Abby stirred the next morning with a renewed sense of happiness with last night's events. It was so nice to have everyone back together, just talking and playing the game of Life. So it was cheesy, but she really enjoyed it. She moved around, with her eyes still closed a bit groggy from sleep. She shifted uncomfortably, noticing her bed was harder than usual. She opened her eyes only to realize she was not in her bed at all. They had all fallen asleep last night in the family room. She herself was curled up in an arm chair; Seth was sprawled out--limbs in every direction--on the couch (she couldn't help but giggle at what he looked like). Ryan and Anna were seated on a loveseat opposite her, him with his arm around her resting her head on his shoulder; Kiersten and Sandy lying side by side on the plush beige carpeting. She blinked a few times, waking herself and glanced at the wall clock. It read 8:30. She got up and entered the kitchen.

Finding herself a bowl and the Lucky Charms she began to enjoy her breakfast on the stool at the island in the middle of the kitchen. She read a bit of a magazine that she hadn't read already and checked the phone messages from yesterday which she hadn't seen. There was one from David. A small white piece of paper contained the message, written in Rosa's cursive script.

DAVID CALL

Just miss you, please back call soon.

Her English wasn't that great, but it was understandable. She folded the piece of paper up and put it in her pocket as she finished the last spoonfuls of sugary sweet breakfast cereal.

"Oh my goodness!" Kiersten had woken up and realized what time it was. At the volume of Kiersten's voice, the rest of them had woken up and all came running into the kitchen shortly. "I am going to be so late!" Kiersten freaked out grabbing a yogurt smoothie from the fridge on her way upstairs to change quickly.

Sandy grabbed a bagel from the island, "Good Morning Abby. Have a good day, so many clients, so little time." He took a bit of the doughy concoction and rushed upstairs to change and shower as well. Seth came wobbling in mumbling about having to shoot some nature shots while he was in Newport. Nature scenes in Newport? She figured he was still half asleep. Ryan and Anna entered a little less of a rush but so retreated to their own home as Anna had a meeting with a boutique downtown about selling her latest line of designs and Ryan needed to get to work as well.

This left Abby all alone sitting at the cold, gray marble island in the middle of her enormous house. Great, she thought sarcastically, everything's back to normal. She pushed aside her dishes and Rosa appeared out of nowhere to clean them. She thought about trying to converse with her but she was unsure of what to say and her Spanish was a bit rusty.

"Hola Rosa." She tried.

"Hola, Senorita Cohen."

Senorita Cohen didn't wanna have a conversation with Rosa right now so she slunk down in the couch and turned on the T.V.

"Hey Abs, can I talk to you a second?" Seth reappeared.

"Yeah, sure, what's up?" She asked glad that he was back.

"I realized that I have this huge project that is due in like 2 days and I have barely done anything on for one of my classes so I'm gonna take the next flight back to NYU. I'm sorry I won't get to talk to you more or show you my photos."

"Can't you do the project here?" She asked defensively.

"No, I need stuff that is back at NYU and like I said this is really important. But hey you know when I finish all this school stuff and become the next Ansel Adams you can feel proud to call me your brother. Gotta run, tell everyone goodbye." She was not amused by his attempt at humor. He'd just gotten here, and now he was leaving again. Bored out of her mind and frankly a little sad and angry about her brother leaving again she turned off the T.V. and ran up to her room.

She cranked up her stereo playing the hardest rock CD she could find. She lay down on her bed, shoving a pile of applications off her bed and uncovering her journal. He bass ripped through her eardrums and she shook her head to the music.

"So, what's going on with all you're college planning?" He asked in a quiet voice, aware that it was a touchy subject.

"David, I'm not talking about this right now. I called you because I wanted to distract myself from them, not talk about them. But for you're information I've finished filling them all out, now all I need is to get letters back from some of them."

"I'm sorry, sweetie. Are you free this Friday? We should do something. It's been ages since we've seen each other. I miss you. We can go bowling; I know how much you love kicking my butt at that." It was evident that he was trying to cheer her up, and she appreciated that but it wasn't working.

"Yeah, that'll be fun." She said with little enthusiasm.

"Around seven o'clock then?"

"Yeah that'll be fine." She responded barely listening anymore.

"Okay, see you then. Love you Abby." He hung up the phone hesitantly, worried about her.

It was a quarter past nine that evening and she was a little famished so she tromped down the stairs to grab a bite to eat. Her parents were in the kitchen laughing and talking so she stopped at the corner.

"It's been so long since we've seen each other for more than like a minute; I'd forgotten how beautiful you are." Sandy wrapped his arm around Kiersten's tiny waist. Kiersten let out a huge giggle, squeal kind of noise. She was obviously a bit under the influence.

"Did you see that Abby got a letter from Harvard today? It's an acceptance letter no less, that's like 5 acceptance letters. I'm so proud of her. She's really been persistent with her grades and colleges have been seeing how great she is. She could go anywhere." Kiersten took another sip of her drink.

"Yeah, she's a turned out to be a great girl. I'm so proud of her." Sandy replied. "Even with all the trouble she had at the beginning of her high school career, I'd say she's become quite a young lady." Abby's face got warm, and she almost started to cry. She didn't want to go to college. Couldn't she just tell them that? Was it so hard? Why did they have to be so proud of her? She might have wanted a 4 year degree at some point but she didn't now. She shook her head and wiped her face and walked into the kitchen.

"Hey Abs, we were just talking about you. What's wrong?" Sandy asked.

"Nothing, Dad I'm fine. Okay." She took out the cookie dough ice cream and scooped 2 scoops for herself into a bowl.

"You're eating cookie dough ice cream. Something must be wrong. I may not be an expert on women, but I have spent many years with your mother. The cookie dough ice cream is like a security blanket. You've been so down lately, what's up?" He put his hand on her head stroking her hair.

She couldn't bring herself to say the words, to disappoint him, tell him that she didn't want to follow his dream to college. "Really, nothing is wrong. I'm fine, see?" She faked a smile.

"Well, you know what? I don't believe you. How about we go surfing this week? I've got a day off from my hectic schedule. I can teach you how to surf as well as your old man." He smiled encouragingly.

"Dad, I don't--okay. I guess we can go." She figured she'd humor him. She really had no interest in it, but maybe it would make him happy.

"Great. Sounds like fun already." He kissed her on the crown of her head.

"Goodnight, Daddy." Abby said as she left the room and headed back to hers.

"Goodnight, dumpling." He smiled and went back to romancing Kiersten who had just been enjoying her beverage and writing down some business information as they talked.

"Well, my designs are the whole reason for the fashion show. The company who's sponsoring it really liked them and wants to help me out, getting more people interested in them." Anna continued, putting in a large purple hoop earring.

"That's great, sweetie. You have such potential, if people would just see it they'd see the spunky, wonderful girl that I see and how talented she is." Ryan fumbled with his tie and she looked up at him.

"Aww--here, let me help you. You've always had trouble with these haven't you?" She straightened the knot on his tie and smiled at him. He leaned now and pressed his lips against hers which today were a supple red. "How's everything at the NG?" She asked after a moment.

"Fine, I suppose." He replied in as few words as possible.

"Ryan, elaborate. Seriously, I want to know what you have to say. Don't worry about it, I know it's tough for you but really, you can talk." Anna laughed a bit.

"Well, I'm working on this new design and it is getting approved by Kiersten today. The biggest project I've done. It should go fine, at least I hope." He brushed his hair with his hand, giving it that slightly messy, slightly combed look.

"Have a good day, Ry." Anna grabbed her handbag as she left for the boutique.

"Good luck, Anna." He replied as he too grabbed his keys and headed for work.

Ryan was putting the finishing touches on his model as Kiersten entered the conference room. A group of people were gathered at the table as well; consultants, construction representatives, investors and other influential folks.

"Good, Ryan. You're ready to present I take it?" Kiersten sat down at the head of the table.

"Yes, I am." He replied as he got up at turned on the projector.

"Go ahead then." Kiersten settled in ready to see what The Newport Groups' newest project was going to look like.

His presentation was stellar. Not even a slipped or slurred word in his speech. His diagrams were beautifully drawn and the model represented the drawings with stellar 3-D accuracy. He flipped the lights back on. "Well, what do you think?" He asked Kiersten.

"Ryan, I took you in as my son and don't get me wrong, I love you like my own son. I gave you this job because you have real talent for this and I knew that since I met you the first day. This is the worst idea I have ever been presented with."