A/N This is the prologue. Basically, it shows how Ryan and Marissa's friendship starts. Part one of this tale takes place in the Spring Semester of their senior year in high school. I'll have that up maybe Sunday? Maybe even Saturday. Depends. Please Review. I don't write if you don't review. So if you want me to continue, review, and I'll update. The faster I get reviews, the faster I open a new document and start writing. R/R, and enjoy!

Ryan Atwood hated Newport Beach. His mom moved him and his older brother Trey here six months ago and he still hated it. He missed Fresno and he missed his dad but most of all he missed not being made fun of for where he came from. Or how much money he had. Or how he dressed. Or his boring pencils and crayons.

Everyone from Newport had more money than him. It didn't help that his mom made sure he went to the school with the rich kids, not the public school like the other kids in his neighborhood. He tested into Newport Harbor Elementary because he was gifted in his old school and learned more than other kids his age. And he liked to read, or at least he used to back in Fresno when he wasn't outside. Reading at night used to block out the fights between his mom and dad. But now his dad was gone and he didn't have money for new books and his mom never had the time to take him to the library, even though she let him get his own library card.

He hadn't met one nice person in Newport. Well, except for Seth Cohen, who people hated nearly as much as they hated Ryan. Seth talked a lot and read weird books with lots of pictures and had hair curlier than anyone else's. But he always shared half his brownie with Ryan at lunch, so at least that was good. Ryan's mom didn't have enough money to buy him brownies. He only got a peanut butter sandwich and a box of juice for lunch.

Ryan didn't even have his older brother Trey to talk to at school. Trey didn't like school and already got into a lot of trouble, so they wouldn't let him into Newport Harbor, only to Newport Hills. Even though Trey was nine and Ryan was six, Trey was still really nice to Ryan. But ever since their dad was arrested, Trey didn't like to play with Ryan anymore and stayed in his room a lot.

Sometimes, Ryan felt like he didn't have any friends. Or a brother. Or a dad. Or a mom. He didn't have anyone. Out of everything, that made him saddest.

XXXXX

During recess a couple of weeks before his birthday, Ryan walked around the playground by himself, kicking at the rocks with his hands shoved in his jeans. Every now and then he lifted his gaze to observe all the running and laughing kids around him, trying not to feel sad when they caught his eyes and stopped smiling.

His mom said he would make friends eventually, but it had been six months and only Seth hung out with him, even though they were in different classes. But today Seth was out sick and Ryan had no one to hang around with during recess.

He was standing under a tree when a boy named Luke and his friends came over to Ryan. "Why all alone? Don't have any friends?" Luke taunted, earning a laugh from his friends.

Ryan just stared at Luke. He had seen a lot of things in his life, and he knew how to not show when he was upset. "Seth is sick."

Luke and his friends gave each other looks, laughing. "Seth Cohen is a geek. If you hang out with him, you're a geek too."

Ryan didn't know the exact definition of geek, but he knew it wasn't something good. "Like you're any better," he said to Luke, the anger in him beginning to grow.

Luke glared at Ryan. "I'm a lot better, actually." He took a step closer to Ryan, standing a few inches taller. "At least my dad isn't in jail." Ryan's hands started to ball into fists, his jaw twitching.

"You don't know anything about me," Ryan said.

Luke smirked. "I know you can't even buy a pack of 24 crayons."

Ryan was about to give in to Luke's provocation, but a girl's voice surprised both of them. "Hey Luke!"

Ryan and Luke turned to see a girl with light brown hair and the prettiest eyes Ryan had ever seen. Of course, everything about the girl was pretty, but Ryan would never admit that. "What?" Luke called back, his voice slightly softer.

Marissa smiled cutely in that way girls always did when they wanted something. "Summer and I were talking. We think we should have another game of tag. Want to play?"

Luke looked back at Ryan, then over at Marissa smiling at him. He sighed and nodded, turning away from Ryan. "Okay." He nodded to his friends. "Come on, let's go play tag!"

As Luke jogged over to Marissa, Marissa's eyes found Ryan's and both looked at each other. They sat near each other in class, but they had never even said hello. She nodded in his direction, then turned back to Luke. He wondered what that meant. But of course, he was too shy to ever find out.

XXXXX

After that, Ryan started noticing weird things. Luke didn't mess with him anymore, which was weird because Luke had always messed with him. Since the first day of class, Luke made fun of Ryan's faded tennis shoes and plain t shirts. His friends followed the same drill, and everyone terrorized Ryan. But after that incident on the playground, it stopped.

Ryan also noticed that the girl Marissa looked his way a lot. He had never noticed it before, but now he felt like someone watched him constantly. Or at least more than he was used to. Before, the only reason anyone ever looked to him was because they wanted to make fun of him. But she didn't do that. She just observed him out of the corner of her eyes. He didn't know how he knew this, he just did.

One day while they were completing a math worksheet for class, Ryan noticed he didn't have all the colors needed to complete the paper. After he completed all the math, he was left with the resulting picture to color – a picture that required the colors pink and gray and light blue. Colors he didn't have in his small eight pack of crayons.

Shamefully, he walked to the supplies in the back of the class and borrowed the three colors, his cheeks burning as Luke sniggered from the seat behind Marissa. Keeping his head down, he finished the rest of his paper early and then remained silent after returning the colors. He may have needed the colors for future projects, but he was not a thief, even if he did feel embarrassed.

Ryan's birthday was March 18, and it was the first birthday he would spend without his dad there. His mom never had a lot of money to spend on presents or cake, and what she did have usually went towards the bottles she drank from at night that she hid in the very top cabinet in the kitchen. He didn't expect anything more than maybe a card or a hug for his birthday, and he really didn't expect a cake. He never had cake. His dad used to hit him when he asked for some.

He wasn't expecting much from his birthday, just hoped he could get through the day without getting in trouble or upsetting his mom. The last few months she had started getting really easily upset, and he worried he would make it worse if he brought his birthday up. He just wanted everyone to be happy, even if he wasn't.

He wasn't expecting much from his birthday. Especially not the pack of 48 crayons sitting on his desk with a bow on it. Confused, he looked around but no one was paying attention to him, just chatting amongst each other. He picked up the pack of crayons and saw a small note underneath, folded and decorated with different colored stars.

He opened the note and saw the words, "Now you can have your own. Happy birthday."

At lunch he asked Seth if he had gotten him the crayons for his birthday. Seth gave him a confused look. "It's your birthday?" He handed over his brownie. "Here, you can have the whole thing today. Happy birthday!"

It took Ryan weeks to find out who got him the crayons. But some part of him knew who it was all along. Because every time he opened his mysterious crayons, he felt that same sense that someone was watching him. A girl with pretty eyes and perhaps an even prettier smile.

XXXXX

The next week Ryan finally decided he just didn't feel like sitting around waiting for his mom anymore. Trey was never home, but always off with his new friends he met at school. The kids in the neighborhood didn't really like Ryan because he went to private school instead of public school with them, and his mom had no time to even look his way much less take him anywhere. The only thing Ryan could do about all this was read. But first he needed some books.

He decided he would ride his bike the mile and a half to the public library. He rode two miles to school, anyway, so it wasn't even a big deal. He had even ridden more. Despite his age, he was used to having to either ride his bike or walk everywhere on his own. Neither his mom nor dad ever drove him very many places.

At the library he decided to pick up some books with pretty pictures of buildings. He always liked buildings since his old friend Chuck's mom took him with them to church one day and he saw the huge pointy towers and pretty glass on the building. A lot of times he looked through books and doodled what his own house would look like one day when he was old enough and could buy a big house of his own. It would be better than his run down house back in Fresno, and even better than his run down house here in Newport too.

He picked up some books that said "Gothic Architecture" and "Baroque Architecture." He had never heard of the word Baroque before, and didn't know how to pronounce it either, but he would ask Trey whenever he saw his brother again. Maybe even his mom if she wasn't stumbling around like she always did at night.

The librarian gave him a weird look but let him check out his books anyway, telling him they were due in three weeks. He put the books in his bag and made his way to his bike. He was on his way home when he saw something move in the corner of his vision. He slowed down when he saw a bike thrown on the grown, wondering where the owner was.

He looked around and saw Marissa sitting under a tree, her face streaked with tears. "Is this your bike?" he asked. She merely nodded, not looking up at him. "Why is it on the ground? And why are you over there?"

She still didn't look up, which was weird. She never had a problem looking at him before, not like the other kids at school. She didn't talk to him, but she never made him feel like he was all that different from anyone else. Now she suddenly wouldn't even look at him. "I fell," she finally said quietly.

He looked from the bike to Marissa, not understanding. "Why don't you get back on it?"

She whimpered, which scared him. He didn't know what to do when girls cried. He didn't know what to do when anyone cried, but the only person who ever cried around him was his mom since neither his dad nor brother ever cried. Neither did he, either, because his dad said boys don't cry, especially not Atwood boys. "My arm hurts too much," Marissa finally said quietly, and for the first time he noticed she was cradling it to her body.

Ryan crouched down, observing her arm. It was angled in an odd way, and he knew it must be broken. He had broken his arm before when his dad pushed him too hard and he fell the wrong way. And Trey had broken his leg once when he fell out of a tree. His mom even broke her arm falling down some stairs, though Ryan never knew where the stairs came from, and figured she probably just lied to him. He knew a broken arm when he saw one, and this was definitely broken.

Ryan looked around, wondering what to do. Kids didn't carry around phones. The library was half a mile away, and Marissa's house was also half a mile away, though in another direction. He thought about what to do, and decided he should call for help. He started towards his bike. "I can go try to find someone or a phone or something. I can call to get you help."

He stopped when he heard Marissa's weak voice. "Please don't leave me."

He turned around and saw her finally looking at him, her eyes wide and scared. He couldn't leave her. She looked too scared to be alone. "Okay," he said, moving his and her bike out of the way, hiding them behind some bushes. He returned to her, looking her over. Deciding she was small enough and he was strong enough, he got close to her. "I'm going to carry you home, okay?"

Marissa looked at him. "Are you strong enough?"

He nodded. "I think so. Dad made sure me and my brother Trey were strong. He used to make us carry things, and would make us run and play a lot of sports."

Marissa bit her lip, still unsure. "Do you know where I live?"

He nodded. "Yeah. The white house with the red door, right?"

She gave him a wary look. "How do you know that?"

He shrugged. "I pass it on my way to school every day on my bike."

She looked at her own bike behind the bushes. "What about my bike?"

He shrugged. "I will come back. But you need to go to the doctor so they can put your arm in a cast."

"Does it hurt?" she asked, looking scared.

He shrugged. "It already hurts now, doesn't it?"

She nodded, mulling the idea over. Finally she said, "Okay." He lifted her gently into his arms, telling her to wrap her good arm around his neck just to be safe. Then he walked as quickly as he could to her house, hoping he didn't hurt her along the way. "You're really strong," she said weakly, looking at him with those really pretty eyes of hers that changed colors depending on her mood. He had never noticed that before.

Right now they were grey. "Not as strong as my brother Trey. Trey could life my dad's weights. My dad really liked how strong he was."

"Did he not like how strong you were?" Marissa asked, and Ryan realized this was a good way to distract her.

"Not as much as he liked how strong Trey was. I could carry the bag of big dog food around the track four times, but Trey could do it six times."

Marissa gave him a look and softly said, "You were only six."

He nodded. "My dad said if you weren't strong, people could hurt you."

Marissa remained quiet for a long time, resting her head on his shoulder. It felt weird, holding her. She was light, but even still he was tired by the time they reached her house. He sat her on the steps on her porch and rang her doorbell and knocked a bunch of times. Finally, her dad answered. "Yes?"

Ryan gestured to Marissa. "She fell off her bike and broke her arm. She needs a doctor."

Her dad's eyes widened and he reached into the house, grabbing his keys off a hook. "Julie, come on, we're going to the doctor! Marissa broke her arm!" He reached down and scooped his daughter up, carrying her to the car without a second glance at Ryan.

Marissa's mom came out, her eyes also wide. She didn't even notice Ryan on her porch, just closed and locked the door, running to the car. "Oh my goodness, what happened?"

Ryan watched them drive off, glad Marissa was now okay. Sighing, he walked back to the place where he'd left their bikes, hoping they weren't stolen.

XXXXX

He had left his own backpack under his bike, and for the first time realized Marissa had left a backpack under her bike too. He must have missed it when he was dragging it, too worried about getting Marissa a doctor. He picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder, but a piece of paper fell out of Marissa's partially unzipped bag. He grabbed the paper before it could float away, stuffing it back into her backpack when the writing caught his eye.

He stared at the paper, realizing Marissa had been the one to give him the crayons for his birthday. How she had known his birthday, he couldn't tell. Maybe she looked at the laminated poster in the front of the room with all the months where the teacher wrote down their birthdays. But either way, she had been the only person to recognize it was his birthday without any prompting. Not even Trey wished him a happy birthday this year.

He realized that Marissa had been watching him carefully, but he didn't know why. He was just the relatively new kid from the poor neighborhood. Did she find that interesting? Did she think he was in need of help? Did she pity him? Well, he didn't need her pity and he really didn't need her help. Ryan Atwood needed no one.

He made it back to her house again nearly an hour after she left. He'd gotten a number of odd stares by passerbys as he pushed both bikes and carried both backpacks, and a number of times he had to readjust the straps of the backpacks to make sure they didn't fall, but finally he reached her house again.

He was placing Marissa's bike against her house on her porch when a car drove up. He turned and saw Marissa's dad pulling in. They caught eyes and her dad got out of the car, carefully eying Ryan, probably wondering what he was doing. Ryan gestured towards the bike. "I brought her bike back." He took off the backpack, walking towards her dad. "And her backpack."

Her dad nodded and grabbed the bag from him, but kept staring at Ryan curiously. "Marissa said you found her?"

Ryan nodded. "I was riding home from the library."

"The library?" Jimmy seemed surprised.

Ryan nodded again. "My mom is working and my brother is out with friends. I wanted some new architecture books."

Her dad raised his eyebrows. "Architecture? That's a big word. I don't think Marissa even knows that word."

Ryan shrugged. "I like buildings. I saw the word and asked my dad what it meant."

Her dad hesitated. "Do you miss your dad?" He finally asked.

Ryan nodded, diverting his gaze so Marissa's dad wouldn't see his sadness. "He was my dad. I miss a lot of things about back home." He thought about that, then added, "My old home anyway."

Marissa's dad came up to Ryan and patted his shoulder. "Thank you. For helping Marissa. Not many boys your age would or could carry her half a mile."

Ryan thought about Marissa and her quiet, mysterious ways and quietly said, "Marissa's not many girls." Then, without another word, he walked away.

XXXXX

Ryan rode his bike to Marissa's house the next day. It was a Sunday and no one was home anyway. When he reached the front yard, he saw Marissa's dad walking outside. When her dad saw Ryan, he smiled. "Here to see Marissa?"

Ryan nodded shyly. He just needed to know she was okay. It had bothered him all yesterday not knowing. "Is she okay?"

Her dad nodded. "Yeah. She is okay." He gestured towards the front door. "I'm sure she'd love to see you."

Ryan's eyes widened. He hadn't planned on actually going into the house and hanging out with her. Not only was she a girl, but she was Marissa Cooper. Marissa was the most popular girl in school, even as a first grader. Her dad was about to "hit it big" people kept saying. Whatever that meant. All Ryan knew was they lived in a much nicer and bigger house than his, but people still said soon they would live in one of the houses protected by gates. Ryan couldn't even think of how big those houses were.

Her dad must have noticed his hesitance because he smiled. "She's watching a movie. You just walk in the door and go to the left. You'll see her right away." He shrugged, eyes twinkling. "If you want to."

Marissa's dad got into his car and drove off, but Ryan figured her mom was still home. Most parents seemed to be home more than his mom. Taking in a deep breath, Ryan walked up the porch steps and opened the front door, stepping into Marissa's house. "Marissa?" he called out, closing the door behind him and walking to the left.

He saw the room immediately; it was large and had a big tan leather couch in front of a really big TV. Ryan had never seen a TV that big, but then again, he didn't watch a lot of TV. Marissa turned and saw him, smiling and waving him over with her good hand. "Hey!" she said excitedly when he stood in front of the couch. She gave him a look and gestured to the spot next to her. "Well sit down, silly."

Ryan awkwardly sat down, sitting very straight and rigid. He had never been to someone's house in Newport before. He rarely even did it back in Fresno. "Are you okay?" he asked after a moment.

Marissa nodded. "It hurts but the doctor gave me some medicine." She looked down at her cast, blushing. "Thank you."

He shrugged, not wanting to draw attention to himself. "You just needed help."

"Well, I'm glad you're the one who helped me," she said, then shut her mouth, as if embarrassed she actually said that.

"Why?" he asked, not understanding.

She sighed. "I don't know. I wanted to talk to you ever since you came to Newport, but you always seemed like you wanted to be by yourself. But I still knew that you would be cool to talk to. I wanted to be your friend, but…"

Ryan felt his cheeks and ears burn. "But what?" he asked quietly.

She sighed. "But I didn't know how to talk to you. All the other kids say that you're scary because your dad is in jail." Ryan's fists clenched at his sides. "But I never thought that."

"What did you think then?"

She turned to him, and he turned to her. "That maybe you were just sad, and that's why you're so quiet."

Ryan was surprised at how much one girl – a girl – understood about him. "Why did you give me the crayons?"

She blushed again. "Oh. You know?"

He nodded. "I saw your writing."

She bit her lip. "I wanted you to feel special. Maybe then you wouldn't be so sad all the time."

Ryan sat back in her couch, forgetting about being 'proper' and 'perfect.' Maybe Marissa didn't need that. Maybe Marissa was different than everyone else. "I don't need you to feel sad for me."

She nodded. "I know. I don't feel bad or sad for you. I just want to be your friend."

He thought about that. "We can do that."

She smiled, and he even smiled too – maybe his first smile since coming to Newport. "Have you ever watched The Parent Trap?"

Ryan shook his head. "I've never heard of it."

She opened her eyes in shock. "It's only the best movie ever! We have to watch it! Can you grab it? It's right there…" She pointed to the entertainment unit and Ryan grabbed the movie, popping it in. When he returned to the couch, he didn't hesitate to make himself comfortable. "Maybe when I don't have to wear the sling anymore, you can sign my cast," Marissa suggested, leaning over and resting her head on Ryan's shoulder.

Ryan looked over, but it didn't feel as weird this time. It felt…right. Because he had a friend. And Marissa was right: maybe he didn't have to be sad anymore. "I can draw you a house. I like to draw houses."

Marissa smiled. "That's so cool!"

Ryan blushed a little. No one had ever told him that drawing houses was cool. They just looked at him funny, like the librarian. "Thanks."

That's the moment Ryan and Marissa became best friends. Friends who grew and matured together.

Ask anyone, and they'll tell you their friendship started when Ryan saved Marissa.

It took Ryan years, maybe even too long, to realize that maybe Marissa had in fact saved him first.