We appreciate the replies for the first chapter and hope you enjoy this one as well

"Hello?"

"We have a problem."

"No kidding. Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Luke, seriously. Pick up Anna and meet me at the model home my grandfather's building in twenty minutes."

"Cohen, what's going on?"

"Twenty minutes Luke," Seth said and hung up.

-x-x-x-x-

"Okay, we're here," Luke said as Anna pushed open the door.

"Seth?"

"Out here," Seth called from the back of the house.

Anna and Luke made their way to the backyard and found their drummer sitting on the edge of the currently empty pool.

"What's going on?"

"Yeah, what's with the secret agent thing?"

"We've got a problem."

"So you said."

"Remember the guy we were teasing Taylor about?"

"Yeah. Brian or something."

"His name was Ryan, Luke. What about him?"

"He's living in my pool house."

"What?"

"He got busted stealing a car and needed a lawyer."

"Sandy Cohen to the rescue," Luke groaned. "Man, you know I love your dad, but does he have to save everyone?"

"It's not like it's his fault Luke," Anna said. "Keep going Seth."

"Okay, so apparently Ryan's mom, prize that she is, threw him out. His brother, the skeeze who was hitting on you and Taylor at the same time, is in jail at the moment for grand theft auto. Ryan didn't have any priors, didn't mouth off to the arresting officer, and was only trying to get his friend Teresa medical attention."

"Medical attention," Luke shouted. "What happened?"

"Someone slipped her something.

"Who?"

"He didn't know."

"So your Dad moved him into the pool house? Why not the guest room?"

"Mom was a little hinky about having him in the house."

"Did he recognize you?"

"Gave me a look but he didn't say anything," Seth said.

"Okay, well this is good. You have the smallest of disguises so if he didn't recognize you, I think we're good."

"And if he puts it together?"

"Then we have to beg him to keep quiet."

"There's another problem."

"Of course there is."

"Where are we supposed to practice? We use Cohen's pool house because his parents are never there. Now there's an occupant."

"We could use Taylor's garage."

"No. Not only does she have that nosy lady for a neighbor, Veronica likes to come home unannounced. She finds our equipment in the garage, and it's goodbye to our singer."

"Good point."

"I'll ask my parents if we can use our basement," Anna said. "They're pretty good about us hanging out at the house. This shouldn't be a problem."

"It's better than my house and tripping over the twins all day."

"Your dad would love it if we practiced at your house. He could regale us with his stories of being in a band in college," Seth smiled.

"Don't remind me," Luke groaned. "Hey, who's telling Townsend?"

"Well, since he's Seth's houseguest, I vote he do it."

"She's in Louisiana, why do we have to tell her anything?"

"What if he's still here when she comes back," Anna said reasonably.

"Why wouldn't he be?"

"I think she's saying, what do we say when she comes back?"

"Surprise?"

"Yeah, the last time we tried a surprise with Taylor, we were thirteen and it was her birthday. She threw up on you."

"So this time, we don't include roller coasters in the surprise."

"Seth, we can't not tell her."

"Anna's right," Luke agreed.

"Okay. She said she'd call when she landed. I'll tell her then."

"Good luck with that."

"Yeah, good luck."

"Oh no, you guys are gonna be there when I call. I'm not doing this alone."

"But-"

"No. C'mon, we need to go. I promised, I wouldn't be long."

"Game face, Anna."

"It'll be fine."

-x-x-x-x-

"What!"

"Taylor calm down," Seth said after his ears stopped ringing from Taylor's shriek.

"How could he do this?"

"He's Sandy Cohen," Seth shrugged. "Besides, this Ryan guy is kinda cool."

"You realize if he finds out who we are then Kirsten is gonna find out we played a club in Chino meaning you are grounded and therefore unable to be our drummer, leaving us to try and recruit another drummer who will probably be a total stoner and ruin the band."

"Or he could turn out to be totally cool and we'd end up with a roadie who can glare Oli into being less of a slime."

"Point being that we might be in trouble, with this development."

"I don't think so. He's real quiet, hardly talks at all. I think he'd keep the secret, if he ever learned it."

"Well, if you're willing to trust him, then so am I," Taylor said. "Call me if anything changes. Love you guys."

"We love you, too," Seth said. He pressed the off button on the speakerphone and turned to his friends. "Let's go make nice with Ryan."

"Well, he can't be all bad. He likes our music."

The teenagers marched downstairs and out to the pool house. Seth knocked and Ryan said to come in.

"Hey. Sorry I ran out before. I had to meet up with some people," Seth said as he walked in. "Ryan Atwood, this is Luke Ward and Anna Stern."

"Hey," he said standing up.

"How's it going, dude."

"Nice to meet you."

"You, too," Ryan said, looking at them both.

"So Ryan, has Seth shown you around Newport yet?"

"Not really."

"Well, then why don't we? We can show you around and get to know each other before I leave," Anna said.

"Where are you going?"

"I leave on a sailing trip right after Cotillion."

"What's Cotillion?"

"Hell."

"He's kidding."

"No I'm not."

"Be nice," Anna warned. "Or I'll take Luke as my date and leave you to be matched up by the Head Deb."

"You wouldn't dare," Seth said.

"Yep. Now, I wonder who she'd match you up with."

"Maybe she'd put you with that Summer girl you named your boat after."

"Doubtful," Luke said. "The head Deb is Marissa Cooper. Summer's her best friend."

"So why wouldn't she? Seth's cool."

"He's also 1- taken and 2- something of a social outcast."

"I prefer to think of it as being "unique"."

"You are that, my friend," Luke smiled. "I think we all are. But the unique we are doesn't mesh well with the social hierarchy of Harbor."

"School," Ryan shot a nervous look at Seth.

"Not for months yet, dude, relax."

"But I'm going to public school, right," he frowned. "Do they even have public schools around here?"

"There's Newport Union."

"Oh the kids there are a lot of fun. Luke's surfed with a couple of them. Johnny something and someone named Volchok. Johnny's okay but Volchok's just scary," Anna shook her head.

"Sounds like my kind of place."

"What are you, too good for Harbor?"

"Like they'd even let me in."

"Why wouldn't they?"

"Hello? He's from Chino?"

"With your Dad on the case, I don't think that'd be such a big."

"My grades aren't that hot."

"Your grades......" Seth tilted his head. "I thought my dad said you had really good grades. Like, in the high nineties or something."

Ryan mumbled something, squirming.

"Oh, I get it," Anna said nodding her head. "It's us."

"What," Ryan looked confused.

"He doesn't want people to know the first people he met in Newport are complete outcasts."

"What?"

"Hey, it's cool. You can just pretend you don't know us. You might have a problem doing that with Seth seeing as how you live in his house, but with Luke and me, you could totally get away with it."

"It's not....I'm not like that." He shot another desperate look at his friend. "Tell them I'm not like that."

"Relax man. Anna's old man's a psychologist," Luke said. "She's just trying to get you to do something you don't want to do by making you feel bad."

"It always works when I use it on my lab partner in science."

"Yeah but your last lab partner was Chip Saunders. He's an idiot," Seth said.

"They let idiots in your school?"

"If they have enough money, they do."

"See, that's another reason," Ryan said. "Money."

"You are aware of whose home you landed in, right?"

"What?"

"Kirsten is the golden girl of Caleb Nichols. She is his favorite, hands down."

"So?"

""What do you mean, so?"

"Actually, I kind of like that he says "so". Shows he's not obsessed with money like everyone else around here - present company excepted."

"Just trust me, the Cohens can afford to send you to Harbor with Seth."

"They shouldn't have to."

"I realize Union would probably be a day at the beach compared to Chino, but you might like Harbor."

"Maybe," he shrugged. "I wouldn't hold my breath on them letting me in."

"Sandy says you're smart, right?"

"Yeah," Seth nodded.

"They'll probably just make you take an admissions test," Anna shrugged.

"But that's not 'til fall. We need to find something to do now." Luke eyed the new guy eagerly. "You surf?"

"No."

"Chino's not exactly near the beach, man."

"What else do you guys do for fun around here?"

"Video games," Seth said.

Anna groaned.

"Don't give me that Anna. You play them too."

"Not as incessantly as you and Luke do. You're both gonna go blind one day."

"Him before me," Luke said.

"Sounds like fun."

"I miss Taylor." Anna whined. "At least we do different things when she's around."

"Who's Taylor?"

"My best friend," Anna said.

"She was my best friend first, Anna," Seth said.

"Yes, but she was my best friend before she was Luke's, so I have more claim on her than he does and considering we do a lot of stuff together that don't include you two, I have a little bit more of a claim to her."

"She sounds fun."

"She is. Too bad she's visiting family in Louisiana right now. We could do something besides video games."

"Quit whining, woman."

"Yeah, it's not like you're not good at them."

"True, I can kick your ass with one hand tied behind my back, but it's a little better when Taylor's around and I have someone whose brain doesn't shut down while playing."

"It's so annoying," Luke rolled his eyes as the teens headed for the house. "The two of them can talk and play and kick our butts all without blinking an eye."

"They're girls. They're weird like that."

"You must have sisters," Anna said. "Long-suffering sisters, I'm guessing."

"Long-suffering, yes. Sisters, no."

"Oh, so you have a brother?"

"Yeah."

"That's nice. I'm an only child. So is Taylor," Anna said. "Luke, on the other hand, has two little brothers who've adopted us all and bug the crap out of us."

"Cool."

"You say that now, but wait until they're climbing all over you and driving you insane."

"And they will drive you insane," Seth said setting things up so they could play. "Teams?"

"I'll take Luke," Anna said. "You take your new brother."

"Hope you know how to play, bro."

"I'm a fast learner," Ryan said.

-x-x-x-x-x-

"So, what's he like," Taylor asked Anna over the phone that night.

"Ryan? He's quiet but he catches on to things quickly," Anna held up an outfit and then tossed it on the bed. "And he's got good taste. We went to the pier and Summer, Marissa, and their court were there. He took one look at Marissa and called her a stick figure with a hangover."

Taylor giggled. "Well, no one can call him stupid."

"Seth says we can trust him. "

"I dunno....."

"You do realize keeping our secret from him is either going to be impossible or make him hate us."

Taylor sighed. "Yes, I know."

"So?"

"Tell the boys to do it after you leave on your trip."

"That'll work." Anna held up another outfit and shook her head sadly. All these clothes, and nothing quite right. "How's your trip so far?"

"Not bad," Taylor said. "I'm pleased to report Uncle Jamie will be on parole in town to walk me down the stairs and that my date isn't hideous."

"How's Collette?"

"She's fine. She says hi and to enjoy your trip."

"After Cotillion, I'm gonna need the time away."

"Are the mini-Newpsies getting to you?"

"Not yet. But by that time....."

"I hear that. Why do you think I don't fight these visits?"

"Because you actually like your degenerate cousins?"

"That too."

Anna giggled, "Any luck convincing the whole family to visit for Christmas?"

"Not yet, but I'm working on it. I just want to bring them to Caleb's party and see the look on his face when his grandson's best friend's family starts telling people about their prison sentences."

"It might help Ryan fit in as well."

"Oh, don't tell me."

"His father, his brother - in fact, most of his family and the people he knew in Chino are either in jail or have "done time". He's done a few days in Juvie himself."

"Do I want to know what for?"

"This'll kill you. He stole a car to get his friend Theresa to a hospital when someone slipped her some heavy drugs. That's why we couldn't find them after our Chino gig."

Taylor suddenly sat up as something occurred to her, "Anna, she was dancing with Luke for a while."

"Luke would never...!"

"Of course not. But someone was watching him....."

"Oh, you don't think....."

"We both know she doesn't take rejection well and she was there that night."

"God, I don't want to think someone that dangerous is living next door to Seth."

"It's be too easy for her to get at him or Luke or even Ryan."

"Why would she? She's obsessed with "Rip", remember?"

"And Seth's obsessed with Summer, who happens to be her best friend."

"Good point."

"Be careful, okay?"

"I will and I'll let the boys know about our theory and that they can tell Ryan," Anna checked her watch. "Oh I gotta go. Seth, Luke, and I are taking Ryan on another outing tonight."

"What are you doing?"

"It's Luke's choice so I will just be happy if we don't end up at the batting cages."

"Don't forget your helmet this time. The doctor might not let you go on your trip if you have a concussion."

"Bye Taylor."

"Bye Anna."