kid krow | rini

nine

When EJ announced that he was having a party for the new year, Ricky found himself still very averse to attending. All he realized about this night was that it would be a great opportunity to spend time with Nini especially considering that he hadn't seen her in person since before he was able to get into his birthday gift from her. So, he offered her a surprise date in advance and asked her to dress warmly.

"I still don't know how I feel about matching rings, Ricky," Dana told him honestly as soon as he entered their home.

Ricky chuckled a little. "I understand, Mrs. Salazar-Roberts but Nini won't give me hers back, so I can't return them anyway."

"Stubborn like her mother," Dana hummed. "Do me a favor. When you go upstairs, tell her I need to see her end-of-semester report card before she leaves."

Ricky nodded and headed upstairs to Nini's room. He could hear her singing along to some song through her closed door and this brought a smile to his face. Softly, he knocked so as not to invade her privacy.

"Yeah?" the should girl called out.

"Uhh... it's me?" he called back.

Nini laughed and pulled the door open. With her music still playing, she said, "Hey! I just need to get some shoes on, I'm almost ready."

"Cool," Ricky said. "Your mom wants to see your report card before we leave though."

Ricky watched his girlfriend groan and throw her head back. "We should probably cancel the date, she's actually going to murder me for this one."

The report card had been delivered with the mail sometime before they'd returned from Denver. Nini took it to her room immediately hoping that her mom would be too busy trying to figure out when exactly she'd stopped eating meat to even remember it was a thing. She'd let it go for a while, so of course, Nini forgot about it up until this moment.

"What's wrong with your report card?" he questioned. "You make straight As."

Nini zipped up her boots and nodded, but continued to look down at her feet. "I do, they're just not good enough. Let's just go get this over with."

The girl couched down and pulled the report card from her lowest desk drawer and left her room without another word. Ricky followed her after grabbing her purse and closing her door behind them. Silently, Nini handed the paper to her mother while Ricky lingered in the doorway. Dana rubbed her temples and heaved a heavy sigh.

"What is going on with your history grade, Nina?" she questioned. "A 92 is not like you and it is not acceptable."

Nini's cheeks turned red as she picked at her fingernails. "I don't... I don't know. I guess it's just harder this year, maybe I-"

"Maybe if you spent less time writing those frivolous little songs and more time reading something of substance, you would have a higher grade in English, too." She looked at Nini and then at Ricky and back to the paper. "I'm serious, Nina. If you want colleges to want you, you've gotta do better than this. If you keep this up, there won't be any plays or dates or sleepovers with your friends."

Nini nodded, "Yes ma'am."

"Can we... still go out?" Ricky asked.

Dana sighed. "You two going out tonight will not change these grades, so go ahead."

"Midnight curfew," Ricky said, acknowledging that he listened to the women's rules.

"It's New Year's Eve! 1:30!" Carol called from the kitchen.

Nini looked at Ricky, her eyes brightening up a little. "Let's go!" she whispered.

On their way out, they heard Dana begin to protest this statement, but left before anyone had time to change their minds.