SACRIFICE ── HSMTMTS (ON HOLD)

⠀⠀o1. last first day

The beginning of September. A new semester. The freshman turned to sophomores, sophomores into juniors, juniors to seniors and seniors let off into the real world to figure out what they want to do with the rest of their living lives - or, in EJ Caswell's case, held back a year to sit another year as a senior. A new beginning. A fresh start.

Well, not so much for Ricky Bowen and Nini Salazar-Roberts.

Mid-way through junior year, cracks had started to appear in their relationship, the second time they had tried to fix the broken pieces, and after a few months of treading on egg-shells around one another, Ricky made a sacrifice and ended things, breaking Nini's, and his own, heart. The split had affected everyone they knew - neither of them could barely look at each other when they passed one another in the corridors and friendship groups had been divided, people taking sides and splitting others down the middle. It wasn't ideal.

During summer break, Nini had spent the majority trying to figure out what had broken the relationship. Everything was going good. It was okay. And then Ricky had ruined it, and for what? He had never really explained why he had broken things off with them, but even if he wanted to, Nini hadn't really given him the time of day to do so. She was too heartbroken.

And Ricky? Ricky was just trying to figure out how to hold his life together and stop it from falling to pieces. It had almost been an entire year since his parents legally separated, and things hadn't been easy. Going backwards and forwards from Salt Lake City to Chicago, especially for a boy who was closing in on his final year of high school, wasn't ideal, but he had to see his mom - she wouldn't come to Salt Lake City to see him, not now that there was a new baby expected in the family. Ricky's mother had grown closer to the man she had met while in Chicago, and now Ricky was going to be an older brother, all while his dad was still trying to piece together the remnants of what he had left of a love life.

Ricky could feel life splitting at the edges, but how could he stop it?

Every one of Ricky and Nini's friends who had a lost apart of themselves when the two lovers had broken things off were hoping that the new semester would bring good vibes - they couldn't cope with another year like the last. Things were too different.

"Last first day!! Soooo girl, how was your summer?" Nini's best friend Kourtney said to the brunette as she slammed her locker closed, leaning up against it with one shoulder. "You didn't go back to theatre camp this year, so where did you go?"

"My moms and I went to Denver to have another look at that school," Nini said, pulling what she needed out of her own locker before she closed it. "They say that I'm always welcome there, even after senior year, but whenever I go to email them to say that I'm coming, I always chicken out. I don't know, it's like something's holding me to East High, keeping me here."

"You should think more about it, especially for after senior year," Ashlynn mumbled, coming to stand beside Nini. "The opportunity is too great to pass up for too long."