Title: Apples and Trees

Description: Ryan is in danger of following in his brother's footsteps.

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to The O.C.. Not for profit.

Chapter 2

By the time Ryan got back from his job hunt at the pier – and finding nothing – it was almost dinnertime. He quickly put his bike away and hurried out to the pool house to put away his jacket. He was quite hungry by this time, having not eaten anything while he was out, so he headed straight into the kitchen. On the way in, he could see that Sandy and Kirsten were in there and the table was already set. Kirsten was cooking again, and she was actually getting pretty good at it. Ryan was looking forward to seeing what she was experimenting with this time.

When Ryan stepped into the kitchen from the back yard, Sandy smiled at him. "Hey, kid, how was your ride?"

Ryan smiled back. "Good."

Kirsten looked over at Ryan from the stove. "Oh, hey, sweetie. Dinner's almost ready. Why don't you go ahead and get yourself a drink?"

Ryan nodded. On his way to the refrigerator, Ryan glanced at the cookbook that Kirsten was using. Huh. Greek food. He had never had Greek food before. It looked good, though. Ryan was reminded of Trey's reaction to the first time the Cohens ordered Thai after Trey got out of jail and came to stay with them. And the time that Oliver (shudder) ordered Moroccan food, which Ryan didn't know the "proper" way to eat. Exotic international foods just weren't an Atwood staple. But Ryan was getting used to it. Slowly.

As Ryan was grabbing his drink, Seth made his appearance.

"Mother, is dinner ready? I'm starving." Seth whined, rubbing his stomach with exaggerated drama.

Kirsten exchanged an amused look with Sandy. "Yes, Seth. It's almost ready. Grab a drink."

Seth quickly did that and sat down at the table, looking at his mother expectantly. Ryan joined him, silently amused by Seth's antics.

Ryan knew that Seth would have just gotten home from school. He was still, or rather again, attending detention every day, courtesy of the Dean. That jackass just would just not let up on Seth and Summer. Seth had confided in Ryan that Summer saw the Dean with Taylor, but they couldn't do anything with the information because try as they might, they couldn't get their hands on any tangible proof that they could take to Dr. Kim and the board.

Ryan had offered to help out, but Seth and Summer turned him down flat, saying that they didn't want him to get himself into any more trouble on their account. They were convinced that the Dean wasn't joking around when he said that he'd call the police if Ryan set foot on Harbor school grounds. And Ryan couldn't dispute that. So he reluctantly stayed out of it, which left Seth to take the brunt of Dean Hess's petty revenge ploy, or was it a power play?

Either way, the jackass was still treating Seth like a work release prisoner instead of a student. Meaning he couldn't do any of his homework during detention like normal kids did. Meaning he had to spend most of his time in the evenings and on weekends doing school work. And pretty much any time he didn't spend doing that, he spent with Summer.

All of which meant that Ryan hadn't seen much of Seth in quite a while. Except of course for the Thanksgiving four-day weekend last week. And even with that, Ryan still felt like he and Seth had fallen out of touch, like old high-school buddies who had graduated and gone their separate ways. Most of the time, he had no idea what was going on in Seth's life.

And it wasn't much better with Marissa. She had her new school and her new friends. Ryan didn't want to get in the way of her fitting in there, or push himself in where he wasn't wanted. And it didn't help that Sandy was still discouraging Ryan from spending too much time with her. The two of them had gotten out of the habit of seeing each other before school. Since Marissa no longer had her own car and Ryan didn't have the Range Rover all the time, it was just too difficult. So they were left with occasionally seeing each other at night or on the weekends.

At this point, Ryan was thinking that Seth may have been right that night of the first Newport Union dance – that was when she started drifting away from him, when he started losing her. Ryan was afraid that by now, it might just be too late to get her back.

Ryan glanced at Seth. That wasn't the way it was supposed to be this year, their senior year. Like Summer said, they were all supposed to be together and it was supposed to be their best year yet. Ryan sighed. It was far from it.

Ryan was brought out of his depressing thoughts by Kirsten placing a plate of food in front of him.

"Bon appétit!"

"Um, honey, isn't that French? We're having Greek food." Sandy said as he sat down, making gentle fun of his wife.

Kirsten just glared at her husband as she sat down at the other end of the table. Sandy wisely squelched his smile and picked up his fork.

"Darling, everything looks delicious." He took a bite. "And tastes delicious, too."

Now Kirsten smiled at him. "Smart man."

Ryan suppressed his own smile and got busy eating his own dinner. It was nice seeing Sandy and Kirsten being Sandy-and-Kirsten again. Ryan sat back and enjoyed the dinner, and enjoyed the light-hearted banter between Sandy and Kirsten and between Seth and his parents, with Ryan himself contributing every so often. It was nice having a relaxing family dinner.

Everything was going well, until Kirsten brought up the subject that Ryan was hoping to avoid.

"So Ryan, Sandy and I found you a new tutor. I think you'll like this one. Her name's Emily. She doesn't have a lot of experience, but she's young, closer to you in age than the others. I've talked to her. I think you two will get along great."

Sandy and Kirsten were both watching him, apparently waiting for his response. They both looked quite pleased by this announcement, and obviously were expecting him to say that it was great. But Ryan started to fidget in his seat and couldn't look either of them in the eye. He was hoping to put this off for longer. But in all fairness, he couldn't allow them to tell this woman that she had a job, when she didn't.

After a minute, Sandy prodded, "Ryan? What do you think?"

Ryan took a deep breath and steeled himself. This wasn't going to be easy. He looked up at Kirsten, then Sandy.

"Um... actually... I don't want you guys to hire another tutor. This just isn't... the home schooling... it just isn't working out. We've tried two tutors, I don't want to try another one. It isn't them, it's me. I've started looking for a job –"

The reaction was immediate, from everyone.

"Dude –"
"What?"
"What the hell are you talking about..."

Ryan dropped his eyes. After a few moments the table went quiet. Then Sandy spoke.

"Ryan? ... Ryan, look at me."

Ryan reluctantly looked up at Sandy. As he expected, his face was filled with disbelief, disappointment, maybe a little anger.

"What are you saying? You're dropping out of school?"

To be continued.