Disclaimer still stands.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews guys! I'm glad that everyone is supporting the story still. Now with all that Marissa drama gone the story is taking a bit of a new spin, after all it is titled New Beginnings. I hope you guys enjoy it. Here we go!

Ryan pulled up to school. He turned the engine off and got out of the car. Seth had skateboarded to school earlier to catch up with Summer for some reason so Ryan drove to school alone. As Ryan stood, he scanned the parking lot for Marissa. No sign of her yet. 'Maybe she's in the principal's office,' he thought. The week had started fresh and Marissa was supposed to talk to the counselors as well as Dr. Kim about switching into physics. Just then the bell rang, interrupting his thoughts. 'Oh well,' he thought. 'I'll find out soon enough if she has joined.' He swung his backpack over his body with his muscular arms and headed to the doors. As he walked in Marissa pulled him into a quick hug.

"Hey!" she greeted him, as though she hadn't seen him in months.

"Hi."

"I'll be seeing you a little later ok?"

"Great. See ya then." She walked away. 'Strange. Either there's a sale at the mall or she managed to get into physics,' he thought. Then he glanced at his watch, class was about to begin and he made his way across the hall and to English Lit. He took his usual seat next to Lindsay, gave her a small smile and then turned his attention to the teacher. Although he was trying to concentrate his mind kept wandering to what would happen if Marissa really joined their class.

"Mr. Atwood?" The teacher interrupted his thoughts.

"Huh?"

"Would you like to tell us the direct object in this sentence?"

"Oh," Ryan looked to the board. "It's life. Life is receiving the good fortunes."

"Very good Mr. Atwood," the teacher replied. After he had turned his attention to another student, Ryan went back to thinking what would happen. 'Oh no.' He suddenly realized. 'Not only are they going to argue, but their going to be arguing in front of me, and over my attention. Oh, this will be great.' There was a tap on his shoulder.

"Ryan," Lindsay whispered. "Is everything ok?"

"Oh," 'Why do people keep interrupting me?' Ryan wondered. "Yea, everything is ok."

"Are you sure?"

"Yea, I'm fine." He smiled at her again and then turned to his notebook, hoping it would distract him from his thoughts. The bell had finally rung. In a way, Ryan thanked it because he wouldn't have to think about the physics situation, now the only bad part was that he'd have to live it. He gathered his books and headed out the door. As he walked through the halls he silently prayed that Lindsay wouldn't get offended or that Marissa wouldn't take Lindsay's usual coldness to rich kids the wrong way. Finally he was to the door. He took his usual seat next to Lindsay, she was smiling at him. They both turned their attention to the front of the room and Lindsay's smile vanished. Marissa was standing at the front, discussing something with the teacher. Ryan casually glanced over to Lindsay, after noticing that her face wasn't quite so pleasant, he began to worry again. The tardy bell rang confirming the beginning of class and Marissa still hadn't left. This meant she was staying for good. Mr. Allen stood up and introduced Marissa.

"Everyone, Marissa Cooper will be joining our class. This means she'll need a physics partner. Marissa, I'll be pairing you with Ryan Atwood since you two seem to know each other so well. Ryan, please show Marissa the current assignment." Ryan nodded. Marissa casually made their way over to the table and Lindsay didn't bother hiding her surprise. "Oh, Lindsay," Mr. Allen finally realized, "I guess you'll need a replacement partner." He thought about it a while, then, not being able to come up with an alternate partner he said, "I guess you three will have to all work as a team." With that, he turned his attention back to his computer. Lindsay was even more disgusted, not only did she almost lose Ryan as a partner, but now she had to share him, and Marissa was someone she didn't feel like sharing anything with. She narrowed her eyes and slowly lifted her head, to glare at Marissa. Marissa was quietly whispering with Ryan about the assignment. He was filling her on what they needed to do, but even so, she thought that she was the one who should be whispering with him. He was her partner; well technically he was both of theirs. 'Oh God,' Lindsay thought, 'I bet she asked Mr. Allen to pair her with Ryan… that sneaky bitch, just so she could interrupt us. Well, I won't let it happen.' Lindsay scooted her chair closer to Ryan's.

"Need any help?" she asked sweetly. Marissa looked up from the paper and gave her a death glare. She knew what Lindsay was doing.

"No, I don't. Ryan is doing great so go back to doing whatever unimportant crap you were doing before you decided to interrupt us," Marissa answered before he had a chance to respond himself.

"Yea, I'm fine, really." Ryan gave her a small smile as to reassure her and to also plead that they would drop the bickering. Lindsay turned her attention back to her notebook. 'Damn,' she thought. 'If I try anything else, I know Marissa will just have a comeback and I don't want to torture Ryan, besides, I can have fun in Geography.' The rest of physics was spent with Marissa and Ryan talking and getting Marissa accustomed to the new class while Lindsay sat pitifully on the side. When the bell finally rang, it was time for geography. Marissa gave Ryan a quick kiss goodbye (in front of Lindsay) and headed to geography. Lindsay, after witnessing Marissa and Ryan for the whole period, being all flirty was sick to her stomach. She took a final glance at them before leaving physics and they were in a full lip lock. 'Great way to end the period from hell,' thought Lindsay. She gathered her perfectly organized things and headed to geography. The assignment was all finished and she was ready to turn it in. What Lindsay (and Marissa) didn't know was that their final test was going to be based on the report they did. Marissa took no part in doing the report because Lindsay had finished it the day after it was assigned. Once Marissa arrived to geography and learned what the final would be based on she freaked.

"Shit, I'm gonna fail this test, thanks a lot by the way."

"What did I do?" asked Lindsay innocently.

"You know what you did. You did the whole report yourself and now I'm screwed for the final because I don't know anything about it all because of your stupidness."

"You're welcome."

"God, I know you hate me but do you have to be so rude?"

"Guess not, but its payback for physics."

"So that's what it's about, physics?"

"Pretty much, and I just can't stand perfect people who never work for anything. It's not worth to know anything about them."

"You're such a hypocrite."

"Me?"

"Yea, you. You say that you don't like rich kids cuz they don't do anything but how do you know if you don't know us? You thought Ryan was a rich kid but when you realized he's worked for what he has, you fell in love with him." Lindsay stared at her. "Come on, like I don't know. I see the way you look at him." Lindsay felt a bit embarrassed. Then Marissa continued. "I can't blame you for falling for him, he's an awesome guy, but he's my awesome guy. I'm not trying to be rude or take revenge or shit like that, I'm just saying, you need to realize, stop fighting this fight, just stop because if you keep fighting, your not going to win, count on that, he's mine and I'm not letting it him go anytime soon so you can either torture yourself until I do or you can find a new interest, but trust me, the chance of me letting go is very slim." When she finished she left Lindsay with her mouth wide open. Once she collected again from the shock she spoke,

"You're, you're absolutely right. You don't deserve the crap you've gotten from me. I'm sorry."

"It's no problem, let's just finish this assignment so I don't totally flunk the final."

"I'll fill you in if you can forget what a bitch I've been. Ryan isn't mine to fight for and I shouldn't try to take him away, I'm sorry for that too."

"Glad you realized. And its fine really, I mean you weren't the first to want to take him away." Marissa thought back to Teresa. In the end, they had become friends, yet rivals over Ryan. This is probably how this scenario would turn out.

"Ok, thanks. I guess now I realize, rich kids aren't so bad." Marissa smiled. She was glad they were over the catfights cuz Marissa was really sick of them. Not that she wouldn't fight for Ryan if the time came again, but there had been so many the past few weeks that they needed to take a break. Marissa opened her book and Lindsay reviewed with her the material in their report. The spent the rest of the period doing that and walked to lunch together. Once in the lounge they spotted Ryan and both waved. 'Great…' Ryan thought. 'Here we go again.' he approached them with an uncertain look on his face.

"Don't worry," Lindsay began. "We resolved some issues." Ryan smiled. 'God I love his smile,' both Marissa and Lindsay thought.

"Well, I'm glad." He took Marissa's hand and Lindsay walked away, leaving them alone. Even though she still hated that she couldn't have Ryan, she had learned a long time ago that life was never fair and when you can you should fight for what you wanted but as Marissa had mentioned, the fight over Ryan was one not worth fighting because she wasn't going to win.

"Have you seen Summer?" Marissa asked after Lindsay had left.

"No, I think she may be with Seth though."

"Oh, ok. So do you want to hang out today?"

"Sure, pool house around 8?" he suggested.

"Umm, can we go to the beach?"

"Sure, if you want." He kissed her forehead. "Look, I have to go finish up a report in the library but I'll see you tonight ok?"

"Ok. Love you Ryan." He smiled at her again.

"Love you too."

Meanwhile, as Marissa and Ryan were talking at lunch, Seth and Summer were spending time together, at Summer's house.

"Summer, are you sure it's ok?"

"Yea, it's totally fine."

"Ok." He went back to kissing her. They had decided they wanted a more private place to make out other than school and so they blowed off lunch to spend time together.

"By the way Cohen, thanks for taping The Valley." Seth smiled.

"No problem. Should we get back though?"

"Yea, probably. Will I see you later though?"

"No, I have to work right after school but maybe after."

"Ok, that works. Maybe Coop will wanna go shopping anyway." After kissing him one more time she combed her hair a bit, grabbed Seth's hand and they headed back to school. They made it back just as lunch was over. Throughout the day the four friends felt great. Issues were resolved and relationships were going strong.

After School………..

Seth was on his way to The Bait Shop. He rode his skateboard there since it was pretty close to the school. Once there he bent down and retied his green converses. Satisfied, he walked in.

"Good, you're finally here," greeted Alex. "I need you to take the cups to the storeroom and store them low so I can get them quick for the next concert. Oh, and there's some mops with your name on them."

"Nice to see you too Alex," replied Seth as he walked around.

"Why aren't you going? The concert is in two days, the toilets aren't going to clean themselves and the floor isn't going to sweep itself."

"I'm going, I'm going. Can't we have a chat first?"

"Oh no, not right now. I don't have time for the infamous chats with Seth."

"You remember those?" Alex rolled her eyes.

"Just get going and we can talk after." Seth lazily made his way over to the cups and took them to the storeroom. Once done with that he took the mops into the bathrooms and cleaned them. Then he remembered who was playing next at The Bait Shop. It was Green Day. They had finally booked them to play. Quickly he finished with the toilets so he could ask Alex about the details.

"Uh Alex?"

"You done already?"

"Yea."

"Ok, what is it?"

"Isn't Green Day playing next?"

"Yea, they are. Oh, here are your tickets." She handed him four tickets.

"Thanks. This concert is going to be great."

"It better be, it took forever to book them."

"I bet."

"So, anything else before you head off?"

"Actually I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out."

"You mean a date? What happened to Summer?"

"No, not a date. Just Summer's out shopping and I have some extra cash so I thought, why not some ice cream? You in?"

"Sure." Alex grabbed her keys, locked up The Bait Shop and walked out on to the boardwalk. She breathed some fresh ocean air and smiled at Seth. 'He's so cute sometimes,' she thought. They walked over to the ice cream stand and Seth bought some chocolate double fudge ice cream on a cone and Alex got vanilla. They were opposites yet in ways alike. They walked down the boardwalk and observed the ways of people around them. Then, looking up, they witnessed a beautiful sunset. They didn't talk, just observed the peace around them. Then something disturbed it.

Ok, that's chapter 22. Sorry if it's taken a while to post and I hope you guys haven't been waiting a while but then again I guess I shouldn't praise myself so much. This chapter I included a lot of detail, hope ya noticed that so it's not just lengthy but also has a lot of detail and I hope you guys enjoyed that, it was for you guys. And I also decided to bring Alex back in this. And I sort of fixed the fighting between Marissa and Lindsay, but you never know… it might come back. Do you guys want it to or should we see what happens when there is no bickering? Well give me your suggestions on that please. So are you guys liking it? Please tell me what you think and if you like this spin on it. I need to know and please give a detailed review, like what you liked about it and stuff. So yea, please review and be kind. Till next chapter…