Counter all your quick remarks, Like passing notes in secrecy
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Ricky opens his front door, quietly slipping into the house. He has to leave for school soon, it's almost seven. The sweat prickles the skin under his hair, it's quite uncomfortable. There's faint argument coming from the living room as he stands in his foyer, pulling off his running shoes; they're not yelling, maybe they aren't even arguing, just talking coldly.
"Richard? Rick?" his mother calls out, he sighs at his failed attempt to quickly run upstairs.
"there you are" she says as he walks in. The room is quiet, other than bertha occasionally slipping in and out. Mike is sitting at the table, drinking coffee Bertha poured from the french press lying half empty and now cold next to the cup, he's engrossed in his planner, scribbling hastily. Lynne is all dressed for the day as well, a satin shirt and a skirt and blazer, a pearl necklace delicately hanging from her neck. "I'm gonna come to school with you, have a meeting with the board, plus i should see the new coach, it's such a shame David was leaving, he was such an angel"
Mike rolls his eyes at the comment, not bothering to look up. "Okay, I'll be down soon" Ricky mumbles, hurrying up the stairs.
"I can come with you" Mike says softly "the board meeting"
"there's no need" she replies simply "Evan is in the neighborhood, he needed to discuss something, just tag along with him to the office" her tone is cold, he does not know what to say; so he obliges and she walks out.
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"Bye sweetheart" Lynne presses her hand to her son's shoulder; leaving him at the entrance of the Ambrose building. 8:17 his watch reads, he jogs up the staircase, entering room A-97. He's glad he isn't late, he's early actually; the class starts at 8:45.
There's a few students in the room, mostly doing their own thing. He sits down, pulling out his file and reviewing the chapters they had covered in the past few weeks. AP History was a difficult class, the course was lengthy and tedious, their professor crude; it was also a rather demanding subject, several essays and tests a term, most taking up a decent percentage of their final grade.
A majority of the class starts to come in five to ten minutes before class. He sees Nini walk in, backpack in her left hand, folder in the other. She's distracted, and has her earphones in; there are single person desks throughout the classroom, she sits down at the desk in front of him.
Five minutes later, an elderly man, perhaps in his mid-sixties walks into the room. He's tall and quite pale, thinning grey hair on an almost completely bald head. He has a beige tweed suit on over a checkered vest and burgundy tie. There's a stark silence in the room as soon as he walks in, everyone sitting up straight. "good morning students" he says coldly, picking up the file on his desk.
"it seems we have a new student" he looks up, Nini smiles confidently, trying to not let her expression falter. "welcome to my class ms. Roberts, this is the study material from the last two week" a huge file hits her desk "i would suggest you borrow a classmates notes, they tend to be more detailed, have you understood that Ms. Roberts?"
"yes sir" she gulps "um- also sir, it's Salazar-Roberts"
"what?"
"my name, sir"
He does not respond, merely walking away, it's demeaning but Nini stays quite. "There will be a pop quiz today, you will have until the end of the lesson, anyone below 90 will do an extra credit assignment" he passes papers around as everyone groans silently.
Nini's leg bobs up and down, it's her first day in this class it's okay she tells herself it's multiple choice and im good at history she takes a deep breath. The bell rings an hour later, her nails dig into the side of her leg; she finished on time but couldn't re-check all the answers. A senior in the first row collects all the papers and returns them to Professor Finch; who walks out, dismissing the class. She sits in her seat a while longer.
suddenly she feels a tug at her hair what the-
Her hair comes loose, the ribbon no longer there.
He stands up behind her, making no eye-contact, he slips a paper into her palm as he walks by and out the door.
She finds herself smiling even though she doesn't want to. Fuck him for having pretty handwriting.
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Meanwhile, Lynne walks into the coach's office.
"Hello"
"uhh hello" Mark stands up, half distracted by his work. "how can I help you?"
"I'm Evelynne, Evelynne Bowen"
"Ahh yes Richard's mother? is it?"
"yes, well I just wanted to speak to you about his schedule, see coach David and I had an arrangement-"
"let me stop you right there ma'am" his expression is stern, her smile now gone "I coach my team how i see fit, no offense to you but in this case i know better"
"you don't understand-"
"listen lady" mark clears his throat, rethinking his tone "look, running a thousand practices a day and exhausting your kid is a horrible idea, actually, it's probably borderline abuse. i don't break my athletes, and I will not deplete your kid's physical state simply because you see fit. This is my team now, and while I intend to do everything I can to help them win, but their health comes first. So, respectfully, it was nice to meet you, have a good day."
Lynne is baffled to say the least, she walks out hesitantly.
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AP literature is a small class, much like history; however all the single tables are arranged into a circle. Nini wonders if it's like that every class or only sometimes. There's a few minutes to class starting, she looks around the circle. A few familiar faces pop up; Ashlyn Caswell, Briar Nolan and then of course there's Ricky.
Intentionally she chooses to sit away from him, since there is no space near Ash, she sits by Briar, who smiles politely before returning to her work. Seb walks into the class too, sitting down next to Nini. "hey"
"Good morning" A husky voice says entering the room. There's overlapping greetings from around the room. The woman has wavy-curly black hair that's half up, she's wearing a brown leather jacket that she discards on her desk, a white shirt and beige trousers on under; probably in her's 40s. "I heard we have a new kid, raise your hand please"
Nini puts her hand up, feeling slightly timid now. "Everyone say hello to Ms. Nina Salazar-Roberts" she walks up behind her.
There's overlapping 'hi nina's all around the circle. "I am Professor Yang, welcome to AP literature, you'll probably want to pull all your hair out at some point" the class giggles lightly at the comment.
"Alright everyone, unfortunately we are returning to the monotonous Ted Hughes for today" everyone groans, they have a set of twenty poems all by different poets. "We're doing written analysis today, so point by point breadowns of every stanza, you're going to be submitting them this week. We'll have a group discussion next class."
"Okay so stanza one..."
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The bell rings, lesson coming to an end. It really was one of her favorite classes she's ever been in.
On the way out, Ricky slips her another note. He still hasn't returned her ribbon which annoys her, though she thinks she may have something in her locker.
She scoffs lightly, lips twisting into a smile.
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hello beautiful ppl its been a while
i missed writing its just been very chaotic and i start boarding school in a couple days
updates coming whenever i can put them out
its literally past 4:30 am
also ricky's texts will now be in black backgrounds so its easier to tell the different, im sorry for my lazy attempts at notes i rlly couldnt find a better website