Disclaimer: I don't own the oc and for this particular chapter, though it may be a spoiler, I better add that I don't own Ellen DeGeneres, though I'm not sure if that's necessary

Author's note: So if you haven't guess from the disclaimer, Ryan goes for his first interview. Hollywood isn't that far from Newport as it turns out. I had my fun with this chapter, sorry if it's not completely believable, I don't really know how interviews work behind the scenes, but I checked out some of the Ellen DeGeneres videos on YouTube and tried to set a believable tone. I hope you enjoy, comment, favorite, follow, if you want to :)

Chapter 6

"Hey man, your back! I've been waiting forever. I still have two more weeks after my grounding sentence got upped cause of the video and I'm so bored. Mom and Dad wont even give me back my phone and Summer's mad at me again because…I think it was something to do with me not listening to her, but I am definitely a good listener. I mean maybe I 'babble', but that doesn't mean I don't listen too—"

"Seth, seriously, I'm really tired. I want to go to bed—"

"What? Ry I've been waiting for you for hours. Come on you can't leave me hanging, especially after you didn't let me go with you. Did you choose the demo? Did you record anything yet? Is it finished?"

Ryan sighed, having already come to the realization that Seth wasn't going away. He had tried to be quiet, but the guy had literally been waiting at the front door for him and Andrew hadn't helped with stealth. He wished the guy had just left him in the driveway, but he insisted on literally walking Ryan through the front door; dudes that big just weren't capable of being quiet. "It's finished. They gave me a cd if you want to listen. It's called, 'breaking out,' they let me pick the song and help with the tech stuff, which was pretty cool. The guy, the manager, his name's Simon, and he said that if I get signed to the label he'd help me make my own songs. If I give you the cd though, Seth, you have to promise not to give it to anyone else."

"I'm insulted man, me, I would never do something—"

"Seth, I'm really tired and it's late," he opened his backpack and retrieved a cd case, handing it over to Seth and beginning the trek upstairs. "You can give it back to me tomorrow."

Seth smiled and nodded.

The next week passed with the continued appearance of reporters, though he noticed their numbers decreasing to a degree. He thanked god for Justin Bieber and his decision to egg some poor dude's house. It was sort of funny, what seemed to get the attention of the general population these days, as well as, ironic what seemed to draw the attention of the police. He wondered what the police were looking for when they searched Bieber's house and wondered if they had confiscated the dude's eggs. Funny that while people were being killed over in Chino and their murderers were getting away police were out arresting people for egging houses.

Some of his classmates were acting more like paparazzi that they were his peers and he was surprised he had managed not to loose his temper or his eyesight over the last week. He was glad to see that a majority of them had begun to treat him like an actual human being again. It was weird that he actually welcomed some of the taunts he was getting from the polo players.

However, his classmates were still no match for the real paparazzi. It seemed he had gained a following on more than just YouTube and now he had rude fat dudes hounding him allowing with everyone else. He learned quickly to avoid the boardwalk for a while and he had had to quit his job at crab shack. He started feeling for celebrities; it was more than just annoying to have everyone following your every move. He felt trapped now in the house and he was seriously considering making a break for it. Sure he was Chino kid, he could throw a pretty good punch, but he didn't know how much longer he could deal with this. Sure it had only been a few weeks, but they were always so aggressive and rude, yelling at him and thrusting their cameras in his face.

In an attempt to get the reporters and paparazzi to leave him alone he had agreed to do an interview. That was why on Friday afternoon he and the rest of the Cohen's took a road trip to Ellen DeGeneres's studio. It was a little over an hour drive from Newport, but it felt like a completely different world. It was surreal being in Hollywood, on a studio lot, waiting to meet Ellen DeGeneres.

The Cohen's left him to go get seats in the audience and he was led into a dressing room. "Hello Ryan, I'm Sophie, I'll be helping you today."

"Hey," Ryan smiled and the brown haired girl, who had been winking at him so much he thought she might just have a twitch in her eye.

"Let me show you to your room." Ryan followed the girl. His stomach was in knots and he found himself wanting Kirsten or Sandy or even Seth here to calm him down; he was pretty sure some of Seth's babbling could divert his attention or at the very least get rid of the girl, who was still twitch/winking at him.

"I'm an intern," the girl stated.

"Cool," he replied with a forced smile.

"This is my first week."

"Are you having fun?" Ryan asked trying really hard to stay polite. She was just a girl and he knew he couldn't be rude to a girl, no matter how annoying that twitch was getting.

"It's so awesome meeting you…I saw your videos." She opened the door into the dressing room.

He felt his face flushing a little red, as he walked into the dressing room, "it's nice to meet you too."

"Umm…is there any way I could get your autograph?" the girl asked. By now Ryan was getting used to being asked, but he could still feel himself blush a little more.

"Y-yeah…sure, if you have a pen and paper."

The girl obviously taking in his embarrassment quickly said, "you don't have to if you don't want to," but he noticed her face fall.

"No it's fine. I guess I'm just not used to people asking," he forced himself to get that smile back onto his face.

"Oh okay," she grinned and pulled out a piece of paper and pen from her pants pocket and handed them to him. He was about to sign it when she stopped him, "can you make it out to Sophie?"

"Sure."

"Oh and can you write something too?" she asked, stopping him again.

"Why not?" he was pretty sure his face was on fire now. "What do you want me to write?"

"To Sophie…" Ryan started writing, "my future wife…" Ryan tensed and if possible turned even redder, but continued writing, "love…Ryan Atwood." Ryan finished and handed the girl the paper, feeling incredibly uncomfortable now. He really wanted this chick to leave him alone and was starting to run through arrangements to keep himself calm.

"Okay," she moved to a side table and retrieved what seemed to be a mic piece, "you need to take of your shirt."

"E-excuse me," Ryan's mouth dropped open. This girl had just made him write out a proposal and now she wanted him to take off his shit?

"Unless your embarrassed…"

"No it's fine," Ryan sighed and took off his shirt acutely aware of the weird girl watching him. He wasn't embarrassed about his body, but that didn't mean he wanted this girl checking him out like a piece of meat.

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

Ryan silently cursed the Atwood luck, of course this would happen to him, "umm…no…" he wanted to add that he was fifteen, and if she was over twenty one, which he was pretty sure she was, it was illegal for her to be interested in him.

She smiled, "can you turn around." Ryan turned and she clipped the mic to his pants. "Okay, you can put your shirt back on," Ryan eagerly complied and she attached another part of the mic set to his shirt. He couldn't help thinking she could have done all of that without making him take off his shirt. "You're all done, I'm just going to get Ellen."

"Okay," Ryan answered, happy to be rid of the girl, but before she left Ellen DeGeneres walked in holding a microphone.

"Oh no," Ryan sighed. Finally remembering something about Ellen and her pranks.

"Hello Ryan," Ellen answered with a cheeky grin on her face.

"That was a prank wasn't it?" he asked, dreading the answer.

Ellen's smile grew, "I've been in her ear," she pointed to the girl, "the whole time," and then she pointed to a gift basket and Ryan made out…oh god it was a camera.

Ryan covered his face with his hands.

Ellen DeGeneres walked over to him and patted his arm. "It's nice to meet you Ryan."

Ryan let his hands drop away from his face, "I don't know whether I should be relieved this was a prank or not. So you recorded everything," he replied and shook her now out stretched hand.

She laughed again and he took that as a yes.

"You know, my brother told me not to go anywhere near the bathroom, he didn't say anything about the staff though."

"I'm sorry, I promise no more pranks."

"Thanks," he could feel his face return back to its normal color. "Seth is going to get a kick out of this. So I'm guessing people are gonna see that."

"Yup, but don't worry I thought you were quite the gentlemen."

"If I ever come back here, I'm going to look for hidden cameras."

"That sounds fair enough. I couldn't resist getting you, you just look so serious. Let's sit down and I'll give you an idea of what we'll talk about in the interview."

Ryan nodded and sat down next to Ellen DeGeneres. For a second he thought about how weird that was; he definitely hadn't thought he'd be doing this a year ago.

"Our first guest has become an overnight YouTube sensation and a huge hit with the ladies, please welcome Ryan Atwood," Ryan could hear the audience cheering and knew that was his cue, so he forced his feet forward onto a stage that looked out on a large audience that seemed to mainly consist of girls, as well as, large cameras strategically placed around the studio. He remembered to smile and tried to act normal as he made his way over to Ellen, remembering what she had told him in the dressing room, just think of the interview as a friendly conversation; he could do that.

He found himself walking over to Ellen and giving her the traditional hug and she added a kiss on his cheek, which he tried not to flinch away from. He knew some guests danced, but that just wasn't going to happen. He took a seat and tried to keep that damn smile plastered on his face, though he was pretty sure he was failing.

He was surprised how long it seemed to take for the audience to calm down, "so Ryan I've seen your videos on YouTube—" there was another round of screaming from the audience and Ryan ducked his head, 'focus on Ellen,' he reminded himself. "And I have to say you have an amazing voice."

"Thanks," Ryan replied, not knowing what else to say.

"So I heard an interesting rumor about those videos…that it was actually a family member who posted them," she started and was clearly waiting for Ryan to explain.

"Umm…yeah. My brother, Seth," he spotted Seth in the audience, "he recorded me playing…I guess I sometimes zone out when I get into the music so I didn't notice…and then he thought it would be a good idea to post them on YouTube. We got grounded over the weekend…umm…for doing something we weren't supposed to be doing—"

"Ohh?" Ellen interrupted him, clearly wanting to know more.

"We might have been sneaking out to go to a party," Ryan admitted.

Ellen smiled, "I'm guess your parents weren't too happy?"

"Yeah, we had a 'family weekend', which really means no technology and lots of board games for two days," he looked over to Kirsten and Sandy, who smiled at his description of the weekend. "So I didn't find out about the videos until Monday."

"That must have been a shock, how'd you find out?" Ellen's eyebrow was quirked with curiosity now.

"Well, the people staring at me and whispering, was kind of the first clue. When people I didn't know started handing me their numbers I knew I was missing something. I've gotten girls numbers before, but after the first dozen... I asked my brother, but he wasn't any help. I don't think he realized the videos would be so popular. So we tracked down his girlfriend, Summer, and she told me, I think I might have fallen out of my chair during that conversation," Ellen laughed.

"So just to clarify…for some people in the audience, who might be interested and other interested parties… you don't have a girlfriend?" Ryan glanced over at the audience and felt his cheeks flush.

"Umm…no," there was more cheering from the audience.

"You don't seem to sure about that Ryan."

"I don't have a girlfriend. I…we broke up just before everything happened. It's a long story," he added hoping to avoid talking any more about Marissa. He had heard she had completely gone of the rails again; Summer had caught her drinking and found some prescription drugs in her bag when they met up for lunch a few days ago.

"Uhh…" she gave him a big smile. "Speaking of girls…so when you showed up today—"

"Oh god," Ryan hid his face in his hands, bracing himself.

"We had a employee of the studio, Sophie, waiting for you and I couldn't believe what a gentlemen you were. Let's take a look," Ryan uncovered his face and forced his eyes over to looked to the screen. He couldn't believe he had thought this was a good idea, he wished he could go hide somewhere…anywhere.

He was forced to watch as the girl, Sophie, blatantly hit on him and Ellen directed her. It turned out she was winking at him, upon Ellen's instruction, so there wasn't an eye twitch. He watched as Sophie, following Ellen's instructions dictated to him what she wanted him to write and heard as the audience cheered. He watched as Sophie then proceeded to ask him to take off his shirt and he thought he was going to die when he did and there were actual cat calls from the audience, finally she asked the girlfriend question, more cheers. He took a deep breath when it was over trying not to hyperventilate. Think song lyrics, he told himself, think about anything other than that stupid video.

She patted him on the leg and he forced himself to give her a tight smile, but when he caught sight of Seth actually shacking with laughter, he knew he couldn't fake it. He shot his brother a quick glare before looking back over at Ellen.

"Well know that I've had my fun embarrassing you, what do you think about performing a song for the audience?" she asked.

Ryan smiled, happy to oblige, "sure." He walked over to where a guitar was already set up for him and set himself up and began to play "I'll be," by Edwin Mccain. He began to sing along to the music of the guitar and got lost in it, finally able to ignore the audience. It was only him and the guitar, when he finally finished he allowed himself to take in the applause of the audience and Ellen again though he just wanted to dive back in.

Ellen wrapped an arm around him and looked over at one of the camera's, "that's Ryan Atwood everybody, we'll be right back with our next guess after the break."