𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐓𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 - 𝐡𝐬𝐦𝐭𝐦𝐭𝐬 (𝐢𝐯) | ✔

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀𝒊. 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫?

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞
━━ 𝒆𝒙𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓?

     Juliette smiled up at her mother as she took a seat beside her on the bed, closing the notebook in front of her. It was full to the brim, with scraps of paper and pamphlets sticking out of it, making it so bulky that it was even difficult to write in it. The woman looked at Juliette with tenderness as she stroke her hair softly.

     "How are those essays going?" she asked. If Juliette had a dollar for every time she had heard that question in the last week, she could have taken Ricky on a date to the fanciest restaurant in Salt Lake. It seemed the only topic existent at the time.

     "Not too bad," she admitted. "Although they do need some polishing."

     "I know you're working hard. Just... don't let anything distract you too much, okay?"

     "If you're talking about Ricky, mom..." Juliette began speaking, but was soon cut off by her mother.

    "Not just Ricky, honey. Everything in general. Senior year is very important, keep yourself focused." Juliette shifted on the bed, now sitting directly in front of her mother. "I'll leave you to it, I'll go check on the girls. I love you."

     With a kiss on the forehead, Juliette was left alone in her room once again. She sighed and opened the notebook again. Amidst a sea of half-finished sketches, song ideas and cheesy notes Ricky had left for her to read, there were a hundred attempts at writing a convincing essay that would get her into the college of her dreams. All of those attempts, however, had been unsuccessful and were full of scratched-out parts and arrows that made her head hurt just by looking at them.

     It was already bad enough that both hers and Ricky's parents had established some rules as to when they could visit each other after Summer. Long forgotten were the sleepovers, roadtrips and the nights playing video games until three in the morning. Their parents had made it very clear that senior year was not to be messing around and that they needed to graduate. Add that to the fact that Miss Jenn had not given them a single clue about the musical they were going to stage that year and, of course, to the consequences of the already-aired Frozen documentary.

     "Is she gone?" she heard, coming from her window, making her chuckle lightly. None other than Ricky Bowen was peeking his head through it. "I couldn't wait till tomorrow."

     "We saw each other yesterday," Juliette mocked him, standing up from the bed and walking towards him. Ricky took her by the waist and pulled her closer to him, leaving a soft kiss on her lips. In normal circumstances, Juliette would complain that she was not presentable, wearing an oversized t-shirt (that was coincidentally Ricky's) and her hair unbrushed, but she didn't even stop to think about it. As soon as she felt Ricky's lips on her, everything else mattered little.

      "Well, we've spent almost a month seeing each other daily. I missed my girlfriend."

     Hearing Ricky's emphasis on those last words made Juliette weak in the knees. Ever since they had got back together at the documentary premiere, they had had many talks about what their relationship meant to one another and how they were going to tell their friends. So far, they had decided to just enjoy every minute of the Summer, they would worry about everything else later.

     "Don't talk too loudly or the twins will hear you," Juliette whispered, looking up at Ricky, her hand still on the back of his neck. "And that would mean getting caught immediately."

     "Are they ready for junior year?"

     "Oh, they so are. They're already thinking about what to wear to homecoming. And to think that you still haven't asked me to be your date," the redhead joked.