Chapter one — The first (and biggest) party of the summer

— June 1st, 2004

ㅤOf course, Ruby Windsor planned on throwing the annual beginning of summer bash. Her father was conveniently out of town on a work trip for a few days, enough time to prepare, have, and clean up a party. Not that he was oblivious to his daughter's habits, if anything, he helped her plan the date so that he would be out of town.

Summer break had started three days ago, finals were finally over, and there were no more boring lectures until the fall. In the OC, the summer is a time spent as if it were ending the next day. The first few weeks are spent nonstop partying until the alcohol high fades and the broken promises and formed feelings emerge from the rubble.

Even though the pattern repeated itself every summer, Ruby still loved the thrill. Her teenage years were running out and she wanted nothing more than to dance until the sun rises, and then immediately throw on a bikini and tan until the next party started.

Ruby's parties had a reputation for being over the top, filling her house with people she had never met before as they hooked up in the guest rooms. She did not care, she loved to sit back and watch the drama unfold. And she did not care about no-names appearing at her party, the more the merrier, even if some nerd showed up.

In means of preparation, Ruby bought loads of alcohol (courtesy of the family friend at the gas station), though she had been well assured that Archer Mase would bring plenty when he showed up. Ruby had begged her friend to get to her house before the party officially started (8 pm) but she had low hopes, Ruby would be lucky if he arrived before 10, already drunk.

Other than buying plenty of snacks and drinks, Ruby did not bother to set up anything else for the evening. Of course, she had hidden the family valuables, as she does before any good party. But besides those, she did not bother to decorate the place, the lights would be off for the majority of the time anyway.

No one had to be convinced to show up to Windsor party, Ruby's reputation alone filled the guest list, without her having to do any work. All she had to do was mention the party to about three people, and then suddenly the entire area knew about it.

A few hours later, the house swarmed with people. Every room filled with meaningless faces Ruby would probably never talk to ever. All the girls in their new bikinis, hair loose and wavy while the guys took turns cannonballing into the recently opened pool in the back.

Ruby had a Diet Coke in her hand—an attempt to sober up—as she walked through her home, flashing a smile at her friends on her journey to the only bathroom on this floor. Somewhere along the way, her low-rise jean shorts got snagged on a cabinet handle in the kitchen, causing her to pause and take the extra time to unhook them. Along with the shorts, Ruby wore one of her new bikinis for the summer, a pink set, one that she had seen Paris Hilton wear, so she bought it immediately.

Pushing her way through the groups of people gossiping and playing beer pong, Ruby made it to the bathroom, to find it occupied.

Pounding her open hand against the wall, Ruby shouted a warning, "I swear to God if anyone is fucking in there, I'm gonna break an arm."

The sound of a toilet flushing and the water running calmed Ruby's fears, she could pee in peace in just a second.

Then a ghost opened the door.

Why the fuck was Carmen Acosta in her house?

Standing there in her bathroom, wearing a lacy white skirt—that looked shocking like one Ruby had lent her four years ago—and a striped tube top. Her dark brown hair styled simply into a blowout, but it still managed to look perfect.

The nerve she had to show up here after her  destroyed Ruby's parent's marriage. After she ditched the County for three years, just to come running back.

"'Scuse me," Carmen muttered, a blank look on her face, running off to probably find her brother, Theo, who was also probably around some of Ruby's friends.

Trying not to scream, Ruby rushed into the bathroom and slammed her Coke on the counter, running her hands through her hair. Staring at herself in the mirror, Ruby tried to calm herself down by reaching into her waistband to grab her emergency lip gloss.

While applying it for the millionth time that night, Ruby whispered her newest mantra to herself. "I'm so amazing that the world has given me more challenges."

Ever since her parents split, and her sister moved away to pursue her "acting career", Ruby has given herself a new mantra every month. Usually, it ends up sounding more selfish than therapeutic to the people around her, but it does the job.

After finally getting the chance to finally use the bathroom, Ruby downed the rest of her drink and opened the door to brave the rest of the party.

*ㅤ*ㅤ*

Alexis Di Laurentis wouldn't dare to miss the first party of the summer, even if there was a gun to his head. Which, with his friends and their party attitude, there could be if he ever dared to doubt going.

"How much do you wanna bet that Ruby and Carmen get in a bitch fight tonight?" Sawyer St. James chirped, leaning back in the pool chair she sat in.

Sawyer and Alexis had been friends for years, mostly because they ended up in the same friend group, but over time the two have become closer. And, at times in the past, a little too close.

Tonight, the group sat at the corner of the pool area, hoarding some chairs away from the rest of the party. Sawyer, in a leopard print bikini under a yellow tube top and a short jean skirt, sat by a table with vodka cranberry in her hand, sipping it slowly as someone responded to her comment.

"I'm not taking that bet." A voice drawled from another chair close to Alexis.

Lilith Henley, the black cat of the group. Even though she hung out with people who constantly gossiped, Lilith strayed away from saying things negative about people. Only when she's saying it behind their back, of course. In her black bikini and white coverup, Lilith fit right in with the rest of the pool party crowd.

"For the record, I did not contribute to this discussion." A third voice added, obviously drunk.

Archer Mase, who has been trying to keep his mouth shut, for Ruby. Unlike the rest of the group, was lying in a pool lounger with his eyes closed and a beer in his hand. Staying quiet for the most part, but every once in a while would add a random, but important, detail to a story that someone else was sharing.

Unbeknownst to both of the girls, the red swim trunks Archer was wearing happened to be Alexis', while the other boy had to buy another pair for the night because Archer kept "borrowing" all of his clothes.

This group was not limited to these four, sometimes others would join in on their hangouts, but this was most definitely the core four. One day, they had just seemed to snap together, always talking at parties and then at school.

"If it happens, I hope it ends with someone getting pushed in the pool," Alexis commented, throwing his feet up on the table in front of him.

"Oh God, I didn't even think of that. That's genius." Sawyer laughed.

After a few moments of silence, Sawyer randomly gasped.

"Did you guys see Everett Demarco and Calliope Orlando getting cozy in the living room earlier?" Sawyer's voice dripped with excitement, usually, she was the first to know about new couples.

"Yeah, they've been hooking up for months." Archer droned, seemingly bored with the topic.

"What?" Sawyer screamed. "You knew and didn't tell me? I thought Rett was too closed off for a girlfriend."

"Well, I flirted with him a little bit at the New Year's party and he responded oddly and kept looking at that girl. Just added two and two together." Archer shrugged, keeping his eyes closed while taking a sip of his almost-empty beer.

"Pause," Lilith added, holding a hand up. "You tried to get with Demarco?"

"Um yeah? He's hot." Archer sighed.

"Seconded." Alexis agreed, leaning towards Archer to clink beers with a smile on his face.

*ㅤ*ㅤ*

"Happy the school year is out so you don't have to worry about besting me?" Leyla Demir sighed, putting a hand in front of herself to shake the hand of the girl in front of her.

Today, Leyla was wearing a green spaghetti-strap tank top and a pair of jean shorts, with a cup of coffee in her hand. She had to spend twenty minutes searching Ruby's cabinets to find her coffee-making stuff. At one point, she even saw Ruby glance over and sigh with a smile, but then she walked away, not bothering to help the search.

"Last time I checked, my GPA ended up a bit higher than yours." Isadora Wu didn't return the handshake but crossed her arms.

Isadora wore a yellow bikini with strawberries on it, with a white coverup skirt over it. Her body dripped with water droplets, so she must have been dragged away from the pool for this.

"Guys, chill out." The meaning of all this, Vincent Di Angelo said, putting himself in between the two girls.

Alongside his trusty camera in his hand, Vincent had ignored the "pool" part of the party and had worn a pair of khakis and a regular t-shirt. Despite his dislike for swimming, Leyla had dragged him to this party, and not-so-accidentally, almost pushed him into the pool.

"She started it." Isadora shrugged, sipping on some sparkling water, that she must have brought from home because there was no way Ruby was serving sparkling water at her rager.

"Can't you guys pretend to get along?" Vincent pleaded.

He had planned to get the two to act civil since he was friends with both of them. Or rather, he's been best friends with Leyla for years and grew close with Isadora during the school year, and decided to try and pause their rivalry for the summer.

"Probably not." The girls said at the same time.

Vincent just sighed but an idea sparked in his head.

He waved his hands for them to stand shoulder to shoulder, facing Vincent as he raised his camera.

"Say cheese!" He joked, but still took a picture despite their lack of reaction, both of them frowning at the lens.

As soon as he put the camera down, they moved away from each other again, bickering about some event that had happened in chemistry a few months ago.

Suddenly, a blonde figure accidentally bumped shoulders with Isadora, who tightened at the contact.

"Oh sorry." The blonde said quietly before rushing off, clearly distracted by something else going on.

Isadora stood frozen, too still to utter a response quick enough, her mouth half open and a hand in the air.

"Somebody is crushing hard." Leyla laughed, watching Isadora's eyes follow Ruby.

"Shut up." The other girl muttered, lost in thought.

"Well, she's broken for the night." Vincent sighed, dragging both of his friends out to the pool, away from their gracious host and her drama, whether they liked it or not.

*ㅤ*ㅤ*

"Are we still up for some evening surfing on Thursday?"

Lorenzo Campbell walked up to a group that was playing beer pong in the garage, wearing swim trunks clad with little dinosaurs.

"Yeah, of course, man." Roman Ledger said, tossing a white ping-pong ball across the table in front of him, a splash sounding when it landed in the cup in front of his friend, Theo Clemente. "Woo! Suck on that."

Roman was in his prime atmosphere, mingling with friends from school—and those he thought were hot but had never met before, playing every party game in existence, and, last but not least, drinking way too much.

"Rad," Enzo said, his mind already moved on to the next thing, as he ran off into the house.

Across from Roman, Theo downed the red Solo cup that the ball had landed in. This was the end of the duo's second game, partially because Roman demanded a rematch after losing horribly in the first game, and also because a certain brunette freaking out in the corner stopped them from leaving.

"Is she gonna be like that all night?" Roman paused, before sending another throw, this one missing by a good distance.

"I don't know man," Theo muttered, throwing one of his ping-pong balls, making it in. "I don't understand this girl drama."

Carman Acosta sat in the corner of the garage, lounging on an old couch that had yet to be thrown out, stains from previous parties covering its surface.

"I can hear, you know?" She snarked.

Ever since Carmen's initial interaction with Ruby, she had been hiding in the shadows of Theo and Roman as they wandered the party, Carmen being the one to suggest going out to the garage, a half hour ago.

"Ok, then tell me why you and Ruby are fighting when neither of you did anything to the other." The questioned, sending two more balls into cups before missing a shot, stealing the lead from Roman.

"Fuck." Roman whispered to himself, making his next shot.

"We aren't fighting, we just aren't friends anymore," Carmen responded, smoothing down her hair.

"Yeah, that makes total sense." Theo rolls his eyes.

"Right, and that's why you're sitting here hiding from everyone?" Roman said at the same time, missing a shot.

"Nothing I say will make any sense to you idiots anyways," Carmen said, standing up from her seated position. "I'm off to go talk to Isa."

Carmen exited, just in time as Theo would make his next two shots, winning the beer pong game. Roman screamed and ran off to tell the story to Alexis, bringing the last two cups with him to share.

*ㅤ*ㅤ*

Sometime farther into the evening—many drinks later—Ruby found herself sitting with the group that had stayed lounging by the pool, placing bets and gossiping as additions flowed in and out of their area.

"I just don't understand how she has the nerve to be here, you know?" Ruby gasped, she had been ranting to anyone who would listen for the last few hours, usually getting a shrug in response.

Roman, who had lingered after telling his dramatic rendition of the ping pong game to Alexis, sighed, having already heard the other side of the drama.

"Judge me all you want. But she leaves for three years and then shows back up at the first party of the summer?" Ruby continues.

"I think you might be reading into the situation," Archer muttered, careful to not get too involved.

Not going unnoticed by Ruby, most of the other people around them nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, don't let her ruin your perception of your own party," Alexis added, trying to wrap up the current conversation topic.

Around the group, there was a lack of people, as most people had left already. The night was long from over for a few, but most tired out after the keg had emptied.

Contrasting with the bright light in the kitchen, Ruby could see four silhouettes talking, three girls and one guy, laughing as they drank some fruit juice that had been in Ruby's fridge forever.

She was pretty sure there was also a minimum of two couples making out on her couch, which was to be expected. Typically, she let them be in their world until she wanted to sleep, then she kicked them out.

Hopefully, Carmen had gone home by now. Ruby secretly wished to see her around town sometime in the future, even though there was no promise of her staying in town.

After another hour of laying in the moonlight, the final moments of the party dissolved and Ruby kicked anyone and everyone out of her house. Promises to meet up for brunch at the Crab Shack along the boardwalk were made and everyone went their separate ways.

Now Ruby could lay in her bed in peace as she binged a new show called One Tree Hill to distract her mind with cute boys instead of thinking about the not-so-new face in town.

Author's Note: Woop woop, only six months late! But yeah, chapter 1 is here!! I'm actually so stoked for you guys to read this because I love all of your characters so so much!! Side note: if you think i fucked up their lines or anything in any way DO NOT hesitate to tell me, I would love to hear feedback. Also, i know this was basically a introductory chapter so all of the main cast + some of the side cast appeared in it, so don't expect all chapters to be the same way. Most of the time, all or most will appear in each chapter but gotta do what the plot wants.