A/N: Thanks so much for all of the great reviews! They really motivate me to write. Now honestly, I'm not even sure where I'm going with this story so I'd really love some ideas. Daniela- you asked about how Seth was so calm with Summer sleeping with Zach...well, maybe that's gonna come back and bite Summer in the ass...wink

P.S. Caitlyn Rose, the one-shot I wrote about them kissing on the pier didn't actually happen. It was what I had kind of hoped for to have happened in episode 202 The Way We Were. I wrote that story before the show started up again so it was a guess. Thanks for the review!

Stickers and Kittens

"Cohen, you are so slow!" Summer was running backwards so that she was facing Seth.

"Maybe you're just...really...fast," he said, slightly out of breath.

Summer stopped and waited for him to catch up. When he finally did, he bent over with his hands on his knees trying to regulate his breathing. Summer waited patiently for him to finish.

When he finally stood up, he said, "Remind me again why we're running?"

"Because exercise is good for us. Plus it makes us happy," she said matter-of-factly.

"Last time I checked, running a mile didn't make me happy." Seth finally managed a controlled breathing.

"Maybe not yet. But when we get back to my place it will." Summer winked at him and he immediately understood the implications of her answer.

"Alright, I'm ready to head back," Seth said quickly, turning around.

"Cohen, we still have a quarter of a mile to run before we're supposed to head back."

"It's okay cause when we get back, I'll give you a workout that's equivalent to a quarter of a mile." Seth gave her a goofy smile.

"Really," Summer said, a little surprised. "Well, I'd like to see that," she said as she grabbed his hand and pulled him along in the direction of her house.

Summer was never one to cheat on her boyfriends. She knew that there were guys who thought she was like that; that even though she was dating so-and-so, they could just pull her into a room and hook up with her. But cheating was a definite no no in her book. That's why the very morning after she and Seth had had their little talk, she called up Zach. She went to his house because she thought breaking up with someone over the phone was too bitchy, even for her. So she told him that things just weren't working out, gave him a hug and wished they could still be friends. He said they could and then she turned on her heel and left a very bewildered looking Zach standing in his living room.

She and Seth weren't an official couple though because for one, that would be even bitchier than breaking up with Zach over the phone. And two, because Summer was scared. She had issues with abandonment, rooted to her mother, and Seth was so good to her. Too good to her. She didn't want to have to let go of him.

"Peanut butter is, like, really good." Summer licked the remaining peanut butter off of her fingers as she stood in her kitchen. Her hair was in a messy ponytail and she was just a little sweaty from their run.

"Did you just figure that out," Seth asked, as he stuck his finger in the jar and pulled it back out, now covered in peanut butter.

"No," she said, shoving him lightly in the shoulder as he stuck his peanut butter coated finger in his mouth.

"But a peanut butter and banana sandwich is disgusting," he said, eyeing the sloppily made sandwich that was sitting in front of her.

"You haven't even tried it yet!"

"Yeah, and I'm not gonna because I really don't wanna throw up."

Summer picked up a half of the sandwich and shoved it towards his face. "Just taste it!"

"No," he said moving away from her. She chased after him and a small struggle ensued resulting with Seth having peanut butter smeared on his face. "Ew," he said as he wiped at the peanut butter smears

"Ew?"

"I blame it on you," he said, still wiping at his face.

"Come here," Summer said, and he warily walked towards her. She took her thumb, licked it, and wiped gently at his face.

"Thanks, mom," he said sardonically.

"Please don't even refer to me as mom again."

"Good plan." Seth said, as Summer backed away, having completed the task at hand and walked back to counter where the remaining half of her sandwich sat.

"You really should just try it," she said, not yet giving up on convincing him to taste her favorite sandwich combination.

Seth walked over to her and she held out the sandwich to him. He took a small, cautious bite and chewed slowly. After swallowing, he said, "That's not half bad."

"I told you! Next time, you should just trust me," she said as she took her own bite of the sandwich.

"I'll keep that in mind," he said sarcastically.

From somewhere in the house a random song played and Summer finally noticed. "Ew, Cohen, who is this?"

"Jets to Brazil."

"I don't like them," Summer said.

"I found the CD in your bedroom."

"Only cause you left it here," Summer retorted.

"It was still in the player."

"Whatever. The point is if you don't turn it off right now you may never see my bedroom again." Seth disappeared from the room for a moment to turn the CD off just because Summer had that kind of power over him. Returning to the kitchen he walked up behind Summer, wrapping his arms around her waist. He kissed her neck and she dropped her sandwich as she turned around to face him. He kissed her lips this time, just hard enough to make her forget about Jets to Brazil and peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

"Ew. It stinks in here." Summer waved her hand in front of her face as she walked into the building.

"Yes, well, stray animals can do that. Especially when they're all confined to one room." Seth followed Summer, weaving in and out of the cages.

"But it really, really stinks," Summer said, as she stopped to look at a particularly fat cat who was sleeping in its litter box.

"You said you wanted a kitten," Seth pointed out.

"But kittens are supposed to be cute and fluffy, not smelling like...something really gross."

"It won't smell if you give it a bath."

"Oh my God! That one is so cute!" Summer violently grabbed Seth by the arm and yanked him around to face the cage she was currently looking at. "Look at him, Cohen!"

"Ow! Jesus, Summer." Seth rubbed his arm.

"Isn't he cute?" Summer poked at the kitten in the cage.

"He's adorable," Seth deadpanned.

"I think he likes me," Summer said, referring to the way the kitten was practically climbing the wall of the cage in some kind of an attempt to escape.

"You know, I bet you you're right. I can practically hear him calling your name."

"Shut up," she said, as she smacked him on the arm.

Summer admired the kitten for a while longer before saying, "I think I might want this one. But I don't know because I haven't looked at the rest of them. I mean, what if there's one that's way cuter?"

"I don't know, Summer." This was one of those times that Seth really had no idea what was going through Summer's head.

"I'll put it on hold. I can do that, right?" Summer didn't give him time to answer before she was off to find someone who worked there. "Excuse me, yeah, hi. I was wondering if I could put that kitten over there on hold. I just wanna look around some more so if you could just, like, put a sticker on him or something that'd be great. Thanks!"

Seth bit his tongue to stop himself from laughing out loud. Sometimes she really was the epitome of a rich girl. I mean, put a sticker on it?

"Alright, it's all settled. Let's look at the rest of them."

A few days ago when Seth, Marissa, Summer, Ryan, and Lindsay were lazing around the Cohen's pool, the conversation turned to pets. Seth couldn't remember for the life of him how they started talking about their old pets, but that was beside the point. Marissa had shared her story about Dustin and how they got him when she was just a little girl. She was allowed to name him and was, at that time, obsessed with unique boy names so now, the poor dog was saddled with the name Dustin. Dustin had died, though, of canine leukemia after about episode 3...excuse me, I meant over the summer before senior year.

Ryan talked about Freddy, the goldfish he won at one of his rare school functions. He had managed to sink a ping-pong ball into one of the tiny fish bowls and was, therefore, rewarded with the fish the bowl was currently housing. Ryan was only nine at the time and couldn't remember where the hell he came up with the name Freddy. That wasn't important though because Freddy died about three weeks after Ryan got him. Damn goldfish don't live for more than a month.

Lindsay had, quite possibly, the most interesting pet of them all. A small salamander named Dottie. Her obsession with Leave It To Beaver had conjured up that name. Dottie the dinosaur, Dottie the salamander...it was close enough. Dottie was a present for her twelfth birthday and he had managed to last her all the way until her fifteenth before he contracted the salamander plague and died.

Seth claimed he was deprived as a child and his parents never bought him a pet.

Summer, on the other hand, had a little Persian cat with a big fluffy tail. She had gotten him when she was just five years old. It had been a present for being a big girl and going to kindergarten. Unfortunately, five year olds can be a little rough, and old, cranky cats tend to have a problem with that. He would disappear of for long periods of time and Summer said she never got to know him very well, though how you got to know a cat was lost on Seth. His name was Shadow...up until he got run over.

So then Seth made the mistake of saying he would buy her a new cat. Now he was stuck in this smelly, cramped Rescue Village looking for a cat that Summer would just get sick of and most likely stop feeding. Not on purpose, she would just forget about it. Or she would get so sick of it that she'd wind up inventing up some big plan for the most painless way to kill it. Yeah, she had a bit of a mean streak.

"So, I think I'm going to get the black and white one," Summer said, as she stepped out of the last row of cages.

"You mean the first one you liked?" Seth couldn't believe he had just walked row after row of smelly cages, looking at cat after cat for her to just pick the third one they looked at.

"Yeah. The one with the sticker." Summer started to make her way down to the first row to find her kitten.

Seth didn't believe that these people would actually put a cat on hold, let alone put a sticker on it. But judging by the amount of cats that were in the room versus the amount of people, there were probably more than enough cats to go around. Twice.

Summer finally found the cage she was looking for and, thankfully, the kitten. He was still in there pawing at the door in some anomalousattempt to free himself from his tiny prison.

"Hi, kitty," she said, speaking through the bars. "I'm gonna take you home with me." She turned to Seth, and said, "Wait here while I go find the lady."

Summer returned with the skinny woman who seemed to be running the place. "That one," Summer said, as she pointed to the teeny kitten. The woman stepped forward and opened the cage just far enough to remove to kitten that had scrambled to the entrance. She handed the cat to Summer and motioned for the two of them to follow her to the front desk. The woman, whose name was Betty, according to her nametag, pulled some papers out from under the counter. She said that those papers would explain how to care for the kitten. Some cash was handed over (out of Seth's wallet, of course) and some papers were signed and they were given a box for the cat.

Summer declared that she would hold the cat for the entire ride as opposed to shutting it up in its box. About three minutes into the car ride, the kitten started freaking out and Summer said she had no other choice but to lock him up. They finally arrived home and Summer grabbed the box as Seth followed her into the house.

"So, what do we do with it now?" Summer looked carefully at the box that was currently making some very interesting sounds.

"Um, let it out, I guess," Seth said.

Summer walked warily over to it and slowly peeled back the top. All of a sudden the cat flew out of the box and ran frantically around the room. Summer screamed shrilly and clung to Seth, which probably didn't help matters much. All Seth could do was hold her and try not to laugh as the kitten finally came to an abrupt halt under the couch. After a few moments of stillness, Summer said, "Go get it."

"Hell no. I am not touching that physco of a cat." Seth backed away and held his hands up in front of him.

"What, and you think I am?"

"It's your cat."

"You bought it," Summer pointed out.

"Yeah, for you!"

"Fine. You are such a wuss, Cohen." Summer crouched down beside the couch. "Here kitty kitty."

Apparently the cat was very skittish in his newfound environment because he leapt out from under the couch, almost nailing Summer in the face. She screamed again and jumped back, landing on her butt. Seth immediately started cracking up.

"And you said I'm a wuss," Seth managed to say his current state of hysterics.

"Shut the hell up."

Seth didn't stop laughing. He knew she had the ability to inflict severe bodily injuries upon him, but the entire scene was so damn funny that he couldn't stop if he tried.

"You are such a jackass," she said, as she threw her well-aimed shoe at his head. Seth dodged it, though, at the last second and the shoe succeeded only in putting a mark on the wall.

Seth finally managed to suppress his laughter and Summer had still not moved from her spot on the floor. Out of nowhere, the kitten came calmly walking into the room from wherever he had freaked out to, and climbed into Summer's lap.

"Hey there kitty," Summer said, petting the kitten affectionately.

Seth walked towards her and sat on the couch in front of Summer and the cat.

"Now we get to name him. He'll be like our little baby." Summer smiled at him.

Seth wondered if Summer realized she had just referred to the cat as "our" baby because if she did, she certainly didn't acknowledge it.

"How about Oliver," Seth suggested.

"Oliver?" Summer raised her eyebrows. "Okay one, Oliver Twist. And two, Oliver Trask. No way, no Oliver."

"Okay...James?"

"God, Cohen you are, like, so bad at this naming thing." Summer looked at the cat for a moment before her head snapped up. "I got it!"

"What," Seth asked, just a little curious to hear what genius name she had come up with.

"I'm going to call him Cohen." Summer beamed proudly at her smartness.

"What? No. I do not want a cat named after me," Seth protested.

"Hey, it's an honor."

"No. That thing is a freak," Seth said, pointing at the cat.

"Cohen, you're going to hurt his feelings."

Seth looked at her blankly. "Summer, it's a cat. It has no idea what I'm saying. I could call it blind retard and it wouldn't know."

"You are cruel. And I'm naming it Cohen." Summer paused for a beat. "Unless you want to name it Ezekiel..."

"What the...what...how do you know that?"

"I talk to your mother."

"Not anymore you won't. Not if she's telling you stuff like that."

"Ugh...you are so uptight." Summer stood up with the cat in her hand. "You need to loosen up a bit," she said, as she smacked his shoulder with her free hand. Then she held the cat up to her face, and said, "I'm going to go get you some milk because you're really skinny. You're like the cat version of Coop. Now Cohen, be good and wait here with Cohen." Summer thrusted the cat at Seth and walked out of the room.

"Wait, Summer...I don't want the...this is going to get confusing!" After receiving no real response from Summer who had disappeared into the kitchen, Seth looked down at the kitten who was looking up at him with innocent eyes. "Well, looks like it's just me and you, buddy."