Title: Black Diamonds

Summary: Ryan makes friends with an African-American student at Harbor.

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

Author's Notes: elzed: I had this story and this character in my head before BonnieD's challenge over at TWoP, but her challenge encouraged me to write it down and share it with y'all.

Chapter 2

Sam and Ryan got their lunches in the cafeteria and headed outside to the tables. Ryan stopped and looked around to see if any of the gang was there already and had snagged a table. He didn't see any of them.

Ryan turned to Sam. "Looks like we got here first. Come on. We usually sit over here."

Ryan led Sam to the area where he and Marissa and Seth and Anna, and sometimes Summer, usually sat. Of course, it wasn't always the four, or five, of them eating together. In fact, Ryan wasn't sure if all of them had eaten lunch together yet. It always seemed that one or two were missing for one reason or another. Today, Ryan knew that Seth was going to be there, and Marissa wasn't, and he wasn't sure about Anna.

Ryan found an empty table and sat down. Sam sat down across the table from him. They both started to eat. As he ate, Ryan tried to figure out how to start a conversation, since apparently Sam wasn't going to start one. Then he saw Seth approaching and was able to relax. He could just let Seth do the talking. Much easier.

Seth sat down at the table and held out his hand to Sam. "You must be Sam. Seth Cohen."

Sam shook Seth's hand. "Sam Reese."

Seth started the interrogation as he started to eat. "You're new here, right? Did you just move to Newport?"

Ryan smiled to himself and hid it by taking a bite of his cheeseburger. He could always rely on Seth to jump right in and start asking people questions. Of course, Ryan wanted to know the answers, too, but he didn't want to pry. Seth didn't care if he was prying. Gotta love him.

Sam didn't seem to mind the questions. "Uh, no. Actually, my family's lived in Newport for a long time."

"Yeah? Where'd you go to school before this?"

"Newport Union."

That got Ryan's attention. "Really? That's where I almost went, if I didn't get in here. How is it, you know, as a public school? It's got to be good, right? Being in Newport and all." A lot better than Chino Hills, at any rate...

"Yeah, it's one of the top public schools in California." Sam sat back and looked around. "Not as good as a private school like Harbor, of course."

Seth jumped on that. "Is that why you changed schools? Because Harbor's better?"

"No, not really. Well, kind of..."

Sam leaned forward and took a bite of his lunch. Ryan could see that Seth was jumping out of his skin, waiting for Sam to explain that.

"My sister, Angela, she's a freshman." Ryan nodded. That would be the girl that Ryan had seen Sam walking with. "She wanted to go here. Actually, Dr. Kim recruited her. She's really smart. Plus I guess Harbor, you know, wanted to do the diversity thing."

Sam shrugged and took another bite of his lunch, and drank some of his soda. Then he continued.

"So, she was all set to come, and she wanted to come, but she got a little scared, of being here..." Sam used both arms to gesture around, indicating he meant all of Harbor. "... all by herself. So my parents got this brilliant idea that I should go here too, with her. So I applied, and I got in, and here I am."

Sam took another bite of food, then looked up at Seth and Ryan. "What about you guys?"

Sam watched Ryan and Seth look at each other a little strangely. Ryan in particular looked a little uncomfortable at the question. Sam guessed that it might have something to do with why Ryan was being ignored by the other students in pre-calc. He hoped that he'd get to hear Ryan's story. He figured that he deserved it after telling Seth and Ryan his story.

Sam smiled to himself about that. He didn't usually talk so much, but there was something about this kid Seth that just encouraged a person to open up to him. Unlike his friend Ryan, who seemed to be as quiet as Sam usually was.

Sam watched with interest as Ryan turned away from Seth and looked down and picked at his food, but didn't eat.

Seth looked at Sam and started to talk. "Well... My history is pretty boring, actually. I've been living in Newport since first grade and going to private schools all along. Not much to tell."

Sam nodded. They both turned to Ryan, who was still looking down.

Seth spoke softly. "Ryan." Ryan looked up. "You don't have to --"

"Nah, it's cool." Ryan looked over at Sam. "It's not really a secret."

Now Sam was intrigued. When Ryan didn't say anything else, Sam looked at Seth. Seth cleared his throat and after a quick glance at Ryan, addressed Sam.

"Have you heard about 'the kid from Chino' yet?"

Sam could practically feel his mouth drop open. He looked at Ryan. Of course he'd heard the rumors about 'the kid from Chino'. Even as isolated as he was from the rest of the student body, he couldn't avoid it. But he never would have thought it was Ryan.

"You? You're the kid from Chino? Who steals cars and sets people's houses on fire? Wow... you... you're not exactly... what I was expecting."

Sam could see Ryan trying to fight a smile. At least he put Ryan into a better mood, although he wasn't exactly sure how he did it.

Ryan finally couldn't contain it anymore and broke out in a smile. "What were you expecting?"

"I..." Sam had to think. What was he expecting? "I don't know. Not you, I can tell you that. You.. you look like a model or something. Like someone in an Abercrombie and Fitch catalog."

Ryan actually laughed softly at that. Then he turned thoughtful.

"You know what you said about steals cars and sets people's houses on fire?" Ryan turned to Seth. "That's exactly what Anna said. Word for word."

Sam asked, "Anna?"

Ryan turned back to Sam. "Anna Stern. A friend of ours. She's also new here. She just moved to Newport from Pittsburgh." Sam nodded.

Seth suggested, "They probably heard the same rumors."

"Yeah, sounds like." Ryan turned to Sam. "What exactly have you heard about me?"

When Sam hesitated, Ryan encouraged him. "I want to know what people are saying about me behind my back."

Sam could understand that. He nodded. "Yeah, OK."

Sam stopped to think. What exactly had he heard? "Um... OK... Well... I don't remember exactly. I try not to pay too much attention to these things. Let's see... There was something about someone getting shot by, like, you and a friend of yours. And... you like to set fires, in people's houses and stuff, if they piss you off. Something about a car theft ring... I don't know... Oh, and, you beat the crap out of anyone who gets in your way..."

At this point, Sam looked at Ryan and figured he should shut up now. He looked like he was getting a little pissed off. So did Seth. After a moment, Ryan took a deep breath and seemed to get his emotions under control.

"Do you want to know the truth?"

"Sure, of course."

"There was one fire. It was an accident. It was in a house that was under construction. No one lived there. And there was one car. My brother talked me into going with him when he stole it."

Seth continued the explanations. "And the shooting, it totally wasn't Ryan's fault. This guy -- that Ryan barely knew -- had this gun. Ryan jumped him to try and stop anyone from getting hurt. The gun went off by accident. A guy got shot in the arm. He's fine now."

Sam nodded. He'd have to think about all of this later to get it straight in his head.

They all went back to eating and finished their lunches in uncomfortable silence.

As they were getting up, Seth asked Ryan, "Are you coming home after soccer practice tonight or are you going to see Marissa?"

Ryan answered, "I'm coming home. Marissa's busy tonight."

Sam was confused at that exchange, and apparently he looked it, because Ryan gave him an explanation.

"I live with Seth's family."

"Oh, right, OK."

The three of them then went and got rid of their lunch trays and headed off to their separate afternoon classes.

To Be Continued