Title: Ryan's First Ski Trip

Summary: Ryan and the gang go to a ski resort for the weekend.

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to The O.C..

Author's Notes: Thanks for the reviews. As several of you said, there are many possible storylines based on this setup. I hope you guys like the storyline I've chosen. Note that this is primarily a Ryan story.

Chapter 2 - Saturday Brunch

On Saturday morning, Ryan was lying on his back in his hotel room bed, looking at the ceiling and thinking. He briefly glanced over at the other bed and saw that Luke was still fast asleep. They all agreed last night to sleep in a little and go to brunch at 10 O'Clock as a group, then go off to their chosen activities, more-or-less separately.

But Ryan was a morning person, so he was awake already. He had a hard time sleeping late, even when it would make sense to do so. At times like these, he tried really hard not to remember why he could never sleep late. He occupied his mind thinking of other things.

Ryan continued to stare at the ceiling and think until the alarm clock went off. He reached over and turned it off. There were signs of life from Luke, but it looked to Ryan like he wasn't really awake yet.

"Luke. Hey, man, wake up."

Luke turned over and looked at Ryan. He yawned. "Morning. Hey, why don't you take your shower first?"

Ryan smiled. "Sure."

Ryan got up, grabbed his clothes for the day, and headed into the bathroom to take his shower.

Ryan and Luke were a little late getting down to the resort's restaurant for brunch. Ryan had to wait for Luke to finish getting ready. Luke was not a morning person. At the restaurant, they went directly to the buffet to get their food. While they were there, they both spotted Luke's father sitting at a table nearby, eating his brunch with his friend. Carson saw them too. He waved. Luke waved back, then went back to getting his food.

Once they had filled their plates, Luke and Ryan went over to their table and joined Seth, Summer, Marissa, and Anna. Although by the time they got there, Anna was almost done with her meal, and the others were close to halfway there.

As Ryan and Luke approached the table, Seth snarked, "Well, look who decided to join us."

Ryan gave Seth one of his looks.

As Ryan and Luke sat down, 'heys' were exchanged all around.

Ryan looked at Seth and Summer and joked, "I didn't think I'd see you guys here at all."

Seth tried to glare at Ryan in an imitation of what Ryan does so well, but Seth couldn't pull it off.

Ryan suppressed a smile. "I mean, I thought you guys were going to spend the entire weekend in the hotel room."

Summer glared at Seth and hit him on the arm. "Cohen!"

The rest of the group laughed.

Seth grabbed his arm. "Ow. What? I never said we were going to do that."

"Ryan got the idea from somewhere!"

"He's just kidding. Tell her you're just kidding..."

Ryan was still smiling. He had gotten Seth back pretty good. "Yeah. Just kidding."

Everyone went back to eating their brunch. After a couple of minutes, Anna had finished. "Well, guys. The slopes are calling my name..."

The others responded, "Yeah." "Sure." "Have fun."

Anna smiled at all of them and headed off. At the restaurant doorway, she stopped and looked back at the rest of the gang. She hoped that they didn't think that she was trying to avoid them, especially Ryan and Luke since she left so quickly after they got there. Well, she was kind of trying to avoid Seth and Summer, but she didn't want them to know that.

As the only real skier in the group, she was going to go off skiing by herself on the expert slopes. She really enjoyed skiing by herself. She would put on her headphones and listen to her favorite bands like Death Cab. It was very meditative, a Zen-like experience, especially when she was in the zone -- everything was going well and she wasn't making any mistakes. Anna smiled to herself and went to get changed into her ski clothes.

Ryan watched Anna leave. He was kind of surprised that she had waited this long to go off skiing. Last night, she was the one arguing for them to get up and start their activities earlier. He half expected her to skip having brunch with the rest of them altogether and just go directly out skiing.

Ryan's attention was turned back to the table when he heard Luke say to Seth, Summer, and Marissa. "Have you guys decided what you're doing today?"

"Cohen and I are going to take skiing lessons."

"What? Summer? I never agreed to that. I'm like totally uncoordinated. Ryan's the athlete of the family..."

Summer smiled at Seth, like she was indulging a child. She reached over, put her hand on Seth's face, then leaned over and gave him a quick kiss.

"Um, yeah, ok... Whatever you want, Summer."

The rest of the group worked hard to suppress their laughter.

Summer said, "You have had skiing lessons before, though, right? I mean, hasn't everyone?"

Seth replied, "Um, yeah. A couple of times when I was a kid."

Seth couldn't believe how insensitive Summer was being. Of course not everyone has had skiing lessons. He looked at Summer and tilted his head towards Ryan. Summer looked over there and saw Ryan staring down at his plate, uncomfortable. Summer realized what she just did. She looked back at Seth and mouthed sorry. Seth shrugged. There was nothing she could do about it now.

Ryan stared down at his plate and concentrated on eating. He could tell that everyone was now looking at him. He felt out of place, again. Like he did at Oliver's penthouse when everyone was talking about going to Paris. Ryan assumed that back then, Oliver did it intentionally, leading the conversation towards things that the rich kids had in common that left Ryan out. Right now, he knew that Summer didn't mean to make him feel left out on purpose. She just didn't think sometimes. But that didn't make him feel any less like he didn't belong here, with them.

Seth tried to ease the tension. "So, Ryan, are you really going snowboarding with Luke?"

Ryan looked up at Seth. He shrugged. "Yeah. I guess."

Luke grinned and hit Ryan on the arm, but not very hard. "Get excited. I told you, this is going to be fun."

Ryan gave Luke a half smile.

Last night, Ryan agreed to let Luke teach him how to snowboard, but now he was having second thoughts. In the quick look he had at the mountain last night when they arrived, and then this morning out the window, it looked really high. And he didn't even want to think about the chairlift. Although apparently there was a rope pull part way up the mountain, so he could avoid the chairlift. But Ryan wasn't sure if that was going to be good enough.

Maybe he could have gone through with it last year, but ever since he and Marissa got stuck at the top of the ferris wheel, his fear of heights was worse. He found out later from Seth that Anna arranged for them to stop up there to help him and Marissa work out their differences. It worked, but at the cost of his worsening acrophobia. He didn't blame Anna, though. She didn't know about his phobia.

Ryan looked around and saw that everyone was still looking at him. He wanted to divert their attention elsewhere. So he said, "Marissa? What about you?"

Marissa shrugged. "I don't know."

Marissa played tennis, but she'd never really gotten into winter sports. Of course, she'd been to ski resorts before, and had taken a few skiing lessons, like Summer said, but she wasn't nearly good enough to go skiing with Anna. And she wasn't about to try snowboarding with Luke and Ryan, and she didn't really want to find something to do by herself. I mean, the point of the weekend was to be with her friends, right? She took a quick look at Summer.

Summer could always tell what Marissa was thinking. "Coop, why don't you come with us? Take skiing lessons with Cohen and me?"

Seth glared at Summer. He had wanted to spend time with her alone. Summer gave Seth one of her looks, which were almost as effective as Ryan's. Seth gave in, saying to Marissa, "Yeah. You'll spend the day with us."

Marissa smiled. "OK. Thanks. That would be great."

To Be Continued