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Seeing her brother and Jax sitting in the parking lane in front of the school, Ryder waved her hand at them and carried on to her cage, not wanting to have another fight to break out, the last time she had been over by the bikes and not in her car, Tara pitched a fit and it almost ended up in a physical fight between the two. And it also drove a wedge between Ryder and Jax. A wedge that hadn't been there before and stung Ryder. She had always fancied herself one of the boys, able to do whatever the boys did. And up until she became a teenager she had.

But then things had changed, she had changed.

And it was almost uncomfortable. Part of her thought it was because of her crush on Jax. she knew it wasn't the smartest thing, that she would always be Opie's little sister.

Nothing less nothing more.

"Ry!" Jax called, shaking her out of her thoughts, "C'mere!" Ryder paused and shoved her bag into the open window of her car before turning on her heel and walking over to her brother and Jax. "What's up?" "Everything okay?" It wasn't Jax who asked but her older brother. "Everything is fine, just a long day. Your girlfriend." She directed her words at Jax, "is trying to pick fights again." "Tara wouldn't." Jax said as he removed his sunglasses to look at her. He had a conversation with Tara about Ryder making it clear that they were nothing but friends.

"Yes she would, and I have almost fallen for it twice. I am not going to risk college because of Jax you know it. You were the day she pitched a fit about me being here." Ryder, knowing that Piney wouldn't be able to afford to send her to college and law school, had been busting her hump to get what she could for school. Seeing that Tara was coming and not wanting to start a fight, she walked away quickly.

"I told you man, she is being stubborn about this. She didn't want to go to Funtown with me and Donna the other night." Opie commented watching as his sister pulled out of her parking spot, "She is dead serious about becoming a lawyer." "Doesn't mean she has to change who she is." Opie shrugged his shoulders,not wanting to bring up the fact that he and Ryder talked about it the other and he had figured out that Ryder had feelings for his best friend. It wasn't his shit to bring up.

He did warn her though that it was a bad idea to try and go after Jax. That it could only hurt her in the end and he wanted to save her from any sort of heartbreak. Jax was his best friend but at 17 he was already a womanizer. And he wanted to save his sister from that heartbreak. Other than Donna, Ryder was the most important girl in his life.

"Sorry Gem, I got caught up talking to Opie and Jax." Ryder apologized to Gemma as she came into the cluttered office and set her school bag on the floor next to the leather couch. "You and Jax getting along now?" Gemma couldn't keep the hopeful tone out of her voice, ever since Ryder was 13 and come into her personality more, she had hoped that the younger Winston and the SAMCRO princess would be Jax's old lady and take over as Queen when she had to step down with Clay. "No." The girl returned as she went over to the printer and pulled papers off of it, "the hatred of Tara is too deep and he is picking her over me." "He will come to his senses baby." Ryder shrugged her shoulders and set out into the garage to hand Tig Trager the repo paperwork.

Tara felt that anger and hatred she had for Ryder fill her when she saw the redhead laughing at something that Tig and Bobby had said. "Why is she always around?" She questioned and it was Donna who answered unable to help herself, "She is family, more so than you. And your little tricks trying to make her get in a physical fight with you isn't going to work. She is a whole hell of a lot smarter than you." The shorter girl said before she left Opie's side to go to where Ryder was at. Tara scoffed and rolled her eyes, one way or another she was going to get her way and Ryder would be out of her and Jax's life for good.