THE RIVALS

Stay alert cos I'm obsessed

Surely I can't be depressed

Do u feel the same anyway

Now you've come

Do You Feel The Same?

Silverchair

Rachel had now locked herself in the room she shared with Seth not wanting to talk to anyone at the moment, especially not Caleb and Julie who had now congregated downstairs for a talk with Sandy and Kirsten.

Seth had come to check on her three times now, and each time he received the same response.

"I don't want to talk."

Rachel wasn't regretting in the least what she had warned her brother and boyfriend of in the pool house earlier that day. If things kept up the way they were going, war was going to erupt inside the house.

.........

"I honestly thought there would be more to her than stick and bone. Where is the substance?" Caleb asked as he took another sip of his coffee.

Sandy sat across from him trying his hardest not to hit the man who was insulting a child he considered his own.

He watched Julie who was positioned next to Caleb, her head bopping up and down in agreement with her partner

Sandy bit his tongue and sat there in silence while Kirsten spoke.

"Dad, don't speak about Rachel that way, she is a great child to have around the house and if you only gave her the benefit of the doubt you would see that as well," Kirsten stated strongly.

"I am not judging anyone on false facts. I happen to know that the people who come out of that town are no good to keep around. They should all be locked up and have the key destroyed."

"I completely agree with Cal. What can this girl honestly offer this town?" Julie asked snobbishly.

"The exact same things that you can. You should talk to her, she is one of the smartest fifteen year olds I have ever met."

Kirsten's voice was now becoming louder as she tried to drum her points into her opponent's heads.

"That is ridiculous Kikki and you know it. I'm sure given some time Seth will know it too. I honestly don't know what's going through his mind at the moment, thinking that she is the right one for him." Caleb stated.

Kirsten let out a long sigh. "This is getting old Dad."

"No, what is getting old is you two thinking that just because you are good citizens and take in another child, you know all the consequences that will come out of it. You saw her last year, she completely unpredictable, one minute fine, the next, she's run away." Julie sat up straighter thinking she had made a nice impact with her words.

"If you went through what she had to last year you would have done the same thing."

"Personally I think she is a waist of space, throw her out and let her rot," Caleb said dismissingly.

"That's it!"

Sandy yelled rising from his chair so quickly that it was knocked over. He slammed his fists down on the table and looked directly at Caleb.

"If you think that you can come into my house and insult my kid then you have another thing coming!"

Caleb only smiled at the outburst. "She is not your kid."

"She damn well is," Sandy growled, his voice low and menacing. "I love her like my own and I will protect her like my own from stupid, mislead, rich bastards like you!"

A silence swept over the room, no one moving, no one speaking.

"Do you have anything else to say before you leave?"

Julie stood from her place calmly and looked at Sandy. "Getting her out of this town will do us all a favour."

"Interesting notion, care to offer another?" Sandy asked sarcastically.

Julie stared at him for a moment before Caleb stood up and took her arm. "We're leaving, I don't need to be insulted like this."

"Yeah well now you know how it feels. Let the door hit you in the ass on the way out."

And with that they left, leaving Kirsten to look at Sandy shocked.

"What?" He asked innocently.

"You were amazing," She replied.

"I know."

Kirsten let out a long sigh. "I can't believe that this is happening. I honestly thought he had a little more decency than that."

"We'll figure it out. Nothing will happen to Rachel or this family, not as long as I have something to say about it."

.........

The school week came around faster than anyone could have predicted and soon Ryan found himself wondering up and down the hallways of Harbor again trying to find his History teacher.

"Mr. Atwood, you have been looking for me?"

Ryan nearly jumped out of his skin when the booming voice erupted from behind him. Instead he turned around calmly and looked at the towering man before him.

"Mr. Proctor, uh...yeah I have been," he replied.

The man stood a good three inches taller than Ryan, with jet black hair and a long beard. If Ryan didn't know better he'd say that the man had been pulled straight out of the eighties.

"Well, what is it you wanted?"

"Oh..."

Ryan dropped his bag to the floor and unzipped the back pocket, pulling out a set of five pieces of paper, neatly stapled together.

"Assignment on the Cold War," he said handing over the paper.

Mr. Proctor looked at the paper as thought it were covered in germs and reluctantly took it from his, folding it in half and placing it in the folder he held.

"Three days late, Mr. Atwood. You know there will be a loss of marks because of this."

"I understand," Ryan said, wanting more than ever to walk away.

He didn't have to however because Mr. Proctor took one last look at him before turning on his heal and gliding away. Ryan hated his History teacher, always thinking that he was better than everyone else, especially transfer students from Chino.

Ryan hoped that Rachel wouldn't have a run in with him in the future, knowing that the encounter would not be a pleasant one.

"Ryan, hey," Marissa said walking up to him and lightly kissing him on the lips.

"Hey."

"Where have you been, I've been looking all over for you."

Ryan let his eyes wonder for a moment. "Here mostly."

"I heard what happened with Rachel and my mum. I'm so sorry."

Marissa looked down slightly and Ryan could see the utter resentment she had toward her mother at the moment. The encounter had not only been hurtful to there relationship but it had also shown just how truly different they were.

"It's okay, Rach is dealing."

"She is?"

"Well if you can call locking yourself in a room and not talking to anyone dealing."

Ryan shrugged sheepishly with a lopsided grin on his face. He didn't want Marissa to feel sorry about what had happened – what was happening. She had nothing to do with it.

"I can just tell that this is going to get ugly. I don't want something to happen to Rachel."

Ryan placed his hands on her shoulders. "Hey, Rach is a big girl, she can handle herself. Plus I'm here. Sandy, Kirsten and Seth too. Even Luke is offering to help."

Marissa looked shocked. "Luke?"

"Yeah, he's taken a liking to Rach."

She looked strongly at him.

"Not in that kind of way," Ryan insisted. "Everything will be fine."

Marissa smiled then, Ryan's reassuring words helping her deal with the intense guilt that she was feeling.

"You know you go deeper than most people think."

Ryan looked deep within her eyes, seeing that she was being truly honest with him.

"Only around certain individuals," he said playfully.

Marissa smiled at that and leaned in against him. Ryan slipped his arms around her and rested his head atop hers. She liked being like this with him, when no words were spoken, no kisses, just him holding her as though she was the most precious thing in the world.

Marissa could stay like this forever.

.........

Summer saw her out in the garden, crossing the path, which lead back into the cafeteria. She was alone, an unusual thing to occur, especially whilst in school hours. There was no Seth Cohen draped over her arm. No herd of friends which she had quickly developed – almost too quickly for Summer's liking.

Rachel was alone.

Summer made her way down the stairs and intercepted her quickly before anyone could interrupt them.

"Rachel I..." Summer began.

The minute that Rachel spotted her she rolled her eyes and went to walk past but Summer blocked her path.

"What Summer?" Rachel snapped.

Summer wasn't sure how to put it into words, she wasn't used to admitting when she was wrong, especially not to the new girl.

"I just like wanted to say..." She began.

"You wanted to say...?"

"I'm sorry about everything that's happened lately, with Mrs. Cooper and Caleb. I think it's totally unfair."

Rachel looked at her and spoke with sarcasm. "Oh, wow, there is a heart in there."

Summer stood silently.

"Is that all?"

When she made no reply Rachel pushed past her and began her original journey again.

"You know you so don't deserve him with that attitude," Summer stated.

Rachel stopped in her tracks and turned again. "What?"

"You don't deserve Seth if you're going to be like that. And you're totally jealous because I do."

"I personally think jealousy is only for those who don't have the balls to go out and get what they want. So instead they make stupid attempts at destroying things that other people have for their own gain."

Summer raised her eyebrows at the comment. "I think I could challenge that theory."

Rachel took a step closer. "You wanna fight? Get in line. I already have enough people coming down on me lately."

Summer nodded her head sadly. "I know, and I'm sorry, like I said, and..."

"And what?"

"I was wondering, you know, if like, we could call a truce or something."

Rachel was stunned, she honestly had not expected the remark, especially not from Summer.

"You want to be friends?"

Summer shrugged. "Yeah, well, we are totally similar, especially with the whole Seth thing, and you're friends with my friends so...maybe we should, try and, like, get along."

Rachel couldn't make out words, she was in too much shock. Eventually she was able to string a sentence together.

"But you tried to break me and Seth up, now you want to be buds?"

"Uh-huh."

"This is going to get ugly."

"No way, totally the opposite. I'm so over Cohen."

"But you were just saying..."

"That doesn't matter," Summer insisted. "I've trained myself well in the art of forgetting him, or whatever. I kept saying 'think un-Cohen thoughts, think un-Cohen thoughts' and it worked."

Rachel frowned at the comment not believing Summer in the slightest. Only a moment ago she was insisting that she the right companion for Seth and now she wanted to be best friends.

"I know that you'd be totally happy to not have me being a complete bitch around you and Cohen," she said trying to get Rachel to agree to her offer. "And even though Anna might still try and break you up just be happy that I won't. I totally give you my blessing."

Has she gone completely insane? Rachel thought.

"Unless you break up, because then I am so moving in on him."

Nope, it's still her.

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

(Hey, hope you liked this chapter. At the request of a few ppl I did change my original plan to have Summer continue being a bi-atch so now she won't be as much. In the next chapter things start to get very heated – in the clean kinda way – between Rachel, Caleb and Julie as they reveal their plans for her. The stress of everything that has been happening starts to weigh down on the Seth/ Rach Ryan/Rach relationships. Please review.)