Introduction

Why do things work out the way they do?

I mean it, are they just previously destined to happen or do the choices we make affect the outcome? I guess it's asking the unanswerable, but after that summer I can't help but wonder if the six of us were destined to laugh as much as we laughed, cry as much as we cried or fall in love as hard as we fell. But it happened, and if I had to do it again, I doubt I would change a thing.

It all started and ended in Tree Hill, North Carolina. That's where all of our summers were spent, where our parents had grown up. They were ten tight-knit friends and after graduation, they had vowed to rent a huge house every summer so their families could stay together. As the years went by, jobs got more demanding, kids got older and it was hard to spend the ENTIRE summer there. But there was always a way to have the kids all together.

Dan and Deb had been together "through all the years" and had two twin boys; Lucas and Nathan Scott. They looked nothing alike, but had the same undying love and passion for basketball. Their family lived in a comfy house in South Carolina and usually spent the whole summer in Tree Hill.

Sam and Hannah rarely stayed for the summer, but their son Jake Jagelski did. Jake would ride the train from Savannah, Georgia up to Lucas and Nathan's house and drive up with their family. Though Jake also liked basketball, he had a particular talent for the guitar.

Jonathan and Veronica Davis had one daughter and barely kept track of her. They were rich, divorced and powerful in their businesses and each only went to Tree Hill for a week each summer. But they let Brooke stay all eight weeks, being as New York City got "too boring" for the wild and playful girl.

Larry and Anna Sawyer were always the most crazy in love couple in high school. Anna died shortly after her daughter Peyton turned seven, causing Larry to dedicate himself entirely to his work, shipping Peyton off to boarding school an hour away from their Florida home. Her summers were spent at the "Tree Hill House."

I was the good girl who wore a backwards baseball cap and her heart on her sleeve. Haley James, born to Jim and Lydia who were best friends and decided to get married halfway through college. Then it was six kids, all a year apart, me being the youngest. After a few years however, the "lack of spark" as my mom called it drove them to get a divorce. My dad moved to Texas and I haven't seen him since I was twelve. My house was in Richmond, Virginia but my home was in Tree Hill.

So was it fate that each couple was to have kids who were the same age? Was it fate that due to hectic work schedules only Lucas, Nathan, Jake, Brooke, Peyton and I would be in the beach house for the whole summer, the one before we all left for college?

All I know is that the six of us lived for our summers and that summer was well worth living for.