After Deb drags Dan and Nathan to a family therapist, where they only fight and each expect Nathan to take their side, Nathan looses faith in everything except Haley. Brooke begins to feel jealous about Lucas, but insecure as they have almost no common interests; Lucas and Peyton both reassure her. Lucas finds Peyton's dad home for once; he tells her another, even better paid job will drag him for months to New Zealand... Nathan talks to Keith and coach, who both tell him to do what's best for him, even if that means dropping basketball; he cuts practice and classes, even takes Haley with him playing hooky, to Dan's disgust in more then one way...

On Dan's birthday, his parents turn up unannounced; Dan tries to make everybody keep Nathan's quitting from them, and Haley offers to come for moral support. Just when she was counting off her dad's return home, Peyton gets a call a storm knocked four men off his ship, and she must identify if a corps is his, so Lucas drives her, but the roads are blocked too so they must spend the night in a motel, but Lucas doesn't forget Brooke. At the Scott diner, the mothers tell the truth, how grandpa Royal Scott also pushed Dan too hard till he took his mother's advice to use a knee injury to quit basketball altogether; like coach Nathan walks out disgusted, losing all respect for the man he always tried desperately to please, and decides how to deal with it.

Nathan has moved into his own apartment, away from both parents. To prepare for a match away, Coach orders Lucas to coach Nathan's weakest points, and makes them uneasy roommates; in the evening the boys sneak out but the strip joint Tim 'could get them in' turns out to be queer. Peyton and Sparkle Classic cheer-leading coach Brooke also find themselves bunking together; when Theresa falls sick, Haley is recruited and gets a crash course. Mouth spies the other teams -he demonstrates with more talent then most girls!- so they rework both choreography (Brooke) and music (Peyton); after training Brooke gets the hot pool opened, the boys jump in and coach grills chaperons Karen and Peyton's dad Larry Sawyer, but nobody minds. The new routine rocks, so Brooke wins the choreography prize. In the game Nathan uses the fade-away Lucas proposed and scores the winning point. At the home front manager Keith feels smothered by Dan and his men, and makes a drastic choice.

Lucas, Nathan and Jake are auctioned off to the highest bidder in the annual "Boy Toy" charity auction and the night leads to surprising developments with old flames. Meanwhile, having missed out on the auction, Brooke ends up with Mouth and gives him the night of his life.

The knowledge that Dan actually requested joint custody over Lucas but was turned away by Karen makes Keith doubt her and the Scott boys, who now train together as friends, how their lives would have been growing up as brothers. Peyton and Brooke lose Jake's baby daughter Jenny in the mall, and find Nikki picked her up. Haley is furious when she finds porn sites on Nathans computer, even though everybody else considers cyber-sex innocent fun, no competition for her. Since coach Whitey must have an operation, Dan manages -to his fury- to be made Ravens coach for one match, and works the boys like a penal company. Jake thinks he'll lose a custody battle against Nikki, so he considers moving to family in Savannah and gets Peytons support. Lucas comes to a decision which worries both Karen and Keith.