𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙚 [𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙞 𝙖𝙪]

Chapter Eighteen

Ricky sat in his room, doing his homework for the day when he heard his phone buzz. He quickly checked it and panic started to come in as he read what he was sent.

It was a text from Nini saying, "Hi! :)"

He read the word over and over again as he was deciding on what to text back. A couple minutes passed and his heart rate started going down, Just text 'hi' back, he thought to himself, and so he did.

"So um, when are you free?" he read, followed by, "to help me catch up with math."

"Uh, I'm free right now."

"Now?"

"Yea, you could come over or something. Only if you want."

"oh, sure! I'll be over soon."

He put his phone down and went over to his bed to fall face forward. Why did I invite her over, he thought to himself.

+

About half an hour later, Ricky had been panicking in his room, pacing back and forth, since this minute he texted her. He stopped pacing to check the time on his phone when the sound of the doorbell rang through the house.

He took a deep breath and went downstairs to open the door, but saw his dad going to open it instead.

"Hi Mr Bowen!" Nini chirped at the tall man.

"Hey Nini, what are you doing here?" Mike asked her, "it's not Friday."

"Yea..." she faked a laugh to avoid tension, and she looked down to the ground, "um, I'm actually here for Ricky! We're going to do homework together."

"Oh-"

"Dad!" Ricky yelled, stopping him from saying anything else.

"Oh hey Ricky, Nini's here."

"Yea, I figured. We can go up to my room," he said, motioning upstairs to the girl.

He instantly regretted what he said, why do I keep putting myself in awkward situations that I don't know how to get out of.

"Oh, uh, sure," Nini hesitantly said, following the boy upstairs. "See you later Mr Bowen."

In Ricky's room, they sat in an uncomfortable silence for a couple minutes before Nini began to talk.

"So..." she started, grabbing the boy's attention, "um, we should start reviewing."

"Oh, right!" Ricky said, grabbing his backpack to take out his textbook.

"Shit," he heard Nini quietly mumble.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I kinda brought my chem textbook instead of my calc textbook," the girl replied.

"Oh, that's fine, we can share," Ricky suggested, scooting closer to her and placing the textbook in front of them.

+

After an hour of reviewing, Nini let out a yawn which she was quick to cover so Ricky wouldn't see. But of course, he did.

"Are you tired?" He asked, turning to face towards her. "We can stop if you'd like."

"Um, yeah, sure," Nini said, closing the textbook in front of them. "So, tell me about yourself."

"What do you want to know?" the boy grinned.

"I don't know," the girl said, making a thinking face. "What was your life like in Chicago? Did you have a lot of friends?"

Ricky thought back to his life in Chicago before answering her question, "not exactly. I have Big Red- which I'm still not sure is his real name, but he's my best friend," he responded, as his grin grew wider.

"Big Red?" Nini asked, "It's unique, I like it!" She smiled. "What about Gina and Ej? Did you just magically become friends with them two weeks ago? I've known them forever and they don't seem like the type to just add people into their...duo."

Ricky let out a laugh, "well, I went to kindergarten with them and they were my best friends before I moved away, so I guess the connection was just always there." He explained.

"Oh, right! Kourtney said something about you being here in kindergarten. I moved here in first grade, so I guess we must've missed each other by a couple months."

"Yea, maybe," he shifted so he was now facing her, "what about you? have you always been friends with your group?"

"Yup!" she laughed, "Ashlyn and Seb were my first friends because they were in my class, but during recess I would talk to Carlos and Kourt, and then for some reason they fought over me? So we just all became friends."

Ricky looked at the girl who was laughing in front of him in adoration. She was beautiful. He never noticed how much in his dreams- she was always kind of blurry from what he could remember. He was surprised he could even recognize her. But here she was, clear as day.

"Hey, um, do yo-"

"Ricky!" they heard a yell through the door, followed by banging.

The curly haired boy mentally face palmed himself. He thought that maybe that was the perfect time to finally ask her out, but of course, there had to be an interruption. He let out a sigh before getting up to answer the door.

"Can I help you?" he asked, flinging the door open, revealing Spencer standing there.

"Do you want to- Nini!" he yelled, pushing Ricky aside so he could run towards her.

The girl laughed again as the small boy engulfed her in a hug, "hey Spence, what's up?"

"I was going to ask Ricky if he wanted to watch a movie, but you're here so you could watch with us!" Spencer exclaimed, pulling away from the hug.

"Spence, I don't think she-"

"I'd love to!" the girl responded to the young boy's offer.

"Yay! Let's go!' Spencer grabbed Nini's hand and dragged her past Ricky and into the living room.

Ricky followed behind the two, leaving him with only one spot on the couch...beside Nini. He went to go sit down when his little brother stopped him with a request.

"Ricky, can you get the popcorn? Nini and I can choose the movie," he smiled.

Nini laughed at the sight of the 3-year old bossing around the 17 year-old as Ricky went into the kitchen to fulfill his brother's wish.

"So, what are we watching?' Spencer asked the girl.

"What about camp rock?" she suggested.

While Ricky was in the kitchen getting the popcorn, he heard the two talking. Camp Rock. This triggered a memory he forgot he had. The night before moving away to Salt Lake he had a dream where the girl said it was her favourite movie.

It's way better than lemonade mouth, he recalled her saying, dissing the fact that lemonade mouth was his favourite movie.

"No! We watch that every time!" Spencer whined.

Ricky walked back into the living room with a bowl of popcorn in hand.

"What do you want to watch Ricky?" Spencer asked.

"What about lemonade mouth?" He suggested.

"Okay!" Spencer agreed.

"Really? Lemonade mouth? Camp Rock is way better."

Again, he thought back to his dream. She said it. Again.

"Is it by any chance your favourite movie?" He asked.

What she says next could open up a new list of possibilities. If she said no, then the dream could have meant nothing. But if she said yes, maybe everything that she had ever told him in his dream was in fact true.

"Yup! How'd you know?" Nini replied.

"I uh- just a guess." he said, shifting uncomfortably in the seat next to her.

Maybe he knew more about her than he thought.