Gemina Soror

Disclaimer: I do not own The O.C. that is Josh Schwartz. Anything and you recognize from the show is his work and not mine.

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Author note: I'm going to combine the events of "The Model Home" and "The Gamble" in this chapter. Let me know if you notice any glaring mistake or event that is missing.

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Chapter Two:

19th August 2003

Well, that was fun while it lasted. The morning after the Fashion Show, I woke up from sleeping in the Pool House to Seth and Ryan coming in very early in the morning. Both looked like they had been in a fight, Seth looking like he lost really badly. I'm not sure if I should have been surprised that Ryan found a fight, but I am surprised that it was with Marissa's boyfriend Luke, who I know knew was: a- very prone to jealously and b- in need of anger management. Something else that shouldn't have surprised me was the fact that Ryan had seen Marissa's friends drop her off at home by carrying her unconscious body to her front door and leaving her there. I know that this is Newport but, come on! What if some pervert had come by and seen her passed out? Something very bad could have happened and it would have been Summer and Holly (I matched the description Ryan gave me to the girls I met the night before) to blame. Thankfully, my twin is a good guy and went down and carried her back to the Cohens' pool house to sleep off whatever she had taken. I woke up a few hours later to Ryan sleeping on the floor and Seth passed out in a chair by the window, both boys looking like they had gone ten rounds with a heavy-weight boxer.

Kirsten is what woke me, her having come into the Pool House looking for Seth and yelling "Thank God!" when she saw him. She looked really angry, which I can't really blame her for. She pulled Seth out of the pool house by his arm, but not before giving Ryan a very dirt look. I could tell then that she blamed Ryan for Seth's injuries. Ryan just gave me a look and I shook my head. I know Ryan would never intentionally hurt anyone; it's not the way he operates. But Kristen is Seth's mother and as far as I can tell Seth has never been the 'popular' type. He seems more introverted socially than he seems and as far as the reactions he got from the other kids our age at the Fashion Show besides Mason, he seems like he doesn't have many friends in Newport.

A few hours later, Sandy was driving Ryan and I back to Chino. Kirsten had put her foot down and said that we couldn't stay there anymore and, well, Sandy shouldn't have to fight with her over us. Ryan and I were ready for it anyway. We could tell that she wasn't comfortable with us and we didn't want to add to the tension. We said goodbye to Seth (after having to wake him back up from his hangover-induced coma) and gave him our cell-phone numbers so he could call us if he wanted (and I asked him to give Mason mine too if he could) and headed out. We passed Marissa standing in her driveway like she had the night we first met her and she just watched as Sandy's car drove away. The worst part of the whole thing is what we came home to when we got to Chino. The house was completely empty. Ryan ran through the house to check the bedrooms while I was stuck standing in the open front door in shock. Sandy must have seen me because he came up behind me and saw what we had. He just looked at us, Ryan having come up next to the kitchen counter where Dawn had left a 'note', and said, "Let's get out of here".

Sandy took us back to his house, where Kirsten was furious. But she was different when Sandy explained everything. We had nowhere to go now. Dawn didn't exactly leave a forwarding address for us and put dad and Trey are in Prison. Sandy, being Ryan's lawyer was able to get temporary custody of the two of us and we were able to stay with them until Child Services opened on that Monday. Not that I was okay with that. I may be only sixteen (we turn seventeen in November) but I know that foster care is not what Ryan and I need right now.

We spent dinner Sunday night laughing over Kirsten's apparent inability to cook. Sandy and Seth spent a while convincing Ryan and I that she had next to no culinary ability and that she should not be allowed in the kitchen, something that Kirsten took laughing offence to. Over all, we had a pretty nice "last supper" as Seth termed it. After, Ryan and I both signed papers that made Sandy out legal guardian until he could take us to Child Services in the morning, and making us, in Ryan's words, "property of the government". Seth was upset about the fact that, despite the extra room their house had, his parents were "shipping off" Ryan and I.

That night, Ryan got it into his head that he didn't want to be put into foster care and, with Seth (and apparently Marissa), took off to Kirsten's model home, leaving me asleep in the pool house. Yeah, that sucked waking up to. Apparently, Ryan didn't want to involve me and that Seth and then Marissa had caught him sneaking out of the Cohens' house, but why didn't either of them ask about me? Or Seth try to wake me? I was going to foster care too, but apparently I didn't matter to Ryan's plans. I woke up to Sandy coming into the pool house and asking where Ryan was. That led to me asking him where Ryan was. The realization that Ryan had left in the middle of the night hit me like a freight train and it was not pretty. Sandy and Kirsten called the cops. I stood by the front steps just hugging myself as they talked to the police officer, who kept giving me sympathetic looks. Seth came down and tried to leave past his parents when Sandy stopped him and everyone could tell that Seth knew what Ryan had done. He gave this pitiful excuse of Ryan going to Mexico for cock fights, which made me even madder. Sandy had the look on his face like he didn't believe his son either and Kirsten seemed even madder than before but let it go, sending the police officer on his way.

Sandy called his friends at the hospitals and around town asking if they had seen anyone matching Ryan's description while Kirsten got dressed and Seth disappeared. I sat in the living room just staring at nothing. I could barely hear Sandy and Kirsten talking a few feet away from me about Ryan but I didn't pay them any attention. Kirsten got a phone call and walk out front while Sandy came around to sit next to me. I don't know if he was trying to comfort me or something but I was completely out of it. He sat with me for a bit, trying to tell me that everything would be okay and they would find Ryan, but he didn't sound very convincing. Eventually, Sandy had to go to work and Kirsten left to take care of some work stuff, leaving me with Rosa.

Later on, Ryan told me that Kirsten came by the model home where he had been squatting and he, Seth, and Marissa overheard her talking with Marissa's dad, Jimmy Cooper, about Mr. Cooper needing Kirsten to lend him some money to cover some investment problems he had had with some clients. Marissa apparently took the whole conversation very badly, leaving Seth and Ryan at the model home after Kirsten and Mr. Cooper left. Seth eventually had to return home, leaving Ryan there alone. Until Marissa came back, ditching a party with Luke. Luke, being the paranoid boyfriend, followed her with some of his friends and they came across the model home. Luke saw Marissa run out and Ryan came out after she had driven off. Luke overreacted of course when he saw Ryan and thought that Marissa was cheating on him with Ryan. Maybe she was emotionally, but Ryan told me that he turned down her staying the night with him, which led to her running out crying. Luke and his friends followed Ryan back into the model home and beat him up. Ryan was knocking into a camping lantern that Seth had left for him, setting the things Ryan was using on fire. Luke's friends took off, leaving Ryan unconscious. Luke was about to leave himself but had a change of heart and went back to drag Ryan out of the burning house before getting into his truck with his friends and speeding off.

While this was happening, Sandy, Seth and I were driving around looking for Ryan, or at least Sandy and I were. Seth was quiet in the passenger seat. Sandy got a call from Kirsten about a fire in the model home and we raced over to meet up with her. Seeing the damage, and after having the lead firefighter tell his parents that it looked like someone had been living there, Seth finally confessed that Ryan had been hiding in the model home. Sandy and Kirsten took Seth and I back to their house and while Seth was in his room being interrogated by his father, Kirsten and I were outside by the driveway, waiting with police all around us. Marissa, Mason, and their parents were there too, Mason having drifted over to sit next to me, as if he could help in some way. Seth and Sandy came outside and walked over to us, the police officer from earlier meeting them halfway. But before either could say anything, a rumbling came up, preceding Luke's truck, with Ryan inside. After he came up towards us, Ryan apologized to Kirsten and Sandy, before he was arrested by the police officer that had approached Seth. As he was led towards the waiting patrol car, Luke watched until he snapped. He told the police that it was an accident, the fire, and that he was there. The officer said that Luke had to come with them too. As the two boys were loaded into the car, Sandy came up and told the officer that he was Ryan's attorney and that he shouldn't be asked any questions without him present. As Sandy got ready to head over to the police station, Kirsten went into the house, leaving the rest of us watching the police car pull away with Ryan and Luke.

For the few days, Ryan was in the juvenile detention center. Luke was released after a two day stay, and the Newport Group dropped the charges of Arson against the two boys. Kirsten let me stay with them for the time being. Sandy didn't want to bring me to a group home without Ryan otherwise we would probably be separated for a long time. So, while Sandy worked on getting Ryan out, I helped Kirsten with a small tea she was throwing for her Newpsie friends at the house and Seth sulked around the house, acting more withdrawn about Ryan not being there than I was, if you can believe it. After Seth groaned around the kitchen for a bit and Kirsten's group of friends arrived, I slipped out the kitchen door to the pool house where I was holding up. I had gotten what little of Ryan's things didn't burn in the fire and they sat in the corner of the room and I couldn't stop thinking of him when I saw the pile.

I had to get out of there so I ventured down the walkway to the beach at the foot of the cliffs the Cohens' house was sitting on. I must have sat there for hours, just watching the waves and the surfers. Finally, when the sun was starting to go down, I felt someone sit down next to me. It turned out to be Mason, who was still wet from surfing. He had seen me sitting there and came over to see what I was doing. We talked for a little bit about Ryan and what was going on with him. He grabbed his board and walked me back to the Cohen's where we found the house empty. Shrugging, Mason invited me to have dinner with him in town and I thought, 'why not?' Leaving a note for Kirsten and Sandy, we ended up at the Crab Shack and had a pretty good dinner and talked some more. I have never been good with relationships but was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to be comfortable with Mason.

When Mason dropped me off at the Cohens' I had a surprise waiting for me. Kirsten and Seth had apparently been to visit Ryan and, after some circumstances that they wouldn't elaborate on, Kirsten had gotten Ryan out and brought him home. You wouldn't believe how happy that made me to see him when I opened the door! Sandy too was surprised to see Ryan when he got home himself. He and Kirsten didn't know that we could hear them arguing in the kitchen about Kirsten jerking Ryan and me around but we could. I don't blame Sandy for thinking about it. I was thinking it too.

The next day Kirsten brought Seth, Ryan and I to the Newport clubhouse where they were setting up "Casino Night". The boys were to help move the heavy things around for the women and I was there so I wasn't home alone again. Kirsten was feeling bad about that. My being there gave me a front row seat to the soap opera that was Marissa and Luke. After Luke rejected the idea of getting back together, Marissa was angry at everyone that had testosterone, which included Ryan, Luke, and even her dad. Seth wasn't spared either and left me wondering what he did to deserve it. Mason was there also, setting up a photo station near one of the blackjack tables that I was stocking with decks and chips. He gave me some of the background of his sister and Luke's relationship and all of the ups and downs just gave me a headache, something Mason laughed at.

When we got back to the Cohens' Sandy was waiting for us, with Dawn, who I never expected to see again and I am not ashamed to admit that I did not like her timing. Ryan too was wary of her being here and I refused to even talk to her. I brought my stuff up to the guest room that Kirsten had given me to use and locked the door, not wanting anyone to follow me and try to get me to talk to the woman that had left Ryan and me homeless. At dinner that evening I barely spoke and refused to look at anyone, something that Ryan knew was my coping mechanism and he made sure to keep close to me to make sure I ate, which I sometimes don't if I'm stressed. Dawn was trying to get back into Ryan and my good graces and I refused to let her see my feelings. I knew that this sober, clean version of my mother would not last long and I didn't want to see it happen.

The next night at the Casino Night (which was last night), Dawn came along with us. Kirsten gave her a dress to wear and I was able to wear a dress that Kirsten had helped me pick out before Dawn arrived. Mason even said that I looked beautiful when he saw me, which made me blush and smile back at him. But the happy feelings were not to last long. Dawn, flush with success at the tables, was drinking. And drinking. And drinking. After she started losing, she had reverted to the Dawn that I knew from Chino and all her talk of change and being better for Ryan and I was gone. But that's not all that happened, apparently Kirsten had given Mr. Cooper a very big loan ($100,000) and Sandy was not happy to find out about it after the fact. The three of them had a hushed argument on the terrace and had a lot of people talking. Not that people weren't already talking about the Cohens; after all, they had taken in "two delinquents" as they referred to Ryan and I, not even caring that I had no record to my name and that Ryan had barely one to his own. The night ended when Dawn, drunk as a skunk, knocked into a waiter and had to be helped out of the ballroom by Ryan and Sandy. As if people didn't have enough to whisper about.

Dawn left this morning. If Kirsten hadn't caught her about to go, Ryan and I would have woken up to her gone again. But, since Kirsten had delayed her, we got the sad wave of a hand from Dawn as she walked to her cab. I went to the patio table and just cried in Ryan's arms. I didn't mean to, but I had gotten my hopes up. Ryan did his best to try and comfort me, with Kirsten helping, but I couldn't stop. My mother had left me. Yes I had Ryan, but my mother, the one person who should have loved me, didn't seem to want me. I don't know how long I stayed there, cradled in my twin brother's arms.

-Reagan-