Chapter 1: The New Life

Ryan stood there in his Berkeley sweatshirt ready to take on the school, but yet he hadn't moved since Sandy had dropped him off an hour before. Kirsten had made it a point to make sure that Ryan got the whole experience of leaving his parents, even if they only lived 10 minutes from the campus and his dad was a professor. He had stayed the night at the Berkeley house and then had woken up to breakfast and Sophie crying only to leave a happily crying Kirsten at the door as he hopped in the car with Sandy. Sandy dropped him off in the front plaza and then drove around to the staff parking lot. He appreciated the whole nuttiness that was Cohen now that his transcripts officially said Ryan Atwood- Cohen, but sometimes he couldn't help but laugh at their antics.

It had been a week since they had moved to Berkeley and he had moved into his dorm two days before. Even though the Cohen house was in walking distance, they wanted Ryan to have the full college experience which meant without the nagging parents and Sophie keeping him up at night. Ryan stood their in the middle of the courtyard staring as the students around him bustled their first classes. He had class at 10 and then lunch with Sandy at 11:30 to return to two more classes and then back to his dorm. His excitement was unapparent but it was there. He checked his watch once more and then saw that he had another 45 minutes before he would start his first class. He decided to return to his dorm which was about a 5 minute walk across campus. As he started his journey he felt a rumble in his pocket and pulled out his phone, checking to see who it was he answered with a smile, "Hey Seth, how's R-I-S-D treating you?"

"Pretty good, but no brooding leather jacket clad guys walking around campus, how's Berkeley? Did mom and dad do the whole first day of school routine?" Seth replied with a laugh.

Ryan remembering with a smile the events of this morning, "Yeah, your mom cried when I left, no surprise there. I am actually not going very far at all from the family, been gone for 4 hours and I am already having lunch with Sandy."

"Thought so, get used to it, and look at it this way, you never have to use your own cash for food." Seth smirked.

"Not like its my money anyways Seth, they give both of us an allowance, I can't believe Kirsten put her foot down about working, I can't even get like a weekend job, my only option is babysitting Sophie and I am willing to do that for free." Ryan said with a twinge of pain in his voice.

"Dude, I don't see why you want to work, enjoy getting drunk and punching faces without having to worry about getting up to work the next day, you don't see me complaining do you? What do you need extra money for anyway, the parents cover everything, just ask, you know that."

Ryan rolled his eyes even though Seth couldn't see it, "Seth, you are you, I am me, I prefer to not sponge off my parents, especially when they adopted me, put designer shirts on my back, paid for Harbor, and gave me a future; at some point I want to do a little on my own, I did it when we were in Newport, I don't see the difference in Berkeley."

Seth giving up trying to argue with Ryan, "Dude, whatever, mom is stubborn anyway, give up the fight, cause I am, sooo…. Heard anything from Taylor lately?" trying to change the subject."

By this time Ryan had entered his dorm room and was just shutting the door. He turned around to see the photo of Taylor and him with Summer and Seth at the almost wedding of Julie and Bullit. Smiling, " Actually she woke me up this morning to wish me well, she is about 2 days from arriving in Paris. She says hi by the way and hopes you are having fun at RISD."

"Thanks man, tell her I say the same, has she figured out why she can't fly?"

"No, but Sandy is going to look into it for her." Ryan said with a smirk.

"That's cool, how are you guys doing this whole long distance thing anyways?" Seth asked as he sat on his own dorm room bed and stared at his mural to Summer.

"We are just going to take it as it goes pretty much, if someone comes along or if it gets to hard we are just going stop until we see each other again." Ryan sighed as he hoped it didn't ever come to that.

"Yeah I can see the no string attached clause to that one, man, this sucks, we are both away from our girlfriends and we can't even see each other to complain face to face, this is to much change." Seth was now lying on his bed staring at the ceiling in grief.

"Yeah I know man, but we can fly to each other, and maybe you will make friend with other people and can complain to them Seth." Ryan laughed at the last part of his comment.

"Whatever man, look I need to class and then cry to Summer about how much I miss her, but I will call you back later, thanks for removing Summer from my head for at least 5 minutes."

"Alright Seth, whatever you say, later."

"Bye Ryan." And with that Seth hung up with a click and Ryan checked out once more the few frames that Taylor had put pictures in for him and the then flipped through the recently updated scrapbook that Taylor had given him before Valentine's Day. There was a picture of Him, Marissa, Summer, Seth and Taylor on the way of the senior class picture, it had meant a lot of him when Taylor gave it to him because it showed that she wanted him to remember all five of them together and not completely cross out Marissa. Another picture was at Sandy's benefit of them dancing, the night Taylor kissed him in that red dress and blew his world. One frame was from the almost Julie- Bullit wedding of the Cohen family with Taylor and Summer and brand new baby Sophie. And the last picture was his life rolled into one, as it is now, Seth, Sandy, Kirsten, Sophie, Summer, Julie, Kaitlin, Bullit, his bio dad Frank, Taylor and himself right before they all went their separate ways a week ago. He smiled at how different his world had become, but how happy he was in it, even if everyone was every which way. Sitting down on the bed with the scrapbook Taylor had updated recently he laughed as he saw the older photos from before they first broke up and smiled at the latest pictures she had put into the scrapbook before leaving for France.

Looking through the pictures of them together at the beach, packing up the pool house, and other various activities made Ryan miss her even more, and knowing he wouldn't see her again until Christmas almost broke his heart as he thought about it. As he heard a key in his door he shut the book and placed it back on his desk, not wanting his roommate who already thought he wrapped around Taylor's finger to see him as a sap looking at a scrapbook. Just then his roommate Alex stepped into their room. Throwing his things on floor nonchalantly with the rest of his two day mess, he turned and spoke to Ryan.

"Hey man, what happened to you last night? You like disappeared and never came back? Bang some girl before the first day?" Alex laughed guessing it was probably a no, since Ryan had Taylor and even he wouldn't want to cheat on Taylor if she was really as hot as she was in the photos of Ryan's desk.

"No, I went home last night to get a couple things and decided to stay for dinner and then that led to staying the night." Answering as if it were no big deal.

"Cool man, well I am going to head down to the café, you want to join?" Alex said as he dug through vicariously strewn jeans on his side of the room for his wallet.

"No, sorry, I got a class in…" checking his watch, "15 minutes, damn, I have to go. Later." Ryan then ran out the room on his way to his first class, hoping he wouldn't be late. Leaving Alex behind shrugging it off as nothing as he kept digging through his pile of jeans.

Ryan thought about how right Seth was about his roommate before he had arrived at Berkeley. He wasn't the same as Seth, he was messier than Seth and was different, almost weird in Ryan terms since he was Seth's brother and Seth wasn't weird, but Alex was still basically average. He didn't care much about his side of the room, while Ryan's was always organized, and they had only been in school for two days. Alex hailed from San Jose which was about 45 minutes away and had never even heard of Chino or Newport. He didn't pry much into Ryan's life, and only really knew the basics; Ryan was dating Taylor, he came from Newport where he lived with the his parents Sandy and Kirsten and brother Seth. He had never even wondered the whole age thing with Seth, asking if they were twins or something. He didn't really seem to care and that was okay with Ryan cause he didn't really feel like explaining. Through and through they got along pretty well and if this was the way it was going to continue, Ryan would be happy. He entered his lecture 5 minutes early and sat down ready to learn as the minutes ticked by and the professor entered the room. Life was starting over again for Ryan and he was ready and sitting in the driver's seat.

A/N: Please review, tell me if you want me to continue, if you don't or just want to add suggestions. Hope you guys liked, sorry if there are errors, geographically I am correct though cause I actually know where everything is in California city wise and Chino is not even close to Berkeley, its south with Newport. Berkeley gets snow.