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 again for the reviews. Here's a trivia question for my readers. What do all of my original characters' names have in common? They are: Keith, Scott Williamson, Ortiz, Francona, Ramirez, Kim, and Nixon. The answer will be included in the final chapter.

Chapter 8 - Waking Up (Or Not)

"Hey, Newport --"

Ryan interrupted Ortiz. "He's not going to respond to that." Ryan turned to Luke. "Luke! LUKE!"

Luke groaned and turned over on the couch at Ortiz's place.

Ryan grabbed Luke's shoulder and pulled him back over on his back. "Come on, man, you gotta get up now or we'll miss our ride back to the resort."

Luke finally opened his eyes and looked at Ryan. He was still half asleep. "What time is it?"

"It's almost 6. Come on, get up."

"6? Like 6 in the morning?"

"Yeah. We gotta get back before your Dad misses... uh... you."

Luke was finally awake, mostly. He struggled to sit up on the couch, then reached over and pulled his shoes on. Ryan handed him his coat. Luke stood up and pulled it on. Ryan grabbed Luke and pushed him out the door and across the street to Ortiz's friend's house. He had the morning shift at the ski resort. He was waiting for them.

"Hey! Hurry up! I'm gonna be late!"

Ryan told him. "Sorry. My friend here is still a little drunk."

Ryan pushed Luke into the back seat of the car and climbed in after him. As the car pulled away, Ryan called back to Ortiz, "Thanks! Good party!"

When they got back to their room at the resort, both Luke and Ryan climbed into their beds and fell right to sleep.

A few hours later, the alarm clock went off. Ryan reached out and turned it off. It was time to get up for brunch with the group. Ryan got up and looked at Luke. The alarm hadn't woken him at all.

"Luke. Hey, man. Time to get up. Time for brunch."

Luke didn't even stir. Ryan looked and he was still breathing. That's good, anyway. Ryan shrugged to himself. Maybe it would be a good idea to let Luke sleep for a little while longer. He could miss brunch. Ryan went ahead and took his shower and got dressed and headed down to the restaurant.

When Ryan got there, he checked to see if any of the group was there already. He didn't see any of them at any of the tables. Ryan checked his watch. It was just before 10 0'Clock. Looked like he was the first one down today. He didn't want to go ahead and get a table by himself. There was always the chance that he'd be seen by the restaurant manager, or other restaurant staff, and he thought it would be better in that case if he was with his friends instead of alone.

So Ryan stood to the side and waited. When it got to be a few minutes past 10, he considered calling up to Marissa's room or Seth and Summer's room. He wasn't expecting Anna because she probably was already out skiing. It would just be the four of them this morning, with Anna out and Luke out of it.

Just then, a busboy that Ryan didn't recognize came up to him. "Are you Atwood?"

Ryan said, uncertainly, "Yeah..."

"I'm Williamson."

Oops. This was the guy whose shift Ryan worked yesterday. Who everyone at the restaurant thought was his friend. Ryan pulled him to the side so they could talk privately.

"Look, man --"

Williamson interrupted, "I just wanted to thank you."

Ryan looked at him, surprised.

Williamson continued, "You totally bailed me out yesterday. My friend who said he'd take my shift flaked out on me and just didn't show. I thought I'd be in so much trouble when I got in today. I was surprised when they told me that my friend did show up. The other guys said that was you."

"Oh, ah, you're welcome. Glad I could help." Well, that explained a few things.

"By the way, I'm Scott." He put out his hand.

Ryan took Scott's hand and shook it. "Ryan."

Scott smiled. "So we're friends now, right?"

Ryan smiled back. "Yeah."

"So, you're from Chino?" Ryan nodded. "What are you doing here?"

"It's a long story." A really long story. "Where are you from?" Scott looked like he was over 18, so Ryan figured that he was probably from somewhere else and had come here to work.

"Right here in Big Bear City. I still live with my folks."

Ryan and Scott's getting-to-know-you chat was interrupted by a woman in a suit who walked over to them.

"Williamson."

Scott turned to her. "Uh... Mrs. Nixon, this is my friend, Ryan Atwood."

She turned to Ryan. Ryan saw a nametag on her suit which said that she was the assistant manager. Good, that meant that the manager wouldn't be working today. Ryan was a little intimidated by that guy.

"Ah, Atwood. You're the one who worked Williamson's shift yesterday. Mr. Francona told me you did a good job."

"Oh... Uh... Thank you." Ryan was a little surprised that the manager had something good to say about him. He didn't seem to be the type to say anything good about anybody.

"Listen, we're understaffed again today, so if you're looking to make some more money..."

Ryan said quickly, "I'm sorry. I can't today."

Mrs. Nixon smiled at him. "Well, at least I tried."

Ryan smiled back. Mrs. Nixon nodded to Scott and walked away.

Scott turned to Ryan. "I should get back to work."

"Right. Nice to meet you."

After Scott left, Ryan turned around to find Seth right behind him with Summer right behind Seth. Ryan froze.

Seth started in, "What the hell's going on? We come in here, see you talking to a busboy and some woman in a suit and come over here to find her asking you to work today? You were working here yesterday? Weren't you snowboarding with Luke?"

Ryan sighed. He guesssed it was time to tell all.

To Be Continued