Seth was walking home. It was a nice day-even by Newport's standards- and he thought he might stop off for a balboa bar or something. "Seth...Seth," Seth turned around to see who was calling him by his actual name. He knew it wasn't Marissa, it was a male voice. "Seth," The out of breath teenager stood in front of him now.
"Atwood?" Seth asked, confused.
"Look, I know we don't...get along." Ryan began. "Can we walk?"
"Sure," They walked silently for a while, Ryan caught his breath.
"Ok, so I know we don't get along,"
"Is that your way of admitting to being a dick?"
"Look. I shouldn't say some of that stuff, but, I mean, everyone does." Seth shot him a look, even though it wasn't a very good one Ryan managed to interpret it. "Ok, ok...but this isn't what I'm here for." Ryan took a deep breath. "You're good friends with Marissa, right?"
"Oh no, no way am I helping you get into her pants,"
"Look, it's not like that," Ryan said desperately.
"Sure, tiger,"
"Seth, please. What does she like? What doesn't she like?"
"It's quite simple really. She doesn't like you. She doesn't like all your jerky mates. She doesn't like the way you guys act. I don't think she particularly likes Newport."
"Ok," Ryan thought for a moment. "See you queer,"
"What the hell?" Seth muttered to himself, totally confused by Ryan's behaviour. He had seemed to behaving nice enough. And then his last remark had almost seemed as he was using the word queer affectionately, well as affectionate as 'queer' could sound. Seth spent the whole walk home thinking about it. He came to the obvious conclusion that Ryan simply wanted to know how to get Marissa. And then after getting her he would have left her.
**************
"Atwood," The teacher called. Ryan stood up and went to collect his test paper. "Disappointing even by your standards." The teacher handed him a paper with a red F on. "I'll be pairing you with a pupil tutor. Maybe then you'll eventually get better than a kindergartener." The class didn't dare laugh. Nobody laughed at Ryan Atwood. Sure he was friends with all of them, but he could hurt anyone if they got on the wrong side of him. Captain of the soccer team and boxing champion, he wasn't someone to mess with. "See me after school for your pairing," Ryan shrugged and sat back down.
"Well done," Ryan commented on Marissa's A score. She ignored him. She had been doing for the past 3 weeks.
**************
"Mr. Atwood you're finally here, take a seat," Ryan had been walking as slowly as possible. He didn't want a tutor. What a waste of time. He looked around the room. There were a few people from his grade who had volunteered to tutor and the rest of the pupils were from grades below. He noticed Marissa sat on one side of the class talking energetically to Seth.
"Sir, I'm really busy," Ryan began. "I don't really have time to take a seat. Just tell me my tutor, when I have to go to their house, blah blah blah. I get how it works,"
"Take a seat, Ryan," Reluctantly Ryan sat in his normal place. He looked at his watch. 4pm. He might have to phone and say he'd be late to the beach. "Pairings. Ward you're with Taylor. Jones and Park. Daniels and Smith." The list went on until he finally reached Ryan. "Atwood and Cooper,"
"Me, sir?" Marissa asked.
"Yes, Marissa,"
"But...but I thought we were only tutoring younger kids,"
"Well, I think we can class Atwood as younger, considering his lack of maturity,"
"Sir, don't you think maybe it would be better if we went with someone our gender, you know, we could bond better?" Marissa objected.
"No. You two will do fine. You can help him in class as well, considering you sit next to each other. Now, here are your study timetables," The teacher handed out pieces of paper. Eventually people left the room along with the teacher leaving just Ryan and Marissa. Marissa was absolutely fuming. As if a year of having to be around this jerk in school wasn't enough.
"So, it says the first study session is tonight," Ryan was the first to speak.
"Wow, you can read," Ryan ignored her.
"My place or yours?"
"Mine. Hurry up, I'm meant to be meeting Cohen after we've finished." Marissa led him out to her car.
"Are you guys...you know?"
"Dating? Seriously, you have trouble saying the word dating?"
"What? No I don't, I just...are you dating?"
"No,"
"It kinda looks like you are,"
"What would you know? You don't date."
"Of course, you know all about me, don't you?" Ryan said sarcastically. He was annoyed at her now. That she'd just immediately hate him just because of what someone said, not giving him time to prove himself. They drove in silence.
"We're here," She announced.
"Nice place," Ryan complimented. "Where did you live before?" He asked as they went upstairs.
"New York,"
"Right in the city?"
"Yeah,"
"Wow. How was that?"
"Pretty good."
"So, you prefer it there?"
"How about we just do biology,"
"Sounds like a plan," And so Ryan sat, listening to her running through things with him. Sometimes he didn't hear what she said, he just heard her. 2 hours and he didn't hit on her once. It was the longest time he'd been with a girl since 7th grade without any intimacy or flirting.
"Bye," Marissa stood on her doorstep. Ryan had decided to walk home, save her any trouble.
"See you," Ryan replied before walking down the driveway. He got halfway down before he stopped and ran back up. "So there's this party tonight on the beach. Really nice atmosphere, really romantic," It was the last two words that helped Marissa make up her mind.
"I'd never see you out of school by choice. Especially not so you can hook up with me at one of your party's. See you next session," She slammed the door in his face. Ryan really didn't know how to act around her. He'd never liked a girl like this before. It was strange. It was scary. He wasn't sure whether he liked it. Too many strings attached. And for the first time ever Ryan's feelings had just been because of a girl.
