A/N – I had the idea to write this cute/short/funny little one shot. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it! :)

Mathletes in Training

"Boys, it's all just memorization, really."

It's another night in the Baker household, and for two eight year old third graders, it's the worst part of the day.

Twins Davis and Jude are two extremely bright little boys. They're the two who can read the lengthiest chapter books out of their entire grade, write excellent book reports, participate in their elementary school's annual science fair, and even ace art class – after all, their mother is a fashion designer and their Aunt Peyton can draw incredibly. But there's one thing, one subject that somehow can't seem to click – much to their father's dismay.

Math.

Brooke finds it hilarious how her husband, the mathlete, ended up raising two children who absolutely detest the subject. And she honestly can't blame them at all. In fact, they inherited her genes on that right there – she was awful at it.

"But daddy, it's stupid!" Jude whines. "Why do we even need to know this?"

Frustrated, his brother agrees. "They're just stupid numbers." Davis sighs.

Brooke, who had been cleaning up the kitchen from dinner, leans against the counter and watches her three boys interact. She knows not to get involved where she doesn't belong. She and math had never been friends.

"Guys, you heard your teacher the other day."

They had gone to parent-teacher conferences, and while most of the comments on the twins were great, as was expected, there was one tiny suggestion – to work on their math.

Their latest battle is the oh-so dreaded multiplication table.

"Don't you want to do good on your times tables quiz next week?"

"Can't you just take it for us?" One of the boys suggests and Brooke, from behind, stifles a laugh, thinking back to her high school, cheating Calculus days.

Julian chuckles at his son's request. "Now, Jude, that would be cheating. And you and Davey are better than that. You two are smart boys and you work hard to earn your grades."

While Brooke can't exactly advocate Julian's words, as that would be hypocritical, she loves that he instills all these positive motives and qualities into their young boys. It's what makes him such an amazing father.

"Daddy's right boys." She adds in.

"But math is so hard!" Davis exclaims.

"Well, you just have to practice it to get good at it. Like a lot of other things that you want to be good at." Julian insists.

"You're just saying that because you were a … mathlete …whatever that is…right, mama?" Jude vocalizes, scrunching his nose at such an unfamiliar word.

Brooke giggles as Julian looks completely mortified.

"I see you told the boys about my…past."

"I'm sorry." Brooke says between laughs as the boys join in with her. "I had to." She holds her hands up, as if to surrender.

"Mama said it's like being an athlete…like Uncle Nathan, except instead of basketball it's math. And no offense daddy, but that's just weird!" Davis shakes his head in disgust.

"Yeah…basketball is fun. Math isn't!"

"Great." Julian sighs dramatically. "Now my whole family is against me. Even my boys. I thought you guys had my back."

"But you're the only one good at math. And you won't even take our quiz for us!" Jude tries to rationalize.

"The boys have a point." Brooke points out. "I was horrible at math, you know. Nearly flunked calculus, if it wasn't for…" She quickly trails off. "Never mind that!" She nervously laughs. No way was she telling her precious boys the trouble she'd almost gotten into had he been caught stealing calculus exams with Rachel. "Point is boys," She begins getting back on track. "Daddy's just trying to help you get better at math, so you don't turn out as stupid as mommy was in it."

The twins sigh heavily. They know they aren't getting out of this.

"Fine. We'll study more." Davis says. "On one condition though."

"And what might that be?" Julian curiously and cautiously asks.

"We will not…" Jude starts.

"…Absolutely not…" Davis stresses.

"…Become a mathlete when we get older."

The parents laugh. "Okay, boys. I think we can deal with that."

Julian pretends to be hurt and looks towards Brooke and his sons. "You may be able to, but my dreams were just crushed."

Brooke playfully slaps him on the shoulder and turns back around to finish washing the dishes from their meal while the boys get back to studying.

"Okay, so where were we? 5x4?"

"Flunking calculus?" Julian asks, feigning disappointment. "I'm shocked, Brooke Davis."

"What can I say? We didn't have any mathletes roaming the halls of Tree Hill High to help me out." She laughs and presses a kiss to his cheek. "I'm sorry the boys inherited my math skills. At least their dad can help them out though. I didn't quite have one of those either."

Julian frowns slightly at this, but nods his head in understanding. Brooke doesn't really like to talk about her childhood like that. It's the reason why she is so grateful she has someone as wonderful as Julian fathering her children.

"Well I have to say thank you for blowing my cover on the whole mathlete thing. If they didn't think I was cool before, well now…" He states sarcastically.

"Oh, stop." Brooke smiles. "They love you. And you know they look up to you because you're so smart. And I'm sure next week, when they ace that math quiz, you're going to be their hero; you already are."

Hours of studying and a week later, Brooke and the boys arrive home from school. Today was supposed to be Julian's day off, but when they don't see him downstairs, Brooke knows that he must be upstairs in his office, editing his latest film project.

"Julian!" Brooke calls out for him. "We're home!"

A minute later, he walks down the stairs ready to greet his family. Before he can even get a word out, the boys race up to him, each holding a paper in their hands.

"Daddy! Guess what?"

"We got our quizzes back!"

He sees Brooke smiling in the corner of his eyes and knows that this can only mean a good thing.

"Oh yeah?" He goes along with it. "And? What's the damage?"

"I beat Jude!" Davis smiles proudly.

"Hey!" Jude stomps his foot. That is not the news they were supposed to share. "Only by four points!"

Julian laughs at the kids, and Brooke interrupts before the fight can get any worse.

"Tell daddy what you guys got."

"Well I got a 92." Jude rolls his eyes at his brother.

"And 92 plus 4 is a 96! I win!"

"No, no." Julian shakes his head. "You both win. I'm so proud of you, guys." He holds out the palms of his hands for each of his boys to high-five.

Brooke can't help but laugh as they do – while they may get their distaste for math from their mother, their clumsy high-fives definitely come from their father.

"See, all that hard work paid off. You did great, boys. I'm going to hang these up on the fridge." He tells them, collecting the exams from their hands.

Davis and Jude both smile, proud of their accomplishments.

"Okay, boys." Brooke claps her hands to get their attention. "Now I want you to go sit at the table and start your homework, okay?"

And just like that, the smiles fade at the sound of homework. But of course, they listen to their mother and gather their book bags to start.

As they scurry off to the table, Julian walks over to his wife to finally greet her appropriately with a kiss.

"See, what'd I tell you? They aced it." Brooke smiles.

"Yeah." He shakes his head with a grin. "A 96 and a 92. We've got some pretty smart boys…Maybe even some mathletes in training."

"No!" The boys both scream from the table.

Brooke simply laughs and takes Julian's hand within her own as they walk to the table to help the boys with their homework for the night.

"…Just think about it…"

A/N – So, what'd you think! I'd love to hear your thoughts! :)

-Melissa