Sorry it's been taking me so long between updates. This story isn't flowing as well as the last one. And I'm also pretty busy. Please read and review. And as usual, I don't own the O.C. or any of its characters. They are the sole ownership of Josh Schwartz and the entourage at Fox TV.

"Cohen!"

Summer bounded up to Seth in the hallway, her lips were curled into an ugly scowl. Despite her obvious anger, Seth couldn't help noticing how beautiful she was. Her dark hair was wavy today and it cascaded down past her shoulders. But her brown eyes were on fire. Rage blackout, he thought.

"Cohen!" she demanded, "Why are you avoiding me?"

"Avoiding you?" spluttered Seth. "I'm not avoiding you."

"We may not share the same schedule, but we're all dismissed at the same time. We can do stuff after school and you totally bailed yesterday."

"I'm sorry!" he said, "But I went to a friend's house."

Summer softened. "At least you could have stuck around long enough to tell me you were going," she said softly. "It's like you don't like me anymore. I miss you."

Seth pulled Summer against his chest and held her tightly. He forgot about his girlfriend's vulnerable side, because she was so often putting up this tough girl demeanor. He kissed the top of her head and murmured reassuring words when Mr. Tolliver stopped next to them and said, "No PDAs in the hall Mr. Cohen."

Summer squirmed out from under Seth's grasp, but Seth coolly replied, "I don't have one, sir. I know, I know," he said, holding up his hands. "Everyone has one. But my parents won't get me one. They told me a cell phone, a laptop and a computer, were enough gadgets for one teenager. I tried to explain that everyone had one-"

Mr. Tolliver cut him off. "Mr. Cohen, just keep your hands to yourself and concentrate on your education," the teacher warned.

As soon as Tolliver was out of earshot, Summer slapped Seth's chest. "Owe," he cried.

"I can't believe you just said that to a teacher." But she was laughing.

Seth smiled wryly, feeling like himself for the first time in a long time. Maybe things weren't that great at home, but Summer would always be his girl. She could always set things right.

"I promise I won't go anywhere after school today. I'll wait for you at dismissal and then we'll do something special."

"That's better," she said.

The bell rang and they had to go in different directions, but Seth stood for a moment and watched his girlfriend walk off. She was shaking her head and muttering to herself, "I can't believe he just said that to Tolliver."

Barely able to hide his delight, Seth turned and headed towards his class. Suddenly, Mitch was beside him, matching him stride for stride.

"You look happy today," his new friend remarked.

"I woke up on the right side of the bed."

"As opposed to the left one?"

"Actually as opposed to under the bed."

Mitch didn't bat an eyelash at Seth's bizarre comment. "What are you doing after school?"

"I'm meeting up with Summer. I'd invite you along, but we need some one-on-one time together. But how about if you meet up with us for a little bit so I can introduce you to her."

Mitch smiled. "No need. I'll meet her some other time. If I had a girlfriend, I wouldn't want a third wheel tagging along."

Seth blushed. He had never wanted to be one of those guys who was so wrapped up in his girlfriend that he had not time for anyone else. He stole a sideways glance at Mitch, but realized his friend didn't seem perturbed at all. Maybe he was just reading into it, presuming Mitch would feel the way Seth would feel if their roles were reversed.

"Thanks for inviting me to your place. We can do it again some time soon."

"I'd like that. Did your parents freak on you when you got home? You were sort of antsy when you left because you hadn't called home."

Suddenly, Seth's good humor evaporated. He recalled how no one noticed that he had come home, let alone that he had been gone. After he had talked to Ryan, he had turned on his computer to catch up on his e-mail and to use the Net to do some research for his English paper. He could hear his parents fussing over the baby. She was crying a lot and Kirsten sounded frustrated at their inability to calm her down. When the baby got like that, Seth knew he could break the sound barrier and his parents wouldn't notice.

"They were fine about it," Seth said curtly. "I worried for nothing."

At lunch, Ryan and Marissa curled up in the corner of the student lounge. Marissa chose a hot pretzel for lunch and Ryan was feeding it to her piece by piece.

"Can I join?" Summer asked, plopping down beside them.

"Sure," Marissa answered brightly. She straightened up a little in her friend's presence.

"Oh go back to whatever you're doing," she sighed. "I miss Seth. Our schedules are polar opposites this year. I never get to see him."

"Yeah," Ryan agreed quietly. "I know what you mean."

Marissa gave Ryan a puzzled look. "What do you mean?" she asked. "You live in the same house, don't you? Seth isn't exactly the social butterfly and lately, you haven't been one either."

Ryan recalled last night. Seth hadn't come home that late, though it wasn't like he had called to warn anyone that he would be gone at all. But as soon as he had come home, Seth had stayed in his room. Lately, it seemed like Seth was spending a lot of time in his room. He was barely playing with his Play Station, which used to be his brother's favorite pass time.

"He's just spending a lot of time away from home or in his room," Ryan explained. "The baby can be really loud sometimes," he offered by way of explanation.

"Who's he spending time with?" asked Summer.

Ryan shrugged.

"Who did he become friendly with?" Summer asked.

"Maybe one of the new kids," Marissa suggested.

"There aren't too many new kids."

"There's one in my Advanced Bio class," Summer said. "He's a redhead. Michael?" She shook her head. "Matthew? No. Oh, I got it," she snapped her fingers. "Mitch somebody. That's his name."

"I know who you're talking about," Marissa said. "I think he takes English with me. He reminds me of Seth."

Ryan gave Marissa a puzzled look.

"He's pale like Seth. Though he has red hair and freckles. But he's tall and built like Seth and they share a sense of humor."

"You mean this Mitch guy is weird?" Ryan asked.

Marissa laughed. "Yeah. Sort of. He mostly keeps to himself. I don't see him hanging around with anyone. Of course, it doesn't look like he has lunch now."

Ryan leaned forward and looked around the room. "Don't see any redheads here."

"Of course, he could always hang out somewhere else." Summer broke a off a piece of Marissa's hot pretzel. "I'll ask Seth about him after school. He promised me we'd do something together."

The bell rang, signaling the end of the period. Reluctantly, the teens got up, gathering their things so that they could go back to class.

"Where's Seth?" asked Kirsten, walking into the kitchen.

Ryan looked up from the pot he was stirring, surprised to see Kirsten in the kitchen at this hour. Usually, if her hands weren't full with Christina, she was holed up in the den, looking over plans for Caleb. She rarely noticed if he or Seth was around.

"He's out with Summer."

Ryan took a handful of spaghetti and cracked it in half before dumping it into the pot of boiling water. It was nearly time for dinner and Ryan had decided to cook something instead of waiting to see if Sandy or Kirsten could figure out where to order. He wasn't cooking anything fancy, just some pasta with sauce from a jar.

Kirsten went to the fridge and took out a bag of lettuce and some vegetables. "I can still cut a salad with the best of them."

Ryan smiled.

She took the knife from the drawer and started cutting a cucumber. "I feel like I don't know what you boys are up to anymore. I don't even remember asking you about school."

"You did," reassured Ryan. "And it's still fine."

Kirsten took a deep breath. "I know we haven't been very attentive since Christina Hope was born —"

"It's okay. You have a lot on your plate."

"No. It's not." But Kirsten didn't have a chance to finish.

Seth breezed into the kitchen. "What no takeout?" he asked, opening up the fridge and rummaging around until he found a tapioca pudding. He pulled out a spoon and started eating while leaning against the counter. It was the most upbeat Ryan had seen Seth in weeks.

"Had a good time with Seth?"

"Yes I did. How about you? It doesn't matter. Listen, Ryan, Summer was grilling me all afternoon about who I'm hanging out with and it made me realize that you haven't met Mitch."

"The redhead?" asked Ryan.

"Who's Mitch," Kirsten jumped in.

Seth ignored his mother. "Yeah, the redhead. Do you know him?"

Ryan shook his head. "Marissa and Summer were describing him today at lunch. They take some classes with him."

"Who's Mitch?" Kirsten repeated.

"A new kid in school," Ryan explained.

"How about we meet up with him later on tonight?"

Ryan looked to Kirsten. "Okay," he said slowly, waiting to see if Kirsten would object. She didn't. She made herself busy with the salad, taking down a bowl and tearing the lettuce into smaller pieces, then dumping it into the bowl.

"Great," Seth said, slamming his hand on the counter. He licked the pudding off of his spoon and said, "I'll go call Mitch now."

"Seth," called Kirsten. "What about your homework? You just got home."

Seth tried not to roll his eyes. He was surprised his mother even remembered that he was still in school. "Don't worry about it." He ran out of the kitchen and Kirsten and Ryan could hear him bounding up the steps.

But at dinner, Seth just poked at his food. He had called Mitch who declined the night out. He told Seth he had to go somewhere with his father, but that would definitely do it another time. Ryan didn't care either way about meeting Mitch, he had only agreed for Seth's sake and seeing Seth so despondent over his friend's refusal to go out made him like this kid less and less.

"We can go out anyway," Ryan offered.

"Nah," Seth said. "We'll save it for another night. I'm going to get some work done before Hope starts screaming again."

He left the kitchen with Kirsten calling after him that he hadn't finished his dinner.

"I'm not hungry, Mom," he explained over his shoulder.

"I'll go talk to him," Ryan said.

As he walked out of the room, Kirsten muttered to her husband, "You used to do that."

"Seth." Ryan knocked lightly on his brother's bedroom door. He poked his head into the room. He couldn't see Seth because of the long corridor before the room opened up, so Ryan walked in. Seth had his earphones on and was in front of the computer. "Seth," Ryan said again, touching his brother on the shoulder.

Seth jumped and turned around. "You startled me," he said, pulling out his earphones.

"Sorry. I was just coming to check on you. You seem down."

"I'm fine. Really," Seth said, forcing false cheer into his voice.

"Watchya working on?"

"Just surfing." Seth clicked on something. "Did you know that there's no such thing as being a half Jew?" He turned back to the computer and typed something in. "According to the Jewish religion a person is only a Jew if his mother is only a Jew."

"Maybe you can use that on Jeopardy," Ryan said.

"You don't get it."

"Am I missing something?"

"I'm not Jewish. Never was. Dad's Jewish, but I'm not because Mom didn't convert before I was born."

"Oh."

"So my bar mitzvah was bogus. All those Hebrew lessons they made me take before the bar mitzvah were just as bogus. Not to mention all those Passover Seders I went to and Chrismukkah. Who needed to combine the holidays, I had not business celebrating Chanukah at all!"

"Chill, Seth. It's not the end of the world." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Ryan knew he had said the wrong thing.

"I was always Seth Cohen, the Jewish geek. Now I'm just Seth Cohen the geek. Can't even blame it on being Jewish anymore."

Ryan sat down. "I don't get it. You're still the same Seth Cohen to me. I mean your dad probably knew this. It didn't matter to him. He wanted to share his heritage with you and that's why he had you celebrate in all his traditions, so you could be close. It doesn't change things."

"It does. It's not like we're even close lately. They're so wrapped up in the baby."

"I know."

"You miss their hovering?" Seth asked.

"Yes," admitted Ryan.

"Me too. It was kind of nice that Mom noticed I didn't eat and her asking about my homework."

"Yeah. I know what you mean."

Ryan's thoughts raced back to his conversation with Kirsten in the kitchen earlier that evening. It was the first time in days that she had woken up from her stupor to pay attention to what was going on in his life. But he was cut out from different material than Seth. He'd been through this before with his first mother, Dawn. Seth only had Kirsten and Sandy the doting parents.

"I love Hope," Seth said quietly, "but I never imagined she would change things so much."

Seth turned back to his computer, embarrassed that he had said so much to Ryan. He aimlessly clicked on the website that was up on the screen, pretending to be engrossed so his brother would leave the room. It took a few minutes, but eventually, Ryan got the hint.