A/N: This was a difficult chapter for me to write, especially Summer's discovery of the literary magazine. Also, please note that I have not studied Latin, so be gentle with my translation! Please read and review - I'm shooting for 100 reviews before the posting of chapter 26! Thanks for reading!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------

Mr. Robert's chauffeured sedan glided up to the front of Harbor High on Friday morning. Summer leaned in to give her father a hug before he left for another business trip. Normally she'd be upset that he was leaving again so soon, but the previous night had instilled in her a new confidence about their relationship.

"Hold on just a minute." Mr. Roberts said as Summer opened one of the car doors. She turned and settled back in her seat.

"They don't give these out anymore, but back when I won the Sebastian Fellowship, they used to award the winners a medal." Mr. Roberts spoke softly. "I thought you might like mine. He opened a small burgundy velvet box and withdrew a necklace. The nickel-sized medal was suspended from a delicate chain.

Summer leaned forward silently as her father fastened the necklace around her. She pulled the medal out in front of her and looked at the intricately carved circle. "'Nota bene magnum opus." Summer read the tiny script etched around the edge of the medallion.

"Latin." Mr. Roberts explained. "Mark this great work well." Mr. Roberts seemed embarrassed. "I hope you like it. I'll be back on Sunday morning. Enjoy the dance, sweetheart - make sure you get a picture of yourself in that dress."

Summer nodded and smiled. She slid out of the car, shutting the door behind her. She waved, still clutching the medallion in her hand as the sedan slid back into the morning traffic.

Summer headed into the school, practically skipping. Her relationship with her father seemed to have a new closeness to in, and she couldn't wait to share the good news with Seth. She vowed to make up with Marissa - it was the only thing that put a damper on her joy.

When she reached the breakfast table, she was surprised to find it empty. She remembered that Ryan had mentioned an early soccer practice, but Seth and Anna should have been there. She pulled her bag over her shoulder. She'd try the lit mag room, she decided.

Summer headed into the school. Self-consciously, she realized that people were looking at her. Summer was used to attention from her hormonally- driven male classmates, but the air had a heaviness to it that made her uneasy - a hush that resonated within her. She rounded the corner to the door of the lit mag and stopped quickly at the scene before her.

Seth and Anna were posed in front of the doorway, boxes surrounding them. Each figure clutched a rolled-up magazine in one hand.

"How could you add an author credit to the cover?" Seth yelled. "I specifically deleted it so it had an anonymous appeal!"

"What are you talking about?" Anna seemed genuinely confused. "We never publish anonymous work! I though the missing credit was a computer error!"

"No!" Seth rubbed his temples. "This piece was different."

The argument lulled to a silence, and Summer stepped into the room.

"Hi guys." Summer spoke hesitantly, unsure of the situation. Anna and Seth turned to look at her and she studied their faces. Anna's face was kind and laced with sympathetic sincerity. Seth could barely meet Summer's eyes. He gazed down at the magazine in his hands.

Summer felt a chill running through her, a premonition of what was to come. She walked towards Seth slowly, holding her breath as she pulled the magazine from his hands and glanced down at the cover.

"Rosemary for remembrance." Her lips formed the words and she spoke aloud without realizing that she'd said a word. Her sonnet. The sonnet. No. No. Her hands trembled as her mind ran through the words of the poem, emblazoned in white on a stark black cover. At the bottom of the page - her name, declaring her as the author. The air in the room seemed to constrict around her.

"Oh, god, Summer, I thought you knew." Anna spoke hurriedly. "I never would have agreed to the publication if I knew you hadn't submitted it."

Summer heard her as if through a fog. The magazine slipped out of her hands as she stood, turning her gaze up to Seth. He seemed as paralyzed as she.

"Summer." He tripped over her name, speaking nervously. "I found it in your folder, that day you asked me to hold your books, and I don't know what I was thinking, I wasn't thinking, I just figured that a poem like that was too good for just English class, and I arranged for your name to be off the cover, it was supposed to be anonymous, but there was a mistake with the printing-"

Summer raised her hand and Seth stopped talking abruptly. "It wasn't for English." She gasped, finding it harder and harder to breath in that room. "It's my mother, it's about my mother, how she died."

Anna took in a sharp breath of air as Summer turned and ran from the room. Seth took off after her, but she was running with adrenaline as her survival instincts pushed her to escape as quickly as possible. He stood in the hallway, helpless, as he lost Summer to the crowds in the hallway.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------

Ryan threw his soccer equipment into the Range Rover and clicked the alarm on his set of keys to the car he shared with Seth. He looked up and saw a familiar petite brunette running towards him.

"Summer?"

"Ryan, oh thank god, will take me home?" Ryan looked down at the girl's face. She was pale, shaken, obviously upset. "Of course." He unlocked the Range Rover and helped her in. He started the car and began the drive to her home.

"It's a left here," Summer spoke shakily. "Then it's just the fifth house on the right."

"Sure." Ryan pulled the car into the driveway. "Summer." He looked concerned. "Are you ok?"

Summer bit down on her lip and looked at Ryan's face. "It's Seth," she admitted. "I write these poems sometimes, and he found one and published it on the cover of the lit mag." Ryan shook his head slightly. "He thinks it was an assignment for English or something, but it was really about my mom." Summer took in a jagged breath. "Most people think my mom just ran off; I don't know how my dad managed to keep the gossip so contained. But a good portion of Newport knows the truth - my mom killed herself." She wiped the tears away from her eyes. It felt good to talk about it after so long, and she knew that Ryan could be trusted. "She had a minor operation to remove a benign tumor, and then she got addicted to the painkillers - same thing with my ex-stepmom," Summer noted ruefully. "My dad sent my mom to a rehabilitation center. They weren't like the one Marissa went to back then - this was closer to an insane asylum. And instead of getting better, my mom got worse. They found her in the swimming pool. She drowned herself." Summer felt numb. She wasn't crying anymore; her tone was emotionless, matter-of-fact.

She unbuckled her seatbelt and closed the car door. As she opened the door to her house, she heard Ryan's door open.

"Summer." He spoke in his raspy voice. "I'm not defending what Seth did - that kid has been known to have poor judgment - putting me in the model home, for instance. But I do know that Seth would never deliberately hurt anyone. Especially you."

They looked at each other for a long moment, before Summer turned and stepped inside her house, closing the heavy oak door between them.