𝙎𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙚𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙮|𝙍𝙞𝙣𝙞 𝘼𝙪(𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙙)

Four

"Nini right?" Ricky asked and she nodded Him and Nini had been going to school together for a while now but they never actually talked until...well now.

"So uh do you want to work on the project at my house or yours. I think it'd be good to get a head start on it" Ricky said, but the real reason he wanted to start was to get to know Nini.

"Mine" Was all Nini said softly. She didn't have a car, and she didn't want to have to ask Lisa to pick her up from Ricky's house.

Besides, Nini was slightly uncomfortable being in peoples homes that she didn't know. It took her a while to get use to Lisa and Jorge's home.

As a child, Nini was never allowed to go to anyone's house. The only places she knew were school and home. When she'd get invited to sleep overs and parties, her mother never let her go causing her to lose most of her friends. Nini never had a true childhood.

"Alright, do you want me to drive you?" He asked and Nini shook her head.

"My moms coming" was all Nini said before drawing her attention back to her book. She was stuck on this one part of the book. No matter how many times she reread it, it just didn't make sense to her.

She understood the context of what was happening but she didn't understand what exactly it added to the story or why it was even there, but she was too scared to ask questions.

Asking questions always made Nini feel like she was stupid because that's what her mother put into her head. She was under the impression that she had to understand the first time around

"Oh okay" was all he said before focusing his attention on his phone. "I guess I'll meet you there after school then?" He asked and Nini nodded.

He didn't understand why she'd let her mom come all the way to the school to pick her up when he had just offered her a ride but he decided not to push it any further.

•••

"You have an um nice room." Ricky said as he took in the brunette girl's room. It was definitely different than he had expected it to be, but it was a good different.

"Thanks" Nini said shortly before proceeding to her bed. She definitely agreed with the curly haired boy though. Sometimes she'd just sit on her bed taking in the beauty of her room.

How different it was from her old room. There was so much that happened in her old room that it came to a point where it was no longer her comfort place, but here in her new room, she was never bothered.

She felt safe from the outside world in there. Part of her still worried that one day, her peace would be disrupted and her mother would try and come back into her life, or Lisa and Jorge would turn on her but she tried her best to keep those thoughts outside of her mind.

"So do you want to uh start on the project?" Ricky asked and Nini nodded as he took a seat next to her.

"So what do you think the theme of the great gatsby is?" Ricky asked and nini shrugged her shoulders. She knew exactly what the theme was but she wasn't comfortable telling Ricky. She didn't know him well enough so she was scared that he may judge her if her answer was stupid in his opinion.

She knew exactly how smart Ricky is. The answers he gave in class were always well thought out and it was clear he understood what was going on. Nini couldn't compare to that. At least that's what she thought

"Well there can be multiple themes within a story. It all depends on how you interpret it" Ricky said and looked at Nini noticing how beautiful her brown eyes were, and how well the light brown highlights in her hair suited her. He cleared his throat before finishing his statement

"So uh since you don't know, how about we make a list of different themes we believe are displayed in the great gatsby, and choose whichever is the best? Sound good?"

"Sure" Nini said shyly earning a smile from Ricky

"Okay so one that I think I saw is, Money cant always buy love. When you look at Gatsby and Daisy's relationship you see that despite how he tried to impress her with his cool clothes yet she still ended up with Tom. It's evident that Daisy initially married Tom for his money, but as time went on she stayed for the sake of her daughter" Ricky said and Nini nodded indicating that she agreed.

"Can you think of any off the top of your head?" Ricky asked and Nini shook her head. He quietly sighed. He didn't know how this project was gonna work out if Nini could barely say 2 words to him.

He understood that she was a quiet person, but he needed her communication somehow someway.

"Alright then, what about Love can cause one to do crazy things" Ricky suggested adding it to the list of themes that he started to create. "You can argue that Love is what drove George crazy. If he didn't love Myrtle, he wouldn't have killed Gatsby. It was love that drove him to do that"

Nini turned in her book to the page where it mentions the death of Gatsby noticing that there was a purple sticky note that read.

Is love what drove him crazy, or was he just crazy in love?

Nini showed Ricky the sticky note and he was somewhat shocked at how complex the statement on the sticky note said.

"Wait, can you elaborate on that?" Ricky asked and she simply responded with a shrug. Nini wished she could but in her head all she could think of was how he'd judge her because of how stupid she'd sound

Ricky was beginning to get frustrated because he knew that they'd actually get somewhere with this project if Nini would just communicate with him. He genuinely didn't understand what was holding her back

Not yet at least

"Nini honey! We have to get you to your first appointment in 20 minutes" Lisa yelled up the stairs

"I guess that means it's time for me to go" Ricky said throwing his backpack over his shoulder and Nini simply smiled, and walked him to the front door

"Bye Nini" he said before heading out of the door

"Bye" Nini said softly before closing the door. She gave Lisa a quick small smile before heading back upstairs to get herself together for her first therapy session

A/N
Poor Nini :( and poor Ricky too. He's clueless as to what happened in nini's life. Things will get better for both of them though. I promise. We just have to pass a few hurdles to get there. Thank you guys sm for reading! I really appreciate it and I hope you guys enjoyed! Lmk how you're feeling about the story so far!