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"Gracie!" Ricky's muffled voice yelled through the William's household.
"Almost done!" She yelled back, fixing the curls in her hair. It was the teens' first day of junior year, and though that was a big thing on it's own, Ricky knew it meant something different. It was the day he found out if he and Nini were getting back together.
Of course the boy had hopes that everything would be just fine, but the nerves he was getting were becoming too much for him to handle. Thus, explaining why he was running through Gracie's house like a madman, not wanting to wait another second to get going.
He got up the stairs, stopping at Gracie's closed bedroom door and raised his fists to knock when the door swung open revealing the girl, ready to go.
Her expression quickly turned into one of shock, seeing the boy facing her with a fist raised. "Hi."
"Hi," Ricky responded, grabbing her wrist and pulling her downstairs. "We need to go get Big Red, then go talk to Nini before the bell rings."
"Okay. Okay, just give me one second," Gracie yanked her wrist from his grip as they got to the entrance of the house. "David, you're gone, right?"
She waited a beat to hear back from her little brother, David, but only got silence in return.
"We're good," Gracie said, turning back to Ricky, who handed her her skateboard and helmet. "Thank you, let's go."
***
After stopping by Big Red's house to pick him up, the trio skated to school with Ricky almost running into people due to how fast he wanted to get there.
"Today's the day, guys," Ricky smiled at his friends as they got off their skateboards and started walking up to the school. "It's happening."
"Hell yeah," Big Red nodded, smiling just as brightly as Ricky. "Junior year, baby. Might grow a mustache. Might do a lot of things."
"Dude, I'm talking about Nini," Ricky explained. "Today's the day we start over."
"Are you sure you guys are on the same page?" Gracie asked as the stepped inside the school.
"We texted. She sounded neutral," Ricky shrugged. "Nothing about bad news or needing to have a big talk. Just, 'Hey.' That's good, right?"
The boy looked at Gracie with a little panic in his eyes. "Did she say anything else?"
"No, that was it."
"I mean, it's not a bad sign," Gracie tried to stay positive for Ricky's sake. "She's willing to talk to you, even if it's just a greeting. Though if she would've said more it would be easier to see where her feelings are at."
"And summers are no man's land, Ricky," Big Red added into the conversation. "'Hey' is a difficult thing to understand. I don't know what 'Hey' means and neither do you."
