A Pile of Roses?
[AN: So, the sequel to Water Is Thicker Than Blood. I think it's pretty important to read that first, but I guess you don't have to. Starting on New Years Eve 2005, right before '06, so just a little after the last fic. This story shall follow them through the fab four through the end of highschool, and maybe some of college, we'll see. Basically, it's about how running away changes their lives/personalities. Suggestions are needed for the plot. Enjoy, R&R!
Summer, Seth, Ryan, and Marissa sat in the Cohen's living room on New Year's Eve. That day, all four of them were residents of the Cohen home. Summer and Marissa both moved to the Cohen home promptly after returning from London, for obvious reasons. They were talking about getting a place of their own, just the four of them, but Sandy and Kirsten, the only parents whose opinions they remotely cared about, still hadn't approved their plans. Even so, they expected it was only a matter of time. They'd explained to Sandy and Kirsten that being together was the only thing keeping them sane. The four friends had gained exposure to something so radically different from Newport as a group, and the aftermath was that their only wish was to be together.
Ryan had always been an outsider and Seth had always been a misfit. These were facts fundamental to each boy's existence. But even Summer and Marissa, who had formally been beauty-queen-lead-debutante-drunk-party-girls who loved to tan were starting to question themselves and their role in Newport society. And that was when you got a true sense of just how much things had changed. Because if Summer and Marissa could no longer comfortably breeze by in Newport, things were messed up. Summer, Seth, Marissa, and Ryan finally had a real idea of just how much they'd isolated themselves from the rest of the world over the past two and a half years. Marissa had gone from Princess of Newport to girl who dated that kid from Chino and hung out with that nerdy guy with the curly hair. Summer had gone from that party girl who hot boxed Luke's car on a regular basis to possibly the most mature member of some "weird" group of friends. Now, even Summer and Marissa wanted to get the hell out of Newport. Nothing was on solid ground anymore. As a result, the topic of the night was...
"College. We must get in." Seth mumbled as he flipped through a Newsweek magazine all about getting into college.
"Oh how right you are Cohen." Summer agreed as she sipped Seth's Mountain Dew and read her People magazine. Well, somethings never change.
"What are everyone's SAT scores again?" Ryan asked as he looked through a huge college book.
"I had a 2300." Summer offered.
"2190." Marissa answered as she nervously chewed a pen. She was still in shock after having read all the course work they had to make up over break.
"Um...2250..." Seth muttered as he focused all his concentration on an article about Stanford.
"Hmm...so we all scored well, that's good." Ryan stated as he shut the book. They were all very, very tired. They'd been cramming non stop for the past week in an attempt to catch up on all the work they'd missed. Everyone was surprised by Summer's sudden smarts, but no one was complaining–she was a big help.
"I think Stanford sounds good as far as a school in California goes." Seth told the group, passing the article he'd been reading around. All nodded in agreement.
"Or Berkeley," Sandy grinned as he entered the living room. He was so proud of the kids; taking charge of their education. Especially Summer and Marissa, he wouldn't have expected it from them. He'd always thought they'd had potential, though.
Seth made a face at his dad. Kirsten called, "Stop bothering them about applying to Berkeley Sandy." Sandy shrugged as he nonchalantly dropped a UC application in each kid's lap. They all rolled their eyes a stifled laughter.
"What's so funny?" Kirsten asked the group as she walked in the living room. She was very dressed up in formal clothes-she and Sandy were going to a Newpsie function for the evening.
"Mr. C here just dropped UC applications on our laps." Summer said through fits of giggles.
Kirsten shook her head. "Next thing you know, he's gonna be inviting people from Berkeley over to the house to ambush us." Seth groaned as he glared at the application.
"Believe me Seth, I've done that and more already." Sandy winked at his son.
Kirsten chose to ignore these comments, Sandy would get a real talking to later for being pushy about his alma mater. "So, are you kids sure you don't want to come?" Kirsten inquired of the four kids. She already knew the answer, and yet she still asked.
"Mom, it's becoming a broken record. We refuse to go to anymore Newpsie functions. Time to focus on college." Seth explained.
"You guys will burn out if you don't have some fun." Kirsten admonished.
"Eh, the only thing burning is time on the clock mother." Seth replied, "Meaning, there is only so much time before when you're supposed to be there, and you know those Newpsies can't do a thing without your leadership."
"I suppose you're right Seth." Kirsten replied, whilst sticking her tongue out at the kids and flouncing out the door.
"So, we'll have to apply for Spring admittance at a lot of these places, or else go into application over-drive." Marissa commented as she flipped through the books.
"So, we need a list." Seth stated.
"Well, I suggest Brown, Stanford, Berkeley, NYU, UCLA, Columbia, and Cornell." Summer offered.
"Sounds good. So, we need to get cracking though." Said Ryan.
"Two things, first, Ryan said 'get cracking,' he's now reached a new...something level, I know not what. Also, I want to apply to RISD for art stuff." Seth shared with the group. After getting over the original idiocy of Seth's first comment, the group contemplated the RISD choice.
"Ok, well, that's like really close to Brown, so...yeah..." Summer stated.
"You guys, we made up all our course work, and we've already done a couple of these places essays. I think we're even ahead in some classes from the constant cramming. Maybe Kirsten's right about us lightening up a little." Marissa grinned.
"Sounds ok, but we have got to start working on our Brown apps tomorrow." Summer mumbled.
Seth grabbed Summer's tense shoulders and lightly rubbed them. "Come on Sum, it's going to be fine, we'll get out of here, it'll be fine." Seth muttered in her ear.
Summer turned around and smiled at Seth appreciatively. "Thanks Cohen. You are a good boyfriend." Summer declared as she kissed Seth lingeringly on his cheek.
"Oh, look, you can see the fire works at the beach from here!" Marissa squealed as she dragged Ryan up from where he was sitting on the floor, surrounded by heavy text books.
The four friends got up and looked at the beautiful display. They walked outside to the pool and at 10 seconds to midnight they prepared to jump in, hand in hand, the boys wearing swim clothes and the girls wearing bikinis they'd had on underneath their clothes.
The couples kissed and then they proceeded to play in the pool with the various inflatable pool toys and chairs. It was girls vs. boys, but the rest of the year would be more like the four of them against the world.
"You're going down Cowood!" Summer yelled as she threw a beach ball in Seth and Ryan's general direction.
"Cowood?" Seth spat in mock disgust while running a hand through his curls, which had recently been allowed to grow out and be, well, curly again.
"You got a problem with that Sethala?" Marissa smirked, and Ryan laughed. Everything seemed 10x funnier to him when Marissa said it.
"Yeah I do Marissa. But I know that actions speak louder than words." Seth retorted as he threw a water noodle smack at Marissa's head.
"Be like, a gentlemen?" Summer suggested to Seth in disgust. Seth grinned, remembering those exact words.
"Chivalry's dead, sugar." Seth sweetly responded while he and Ryan made a joint effort, well, ok, so Ryan threw a particularly weighty beach ball at the girls, and they shrieked, to the boys' amusement. After a good twenty minutes of the fun, the four friends proceeded to float around the pool on their backs.
"If this is as good as it gets for a while..." Ryan trailed off, mirroring what he'd said the day they'd run away.
"Mmm..." Marissa murmured as she stared up at the sky, seemingly in deep thought.
"See, good things happen when we're all together. Bad things happen when we're apart." Seth observed, obviously siting the fact that Marissa and Ryan had been separated from himself and Summer during the shooting, but that when they were together, things seemed to work out. No one had to respond, it was a mutual-agreement type of thing.
Wordlessly, everyone rose out of the pool and walked into the pool house, dripping. Seth picked up towels and handed them to everyone, wrapping two around Summer and himself. Ryan did the same with Marissa. When they had dried off, the four friends changed into bed clothes. The girls wore purple bed socks. Seth and Summer slept on an inflatable mattress on the floor that they'd brought in there, and Ryan and Marissa slept on the bed. They alternated nights between the pool-house, Seth's room, and the living room. Summer and Marissa were used to waking up in the middle of the night to talk about girl stuff, Ryan and Seth had a routine of trying to interpret Marissa and Summer's "crazy" moods, and the couples sometimes flirted in the middle of the night these days. The best was when the four of them woke up and listened to music or just chatted. As long as they were quiet, Sandy and Kirsten didn't mind. However, Dr. Roberts was becoming increasingly worried by his daughter's lack of face-time at the house, and Julie was looking into legal-action to force Marissa to live at home. Meanwhile, the community was in up-roar about the kids running away.
So, yes, storms were definitely on the horizon. 2006 was definitely going to be a hard year. In the spirit of seeing the glass half-full, at least it would be a year to remember.