over the years (rini) | ✓

eight || seventh grade

shoutout to joshua bassett for this prompt haha

"It was probably a mistake leaving two middle schoolers alone at a Six Flags," Nini thought after she and Ricky got off their sixth roller coaster ride.

One day, out of the blue, Ricky and Nini's parents both decided to take them to six flags. It was a delightful shock because the two kids had been begging them for this opportunity for months (they've never been to Six Flags before and they really wanted to ride the Superman roller coaster). Every single time they asked they always received the same answer: no, absolutely not. So it was confusing, but exciting, when all of a sudden their parents changed their minds.

Maybe they just wore them out with all the begging and complaining.

So, there were Nini and Ricky, walking around the Six Flags park together on a chilly day. It was September and the beginning of autumn. It was the kind of weather that wasn't too hot or cold, but mildly warm with a cooling breeze—Nini's favorite weather. Sweater weather! Their parents were somewhere in the park, most likely eating. They weren't with Nini and Ricky because the four parents collectively decided they didn't want to wait in lines for rides they weren't going to ride anyway. That's how they ended up alone. Besides, their parents trusted them to behave and it wasn't unusual seeing middle schoolers walking around without an adult.

They had been on a total of six rides so far, both agreeing that Goliath was their favorite by far. Nini was a little worried about it before because it was a wooden roller coaster and she heard some sketchy things about them, but Ricky just laughed and told her everything would be fine. She didn't really have the energy to argue, so she went anyway, despite her worrying. The only thing that worried her about roller coasters was her nausea after the rides, but thankfully it had been barely noticeable.

It was getting closer to eleven o'clock, which was their normal lunch time. They started to get hungry, so they decided to sit down at a bench and buy some food. Ricky got a hot dog while Nini bought a medium sized piece of cheese pizza.

"This hot dog is so overpriced," Ricky grumbled as he sat down across from Nini. "Five dollars for one hot dog? Unbelievable."

Nini laughed before taking a bit of her hot pizza. "That's concession food for you."

Ricky rolled his eyes. "Still," he mumbled before picking up his food and taking a bite.

They ate in silence for a minute before Nini spoke again, "Hey, what do you think about Lucy?"

"Lucy?" Ricky asked after swallowing. He frowned, confused by her random question. "She has blonde hair, right?"

Nini nodded.

"Well, I don't know her that well so I can't say much," Ricky said nonchalantly, taking another bite out of his food. "Why?"

Nini shrugged and looked down at her pizza. "No reason."

To Ricky, bringing up Lucy must've seemed out of the blue, but the truth was, Lucy had been asking Nini about him. A lot. So much to the point where it was getting annoying, but Nini just dismissed her most of the time. Mostly because she didn't care.

Lucy definitely had a crush on Ricky. She claimed she's liked him for the past two years, which always made Nini fight the urge to roll her eyes. Please. She's liked him for two years? She's barely had a conversation with him!