Chapter Summary: Nothing really happens, this chapter is just more or less to give you an idea of how everyone is doing and an idea for what's to come and why it will happen.

Story Notes: I've decided that each chapter will be named after an Air song.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Except for Annabella maybe. And Professor Martin. They are both creatures of my imagination.

Rating: Rated T for now.

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Chapter 1: You Make It Easy

Seth Cohen sighed heavily and put his book down. He couldn't read, he couldn't focus. It was the effect Marissa had on him. Whenever a book or whatever text would turn slightly romantic his mind would wonder off to Ms. Cooper. He would imagine different scenarios with her. Sometimes sexy, sometimes just settings of everyday life. Sometimes he thought about things that had happened and sometimes he just thought about how much he cared about her. How much he loved her.

"What are you smiling about?", Marissa laughed coming over from the kitchen, sitting down next to him on the couch. "Oh, nothing", he smiled at her with that smile that told her that if he had his way she wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight. She just laughed and shook her head. "Your just so...", she couldn't come up with anything to say, ".. so you", she gave up. Seth just leaned over and kissed her, and she kissed him back. And they did, in fact, not get much sleep that night.

It always suprised Marissa how ucomplicated her relationship with Seth were. At least compared to her relationship with Ryan. Wich would pretty much included all her relationships throughout High School except for her relationship with Luke, because the rest had really all been about Ryan when it came down to it. But her relationship with Seth was different. It was so easy. He made it so easy just to like him and let that be that. He made her feel safe, made her feel like part of a unison. Like it was the two of them, no matter what, and that she didn't need to find back up so that she was sure she wouldn't be lonely. Because that's what Marissa was the most afraid of, being alone. So she always made sure that that never happened. But now she didn't worry about it too much anymore, she didn't feel like she needed too. Because Seth would never leave her. At least she didn't think he would. It wasn't like the future was etched in stone. But at the moment she felt confident. Confident that her relationship with Seth would keep it's strong pace at least into the next year and then some. So Marissa Cooper didn't worry anymore, Marissa Cooper was happy, she was content, happy to live in the moment. For once.

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Summer Roberts was her name. It had been her name her whole life and it had remained so the last year. But where had Summer Roberts gone off to? Because she didn't know. She didn't really remember much, and it broke her heart that she didn't. All she could remember was bits and pieces. Things like waiting up in the middle of nowhere next to a trashed out road, things like sneaking into the train station after hours to find somewhere to sleep, things like having sex with guys she didn't want to have sex with just to score a fix. It hurt like hell that she had lost so much of a whole year of her life, but considering the things she did remember, Summer wasn't sure if she just might be better off not knowing the rest. Maybe she should be thankful that she had forgotten so much. All she knew was that it was over, hell was finally over and she was going to start over again.

A soft knock on her door caught her attention and she looked up into her father's caring eyes. At first he had been disappointed in her. But he had never let her forget that he still loved her, and that had helped her through rehab so much he didn't even know. Summer smiled back at him and walked over and gave him a hug. She was happy to see him. "Are you ready?", he asked her, looking to see if her bags were packed. And they were. She was all ready to go home. She was so ready to finally go home.

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Ryan wondered sometimes if he had made the right choice. If he had made the right choice to leave everything behind to go to Spain. It was stupid to wonder about it, looking at how far he had come. Of course he did the right thing, at least when it came to his career. But what about his love life? Could he ever be fulfilled, happy, without Marissa? All his new friends saw him as the guy with the perfect life. He was the boss of own company and were doing great, he had a huge mansion with his own private beach, he had numerous of expensive cars, he had a model girlfriend and life was just loving him right now. But was he loving it the way he should be? When the thought ever so often crossed his mind he would shake it off. It was just in his head. He could be completely content without Marissa, it was just his enourmous gene for wondering what could have been. But he didn't care about that, at least he should care about that. He loved his job, his house, his friends and his girlfriend. The regrets could wait.

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"What did he do? He told them off, that's what he did!", professor Martin waved his arms eagerly. The whole class laughed, as did Marissa. She loved Professor Martin's classes, he was always so passionate about what he was teaching, he was truly devoted to making his students learn something, wich made her want to be devoted to learn it as well. And she did learn alot from him. A whole lot. She had never thought history class could be this much fun. She looked over at Seth, sitting next to her. He had an amused grin on his face as well, eyes completely focused on Martin and what he was saying. He was playing with his pen, clicking it. The class laughed again and Seth did too. He looked over, hopeful to catch one of Marissa's gourgeous laughs, but looked into her smiling eyes instead. The smile on his face just spread wider and he kissed her. "Well.. what do we have here? Two lovebirds, huh?", Martin raised an eyebrow and suddenly Seth and Marissa had the attention of the whole auditorium. Slighlty embarrased Marissa removed her hand from the lock she had shared with Seth through the whole class. Seth noticed. Martin just shook his head and laughed, "No no, don't be embarrased, you should be proud. Finding love is hard these days, or so I've heard. I've been married for 40 years so I haven't really been out there", he winked at his class, maybe revealing alittle too much. "Martin's a player!", someone yelled from the back and the whole class laughed again. Seth and Marissa as well. Marissa's hand found it's way back to Seth's and his lips found the way to the top of her head and their eyes found the way to each others. Seth smiled at her before turning back to paying attention to Proffesor Martin, gently stroking her hand with his thumb. And altough Marissa found Martin's classes highly entertaining, the rest of the class was just a daze. All she ever remembered was the feel of Seth's thumb brushing against her hand. That, and her thoughts about what she wanted to do with him once class was over.

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Coming home was not anything like what she had imagined. Sure, at first it had been exciting. Heck, anything would have been exciting compared to that jail she had been stacked up in for the last two months. But after a few days, after cathcing up with all her friends, her fathers friends. After getting used to her room again, and all that surrounded her, she felt that something was missing. And she knew what it was. Newport wasn't what it used to be, not when the people that made it what it was wasn't there. Nothing mattered like it used to. She didn't care about how she looked or how she presented herself, because there was noone there to impress. Nobody she wanted to get the attention of. So Summer got herself together one day late October and realised that to prevent herself from spinning down into depression one more time, she had to go get back what she needed. And if that didn't work, it would give her closure. Wich was what she needed in order to move on. She had to know what had happened, how things were now. Summer felt confident though, Cohen had always loved her. And she had always truly believed him when he told her that he always would. In her universe, the chances of getting him back, and everything else in order as well, were good. So Summer packed up a bag with her best clothes and shoes and hit the road. She wanted to drive up to Minnesota, to Brown College, if not only to have a car to drive around once she got there, but also to clear her head.

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Ryan pulled up at his house. He had decided to take a early day. The warm european sun made it a bright day and the light breeze swept caressingly over his face. He heard the waves crashing in the distance. "Annabella?", he was looking for his girlfriend, but he didnd't find her anywhere. After changing into more comfortable clothes than his work suit he found her. From looking out into the distance from his balcony he saw her down at the beach, the wind flowing through her long dark hair. She had seen him too and was waving. Ryan smiled. Why was he so worried? He was happy. He loved Annabella, she seemed to love him. Doubting that this all was a good thing was stupid. He must have inherited some sort of self destructive gene from Seth. Not that he knew how that were to have happened. Maybe it was the food? Maybe it was the bagels? He laughed, amused at the thought as he walked down the stairs leading down to the beach. His house was on the top of some hills wich gave him a good view. Once he reached the sand Annabella was running towards him, all wet from swimming in the warm water. She hugged him tightl, rubbing up against him, deliberately making him wet. Ryan just laughed and decided to play along. He picked her up and ran out into the water with his clothes still on and dropped her when he found some place safe to do it. Annabella just laughed and splashed some water on him. Her laughter made him smile.