Ugh, I realize the events are a little off, but this is based around Seth and Summer, so I can't go through every episode.

"It's the kickoff carnival, Summer, and I don't care what some guy did to you; this is important to me, and I really want you there. Can I try this on?" Marissa held a shirt in front of her chest, raising an eyebrow to Summer.

"Uh, yeah, Marissa. But why do you want me there so badly? You'll be with your friends, and I...won't."

"But Summer, don't you want to admire my beautiful work? Please? And it's not like you'll never have to see him again. We're going to Colorado for Thanksgiving break, and he and that Ryan dude promised to give us a ride."

"What? Us?"

"Didn't I tell you? We're going to get a ride from them."

Summer ignored the fact that Marissa never wanted to do things with her that other people would see, let alone Seth Cohen. "Why can't you drive us?"

"Uh, because. My mom's being a total bitch and taking away my car privileges for, like, until January."

"But Thanksgiving break isn't for a while. We can probably get a ride somewhere else."

"But Seth offered."

"But it's months away. When did you talk to anyone about this?"

"Sometime in lunch. That's unimportant. The important thing is you have to get over this fear of Seth Cohen, face it, and get over it. Wait, I said that already. Whatever, you get me?"

"Marissa, I don't know."

"You have to know, because you're going to that carnival tonight. That can be step one of the Seth Cohen Get Over Plan." Marissa squinted at her own words and at the reflection in the mirror of the shirt that was very obviously too big for her.

Summer scrunched her nose too and laughed when Marissa started laughing. "Okay, so the title is negotiable, but you get me?" Marissa giggled.

Summer shrugged. "I guess."

"So..." Marissa pulled the top over her head and put back on her tank top. "What did happen with him anyway? The whole school's talking about it. I heard he and Holly might be over because of you, you skank." Marissa playfully pushed her shoulder and showed one of her first real grins to Summer.

Summer smiled, but just shrugged again, pulling up her leg. "We just...kissed."

"Ha. Yeah, sure. I heard a much different story from Chad, Brad, Tamara, even Holly talked to me for like five minutes before she burst into tears."

"It was...I mean, I don't remember a lot of it."

"Bullshit, you remember everything. Tell me; who else would you tell?" Marissa, obviously much more comfortable than Summer, asked, still laughing.

"It's just...kind of embarrassing. No matter what he is now, he was with Holly then. And I was kind of...drunk."

"It's okay; she kind of deserves someone cheating on her for once. You know Seth was almost dating someone else when he started going out with her?"

Summer just shrugged, looking down at the magazine of perfect, beautiful, sexy girls and their perfect guys that wanted nothing else but them.

"I'm bored, dude." Seth fell down onto Ryan's bed, dropping his head on Ryan's thighs.

Ryan squinted his eyes and yawned, rotating off his side to sit up. "What time is it?"

"Dunno. Just had breakfast." Seth rolled down the bed, stopping before he reached the edge.

Ryan picked up the clock on his bedside table. 7:48. He threw the clock at Seth. "Dude, it's a Saturday."

"I'm not tired."

"So I can't be tired?"

"Let's go somewhere."

"Where? At eight in the morning?"

"I don't know. Somewhere. You just want to stay here?"

"And sleep? At eight in the morning? Yes, maybe."

"Come on, Ryan. We'll go get something to eat. Mexican. Tacos. Imagine it: picante, salsa verde, jalapeno...sounds like quite the fiesta, huh? Huh?" Seth rolled up, grinning and cocking his head.

Ryan groaned and rolled over. Seth groaned louder and pulled the comforter off, bringing it out of the pool house with him. "Come on, Ryan, you're gonna have fun."

"Come on, Roberts, it'll be good for you. Get some color." Marissa pulled her tee shirt over her head and slipped on her sunglasses, reclining in her beach chair.

Summer watched the lack of movement in Marissa's stomach, wondering how she did it. She was the one always telling Summer that she was eating like a chick. And Marissa was the one who always looked like...that.

"Summer?" Marissa pulled down her glasses onto her nose.

"Yeah?" Summer pulled off her shirt too, turning her head to Marissa, one of her pony tails hitting her face.

Marissa grinned. "You look so cute. I love your bathing suit."

Summer glanced down at her red and white spotted bikini and smiled back at Marissa. "Thanks."

Marissa's hand grazed Summer's, and Summer finally exhaled. Marissa did want to be her friend, even with what people said. She was hanging out with Summer more and more, ditching plans with Tamara, or Luke, or Gracie for Summer. It meant something.

Seth pushed against the back of his chair onto the back two legs. He was about to bite into his burrito, but shook his head. "We need salsa." He rolled his head to look up at Ryan, flashing a quick smile.

Ryan looked back at him, his lack of smile very obvious. Seth cocked his head the over way, sticking out his bottom lip the slightest bit. Ryan shook his head. "I'm not getting your salsa. I'm not Brad."

Seth's smile vanished. "Yeah, that's true. That dude is like my man servant. I bet I could get him to, like, cheat with Holly for me. Then I could dump her."

"You guys are still together?"

"Yeah, I guess. Technically. She's like a leech; she can just never let go."

"Suddenly you didn't like her. What happened?"

"She's not exactly...layered, Ryan." Seth's grin came back.

"I didn't know you liked her for her...layered-ness."

"No, not really. She's just...way...dumb, and we don't have anything in common. But it got boring. And the sex wasn't even all that great." Seth nodded his head wisely, and started to walk towards the salsa.

"Hey, Seth!" Marissa jogged up to the two boys, pulling Summer behind her.

"Hey, Cooper." Seth nodded, smiling for a second in Summer's direction.

"Hey...Brian, right?" Marissa smiled at Ryan, making his cheeks faintly blush.

"Uh, no. Ryan."

"Oh." Marissa nodded. "Well, I obviously know nothing about you, so we should...catch up. Seth, where you going?"

He pointed at the cart. Marissa smiled.

"Oh, great. Summer, go with him. Get me something...tasty." Marissa turned her smile to Summer, making her cheeks almost explode.

"Uh, Mariss, I think he's okay by himself."

"Uh, you can come. Help. Ryan likes his salsa in plentiful amounts." Seth smiled again, walking away towards the cart.

"Oh. Okay." Summer ran after Seth, sending a glare back at Marissa.

Marissa's smile was growing. She turned towards Ryan, and it slowly disappeared.

"So...you're from Long Beach?"

"Uh, no. Chino."

"Chino? Ugh...I mean, not that that's a bad thing." Marissa shifted uncomfortably in her chair, leaning her cheek against her palm.

Summer was watching Seth get all excited over salsas.

"Jalapeno: a personal favorite, I don't know if you're a fan, but you seriously cannot go wrong. It's spicy; it's marinated; it's hot; it's got vegetables. Now, I understand the lumpiness makes it easily passed for, say, salsa verde, but people don't understand that sometimes the simple classics can beat any...well, anything green. Yeah, right there." Seth leaned his arm over her arm, picking up the spoon and filling the little plastic cup way over what Summer had seen other people do. He actually overfilled it, leaving a little spilled on her arm.

"Oh, sorry about that."

Before she could say anything, even accept his apology, he leaned over and licked her arm. "Mmm...this stuff is so good."

And that was it. He didn't acknowledge any sort of even recognition. She could've been anyone. Not anything to him. He probably didn't care, or didn't remember her. Maybe he was smashed and saw her as dark hair and a bikini. Maybe he still thought she was the freak his best friend, the man servant, always made fun of. How could he even talk to someone like Brad for more than five seconds? He could because she didn't even know him. She didn't know he wasn't any better than Brad. She had just been in love with him since, like, ever. That didn't mean anything. What was even worse was that she was answering questions in her head while he didn't even care and had, in fact, left her staring at the salsas, wondering what was wrong with salsa verde.

Summer sat cautiously down across from Seth, watching him eat. And eat. And eat. She hadn't said two words since she had seen him. She was pathetic. She was sad. She had no reason to sit here even at all. This was dumb. She was being dumb.

"So, Seth, I never did ask, did Kirsten totally flip about Chad's rager last summer?" Marissa sipped her water.

"Uh, yeah, at first, but I got Brad to fix the Rover, and, I mean, she's never really stayed mad at me for that long. I've got her wrapped around my finger."

"Oh, come on, it's kind of the other way around, dude." Ryan laughed, biting into his burrito.

Seth gasped. "He speaks! And he's wrong. I got her right where I want her."

"She still runs your life; be honest, dude."

"Name one thing I've done that I didn't want to because of my mother."

"Hate Holly." Ryan bit in a little further.

Seth put down his Coke, and shook his head. He leaned in a little closer to Ryan, and tried to lower his voice. "I don't hate Holly."

"That's bullshit, and you know it, and Holly knows it, and I think Summer might have a guess too." Ryan looked up, directly at Summer. She started blushing again, shifting her line of sight around to all three of them.

"All right, so you know everything about my life now."

"You sure as hell don't like her."

"Why are you doing this now?"

"It's because of Kirsten. Kirsten told you she was dumb and that you deserved better. So you lost interest."

Seth raised his eyebrows and shook his head again. "If you say so."

How could he do that? How could he not care? Summer exhaled every question that troubled her about Seth Cohen, shook her head, apologized to Marissa, and excused herself. He didn't care about anything. He was just...he thought he was the coolest, most perfect guy in the world, and she had used to think so too. He didn't deserve what people said about him. He soaked it all up and he was such a...momma's boy. She'd seen him at those Newpsie events; she used to watch him everywhere. He would flirt with forty year old women with a duck of his head and those ridiculously effective dimples.

Marissa was worried about her. Marissa was probably one of the only ones who knew that Summer had never really been interested in a guy except for Seth Cohen. Marissa was watching Summer's dream fall into her lap and end up being a nightmare all the while.

Maybe it was better that way.

Nearly half an hour later, Marissa sat silently next to Summer in the wet sand. She used to always complain about it, but Summer had always liked it. She could watch everything.

"Sum, if you don't want to go to the carnival...I mean, I understand."

"Right."

"So you aren't going to go?"

"I don't know."

"Seth's not even sure if he's going to be there at all."

"Okay."

"Because he doesn't want to run into Holly."

"He's her boyfriend. There's no reason he shouldn't run into her."

"I don't think he's going to be her boyfriend for long."

Summer shrugged, letting her legs fall down. "Yeah, well, I don't care. I don't like Seth Cohen."

Marissa rose an eyebrow.

"I don't. He's...Seth Cohen. And I'm...not that kind of person. That's all."

"Right. So you don't like him, because..."

"Because I have no chance with some guy like that, so it would be a waste of time."

"Oh, of course. It wouldn't be practical."

"Exactly."

"Because everyone bases their love lives around whether or not it makes sense."

"I don't want to get hurt."

"But, what if..."

"Marissa, it's okay. You can stop pretending. I don't need you to be around if you don't want to be. Go...be popular, or something." Summer jogged off, leaving Marissa to get her skirt dirty in the sand.

Seth stretched the newspaper across his chest, trying to keep it above his eyes without getting up. Ryan walked in, turning his face horizontal with Seth's.

"What are you doing?"

"Waiting for you." Seth read another sentence and rolled up.

"What's up?"

"I'm not going to break up with her."

"What? Who?"

"Holly."

"Why not?"

"It's too hard."

"Hard to do what?"

"Just stop something that's been going on for a long while. Everything should just...go back to normal around here."

"You guys haven't been going out that long."

"But why should I break up with her?"

"Because you don't like her?"

"I don't not like her."

"That's why you want to spend every second of your day with her?"

"That's not the point. She's not a bad girlfriend. I mean, she's not my best friend, but as, like, a girlfriend...she's okay."

"As a trophy wife."

"Ew, I'd never marry her."

"But she is a trophy. A status."

Seth shrugged, standing up. "We're just juniors. I don't have to date looking for potential wives."

"But if you did, you wouldn't be dating Holly."

"I don't know if I'd be dating at all."

Seth smiled, patting a hand on Ryan's shoulder, and started to jog out of the pool house.

"What about Summer?"

Seth stopped. "What about her?"

"If you were looking for potential wives, would you be dating Summer?"

Seth turned around, thought for a second, and shrugged. "Probably not. I don't really know her."

He closed the door, closing his eyes for just a second, and walking over to the main house. Kirsten was in the kitchen, smiling at him over a cup of coffee.

"Hey, babe, what are you doing today?"

"Dunno."

"Want to spend the day with your old mother?"

Seth scanned Holly's face through his brain and smiled. "Sure, why not?"

Summer leaned against one of the brightly colored stands, picking pieces of the pink cloud in front of her. Marissa was giggling with Luke's arm around her waist, seemingly taking Summer's advice. Summer wasn't good for her reputation after all. People were looking at her though, and Summer felt self conscious, no matter how hard she tried not to. They were all whispering about how that girl over there broke Holly Fischer's heart and how Seth Cohen must be on drugs, or something.

And then he came walking over. He had to walk over whenever she was feeling the worst about herself. Brad was growing out his hair; it looked horrible. He thought he was such a surfer dude.

"Hey, Roberts."

Summer crossed her arms over her chest, ducking her head. "Hi."

"You okay?"

Her eyes darted up, and Brad wasn't smiling. His face was just looking down at her, his hands shoved into his pockets, his eyes staring at her eyes.

"What do you want?"

"You look upset. Are you upset?"

Summer shifted uncomfortably against the soft cotton of her shirt. "I'm fine."

"You sure?" He stepped closer, brushing the dark blue fabric of his jacket against her bare arm.

"Yes. Thanks for asking." She put on a fake smile and looked away. Brad smiled and took a bit of her cotton candy.

"Because...if you wanted to talk, or something, you know I'm here."

"Really."

He nodded. "I never meant it...all that stuff in school. You know that."

"I do?"

"We're friends, right, Roberts?" His thumb was brushing her arm. It made her shiver.

"Uh, yeah, of course, Brad. I love it when my friends shove me across the hall. My favorite. So, glad we could work this out. You and me? Best friends. Best friends don't touch, though." She smiled even wider, even faker, and shook his finger off of her. "Bye Brad."

She shivered again, trying to push down the goosebumps he gave her. He was so...ew.

Summer watched Marissa and Luke standing by the ferris wheel, giggles over their faces. They must love each other. That must be what love looked like. Perfect, beautiful, comfortable, happy. And as they walked away from the ferris wheel, Summer wondered if they weren't in love, who really was?

Summer stood in the nonexistent line for the ferris wheel, waiting for the guy to notice her and let her on.

"Yeah, hey, dude, could we get on?" Ryan Atwood walked up behind her tapping on the guy's shoulder.

"Yeah, of course, sorry about that." Ryan took her hand and pulled her into the box next to him.

"Thanks." She smiled at him, and he nodded.

"No problem. Why are you here alone?"

"I came with Marissa, but...well, Luke happened, and I'm not into watching them make out."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, well, Luke doesn't like me much either. So glares aren't my thing either."

"A wise choice."

"So why are you here alone?"

"Um, well, Seth's supposed to be showing up soon. He told me to meet him here."

"Oh. Out with the girlfriend?"

"No, actually, the mom."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Oh."

They got to the top of the wheel, Ryan's eyes suddenly, quickly shutting.

"Something wrong?"

"Nothing. Just...heights."

"So why'd you go on the ferris wheel?"

"You were going to go alone."

Summer laughed, letting her hand fall on top of Ryan's. He opened the eye closer to her and smiled, mimicking the grin on her face, before closing his eyes again.

Once they reached the bottom, Summer leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Thanks for the ride." She stood up and walked back towards one of the carts, her eyes catching Seth Cohen's as he walked in. He was looking from her to Ryan shuffling off of the ferris wheel, and she actually found the tiniest smile to give him. It made him bite his tongue, shake his head, and smile, obviously disbelieving that Summer Roberts was trying to play him.

Yeah, so I know not a lot happened here, but the drama's being set. And wow, I'm really glad so many of you liked it. I was thinking about making this a story for my eyes only, but I'm really glad to interest you guys. Keep reading.