The O.C. and its characters are the property of Fox Broadcasting Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended. The story is not authorized by the copyright holder, and is totally non profit. The original characters, situations and storylines are the property of the authors. All other characters not from the original series are the intellectual property of the author of this story. This story is not to be archived elsewhere without the permission of the author.

CHAPTER 1:

Ashley nervously made her way to the other end of the hallway. It seemed endless yet it was only seconds away. She twiddled the ends of her long hair as she started to walk even slower. 'I can't do this', she thought again. She saw the door coming closer and she made a radical decision. 'I am not gonna do this.'

She abruptly turned around and bumped into a guy that stood right behind her. Her books and other belongings fell all over the floor, but the stuff from the dark haired guy was still in his hands. Yet she began to make a zillion apologies as she bend down to pick up her belongings. She didn't dare to look up knowing her cheeks were all red of shame. She quickly made a pile of her books and put the pencils on top of it. Searching for her notebook she suddenly saw it waving in front of her eyes.

"Thanks", she mumbled as she took it from the hand that held it. She was still not looking up at the person who belonged to that hand and she was glad for her long hair that was hanging in front of her eyes now. She placed the notebook on the pile and waited for the person to leave her alone. When she saw the sneakers making their way away from her she finally stood up straight and began to make her way to the place she just came from: the exit.

"Don't you need to go to class?", she suddenly heard behind her.

Ashley hesitated for a moment but walked further nevertheless. If she would ignore the voice she wouldn't have to explain herself.

"Hey wait up", the guy suddenly said and before she knew it she felt a hand gently placed on her shoulder.

She froze and stared to the exit, her way out. Her only chance to prevent a total disaster from happening again. Suddenly her view wasn't on the door anymore but on a red t-shirt with a logo of some kind of musical band on it. She slowly looked up and looked in the eyes of the guy she knocked over seconds ago.

"I am really sorry", she said quietly thinking he was mad at her for being so clumsy earlier.

"Ah forget it", he answered as a smile crossed his face. "I now know to open my eyes while walking, but that is so damn hard at eight in the morning you know."

Ashley stared at him not knowing what to answer. 'Is he making fun of me?', she wondered 'Or does he actually tries to be nice?' Ashley shook her head at that last thought and tried to go alongside the guy. But he wasn't so eager to let her go.

"So I saw you were making your way to science", he went on. "What a coincidence me too. So maybe we can go in together? Won't be so bad we are late then", he winked.

Ashley shrugged. Wanting to say she wasn't going in there, no matter what, but the words were stuck in her throat.

"Yeah I know you don't wanna go", he chattered on as the girl kept quiet. "Who wants to anyway?", he asked rhetorically as he threw his hands in the air. "But you don't wanna skip class on you first day do you? I mean I assume it's your first day, never saw you before", he ended. Still not getting a response from the girl he wondered what to do now. He wasn't good with girl, not at all. All he could do is chatter as much and as fast as he could. About what that didn't matter. "O sorry gotta be a gentlemen here", he said after an awkward silence as he held out his hand. "I am Seth and you are?"

"Ashley", she answered inarticulacy.

"Well nice to meet you Ashley", Seth said as he took her hand and dragged her to the classroom.

Ashley silently protested but her lack of strength on this one made that she suddenly stood in front of the class. Seeing a little over twenty pair eyes staring at her she blushed again and let her head hang down a bit, trying to avoid the looks. She bit on the inside of her cheeks as she thought what all of them wouldn't be thinking of her.

Realizing Ashley wasn't going to say anything Seth made the first move. "This is Ashley", he said pointing towards her and nodding to the teacher. "She's new you know, you'd better help her out a bit", he quickly added as he sat down at an empty seat hoping the teacher would now forget about him being late.

"I know that mister Cohen", Londley answered. And that's the third time your late, I am very disappointed in you." She turned to Ashley and smiled to the girl who was obviously not enjoying the position she was in right now. "Go have a seat girl, we talk in private after class."

Ashley glanced the teacher a thankful smile. For some reason she found it less hard to look at her then at kids her own age. Scanning the room she saw only one seat was left. Very central on the front row and next to guy that dragged her into this class and focussed the attention on her.

Silently sighing she sat down next to him, putting the huge pile of books on one end of her work desk. Seeing the others had a lot less books, some even none, she started to feel insecure again. 'Would they notice?', she thought. Thinking everyone was staring at her. She knew they did notice. She tried to make herself invisible but she could feel the staring eyes in her back.

"Hey can I look with you", the dark haired guy suddenly said. Ashley practically jumped up even though Seth was whispering. Not daring to say 'no' she slowly nodded and the guy moved his table a bit so he could look in her books.

"Lot of books you got there", he joked and Ashley blushed. 'I knew', it she thought.

"Good for me because I forgot all of them", he said smiling. Knowing she was new and seemed terrified of everything that was happening Seth thought it might be best to look out for her. The first day anyway. "So if we have any more classes together I think I am gonna be your partner", he added winking.

"Great", Ashley mumbled as she sank lower into her chair and stared and the black board.