Looking back, Ryan thought he should have realized that things were going too well. He may live with the Cohens, but he was still an Atwood and that Atwood luck was still his. Since he had returned from his summer in Chino things had been going really well for him in Newport. Sure, Sandy and Kirsten were stressed out about Caleb's arrest and the appointment of Julie Cooper as the CEO of the Newport Group but Ryan was surprisingly not causing any additional stress for them. It was a strange contrast to last year when it seemed like every week he was involved in some bad situation or fight. He was beginning to feel like he belonged in Newport with the Cohens.

Last summer when he had been arrested for stealing that car with Trey, he was sure he was headed down the same path as his brother and father. As an Atwood, sooner or later he was going to end up in prison, and he thought it might as well be sooner. He was lucky that Sandy had been appointed his attorney, otherwise he would probably be in jail, and ever since last Thanksgiving when Trey asked him to jeopardize everything to help by fencing that stolen car, he had given up on his family. He had no idea where his mom was and refused to visit Trey in jail. While he was in Chino with Theresa, she would often visit her brother Arturo in jail, and he felt like shit for not caring about his brother the way Theresa cared about hers. But he knew that letting Trey back into his life, especially when Ryan was staring down the bleak future of being a high school dropout, could only result in disaster. While he was in Chino, he tried to avoid his old friends and the old ways, but it had been hard. He was glad to be back in Newport and away from the temptations of Chino.

So far the year was going great. His relationship with Marissa was strained, but he thought they were making progress on being friends and he was okay with that. He spent a lot of time listening to Seth talk about Summer and he was glad that he didn't have that type of all consuming relationship to worry about this year. After the whole Marissa drama last year with the overdosing, the Oliver thing, and the Theresa situation, only to come back and have her lying to him about the seeing the yard guy, he was glad to not be dating her. School was good, but hard. He was up for the challenge though, and was really enjoying Physics, due in part to his lab partner Lindsay. As much as he loved Seth, it was nice to hang out with someone who didn't spend a majority of their time obsessing over Summer. Plus, Lindsay came from a place like his own, which was kind of refreshing and she seemed drama free, which was a welcome change. Yeah, things were good, which obviously meant that trouble was around the corner; Ryan just wished he had seen it coming.

The Cohens were sitting around the table having dinner, Italian take-out, when the doorbell rang. Kirsten let out an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes at Sandy. "I'm sure that's the press, Julie had another awful client meeting today and we lost yet another client...at this rate in another month there won't be a Company for her to be the CEO of." Kirsten ranted.

Sandy leaned over and placed his hand on top of hers. "Not at the table, we agreed to not talk about Caleb's case or work while we were eating, remember? Plus Julie Cooper Nichol can't lose every client in a month, these a people who are used to doing business with an uniformed liar, they've been clients of your dad's for years." He smirked.

"I'll get it. It's probably Summer and Zach." Seth said, standing.

"Why would Summer be coming over with her new boyfriend?" Kirsten asked. Ryan shot Sandy a sideways glance, knowing that Kirsten hadn't been home enough lately to realize that Zach was Seth Version 2.0.

"Oh he wants to see how I bag and board my issues and my filing system for new comic books" Seth told her. "Summer told him I have a great system and he wanted to check it out."

Ryan gave a small chuckle as Sandy said "Wow, you sound really proud."

"I'll take what I can get with Summer right now, and if it means my comic book collection is better than Zach's then it's Seth 1, Zach 0".

"Yeah, except really I think Zach should get a point for having not sailed away from Summer leaving only a note." Ryan said.

Sandy and Kirsten laughed, as Sandy reached over and ruffled Ryan's hair.

"He hasn't sailed away from her yet and whose side are you on, anyway?" Seth muttered as he headed towards the door.

Seth opened the door and was surprised to see a disheveled looking man about the age of his dad standing there. "Um, hi." Seth said clearly confused.

"Ryan?" the man asked, returning Seth's confused look.

"Uh. No." Seth noticed that the man looked a little like Ryan around the eyes. He had a bad feeling about this. "Hang on" he instructed the man standing at the doorway, as he turned his head and called over his shoulder "Dad - come here quick!"

Sandy pushed himself back from the table and patted Kirsten's shoulder. "I'll handle this." He told her assuming that it was the press. He thought rather bitterly that Caleb had certainly made a mess of things for them; he couldn't even enjoy a nice dinner with his family.

"What's up, Seth?" Sandy asked as he entered the foyer, glancing curiously at the man standing at the door. He was shocked at how much the man resembled Ryan, especially around the eyes. There was no doubt who this man was, he thought with a sudden sinking feeling.

"Go back to the table Seth, and don't mention this to your mother." Sandy instructed giving Seth a look that he hoped conveyed not to mention it to Ryan either. Seth started to interrupt, but Sandy shushed him as he stepped outside and pulled the door closed behind him.