A/N: I hope you enjoy this chapter. I promise it will get more exciting in the next chapters to come. Right now I'm trying to just move it along.

Disclaimer: Abby's mine. Nobody else though...grrrr
Abby stepped out of the shower the next morning and walked quickly to her room. Last night was horrible. It was probably the worst night since her mom died, and that was a really bad night. She had gone home after her and Seth's meeting at the bus stop and went straight to bed. Except, she didn't go to sleep for over two hours. All she could think about was how Summer knew about her dad going to prison, and how she could possibly like Seth.

It was so weird. She hadn't even been back that long and she liked him. She had liked him when they were kids. He seemed to have this weird profound effect on her. Seth had never really been one with the ladies, and guys usually crawled all over her. She never paid them much attention though. Except for Seth……and Ryan. Ugh, now all she could think about was her and Ryan's conversation the day before. She had come back to Newport to leave the drama and instead she got more.

Abby quickly got dressed and sat down on her bed. She really needed to talk to Seth, and Ryan. She actually didn't want to see either, but she knew she had to.

She stood up and left her room to go downstairs. To her dismay, both Seth and Ryan were silently eating breakfast with Kirsten and Sandy.

"How was the dance?" Kirsten asked cheerfully.

She must not have caught on to the whole act of none of them talking.

"It was great," Abby lied. She glanced over to Ryan who was looking straight at her and then to Seth who picking at his toast.

"So, details please," Kirsten said again cheerfully.

Abby sighed and went to the refrigerator and got out the orange juice.

"Well?" Kirsten asked.

"Do we have to talk about it?" Abby snapped.

She really didn't mean to sound that harsh, especially to Kirsten who was slowly becoming like her older sister. Not mom, she would never be her mom. No one would.

"I'm sorry Kirsten, I just umm," Abby paused and looked for an escape route. She could flee back to her room, but that would just allow them to pry. So the only other reasonable option was the back door going out to the pool.

"I need to go. I'll be back later," Abby said walking swiftly to the door and leaving.

She had heard Kirsten try to say something, but she didn't stop to listen. She was doing that a lot lately. Running away from people who were just trying to help.

Abby walked around to the front of the house and sat down in the driveway. She pulled her legs up underneath her and rested her chin on her arms. Why was this so hard? She lashed out on Summer, Seth, and now Kirsten. What was she going to do?

"Coop! I haven't seen you in so long! I've called, but you haven't picked up! Are you ok?" Summer pounced on Marissa as soon as she had opened the door.

Marissa had pretty much shut herself in her room since the news about the baby. Why she even bothered to stay in the house she didn't know.

"I needed a little time," Marissa said walking into Summer's house.

"Yeah, I figured that. How are you?" Summer asked concerned.

"Splendid," Marissa replied sarcastically.

"Coop, I know it's hard, but it happened, and you'll eventually have to accept it," Summer said leading Marissa up to her room.

Marissa sighed. Summer was right. She was usually always right, and it usually baffled her. Summer wasn't as dumb as some people thought, but now she really wanted to get the subject off of her.

"Yeah, I know. Anyway, I heard about the dance," Marissa said.

Summer instantly went quiet and Marissa smiled.

"I'm sorry you had to go through such a mess on your first year of decorating," Marissa said.

Usually she was in charge of promotion and decoration, but she had handed over the reigns due to "unforeseen complications".

"Yeah, it wasn't that great," Summer said.

Marissa gave her another smile. She hadn't talked to Abby since she got here, but she had remembered her to be a really nice freckled-face redhead that Seth always hung out with.

"She's evil," Summer finally said.

Marissa smiled as she watched Summer ramble on.

"She's so evil Coop and she wants to ruin my life," Summer said again.

"She doesn't want to ruin your life Summer, she's just trying to fit in," Marissa said.

"By trying to ruin my life? Besides, she's got Cohen now, she should be happy," Summer said.

"Yeah, I heard you blurted out about Abby liking Seth to," Marissa said.

"I know, it was a low thing to do, and I don't even know if it was true, but I was angry," Summer said.

"Why?" Marissa asked.

She was glad they were talking about Summer's problems and not hers. She actually really needed a conversation like this.

"Well, ugh. Am I a bad person Coop?" Summer asked avoiding the question.

"No, you're just jealous I think," Marissa said.

"Jealous? You think I'm jealous of Abby?" Summer asked a little shocked by this statement.

"Summer, it's not a bad thing. Everyone gets jealous. It's human. You should probably just talk to Abby and try to resolve any conflicts you had or have now," Marissa said.

Marissa watched as Summer contemplated this suggestion and slowly nodded her head.

"You're right Coop. I'll go talk to her tomorrow," Summer said.

"Good. Now, I brought season two of the Golden Girls," Marissa said pulling out the dvd's from her bag.

"Coop! See, this is why we're friends," Summer screeched!

Marissa smiled as she sat beside Summer at the end of her bed and started watching the shows.

"Coop?" Summer asked.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"Anytime."

Ryan had sat listening to Seth ramble on for the last twenty minutes while accomplishing no schoolwork at all.

"You see. She could have been implying two different things. Maybe she does like me or maybe she really is just jealous of Summer because Summer got me," Seth said.

Ryan looked up and slammed his book shut.

"Wouldn't that also imply that she likes you?" Ryan asked.

Seth looked at him for a moment a nodded.

"Yes, yes it could. So…" Seth started again.

"Do you like her back?" Ryan asked cutting him off.

"We're not talking about that right now. We're talking about Abby. See Ryan, I don't think we're connected right now. We need to work on that," Seth said.

Ryan opened his book again and tried to answer at least one question during the silence.

"Do you think I like her?" Seth asked.

Ryan finally closed his book for good and looked at Seth.

"Yes," Ryan simply said.

Seth looked at him for a moment and shook his head.

"Nah, see I did like her, but that was before she left. Now, now I don't think so," Seth said.

"Then you don't," Ryan pondered.

Seth liked Abby. Ryan could tell. It wasn't some big mystery except to him and Abby. Because he knew this, he was starting to get annoyed with Seth's constant bugging.

"See, now we're talking. There may be hope for us Ryan," Seth said standing up to get another glass of orange juice.

"What about you and Abby?" Seth asked, "You've never really said anything about that."

Ryan jerked his head to where Seth was and starred.

"What about me and Abby? There's nothing to tell," Ryan shot back defensively.

"Sheesh! I just wanted to know about how you kids in Chino spent your time. It's not like you hooked up or anything, so I'm not asking about that," Seth said.

"Good," Ryan said turning back to the table and looking at it.

"You didn't did you?"

"What?"

"Hook up?"

"No!"

"Are you sure?" Seth asked quickly walking back over to sit beside Ryan at the table.

"Yes, and I have homework to do Seth," Ryan said opening his book once more.

He could feel his hands starting to sweat and he tried to prevent it. Seth noticed things like that and if he saw it he would ask more questions. Ryan didn't need that.

Apparently his strategy wasn't working to well because Seth was about to ask something else before Sandy came in the kitchen.

"Hey boys, have you seen Abby?" Sandy asked grabbing a glass.

"No, why?" Seth asked.

"She left her room early this morning and hasn't been back all day. Kirsten's starting to get worried," Sandy said pouring him-self a glass of orange juice.

"She needs to blow off some steam," Ryan said.

The past few days had been rough for her and they all knew it. Except maybe Sandy and Kirsten knew a little less. They didn't know about the dance and Abby's little brawl with Summer.

'That's what I said, but she won't listen," Sandy said sitting next to the two boys.

"So dad, Ryan was about to tell me about life in Chino with Abby Harris," Seth said smiling.

Ryan gave him a stern look and turned to Sandy.

"Do you think Seth likes Abby?" Ryan asked changing the subject.

"Of course he does. Ever since they were kids," Sandy said like it was not really a big deal.

"Hey!" Seth shot across the table.

"What? It's not big news. First Abby. And then it was Summer. You know I thought it was still Summer, but now that Abby's back, it's definitely her again." Sandy said sipping his orange juice.

"It would really be great if you just stopped talking," Seth said.

"What? My son has a way with the ladies. Abby's a good catch. She always has been," Sandy said eyeing his son.

Ryan watched as Seth continually tried to defend himself, but lost every time.

Yeah, Seth defiantly liked Abby.

"Abigail Harris?"

"Abby!" she yelled.

Everyday her chemistry teacher would call on her with her full name. Every time she did that Abby would correct her, but it really didn't matter.

Abby knew it was a Saturday and normal kids weren't in school, but she decided that today would be a great day to come for the weekend reviews that were being held.

"Miss. Harris? Please answer number 6 for us," Mrs. Amends said.

Abby quickly answered and went back to picking at her nails. She didn't need to be at the review, but it was the only place that no one would try to come find her at. She was still putting off confrontation with Seth or Ryan.

"Good," Mrs. Amends said moving onto the next question.

There were only six other people in the classroom with her. Two boys were asleep in the corner. They were both dressed in all black and had about a hundred piercings each. A blonde was sitting in the middle of the room quietly sending text messages on her phone. Two other girls were facing the teacher, but from the looks on their faces, they weren't listening. The last person was a boy with thick glasses who was sitting in the very front of the room. He didn't look like he needed the re-teaching, but he was quickly taking notes down on a notepad.

Abby was studying Mrs. Amends when the bell rang.

"Good review today class. I'll see you all on Monday," Mrs. Amends said grabbing her stuff and running out of the room. She didn't even want to be here.

Abby watched as everyone left. She stayed though and just sat. If there was anyway that she could just leave, she would. Get out of Newport and head off to L.A., or even New York.

While thinking about this she didn't notice someone sit down next to her.

"Abby?" she heard a voice say.

Abby looked next to her and bolted upright when she saw who it was.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I had a meeting for the Pep Rally Club," Summer said eyeing her.

"Figures," Abby said looking up to the chalkboard.

"I saw you in here, and I thought we should talk," Summer said a little uncomfortably.

Abby turned to her and looked her in the eye. Summer gave a slight smile.

"Ok," Abby said.

Maybe it was good that Summer was taking the first step in fixing their problems.

"I'm really sorry about what all I said at the dance. It wasn't right for me to do that," Summer confessed.

"Well, if anyone should be sorry it should be me. I started the whole thing," Abby said.

"You did?" Summer asked.

"Third grade. Under the monkey bars?" Abby said.

Summer nodded and smiled.

"I had a huge black eye for a month," Summer said smiling.

"A month?" Abby asked.

"Well maybe not that long."

Abby laughed.

"Do you even know why we don't like each other?" Abby asked.

"I think it started over a boy," Summer answered.

"Yeah, doesn't it always?" Abby asked.

This was actually going well. No fights, no hair-pulling, just apologies.

"Which reminds me. I'm sorry about bringing the whole Seth thing up. You know, you liking him? You probably don't even like him now, so it wasn't very fair." Summer said looking down at her feet.

Abby was silent for a minute and Summer looked back up at her. Aware that Abby was not agreeing, her eyes grew wide.

"You like Cohen?" She asked a little too loud.

"Well," Abby started but she figured that was enough.

"Oh, I promise I won't tell," Summer said.

"Well, you may not have to worry about that. I kind of said something to him that implied me liking him already," Abby said standing up to leave.

Summer stood up too.

"Yeah, but you know Cohen. He always has to analyze the meaning of what people say. It's so annoying." Summer said grabbing her bag and following Abby to the door.

Abby smiled as the walked out into the hall.

"What? Why are you smiling like that?" Summer asked.

"Who knew Summer Roberts could use such a big word like analyze?" Abby joked.

Summer glared at her.

"We have already been over the apologies. Don't make this worse!" Summer said smiling.

They started walking out of the school building. Maybe this was the start of a friendship. A weird friendship.

"Abby?" Summer asked.

"Yeah?"

"You should talk to Cohen." Summer said looking at her.

"Yeah, I know." Abby answered looking down at her feet.

"I don't think he'd be disappointed with what you have to say," Summer said.

Abby stopped and watched Summer walk to her car. She got in and waved good-bye. Maybe all Abby needed was someone like Summer to tell her what she needed to do. So know that Summer had, it was her turn to take some action.

She just wished that what Summer said would definitely be true.

A/N: I hope you liked this chapter! It took me a while to write because I kept having to get up and do other things. I hate it when that happens. So, please review.

Some Seth and Abby in the next few chapters. The pact between Ryan and Abby is also revealed and more with the grusome twosome and their troubles with Marissa.