Thanks again to Rainygal for beta-ing!
Chapter 2
"Ryan buddy, we've got a mission" Seth exclaimed when he met his foster brother on the hallway in the afternoon.
"Let me guess, Summer?" Ryan answered sighing.
"Noooo – well, yeah… has kinda something to do with her... Listen, there's this new girl, she's a niece of Sean O'Reilly, which means Summer wants to introduce her to the life of Newport. She plans a small welcome party tonight and asked us, if we could have it at the pool house – which means in fact, your pool house but my parents pool, which is…. anyway, what do you say?"
"I don't know...?" Ryan replied unsure.
"Come on, that'll be fun, you can not talk to Marissa, I can not talk to Summer, but I can do the barbecue, cos now I know how to light the grill" Seth tried to convince the blond guy in front of him.
"K, but you explain the parents!" Ryan finally gave in, shaking his head slightly.
"Thanks mate, that's gonna be fun and after that, Summer must accept my attempts to be friends and when she has I can somehow convince her that Zach is me and that's actually me that she's in love with and"
"Seth, stop it!"
"Doing it again, huh... Ok, see ya later man" Seth excused himself, heading towards the classroom.
"Coop, hi, it's me" Summer told her best friend over the phone.
"Hi Sum, what's up" Marissa asked.
"I'm planning a little welcome party for Sean's niece, are you coming?"
"Yeah, sure, when and where?"
"Tonight at seven, we're gonna pick you up" Summer explained, wisely not telling her that the party was to take place at the Cohen's.
"K, see you then, bye"
"By Coop, see ya" Summer replied, disconnecting the line.
Gillian and herself were on the way home to Sean. Summer was driving her BMW safely through the streets of Newport, thinking of all the things she needed to get for tonight.
"Do you really think that's a good idea?" Gillian asked her, nervously playing with her hair.
"Yeah, don't worry, it'll be great. This way you get introduced to all the important people right away, or do you prefer going to school for 2 more years and to be the outsider?"
"No, of course not..."
"See, so we're gonna have this party and we're gonna have fun, right?" Summer exclaimed forcefully while switching off the engine.
They climbed out of the car and walked up the stairs to the main entrance of Sean's mansion.
"Hi Julia, we're home" Summer called when they entered the door.
"Hi Summer, I hoped you'd bring Gillian home, thanks" Julia welcomed her with a warm hug.
"How was your first day sweetie?" Julia then asked her niece.
"It was ok I guess..." Gillian answered reluctantly, placing her school stuff in the wardrobe.
"Julia, we were thinking... would it be ok if we had a little welcome party at the Cohen's tonight?" Summer excitingly asked the wife of her godfather.
"Yes of course, that's a great idea Summer!"
"See" Summer told Gillian laughing. "So, let's get dressed, we gotta be there in about an hour, so that we can help with the preparations. I'm gonna pick up Coop later, ok?"
Not waiting for an answer she already headed up the stairs, waiting for Gillian to follow her.
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45 minutes later they were ready to go. At 5.30 p.m. they arrived at the Cohen residency, parking Summer's BMW in the drive way. Summer was dressed in beige shorts and a white tank top. Gillian was wearing a blue dress with spaghetti straps, which outlined her perfect figure but still hid enough for her to feel safe. Summer had picked it out, as she thought it was a great contrast to her brown hair. She had been a bit surprised over the fact, that Gillian didn't wanna get changed in the same room, but she guessed that Switzerland was even more moral then the States and decided not to think about it any more than necessary.
Seth opened the door, obviously in a good temper.
"Hi stunning girls, follow me" he beamed excitingly.
Gillian could see Summer rolling her eyes and had to smile. Nobody had told her anything about the relationship between the Summer and Seth, but right from the start she knew that they were meant for each other. Obviously they hadn't found out yet but she was sure they would.
The three of them walked through the kitchen, opening the porch door and stepping out into the blinding sun. Gillian was speechless. The first time she had inspected Sean's house she couldn't believe that somebody so close to her could possibly have so much money to build such a glamorous, big house. With every house she got to see she realised, that in Newport no poor people existed, except maybe for the people who worked for these rich habitants. She was wondering if Summer and Seth knew what it was like to have nothing.
Outside Seth had already organised some chairs, food was neatly arranged on tables and a guy was putting up a bar.
"So ladies, what do you think? Anything missing?"
"It's perfect Cohen, how could you come up with everything so fast?" Summer asked astonished.
"Hey, Julie Cooper is my Grandmother, we know how to organise a party" Seth grinned wildly.
"He had some help" a voice behind them said.
Turning around Gillian saw a pretty, blond woman in her forty's standing in the door, smiling.
"Hi Mrs. Cohen, thanks for having us tonight and for your help" Summer smiled back.
"Mum, that's Gillian, she's from Switzerland and she's Sean's niece" Seth explained his mother.
"Hi Gillian, nice to meet you" Kirsten said, shaking her hand.
"Hi Mrs. Cohen, nice to meet you too"
"So is everything ready?" Summer asked Seth.
"Yeah, it is, as the master himself took care of it" he grinned at her. "But hey, if you don't wanna be friends with him, that's your problem - I just realised that I'm talking about myself in the third person again...".
Ignoring his babbling, Summer took Gillian's hand, guiding her to the pool house. She knocked and simultaneously opened the door.
"Chino?"
"Yeah?" an irritated voice answered.
"Where the hell are you! Come out here, you gotta meet someone" Summer called loudly.
"Please Summer... can't we wait outside?" Gillian asked, her eyes darting through the dark room, checking the black corners, goose-bumps building on her skin. 'Calm down, just breathe' Gillian told herself, but a voice inside of her screamed 'get the hell out of there'. Before Summer could react she broke free and ran outside, breathing the fresh air, hugging herself with her arms to calm down.
"You alright?" a voice in front of her asked.
She lifted her head and jumped slightly when a dark haired man was standing in front of her, looking concerned, reached out and gently touched her shoulder.
By the touch of his hand Gillian jumped as if an electric shock had gone through her body. She started running towards the house, heading up the stairs and entered the first room she could reach, hiding herself in a corner like a haunted animal.
"What the ….?" Sandy asked loudly, giving Summer and Seth a puzzled look.
"What a reaction! Ever happened before Dad?" Seth asked chuckling.
"Shut up Cohen, she must have some sort of problem... I don't have time now, I gotta pick up Zach and Marissa, could you guys please take care of her?" and with that Summer was gone.
"Kirsten?" Sandy called, looking for his wife.
"Yes?" she answered, her head appearing in the door frame.
"We have a little problem here... Seth, you take care of the party and your mum and myself talk to her"
"Talk to who?" Kirsten asked puzzled.
"The girl this party is for? It seems as if she isn't as happy about it as are Seth and Summer..." giving Seth one last warning look he entered the house, grabbing Kirsten's hand.
They headed upstairs, entering the guest room, where Gillian was sitting on the floor, her knees pulled up to her body.
She gave them both a horrified look when they placed themselves on the bed.
"You alright honey?" Kirsten asked worried.
Gillian nodded, not leaving Sandy with her eyes, her body shaking from fear.
"Sandy, could you please go downstairs and help Seth, I can handle this" Kirsten told her husband, squeezing his hand tightly.
"Ok" he sighed, getting up and leaving the room with one last glance to the deranged girl.
Kirsten slowly walked up to Gillian, placing herself next to her, trying not to touch her in any way.
"Did he scare you?" she then asked softly.
"I'm sorry Mrs. Cohen, I didn't mean to be rude"
"Call me Kirsten. Why are you in America Gillian?" Seth's mum asked.
Although Gillian trusted that woman she met 10 mins ago, she couldn't bring herself to come forwards with the whole story. So slowly and stagnant Gillian started telling Kirsten the reasons her mother had come up with, explaining why she felt so lonely without her friends and with a family, she never knew existed, leaving out the part that would explain her fear of dark rooms and her sudden urge to be surrounded by human beings of the same sex.
Kirsten realised, that there was more to the story. Looking at the crying girl next to her, she figured that she would tell, as soon as she was ready. So for the moment, Kirsten just took her into her arms, comforting her in silence. After a few minutes Gillian calmed down and stopped shaking.
"I'm sorry... I didn't mean to cause any problems; Summer is hard to stop..." Gillian then apologised.
"Yeah, we know, it's ok, don't worry. Do you think you can face the people downstairs?"
"Sure…" Gillian replied uncertain.
"Ok, so let's clean you up and then let's go downstairs and I'll introduce you to everyone." Kirsten told her, getting up, waiting for her to follow.
AN: Feedback please?