Chapter two — Brunch and Shenanigans

— June 2nd, 2004

HONK.

Sawyer sighed at the sound of her friend waiting outside of her house, throwing on a floral tank and a jean skirt before rushing downstairs. She had only gotten a few hours of sleep, but summer doesn't wait for anyone, even Sawyer St. James.

"Wren! Hurry up Adam and Lilith are here!" Sawyer screamed at her tween brother, quickly putting some sandals on before running to her friend's car.

Lilith sat in the driver's seat, a white summer dress fluttering in the wind of the morning. In the back sat Lilith's younger brother, Adam, as he knew Sawyer would claim shotgun and it wasn't a battle worth fighting.

"Your dad let you use the convertible?" Sawyer squealed, sitting down in the passenger seat.

"I had to promise to drive Adam home," Lilith sighed, pulling out of the long driveway as soon as Wren hopped into the back.

The group drove to the Crab Shack, aka the only good breakfast place on the boardwalk, occasionally growing silent to turn up the radio, their arms in the air, feeling every gust of wind.

When they arrived, the younger boys scurried off to meet their own friends at the beach, something about an important meeting, which probably meant plotting how to ask their crushes out.

Sawyer and Lilith waltzed inside, not surprised to see most of their friends already sitting in their favorite booth, a steaming coffee cup in front of each of them.

"Coffee?" Sawyer asked, laying a hand on her friend's shoulder.

Lilith nodded in response, going to sit down at the booth while Sawyer ordered them each a drink.

On her walk over, Lilith saw many familiar faces, everyone went to the Crab Shack the morning after a party, even the kids who hadn't been invited to the aforementioned party. It was the perfect reboot before a day of busy plans and even more partying. Plus the owner never kicked them out when some people never ordered more than coffee.

Lilith slid into the booth where Ruby, Archer, and Alexis sat, using a menu from the table to fan her face. The summer was amazing, but the heat was not. When Sawyer joined the table, Lilith hurried to gulp down the iced drink.

"I swear this stuff gets better every time." She sighed.

"Probably because you get more hungover every time." Alexis quipped.

Lilith rolled her eyes at him, continuing to sip on her drink.

"Anyways," Alexis continued, "You guys should have seen Archer vom in the cab last night."

A groan comes from Archer, who has yet to completely wake up as he is laying his head on the cool wooden table surface. "Dude, why'd you have to bring that up?"

"Would you rather me show them the pictures?" Alexis offered.

The only response from Archer was a grunt before he closed his eyes.

"Bring the pictures by my place," Ruby chirped, "I'm making a scrapbook for the summer and what would make a better cover photo?"

Generally, Ruby didn't usually join them for breakfast. Most of the time she slept in and would appear later on in the day for some beachside tanning. Ruby doesn't belong to a "group", she more or less floats around, conversing with anyone who'd respond to her random thoughts. And recently that meant Archer and his friends.

"Also, I had a fun idea," Ruby leaned forward on the table to gain everyone's attention. "I was thinking we could do a summer competition."

"What would that include?" Sawyer asked, speculatively.

When they were younger, the kids of the O.C. would get together and spend hours playing beach volleyball or swimming contests. As they grew up, most of the teens didn't feel the need to spend their summers participating in silly games to be entertained. Most were fine with lying around the pool or shopping.

"I haven't really thought it all out, yet," Ruby responded, grabbing a pen from her purse and beginning to jot down ideas on a napkin, "Like, we'd split into duos, do some tug-of-war or scavenger hunts."

Lilith glanced at her friends, "Isn't that sort of kid-ish?"

"No, I mean, for some of us, it's our last high school summer, it'd be fun to do something stupid. You don't have to do it, I guess," Ruby retorted.

"I think it sounds kind of fun," Alexis added.

"Yeah, would there be a prize?" Archer raised his head and took a sip of the drink in front of him.

"I mean, there could be, like the winning team gets some kind of treatment," Ruby exclaimed, more and more gears turning in her mind.

Sawyer and Lilith looked at each other, having a silent conversation with their eyes, because they were the only ones who hadn't agreed. Some sort of consensus must have been reached because they turned back to the rest of the table with grins on their faces.

"I guess I don't have anything better to do," Sawyer exclaimed, Lilith nodding along in agreement.

"Yay!" Ruby shrieked.

Leaving more planning for later, the group went back to talking about the night before and the little bits of gossip they had heard. Eventually, a few orders of chocolate chip pancakes were ordered, the signature brunch dish at the Crab Shack.

At one point, a few familiar teens walked in, setting their things down at the booth behind the other group before walking up to get their food.

"Hey, Leyla," Alexis shouted, stopping one of the girls in the group, "Let me buy your drink as a last thank you for putting up with my homework for a year."

"Fine," She drew her lips into a straight line, walking up to the counter with him as her friends walked in front of them.

Back at the table, an idea sprung in Ruby's head.

"Why don't we invite Leyla and her friends?" Ruby asked the group in front of her, "What's that guy's name? Vincent, right? I don't think I've ever met that girl, but she was at the party last night, right?"

"Isadora," Archer said quietly, looking at her from his seat.

"Yeah, she's cool," Lilith added.

"Perfect! I'll go up and ask them." Ruby got up and went to join the four in line.

The remaining three at the table sat and watched as Ruby moved her arms passionately, presumably about her great summer idea.

"They won't have any choice but to say yes," Sawyer laughed. They all liked Ruby, but there was no doubt that sometimes she was a lot, especially in the morning.

After some hesitant looks and then eventual nods, Ruby came running back to the table. She sat down and began adding notes to her napkin.

"They seemed a little quiet, but that's okay." Ruby smiled, "Now we have an even number, this is all so amazing."

A few minutes later, Alexis made his way back, with some sort of fruit pastry in his hands.

The conversation turned to competition ideas quickly after that. That mostly meant Ruby jotting down anything that sounded remotely interesting while the others watched the chaos.

*ㅤ*ㅤ*

"I don't think it's the best idea for me to be here," Carmen whispered as she got out of Roman's car.

He had picked her up early that morning, promising to drag her to the Crab Shack if she didn't come willingly. Roman claimed that he has some friends who don't care about her history in Orange County. He had introduced them briefly at the party, and they seemed cool but Carmen didn't anticipate getting invited to brunch.

"I'm not letting you spend the summer locked up in your house." Roman started walking up the door, "Come on, it'll be fine."

The two walked into the restaurant, the screen door slamming behind them. Luckily, the place was filled with enough small talk that no one seemed to notice their entrance.

Fans were set up around the room, keeping the air moving as more teens entered. Even though it was frequented by the upper class, the Crab Shack hadn't been doing too well throughout the last few years. They were closed for more maintenance days and the prices were slowly rising, not that it made a difference to the teens.

No one except Ruby, who glanced up at the door, noticed Carmen standing there and immediately turned her head back into her friend's conversation.

Carmen let Roman guide her to the booth where they sat, which happened to be a little too close to Ruby's.

They slid into the seats, sitting with their backs to the other group, and warm coffees already waiting in front of them.

"Roman told me your coffee order," Isadora said, her dark hair twisted into a loose braid.

"Thanks," Carmen smiled, bringing the cup to her lips.

Sitting in front of her were Leyla and Vincent, whom she had talked to the night before, mostly because Roman falsely told her that they were going to smoke on the porch.

The group was quiet, unaware of how to make good small talk with someone who had been away from the city for three years. Of course, there was the occasional Roman babble, which no one really paid close attention to.

From behind them, Alexis turned around and leaned through the gap above the backs of the booths to put his hands on Roman's shoulders. "Hey, we're doing some summer contest thing, you should join."

He didn't wait for a response before turning back to his group, who could be vaguely heard talking about renting kayaks.

"We got roped into that, too," Vincent remarked, not that Roman needed any convincing to join in, he was already planning his strategies.

"Carmen, you should join!" Isadora grinned.

"I don't know," She hesitated, "Who's all doing it?"

"That whole table plus us three—well, four now, I guess," Isadora responded.

"C'mon, it'll be something fun compared to drowning in your room," Roman added.

"Yeah," Vincent started, "And Ruby thought it'd be best to do it in duos, so we need one more person."

An imaginary record scratch sounded. The table looked at Vincent with blank expressions.

"Oh, shit. Sorry, I didn't mean to talk about her," He backtracked.

"It's fine. It's not that big of a deal anyway." Carmen ran her hands over her face, "But fuck it, I need something to do all summer."

Roman hollered loudly, which gained a few looks from the families eating their food.

"We're meeting on the beach tomorrow afternoon. Ruby said to wear something waterproof." Isadora shared.

Carmen just nodded, turning her attention back to her coffee.

At one point, Isadora needed to get up to get a refill, resulting in a groan and dirty look from Leyla when she had to get up so Isadora could leave the booth.

Even though Leyla hadn't said a word to Carmen either, there was obviously more drama there, which was refreshing to see.

Sooner than later, the amount of available conversation topics ran out and everyone went their separate ways, except Carmen and Roman who drove back to her house where he hung out with Theo, and she baked up a peace offering for tomorrow.

Author's Note: Woop woop, two chapters in one month. you guys are getting spoiled. disc, i never edit my stuff partially because im lazy and bc when i look back on it i wanna delete everything so. if you see anything, lmk and i'll change/edit it! Ok so this chapter was shorter (1.8k) than i hoped butttt it was more of a filler to really set us up for actually plot yk. So moving on from here, don't expect to see every character in every chapter. I'm gonna start focusing on certain relationships/groups and honestly writing it so everyone is in every chapter feels so forced sometimes. So generally, everyone will get the same amount of 'screentime' but it might be like every other chapter. Because also i don't plan on making chapters long, staying for the 2-3k word length. Ok i'm done yapping.

Also, i have no clue how to work disc servers (ill learn trust)....but those who are still active and interested in the story... would you be interested in joining one? That way i can ask for your opinions on stuff more privately and such.