Forever and A Day | one tree hill

two.

Valentina strums her guitar and hums as she tries to figure out the lyrics.

"Because I know there's beauty buried beneath, the surface of what we seek."

Valentina smiles as she continues to strum. She liked that verse. She looked over at her notebook and made the changes necessary to the verse. She looked over it once more before nodding her head.

"Val," the door to her bedroom swings open and enters her younger brother, a frown on his lips.

"There's this thing," she says placing her guitar back in its case, "It's called knocking."

"Yeah yeah," Nathan says as he invites himself to take a seat on her bed, "I challenged him, and he accepted. We're playing on the Rivercourt tomorrow night."

"Okay," Valentina says as she looks over at Nathan. Was her brother expecting her to react a certain way? She wasn't sure what he wanted to hear at this moment.

"Is he good?" he asks her, tone softening a bit, "Dad seems – worried."

"He's a Scott," Valentina answers, "Basketball is in our DNA, so I don't think he's bad."

Nathan sighs as she falls back into Valentina's pillows, "Did I make a mistake?"

"No," Valentina says, "Look whether you win or not, you get something out of this."

Nathan lifts his head slightly to look at her, "What do you mean?"

"You win, then you know you're better. That's what you're worried about and that's what dad is worried about. That Lucas is better than you. Personally, I believe Lucas is good, but he's never been in game-like situations, so he'll be a step slower. If you lose-"

"I won't," Nathan asserts

"-if you lose," Val continues, "Then that means Lucas is good enough to help get you to states."

"I don't need help," Nathan tells her, and Valentina rolls her eyes.

"You can't take on five guys by yourself and you've lost a lot of talent with your bus-stealing debacle. You need role players. Lucas can be that role player," Valentina tells her brother before flicking his forehead.

"Ow!"

"Use your brain," Valentina tells him.

Nathan rubs his forehead but looks at his sister, "I'm not going to lose."

"Are you telling or asking?" Valentina asks.

"I'm telling."

"Okay," Valentina says, "Then you're not going to lose."

Nathan's eyes drift over to her notebook curiously and he goes to pick it up, but Valentina moves quicker as she grabs the notebook and quickly closes it. Nathan looks at her and laughs.

"So secretive. What are you writing about in there? A crush?"

"Crushes are for children," Valentina retorts. A belief she'd carried with her since all her friends went boy (and girl) crazy in middle school. Valentina never experienced it. She'd gone through middle school and most of high school without an inkling of a crush. That wasn't to say that she was entirely celibate. She was just very in control of her emotions and attractions.

"Right," Nathan says nodding his head, "That why your single?"

"I'm single because I want to be and because everyone in Tree Hill is a loser."

"Did you forget that you live in Tree Hill?" Nathan asks her.

"I am the exception. The rest of you are losers."