I was with my brother Trey. Somehow that didn't make feel safer. My name is Samantha Atwood. I've spent all of my life in the town of Chino, California. Think of it as a surprising white version of the projects.

"I'm your brother. I've gotta take care of you." Trey told me. He was basically teaching me how to steal a car. I knew that I shouldn't be here, but the alternative was being at home with my mom and her boyfriend, so I chose the lesser of two evils. He pried open the car door unlocked it so I could get inside before he hotwired it and began to drive. "See it was easy."

We didn't make it very far before the police showed up. In a short period of time, we were both handcuffed. Suddenly my mom's boyfriend didn't look so bad.

After a few hours, I was told to go meet with my attorney that I apparently had. The girls in the cell were pretty ruthless. I imagine he was going to tell me about my court date. Well it was my first offense. I walked out to see a man with bushy eyebrows in a suit and took a seat.

"Samantha Atwood, I'm Sandy Cohen, you're court appointed attorney." He introduced.

"Where's my brother?" I asked him. Well I knew he was probably with the men, but I was hoping for more insight.

"Trey's over 18, got a few charges, and they found and a gun some pot on him. He's looking at 3-5" Sandy replied. "I'm more interested in you. I can get brought down to a misdemeanor, say you were coerced and get you probation. I know life has given you a bad hand, but I've seen you test scores, you could be a good student if you actually went to school."

"Great, an inspirational speaker…" I muttered.

"You know if you ever need a hand, you can give me a call." He said as he gave me a card and we went outside. It was at that point that my mother drove up, very erratically I might add.

"Damn it, Sam, I've got a family of crooks." She cursed. She was obviously thrilled to see me. I also don't like being called Sam.

"Mrs. Atwood, I'm Sandy Cohen, Samantha's attorney." The lawyer remarked as he held his hand out. She didn't take it.

"You should have let her rot in there like her father and her brother." My mom told him. "Come on, Sam. Let's go."

I got in my mom's car with a frown. I was not going to like it when I got home.

When we got there, her loser boyfriend was there. All he did was sit around the house and drink beer. This is why I hated being at home. I was probably going to be grounded now.

"They let her out?" He asked.

"Are you surprised?" I spat. Home sucked. The place was practically falling apart and neither of them really worked. I probably needed to get a job, if anyone would hire me now that I've been arrested. Maybe I could because I don't know if anyone would know that.

"Don't talk to me like that, you bitch." He yelled. He walked over and pushed me backwards. I grabbed one of his beer bottles and hit him the head with it.

"Get out of my house!" My mom ordered. "Get out or I'm calling the cops."

I got on my bike and headed to a payphone. I didn't have a cellphone. I put the money in and called the only person that I could call.

"Hello?" He answered.

"I need your help." I told him. "My mom kicked me out."

"Where are you?" He asked. I told him my location and in a short amount of time, he was there. I decided to lead my bike, even though I didn't know how long this would be. I couldn't help but notice that his car looked pretty nice. He apparently was going to let me stay with him for a few days.

It was a long drive. He apparently lived somewhere called Newport Beach. It was about half an hour before either of us decided to speak.

"This is a nice car." I commented. "I didn't know your kind of lawyer made money."

"We don't, but my wife does." He said, raising an eyebrow. It looked a little creepy. We ended up in a gated community and some guy let us in. He pulled up to his driveway and I prepared to go in. "Why don't you wait in the car."

He pulled the keys out and looked at me wearily.

"I'm not stupid enough to do that." I responded before he put them back in. I probably wasn't even gonna stay in the car.

I did decide to get out and walk around. If I was a smoker, this would be a good time to have a cigarette, but I'm not. I noticed a girl with sandy-blonde hair, darker than mine wearing a fancy camisole and jeans. She was much taller than me. I never said before, but I am short. I'm only 5'2".

"Who are you?" She asked.

"I'm whoever you want me to be." I replied. I like girls, okay.

"Okay…" She said uneasily as she walked over to me. "What are you doing here, seriously?"

"Seriously, I stole a car, actually my brother did. Since he had a gun and drugs on him, he's in jail and I'm free. My mom then threw me out She was pissed off and drunk, so I called Mr. Cohen and he took me in." I explained. He stared at me, wondering if I was actually telling the truth. Her smile seemed to indicate that she thought I was lying.

"So you're the cousin from Boston, right?" She asked me. I suppose that was a better thing to go telling people. I can't believe a lie is more believable than the truth.

"Sure." I replied.

"Hi, Marissa." Sandy interrupted us. I hadn't noticed him. Marissa was a beautiful name.

"Hey, Mr. Cohen." Marissa greeted him. "I was just meeting your niece."

"My niece?" He asked in confusion. I glared at him, telling him to play along. "Oh, my favorite nephew, Samantha, all the way from Seattle."

"Boston." I corrected him.

"Right." Sandy agreed. "So, we're all really excited for your fashion show fundraiser tomorrow night."

What's a fashion show fundraiser? Okay, it is probably a fashion show that is meant to raise funds, but for what I wondered.

"Really?" Marissa asked in what seemed like a mixture of glee and surprise. "You are?"

"No." Sandy relented. Marissa just giggled. Suddenly a girl in a jeep pulled up. She had blonde hair, similar to mine, but she was dressed more like Marissa.

"Come on, Marissa." She replied.

"You should come by and check it out, if you don't have any plans. See ya." Marissa invited before she got in the vehicle. I saw the two of them kiss before they left.

"Let's go inside." Sandy invited.

He took me to this little house out by the pool. There were some maids and a blonde woman that I assumed was his wife.

"So this is where you'll be staying." He stated. That was kind of obvious. "And this is the queen of the house, my wife Kirsten."

"Hello, Samantha, welcome to our home." She greeted me with a smile that I could tell was fake. She then gestured to the Hispanic maid. "If you need anything, Rosie here can help you."

"Thank you." I told them.

"We'll see you in the morning." Sandy declared. "Make yourself comfortable."

Once they were gone, I shrugged off my jacket, before taking my pants off.

In the morning, I stepped out, in the same state of dress. The sun was bright and the scenery was beautiful. I decided to put my pants back on before I headed into the house to see what I could do for food. The first thing that I noticed was a guy my age who looked like he had just got out of bed himself on the floor with a controller. I guess he was their son.

"Hey." He greeted me. I said to him and there were some awkward glances exchanged before he spoke up. "Do you wanna play?"

I grabbed some cereal and I found out that he was really good at the game.

"Where's your head? You can fight without a head." He gabbed. It seemed like he talked a lot. "So do you want to play Grand Theft Auto, it's pretty cool, you get to steal cars…not that that's cool or anything."

"I see you two have met." Sandy declared as he walked into the room with groceries. "Seth, what are you doing inside on this beautiful day? You should be showing Samantha around."

"Because there's obviously so much to do around here." Seth quipped. It looked like there probably was a good deal of things you could do. "What do you want to do?"

"You could show me what you do around here." I suggested.

Soon we were on a sailboat. I hoped he knew how to get us back to the shore.

"You know I don't really talk to girls, that much." Seth told me. I wouldn't have guessed that. "Next July, I want to sail to Tahiti. I can do it in 44 days."

"That sounds cool." I commented. It must be nice to be rich. "Are you sure that you won't get lonely, though?"

"I'll have Summer with me." He declared. That sounded a little delusional. "She's the girl that I named my boat after.

"Is she your girlfriend?" I asked.

"I've never talked to her." He replied. I guess that was a no. We managed to make it back to shore okay.

"Hey, you two, I thought we'd head over to the fashion show at 7:00." Sandy remarked. It seems like he's everywhere.

"Okay, have fun." Seth told his father.

"Come on it's a whole new school year, Seth." Sandy urged. I wonder how he planned on getting Summer to go with him.

"It's the same kids, Dad." Seth countered. "Why do they need a fashion show? Every day's a fashion show for these people."

"Well, Samantha has to go. Marissa invited her." Sandy declared. Yay, even though I was looking forward to seeing her.

"Marissa invited you?" He asked. I just shrugged. "I've lived next door to Marissa since forever and she's never invited me to a birthday party. Her dad even almost married my mom."

"They didn't almost get married." Sandy argued.

"Maybe Summer will be there." I suggested. I had no idea if she would or not.

"She is Marissa's best friend." Seth stated. That was a lucky coincidence. "7:00?"

"7:00." Sandy agreed with him.

Later that day, I was getting ready. Kirsten had loaned me one of her dresses, tt was red and fairly modest, and a pair of black heels. I was having trouble with the zipper, probably because I don't wear dresses that much. Sandy came in and zipped me up.

"You look beautiful." He told me in a complimentary but not lecherous sort of way. "So what do you think of Seth? He's very interesting if you get to know him."

"Seth's cool." I replied. I was pretty sure that he wasn't cool. "I don't think he talks to girls much though."

"So, I bet this beats a jumpsuit." He quipped. Well now I know where Seth gets it from.

We headed to the location and I tried to do my best not to trip. I don't wear heels. They weren't too high at least. A flamboyant waiter offered me some appetizers that I'm not sure even count as food.

"Welcome to the dark side." Seth whispered into my ear. I guess I would have to mingle a little. People seemed to buy the Boston thing. I stumbled in my heels as I tried to get away from them.

"You don't wear heels much, do you?" A girl with brown hair asked me. If I had to guess, I'd say that she was 14 or 15.

"Is it that obvious?" I questioned.

"Yes." She replied. "I'm Kaitlin."

"Samantha." I responded.

"So Boston how about that Bill Buckner?" She questioned me.

"He's great." I replied.

"You're not from Boston because everyone there hates him." Kaitlin responded. "So what are you doing here?"

"A girl named Marissa invited me." I explained. "I'm staying with the Cohens."

"So you've met my sister." She replied. I guess they did look kind of alike. I noticed her across the pool with another girl who I might have been Summer. "Well, I'll see you around, Sammie."

Suddenly, Marissa ran over to me.

"Can I have a big favor from you?" She asked as she grabbed my arm.

"Umm…" I replied.

"One of the girls have come down with a stomach bug or is just bulimic, but we need someone else. Please, please, please."

So now I was part of the show. I was a runway model. I wouldn't have believed this yesterday. Couldn't they have chosen anyone else? I only hoped that I wouldn't make a fool of myself. Later, Marissa was helping me with my makeup in the bathroom.

"Look what I stole." The girl who I thought was Summer declared. She was holding two champagne glasses.

"Look what I stole." Marissa responded as she produced a bottle of vodka. "Sum, this is Samantha from Boston."

I had a feeling that getting drunk would be a bad idea, but I took the glass anyway. I do have to say being backstage with a lot of half-dressed girls was cool though.

I was just glad that it was over when it was over. I was proud that I didn't fall. I had heard a lot of people whispering wondering who I was. I was back in my original dress and preparing to leave.

"Hey, where are you going?" Summer asked me. "My friend, Holly, well her parents are letting use her beach house as a gift for all our hard work for charity and you should definitely come."

I'm not sure how wearing a dress counts as charity work. If I had received community service, I wonder if this would have counted. I went and grabbed Seth.

"We should go to that party." I suggested. He needed to be more proactive if he wanted to get Summer to notice him, even though I think she was flirting with me.

"It's not really my scene." He responded.

"Summer invited me." I told him.

"How do you keep getting invited to stuff?" He questioned. I think involved my boobs. We went and got into this truck driven by this guy.

I went inside of the house and I saw drugs on the table and a guy with his hands under a girl's shirt. This was crazier than a Chino party. Also, everyone seemed to be wearing bikinis.

"This is the dark side." I told Seth with a grin. One thing that I noticed was the guy who drove us there was talking to Marissa's girlfriend. Actually, he had his hand on her ass. That was useful info that I might be able to use later.

I walked around the party some more before I decided that I should get a drink. It was at that point, that Kaitlin walked over to me and stole my drink from me. I didn't expect to see her here.

"So what do you think of Newport?" She asked me

"I couldn't probably get in less trouble where I'm from." I responded.

"Where is that?" She pried.

"Kaitlin, you shouldn't be here." Marissa came over.

"I'm only a year younger than you." Kaitlin argued. I don't think I wanted to get into this family drama. I decided to walk away. I went outside and then Summer walked up to me. She was wearing a bikini top and miniskirt.

"Look who I found." She slurred as she stumbled over to me with a hand on my chest. Okay, Newport girls are forward. "Oops, I'm wasted. So what's your name?"

"Sam, we should..." Seth started, before noticing the two of us together. I needed to tell him not to call me that. "What are you doing? I named my boat after her."

"It's not what you think?" I declared after wriggling free of her.

"Why don't you just go back to Chino, Dyke?" Seth replied. Well, he was upset, so I was going to let that one go. "There's probably a car that you could steal there."

"Chino, ew." Summer replied. I had been outed in more ways than one. Though, right now, I just wanted to apologize to Seth, even though I didn't actually do anything. I saw a bunch of guys were pushing him around. They took a few swings at him.

"Put him down!" I ordered, despite the fact that they had no reason to listen to me.

"Put him down." Marissa's girlfriend declared and the guys listened. "I want both of you to leave my house now."

So this was Holly.

"Are you Marissa's girlfriend?" I asked her.

"Yeah, why?" Holly responded.

"Does she know that you've been with this guy all night?" I questioned. The guy looked pissed.

"No, let me, Luke." Holly replied. She then kicked me to the ground hard. It was very painful. "Welcome to the O.C., Bitch. This is how we do it in Orange County."

I began to limp back, with Seth. Kaitlin ended up joining us. She ended up giving us a ride, even though I was pretty sure that she wasn't old enough to drive.

"So, Chino, huh?" She responded. "I think you need to work on your fighting."

"Thanks for the help." I told her as I went back to the pool house. I think Kaitlin had to return the vehicular before anyone noticed that it was gone.

"So, you had my back even after I was such a dick to you." Seth stated.

"Summer was throwing herself at me." I explained. "I wasn't interested. I'm sorry."

"Well, that wasn't how I planned to talk to her, but at least I'm on her radar." He responded. "Should I tell her about Tahiti?"

"You should probably make sure that she likes guys first." I remarked.

"So I need to take this dress off, so I would appreciate if it you looked away or fell asleep or something." I told him. He ended up falling asleep. Before I could start to undress, I heard a sound of a car pulling up next door and I don't think it was Kaitlin. It wasn't. It was Summer and some girl leaving a passed out Marissa on her driveway. I don't think either of them should be driving and they just left her there. What great friends she has. I couldn't just leave her there. So I basically had two options. I could wait until Kaitlin returned or I could go help her. I don't know how long that would be. I went down just as Kaitlin was arrived back in a cab.

"What happened?" She asked as she looked over her sister.

"Apparently they couldn't find her keys and left her here." I explained.

"Well my parents will freak if I bring her in like this." Kaitlin responded. "I know: we can put her in the pool house with you. Grab her legs."

We carried Marissa up to the pool house together and laid her down on the bed.

"You know for what it's worth, I hope you stick around." Kaitlin told me. "You're a lot more interesting than some of the people around that live here."

I decided not to use the bed, so she wouldn't wake up and ask why were in bed together.

She was gone when I woke up. Kirsten then came in all kinds of upset. I think I would have to work fast if I wasn't going to get kicked out. Seth didn't help by basically saying that I was a terribly influence on him.

"Okay, so maybe going to the party was a mistake." I declared. "And I'm really sorry. I broke your trust, but I don't have anywhere else to go. My mom doesn't care. I was only with my brother because I didn't want to be around her or her boyfriend that likes to hit me for fun, but as soon as I fight back I get thrown out."

I was basically in tears. My life really sucked. Half of it was acting, but having no one who cared about who wasn't in jail was a really depressing thing. I guess it worked because she gave me a hug.

"I'm probably making a horrible decision here, but you can stay here as long as you want." Kirsten told me. "We'll have to sort some things out, but you need someone who cares about you."

So I don't know why I wrote this. It's probably not going to get any reviews. This story is a combination of a few different ideas that I had. I actually posted a story like this awhile ago which had Seth as a girl. This one has Kaitlin only a year younger than Marissa so she's more involved. Anyway, Sammie is played by Britt Robertson. So is she about to find herself in the middle of a Cooper love triangle? Also will she be as badass as Ryan? Please don't forget to review.