over the years (rini) | ✓

two || first grade

Nini was so happy that she felt like she could reach the stars. Her music teacher just announced this year's musical that the first and second graders are going to perform: Shrek the Musical Jr! Nini has never seen it live but she used to watched the movie all the time with her moms! Now, she was determined to get the role of Fiona, her favorite character.

"Kourtney!" Nini called as she skipped over to her best friend, who was busy examining the recorders that belonged to the older kids. "Did you hear the news? We are going to do Shrek the Musical this year!"

Kourtney wrinkled her nose, much to Nini's surprise. She thought that her friend would be just as excited as her. "Really? I wanted to do High School Musical. I just watched it last week and it was so good!"

"But Shrek the Musical is so much better! And whoever plays Shrek is going to have to be green," Nini giggled. Just the thought of some boy wearing green face paint the entire show was amusing. Well, now that she thought about it, she would be green too for a little bit if she was Fiona.

Kourtney laughed. "That is going to be funny. Maybe this will be fun!"

"See? I knew you would love it!"

"Are you going to audition for a part?"

Nini nodded. "I want to be Fiona."

"I want to be Donkey," Kourtney said, laughing. This also made Nini crack up. Kourtney in a donkey costume? Nini really wanted to see that.

"What are you guys talking about?"

Nini knew that voice. She stopped laughing abruptly and whipped around. She crossed her arms and scoffed when she saw him.

"What do you want, Richard?" she spat. Kourtney also turned around, frowning. Although she had transferred to the school at the beginning of the year and after the barbie fiasco, Kourtney knew that Nini did not like Richard. She made it clear to her the first time Kourtney met him. As her loyal best friend, Kourtney immediately did not like him either and tried to keep him as far away from Nini as possible at all times. However, no matter how hard she tried, it never worked because Richard always took every chance he got to talk to Nini. This annoyed Nini to no end.

"I just wanted to know what you were talking about," Richard said with a smug smile. Kourtney looked at Nini through the corner of her eye, and she could tell Nini was growing frustrated. Her jaw was clenched and she was heavily breathing through her nose. Even the small things he did bothered her.

To an outsider, their behavior would've been confusing. Richard and Nini were known to be good friends throughout kindergarten. Their moms worked together because they were all involved in the PTA, so they got together a lot to plan everything. This meant the kids had a lot of play dates--once almost every week. Then, the infamous barbie incident happened. Richard microwaved Nini's precious blonde barbie doll during one play date during the summer, and now the two kids hated each other. Well, more like Nini avoided Richard at all costs because she held a grudge against him that she refused to let go of. Richard tried to apologize many times before, but soon gave up because she dodged him like the plague. Now, he took every chance he had to get her to talk to him by annoying her.

Nini jutted her chin up, returning her focus to the boy. Kourtney told her once it made her look powerful. "Kourtney and I are talking about how we are going to get parts in the school musical."

He tilted his head to the side and squinted, as if he was examining her. "Really?"

"Yes. I am going to be Fiona and Kourtney is going to be Donkey."

"Hm," A giant smug started to form on his face. "Maybe I should try out for Shrek then."

Nini's eyes widened. Richard doesn't even like musicals! It would be horrible if she was Fiona and he was Shrek! Absolutely not! "No! If anything you would be Lord Farquaad!"

Richard paused before bursting out laughing. He started to laugh so hard that he was clutching his stomach and doubling over. Beside her, Kourtney rolled her eyes and snorted at Nini's retort.

"I'm just kidding," Richard choked out, tears springing from his eyes. "I don't like musicals. They're stupid."

Her cheeks felt like they were on fire as her breathing started to become more heavy. She was fuming. How rude of him. "Yeah, well, I don't like soccer. It's lame."

That shut him up. The corner of her mouth tugged up at his reaction. Richard stood upright and frowned. "That is mean. Soccer is the best sport!"

"Don't insult musicals and I won't insult soccer."

"But I didn't even insult musicals! I just said--" He stopped his sentence when Nini narrowed her eyes at him and stepped closer to him. He sighed. "Fine. I'll stop. I'm sorry."

"Thank you," Nini said with a big grin, feeling achieved. Richard apologized to her! That almost never happens.

"You're welcome, Nini," he responded with a smirk before turning around and starting to walk away towards his friends. The use of her kindergarten nickname that he gave her bothered her, despite the fact that she allowed him to use it and everyone called her Nini now.

"Bye Ricky," Nini said slowly, making sure to enunciate her new nickname she came up with for him.

He turned around. His eyebrows shot up and his eyes widened, clearly taken aback by this new nickname. "Ricky? My name is Richard."

Nini marched up to him. She had always been shorter than pretty much everyone in their grade, especially him. She had to look up and stand on her toes to meet his eyes. Even then, he still had to stare down. "Enjoy your new name!"

"Wha--why?" he sputtered. "Is this because I melted your barbie? I already said I am sorry like a billion time!"

She stepped closer to him so she was almost touching him, her brown eyes now ablaze. She heard Ricky take a sharp intake of breath. She grinned at his reaction and put her hands on her hips. "Yes."

Ricky cleared his throat and rolled his eyes. "It's never going to happen."

"Everyone calls me Nini now. My actual name is Nina, remember?"

Truthfully, Nini never actually cared that people call her Nini. She never really liked the name Nina anyway, but she wasn't going to tell him that. She just wanted to get back at him for melting her doll. She figured this was the most harmless way to do that because she wouldn't get into any trouble. Plus, nobody under the age of 50 should be called Richard. It made him sound old.

"I only called you Nini because I couldn't pronounce my a's!"

Nini let out a short laugh. "I'll see you later, Ricky."

She looped her arms through Kourtney's and they walked out of the music room. They cackled when they heard some guy in their class say, "Hey Ricky, what's up?"

From that point on, Richard was called Ricky. It just stuck.