a new home (a rini au)

14 - short notes after a long day

"I'll be your summer sun forever, at 3 a.m. pacing"

Nini and Gina are walking down to the ground floor when she gets a missed call notification from Zephyr. 3:31 it reads, it's 3:45 now and Zephyr isn't picking up. She knows they're at practice so they decide to go to the basketball court.

When they walk in, coach is running drills with the boys football team and the girls basketball team. Zeph sees Nini walk in and runs over; Mark doesn't say anything, knowing she'll be back in a second.

She's panting, hands on her knees. "Neens hey" she takes a deep breath "can you please do me a favor?"

"What happened?"

"Auggie and Grace are at after-school care but it's shuts at four on Monday and Tuesday, dad's at the office and mom's showing a house, usually we don't have practice after school on those days I forgot about today-"

"Zeph you're rambling"

"Can you get them from the junior campus and drop them off here? I already texted the receptionist, you'll have to like sign them out and out in your info and everythin-"

"I got it it's cool go back to practice"

"Thanks you're the best, love you!" Zephyr half-yells, running back back into line. Nini shakes her head, chuckling.

"I can tag along, if that's cool with you, I don't have much to get home to anyways" Gina says, walking out the court, behind Nini. "Sure, let's go, it's almost four"

"Hey so, EJ mentioned you're gonna be on the swim team" Gina says, the gentle rustling of late autumn leaves under their feet in the background.

"Yeah, I've been on swim since middle school"

"Could you help me with something? See I'm Ariel in the winter musical and it's like this whole huge deal cause well sophomores don't usually get the lead especially since we're entering the Alan Menkin awards this year. Anyways the school is trying to do an aquarium display for one of the scenes, and I can dance on land and with my air harness just fine, but in the water I kinda look like a dead fish."

Nini laughs a little "I'm sure dead fish is pushing it"

"Trust me it's not" Gina laughs, hand on Nini's shoulder. Nini notices how her eyes go wide and she crinkles her nose when she's genuinely laughing. "I'd be happy to help"

They reach the junior campus, it takes them a few minutes to find the daycare office. Gina opens the door and they slip in. There's a lady at the desk, she looks quite young. Her eyes are light green and her long hair hazel, loosely tied into a half up half down bun; she's talking to someone on the phone, most likely a stubborn parent if they had to guess. She sees the girls and waves, her smile is contagious, her face apologetic.

They sit down on the side, quietly waiting for her to finish. A while later she finally makes up an emergency and cuts the call. "Hi I'm so sorry to keep you waiting, how can I help you guys today?" She asks, standing up and gathering stuff on the desk, cleaning up. She's wearing overalls, her necklace has tiny daisies and ducks on it and she's wearing a pride pin. Nini can already tell that all her students must love her.

"Hi I'm Nina Salazar-Roberts, I'm here to pick Grace and August up"

"Ahh the infamous Nini, they've been going on and on about how their big sister lives here now" She smiles, so does Nini. Gina plays the statement over in her head.

"I'll go get them for you, you have to fill out these forms until then yeah?" She hands Nini a clipboard, scurrying off. Nini starts to write.