Chapter 1
Ryan lay on the floor with his hands stretched above his head. In his hands, he held Sophie who was giggling wildly at her brothers antics. The doorbell rang and Sandy called down the hall "Ryan can you get that."
Ryan groaned outwardly, but placed Sophie on his hip and walked to the door. He threw the door open with annoyance present on his face, as he assumed it was Seth, too lazy to use his key. When he the door opened, the annoyance melted from his face and was replaced by utter shock. "Pr…Pr…Professor Lawson?" he bumbled.
"Ryan?" the equally confused professor questioned back "I'm sorry I must be at the wrong house, I'm looking for Sandy Cohen."
It suddenly dawned on Ryan; Sandy must have invited his professor over. He thought that Sandy had said that they had become quite good friends. "No" he replied "you're at the right house, Sandy Cohen is my dad."
The Professor Lawson looked bemused as he fit the pieces together in his head. About that time Sandy decided to make his entrance. He stopped short when he noticed the shocked looks on their faces. Hesitantly he moved forward to grasp the Professor's hand, saying "Ed, glad you could make it."
Snapped out of his thoughts by Sandy, he replied "Sandy, good to see you, so this is the Ryan you are always speaking of so proudly, I guess I should have realized he sat in my class every Tuesday and Thursday."
"Oh," Sandy stated flatly "I thought you knew."
"No, I didn't realize that Sandy Cohen and Ryan Atwood-Cohen had any connection" he replied. "So Ryan, is this your child, I didn't know you had a daughter."
"I don't" Ryan mumbled "She's my sister." Ryan could already tell this was going to be a long night.
He trudged behind Sandy and Professor Lawson to the living room. Sandy chattered excitedly about Sophie as they went. Another knock at the door was a welcome relief for Ryan as he hastened from the room. Throwing the door open he scrunched his face into a look of annoyance. "Seriously Seth, you have a key" he just about screamed.
"Yes, but I have already placed that key in my pocket and retrieving said key from my pocket would be counter-productive," Seth quipped.
Seth led the way to the living room, listening to Ryan muttering in his wake. "Father, I see we have guests," Seth said upon stepping into the living room.
Sandy introduced him to Professor Lawson and Seth bobbed his head in an understanding manner before glancing over at Ryan. "So, dad is friends with your Psych professor, and has invited him to dinner," he whispered to Ryan.
Ryan groaned and mumbled something that sounded something like a string of obscenities causing Seth to burst out in a laughing fit. "Boys, is something wrong?" Sandy questioned.
"We're going to go see if mom needs help," Ryan replied, hastily grabbing Seth's arm and pulling him to the kitchen.