THE IMPRESSION

Should be easy enough,
To know a heartache in disguise.
But the heart rules the mind,
And the going gets rough.
Pride takes the fall.

That Kind Of Love

Alison Krauss

"So when are they coming?" Sandy asked Kirsten whilst she busily buttered her toast for breakfast.

"This afternoon, once the kids get out of school," she replied.

"Okay then," Sandy said as Rachel walked into the room, her hand covering the yawn, which stretched across her mouth. "I'll make sure I have to work late."

"Isn't that a bad thing?" Rachel asked as she opened the fridge and pulled the orange juice from inside.

"Not when we're talking about Julie Cooper and Caleb Nickel."

Rachel half laughed pouring herself a glass. "Julie Cooper I get, but who's Caleb?"

Sandy looked at Kirsten who in turn looked at Rachel. "My father."

Rachel frowned. "What's so bad about...?" She suddenly realised what was going on. "Oh, I get it. He's the evil father in-law, right?"

"The one and only," Sandy answered.

"And he's going out with Julie?"

Sandy nodded.

"Well I can cross him off as someone who will grow to like me," Rachel stated.

"Don't be silly, I'm sure he will find that you are a great person," Kirsten insisted.

"Not when he knows Julie Cooper he won't. Plus isn't he old enough to be her father?"

Sandy smiled at the comment and shot a sarcastic look at Kirsten who only looked down.

"And if they got married she would be your step-mother."

Rachel stood silently for a moment thinking about what she had just said. An obvious shudder ran through her body.

"That's scary."

"What's scary?" Seth asked as he walked into the room, bag slung over his shoulder. "Ooh, juice." He took Rachel's full glass and downed the entire thing.

She tilted her head and stared at the now empty glass one eyebrow raised. Seth stood still for a while not quite sure why she was...

Oh...he thought.

Seth re-filled her glass with a sheepish grin and returned the juice carton to the fridge.

"We were just talking about Julie and Caleb coming around later," Sandy said.

Seth moved behind Rachel and rapped his arms around her waist. "You get to meet Gramps. He's an awesome guy, you'll love him."

"I'm more worried about him not loving me," Rachel replied wriggling out of his grasp.

The movement caught Seth's attention. She never did that. Never moved away from his touch unless...

She couldn't still be mad about the Summer, Anna thing, could she?

Late that afternoon Rachel sat on the floor at the foot of Seth's bed rubbing her eyes in frustration. Despite only just beginning her education at Harbor, already she had been bombarded with work to complete in order for her to catch up with the rest of the class.

Half this stuff you don't use in real life anyway, she thought, throwing down her pen in anger.

"I give up," she murmured.

She closed the textbook and leaned her head back against the bed. Any minute now Seth would come waltzing in with a new Cohen for her to meet and she had no doubt that they would not approve of her. Right now she wasn't in the mood for socialising.

Summer and Anna were still seeing through their plan to make her life a living hell and so far – much to her dislike – they were succeeding. Rachel couldn't remember the last time she and Seth had been so distant from each other. So torn apart.

"Rach I want you to meet someone," Seth said as he appearing in the doorway.

And so it begins.

"Gramps this is my girlfriend Rachel, Ryan's sister."

Seth stood between Rachel and his grandfather as the rest of the family watched what would happen between the two.

"Nice to meet you," Rachel said offering her hand.

Caleb took it with a little too much resistance. "I'm sure it is."

Rachel frowned and sent a sarcastic smile Sandy's way, receiving an I-told-you-so nod in return.

"He's a funny one," Seth said with a fake enthusiasm.

He knew fare well that Caleb's immediate impression of Rachel would not be a good one, not after learning that she was the sister of the boy who burned down one of his prestigious model homes.

"You're the girl Julie keeps going on about," Caleb voiced, looking Rachel up and down. "I can see why she wishes to have you out of this town so fast. Ryan is the only one of your people that I think can change and make something of themselves. I can already tell that you are going to amount to nothing."

Rachel's eyes flashed red, but as she went to say something in her defence when Kirsten stepped in.

"How about we have some dinner," she said.

"You didn't cook, did you?" Caleb asked rudely.

"No dad."

The family began to move toward the kitchen but Rachel stayed where she was, watching Caleb as he moved about the home as though he ruled it. She could already tell that he would be a sly bastard to be around.

Sandy stopped when he noticed that Rachel was not following them.

"Are you coming?" He asked with a look of apology on his face for Caleb's behaviour.

"I'm not hungry," she said. "Plus I have homework anyway, so I'll just..."

Rachel turned and headed for the stairs leaving a regretful Sandy in her wake.

The weekend couldn't have some quick enough as Rachel sleepily walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. She was still not fully awake and only came to her full attention when she went to get a glass from the back of a cupboard and couldn't reach.

"Stupid cupboard," she mumbled angrily.

But her anger didn't come from the fact that her height had let her down, but rather that she wasn't able to defend herself against Caleb's wrath the previous night.

A hand reached up and pulled the glass from its spot putting it on the counter in front of her.

"I built those 'stupid cupboards'," Caleb said from beside her.

Rachel was instantly filled with the want to knock him out right then and there. She didn't think she had felt this much anger toward a single person ever.

Instead she turned to face him fixing her top back into its original place after it had creeped up her back whilst she was stretching. She noticed how Caleb had been eyeing off the newest addition to her tattoo's, one which Seth had picked out for her not too long ago. A tribal sun, the left side dark, the right side light – continuing her theme – was inked into the flesh at the small of her back.

"And I like them, really," she voiced with a shrill of sarcasm. "Some people really know how to discriminate against short people."

Caleb looked her up and down. "That's a big word from someone from your land."

"My land? I'm American, Caleb."

"I meant the place you're from," he corrected rudely.

"You have an issue with Chino?" Rachel asked knowing already that he obviously did.

Caleb visibly shuddered. "Horrid place, no doubt where you had all that colour done," he said pointing to her wrists where more tattoo's could just be made out.

"For your information some of these were done in New Port."

"In some run down shack."

"What the hell is your problem?" Rachel asked her voice rising a little.

Caleb dismissed the comment and continued with his own. "Does Seth approve?"

"Approve?"

"Does he accept them?"

"I know what it means you idiot, and yeah, he even picked the sun out for me." Rachel placed her hands on her hips challengingly.

Caleb continued to stare at her, his eyes strong against hers. "And how long have you two been seeing each other?"

"That's none of your business."

"So you're just staying here to vegetate, take all of Kitti's money and then take off to the next poor family?"

Rachel had to hold herself back to prevent a full explosion of insults to come tumbling out of her mouth. She took in a deep breath and faced him head on.

"Are you done?"

There they stayed for a moment, staring, sizing each other up. Caleb was thinking of all the possible ways in which he could destroy the girl, make her life a hell she couldn't even imagine. A small smile crept along his face.

"Cal!" Came Julie Cooper's voice from the hallway.

"Just what I need," Rachel mumbled.

She appeared in the kitchen seconds later, the smile she wore instantly disappearing when she saw Rachel standing there.

"And that rude girl from Chino," she finished coldly.

"We were just discussing that," Caleb stated.

"No we weren't," Rachel challenged but neither of them were listening to her.

"Did you know she was pregnant not that long ago and had it terminated?" Julie asked Caleb, her voice a whisper and yet Rachel could still hear ever word she said loud and clear.

"You don't want to go there," Rachel said, her voice low.

"Was it Seth's?" Caleb asked not noticing her obvious uncomfortable state. "Did you force him?"

"Force...? What the hell?"

"And poor Seth, not wanting to hurt her, just keeps playing along with their little love story," Julie said shaking her head and moving up next to Caleb.

"Just like his mother," Caleb answered thinking of his daughter's marriage to Sandy.

"You can't talk about your own daughter that way!" Rachel yelled.

"You can't talk about my mother like, how?" Seth asked walking into the room.

Caleb and Julie instantly smiled as they noticed the new arrival causing Rachel to fume. She could tell that they were trying to fake their way out of any questions that may arise as to how she became this angry.

"We were just discussing matters with dear Rachel," Julie said as Seth rapped his arms around his girlfriend's waist from behind.

"What matters?" He asked.

"How it's fun to leave a conversation when people are being complete hypocrites!" Rachel yelled as she turned and stormed out.

"That's a long word for her people," Julie commented.

"That's what I was saying before," Caleb answered.

"Rach...wait," Seth began but she was already gone.

Ryan sat on his bed, watching Rachel as she paced back and forth in complete frustration.

"I hate this town sometimes!" She screamed

"Don't we all?" He replied calmly.

"And there's Caleb and Julie talking like they own the damn place!"

"You spoke to Caleb?" Ryan asked sitting up a little straighter and looking strongly at her.

Rachel moved over and flopped down on the bed beside him letting out a sarcastic sigh.

"Oh yeah, we had a great heart to heart," she exclaimed sarcastically.

"Clearly it wasn't that great."

Rachel fell onto her back and Ryan looked down at her as she let out an anger filled growl.

"God, do people ever see past Chino when they look at you?"

"Why?" Ryan asked lying beside he, propping his elbow up so he could rest his head on his hand. "What did they say?"

"I dunno," Rachel said with defeat. "I just think I expected this to go too well."

"You'll be alright, just let things settle down," Ryan said brushing of hair which had escaped her pony tail away from her face.

"Then they'll think of another one of Rachel's wacky, fun facts to slam in my face."

"Fact?" Ryan said unsure.

"Yeah, apparently the baby was Seth's and I had an abortion because that's what we 'Chino' people do," she said, a bitterness covering her words.

Ryan hated seeing Rachel remember the pain she went through when she lost her baby mere months ago. Despite the terrible circumstances at which it was created, he knew that she had wanted to keep it as her own.

"W-was it...?"

"Was it what?" Rachel asked.

"Seth's?"

Rachel sat bolt upright and looked at Ryan with disgust in her eyes. "What?"

Ryan sat up and met her gaze. "Well I always just assumed that it was Marsal's, I never really knew for sure."

"It was Marsal's. Remember? He raped me at Julie's party. Seth and I aren't stupid enough for something like that to happen. We avoid it at all costs."

Ryan was silent now, a little regretful that he had asked what he did. "So..." He began. "You don't sleep together – in the sex kinda way?"

Rachel frowned at him, not understanding where these questions were coming from.

"Since when have you had a problem with me having sex?"

Ryan shook his head. "I don't...well...just as long as it's the right guy."

"Seth is the right guy. He's also a smart one who knows how not to have his girlfriend fall pregnant." Rachel rolled her eyes. "Are you going to pull off a mask and turn out to be Caleb?"

Ryan shrugged a little uncomfortably. "Sorry..."

Rachel let out a sigh, knowing that her brother had not meant any harm by his questions. She knew he loved her, that he was protective – sometimes too much for her own good.

"It's just..." Rachel began, her voice calm now. "I really care about Seth, you know that. So when people start to talk it's like..."

"Where's the nearest door?"

Both Ryan and Rachel looked up to see Seth standing in the doorway leaning against the frame a troubled look on his face.

"Something like that," Rachel said looking down.

Seth stepped into the room more and dropped into the couch opposite the bed. "Enter my family. Exit my girlfriend."

"Who's pretty damn pissed right now," Rachel stated but her voice was no longer filled with anger.

Ryan looked from Rachel to Seth and then back again, still sensing a strong tension between them. It had been slowly developing since Rachel had started school and Summer and Anna had begun their never ending schemes to pull the couple apart. Clearly it was working.

"And that's my cue to leave," Ryan said getting up from the bed.

Rachel pulled him back down. "No, stay, neither of us have any to hide."

Unless he's getting a bit of Summer or Anna on the side, she thought. Rachel felt her heart sink at the thought.

"What is Caleb's problem?" She asked.

"He's just not used to people like you two," Seth said before instantly regretting his choice of words.

"Like us?" Rachel asked irritably.

"No, I didn't mean..." Seth looked at Ryan. "Feel free to jump in any time."

"I'll take that into account," Ryan replied with a smile.

"Okay, that's the last time I help you with your English homework," Seth stated.

Ryan instantly turned to his sister. "So Rach, how about you stop being mad at Seth?"

"Yeah Rach, what do you say?"

Rachel looked at the people before her. The two young men who would lay their lives down on the line for her. Who had always been there, no matter how terrible the situation.

"I say you'd better do something about him before things turn serious and there's one less member of this family to worry about."

And with that she walked out.

The boys sat in silent for a moment not really knowing quite what to say in response to Rachel's departure.

Seth nodded his head. "Noted."

TO BE CONTINUED.........

(Hey hey! Hope you enjoyed the chapter. This is pretty much where the story starts to kick off, a lot of which will revolve around Rachel's deteriorating relationships with the other characters – not just Seth – and also to some pretty serious consequences. Please review and I will be posting soon.)