Multi-Fandom One-Shots Part 2

a melody inside my head rings your name - Rini (HSMTMTS)

"Congratulations, class of 2021. You did it," she hears Principal Gutierrez say over the din of voices in the auditorium, and Nini, alongside her classmates, tosses her graduation cap in the air, watching the red and white tassel spin and blur, before she catches it.

And just like that, the crescendo of high school activities and plan-making and traditions comes to a final close. She's done with high school, done with East High.

As the graduates begin to disperse to find their families, she turns, seeking her moms and lola in the crowd. She only makes it about three feet when she feels a pair of arms circle her from behind, crushing her in a hug.

"Sweet freedom," the sneak attack hugger-Ricky, she recognizes, when she feels his chin rest on her shoulder-says, rocking back and forth, taking her with him as he does, and she laughs. He releases his hold on her and she turns to face him. His curls are mostly squashed under his grad cap, but a few strays have managed to escape.

"It really is a miracle that you made it through these four years in one piece," she says, pulling a serious face. His mouth drops open in mock offense, and her resolve drops as she laughs.

"Nini!" She hears, and she turns to see her family waving. Her mom has her massive Canon camera hanging around her neck, and Nini sees at least a thirty-minute photoshoot in her future.

She looks back at Ricky and sees his dad, mom and his mom's fiancé Todd approaching. The trio is still an odd sight to see together even two years after his parents finalized their divorce, and she knows that this is her cue to exit stage left.

"Find us outside, okay? My moms are going to want a picture of us."

---

Ashlyn throws a post-grad party in her basement that night for the theatre kids and company (Big Red, Kourtney, and Ricky being part of the designated company). It's mostly lowkey, just the regular crew, and Carlos sets up Dance Dance Revolution in one corner while Gina holds court at the ping-pong table, serving Big Red overhand and watching as the plastic ball ricochets off his head. E.J., whose back from his first year at the University of Colorado, passes around cans of Natty Light, and Nini sips on the punch that Ashlyn made, part-vodka and part what tastes like melted watermelon Jolly Ranchers, out of a red solo cup.

Ricky settles next to her on the carpeted basement steps where she's been watching her friends, on the fringe of the activity that's laid out in front of them. His knee bumps against hers as he sits, and he watches her silently for a moment.

She tilts her head, one corner of her mouth turning upwards. "What?"

His eyebrows are drawn together, his forehead crinkled a little. "Trying to figure out what you're thinking."

She waits for him to continue since he's almost right about whatever it is running through her mind. Nini considers both Kourtney and Ricky a best friend-each fills a slightly different role and serves as a different kind of confidant in her life. Kourtney is who she talks to about clothes and boys and fights with her moms that only a fellow teenage girl would understand and silly and not-so-silly insecurities, whereas growing up with Ricky by her side solidified a friendship rooted in shared histories, the way in which they know one another inside out. More than a best friend, he's kind of her person.

"You don't have to feel like it's goodbye, you know," he says finally. "There's still the whole summer before that."

She looks forward, hands on her knees, as she takes another look at her friends, all wrapped up in their own small worlds for the moment. She wishes that she could hate that he's almost always right about what's going on her in her head, but after thirteen years of friendship with Ricky Bowen, she had to get over that a long time ago.