Title: Ryan and Joan

Summary: Ryan meets Joan from Joan of Arcadia.

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to The O.C. or Joan of Arcadia.

Chapter 7 - "Grounded, part 1 - Sunday"

On Sunday morning, Ryan was lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He hadn't gotten up yet and was still in his night clothes - a tank top and black sweatpants. Ryan was thinking about the rules that Sandy had listed last night for his grounding. Leaving aside Joan for the moment...

No TV: He didn't really watch much TV. Just the occasional movie on DVD with the family.

No video games: OK, there was that. He and Seth usually played them when they were spending time together.

No computer: He didn't really use the computer much except for schoolwork. Well, he had been using it to get directions to the Saturday parties, but he wouldn't be needing it for that any more.

No phone calls: Who did he ever talk to on the phone?

No visitors: Seth was his best friend, but he lived here, so that didn't count. Other than that, he didn't really have any close friends. There was Anna, but she was really Seth's friend. If she came over, it was to see Seth, not him. And there was Marissa, but they weren't really that close any more. Earlier in the school year, they had tried to be friends, but it was awkward since he still wanted to date her then and she didn't want to. So now they just saw each other at school and sometimes if she was staying with her Mom for the weekend or something. She didn't just drop by to visit.

No going out after school: He didn't really go out during the week. Between soccer practice and the tons of homework that The Harbor School gave its students, he really didn't have time. At least Monday through Thursday. He did like to go out on Fridays.

No going out on the weekends: Yeah, OK, there was that too.

All in all, though, his life was pretty pathetic, he realized. And if he'd been caught going out to his parties say last week, before meeting Joan, then a week's grounding would be nothing really.

But now, with Joan, this week was going to be torture. He already wanted to call her, or at least e-mail her. And if he wasn't grounded, he would have tried to arrange for them to see each other today.

After lunch, Ryan was sitting on his bed reading a comic book. He did have homework to do, but he figured he had plenty of time to do it. He had the rest of today, Sunday, plus all day tomorrow since it was Columbus Day and they were off from school. He didn't have anything else to do during that time since he couldn't go anywhere, or do anything, or see anyone. And anyway he couldn't do his homework right now. He was having a hard time concentrating on anything because he couldn't stop thinking about Joan.

Seth came into the pool house. "Hey, man. I got something for you."

Ryan took a book from Seth. It was a fairly large paperback book with a red and blue cover. The title was Kavalier and Clay.

"You can't really be my friend until you've read that. And I want it back when you're done. It's like my favorite book."

"I thought On the Road was your favorite book."

Seth rolled his eyes. "On the Road is like my favorite 'road picture' book and Kavalier and Clay is like my favorite 'buddy picture' book."

Ryan laughed a little at that. It was so Seth. Then he thought of something. "Hey, Seth. Could you do me a favor?"

"Sure, buddy."

"Could you call Joan for me? Let her know I've been grounded and can't call her myself until next Sunday?" Ryan had already told Seth about Joan before lunch. And during lunch. And after lunch. He couldn't believe that it took him this long to think of having Seth call her for him.

"Anything to aid the course of true love."

"I didn't say I was in love with her."

"Fine. The course of true like then."

Ryan rolled his eyes at that. Then he got up from the bed and went and got Joan's phone number to give to Seth. He didn't want to take any chances of losing her phone number so he wrote it down on a post-it note and gave that to Seth instead of the original piece of paper.

Seth took it and headed back up to his bedroom. Ryan sat back down on his bed and opened up Seth's book and tried to read it. He didn't get very far because he was distracted. He kept looking up, waiting for Seth to come back from calling Joan. Finally, Ryan saw Seth come walking up the steps from the kitchen and enter the pool house.

"OK, so, I talked to Joan. She sounds like a really nice girl. I wish I met her first."

Ryan warned, "Seth."

Seth grinned and put up his hands, pretending to ward off a blow. "Don't worry, dude, she's all yours. She said to tell you that she's been thinking about you. And she said to tell you to remember that it's worth it, whatever that means."

Seth saw Ryan smile to himself. He figured it must be some kind of inside joke between the two of them.

Seth continued, "So the two of us came up with an idea. She gave me her e-mail address and I gave her mine. She's going to e-mail me. I'll relay the message to you. You give me your reply, and I'll e-mail it back to her."

Ryan thought about it for a second. As far as he could see, that didn't break any rules. There wasn't anything saying that Seth couldn't exchange e-mail with Joan, and there wasn't any rule against Seth and Ryan talking. This could work.

Ryan smiled. "Thanks, man."

Seth smiled back. "Like I said, anything for the course of true like."

Kirsten and Sandy were both in the kitchen. Sandy was working on his famous fajitas for dinner, and Kirsten was sitting at the kitchen table trying to get some work done. After watching Seth walk through to go out to see Ryan in the pool house for the third time in an hour, Kirsten was getting suspicious.

She got up and went over to the French doors and watched Seth talking to Ryan who was sitting up on his bed reading the novel that Seth gave him.

"Sandy?"

Sandy put down the knife he was using to chop lettuce and came over and joined his wife. He put his arm around her waist.

Kirsten continued, "What do you think they're up to?"

"I think Seth is ferrying messages back and forth between Ryan and this girl Joan."

Kirsten looked over at Sandy. She wasn't so sure about that. "Really? You think he likes her that much? To go to this much trouble and recruit Seth into it?"

"Think of this. Ryan was happy to have me talk to Joan's father, Will Girardi, last night, even knowing that of course Will would tell me that Ryan was in Arcadia..."

Kirsten gasped a little bit. That hadn't occurred to her. "He got himself grounded for this girl?"

Sandy nodded.

They both saw Seth start to turn and head back out of the pool house. They quickly separated and went back to their activities. Seth walked back through the kitchen on his way back to his bedroom. He didn't look like he suspected anything.

"Sandy, do you think we should stop them?"

"Technically, they're not breaking any rules. Now if Ryan were in the room while Seth was talking to Joan on the phone, or looking over Seth's shoulder when he was exchanging e-mail with her, then yes, I think that would be bending the rules too much. But as it is, I think we should let it go."

That sounded reasonable to Kirsten. She was glad to see that Ryan had finally moved on from his crush on Marissa.

To Be Continued