THE CURE ▶ NATHAN SCOTT [1]

THREE

are you true?

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The clock was winding down and the Ravens were trailing by 2. Lucas had finally started playing well and Carly assumed it was because he removed the Scott name from his jersey. Whitey called a timeout before Jake inbounded the ball. Carly took this time to chat with Brooke.

"Hey, are you doing anything this weekend? I could really use a girl's night." Carly asked. Her eyes swept over the crowd, everyone was waiting impatiently to see if the Raven's undefeated record would continue.

"Nope! I mean other than Nate's party on Friday, I'm free for a sleepover!" Brooke grinned, thinking of the previous sleepovers the girls have had. They were unstoppable once they had alcohol in their veins.

The whistle blew, signaling the end of the timeout. Carly knew Nathan was going to take the winning shot, he always did. Carly grimaced when he was double-teamed, knowing he wouldn't make the shot. He missed but the ball was recovered and passed back out to Lucas.

He stepped behind the 3-point line. It was do or die for him. The clock ticked down, 5 seconds left.

He shot the ball.

The buzzer sounded.

Carly closed her eyes and said a prayer for the shot. Her ears were met with cheers. The team rushed Lucas with pride; he had kept their undefeated streak alive. Carly squealed and jumped on Brooke, yelling in her ear, 'He did it, he did it!'

The gym soon cleared out except for the parents awaiting their kids and Carly. She had always stayed after to tell Nathan good job and walk him to his car. She chatted with Keith and Karen until she spotted Lucas. She ran over and jumped on him.

"I knew you could do it! I'm so proud of you!" Carly squealed as he spun her around. Lucas smiled down at her until he saw his mother and Keith waiting for him. Carly bid him a goodbye and set out to find Nathan once more.

She found him over by his father; she grimaced knowing Dan would make a comment that would ruin Nathan's mood for the rest of the night. She walked over as Dan left Nathan by himself. As expected the look on his face mirrored his mood.

"Great job tonight," Carly smiled at him, her hands found her way to her bag per usual.

Nathan looked at her with a frown. "Tell that to my dad." Carly gave him a sideways glance, grabbing his arm and pulling him towards the exit.

"Who did you come here with by the way? I thought you needed a ride." Nathan broke the silence. Carly stuttered, remembering Haley telling her to make up a name.

"Nobody you know. He's from the school newspaper. He offered me a ride, I figured you wanted to focus for the game." She shrugged, facing forward. She only glanced up to see Nathan's hard gaze boring into her. She looked back down quickly, instantly feeling horrible about lying to him.