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..

Chapter 11 - After Brunch

After Seth and Summer headed off to go hot tubbing, that left Ryan and Marissa alone together. They looked at each other, a little uncomfortable. Ever since they broke up, with the whole Oliver thing, they were not very comfortable being alone together. It was awkward. But they decided to give it another try.

Marissa suggested, "Why don't we get some coffee and sit down near the fireplace, where we were last night after dinner?"

Ryan smiled. "Sure."

So that's what they did. They sat and they made smalltalk about school, their families, whatever they could think of. They quickly ran out of comfortable topics.

Finally, Marissa got up the courage to ask, "So, how's Theresa?"

Marissa didn't really want to remind Ryan of his ex-girlfriend from home, but she did really want to know what Ryan and Theresa's status was now.

Ryan shrugged. "I haven't seen her since Valentine's Day. But I'll probably see her again soon. She said she was going to be coming out here on a regular basis for catering work." Ryan paused. He forgot where he was for a moment. "Of course, I don't mean she'd be coming here, as in Big Bear. You know what I meant -- coming to Newport."

Ryan and Marissa exchanged a bit of an embarrassed smile. But Marissa's question about Theresa made Ryan think. It was really nice to see her on Valentine's Day. Until he saw her, he hadn't realized how much he'd missed his friends from home, Theresa in particular. Maybe it was seeing her recently that made him homesick enough to want to hang out with the people who worked at the restaurant here, and then to go to the house party. That was something to think about.

After talking about Theresa, Ryan and Marissa sat in an uncomfortable silence briefly.

Ryan got an idea. "Hey, why don't we crash Seth and Summer's alone time in the hot tub. Can't let them spend the entire weekend alone together..."

"Sure." Marissa smiled. Maybe Ryan wanted to be in the hot tub with her. Well, a girl can dream, can't she?

Ryan and Marissa finished their coffees and headed upstairs to their rooms to get their swimsuits. Ryan thought Kirsten was crazy when she told him to bring his swimsuit to a ski resort, but now he was glad that he listened to her.

When Ryan got to the room, he found that Luke was still in bed, but wasn't totally out of it like before brunch.

"Hey."

"Hey. How are you doing?"

"Better. What time is it?"

"Late. We've already had brunch. So listen, your Dad was looking for you. He figured out that you were out drinking last night." Luke groaned. Ryan continued, "He told me to tell you that he'd deal with it after you guys got home."

Luke was relieved. At least he'd have the rest of the day to have fun, which reminded him, "So what are the plans for today?"

"We're all going to meet up at 1 O'Clock and then go tubing. That gives Anna time to get back from skiing, and gives you a little more time to wake up and get ready. Right now Marissa and I are going to join Seth and Summer in the hot tub."

"Ooh. You and Marissa in the hot tub. Are you guys getting back together?"

"No, we're not." Not yet, anyway. Maybe someday...

Ryan grabbed his swimsuit and went out to meet Marissa in the hallway and they headed down to the locker room next to the pool area to change. On the way, they stopped at the front desk to leave a message for Anna about where they all were and what the plans for the day were.

After changing into their suits in their respective locker rooms, Ryan and Marissa went out to the pool area, to the hot tub. They had to laugh as they approached and saw Seth and Summer all over each other. Seth and Summer heard the laughter and turned to see Ryan and Marissa. They quickly broke apart.

Seth said, "Hey. What are you guys doing here?"

As Ryan and Marissa climbed into the hot tub, Ryan replied, "Soaking in the hot tub sounded really good. So we thought we'd join you. Thanks for suggesting it."

Ryan and Marissa had to smile as Seth tried to give them the stare of death, and failed utterly.

After Anna finished her half-day of skiing, she headed back to the lodge. She stopped at the front desk to check for a message from the gang. She was pleased to read that they were waiting for her to go snow tubing. She couldn't believe how nice everyone was being towards her. Not that any of them had ever not been nice to her, but she wasn't really an inner member of the group. She was really only close to Seth, and somewhat Summer after that whole triangle thing they were part of.

It was thoughtful of Marissa yesterday to suggest that she ski only a half day and join the rest of them in the afternoon. It would be nice to spend some time with the rest of the group. Anna headed upstairs to her room to change out of her ski clothes, smiling to herself.

Luke finally dragged himself out of bed. He still wasn't feeling so good, but he thought that maybe if he took a shower, got dressed, and got something to eat, that he'd feel better. Besides, he didn't want to spend the entire day in bed. Ryan said they were all going to go out snow tubing. He always had fun tubing. He didn't want to miss it.

So Luke got up, took a shower, got dressed, and headed down to the restaurant to try and grab a light lunch before he had to meet up with the rest of the guys.

Seth, Summer, Ryan, and Marissa soaked in the hot tub, and splashed around in the pool, and generally just had some mindless fun until it was time to get out of the water and get ready to go tubing. They all went ahead and took showers in the locker rooms and got dressed back into their regular clothes.

At 1 O'Clock all six of them caught up with each other in the hallway outside of their rooms, and headed outside to have some fun in the snow.

To Be Continued