I'm starting to wrap this one up, I think. I apologize for it taking so long. It's been crazy lately, what with the holidays and finals week and not to mention a little bit of writer's block. So here's a Chrismukkah present, just a tiny bit late.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. Oh how I wish I did though.
"It's Chrismukkah."
"What-ta-kah?" Ryan asked confused.
"Chrismukkah," Seth said again slowly. "It's the fusion of Christmas and Hanukkah. The best that both have to offer. Eight days of presents followed by one day of a lot of presents."
"Oh, Seth's explaining Chrismukkah," Kirsten said as she walked in and saw the look on Ryan's face. "Hey, can you guys go help Sandy with the tree?"
"Mother, I don't do physical activities, you know this," Seth said with a sigh. Ryan hurried out and a minute later he and Sandy, with a little help from Kirsten, lugged in the tree. "Right there! Perfect. Way to go guys," was all that Seth contributed.
"So Chrismukkah?" Ryan questioned again.
"It's Seth's uber holiday," Kirsten started to explain. "I'm Christian. Sandy's Jewish. Seth took it upon himself to combine the two."
"And in doing so created the best holiday ever!" Seth said defensively.
"I'm not really big into Christmas," Ryan said shrugging.
"There are no traditions that you and your family used to do?" Sandy asked. "I'm sure we can fit them in."
"Christmas usually consisted of my mom passing out and the cops being called," Ryan said shaking his head slightly. "Not exactly a Christmas tradition that needs to be passed on." The three Cohens were silent for a moment, trying to think of what to say, and finally Kirsten smiled brightly and placed an arm around Ryan's shoulders.
"Well, all new memories and traditions this year," she assured him. "Now come on, help me bring in the groceries."
"She went eggnog crazy," Sandy warned as they made their way out to the car. "And those suckers are heavy."
Ryan helped Kirsten put the groceries away and then went out to the pool house. It was hard to believe that he had been there for a little over three months. He occasionally saw Marissa in the halls at school, but luckily only had one class with her, which he had asked to be switched out of. He didn't want to hear about how her community service was going, or that she was sorry. For the first few weeks she would try apologizing every time she saw him or Seth but gave up when she realized that she wasn't making any headway with them. The only one that her apologies were making any difference on was Summer, who occasionally said hello back to her in the halls. Summer and Seth were officially dating, and had been for a month or so now. And Summer's new best friend was Anna of all people, and the craziest thing of all was that Ryan and Anna were starting to get closer. Ryan had the go ahead from Seth, and had asked her on a date, which had coincided with the Newport Group Christmas party, and so Ryan had just asked her if she wanted to go with him to that. She had agreed and Ryan had blushed and told her to come to the house so that they could go with Summer and Seth and Kirsten and Sandy.
He wondered if it would be a good Christmas in Newport. It had to be better than Chino's Christmas. Thanksgiving certainly was. He had called Trey in jail, but Trey had gotten on the phone and screamed at him for abandoning their mother, and asked why Ryan hadn't come to visit him in months, and blamed the Cohens for making his little brother go soft, and Ryan had hung up on him mid-sentence. Trey had no right to make him feel guilty. Where was Trey when Ryan had to drop out of school to work full time to pay for the bills? Trey was in jail for stealing a car. Ryan owed nothing to Trey. He tried to call his mother in rehab, but she too had refused his call. Instead the Cohens had invited Anna and Summer over, and the six of them had a drama-free, peaceful Thanksgiving. Kirsten's father had gone to some tropical island for a few weeks, and both Kirsten and Sandy were glad for the breather from her overbearing father.
The Coopers had to sell their house, and the last that he had heard they were living in a small house by the beach, and Julie and Jimmy were giving it another go. Apparently, Marissa's troubles had brought them together again. If Ryan never had to see or think about the Coopers again, he wouldn't mind at all. Kirsten, at first, had been getting calls from Jimmy Cooper begging for her forgiveness. He heard the messages when Kirsten refused to answer.
"Kiks, please, we've been friends for like, what, twenty years? Please, pick up the phone and talk to me. Or call me back. Please." Kirsten would sigh and delete the message. As far as Ryan knew, she too had yet to talk to any of the Coopers, and he was pretty sure that she wasn't ready to talk any time soon.
And Seth had learned his lesson with that first party, and Ryan was glad that he hadn't been dragged to anymore parties since then. He had been to plenty of parties in Chino with Theresa, and he didn't have any interest in them anymore.
Ryan hadn't even noticed it, but at some point in the past few months he had settled down into a routine with the Cohens. And he was comfortable there. With the Cohens. All of the Cohens, including Sandy. Seth was turning out to be a good friend, well, as long as he shut up for a few minutes every once in awhile and left Ryan in relative silence. Summer was good for him. They were good for each other.
There was a knock on the pool house door and Kirsten opened the door and stepped in. The Cohens had very little use for the word privacy. They always knocked, sure, but they didn't always wait for him to answer.
"Honey? Would you like to help us put up the ornaments on the tree?" Ryan nodded his consent and followed Kirsten out to the house. Sandy and Seth were already in the living room arguing over which ornaments to put up, and Kirsten settled herself in by the box. She wasn't picky and didn't really care which ornament went where. Seth usually insisted on having all of the ones that he made or that had his name or picture on them in the front. Sandy always argued that yes, Seth was an only child, but there were two other people in the family and while Seth could have most of his in the front of the tree, some of Kirsten's and Sandy's could go in front too.
Ryan took a seat next to Kirsten, figuring that Sandy and Seth could battle it out.
"Oh!" Kirsten said pulling out an ornament and holding it carefully in her hands. "Seth made this when he was three." Ryan, not for the first time, wished that someone had kept the things that he had made when he was a child. But he couldn't remember ever giving his mother anything that he made. He couldn't really ever remember making anything in school, though he figured that he had to at one point or another.
"Hand it over here, Mom," Seth said extending his hand. Kirsten handed it over and then her eyes got wide.
"I almost forgot!" She exclaimed jumping up from her seat and returning with a wrapped box that she handed to Ryan. "I just figured that you would need some ornaments too." Ryan, surprised, took the box from her hands. Sandy and Seth stopped to watch as Ryan undid the wrapping paper.
"God, I should have figured you'd be one of those who don't like to rip the wrapping paper," Seth asked complaining. "Just tear it open." Ryan glared at him, and slid his finger under the tape and slid the white box into his hands. Inside wasn't just one ornament, there were several. One said "Ryan's First Chrismukkah," another had a picture of him that had been taken after the accident, he was pretty sure Summer and Seth had been in the picture too, but had been cut out of it, a third was in the shape of a soccer ball, as Ryan had shown interest in maybe joining Harbor's team, and the last one, he noticed to his chagrin, was a Snoopy. Seth must have talked to Teresa, who Ryan still talked to at least once a week.
"I…thanks," he looked up at Kirsten and Sandy and gave them a smile. "These are really great. Thanks."
"Well, you couldn't not have ornaments, right?" Sandy said with a grin. "I need help keeping some of Seth's in the back of the tree." Kirsten picked up one from the box and handed it to Ryan.
"Go put it on the tree," she instructed, and Ryan followed her directions and found an empty spot and hung the ornament up and then stepped back to admire it.
"It looks good," Kirsten said. "Hang up the rest of them." Ryan took the box and found some empty spots and hung up all of his ornaments. His ornaments. He had a stocking too. And he had been on the Chrismukkah card. The Cohens, with their endless ability to include him in everything, never ceased to amaze him. They worked on the rest of the tree, Kirsten pulling out ornaments and handed them off to her boys, and Sandy and Seth argued over which ones went where while Ryan just placed them where he found an empty branch. When the tree was done, they all stood back to admire it.
"It looks great," Kirsten said putting an arm around Ryan, and another around Seth. "Really, really great."
"That it does," Sandy agreed heartily. "Now we better start to get ready for the Christmas party." He placed a hand on the small of Kirsten's back and led her out of the room.
"We have hours," Ryan said confused. "We didn't tell the girls to be here until like seven."
"Ah, yes, we have hours which is way more time than we need, my mother, on the other hand, is quickly becoming short on time. And my father, who has to reassure her fifty million times that he likes her dress, and her hair and her nails and her earrings and her necklace, and of course she's going to be the most beautiful one there," Seth made a face. "He has to do all of that and somehow manage to get ready so that my mother doesn't yell at him for making us late." Seth shook his head. "Every year dude. Every year."
The doorbell rang around seven and Ryan pulled it open to reveal, not Anna and Summer like he had been expecting, but instead Marissa.
"Marissa?" He asked confused.
"Hey, I just thought we could talk?"
"Tonight's the Christmas party at the Newport Group. We're leaving in like a minute," Ryan said first. "And besides, we don't have anything to talk about."
"I don't want you to hate me!"
"God, Marissa, I don't hate you," Ryan said sighing. "Not anymore. I just…I really don't think about you that much. I don't think about you enough to hate you."
"But Ryan…."
"I think you should leave." Marissa nodded and turned around to walk down to her car. "Marissa?" She turned around with a hopeful expression on her face. "Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas," she replied and got into her car and had just pulled out when Summer and Anna pulled in.
"Hey," Anna said smiling at him.
"You look great," he told her blushing.
"Thanks, you clean up nicely yourself," she teased. Summer frowned in the direction of the road.
"Was that Marissa's car?" She asked. Ryan nodded with a sigh. "What did she want?"
"To talk."
"What did you tell her?" Anna asked concerned.
"I told her that I didn't hate her, I didn't think about her enough to hate her." Ryan shrugged. Ryan considered making a clean break from Marissa was just about the best thing that could have happened to him in Newport. Marissa reminded him too much of his mother. She was beautiful, yes, but she was also a mess. Kirsten had warned him when he had first met Marissa, and she had been right. Marissa, while she certainly wasn't a terrible person by any means, although the drunk driving was stupid, was also selfish and oblivious, and Ryan had enough of that with his mother. He didn't want to think about Marissa anymore.
He wanted to think about Anna and how beautiful she looked.
"Hey…Summer, you look…beautiful," Seth said coming down the stairs.
"Thanks," she blushed and smiled at him.
"You look nice Anna," he added.
"Thanks Seth, the Jewfro looks good tonight," she answered.
"Anna, Summer," Sandy came into the living room and smiled at the girls. "Looking sharp tonight kids."
"Are we going?" Seth asked.
"As soon as your mother is ready," Sandy replied.
"Settle in, it's going to be awhile," Seth said.
"I heard that," Kirsten's indignant voice floated in from the stairs. "I'm ready. Girls, you both look beautiful tonight."
"You too Mrs. Cohen," Summer piped up. Kirsten beamed and accepted Sandy's arm which he had extended to her and they walked out to the car that was waiting for them. Caleb had sent a car so that all six could ride together to the party. Seth had griped about this, wanting to be able to instead drive Summer and Anna to the party himself. Ryan had shrugged, his normal response when asked an opinion, and had thought that riding together might be nice. He didn't dare say this to Seth, who was still, up until the girls had gotten there, complaining about having to ride with his parents and girlfriend.
"I have a present for you," Anna whispered as everyone figured out seating arrangements and the driver closed the door and climbed into the driver's seat. "I'll give it to you later?" Ryan nodded.
"I have something for you too," he told her. Anna grinned and turned her attention the conversation between Summer and Kirsten about their respective dresses and jewelry. Ryan grinned to himself. So far, he thought, so good.
Sandy told Ryan to go to Kirsten's office where it was quiet to exchange gifts with Anna, and Ryan had thanked him and led Anna upstairs.
"This is Kirsten's office?" Anna asked, looking wide-eyed at the lavish office. "Great view." She ran a hand along the smooth wood of the desk and picked up one of the picture frames. "Oh my God! Little Seth! Look how big his hair was." Ryan came up behind her and glanced at the picture in her hand. It was of Sandy with a three-year-old Seth on his lap reading a book. "And you! Look at you!" She picked up another one of Ryan and Kirsten a few weeks after the accident, sitting on the back patio. Neither had been aware that Sandy was taking it. Ryan hadn't known that Kirsten had pictures of him in her office and he couldn't help but admit that it felt good. She had included him. Anna placed the frames in their rightful spots and turned to Ryan.
"I guess we should exchange gifts now?" He suggested. He handed her the present that he had gotten her, and in return she handed him a perfectly wrapped box. Anna went first, tearing open the paper on the bigger package, she pulled out a book.
"Oh my God!" She exclaimed looking at it. "It's Pittsburgh." Ryan had found a book of photos of Pittsburgh then and now and thought it would be something that Anna would like, and he was glad, judging by her reaction, that he had been right. "Oh, I miss the snow." She turned the pictures wistfully. "Every year downtown, they put up this exhibit of Santas from around the world. You know, like the Irish Santa, the Italian Santa. We go every year, even though it never changes. Christmas just isn't the same without the Santas, you know?" She threw her arms around him, startling him at first. "Thank you so much!"
"There's something else, something little," Ryan said pointing to the smaller package. Anna nodded and opened the small box to reveal a simple charm bracelet with a tiny silver sailboat.
"It's beautiful, thank you," she told him leaning over to give him a kiss. Ryan blushed and nearly forgot that she had gotten him something in return until she instructed him to open his. He obliged, carefully opening the paper and inside the box was a book on architecture. He didn't say anything at first, and Anna nervously bit her lip. "Kirsten said that you showed an interest in architecture?"
"I did, I do…thank you," he said flipping through.
"Good," Anna said nodding. "I'm glad that you like it." Impulsively, she leaned in and gave him a kiss. "Merry Chrismukkah Ryan." She beamed at him and he couldn't help but mirror her grin.
"Merry Chrismukkah Anna," he replied leaning in to kiss her again.
Merry Chrismukkah indeed. Oh yeah, Christmas in Newport was shaping up to be much better than any Christmas in Chino. Much, much better.