rainbow connection | rini

seven

"No, we're not doing Rainbow Connection," Nini protested in dance class the following week.

Ms. Jenn sighed and said, "Nini, you don't have a choice."

"Can we just start?" Ricky asked.

Ms. Jenn started them on their duet and then left to work with other kids. For a long time, the only words either of them spoke were counts. Eventually, Nini got tired of the annoyed vibe she was seeming to elicit from Ricky.

"Are you pissed off or something?" she asked when they took a break.

After finishing his drink of water, Ricky asked, "Pissed off why?"

"You just seem mad," she mumbled. His back was turned to her so his expression was unreadable to Nini.

"I'm not." He then turned around and said, "EJ really wants you to sit with us at lunch today."

Nini figured that he was upset about something that had to do with EJ, but she didn't want to accuse him of anything. So she just nodded and said, "Okay, I will."

Before they left class, Ms. Jenn suggested they get to know each other better so their partnership looked more natural.

"Hey, why is it that you and Ms. Jenn speak French to each other?" He asked suddenly as they were on their way to the cafeteria together.

"Because she's fluent in French and I'd like to pass the class," Nini explained.

"You always sound so good in class. My French is so bad," he laughed.

"You could sound a lot worse, you know," she said.

Ricky sighed and asked, "Do you think that you could help me maybe? I could really use it."

"I wouldn't mind that. Just let me know when you want to work on it." She smiled at Ricky and he smiled back as they made their way into the cafeteria.

Nini was glad that no one noticed her apathy toward the school food. Or eating at all, really. They were all so caught up in chatter that it didn't even matter.

"Are you coming to the party next Friday?" Gina asked. Her eyes were more on EJ than Nini.

"Not that I'm aware of," she said. Her eyes shifted up at EJ and he laughed.

"Of course, she's coming, Gi. Right, Neens? You're coming?" Nini couldn't do anything but nod, so that was all she did. EJ laughed again. "You're cute," he told her.

Nini flushed red and willed her eyes to look anywhere but EJ's. Unfortunately, they landed on Ricky who was in the middle of the most dramatic eye roll ever.

The next day, during dance class, Ricky said, "I don't get why you're even dealing with EJ."

"Random, but okay." Nini laughed and brushed off Ricky's comment.

Ricky groaned and said, "I'm serious. You want to date him?"

"Is that your business?" She wondered.

"You're kidding, right? Do you not remember him tripping you and the insults and the laughter and the genuine bullying these last few years?" He didn't understand how Nini was so smart yet so stupid.

"You don't think that's forgivable?" She asked.

"Not as easily as you seem to think it is," he shot back.

"In that case, why don't we start here? You were a part of that too, you know," she spat before walking away.

For the next several days, neither of them said anything outside of the minimal speaking they had to do for their duet. Nini's mind continuously drew back to the fact that he was right. She didn't mind that, though, because it had been a long while since she'd had friends.

Nini had become rather accustomed to both the kisses on her cheek EJ started giving her and Ricky's deadly glares. She sat at lunch with them and she realized that no one really cared if she ate or not. Really, lunch was talking about the party, and EJ always eating her tater tots.

At home, her parents chose not to ask about the boy she was hanging out with but were worried about it nonetheless. They figured that maybe they were out of the loop about boys for good because she didn't mention him after the first time she asked about him, or any boy for that matter.

Nini paid no mind to Ricky in any setting, but he couldn't keep his mind off her. He couldn't help but spot her soft hair in church the following Sunday and while he couldn't keep his eyes off of her, she couldn't keep her eyes off of their pastor. He wished he could will her to look over at him, but he couldn't.

He watched her as everyone stayed and chatted after church. Every Sunday, she could be found guiding the Sunday school kids back to their parents who were chatting with the people around them. He couldn't tell if she meant to ignore him or if she genuinely didn't see him when she walked past him holding the hand of a small child and talking about Noah's Ark. Either way, he'd felt that he missed her and wasn't even sure that they were friends.

He saw Gina's parents but not Gina and he knew that she sometimes just didn't feel like getting up to go to church. Nini, on the other hand never missed church. He wondered how some things in the world worked because EJ was an atheist and thought religion was bullshit.

Nini hardly noticed Ricky's presence at church, but it wasn't personal. She didn't pay attention to him during church because that wasn't what she was there for. After church, she saw him but was far too busy to even glance his way.

"Nini, are you ready to leave?" Her mom asked her.

"Uh, yeah," she said. She didn't sound sure because she had her eyes on a tuft of curly hair that was moving through groups of people. In her head, she weighed her options. With the scarcity of free time, she let her parents guide her in the opposite direction, toward the car and away from her partner.