nini walked down the halls of east high with her friends as they all continued talking, making their way towards the cafeteria
"i can't believe you don't find that part catchy!" ej sighs
"i just don't get what you're talking about," seb chuckles
"that part in the song where she goes 'one for the money, two for the show'! it's so catchy!" the raven-haired boy exclaims
nini and kourtney shook their heads with smiles as they continue their way down the hall, passing by ricky's friend group
"hey diner girl," gina smirks, as carlos folds his arms with a small smile "we're still waiting on the answer from carlos' question."
the brunette rolls her eyes and tries to keep her calm but carlos speaks up
"aw, are you so basic and have a sad life that you don't know how to speak anymore?"
nini felt her blood freeze at the sound of her life being mentioned and she knew exactly what he meant when he said it
kourtney, seb and ej stop walking, the raven-haired boy holding nini by the arm to stop her and let her know that she wasn't alone, because he knows how much those words would affect her.
"don't you have a zit to cover up or something?" kouerney asks in annoyance to gina
"why don't you guys get a life and stop bothering her?" ej snaps
ricky looked up from his notebook that he held in his hands as he heard ej's voice and saw him go in front of nini
"guys it's fine," nini brushes off
her eyes meet the curly-haired boy's for a few seconds and there was something different then how he usually looked at her
she quickly darts her gaze elsewhere and kourtney gives one more glare to the group before walking off with seb, nini taking ej by the hand and pulling him away
gina scoffs playfully "they're such dorks."
"you didn't have to start something gina," ricky says quietly
carlos raises his eyebrows "and since when do you care?"
ricky opens his mouth as he looks at his friends
"because they're still people." ashlyn speaks up, closing her locker "and they didn't do anything to you personally,"
he looks at the red-headed girl thankfully and she gives him a small smile
gina rolls her eyes before walking off "whatever,"
"thanks ash," ricky whispers
"speak up to her dude, when people call her a witch, it's not literal." ashlyn smirks as they walk after them
—
ricky got off practice early and as he got in his car, he took his phone to check the time, seeing that it was four-thirty which meant he had a bit of time before he had to meet up with nini
when he gets home, he goes up to quickly take a shower and hears the doorbell just as he got out, rushing to get changed and heading downstairs to open the door to her
"finally," she mutters as she walks past him and into the kitchen
he rolls his eyes lightly "nice to see you too,"
nini ignores his comment as she sits down at the dining table and opens her folder to take out all of their previous notes made from the day before
"okay, so we've finished the first quarter of the project and now we need to maybe talk about the characters-"
"why not the animals?" he asks confused "they're more of symbolism than-"
"oh my god," nini groans
"what?"
"you never agree with anything! you always have to have your way-"
"oh i have to have everything my way?! what about you and you're stupid points that just have to be there?"
"well maybe you should stop being such a pushover." she snaps
"so, you're asking me to agree with you but also defend my ideas?" he questions
"what i'm saying is that maybe you should stop letting others speak their minds when you know that it's wrong to deep down."
nini kept her eyes on her notes as she continued to write down the next part of the assignment, but she felt ricky's eyes on her
he knew after what she just said that it wasn't just about the work
"are you talking about what happened this afternoon?" he asks quietly
she stops writing for a few seconds, taking a deep breath before continuing her sentence on the paper
"nini-"
"let's just leave it ricky, okay? i don't need you to defend your friends-"
"that wasn't what-"
he gets cut off by the sound of nini's phone go off and she takes it to see her lock screen
she feels her heart stop and quickly stands up, opening her phone to call her moms
"what's wrong?" ricky asks worried
nini ignores his questions and listens to the phone ringing, no answer coming through
"crap." she says under her breath, ending the call and quickly grabbing her stuff
"where-"
"i need to go." she tells him "i-uh-just continue on the work and send me the pictures of what you've done so i can write them down,"
ricky stands up, the confusion inside his mind increasing as he follows her to the front door.
she closes the door behind her and rushes down the sidewalks to her house
it was only a couple blocks away and she tried her best to go as fast as she could
when she arrives, she opens the door to see owen on the couch with carol and dana sitting next to him, worry displayed all over the faces as he winced
"what happened?!" she asks urgently
"hurts-" he breathes "my back-"
"we need to get him to the hospital," dana says, taking her bag
"nini, honey come help me with him," carol asks
the brunette girl nods as she rushes towards them to help owen up and he was shaking all over
they help him to the car and nini sits down next to him as she held her little brother while carol and dana sat at the front and they all rushed to the hospital