Title: Black Diamonds

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

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

Chapter 14

Ryan was awake early on Friday morning. It wasn't time to get up and get ready for school yet, so he lay in bed in the pool house, staring up at the ceiling. It was weird. It was familiar and yet not quite so familiar. The Reeses' pool house was laid out the same as the Cohens', with the bathroom, and the mini-kitchen, and the three walls made of windows. But the decor was completely different, and the Reeses' pool house was all one one level -- there were no stairs inside. The bed was a pull-out sofa bed and was in the middle of the room, approximately in the same place as the one at the Cohens'.

Ryan couldn't get back to sleep. He kept trying to talk himself out of what he was feeling, but it wasn't working. He was feeling hurt that Sandy and Kirsten didn't want him at home, which was stupid because it was only because Seth was sick, and he didn't want to catch the flu anyway, and he agreed to stay here, and it was just for the weekend. Dispite all that, he kept feeling like the Cohens were rejecting him. Which made no sense and was totally irrational and illogical.

But Ryan knew from experience that how you felt about something often had nothing to do with logic or reality. But he had to cut off that line of thinking, because it would just lead to his mother, and he didn't want to go there.

So Ryan distracted himself by instead working on getting into character, into the role he was going to be playing this weekend. He imagined that he really lived here, that Sam and Angela and Maggie were his actual pseudo-siblings, and Henry and Gwen were his actual legal guardians. He imagined what the last month might have been like, living in this house with this family.

When it was time, Ryan got up and went through his normal morning routine in the pool house. It seemed like home. But then when he went inside for breakfast, it was the Reese family routine, not the Cohen family routine. It was just like it was when he was staying over here last month. He could easily imagine that he never left, that he'd been doing it this way for the entire time in between.

And Ryan went to school the same way in Sam's car, and went to the student lounge in the same way to get coffee. And like last time, Seth wasn't in school. Although this time it was because he was sick.

One thing which was different was in his western civilization class that he had with Marissa. He and Marissa were much closer now than they were a month ago, after all the drama with Luke and Julie, and with Ryan chasing Marissa down at Theresa and Eddie's engagement party in Chino. Ryan had seriously been thinking about getting back together with Marissa, but he hadn't quite made a move in that direction yet.

When Ryan walked into western civ and saw Marissa, he suddenly remembered that he was supposed to spend the afternoon and evening with her. Marissa was still fragile after finding out about Luke and her mother, and Ryan and Summer and Seth didn't want to leave Marissa alone for too long a time. Plus, of course, Ryan had wanted to stay away from home and sick Seth. Ryan couldn't believe that he'd totally forgotten about this yesterday, in all the excitement.

The plan was for Ryan to be with Marissa today. Then Summer wanted girl-time with her on Saturday, since Seth was sick and she didn't want to get the flu, either. Then Sunday being Easter, Marissa was spending it with her family. So Ryan was free to spend the weekend at Sam's, but he had promised Marissa to spend today with her.

When Ryan sat down next to Marissa, she smiled at him and asked, "So, we're still on for after school, right?"

"Um... actually... I need to talk to you about that."

Marissa's smile faded. "Why? Did something happen?"

"It's just... Last night I arranged to spend the weekend at Sam's, you know, to stay out of the house and away from Seth? And I'm not sure what the plan for today is. I'll have to check and get back to you, OK?"

Ryan didn't mention to Marissa about the plan to do a practical joke, or whatever you want to call it, on Sam's uncle. It was just too weird and hard to explain.

Marissa looked a little disappointed. She sighed. "Yeah, OK."

Ryan smiled at her and wanted to reassure her, but Mr. Bendis started class and they couldn't talk any more.

When Ryan got to pre-calc, he sat down in his usual seat next to Sam and brought up the topic.

"Hey, Sam, are there any plans for today, you know, after school or this evening, like with your parents or anything?"

"Not that I know of, why?"

"Good. I told Marissa I'd spent the day with her."

"Did you tell my parents?"

"No. I forgot about it yesterday, with everything that happened."

"You should tell them before you go." Ryan rolled his eyes. Sam saw that. "Come on, man, you know that they always want to know where we go. You don't want a repeat of last time, right? Besides, you can think of it as practice, like as if you really lived with us. You can call my Mom at lunch."

Ryan sighed. It was a little ridiculous, telling the parental units wherever you went, but Sam was right about if he really lived with them.

"Yeah, OK, I guess." But Ryan wasn't sure what he'd do if Gwen said no.

So before lunch, Ryan borrowed Sam's cell phone and called Gwen.

"Hi, Sam --" Gwen must have seen Sam's cell number on the caller id.

"Uh, no, it's Ryan."

"Oh, hi, Ryan, is something up?"

"Um, yeah, um, I was going to go over Marissa's house after school. Sam thought I should let you know."

"Oh, OK, that should be OK. What time were you planning on coming home? In time for dinner?" OK, that sounded weird, Gwen calling their house home.

"Actually, I was going to have dinner with Marissa."

"If you don't mind, I'd rather if you had dinner with us. We still have some stuff to discuss about our plans for the weekend. And if you were living with us, we'd prefer to have you home for dinner, unless there's something important, or unless it is a date..."

"Um, no, Marissa and I aren't dating right now."

Gwen and Henry knew that Ryan had been dating Marissa earlier in the year. They had met Marissa, along with the rest of the gang, since they were all friends with Sam, and as usual Gwen and Henry wanted to meet all of their kids' friends.

"OK, so, what do you think of going to Marissa's in the afternoon and then coming back to our house in time for dinner? Say, 6 O'Clock?"

Ryan thought about it. Marissa's Dad should be home by then, so she wouldn't be home alone for too long. "I guess that would be OK."

"Great. We'll see you for dinner, then."

"OK."

Ryan hung up the phone and handed it back to Sam. OK, that was just weird. He just asked someone who wasn't his parent or guardian for permission to hang out with his almost-girlfriend. It had been a very weird Friday.

But Ryan did as he was asked. He went home with Marissa and hung out with her at her Dad's townhouse, then headed back to the Reeses' in time for dinner at 6 O'Clock. During dinner, they all talked over some more details of the plan for the weekend. And Henry reminded Ryan of the family rules that he learned the last time he was there, and would know very well if he'd been living with their family for the last month.

After dinner, Gwen had a proposal for Ryan.

"Ryan, I'm going food shopping to get what we'll need for the weekend. Why don't you come with me?"

Ryan was quite surprised. "Me?"

"Yeah. You. We also need to get food that you like, you know, like we'd have if you lived here. Come on, it'll be fun."

Ryan wasn't quite sure what to make of this. Spending time alone with Gwen? In public? Add another weirdness to this day. Kirsten never asked him to go food shopping with her. Usually she just went alone.

Gwen grabbed her car keys. She wasn't about to take no for an answer. "Let's go, Ryan. We can let Henry and Sam and Angela clean up the dishes."

Ryan glanced at Sam, who shrugged. So Ryan shrugged too, and followed Gwen out the door.

At the supermarket, Gwen got all the stuff that they'd need for Easter dinner, and the foods that she knew Nathan and Beverly would want. Ryan reluctantly let her know what stuff he liked, and she added them to her cart. Ryan was surprised when Gwen picked up ice cream, hot fudge sauce, whipped cream, and other sundae fixings.

Ryan looked at Gwen, jokingly accusing her of breaking her own rules. "Sundaes? What would Henry say?"

Gwen laughed. "We do this every year. It's a special occasion. Henry and I are not totally inflexible. Besides, ice cream doesn't really count as junk food. It's food for the soul."

Ryan smiled back at her.

On their way out, Ryan finally got fed up with all the looks that the two of them had been getting the entire time they were there. He stared back at a particularly rude twentysomething guy, and almost said something, but Gwen gently put her hand on his arm and stopped him.

"Just ignore them. We -- our whole family -- we get looks all the time, you know, living here like we do. I tell Sam and Angela just to ignore them."

Ryan looked at Gwen. "Yeah. I get looks, too. You know, if people know who I am."

"I can imagine. Well, let them look. There's nothing you can do about it anyway, and getting into an argument or fistfight will only make things worse."

Ryan nodded. He could agree with her, to a point. If it was just something random, then, fine, just ignore them. But at school, or with other people you ran into all the time, if you ignored them, usually they didn't go away, often it got worse until you were forced to make them stop. But he didn't want to tell Gwen that.

When they got home and Ryan helped Gwen put everything away, Ryan had to admit it was kind of fun, spending time with Gwen. Weird, but good. She was a nice lady.

To Be Continued