The scene was fitting. Girls with dark tans walked around waving to each other. Muscular guys screeching up in their expensive cars, loud music blaring from their speakers.

"Something's missing." Seth looked over at Ryan as he parked his Rover in front of the high school.

"What?" Ryan looked bemused and Seth could tell he was a little nervous.

"Something's missing to this." He pointed at the scene outside. He unbuckled his seatbelt and turned to face Ryan. "I know what it is. Theme music."

Ryan raised both brows.

"This is definitely a theme music moment, man. Your first day at school here. Summer's first look at yours truly since Tijuana. She won't want to keep her hands off me."

"Sure." Ryan grinned before looking back at the building. "So, should we…go?"

"Yeah, let's do this."

The both hopped out of the car and Seth grinned. "What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and walk out on me?" he sang.

Ryan looked at him incredulously. "Uh what?"

"Wonder Years, dude. With a Little Help From My Friends. Lennon, McCartney—Not the Joe Cocker rendition—Perfect theme song."

"Seth?"

Seth grinned. "Sí mi amigo?"

"No singing."

Seth nodded. "Yeah, you're right. The singing is too much. I get that. We got to keep it cool for the first day of school—Yeah I just said that. Kill me."

Ryan laughed and smacked Seth on the back with his palm. "Come on, let's go."

Seth smiled and followed him inside.

…

"Coop, he's been playing you, like, this whole time." Summer frowned at Marissa as she flipped through her agenda to see where she had her first class.

"I know but he told me that he was going to stop and I believe him. We've been together so long. It would be, like, stupid of me to not give him one more chance." She finally found where she wrote it and after getting the number, she headed towards her classroom.

"Yeah, but like, what about Chino?"

Marissa stopped and faced her friend. "What about him?"

Summer shrugged one shoulder. "Well after what happened in Tijuana—"

"Yeah, umm, can we just forget that episode in my life, okay?"

Summer shrugged again. "Whatever." She was just as ready as Marissa to forget about that trip from Hell…kind of.

…

"The cafeteria. The room that separates the men from the boys," Seth said as he and Ryan made their way into the room.

Ryan looked around casually, his eyes lazily drifting over the room and the students inside. It wasn't like any cafeteria he'd been to. It was big, with huge glass windows and a pond on one side. The light of the sun tinted the room in a way that made it seem bright, airy and not threatening at all. "Doesn't look very scary," Ryan said casually.

"Yeah, that's what they want you think. They like to lull you into feeling that false sense of security and then when you're minding your own business eating your brownie they attack."

Ryan raised a brow at Seth's dramatic ramblings before he continued. "Right. So, anyway, where do you usually sit?" They stepped into the food line and looked over the contents.

"Well, see. I don't really come here…and eat. Like, there's a couple clubs and stuff that go on at lunch and—and I see a few guys there and hey, meatloaf..." Seth became fixated with a brownish lump of meat. "I think." He really didn't want to go into the details of what a loser he was.

He'd never thought of his school life as being awful. He'd always told himself that it was fine—that he was fine with not being one of the so-called cool kids but now that Ryan was around he felt guilty that he wasn't. Ryan deserved better than watching anime in a small classroom at the other end of the school.

Ryan looked over Seth, his sharp eyes taking in his friend's embarrassed expression. "Hey, man. Whatever you want to do, I'll do too. It's cool either way."

Seth gave Ryan a lopsided grin. He should have known better. Ryan hadn't been overly concerned with being popular during the summer why would that change now?

They filled up their trays and paid for their food before eying the cafeteria for a prospective table. Ryan saw one closer to the doors leading outside and Seth followed him as he made his way over to it.

They sat down and dug into their lunches.

"So, seen Marissa yet?" Seth asked before he took a bite of his sub.

Ryan shook his head. "Nah and I don't know, man, I think she's avoiding me. I catch glimpses of her next door but she never stops to say anything. I just want to see if she's—if she's cool, you know?"

"Well, here's your chance." Seth jerked his head and Ryan's gaze fell on Marissa. She was walking across the cafeteria with Summer and heading towards the doors, the doors that they were so conveniently sitting beside.

Seth forgot about Marissa as soon as he saw Summer. She looked amazing. He hadn't seen her since that last night in Tijuana and from all appearances she looked like she was back to normal. For a second Seth wondered if that was a good thing.

The girls were almost at the doors before Seth decided to call out to her. "Hey Summer."

Summer turned and her eyes shifted to his. "Okay, did I, like, not make it clear about the wholetalking to me thing?"

Seth paused only briefly, a tiny burst of anger flaring before he tempered it. He'd hoped that after, what he'd now come to term, that night she would be a little friendlier towards him in public but obviously, that had been too much to ask. He'd just have to wear her down. That he could do.

"I think it's a little late to go back to what we were, Summer. After those late nights in Tijuana and that night at my Grandfather's party. You remember that party don't you—," Summer slapped a hand over his mouth before he could say anything else.

She shoved her face close to his and said in a low growl. "Cohen, you breathe one word to anyone about those, like, two times in history that I have spent time with you, I will kill you. Got it?"

Her hand was still over his mouth, so all he could do was nod.

"Good. Coop, let's go," she said, finally taking her hand away from his lips and they both walked away.

Seth smiled a little and turned back to Ryan, who looked not in the least bit amused. Seth hadn't missed the fact that Marissa and Ryan hadn't talked at all during the time he'd been teasing Summer. He wasn't very concerned. For some reason he knew they would figure it out.

He glanced back at Ryan, who was picking at a slice of pizza and asked, "Did you see that?"

Ryan looked up, brow raised.

"She so wants me."

Ryan snorted and went back to picking at his pizza.

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