Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyers owns Twilight. I do not. I do however, own my 'gang'.

A/N: Also thanks to my awesome Beta, Blueboarderchick.

Thank you guys for all the alerts and thank you to my reviewers.

Also I've included Ryan's POV in this chapter as well. Enjoy!

Chapter 18

BPOV

By the end of my classes, my stomach was in knots. I couldn't get the upcoming lunch with Dillon out of my mind. How did I get myself into this mess? When I got home I went looking for Liz. She was in her room sulking on her bed.

I crawled onto the bed next to her and stretched out. "Liz, I did something today and now I'm not sure it's such a good idea."

I had her undivided attention. "What did you do?"

"I'll tell you but first you have to promise not to tell anyone." Until I figured out a way to cancel the lunch, the guys didn't need to know. I think they would be less than thrilled if they knew.

Noticing my flustered appearance she grew excited. "Wow. You must have done something bad. Fine, whatever. I promise."

"I talked to Dillon today and asked him to get the other guys take it easy on Ryan. He agreed to do it but only if I have lunch with him tomorrow." Saying it out loud made me even more nervous.

"Izzy, you don't have to do that for Ryan. I say let his ass suffer. No one's forcing him to make a fool out of himself." She huffed.

"It's too late. I already said yes and now I'm freaking out. What am I going to do?" I groaned.

"Well, it's nice that you tried to help Ryan but this just might be a blessing in disguise." Liz snapped her fingers with an excited light in her eyes. I groaned again. Why me?

"Blessing? What do you mean?" I gaped at her then frowned in confusion.

She rolled her eyes. "I mean this is the perfect opportunity to see if you might want to date Dillon. Every time Dillon tries to talk to you the guys always get in the way. But this way you can really get to know him without the guys around to cockblock him." She got off the bed and started digging through her closet.

I was surprised at her reasoning. "The guys don't cockblock Dillon." Just saying the word made me blush.

Liz turned away from her closet with an incredulous expression on her face. "Please tell me you've seen the way the guys are around him. It's so stupid. Just because-" She suddenly clamped her mouth shut the turned back to the closet.

Why did she stop talking? "Because what, Liz?"

She waved me off. "It's nothing." She changed the subject. "I'm looking for something for you to wear tomorrow. You say it's just lunch, right?"

"Yeah. Just lunch as friends." I sat up. I really hoped he didn't think of it as a real date seeing as he practically blackmailed me into going out with him.

"Well, I'm thinking that you should definitely dress casual. Hmm… maybe something purple or blue." Then she resumed her digging.

I groaned in frustration. This is a frigging nightmare. Liz was supposed to help me find a way out of my predicament but instead she was all for it. I felt like screaming.

"Do you think I'm being unreasonable about the whole frat thing?" Liz tired to maintain a casual tone but by the stiffness in her shoulders I could tell that she was waiting for my answer.

Not wanting to choose a side, I'd tried to stay out of Liz and Ryan's arguments. I paused, trying to pick my words carefully. "I'm not on anyone's side here. I get why seeing Ryan torture himself to get into a stupid club would make you upset. But I can also see that this is important to him. So even though we don't agree with what he's doing…" I paused again and continued gently, "…we should try to support him anyway."

Liz expression turned thoughtful as she paused in her digging and she turned to me. "Do you know if Dillon would be able to get the others to lay off Ryan?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know but he said he would try, so there's hope."

We heard the front door open and close.

"Hey. Are you girls home?" Zach shouted.

I walked out of the bedroom with Liz and into the living room where the guys were waiting for us.

Liz asked, "Hey, what's up?"

"You would never guess what happened to me today?" Whatever it was it must have been good because I hadn't seen Ryan so excited in a while.

"What?"

"The senior brothers approached me with a special mission today." Ryan grinned.

I smiled. Dillon came through for me. Liz slipped me a discrete glance and asked, "Really? What is it?"

"Well, every year the house pulls a prank. I'm not really supposed to tell you but I have to break into the Dean Cooper's house and steal his monogrammed robe so they could put it on the school statue. If I do this, I'm in for sure." The big doofus was actually excited about taking on this asinine task.

Liz and I were flabbergasted. Liz managed to shake herself out of her stupor. "Are you out of your freaking mind? You could get expelled if Dean Cooper caught you."

Zach cut in throwing his hands up in frustration. "Thank you! I'm glad someone agrees with me."

Taylor asked him, "When are you going?" I guess he was determined to be supportive no matter what.

"I'm heading over there tonight." Obviously Liz's reaction didn't change his mind one bit. Ryan could be so stubborn sometimes.

Liz had a calculating look in her eyes. "No. You mean we're heading over there tonight." All heads swiveled in Liz's direction. "That's right. We're all going with you to make sure you don't mess this up." She stared everybody down as if daring us to say no. When no one did, she turned to Ryan and continued, "People are really putting themselves out for you, so you can't screw this up." And I knew she was talking about my lunch with Dillon.

Ryan was surprised by Liz's words. "Wow, I didn't think you would support me on this but thanks, babe." He hugged her. We would be in for a crazy night. But crazy or not we would stick together.

A few hours later we were all in the woods behind Dean Cooper's two-story, Colonial styled house. The lights were off in the house, so we assumed we got lucky and no one was home. Everyone was dressed in dark clothing so, we would blend in better with the trees but I think it made us all look like a bunch of thieves.

We crossed the distance to his house and hid in the bushes under a window.

"This is so stupid. We're gonna get caught and expelled from school." Zach grumbled and I couldn't help but agree with him. This was so reckless and ridiculous. I didn't even want to think about what Charlie's reaction would be if he knew his daughter was planning to break into a house to steal a robe. He would definitely have a heart attack.

"Relax. We won't get caught. No one's even home." Liz waved him off.

"Okay, so what's the plan?" Ryan turned to us.

"Well, we have to find a way to get into the house but that shouldn't be a problem. Before we came out here, I googled the crime rates in this area and it's one of the lowest in the country. So you know what that means, right?" Liz whispered from her crouched position in the bushes.

No one knew what the hell Liz was talking about. Taylor asked her, "No we don't know. Care to enlighten us?"

Even in the darkness, I could tell that Liz was rolling her eyes. "It means that people feel safe here and when people feel safe they don't lock their windows all the time. Duh." I shook my head at Liz's genius. She would make a great criminal.

"Okay, let's check this window." Ryan stood up and reached for the double hung window. After two tugs, he was able to slide the window open. "Good that was easy."

"Yeah… Almost too easy." Taylor mumbled. His comment unnerved me.

"Okay, guys. Give me a boost. When I'm inside I'll open the door for you guys." Zach braced himself against the side of the house then Ryan used him to climb through the window.

Zach continued to grumble. "They're going to put my ass in jail. I can't go to jail. I'm too good looking." Liz let out an unladylike snort. Zach was so full of himself. I couldn't wait for the day when a woman would come along and take him down a notch.

Taylor couldn't resist teasing him, "Let me know what to get you and Bubba for your wedding present." And I couldn't help but giggle.

When Ryan landed with a loud thud, Liz shushed him. "Not so loud, Ryan."

Something didn't feel right. Just then Ryan poked his head out the window and whispered, "Okay, I'll get the back door." Then he was gone.

As we all stood up, the shit hit the fan.

We were suddenly blinded as the back yard was bathed in a bright light. We then heard the cocking of a shotgun and a man's voice. "I suggest you kids get off my property before I call the police." We were all frozen in place like deer caught in the headlights.

As I squinted, I was able to make out Dean Cooper holding a shotgun but it was the strangest thing. It seemed like he was wearing a skirt.

I guess he was irritated by our inactivity because he pointed the gun into the air and fired. That was enough to free us from our trance and we took off running for the woods. When Dean Cooper fired another shot Zach shouted, "Holy shit! He's shooting at us! He's really shooting at us!" I think Zach had pretty much summarized all of our thoughts.

In my haste to make my escape, I almost forgot a vital piece of information. "What about Ryan?"

"Leave him. He can find his own way out." Liz panted. I couldn't help but think that was kind of cold but Liz was right. It was every man for himself at that point.

We stopped when we crossed the tree line but I guess Dean Cooper thought we were still too close to his house. "Get 'em, boy!" The sound of loud growls filled the night air as he sicced his huge Saint Bernard on us.

Zach was screaming in earnest now. "Shit! It's fucking Cujo! Run!"

Then we were running through the trees. In true Bella fashion, I stumbled and cursed when I almost fell. Taylor paused long enough to throw me over his shoulder in one swift movement. He then continued his sprint through the forest with only the light of the moon to guide us. I could hear Cujo's growls as he chased us through the bushes.

Liz panted, "Let's split up. We'll meet you guys at the car." Zach grabbed Liz's hand and they veered off in another direction trying to shake Cujo.

I don't know how long we ran for or, more accurately, how long Taylor ran with me thrown over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes. It was safe to assume we lost the dog as we didn't hear him for a while back. Feeling nauseous from all the bouncing up and down not to mention Taylor's shoulder digging into my stomach, I begged him to put me down.

"Taylor, you can put me down now. I think we lost him." I wriggled on his shoulder.

He slowed to a stop behind a large tree. "I think you're right." He panted.

Placing one hand firmly on my leg and the other on my hip, he began to gently guide me down the length of his body. I positioned my hands on his shoulders to steady myself as his hands slid up my back. As my feet touched the ground, we heard a twig snap behind Taylor. We both froze as we heard growling. I swear my heart stopped. Cujo had found us.

Taylor whispered, "Izzy, I'm going to need you to climb the tree behind you as fast as you can okay?"

"But I can't climb a tree." My tone turned petulant. I'd never climbed one in my entire life.

Taylor was not in the mood to coddle me as he bluntly said, "If you don't climb the tree you'll end up as dog chow."

Those words were plenty motivation and I quickly got moving. Taylor placed his hands on my hips and boosted me up the tree as Cujo's growls got louder. He was coming for us. I grabbed onto a branch and pulled myself out of the way to make room for Taylor. Taylor then climbed on the branch and sat next to me just as a snarling, snapping Cujo appeared at the bottom of the tree. My heart raced in my chest.

Taylor gasped for breath and let out a stream of Spanish curses. I had to stifle a giggle. That was one of sexiest things I'd ever heard. Taylor's accent tended to get heavier whenever he got angry and he would usually curse in Spanish. I'd never pegged myself as an accent girl but I secretly liked Taylor's.

Suddenly the ridiculousness of our situation struck me. I'd never done anything so reckless and stupid before. Straight-laced, good girl, boring Bella was breaking into houses, getting shot at and being chased by dogs. I couldn't hold in my laughter anymore. Taylor stared at me then he joined me. "I bet when you woke up this morning, you didn't think we'd be doing this." I said as soon as our laughter died down.

Taylor wiped a tear from his eye. "No, I did not. Leave it to Ryan, huh?"

As he brought up Ryan's name, I began to worry about him. "Do you think he'll be alright?"

"Ryan always manages to land on his feet. He'll be okay." He smiled reassuringly.

My stomach turned over and my nausea returned. "I think I'm going to be sick." I held my stomach and groaned.

Taylor gestured to a barking Cujo beneath us. "If you're going to throw up, I suggest you do it on the dog. Maybe that will scare it off."

I peeked at the hound from hell. He was currently barking at us. "Aren't St. Bernard dogs supposed to be friendly?"

"I don't know. Didn't they make a movie about one that killed a bunch of people?"

"Yeah, but it was just a movie and the dog in it had rabies. Do you think he has rabies?" I peered down at Cujo again. Looking disinterested in us, Cujo sniffed a bush. I hoped he would eventually forget about us and return home.

"I don't know. He's slobbering a lot."

"Yeah but don't they all slobber?" Our odd conversation was interrupted by my ringing cell phone. It was Liz.

I answered, "Hey, Liz. Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine. We made it back to the car. Are you guys on your way?"

"Actually no. We're kind of stuck in a tree with Dean Cooper's dog hanging out beneath it."

Liz gasped, "No way."

I sighed. "Way. So until he leaves, we're stuck here. Any sign of Ryan?" At the time I told Liz this I saw Cujo taking a seat on the floor. He was making himself comfortable. It was beginning to look like it would be a while before we'd be able to climb back down.

"No and he's not answering his phone. Maybe he's hiding in the house somewhere and can't answer." She said trying to sound hopeful but neither one of us believed it. Ryan got caught in Dean Cooper's house. All we could do was hope he didn't end up expelled or in jail.

"Yeah. Maybe." I knew the tone of my voice wasn't very convincing.

"Well, we'll wait for you in the car, okay?"

"Okay." We said our goodbyes then hung up. Looking at the watch I confirmed it was around eleven.

I turned to Taylor. "Liz and Zach made it out. They'll wait for us in the car."

A cold breeze blew through the trees and I shivered. When I put on my black t-shirt that night I didn't take the cold into account. Taylor glanced at me. "You cold?"

"A little." I rubbed my arms.

He stretched an arm out. "Come on."

I was not about to turn down a potential source of heat, so I leaned in and let him wrap his arm around my shoulder. As I laid my head on his shoulder, Taylor placed his chin on my head. There was no weirdness whatsoever about our positions. I knew it was only meant to be a friendly gesture.

"My butt's asleep. How's yours doing?" Since coming to Dartmouth, I'd developed a habit of just blurting out whatever popped into my mind.

Taylor let out a short bark of laughter. "Thanks for that. This has been one weird night."

I sighed, "You said it."

We fell into a comfortable silence until Taylor asked, "What do you think lives in this tree?"

About two hours and countless discussions on tree creatures later, we saw Cujo get up and run off in the direction of his home. It looked like he heard something in the distance. Hopefully it was his owner calling him.

"Oh, thank God. He's gone." I breathed a sigh of relief.

"I think we should wait here a bit before heading back. Just to make sure he's gone."

"Good idea." When after ten minutes, we saw no sign of Cujo's return so we climbed down the tree. Taylor stretched his arms above his head while I tried to wake up my sleeping foot.

"Do you know where we are?" I looked around thinking we might have gotten lost.

"Yeah. We should head in the opposite direction of Dean Cooper's house. We should be out of here in no time."

After about fifteen minutes of walking we made it out of the woods. We still had to walk two blocks to the car. When we arrived Liz and Zach were sitting in the car waiting for us. There was still no sign of Ryan. As I climbed into the back seat with Taylor, Liz turned on the heater for us. Zach was too busy snoring and didn't even notice our arrival.

Liz turned in her seat to look at us. "You guys okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just worried about Ryan?" I got busy rubbing my arms trying to warm up.

"Me too." Liz then turned her attention back to the window. I could tell that she was worried.

After another fifteen minutes we finally saw Ryan walking down the street. His pants were shredded at the bottom and one of his sneakers was missing. Liz jumped out of the car and hugged him. He climbed into to the backseat next to me. His arrival woke Zack up. "Dude, where were you? Did you get it?"

Ryan glared at us all before breaking into his trademark grin as he produced the robe. He was then bombarded with questions as everyone wanted to know how he pulled it off. He waved our questions away. "I'll tell you when we get back to the apartment. I'm starving." Liz started up the engine and drove us back to the apartment.

Sitting in the living room around Ryan, we watched as he inhaled the leftover pizza like there was not tomorrow. Seriously, if I were a bucket of chicken I'd be terrified. We were dying to hear his story.

Liz couldn't wait anymore. "Well? What happened?"

Ryan smiled around his pizza, "Well, after you guys ran away and left me. Thanks for that by the way. I…"

Ryan's POV

Watching the retreating figures of my friends in the distance, I knew I was screwed. Son of a bitch! I can't believe the bastards left me. Dean Cooper shot into the air, not at them. As if the Dean would want to end up in the news as the nut job that shot a bunch of kids. He was just trying to scare them off and it worked. I didn't have time to dwell on their betrayal as I heard his footsteps in the house.

Shit! I had to hide. I looked around what looked like a study and hid behind the drapes. My heart pounded in my ear as I heard the approaching footsteps stop. Suddenly the light flicked on and I heard Dean Cooper's voice. "Son, you're about as big as you are dumb. Do you know that I can see your feet?"

Damn! I was busted. Peeking out from behind the drapes, my eyes scanned the room until my gaze landed on Dean Cooper's amused face. But if I didn't know any better I would swear that he was wearing a skirt. I could see his hairy knees and everything. He still had the shotgun in his hands and he used it to wave me out of the room. "Come along, boy, I don't have all night."

I walked down the hallway and into the living room where he told me to have a seat on his couch. As he sat in his recliner across from me, I picked a spot on his wall and kept my eyes there. I had no desire whatsoever to see his love spuds. Dean Cooper was a medium built, middle-aged man with gray hair. He didn't look like the type of man who liked to cross dress in his spare time. So why the skirt?

Little did he know, I was freaking out on the inside as I tried to maintain a calm exterior. As he set his steely gaze on me, I knew I was screwed, seriously screwed. "What's your name, boy?"

I gulped, "Ryan Sinclair, sir." It made no sense lying. I knew he'd find it out anyway after the cops came. I was already imagining myself in that orange jumpsuit, making a shank out of my toothbrush and trying to keep the men off my ass, literally. My life was over. I was going to get kicked out of the school all because of some stupid frat. Man, I was such an idiot.

"Well, Ryan, I have good news and bad news. The good news is you're not going to get expelled and I'm not going to call the cops."

He set the shotgun down next to his recliner and I almost cried with relief. But I tensed up again when I tired to guess what the bad news was. I prayed it had nothing to do with the skirt he was wearing.

"The bad news is you're not getting away scotch free. You see, last year when you frat guys kidnapped my dog, I decided to have something special planned the next time you decided to pay me a visit." He stood up. Reaching behind the chair, he picked up a freaking bagpipe.

With a madman glint in his eyes, he smiled, "Kicking you out of school would be too easy. I decided to come up with my own brand of entertainment or torture, depending how you look at it." He positioned the bagpipe, began to play and thus my two hours of torture began.

I cringed. Oh God, it was the worst thing I'd ever heard. I didn't know much about Celtic music but I sure as hell knew it wasn't supposed to sound like that. Sinking into my chair, I allowed my mind to wander to my chicken shit friends.

Taylor. Some brother he was. He was so wrapped up in Izzyland he'd leave his own best friend in the dust just to keep her out of trouble. Already Izzy had him whipped. Not that she'd ever notice. Izzy was still hung up that Black guy.

I felt my irritation soften slightly when I though of Izzy. The little sister I never had. Even she ran for the hills. That little weasel. If she thought I was ever going to buy her, ugh …tampons again, she had another thing coming. And she'd better not turn those big doe eyes on me either because I ain't falling for it.

Then there was Zach, my supposed partner in crime. Ha! What a punkass bitch he was tonight. I get why Taylor left but Zach was supposed to be my wingman. He would have to find someone else to drive around with looking for fresh mice to feed his beloved Suzie Q. What was the deal with him and that snake anyway? He really needed to get himself a girlfriend.

Oh, then there was my Lizzy. The love of my life and bane of my existence. How one woman can make me so happy and drive me so crazy, I don't know. From the get go she was against the whole fraternity thing. We argued about it to the point that our relationship was strained. So I was surprised when she agreed to come with me tonight. But even my badass chick abandoned me. If she thought I would give her my usual sex marathon performance tonight, she was out of her mind. I sighed dejectedly. Who was I kidding? I would be happy if she'd let me smell her hair. Jeez, I was just as whipped as Taylor. Pathetic.

I couldn't really be mad at my friends. It was my own damned fault I was in this mess. This was all because I couldn't tell my Dad that I didn't want to work in his firm. I couldn't care less about joining the Alpha Thetas but it meant a lot to my Dad, so I did it. It was a rare occasion when my Dad got actually excited about something and that was only if my witch of a mother didn't ruin it first. Only now I was starting to see that the shit I was putting myself through wasn't even worth it. I would have to man the hell up and have a serious talk with Dad soon.

When I couldn't hear the bagpipe anymore I thought that God had finally pitied me and rendered me deaf. But as I watched Dean Cooper put down the bagpipe I felt relief. My torture was over. "And that concludes my concert performance for the evening. You may go now."

He laughed when I got up and shot him a dirty look. Bastard. When I opened the front door to leave I heard him behind me. "Oh, and don't forget this." He threw the robe at me and dropped a bombshell. "Welcome to the Alpha Thetas, brother." He then shut the door in shell-shocked my face.

I wasn't allowed much time to ponder this as a monster of a dog rounded the corner, forcing me to run for my life. "Holy shit, it's Cujo!"

BPOV

By the end of Ryan's tale we were all roaring with laughter. Who would've thought that Dean Cooper was an Alpha Theta too? It was a miracle that none of us were in jail. I was so relieved that everything worked out. Maybe things could finally go back to normal.

As our laughter died down Liz asked Ryan, "So how does it feel to finally be a brother?"

Ryan looked thoughtful for a moment then flashed us a small smile. "I don't know. I'm kind of having second thoughts about the whole frat thing." That came as a shock to us all because of how gung-ho and determined he was about the whole thing.

Zach wasn't able to hide his relief. "Dude, I was wondering when you would come to your senses. What changed your mind?" He was obviously glad to have his best friend back.

Ryan scratched his head. "I just realized that I would rather be a part of this group than that one." He reached out and squeezed Liz's hand while she tried to pretend that she wasn't overjoyed he wasn't joining the frat. I smiled and shook my head. They would be okay.

Liz suddenly snapped to attention. "It would have been nice if you could have come to that conclusion sometime before Izzy had to sell her ass." The guys all had questioning looks on their faces.

I blurted, "Liz!" Damn her and her big mouth. She made it sound like I agreed to have sex with Dillon in exchange for his help. Besides, I thought we'd agreed not to tell the guys.

Ryan frowned and asked slowly, "What is she talking about, Izzy?"

Having no intention to answer him, I gnawed on my lip nervously. Liz however decided to save me the trouble. "She went to Dillon and asked him to give you a break with all the hazing and stuff. He's the one that got you the special mission. In exchange, Izzy has to have lunch with him tomorrow."

A guilty look flittered across Ryan's face. "Izzy, you didn't have to do that. Look, tomorrow I'll go turn over the robe and clear up all this lunch crap."

Taylor snorted and rolled his eyes, "Yeah right. You actually think Dillon is going to trade a date with Izzy for some robe?"

"Taylor's right, Ryan. Dillon's finally got her in his clutches. He's not going to let her go so easily." Zach grumbled.

I interjected. "It's okay, guys. Really. It's not even a date. Just a friendly lunch. Dillon gets that." I tried to convince them.

Ryan's expression darkened with malice. "Yeah, he better get it or he'll be dealing with me."

Liz rolled her eyes while I sighed in frustration. I wasn't excited about my lunch with Dillon but they were acting like the guy was the freaking anti Christ. I knew they were worried but Dillon wasn't that bad. And even if he was, I could take care of myself.

A/N: So how did you like the frat mission and the special appearance of Stephen King's Cujo?

Hope you enjoyed a peek into Ryan's mind.

Coming up next in the next chapter, Bella's non-date with Dillon and she gets some bad news from an unexpected source.

One more thing though,I predict that this story will be over 200,000 words.

I have so much more crazy things in store for you. So buckle up.

You know what to do if you want your chapter faster.Review!