𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙚 [𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙞 𝙖𝙪]

Chapter Seventeen

In the diner, Kourtney was waiting for her four friends as she wiped down the surface of the bar countertop. It wasn't a busy day so she had enough time to sit down and chill with her friends without having to do work.

She heard the chime of the bell so she looked up in the direction of the entrance, expecting to see her friends. But instead, it was Ej, Gina, and Ricky.

She smiled at them and watched as they went to go sit at their booth. The same one that they sat at when she was first introduced to Ricky.

She gave them a few minutes to look at the menus and choose their meals. In that time, her own friends came in.

Ricky was looking through the menu, deciding what to order, when he heard the bell.

He looked up at the door and saw four people enter: Ashlyn, who ran up to Kourtney laughing, Carlos and Seb, who walked in hand in hand behind Ashlyn, and Nini. She looked around the diner before walking up to her friends, and managed to make eye contact with Ricky.

She smiled at him, causing him to grin back. His eyes followed the brunette as she looked away and approached her friends.

"Deja vu," Gina said when she noticed Ricky staring at Nini.

"What?" Ricky asked, looking back towards his friends.

"Dude, why do you keep staring at Nini? Are you whipped already?" Ej asked.

Ricky's face started to redden at the mention of her name. "What? I-I wasn't-"

"Hey guys! Are you ready to order?" Kourtney interrupted.

"Saved by the bell," Gina muttered before saying her order.

"So Neens, what's going on with Ricky?" Ashlyn asked, causing Nini to laugh.

"Nothings going on, we literally just met yesterday," she replied.

"He keeps staring at you," Seb said, looking past Nini's shoulder at the table Kourtney was serving.

"Maybe he just wants to be friends. There's no way there's something there. He was pretty much ignoring me the whole time I was at his house."

"Mhm," Carlos said to which Nini rolled her eyes.

She looked at the boy again, to see if he actually was staring at her, and to her surprise, he was. Nini smiled at him again and quickly turned away to face her friends, as a blush rose to her cheeks at the thought of the curly haired boy.

+

Ricky was sitting in Mr Mazzara's calculus class, as bored as he could be. In Chicago, the curriculum was different and he had learned all of this stuff in the previous year, but the school board told him he still had to take it.

He sat on his phone but quickly realized that he was better off listening to the lesson so he put his phone away and attempted to pay attention. He was looking at the board where Mr Mazzara was demonstrating asymptotes when there was a knock on the door.

He looked into that direction and saw a familiar brunette standing there with a paper in her hand.

He was quick to choke on air, causing him to cough uncontrollably. The class went silent and all eyes were on him, in the back of the classroom as he quietly apologized.

"Can I help you?" Mr Mazzara asked, looking away from the boy and towards the girl at the door.

"Uh, I'm Nina Salazar- Roberts, I got switched into this class." She said to the teacher, giving him the schedule that she was holding in her hands.

"I see," he said, looking over her schedule, "well, welcome. Go ahead and take a seat."

Nini glanced around the classroom, looking for a place to sit. She looked towards the back corner of the classroom and saw the last empty seat, so she walked over and sat next to a boy who seemed to be avoiding her eyes.

"Miss Salazar- Roberts, you can ask Mr Bowen to help you catch up on what you've missed." The teacher said, pointing to the boy who was sitting next to her.

He continued to teach the lesson as Nini turned her head to look at the boy. "Ricky?" she asked, trying to get a good look at his face.

"Oh, hey Nini," he said, his voice higher than usual.

"Thank god I have a friend in this class. why didn't you say anything when I walked over?"

"Uh, I-"

Nina, Richard, please pay attention. You can continue your conversation when the class is over."

The two teenagers looked at each other and laughed quietly at their teacher addressing them by their full names.