~*~ Chapter 2: The Big Brother and The Big Plan ~*~
‘Thank God!’ Brandi thought when she heard the bell. It was over. One day down. Hundreds more to go.
She went straight to her locker, placed her math book and notebook inside it and headed straight out.
At the garden, on her way to get her car, she saw from afar Seth Cohen talking to a blonde guy. They were laughing. She smiled, looked down, and continued the path to her car.
“I told you the club would be a success!” Seth had a big smile on.
“Seth, only 2 people showed up.” Ryan chuckled.
“Have faith, little man. Better 2 people than nobody, right? And we had an awesome meeting. These 2 people will tell good stuff about our club to another 2 people, that will talk about it with another 2 people and before we know it, this is gonna be the fastest growing club in the history of Harbor High.”
“Highly doubt it, but…”
“Oh, Ryan Atwood, the doubter. Have faith, man!”
“Can we drop this subject already?”
“Ok. What do you wanna talk about, then?”
“How did it go with Summer? I saw you two talking during lunch break, but then I had to go to the library and didn’t see how that worked out.”
“Oh, the little one is mad. Really mad.”
“And you blame her?” Ryan asked.
“Actually, no.” Seth was amazed by his own answer “I knew she’d be mad. I know I didn’t do a good thing, but I didn’t have another choice.”
“Of course you had. You could and should have stayed.”
“Look who’s talking! I said exactly the same to you, man!” Seth exclaimed.
“Seth, you know it was completely different for me. Teresa was…”
“I know, I know. I hate this subject. Can we just forget it? We’ve been over this hundreds of times.”
“Ok. But Summer?”
“She’ll forgive me eventually. Now that she’s gonna see me everyday, she’ll see what she lost and she’ll come running, asking for my love back.”
“Yeah, right, because that’s Summer, alright.” Ryan chuckled again.
“Ryan, Ryan… Just give her some time, just like I am doing. And believe me, she’ll come crawling asking for my forgiveness.” Ryan just shook his head as they entered the car.
“So, how did it go?” Alice Jackson asked as soon as her daughter entered the house.
“How did what go?”
“Your first day of school, of course!” she exclaimed as she cooked something in a big pot.
“It was alright.”
“Made any friends?”
“No. And I don’t think I ever will.” Brandi took a bagel and sat on the kitchen counter, facing her mother.
“Oh, Bran, don’t be so pessimist.”
“Mom, you have no idea what the girls from that place look like. They look like they were spit out straight from the cover of Teen People or Cosmo or some other magazine just like that. And you know how much I hate those girls.”
“It can’t be that bad.” Oh, Alice and her optimistic vision about everything.
“It is that bad. Actually, it’s worse.”
“But what about the boys?”
“Just the same.” her mother’s question brought the vision of Seth clearly in her mind. She smiled.
“I see a smile there.”
“What?” Brandi shook her head.
“You’re smiling. Did you find yourself a nice guy?”
“Mom, of course not! I didn’t even talk to anyone today.” Brandi lied.
“Oh, well, there’s always tomorrow. I bet you’ll find someone interesting tomorrow.”
“Yeah, right. And maybe Santa and the Easter Bunny will both join us in Harbor High too!”
“Oh, Brandi.” her mother shook her head as she tried the food she was preparing.
“Is Johnny home already?”
“Yes. He’s in his room.”
“I’m gonna talk to him.”
“Ok. I’ll call you two for dinner, alright?”
“Fine.” Brandi yelled to her mother from the stairs.
“Come on in.” a male voice gave her permission to enter the room.
“Hey, Johnny.” Brandi said entering the room and sitting on the bed.
“Hey, sis.” John turned from his computer chair to face and greet his sister. Her brother was 100% jock. He was really handsome, standing on 6’1’’, pitch black hair and aqua eyes, very athletic built. They didn’t even look like brother and sister, because they looked nothing alike. Johnny was the spitting image of the father and Brandi was just like the mother “So, how was high school?”
“Hell.” Brandi hugged a pillow and collapsed onto the bed.
“Come on, it couldn’t have been that bad.”
“Believe me when I say, it was.” Johnny smirked “And how was college? Did you like it?”
“It’s pretty much just like NYU. I didn’t see much difference.” John was a sophomore at college.
“Good for you, because I saw major difference.”
“Like what?” her brother joined her in bed.
“The people, dude. They are completely different from my New York crowd. And I hate them. I bet you would love Harbor High. It’s so you.”
“What do you mean by that?” John asked.
“Oh, all those supermodel bodies I hate so much and you love so much.” Brandi grinned.
“Shut up!” John threw a pillow at her.
“Oh, you bastard!” Brandi sat up and threw the same pillow at him.
“But, seriously, sis, you didn’t like it at all? Nothing? Not the place? Not the people? Nothing whatsoever?”
“Well… there’s this guy…” Brandi lay down again.
“Oh, no. That look of yours while talking about a guy is never good news.”
“Shut up!”
“What about this boy?”
“He’s… different.”
“Different?”
“Yes.”
“How different?”
“Just different, I guess. The way he dresses, the way he talks… It’s not like he’s a mummy’s boy, you know? At least, it didn’t look like it.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yes… and he’s so cute. He has the most amazing smile and…”
“Ok, now stop it. You’re my little sister and I don’t wanna hear you talking about a guy like that to me, alright?”
“Alright, alright. Jeez, why do you have to be such a big brother?”
“Because I am!” he let out a laugh.
“But you didn’t have to act like one.”
“Oh, sorry!” he smiled “Sit up.” Brandi did as she was told “The secret in high school is to act as if you were feeling fine, ok, like you don’t need anyone. You can’t seem desperate to find a friend. Just do that and you’ll see you’ll get friends faster than you think.”
“It wouldn’t hurt to try.”
“So, you do that, alright? And if you have any problems, you just come looking for Johnny here and I’ll fix anything, ok?”
“Alright, alright.” Brandi smiled and kissed her brother on the cheek “Thanks. Let me go now. Wanna download some songs before dinner.” she got up and trailed to her bedroom.
“Ryan, you gotta help me here.” Seth was sitting on a chair in the pool house, in front of Ryan, who was sat in his bed.
“What about your plan of giving Summer her time to think about it?”
“Yeah, I thought about it and it won’t work. I have to act.” Seth answered and Ryan rolled his eyes.
“I think this new idea is stupid and worthless, but ok.”
“Good! Now… what girls do we know?”
“There’s Marissa.”
“We can’t put Marissa in my possible ‘new girlfriend to make Summer jealous so she’d come crawling back to me’ list!”
“You’re right. I forgot what we were doing actually. Well, there’s Summer.”
“Ryan! Pay attention! Didn’t you just hear the title of this list? How can we put Summer in this list?”
“Ok, ok. It’s just that I don’t think we know any other girls.”
“Hm… I guess you are right. We were so fixated on those two last year that we didn’t even have the chance to meet other girls.”
“Yeah, because they were just throwing themselves at us, right?” Ryan joked and lay down.
“Sarcasm won’t work here, Ryan. Come on, think.” they stood still thinking for a while until Ryan checked the clock by the nightstand.
“I gotta go, man.”
“What? But we just got started!”
“I know, but I promised to have dinner with Marissa, and I still have to pick her up, so…”
“Man, that’s not cool. You’re leaving your brother with his incredible plan that will definitely work to go have dinner? That’s just wrong, man.”
“Sorry.” Ryan tapped Seth’s shoulder and got out of the pool house.
“Not nice at all, Ryan!” Seth yelled at his friend as he disappeared “Ok, ok. I can do this by myself. What girls do I know?” Seth wrinkled his forehead “Ok, so I’m gonna have to wait for Ryan to do this. Hm. Playstation.” he said out loud and headed to the TV room.
* Thanx Hannah and Thea for reviewing and correcting the grammar errors *
~*~ Chapter 1 ~*~
~*~ Chapter 3 ~*~
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