Johnny watched his father shifting in his chair, slightly uncomfortable still in his presence. "Pop, you know this won't work with Ava's nephews and her niece, you know, having Becca here. We're over full already, and this would only make it worse. I love Beck, but it won't work..."

"Johnny, she has to stay here," replied his father sternly, in the same tone Johnny could still hear in the back of his mind, and still cringed at. "We can't have her, and we're still trying to contact her biological father, although whether that SOB would take her in is still a mystery."

"Is he even still alive? You don't even know that, Pop."

"One thing's for sure," replied a voice from the stairs, and Ava graced their presence. "This house has its own problems and it's over crowded, but we can't just leave her out on the street, now can we?"

Mr. Durant nodded his head respectfully and rose, shuffling his feet to accept the woman's gentle hug. "Hello Ava. You're as beautiful as always."

Flattered, she grinned. "Thank you, Mr. Durant."

It had been a long time since Nathan Durant had seen Ava, and for the life of him, he couldn't have been more pleasantly shocked at how beautiful she was. Again, he wondered in his mind of why his son had never put forth his marriage proposal all those years ago, when both him and Ava have been happy together. It was those type of questions which troubled Nathan; it didn't make sense to his logical brain. If Johnny loved Ava, why didn't he react?

"Ava, we can't have Becca here. As much as I would love it, we just simply don't have the room--"

"Nikki could spare a space by the stairway, big enough for a cot that Becca can sleep on," put in the blonde woman, determined to have things her way. "And one more mouth to feed isn't that big of a deal. We can manage, even with what little we have."

"If you're worried about the money," said Nathan, smiling mysteriously, "You won't have to spend more than you have to. Since Maria passed away, she left every cent to her daughter, and on top of that, the welfare checks should be enough income to feed and clothe her."

Ava nodded. "I don't want to sound conceited, but it sounds like we'd benefit by having Becca here."

Johnny frowned, but agreed. "Yeah, it would, but I don't want her to stay here just because we need the money."

"To be honest, son, I think she'd stay regardless of what you have to say," replied Nathan. "She loves this house, and you are her legal guardian..."

The younger man sighed, and rubbed his brown eyes, clearly still unsure of what had to be done but pressed on anyway. "Alright, fine. Where's the transfer papers, Pop? I'll sign them immediately."

Becca kicked a smooth stone down the warm sandy beach, cursing Bradin under her breath. Why wouldn't guys like him leave her alone? Did he not know she hated guys, or was he just plain stupid? I mean, yeah, he was trying to be nice, but there was just something about him that rubbed her wrong, something about him that spelled trouble. She'd done trouble back home, and definitely didn't want it now. Couldn't she ever get away?

Obviously not, as a now familiar set of footsteps barreled down the beach towards her. "Becca! Hey Becca!"

She rolled her eyes sarcastically. "What did I tell you, Kansas? I don't like you."

"Why?" He seemed a bit angry himself. "I mean, I'm nice to you, I introduce myself to you, hell, I even want to hang with you and help you get used to this place before--"

"I KNOW PLAYA LINDA LIKE THE BACK OF MY HAND!!!" she shrieked, whirling around to face the direction of his voice. "I used to come here twice a year!!!!"

She couldn't see him shake his head, but she could picture it. "Listen, I don't know what your problem is, but--"

"You want to know what my problem is? Huh? THIS IS MY PROBLEM!" A swift pull on her glasses revealed her blind eyes, and she scowled, pointing the tips of the shades towards him. "A guy did this to me, someone I cared about so much that I decided to be an idiot, and trust him. You know NOTHING about my life, NOTHING about what I've been through, and NOTHING about me, so polite or not, nice or not, I don't want anything to do with you! Do you get THAT message?"

Bradin was silent for a moment before he started talking again. "Becca, look, my girlfriend is going to be here any second."

"Yippee for you."

"I want you to hang with us."

"What?" she yelped, and laughed slightly. "You want ME to hang with YOU? Why?"

"Do you know anybody here?"

"Yes. Do you know how stupid that question was?"

"I'm trying to be nice here!!!!! Look, you can either hang with me and my girlfriend, or you can do whatever you want, I don't care. I'm just trying to be..."

Becca placed her glasses back on the brim of her nose, and sighed, frustrated. Didn't this guy take no for an answer? "I don't need nice. I need you to stay out of my fucking way."

"You know what? I don't even know why I bother. You're impossible!!! I'm trying to be nice to you, show you a good time, and obviously you can't do--"

"DON'T YOU DARE GO THERE!!!!!!" she screamed at him, her left hand swiping the air in her best attempt at slapping him. "DON'T YOU DARE!!!!!!"

Surprisingly, she caught his right shoulder. "OW! Damn, you don't have to take it all out on the world, Becca!"

"You have NO idea what I've been through, Bradin Westerly."

"I could if you'd tell me."

"I LOST MY MOTHER!!!!!! Fine, ok, happy now?"

"Yeah, well, I lost both my parents," he said quietly and sighed, frustrated.

Becca froze for a moment before... "I lost my eyes. Ha, topped you."

"Look, if you don't want friends, fine. I don't care. Go back to doing what you were doing, and forget about what I said. I'll see you later."

His feet started crunching the sand, indicating his departure, and she felt slightly guilty for everything she said. It looked like they did have a bit more in common than she thought. "Bradin."

The crunching stopped. "What?"

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah, I'm sorry too."

"Look, can we just... we just call this a truce and get on with it? Sounds like we both have a lot on our plates. And if Uncle Johnny says yes, we're going to be housemates anyway. I don't need the stress; I don't think you do either."

She could practically feel him smile. "Yeah, we can do that."

"I still don't like you."

"Fine."

"I think you're trouble."

"Whatever works for you."

"You're a cocky bastard."

"What?"

"Where are we meeting your girlfriend? At the Surf Shop, at 2:30? Got it."

"What did you say about--"

"Great, bye," she said, before running as fast as she could in the opposite direction.

Sometimes she loved leaving boys clueless. Especially when she hated them.

A/N: As some of you guys have noticed, Yeah, I haven't updated. I've tried to do it on a weekly basis, but I can't keep up with it most of the time. I'm working on so many projects it's not even funny. So, ergo, I'll update when I feel like it. I'm sorry guys, but I'm not sure when the next update will be.

And thank you all for your reviews. I judge my work on how many reviews I get on a piece, and when it's a good turnout, even with these bouts of inactivity, then it's absolutely fabulous. I really appreciate it, and you guys rule!

Also, concerning Becca... these first few chapters, she's going to be a bitch to Bradin. There's no way of getting around that, she's going to be nasty to him becuase she doesn't like him, and he rubs her wrong. And he might pick fights with her because he's trying to be open to her, trying to make her feel welcome, and she shuts him out. They can't stand each other, but, as you can see, can make uneasy truces and the like... I'm still planning this to be a Bradin/Becca story though, and you'll see how this progresses, and how other plot elements will come in. I want, at one point in time, Becca's biological father to come in, and he's only coming for her because of the money she gets from her mother, so that will be interesting. There will be things getting thrown every which way, trusts get broken, promises aren't kept, that sort of thing. It's going to be interesting.

I might pick this up more as the new season of Summerland starts... We'll have to see. Anyway, I'm off to work on another project that needs to be done, and I have homework to do too. So see you all later! Bye!