Billy Abbott, Brittany Hodges, Mackenzie Browning, Raul Guittierez, J.T. Hellstrom, and Rianna Miner had been friends for years at Walnut Grove Academy. When we first met the lovely Rianna, she was dating "bad boy" J.T. exclusively, but he had a roving eye and treated her pretty shabbily. Her best friend Brittany had dated J.T. just prior and all three were close friends. Snobby rich girl Brittany snagged the Jabot heir Billy Abbott as her boyfriend. Straight-A student Raul and Mackenzie, granddaughter of Katherine Chancellor, were very close. Raul was falling in love, but Mac just wanted to be friends.

Billy, Brittany, Raul, and Rianna were chosen as the Glow by Jabot Kids, a summer promotion for the new Jabot teen line. Mac, a runaway afraid that her mother Amanda would find her if she was seen, chose to assist Phyllis Summers running the Glow by Jabot website. Everyone got to witness Raul and Rianna get together, share their first kiss at the Abbotts' poolside, and fall in love live on the website. Their relationship seemed like it would last forever. Then Raul, who had been ignoring the symptoms, went into a diabetic coma. Billy and Mac searched out his symptoms on the Internet and arrived just in time to find him in a seizure at the Abbott pool house. Rianna hovered at his bedside after witnessing the seizures, which nearly took his life in the ER. She was determined to lovingly support him as he came to grips with the diabetes that would forever change his life.

Senior year began, and a holiday series of the Glow by Jabot website added J.T. and Mac, who was feeling safe after being legally adopted by Kay Chancellor, to the Glow Kids. The scene changed to Jabot where a boutique opened and was run by the kids. Phyllis had taken a job with Brash & Sassy, so new Webmaster Sean Bridges was hired. Raul seemed to be coping with his diabetes, then began acting strange and angry, got careless with his medication, and lapsed into another diabetic coma when he was with Rianna at Crimson Lights. This time after he recovered, Raul tried to break things off with Rianna "for her own good." Rianna convinced him to stay as a couple until Raul discovered that when she dated J.T., it had included sex. Raul couldn't handle it, and suddenly demanded sex with her himself. Rianna was outraged and broke off their relationship.

It wasn't long before Rianna resumed her relationship with J.T., convinced that he had become a better person. Since then, Rianna watched Raul change. He didn't seem to care about anything as he once did. His grades plummeted as he tried to play irresponsible, then started hanging out with Brittany, who by then had broken up with Billy. All the kids were turning 18 and sending out college applications. But Raul put off his college essay until the last minute, then submitted something way below par. Rianna gave herself to J.T. again, sure that this time he really cared. But he didn't, and was just using her again. Once Rianna figured this out, she arranged to graduate early and take an internship in Europe. By the time she left, she and Raul had become friends again.

Rianna returned to Genoa City just in time to be Raul's date for the prom, which helped Raul finally get Britt to admit that she cared. Rianna moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she attended the University of Michigan.