A/N: This is a revised edition of Chapter One, we noticed our mistake and are thankful to the one who reported it, J.
This is a co-written Fan-fic. KC-Chick and Converses Rolled Down.
The first chapter was written primarily by KC-Chick and edited by Converses Rolled Down. Enjoy!
Defying Fate
Fifteen year old Ryan Atwood sat starring at the paint on the chipped bars of the jail door. He had been taken in for trying to steal a car. Only, it wasn't his fault. His nineteen-year-old brother Trey had forced him to get in; if he hadn't, he would have had his ass kicked. His brother didn't joke about stuff like that; when he said "get the hell in the car" it meant business. Ryan sat there thinking of how he was going to get out of there. He was still a minor so he knew that he couldn't go to jail…but there was that place called Juvi Hall. They could always send him there and along with however many hours of community service. "Great, spend my time in a hall with stoned jerks who don't give a damn about my life but if I look tough and sit there then maybe Ill survive," thought Ryan. Oh, and he couldn't forget the other 'classic' resort, foster care. There would always be some "nice family" who was willing to take in a kid from the streets and try to teach him their ways. Or, there was the version of parents who didn't care what you did, as long as you put on a good show when the Social Service officer came. Ryan didn't care either way. As long as he could sneak out of there at night and make sure Teresa was OK. "Shit," thought Ryan. "What's Teresa gonna do?" Teresa was Ryan's girlfriend and though it may sound lame to have a serious girlfriend at fifteen, but Ryan was almost sixteen, then maybe being with Teresa wouldn't be lame. Ryan heard loud footsteps coming toward the cell.
"He's in here," said one of the guards. They approached the cell Ryan saw a man in a suit with black hair and furry eyebrows standing next to the guard. The guard unlocked the door and took Ryan by the arm, leading him to a conference room. The guard shut the door with a red button and the man stood, waiting for Ryan to sit. Ryan looked at the gray plastic chair. It didn't look all that comfortable to sit in, but if he didn't want to get used to uncomfortable gray chairs, he may as well sit and at least listen to what this guy in the suit had to say.
"I'm Sandy Cohen," began the man, holding out his hand. Ryan sat there starting at it. Seeing that this kid wasn't going to shake his hand, Sandy pulled it back and straightened up a bit. 'This kid doesn't look so bad,' thought Sandy to himself. "Well, I see that we have a situation on our hands." Sandy opened the manila folder with Ryan Atwood printed boldly on the cover. "Says here that you stole—"
"My brother stole a car-" interrupted Ryan. "I just happened to be in it." Sandy was a bit taken aback by Ryan's sudden talkativeness, but then again, he was just defending himself.
"Alright, your brother stole the car and you're getting some heat for it too?"
"Seems that way,"
"Well, I'll see what I can do about that. Wait here." Sandy walked out of the conference room leaving Ryan to sit there waiting to find out what would happen.
After about thirty minutes Sandy walked in with a guard. "You're free to go," said Sandy. Ryan jerked his head up.
"Serious?"
"Yea, I took care of it."
"Thanks," said Ryan, truly grateful.
As he turned to leave Sandy said, "Here's my card, if you ever need anything, just call."
Ryan nodded but thought, "yea, right."
As Ryan walked out into the cool air he breathed a sigh of relief. He had been afraid that he wouldn't be seeing daylight like this any time soon. He looked around and seeing that there was no one standing there, decided to go see what was left of his house, if you could call it a house. He walked down the streets and noticed what a crappy part of California he lived in. There were kids wandering in the streets alone, dirty and some with barely any clothes on. He couldn't believe that he had actually grown up here and that people still did. It wasn't a fit place to live for anyone, let alone a kid. He walked down a bit more and finally arrived at his dump of a house. As he walked up the driveway he noticed glass scattered in his lawn. He was guessing his mother had had another fight with her boyfriend and they were probably both sleeping off the wasted feeling. Carefully he walked in, hoping not to get yelled at, but as he walked in, he realized that there was no one in the house. Actually, there was nothing at all. Even the usually sparse rooms now had nothing at all in them. Ryan looked around, and realized that he had been abandoned. He stared at the empty room and then ran outside. He stopped, realizing that there was really nowhere to go. It was a bit chilly so he stuck his hands into his hoodie pockets and felt a light piece of cardboard inside. He took it out and realized that it was the card Sandy Cohen had given him. Ryan stared at it. "If you ever need anything, just call" he had said. Well, right then, Ryan needed a place to sleep. He walked over to a pay phone, found a quarter in his pocket, and shoved it in the slot. One ring…two rings.
"Hello?"
"Hi, is this Sandy Cohen?"
"Yes…"
"Hey, this is Ryan, Ryan Atwood."
Almost an hour later, Ryan saw a black convertible pull up onto the curb beside the pay phone.
"I didn't know public offense attorney's made so much money," said Ryan, feeling the soft leather covering the passenger seat. Sandy grinned at him.
"I don't, but my wife does."
Ryan stared out into the hot California sun that was lowering in the sky. He couldn't believe that in about five hours he had gone from sitting in a jail cell to sitting in a nice black convertible; being driven to a nice, rich part of California. The thought of Ryan Atwood even walking through a nice neighborhood was completely surreal. But there he was.
The car came to a stop and Sandy broke the long silence that had settled in when they started driving.
"Well here we are."
"This is home?"
Sandy nodded. "This is home." He got out of the car and Ryan followed, still having a hard time believing that he was where he was. He walked up the driveway and Sandy unlocked the door.
"Kirsten, I'm home," he called. Right after he did a skinny blonde woman walked into the front room right as Ryan was gazing all around. She smiled at her husband but was surprised to see a boy standing next to him.
"Honey, this is Ryan Atwood. Ryan, this is my wife, Kirsten."
"Hi, nice to meet you," greeted Kirsten with a warming smile.
"Hey," said Ryan shyly.
"Ryan's gonna be staying with us for the weekend," explained Sandy. Kirsten stared at him but her shocked look disappeared. This wasn't the time to have this talk.
"Oh, well great, Ryan, I'll just get you some clean sheets for the pool house ok? I'll just be a minute."
'Pool house?' thought Ryan to himself before following Kirsten. She led him through a large kitchen and outside. They walked past the pool and into a building large enough to be a small apartment. Ryan walked inside as Kirsten led the way.
"This is where you'll be staying," Ryan gazed around the huge room and saw a comfy bed in the middle as well as a mini kitchen off to the side.
"I'll get you those sheets, be right back," Kirsten as she walked out. Ryan stood there for a couple more seconds and then decided to go outside and have a smoke. He knew it probably wasn't the healthiest thing to do at 15, but hey, no one had ever cared about his health anyway so he might as well if no one was giving him a hard time about it. He took out a cigarette and lit it, Right as he inhaled a puff of smoke in, he felt a hand taking it out of his mouth.
"No smoking while you're here," said Kirsten.
"Sorry," Ryan replied feeling a bit guilty. After all, this wasn't his house.
"Its ok, just don't do it again," Kirsten walked back into the pool house and placed the sheets on the bed, then walked back out and met Ryan. "Why don't you come inside and meet our son, Seth." Ryan nodded and Kirsten led the way back inside the house and into the living room where they found a kid with brown shaggy hair and scrawny arms sitting on the floor playing a video game.
"Seth," said Kirsten, trying to get her son's attention.
"Yea Mom?" replied the kid, still not looking away from the screen.
"Seth, I'd like you to meet someone. This is Ryan, he'll be staying with us for the weekend," Seth looked up from the screen.
"Oh, hey dude," greeting Seth and then went right back to playing his game, which irritated Kirsten a bit.
"Hey," Ryan replied awkwardly. Kirsten, seeing that the two boys probably needed time to get to know each other, retreated to the kitchen to talk to her husband about all this.
"Sandy, he's not some lost puppy, you can't bring someone home every time they look slightly lost."
"I know honey, I'm sorry, I should've called you first, but it'll only be for the weekend," Kirsten stared at her husband and knowing that he usually kept his word, let it go.
"Ok, fine. But only for the weekend," Sandy smiled at his wife. He knew she'd give in eventually.
Meanwhile, Ryan and Seth were in the living room, failing to get to know each other. Finally, Seth broke the silence.
"So, you into comic books?" asked Seth.
"Yea,"
"Ok, I'll show you some of mine, come on." Seth led the way upstairs and into a room with blue walls and covered with posters. He walked over to the dresser and pulled out a stack of comics. "What are you into, Superman, Spiderman, X-Men?"
"X-Men," replied Ryan and Seth threw a copy at him, "Whoa, this is first edition."
"Heck yes it is," Ryan gazed at the comic book and Seth asked him another question.
"So, why are you here?"
"Oh, I got taken into custody and your dad bailed me out."
"Whoa really, what'd ya do?"
"Stole a car,"
"Really?"
"Well more like my brother stole it but I got thrown in jail to and your dad was nice enough to bail me out and here I am."
"Well, this is awesome. I won't be alone in high school this year."
"Don't get your hopes up, I have no clue how long I'm staying. Besides, I don't think you're mom is too happy about it."
"Oh don't worry, she'll accept it eventually."
There was another silence between the two and Ryan noticed a plastic horse placed on the nightstand. Seth noticed him eyeing it strangely and explained. "That's Captain Oats," said Seth proudly. "He's my sidekick, through thick and thin." Ryan found his answer a bit odd, but then again everything about this whole situation seemed odd to him so he shrugged it off.
"Oh, that's cool," replied Ryan, not wanting to be rude.
"So, you're staying in the pool house right?"
"Yea,"
"Oh that place is awesome."
"Yea it seems pretty decked out,"
They stood there for a couple more seconds then Seth said, "Ya wanna play some video games?"
"Sure,"
"Come on let's go." Seth led the way out of his room and back into the living room. "Oh, just a word of advice, never eat anything my mom cooks."
"Why not?"
"Well, let's just say, she's not the best cook in the world. She tried to make rice once and it tasted all crunchy and sweet at the same time. Like that rice crispy cereal stuff, it was disgusting. And this was during Thanksgiving! No one wants to eat sweet crispy rice during Thanksgiving," Ryan laughed at Seth's explanation but realized that he would have given anything a mom who cared enough to cook, even crunchy sweet rice for Thanksgiving, They sat down and Seth put in some type of pirate fighting game into the PS2.
After playing for about an hour, Kirsten called the boys into the kitchen for dinner.
"Is Chinese ok?" she asked Ryan.
"Yea, it's great," replied Ryan, just thankful for some food to eat.
"See, I told you she couldn't cook, which is why they invented take out."
"Seth, I'm not that bad!" said Kirsten defensively.
"Oh, but honey, you are," teased Sandy. Seth grinned at his dad.
"Don't listen to these two Ryan, my cooking is fine," Ryan smiled. It was funny to see a family joke around like this, especially because he wasn't used to it.
After dinner, Ryan had helped clean up and then went outside for a smoke. Even though he knew it wasn't allowed, he just had to. Besides, it would give him some time to think about everything that had happened in the last couple of hours. He walked out to the curb and took out a cigarette again, lit it, then placed it into his mouth. Leaning against the wall he noticed someone walking through the darkness, a girl. She was slim; seemed to be about his age. He looked away, not wanting it to seem like he was staring or anything, even though he was. The girl got closer to him and eyed him suspiciously.
Then she stood there for a couple seconds and not being able to control her curiosity any longer asked, "Who are you?"
Ryan was surprised by her question let alone that she had actually started talking to him first. He looked over and this time she was closer than the first time he had seen her now caught a glimpse of her true beauty.
He was mesmerized by it for a moment and then realizing that she had asked him a question, he answered, "Whoever you want me to be."
'Smooth,' he thought to himself. The girl looked at him in wonder. He certainly wasn't like anyone around Newport.
"Oh, well, I'm Marissa Cooper," she said. "I live next door." They stood there for a couple more seconds and Marissa asked a question again.
"So what are you doing standing out in front of the Cohen's house?"
"It's a free country isn't it? Can't I stand here if I want to?"
"Sure, it might get a little lonely though."
"That's true."
"So really, what are you doing here?"
"The truth? I got caught stealing a car and was thrown in jail. Sandy's my public offense defender and since my mom ran out on me for her boyfriend, he took me in here for the weekend." Marissa smiled at him.
"You're their cousin from Boston, aren't you?" Ryan smiled back.
"Yea,"
Just then a black jeep pulled into the circle and up to the curb where Ryan and Marissa were standing. Loud music was booming from the car and the front door swung open.
"Get in Rissa!" Someone yelled from the car, Marissa obeyed the command and got into the car. "Who's that?" asked the guy.
"Oh that's…the Cohen's cousin," she said simply, then looking back at Ryan she said, "Nice talking to you," then slammed the car door shut. She didn't really seem like she wanted to go, but the guy driving seemed pretty demanding. Ryan stood on the curb for a couple more seconds then realized that the cigarette was almost all burned out, and that he hadn't even taken in a smoke, he threw it down and stepped on it. Then he walked back into the huge house that he'd be staying in.
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