Not Your Average Ricky(Ella) Story

Need more than survival

Song to listen to while reading: Ending the Cycle by Joshua Bassett

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The drama and rumors about Lily telling everyone that I am gay in front of E.J Caswell, have died down, thankfully.

"Oh no," I say as we walk into East High the week after Valentine's Day.

E.J is sitting at a folding table at the end of the hall collecting CDs, flash drives, and other physical song samples from students.

What happened here? Did his dad put him to work?

"Ricky, I'm gonna make you submit something sooner or later. Cut this crap," Nini says while walking in front of me.

"Columbia, really, E.J? I thought you were on board with going to Duke?" I hear a booming voice walk down the hall towards the table he's sitting at.

"Where'd you get those college pamphlets, Dad?" E.J looks up from the table and excuses a girl who is handing in a CD.

"Your bedroom drawer, where you've been hiding them," Mr. Caswell yells while Nini and I head to our lockers.

"Dad, I can explain, please give me a second. I'm doing this work for you," I watch E.J. attempt to sit back down on a plastic folding chair.

Oh, so he isn't who I thought he was. Mr. perfectly fine.

"Head to the locker rooms to change into your practice clothes before football try-outs. I'll see you tonight for dinner son, we're having a college scout over," I overhear Mr.Caswell pat E.J on the shoulder as I watch him collect the CDs and flash drives from the container.

I don't know a thing about football or what season they play. Big Red forces me to go to games though because his crush, Ashlyn is a cheerleader.

Isn't it a fall sport?

I guess, Mr. Caswell donated more funds to the arts department than the sports department, so we have it all year round.

So much for being the school High School Musical was filmed at.

"Ricky, Ricky, Ricky. Earth to Ricky are you listening? Big Red asked you if you were going to the first football game of the season on March 14th," Gina said to me and took out my air pod.

"Hey! I was listening to Taylor Swift's Best Hits," I whine and take my air pod from her.

She gave me them as a gift during the big winter wedding where I blocked everything out and panicked.

"Are you going to the first game of the season, the second week of March? It's the senior color day." Big Red asks me again while I pause my music.

"I don't really want to, Red. Let me check my calendar," I open up my Google Calendar on my phone to see if I have chores or errands that day after school.

"Nope. I can't the two L's are turning 16 again. I'm responsible for making appetizers," I look up at my friends who look disappointed.

"What do you mean, again? You didn't even get a 16th birthday party. You deserve one," Big Red groans while following me to Mr. Mazarra's class.

"It's my responsibility," I shrug my shoulders while playing with my cross bracelet.

"You should come to the game. It's your senior year, Ricky. Be open to new things before everybody goes their on way," I ignore Big Red as he tries to make an HSM 2 reference.