Tree Hill High School. Luke, Peyton, and Nathan are all in study hall. It has to be study hall because they can't possibly be the same age -- they could be close in age if Dan impregnated Nathan's mom shortly after Karen, but the show hasn't explained any of that yet. It's too busy with frivolous backstory to explain anything of actual consequence to the show. ["Maybe we're supposed to assume, since Luke is all into reading, that he skipped a grade? I don't know." -- Sars] Any. Way. Coach comes in and yells, "Scott!" Nathan answers. Coach says, not you, the other one. Peyton lifts her eyebrow at Luke as he gets up to leave.

Coach and Luke have a heart-to-heart in the gym. Whitey starts talking philosophically about the gym. Some people like it loud, but he likes it quiet, like a church. Blah basketball's a religion in this town blah. Whitey: "You played ball in grade school, why'd you quit?" Luke tucks his hands inside his pockets. Leans on one hip, shakes his pretty head, and says, "I didn't." Coach doesn't think Luke's playground antics equal real basketball. He wants Luke to join the varsity team. It's the "chance of a lifetime." Coach throws him a ball. What does Luke think? He smolders like embers in a fire. See, if the show can use stereotypical metaphors, so can I. "I think the people who pray here waste their time." He shakes his pretty little head: "God doesn't watch sports." Bwa! How can he keep a straight face? Luke bounces the ball on the empty gym floor. Now that's moral integrity. Oh, wait, no it's not -- it's just a kid who takes himself way too seriously. Luke cut a page out of Dawson's book for that conversation. Oh, woe is him, poor baby, he doesn't believe in the Altar of Ball that Tree Hill seems famous for -- he's such a rebel.