Title: Black Diamonds

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

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

Chapter 10

On Saturday morning, Ryan woke up to find another warm body in bed with him. After he opened his eyes and remembered that he was in the Reeses' guest room, he panicked for just a second thinking what if it was Angela who snuck into his bed? How was he going to explain that one to her parents? Her father would kick his ass. Not literally, thank goodness, but still, he would not be happy.

Ryan was relieved when he looked over to see not the older sister, but the younger one, Maggie. He got out of bed, careful to not disturb the sleeping 3-year-old. Now, if only he could just get her back into her own bed without anybody knowing...

Unfortunately, he didn't get that chance. He heard a knock on the door.

"Ryan? Are you awake? Are you decent?"

Maggie's mother opened the bedroom door slowly and poked her head in. When she saw Ryan standing next to the bed, decently clothed in the tank top and black sweatpants that he usually wore as night clothes, she smiled at him and came in. When she got close enough to see the bed, Ryan gestured towards Maggie. Mrs. Reese looked at her and laughed softly.

She said to Ryan, quietly, to not wake up Maggie, "I should have warned you. She does this all the time. If she's not in our bed in the morning, I can often find her in Sam's or Angela's. We're hoping that she just grows out of this habit and starts to stay in her own bed every night."

Ryan gave Maggie's mother a little smile.

Mrs. Reese reached into the bed and picked up her youngest daughter. Before she left, she looked back over at Ryan. "You know, she almost never goes into a guest's bed. She must really like you."

Ryan gave her a nod and watched her carry Maggie out of the room. He went ahead and took his shower and got dressed then headed down to the kitchen for breakfast. It was kind of weird. In all the times that he'd come over to this house, he'd never been here this early, had never been here for breakfast.

By the time he got down to breakfast, Sam, Angela, and their father were already there. Presumably their mother was still upstairs helping Maggie.

"Morning."

Mr. Reese responded. "Good morning, Ryan. Did you sleep all right?"

"Yeah. Fine. Thanks."

"I hear you had a visitor this morning." At least he looked amused about it.

Sam caught on and gave Ryan a smile. "No way! Maggie was in your bed?"

Ryan smiled back. "Yeah."

Ryan headed for the cabinet and took out a coffee mug. He felt comfortable helping himself. He pretty much knew where everything was and over the months of visiting here, he'd been told just to make himself at home, so he did. Ryan reached for the coffee pot.

"Um, Ryan?"

Ryan stopped with his hand on the coffee pot handle and turned to look at Mr. Reese.

"You drink coffee?"

"Yeah?" Ryan wasn't sure where this was headed.

"We... my wife and I don't think it is such a good idea for teenagers to drink coffee. So we don't allow our kids to drink it, and I only made enough for me and my wife..."

Ryan took his hand off the coffee pot. "Oh, OK, that's cool."

"Sorry."

"No, no, that's OK. I can go without it. It'll be fine."

Ryan put the mug back in the cabinet and took out a glass and poured himself some orange juice. Then he sat down at the table and helped himself to the breakfast foods.

Once he was all settled in and eating, Sam spoke up. "So, hey, Ryan. What do you want to do today? I was thinking we could go down to the beach, have lunch at the pier, maybe see a movie? I don't know..."

Angela jumped in. "Hey, that sounds great!"

Sam glared at his sister. "You're not invited."

Angela turned towards her father and whined, "Dad --"

"Angela, honey, why don't you let Sam and Ryan spend the day together. Ryan's here for three more days. I'm sure you can find some time to hang out with him later. Besides, didn't you just hang out with him and Sam yesterday?"

"Yeah, but..."

"Honey."

Angela sighed, conceding defeat. Ryan and Sam exchanged a look. They didn't want Angela tagging along all day.

Ryan replied to Sam, "Yeah, that sounds great. But I have a lot of homework this weekend, so if we're out today, I'll have to study tomorrow, so..."

"That's OK. I have my own studying to do tomorrow."

"Cool."

So after breakfast, Sam and Ryan took Sam's car and headed down to the beach. They hung out, Ryan got himself some coffee, and they just had a nice relaxing day.

On Sunday morning, Ryan woke up earlier than usual. He found Maggie in his bed again. She was so cute sleeping there. Ryan went ahead and got up and got dressed, in the bathroom, with the door locked. When he got out, Maggie was already awake.

When she saw Ryan, she stood up on the bed and held out her hands to him. "Ryan!"

"Morning, munchkin." Ryan went over and picked her up. "Want to help me cook breakfast?"

Maggie jumped up and down, or actually, the equivalent since she was in Ryan's arms. "Yay!"

Ryan didn't know what her morning routine was, so he didn't try and get her dressed or anything. He took her to the bathroom, then brought her down to the kitchen in her jammies. He was making the Reeses breakfast to thank them for having him over for the weekend. At home, he didn't often make breakfast for the whole family, but sometimes he made like eggs and bacon for himself, as a break from the usual cereal or bagels. But he still remembered how to do breakfast for the whole family.

Mr. and Mrs. Reese arrived in the kitchen together a little later, when Ryan's cooking was in full swing. Mrs. Reese came over to see what all was going on.

"Wow, Ryan, you're cooking us breakfast?"

Ryan was a little embarrassed. "Yeah. I just thought... you know..."

She smiled at him. "That's great. Thank you."

Ryan smiled and nodded back at her, then went back to his cooking.

Mrs. Reese went over to Maggie, who was sitting on one of the kitchen island stools, eating some shredded cheese that Ryan had given her from the omelet that he was making. "Morning, little one. What are you doing?"

"Helping my brother!"

Ryan had to smile at that. Sam had been right. Maggie had continued to refer to him as her brother, ever since Angela had joked about it so long ago. She was like a dog with a bone, as they say.

"And you're doing a very good job, too." Maggie's mother held out her hand. "Come on, let's get you ready for church." She helped Maggie jump down from the stool and led her out of the kitchen towards the stairs.

Mr. Reese went over and started making the coffee. Ryan hadn't made any, trying to honor their rules about no coffee for the kids. And besides, yesterday, not having coffee at breakfast, he realized how dependent he was on the caffeine. He decided to try and cut down.

"Ryan, we're going to church after breakfast. 10 O'Clock service. If you want to, you can join us..."

"Um, no, I don't think so, if that's OK. I'll just stay here and study."

Ryan's family hadn't been much into the religion. Ryan wasn't sure if he'd even ever been inside a church, except for a couple of times that Theresa had dragged him along with her.

"Sure, that's fine."

Ryan went back to his cooking and finished the breakfast. By the time he was done, the entire family was there and enjoyed it. Ryan got a little embarrassed by all the thank you's and this is delicious's. After breakfast, Sam, Angela, Maggie, and their parents left for church, leaving Ryan alone in their house. It was strange. He'd never been alone in their house before. Sam, at least, had always been there when he was there. A lot of firsts this weekend.

After cleaning up after breakfast, Ryan holed up in the guest room, working on his project and studying for his test. He was pretty much there all day, with a break for lunch and another for dinner. At times, he really missed the caffeine, what with no coffee and no Coke in the house. Maybe this wasn't the best day to try to cut down. But he plowed his way through and managed to finish all of his school work.

To Be Continued