Okay, so I started classes, and I should be reading "Much Ado About Nothing" but I felt like this was a better use of my time. So please, since I'm going to fail my Shakespeare class, the least you guys could do is review! It would make me so very, very happy! And since you are all absolutely wonderful, kind people, this is something that you want, right? That's what I thought.

Disclaimer: Right, so I don't own the character so much. I do own "Much Ado About Nothing"....but I don't think that you want it.

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Ryan didn't have enough room in his new bedroom to fit all the things that he had brought from Newport. His clothes didn't fit in the drawers in the small dresser that his father had proudly announced they had stolen from the neighbor's garbage for him. So instead, he took out the t-shirts and the pants that would be acceptable in Chino and placed the rest of the really nice clothes in boxes that he shoved under the bed. There was no closet, because the room itself was the size of a closet. Simply a bed, a dresser, and a small desk with a folding chair, and with these simple furnishings, Ryan barely fit himself. His suit that had become necessary in Newport, now sat under the bed getting wrinkled.

His mother had been surprised to say the least at the amount of things that he came back with, considering what he had left with. She had helped him unpack his things and came upon the three sets of sheets at the bottom of one of the boxes.

"What are these?" Dawn asked holding them up.

"They're sheets," Ryan answered. Obviously, he wanted to say, but he had already been reminded in the car on the way down that sarcasm wasn't accepted in the Atwood home like it had been in the Cohen's.

"Who bought you these?"

"Kirsten."

"Why? Didn't she think we could afford sheets? And all those clothes. Is she trying to show off?"

"No Mom," Ryan said evenly, treading carefully. "She knew I liked the ones in the pool house and she was just trying to do something nice. And the clothes she bought when she bought Seth things. It's just what she does." Ryan thought about all the times that Kirsten would come in with bags upon bags of clothing and thrust a bag in each of the boys' arms.

"More clothes?" Seth would whine. "Mom, do you know how uncool I would become if everyone knew my mother still bought me my clothes?"

"How uncool you would become?" Ryan scoffed, and Seth shot him a dirty look. Kirsten had ignored Seth, instead handing a small bag to Sandy.

"This is for you," she said smiling at him.

"Mom, that's a Victoria's Secret bag," Seth pointed out. "Clearly, unless Dad has started to wear bras, that bag is not for him." Sandy's eyes had widened when he looked in the small bag and then he had looked up at his wife with a grin. Ryan had realized and smacked the back of Seth's head, who then also caught on. "Oh.....ew! No. No. No. There is nothing in that bag.....No! That just made the visual worse! There are Granny panties in that bag, there are Granny panties in that bag. And a robe. And a turtleneck..." They could hear Seth still muttering as he walked out of the kitchen, and Ryan distinctly caught the words "chastity belt" several times.

Dawn had thrown the rest of his things angrily on the bed, and stalked out of the bedroom. Ryan had finished making his bed and placed the last of his things into place. He wasn't big on decorations, and the only ones were two frames sitting on the top of his dresser. One with the picture from the Chrismakkuh card, and the other taken at the debutante ball with Marissa. He sighed as he placed them down and looked around his room.

He had picked this. And he would be happy.

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Kirsten was crying again in bed. Sandy woke up and heard her and just like every night since Ryan had left, he rolled over and placed his arms around her and held her close to him. She was trying to be quiet when she cried and not wake him up. She would roll to the other side of the bed from his embrace and curl herself tightly into a ball and sob silently into one of the down pillows scattered around. But Sandy always heard her, and would always pull her into his arms and let her tears soak through his t-shirt. She would never say anything, instead she let herself cry until she had tired herself out and then she would fall asleep against him. Only when her breathing had evened and he could no longer feel her body convulse with sobs was when he let himself fall asleep.

When Sandy woke up in the morning, Kirsten's side of the bed was empty and he walked downstairs to find her and Seth in the kitchen eating breakfast.

"Good morning," she said looking up at him. Seth had no idea that his mother cried like she did. He had no idea that when Ryan left it had broken her heart.

"Morning," Sandy said reaching into the refrigerator and grabbing the orange juice. "Seth, do you need a ride this morning?"

"Sure," Seth said looking up from his bowl of oatmeal. "If you're offering, I'm not saying no."

"I have that meeting at six, so I won't be home until eight tonight," Kirsten told Sandy. Eight, he knew, meant that she would be dragging herself home exhausted at ten or eleven. Hoping that she would be so exhausted from the long day at work that she would fall right asleep and stay asleep for the entire night. He hoped that she would fall asleep and stay asleep the whole night too.

"Okay," Sandy said. Things were slowly going back to the way that they were before Ryan came. Kirsten was working late, Seth was pulling away, and Sandy could see his perfect, happy family begin to fracture. The phone ringing interrupted them and startled Kirsten who jumped a foot in her seat.

"I'll get it," Seth said standing up and reaching for the cordless phone. "Hello? Hey dude! How's it going? No, we're all okay. How's old Chino Hills High doing? Harbor? Harbor is...well, you know dude, there's just a lot of water polo weirdos walking around all the time with their chests shaved, other than that you know, it's okay." Sandy knew that it was Ryan, and from the excited look on his wife's face, he knew that she did too. Seth continued to ramble on about something that was happening at school that day, and finally smiled as he handed the phone over to his father.

"Ryan? How are you?"

"I'm good," Ryan told him.

"Honestly?"

"Honestly," Ryan assured him. "I was just calling and checking in like you guys had asked."

"Good. Kirsten's going to kill me if I don't hand her the phone, so I'll talk to you later," Sandy said before handing the phone over.

"How are you doing? Did the sheets fit?" Kirsten asked as soon as his voice had said,

"Hi Kirsten." He smiled on his end as Kirsten continued to bombard him with questions.

"How is school? How are you really?"

"I'm really okay, you don't have to worry about me." But he knew, just as she knew, that she would continue to worry about him. "And the sheets fit great, thanks."

"When can you come here for dinner?" Kirsten asked, already planning the menu in her head. They would have his favorite, maybe she would even try to make it herself.

"I don't know."

"Well, you'll let us know right?"

"Of course."

"And school? How is school?"

"School is fine."

"Are you keeping up with your classes?" He didn't tell her that after six months in Harbor, he wasn't just ahead of the rest of his class, he officially knew more than the teacher. He didn't tell her that he was bored in class because what they were learning as advanced classes was what Harbor considered background material.

"Yeah, I'm doing all right," Ryan told her in a non-committed tone.

"Okay, honey, we're worried about you. And we miss you." Kirsten's voice caught on the last part and Ryan picked up on it right away.

"I know," he said. "I miss you guys too." He heard Dave yelling at him to take the garbage out before he left for school and hurriedly told Kirsten that he had to go before he incurred his father's wrath. Dave might have mellowed in prison and realized the errors of his ways, but he hadn't exactly become Mr. Nice Guy. He still could yell, and as Ryan had already found out, he still could hit.

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Marissa, of all people, offered to drive Seth home that afternoon. She caught him on the way to gym class.

"Seth?" She called out and he spun around to face her. "I was just wondering if you wanted a ride home today?" Seth was taken aback but recovered well.

"Sure, that would be great, thanks."

"Okay, so I'll meet you out front after school?"

"Yeah," Seth said. "Front. After school. Got it." So when the bell rang at three, Seth gathered his books, stuffed the ones that he didn't need into his locker, found Summer to say goodbye, and headed out towards the front of the school where Marissa was waiting. They headed towards the car, neither really saying anything, until Marissa finally spoke up.

"I was thinking...my dad thinks that I'm staying after school for a meeting, and my mom thinks that I'm at my dad's, and so no one's going to notice that I'm not there until dinner. And I think that's enough time to go down to Chino and visit Ryan. I wanted to know if you wanted to come with me?" She looked at Seth hopefully, and Seth knew that she didn't want to go by herself. Not that he could blame her. And the truth was that he wanted to go down and see Ryan anyway.

"Well, my mom's working late, and my dad..." Seth shrugged. "He's probably working late too. I can just tell them that I'm staying at the library to finish a paper and that you're driving me home later." Marissa's face broke into a smile.

"Thanks for coming with me Seth," she said happily.

"Not a problem. That's what I'm the best at. Providing protection for poor defenseless girls in questionable areas of town." Marissa raised her eyebrow at him. "Or not," he amended as he climbed into the car.

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Seth stood there nervously on the porch of the house. It was run down and the paint was peeling, but the yard was kept neat, the grass neatly cut and he could hear kids playing down the street. It wasn't nearly as awful as he had expected it to be. He reached out and knocked twice. The door swung open a minute later, and Dawn stood there looking at them in confusion.

"Aren't you that Cohen kid?" She asked. Good, Seth could handle Dawn, and she even seemed as if she was sober. It was Dave Atwood that Seth was a little more fearful of. He had confidence dealing with Dawn. Piece of cake. Seth could be very charming with the parents when he wanted to be.

"Sure am, and this is Ryan's girlfriend, Marissa, we were just wondering if he was home?"

"Hold on," Dawn said closing the door in their faces. Seth and Marissa exchanged a look and the door opened again to reveal Ryan.

"Hey guys," he said giving them a half smile as he wrapped his arms around Marissa and kissed her. It was when he turned his face towards Seth that Seth noticed that black eye.

"What happened?" Seth asked.

"Oh some guys at school," Ryan said. He waved away Seth's concern, and Seth knew that if his mother was there, she would have demanded more answers than that. And somehow, Seth doubted that it had been some guys at school. "But what are you guys doing here?"

"We came to see you," Marissa said smiling at him.

"Dude, why don't you go in and ask if you can eat dinner at our house tonight?" Seth suggested. "We can drive you home again right after." Ryan bit his lip.

"Hold on," he requested and went back into the small house, shutting the door behind him.

"Who do you think did that to him?" Marissa asked Seth in a hushed voice.

"Two guesses," Seth said sarcastically. "Dave and Dave." Ryan emerged before they could say anything else, and he shook his head at the two.

"Thanks for coming to see me, but not tonight."

"When then?" Seth asked.

"Maybe next week?" Ryan replied. Seth nodded.

"Okay, maybe next week," he repeated.

And he and Marissa turned to leave. Ryan gave her a kiss and a hug and then gave Seth a quick hug before turning to go back inside his house. It was when Ryan reached up to get the mail from the mailbox next to the door that Seth saw the bruises on the underside of his arm, and it was in that moment that Seth knew that there was no way that guys at school had given Ryan the black eye.

And that letting Ryan choose for himself might be the biggest mistake that his family had made.

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Ohhh, drama drama, what's going to happen next? I will only tell if you review, so you better get to it! Thanks!