Title: Black Diamonds

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

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

Chapter 18

Ryan was awakened by a soft woman's voice saying, "Ryan, it's time to get up."

In his half-asleep state, he was thinking it was Kirsten. As he turned over, he complained, "It's the middle of the night."

The woman laughed softly and turned on the light next to the bed. "It's 5 O'Clock and we have to get ready for church."

That woke Ryan up the rest of the way. He remembered it was Easter. And this must be Gwen. And he had to get up for the Easter sunrise service. He turned on his back and opened his eyes and looked up at Gwen.

Gwen smiled at him. "Happy Easter."

"Happy Easter."

Gwen leaned down a little and looked closer at his face. She looked concerned and reached out towards his black eye, without touching it.

"Does that hurt?"

"It's fine."

Gwen looked at Ryan skeptically. Ryan gave her a half-smile. "OK, it's sore, but it will be fine." He paused. "Sorry, you know, about showing up at your church with a black eye. I'm sure I'm going to make a great first impression on your friends."

"Don't worry about it, Ryan."

"You know, Kirsten has this great concealer stuff. I don't know if you --"

"I don't have any makeup for white skin."

"Of course, right, sorry." Gwen gave him a forgiving smile.

She looked over at the chair where Ryan had Sam's suit laying. "I see Sam loaned you some clothes. Sorry, I totally forgot to tell you to bring a suit."

"That's all right. Sam and I are the same size, so..."

Gwen nodded. "Well, come on, get up. You don't want to miss Maggie's face when she comes downstairs and sees all those decorations that you and Sam and Angela put out last night."

Gwen gave Ryan one last smile and left the pool house so he could get ready. After she left, Ryan sighed and threw back the covers. He went ahead and took his shower and got dressed into his borrowed suit. Then he headed into the kitchen. He found Henry there.

"Good morning, Ryan. Happy Easter."

"Happy Easter."

Henry gestured at the breakfast foods which were layed out on the kitchen table. "Help yourself to some juice and cereal. We're just going to have a quick mini-breakfast now before the service, then when we get home we always cook ourselves a full brunch."

"OK, thanks."

Ryan sat down at the table. As he poured himself some orange juice, he looked longingly at the coffee and wondered if he could get away with having some. Maybe he could sneak some later. While Ryan was eating his cereal, the next member of the family to appear in the kitchen was Angela.

Her father greeted her. "Happy Easter, Honey. You look gorgeous."

"Thanks, Dad."

When she saw Ryan there, she gave him a big smile and asked him, "What do you think?" Angela twirled around to show him her new dress.

Ryan gave Angela a smile back and nodded. "It's very pretty. It looks good on you."

Angela gave Ryan an even bigger smile and came to sit down at the table next to him.

After Angela, more family members came in for breakfast -- Sam, then Uncle Nathan and Aunt Beverly. They all greeted each other with Happy Easter and sat down at the table to eat. Ryan noticed Nathan give him a look of slight disgust or something, like Ryan didn't belong there, but he didn't say anything.

When Henry was done eating, he got up. "I'm going to go see if Gwen is ready with Maggie." Then he left the kitchen.

The rest got up and headed for the livingroom to be there when Maggie came down the stairs and saw the decorations. They didn't have to wait long before Maggie came down the stairs accompanied by her parents. When she turned the corner on the landing and looked down into the livingroom, she squealed with delight and came running down the rest of the way. All of the family members smiled as they watched her go from one item to the next, looking at them and reaching out and touching them, saying things like "Ooh", "Ahh", and "Ducky!"

When she got to the wrapped gift, Angela was standing next to it. She squatted down and handed it to her little sister. "This is for you. Happy Easter."

Maggie squealed again and ripped open the paper. Then she saw the stuffed rabbit. "Bunny! Bunny!"

She hugged it tight then hugged her big sister. Everyone was smiling, enjoying the scene.

Uncle Nathan told Sam, "Sam, you and Angela did a great job with the decorations this year."

Sam replied, "Ryan helped too."

Nathan looked at Ryan briefly and just kind of grunted, like he was reluctantly acknowledging his contribution. Ryan turned and walked back into the kitchen, leaving the Reese family alone in the livingroom to enjoy the moment. While he was in the kitchen alone, he was hoping to sneak some coffee, but Gwen followed him in.

"Ryan, the livingroom looks great. You guys did a fantastic job."

Ryan gave Gwen a shy smile. "Sam and Angela did all the work. I just did what they told me."

"Either way. Good job."

"Thanks."

"Well, it's just about time to go, so..."

Gwen went over to the table and started picking up the juice and milk to put them away in the refrigerator. Ryan went over and helped put the cereal away in the cabinet, and put the glasses and bowls into the dishwasher. When they were done cleaning up, Gwen and Ryan joined the rest of the family in the livingroom and they all headed outside to the cars. Since there were eight of them, they were taking two cars.

Ryan was almost the last one out the front door, with just Sam behind him. Henry and Nathan walked together towards one of the cars, and Gwen and Beverly walked together towards the other car. Ryan and Sam heard Nathan say something to Henry on their way to the car about if they were sure they wanted Ryan to come to their church. Sam and Ryan exchanged a look, then Sam gently pushed Ryan over towards his mother's car, giving Angela a look, which she understood and took Maggie and headed towards their father's car.

In the car, Ryan looked out the window and listened to the two women gossipping in the front seat. He had to smile to himself. From listening to them, he'd know everything about everyone at this church before he even got there. As they kept driving, Ryan wondered which church they were going to. It occurred to him that there might be people there who knew him, and might blow the Reeses' whole practical joke thing they had going. He wondered why they weren't worried about that.

He got his answer when he saw that they were leaving Newport Beach. He was surprised and wondered why the Reeses went to a neighboring town to go to church, when there were several in Newport. He got his answer to that when they arrived at the church and parked in the parking lot. Ryan could see some of the other members of the church getting out of their cars and heading inside. This was a black church. Ryan thought it was kind of pathetic that the Reeses had to leave Newport to find a black church.

The Reeses parked their cars and the eight of them headed inside. Ryan followed the rest of them through the church and outside into the back lawn, where folding chairs were set up with a portable lectern in the front. Ryan sat down with the rest of the Reeses. By the time they got there, the chairs were mostly full and the service was about to begin. Ryan looked around and saw that the congregation was mostly black, with a handful of non-black people there. Watching them, they all looked like they were in interracial relationships, and so were presumably brought here by their black spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend.

The service started and Ryan listened, and watched the sun rise. It was kind of cool. Ryan was sitting next to Maggie and during the service, she climbed up on his lap. He put his arms around her and she snuggled in, still holding her new stuffed bunny tightly. By the end of the service, she was half asleep. After the service was over, everyone but Ryan and Maggie stood up and started socializing.

Gwen came over and reached out to take Maggie from Ryan. "I'll take her."

"That's OK, I got her." Gwen hestitated. Ryan added, "She's half asleep. You go ahead, go see your friends. I'll watch her."

Gwen looked around a little, then back at Ryan. "If you're sure..."

Ryan gave her a little smile. "Yeah. Go."

"OK. Thanks, Ryan."

Ryan nodded at Gwen, and she moved off leaving Ryan sitting there alone, with Maggie. He was glad to have an excuse to not have to socialize. He didn't know anybody here, other than the Reeses of course. He wasn't sure what Henry and Gwen were going to tell their friends about him, and he didn't want to try and tell the fake story to anyone he met here. So he was happy to just sit here with Maggie.

After a short time, Ryan was joined by Angela, and was treated to one of her monologues all about the past years' sunrise services, and about Sunday school, and the other members of the congregation, and so on. Ryan listened and made the appropriate encouraging responses in the right places.

At one point, a woman came over to them. She looked like she was a member of the congregation, and she obviously knew the Reeses.

"Happy Easter, Angela."

"Happy Easter."

She leaned over towards Maggie. "And little Maggie, how are you this morning?"

Maggie lifted her head off of Ryan's shoulder for a moment and gave the woman a sleepy smile, then put her head back down.

The woman asked Angela, indicating Ryan, "And who's this? Your boyfriend?"

Angela ducked her head and blushed. At least Ryan assumed she was blushing. He couldn't really see it. She answered, "Um... no... this is Ryan... he's, um..."

Ryan helped her out. "I'm staying with Angela's family."

Ryan figured that was non-specific enough to cover both the truth that he was staying just for the weekend, and the fake story that he was now living with them.

The woman looked a little surprised, but not as much as Ryan expected. Maybe she knew about their search for a kid to take in.

"Oh. Well, the Reeses are very nice people."

Ryan nodded. "Yes, they are."

The woman nodded back and the left. Ryan went back to just holding Maggie and listening to Angela talk. Eventually, the post-service socializing was over and Gwen came and got Maggie and they all headed back to the Reeses' house.

To Be Continued