𝗕𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲, 𝗕𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 - 𝗔 𝗥𝗶𝗻𝗶 𝗔𝗨

4 | Rᴇᴡʀɪᴛᴇ Tʜᴇ Dᴀᴛᴇ

𝐍𝐢𝐧𝐢

I woke up feeling very refreshed.

Ricky still hadn't answered my text from the night before, but I pushed that thought out of my mind. It wasn't important right now.

I brushed my teeth, got dressed and waited for the other girls to wake up. Despite what my brain told me was best, I followed my stupid heart and kept checking my phone for texts from Ricky.

Eventually, I got bored with it and scrolled aimlessly on Instagram. Nothing. No one mentioned my video anywhere. I was relieved. The sooner everyone forgot that, the better.

One by one, the others started to stir.

"How long have you been up?" Ellie asked, groggily.

"An hour. Maybe two," I replied.

"Why?" asked Cece.

"Couldn't sleep."

"You're crazy."

Slowly, they all got up and got ready. Half an hour later, we headed off to breakfast. We grabbed some food from the buffet and headed over to a table. I wasn't watching where I was going and bumped right into a boy.

"Sorry!" he said. I looked at him and realized it was the boy I saw yesterday. EJ Caswell. He's a senior at East High. Captain of the Water Polo team and the most popular boy in school. He is one of the only students to ever get a lead in a show his freshman year.

EJ helped me up off the floor. His touch made me blush slightly.

Of all the stupid meet-cute scenarios to happen to me, why did it have to be the one where I fall on my ass?

"You're Nini, right? From East High?" I was surprised he even knew who I was. I've never played a lead in my life. I'm not the most popular or even in his grade. How would he know me?

"Yeah, that's me," I replied, blushing even more.

"I'm E—" he started but I cut him off.

"I know who you are. You're the most popular boy at East High."

EJ laughed. "I don't know about that," he replied. "I'll see you later, Nini," he said and walked away to the rest of his cabin.

My cabin mates had been watching the exchange from our table and were all giggling when I sat down.

"What?" I asked them.

"Nothing!" they said a little too quickly. They held their straight faces for a full minute before they started smiling sneakily again. I raised an eyebrow at them.

"EJ seems nice," said Tiffany.

"Yeah..." I replied suspiciously.

"And he seems to think you're cute," prompts Cece.

I blushed lightly. "So?" I ask. "What does... oh, my gosh. No, no, no. You have it all wrong," I said, shaking my head at them. But some small part of me wanted to believe it.

"Didn't you say last night that you were done with your old boyfriend?" asked Ellie. Although, I don't think it was a real question.

"No! I mean, yes. But that's not the point! You don't know EJ. He's the most popular boy in school and he's..." I couldn't finish. If I couldn't come up with reasons to convince myself, how would I convince them? "He's... EJ." Terrible reason. They knew they had won the argument.

"So? What are you going to do?" asked Ellie.

"Nothing. I'm not going to do anything," I replied firmly.