girl messing up his chances at a basketball scholarship"

"I'm sorry, I'm just a little confused" Peyton said to her, neither of them knew what was going on and Rens rambles weren't helping them piece it all together.

"Sophomore year, me and Charlie were paired up to do some English assignment" Ren paused, looking at the girls to see if they were following along, "We spent so much time together, at first it was just to do this stupid project but then, we began to spend almost everyday together"

"Isn't sophomore year the year that you were really busy with that ballet thing?" Brooke asked, looking over at the girl.

"I lied, there wasn't a ballet thing. It was just Charlie, I wanted to be with him and he was scared of his Dad finding out so we came up with a lie. He told everyone that his Dad was grilling him and I told everyone that I had this big Ballet recital coming up" This time Ren let out a sob, she couldn't hold it in, "Then he left and I didn't even know until I couldn't find him around school"

"Oh, buddy" Brooke frowned, pulling Ren into a hug and rubbing the girls back comfortingly.

"You could've told us" Peyton offered up a sad smile, getting up from her chair and walking over to Rens other side and including herself into the hug.

"I know but the thought of losing Charlie because of his fathers wrath made it hard. I tried so hard not to lose him but he ended up leaving anyway"

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Ren stood next to Peyton and Nathan as Coach Durham made a speech about the burning boat. She looked around, trying to see if Charlie had decided to show up but he wasn't in plain sight.

"Good Evening, usually the master of ceremonies at this deal is Red Legner but uh, well, Red died. So what are you gonna do? Now, every year we have a burning boat and every year people find things to toss into it, I guess if everything was perfect, we wouldn't be human-"

Ren took this time to head down to the boat, at first she didn't have anything to burn but with Charlie's arrival, things changed. They had taken quite a lot of pictures while they were together and Ren was the one stuck with them. Well, not anymore.

Looking through the stack of photos, she began to feel sad. Maybe it's the feeling of despair when you desperately want something but you can't have it, no matter how hard you tried.

"Burning the pictures of us?" Charlie said from behind her, he had watched as she flipped through the photos. Anytime that Charlie thought back on those moments, he felt warm and he wanted that feeling back.

"I can't hold onto something that's never going to happen" Ren didn't bother turning around, with the frown on her face and the sadness in her eyes. She didn't want him to see what he did to her.

"Let me hold onto them then" He extended his hand for the pictures but Ren didn't give them to him, instead she threw them right into the boat.

"Charlie, I'm sorry but I can't" Ren walked away from the boat and Charlie and the pictures, she didn't look back and maybe that's why she didn't see Charlie reach his hand into the boat and grab a single picture.

Ren walked up the steps to get back to where she was before, standing next to Peyton again, they sent each other a sad smile. The blonde grabbed her friends shoulder and pulled her into a comforting hug.

"I guess, Uh, it's not everyday that we get a shot at starting over and putting our feet on the right path. That said, I guess we better get to the rat killing" Coach took the stick and lit it on fire, walking over to the boat and lighting the whole thing on fire.

You could hear cheers and clapping throughout the whole process but Ren just stared at the fire, emotionless.

Looking over as Lucas made his way to the top of the steps, he threw a spray can at Nathan who caught it, "You left that at the court"

"I don't know what you're talking about" Nathan threw the spray can on the floor and stepped closer to Lucas.

"Then call it a gift. Besides you're gonna need it to paint over your scoring title on the gym cause I'm taking it" Lucas wasn't bothered by Nathan, he wasn't going to backdown while Nathan was messing everything up.

"Yeah, I'm your dreams" Tim chuckled making Ren reach over and slap him in the shoulder.

"I don't care what you do to me. Whatever you got, you better bring it cause I'm not goin anywhere" Lucas opened his bag and pulled out a rope and a shirt and giving it to Nathan, "Burn this for me, would you?"

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What do you guys think about Charlie? What type of guy do you see him as?

This is the photo that Charlie saved from the boat!

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

This is the beautiful dance routine that Ren has been working on, I recommend watching the video!

AND this is what I picture the Harlow estate to look like, it fits perfectly into the town of Tree Hill and it's the home alone house so if you want to see more pictures just look up Home Alone house in any search engine(: