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: I wanted the uncle to be more mean to Ryan, but I couldn't pull it off. I guess my mind doesn't work that way. I couldn't come up with really mean things for him to say. Maybe next time I need a mean co-writer :-)

Chapter 19

After the extended Reese family got back to the house from church, they all changed out of their nice new church clothes. Then Gwen headed into the kitchen to cook Easter brunch for the family. She was soon joined by her sister-in-law Beverly.

Over the years, Gwen had tried to interest her children in learning how to cook, but Sam was not interested, and Angela, well, she had some enthusiasm but unfortunately not much skill. And Gwen, although she hated to think this of her daughter, found that Angela's constant chatter while cooking drove her crazy. Gwen hoped that she'd have better luck with Maggie, who already showed some interest, but was too young yet to really help. So for the last couple years, it had just been her and Beverly to make the brunch.

This year, however, while the two women were working away in the kitchen, someone new joined them.

"Hey." Gwen looked up from the stove and saw Ryan standing at the far end of the kitchen island. He must have just come in from the pool house. Ryan asked Gwen, "Want some help?"

Gwen smiled at him. "That would be great. How about if you make your omelets?" Ryan nodded. Gwen told Beverly. "Ryan makes the best omelets."

Beverly looked at Ryan, who was heading towards the refrigerator to get out the omelet fixings. "You like to cook, Ryan?"

Ryan closed the fridge door with his hands full and headed for the kitchen island. "Yeah. Well, mostly breakfast. I also do a mean grilled cheese. My specialty." Ryan smiled and Beverly smiled back.

"Where'd you learn to cook? Did your mother teach you?"

Gwen knew that was a mistake as soon as Beverly said it. She looked at Ryan who already had his head down, concentrating on the food on the counter in front of him, avoiding looking at either of the women.

"Uh... No... Uh... My Mom's not much of a cook." Without looking up, Ryan started working on preparing his omelet ingredients. He looked very uncomfortable.

Gwen looked at Beverly, who by now was looking back at her with a puzzled look on her face. Gwen shook her head a little, hoping that Beverly would understand that she shouldn't ask Ryan anything about his family or his past. Beverly nodded, and after a quick glance at Ryan, went back to her own work.

Gwen, Beverly, and Ryan worked in silence for a while as they all concentrated on preparing and cooking their part of the brunch. Eventually, Gwen and Beverly started in on some smalltalk. Ryan continued to work quietly. Gwen snuck a few glances over at him. She hoped that he wasn't too upset about the reference to his mother. She knew him well enough by now to know that his silence was normal for him, so she couldn't use it to tell if he was upset. He was a lot like Sam in that way.

Shortly, the cooks' quiet kitchen was invaded by the men, Henry and Nathan, loudly discussing sports -- baseball right at the moment since the season had just started.

"I'm telling you, Nathan, the Dodgers can make it to the playoffs this year."

"You really think they can get past the Giants? Barry Bonds? He's the best player in baseball."

"There's always the wildcard."

Gwen interrupted them. "Henry. Nathan. If you're going to talk sports, do it somewhere else. We're trying to work here."

The men split up and each went over to his wife, reaching over and picking up a piece of what she was working on and popping it into his mouth. Gwen slapped Henry's hand. Henry asked, "When it is going to be ready?"

"It will be ready faster if you two get out of our way."

Nathan grinned at his sister and kissed his wife on her cheek and turned to exit the kitchen with Henry. When he did, he came face to face with Ryan.

"Oh, Ryan." Nathan paused. "You cook?"

Gwen looked at Ryan, hoping that he didn't take that as an insult. Nathan was a little old-fashioned about cooking being a woman's job, and the tone that he used when he addressed Ryan was a little derogatory. Ryan did look somewhat ill-at-ease.

"Um, yeah."

Henry told Nathan, "Ryan makes a great breakfast." Then he told Ryan, "I see you're making your famous omelet. Looks wonderful."

Ryan smiled at Henry then ducked his head and turned around, away from the two men, and went back to work. Henry and Nathan left the kitchen and went back to talking about baseball.

"What about the Angels? They could make the playoffs."

"No way, Nathan. The A's are going to win that division. And what about the Mariners?"

When the brunch was close to being ready, Gwen sent Ryan out to gather up the rest of the family. As Ryan left the kitchen, he heard Henry and Nathan's voices coming from Henry's study, so he headed over there. However, as he got closer, he could hear that they were talking about him. He stopped outside the study and sat down on the steps leading up to the front door to eavesdrop, taking a page from Seth's book.

Ryan could hear Nathan saying, "That kid doesn't belong here."

"Nathan..."

"He's a juvenile delinquent, he gets into fights, and god knows what else. Aren't you afraid that he'll be a bad influence on Sam and Angela?"

"That's not why you don't like Ryan, and you know it. Come on, any kid that we take in is going to be similar -- have a history that may include trouble with the law; problems at home including abuse, neglect, abandonment; coming from an environment of violence. Comes with the territory. We told you all about this. Ryan's one of the more well-adjusted ones, actually."

Ryan was getting more and more uncomfortable as he was listening to this. How much did Henry know about him, anyway? He hoped that Henry was talking in generalities, not just about him. But he cringed at that phrase well-adjusted. It brought back all those bad memories of Oliver.

"How amazing it is that you're so healthy. Well-adjusted. Considering."

"Considering?"

It had taken everything he had to not beat the crap out of Oliver right then. Maybe if he had given in to his impulses then, things would have turned out better. Maybe things wouldn't have gotten so out of control. Ryan could feel himself getting angry all over again just thinking about it.. But he quickly tried to shake it off. There was no point in dwelling on it now. You couldn't change the past.

Ryan tuned back in to Nathan and Henry's conversation.

"Admit it, Nathan. It isn't Ryan's history that you don't like. It's his skin color."

"All right, Henry, you're right. I thought you and Gwen were looking for a black kid. There are so many out there that need homes, and so few black families out there to give them one. Ryan can find a home with a white family. Having him here -- now there's a black kid out there that's not going to get a home."

"Ryan was on his way to foster care, a group home. There are not a lot of white families looking to take in a 16-year-old white kid with a criminal record, either. But that's not the point. First of all, Ryan does fit in here, with us. Gwen and I care about him. He and Sam are best friends. Maggie adores him. And Angela has a crush on him."

Wow. Ryan hadn't heard it said like that before. And Henry and Gwen hadn't said that they cared about him. He wondered if Henry just made that up, for Nathan's benefit, as part of the charade.

Henry continued, "And second of all, we haven't given up looking to find a black kid. Maybe we can handle two at once, or even if not, Ryan will be 18 in a little over a year, and he'll graduate high school with Sam and the two of them will go off to college. At that point, there will be plenty of room here to take in another kid."

Ryan waited while there was silence. He guessed that maybe Nathan didn't know what to say to that.

After a moment, Ryan heard Henry say, "Well, let's go see if the ladies have brunch ready."

Ryan quickly got up and ran upstairs to get Sam, Angela, and Maggie and let them know that brunch was ready.

They all sat down at the dining room table for brunch. They were in the dining room instead of the kitchen because the table in there could be expanded to seat eight people while the kitchen table could only seat six. They all praised the skills of the cooks for the delicious food. As last time, Ryan was a little embarrassed about the compliments directed his way.

The brunch-time conversation consisted of the usual family stuff about work and school and absent family members, like Uncle Nathan and Aunt Beverly's sons. Ryan generally stayed out of it, since it wasn't his family. So he was a little surprised when a question was directed his way when everyone was almost finished with their meal.

The conversation around the table had been concentrating on Sam and Angela's schoolwork, when Beverly addressed Ryan. Maybe she was trying to include him in the conversation, make him feel more like part of the family. As far as Ryan could tell, she didn't have a problem with him being there, not like her husband did.

"So, Ryan." Ryan looked at Beverly, a little surprised. "You're 16, right? Are you a sophomore or a junior?"

Ryan took a quick look at Sam then back to Beverly. "I'm a junior."

"Oh, just like Sam. That must be nice. Or... are you going to the same school? Harbor? I mean..."

Ryan hesitated and took a quick look at Henry and Gwen. He wasn't sure if the story that they were telling Beverly and Nathan about him included him going to Harbor or not. Because he was supposed to have been in Newport for just the last month, so he would have been at Harbor for only that amount of time, instead of being there from the start of the school year, like he really had been.

Gwen jumped in, "Yes, Ryan goes to Harbor with Sam and Angela."

Ryan looked at Beverly and Nathan, and could see that they looked a little surprised, especially Nathan. He wasn't surprised that they were surprised. Various people over the last seven-plus months since the start of the school year expressed surprise that the Cohens were paying to send him to an exclusive private school, even though he wasn't their son. He thought that maybe some people assumed that the Cohens were his foster parents rather than his legal guardians, that is, that the arrangement was much more temporary than it really was.

"So you started at a new school in the middle of the school year? That must be difficult."

"Yeah."

"Where'd you go to school before?"

"Public school. Chino Hills."

"And now you're going to a private prep school? That must be different for you."

Ryan looked down and mumbled, uncomfortable, "You have no idea."

Ryan picked up his fork and concentrated on finishing eating, hoping that the questioning was over. He was starting to get a little angry again. The question about starting at Harbor in the middle of the year reminded him of Oliver, how he had supposedly changed schools in the middle of the year. Ryan wasn't sure why he was reminded of Oliver, again. Maybe because he already had Oliver on his mind from the conversation between Henry and Nathan that Ryan had overheard earlier.

Nathan either didn't notice that Ryan didn't want to answer any more questions, or he didn't care. He picked up the questioning.

"Harbor is a tough school, hard to get into. I guess I'm a little surprised that you got in, coming from public school in Chino. Are you able to do the work? Keep up with your classes?"

When Ryan didn't answer right away, Gwen said, "Ryan's doing well. He's very smart. He got 98th percentile on his SAT1's last year."

Ryan looked up at Gwen, quite surprised. He didn't know that the Reeses knew about that sort of thing. Sandy and Kirsten must have told them, but he wasn't sure why they would. Gwen gave Ryan a reassuring smile.

Nathan continued questioning Ryan, "You're a smart kid? That's great. So you must have worked hard at your old school, right? Gotten out of it as much as you could, you know, given the circumstances?"

Ryan was really getting tired of these questions, and he didn't really want to talk about his past. His leftover anger from thinking about Oliver was starting to get redirected at Nathan. And when Ryan was angry he stopped caring about being polite and respectful. He decided, if Nathan wanted to know about his past, then why the hell not.

So Ryan looked directly at Nathan and told him, with barely concealed anger, "Not really. The school sucked. I used to cut class all the time, go out drinking and smoking, get into fights at school. I got suspended five times. I didn't study. I didn't care. What was the point? Someone like me wasn't going to go to college anyway. I was going to end up in jail like my father, or a drunk like my mother."

Nathan looked a little shocked. Ryan wasn't sure if it was because he had answered so bluntly, or because of what he said, or because of the anger in his voice. Ryan felt satisfaction either way, that he was able to shock him. Maybe that would shut him up.

"Ryan ---"

That was Henry. He put a little warning in his voice, like Sandy sometimes did when Ryan was out of line. Ryan turned to look at Henry. He was looking at Ryan with disapproval.

Ryan didn't want to deal with this right now. Ryan picked up his plate and glass and got up from the table. "Excuse me."

To Be Continued

BTW, both the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Anaheim Angels made it to the baseball playoffs in 2004. They both lost in the first round. The San Francisco Giants, the Oakland A's, and the Seattle Mariners did not make the playoffs.