over the years (rini) | ✓

five || fourth grade

Today was the day of the school science fair! Nini couldn't be more excited. She had been working on this project for around a month. She was especially proud of this because she did most of the work herself. Sure, she did get help from her moms, but it was mostly the general setup. Besides that, she designed the entire poster board herself and conducted the entire experiment on her own. Her experiment revolved around moldy bread, focusing on how fast the mold grew and why it grew in the first place.

She had gotten to school thirty minutes early along with everyone else who was currently participating in the fair. Unfortunately for her, both of her moms had to leave for work early and they couldn't help her set up. So, there she was, a tiny fourth grader lugging a giant poster board and a bag of moldy bread along with her heavy backpack on her back. She started panting and her arms burned from the effort.

Nini got as far as the bathrooms near the lunchroom, where the science fair was going to take place, before dropping all of her stuff. All at once, everything was sprawled on the floor. Papers and supplies flew out of her hands. Thankfully, her poster wasn't damaged and the moldy bread stayed in the plastic Ziploc bag. Nini groaned in frustration before bending down to slowly pick up everything.

"Do you need help?"

Nini glanced up to see Ricky towering over her. She sighed and stood up to meet his eyes. Nini grew taller over the summer, but so did Ricky. He was still way taller than Nini and he had to look down to make eye contact with her.

Nini's automatic response was to say no and walk away, but she stopped herself. Man, she was so tired and her arms were shaking from the weight of everything. She had to hide how out of breath she was from Ricky by forcing her breathing to slow down.

"Actually," Nini huffed. "Help would be great."

Ricky grinned. They both bent down at the same time to pick everything off the floor. Nini grabbed her poster while Ricky took the bags of moldy bread.

"These stink!" Ricky complained as he pinched his nose. Nini couldn't disagree—the green pieces of break smelled like wet, smelly socks. It was absolutely disgusting, but she figured it was worth it if she did well at the fair.

"Yeah, I know," Nini said, wrinkling her nose. "Come on, the science fair is in the cafeteria."

She and Ricky headed in that direction, Nini a few steps ahead of him. She didn't want to be the last one to finish setting up. She also didn't want to walk in with Ricky right next to her. She was slightly embarrassed at the fact that she dropped everything and he had to help her.

"Why are you at school so early?" Nini asked.

"My mom had to go to work early today and my dad was already at work before I woke up, so my mom had to drop me off at school at 7:00," Ricky explained hastily.

Once they entered the cafeteria, they walked over to Nini's assigned spot. There were only one or two other students in the room. She opened her poster and placed it so that people who came into the room could see her display clearly. She then took out three white paper plates from her purple backpack and set them down in front.

"Ricky, can you put the bread on the--"

Nini was horrified at what she saw. Two pieces of moldy bread were set on the table. Where was the third? Nini's eyes slowly traveled up to his face and her eyes widened in horror when she saw Ricky holding the third bread piece of bread—the top left corner. gone. His face was twisted in disgust.

"Ricky..." Nini started cautiously, wondering if she truly wanted the answer to her next question. "What did you do?"

"I wanted to try it. It doesn't taste good," he answered, shoving the bread onto the paper plate. Nini felt her stomach turn and suddenly had the urge to vomit right at the moment.