Marissa takes another sip of her now room temperature water. She hasn't felt this alone since her stint in rehab and even then she exchanged daily phone calls with Summer and Kaitlin. She can feel their stares. She knows their gossiping about her. She figures at least half of them are subscribers to US Weekly, the magazine that broke the news about her addiction and subsequent trip to rehab. She wishes they'd talk to her rather than about her, but she can't blame them. She too has gossiped her fair share in the past and knows how much fun it can be. She scans the room for her daughter and finds her dancing with Ryan. She can't help but smile. She remembers a time when he didn't know how to dance.

"So winter formal is coming up…" Marissa whispers in Ryan's ear as she effortlessly distracts him from his homework. She's not in the mood to study.

"Uh yeah I know, but –" Ryan starts.

Marissa stops gently rubbing his back and pulls back to look him in the eye. "But what?"

"I don't think I want to go." He can already feel the rag coursing through her veins. He has been avoiding breaking this news to her for as long as possible.

She attempts to count to ten the way her therapist, the one Julie was forcing her to go to, had instructed. It fails and instead she demands to know why it is he doesn't want to go. "What other plans could you possibly have?"

"Well…I…no plans…just…uh…don't want to go." Ryan musters. He already knows that the only way he is going to get around this is to tell her the painfully lame truth.

"You have got to be kidding me Ry! You know I'm social chair. You know I have to be there. You can't possibly be serious about not wanting to come just because you don't feel like it." She gets up off of his bed and start to put her shoes back on. She can't be anywhere near him right now.

"Marissa! Wait!" He rushes to stop her before she can leave. When she stops and looks at him he gulps and then he spills the beans. "I can't dance Marissa. I don't want to go because I can't dance."

Her face softens instantly and she fights the urge to laugh. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah well you don't really have to dance all that much in Chino." Ryan can feel his cheeks start to redden.

She doesn't say anything, but instead goes and turns on his radio. She changes the stations until she finds one that plays nothing but slow jams. She turns and looks at him. A playful smile plays upon her lips. "I'll teach you."

"So what's with the chain?" Ryan asks as he twirls Remy around the dance floor. He somehow hadn't noticed it when he first got off the helicopter. Then again at the time his focus was primarily on Marissa.

Remy looks down and realizes that she somehow had forgotten she was wearing the chain in the first place. She smiles and shrugs. "Mom gave it to me. We both agreed it was more exciting than pearls. It kind of suits me anyway. Don't you think?"

He realizes that it kind of does. It definitely distinguishes her from all of the other Junior Leaguers in training that fill this room. "Yeah it does."

The song comes to an end and Remy gently kisses her father on the cheek. "I better go find Collier before all of those old men start asking for autographs."

He's standing there by himself in the middle of the dance floor when he notices her sitting by herself at a table. He can't believe he didn't notice it before. He makes it over to where she is sitting and sits down across from her. "How goes it?"

"Junior Leaguers remind me a heck of a lot of Newpsies just with accents and bigger hair."

He nods in agreement. "Yeah it was pretty intimidating for me at first. They used to love to hit on me as if I was a gigolo or something. Still they're not so terrible once you get to know them. At least that's what the Bullit says."

"I don't know if they want to get know me. I'm pretty sure they've already made their minds up about me."

He remembers all too well what it feels like to have people already have you pinned. People in Newport were convinced that he would jack their cars and rob their homes just because he was originally from Chino. Sandy, Kirsten, Seth, Summer, and Marissa had taken the time to look deeper and then were able to really get to know who he was. He figured he owed it to her to do the same. "Would you maybe like to dance?"

"Yeah, that'd be great." She follows him onto the hardwood floor and can not help but sigh softly as he places his hand in the small of her back. She's forgotten how nice it felt to be this close to him.

"So how is California? I feel so out of touch. This new football stadium contract is taking up way too much time."

"It's basically the same as when you left it. I'm thinking about maybe moving to northern California once the lease is up on my loft. Los Angeles is just too much of a temptation."

His brows crinkle in surprise. "Really? What would you do for work?"

"I was thinking about maybe planning weddings. As long as it's not parties on the club circuit I'm down."

"I'm glad you're taking this so seriously. I know it can't be easy."

"Yeah well Kirsten helps. She's my sponsor. Right now I'm just focusing on getting through the day." She admits quietly. "You know I never apologized for the way I treated you when we were younger. I didn't realize just how bad I was at the time."

"I know. I'm just happy you caught it before something terrible happened." He replies before gently brushing a loose hair out of her face. "I love your chain by the way."

She grins. "A rapper, whose name I of course can't remember gave it to me. It came with a matching grill, but I thought that would be a little too out of place here. She looks good in it though. She reminds me a lot of Ashley Olsen except with a little more gangster flair which of course she gets from me."

"Oh yeah because when I think Marissa Cooper the first thing I think is gangster."

"You know it." She forgot how good they sometimes were.

So that was the update that took almost a year to come out. Actually I think it might be exactly one year in an hour. Anyway thank you for coming back and reading it. I hope you like it. I'm sorry for not updating sooner. Please review and tell me what you think. Thanks so much. - KRiSTiNE