happy face; ej caswell

one

The one thing Soul looked forward to after a long summer break, the first day of Junior Year. But what she didn't expect was the breakup between Ricky Bowen and Nini Salzar-Roberts. They have been the it-couple since they started dating during Sophomore Year and everyone had the thought that they would end up married. Especially after Nini's Instagram post of I Think I Kinda You Know at the beginning of summer. In Nini's way of telling Ricky she loved him.

The day started off as any normal day does, Soul was awoken by her older brother Sam beating on her door.

"Hey, little sis it's time to get up." Sam said from the other side of the door as the sound of the door handle twisting filled the room, "Come on, Souline!"

"I'm up, I'm up." Soul said with a whine, sitting up on her bed. "Would you stop twisting the handle!"

"Yeah, Yeah." Sam said as the sound finally stopped. "We leave in 30, don't make me have to come back."

"Whatever you say." Soul said, getting out of bed, heading to her bathroom as she quickly took a shower.

After a good 10 or so minutes in the shower, Soul got out and got dressed in her outfit for the day.

Walking out of her bathroom back into her room to see her younger brother Sully sitting on her bed watching TV.

"What are you doing in here?" Soul asked, sitting down at her vanity and started on her light makeup routine since she barely wore much.

"Uh, I was waiting for you." Sully said, not taking his eyes off the TV.

"You didn't want to go downstairs, huh?" Soul asked, turning around to face him with a small smile.

"No." he said, turning his head to look at her with a little shake.

"I know how you feel." Soul said, letting out a slight sigh, turning around to finish her makeup.

Just as she finished, a loud sound from downstairs was heard, like something broke, followed by the door slamming.

Soul and Sully quickly looked at each other before grabbing their stuff and headed down the stairs. Once they hit the bottom stair they were faced with their mom cleaning a broken picture frame as their older siblings were just standing there watching her clean the glass.

"Is everything okay?" Sully asked as all three of their heads snapped his way. "What happened to the picture?"

"Everything is fine Sul." Mom said, standing up and facing all of her children with a fake smile, "Jeff just got a little upset."

"A little!" Sam scoffed with an eye roll. "Mom, that man was more than a little upset."

"Sam." Sarah, Sam's twin, said, shaking her head at him. "We should go, don't want to be late."

"Yeah, Sarah's right, you guys should get going." Mom said, nodding as she gave everyone all a kiss on the cheek. "Have a good first day my loves."

With that being said the four siblings all headed out to Sam's truck and sat in silence the entire way to the school.

As soon as they stepped out of the car in the school parking lot, Sam and Sarah's friends started calling for them.

"Okay, so there is supposed to be a back to school assembly today, meet there?" Soul asked, looking around at her siblings.

"Yeah, sure." Sam said, walking backwards towards his teammates as he pointed at them. "I'll catch you guys later."

"I got to run, too." Sarah said, pulling Soul and Sully, both in for a quick hug before also running off towards her friends.

"Guess it's just me and you." Soul said, turning towards Sully, causing him to give her a smile that she knew too well. "You gotta go too."

"I told my friends that I would meet them in the Robotics room." Sully said with a smile.

"Go, you haven't seen them in a few weeks." Soul said, shooing him away, causing him to give her an unsure look. "Go! I'll be fine."

"Okay." Sully said with a big smile, pulling her into a quick hug, before he ran off towards the school causing Soul to chuckle. "Bye!"

Soul turned and looked up at the school with a sigh as she whispered to herself, "I guess it's just me."

Soul put her head down as she made her way into the school and directly to her locker. Only for it to be a few lockers away from the one and only Nini Salzar-Roberts who was with her new best friend, Kourtney.

🎥

Soul, East High Junior

It's not that I have anything against Kourtney, we all grew up going to the same school. It's just that Nini ditched me and started hanging out with Kourtney more.

🎥

"Yeah, I had the best summer ever." Nini told Kourtney with a huge smile.

"And what does you-know-who have to say about this?" Kourtney questioned as Soul was putting stuff into her locker, knowing exactly who she was talking about, Ricky.

"I'm waiting for the right time to tell him." Nini said, causing Soul to quietly scoff.

"Yo Nini, what's good!" A new voice called from down the hall, that voice belonging to you-know-who; Ricky Bowen.

"How do you feel about right now?" Kourtney questioned.

Soul turned her head slightly towards where Nini and Kourtney were and also found Ricky and his partner in crime Big Red.

"Hey." Ricky spoke with a chuckle, causing Soul to slightly chuckle to herself, turning back to her locker trying to drown out the conversation.

"Pop off girl!" Kourtney cheerfully and loudly said, causing Soul to look back to see a shocked and sad Ricky staring directly at Nini.

"Stay out of it, Kourtney!" Big Red snapped at the girl, trying to get her to understand it wasn't her business.

"You stay out of it. I'm dismantling the patriarchy this year, and I'm not afraid to start with you" Kourtney snapped back before soon walked off with Nini.

Soul turned her full attention back to her locker, going to close it when she felt a presence behind her locker door.

"Hey, Soul." Soul heard, causing her to slightly close her locker door as she came face to face with none other than Ricky Bowen with Big Red right behind him.

"Um, hi..." Soul said, confused looking between the boys, "Can I help you with something?"

"I-" Ricky was cut off by the principal's voice filling the hallway as he talked over the intercom, saying the back to school assembly was starting.

"I gotta go." Soul said, slamming her locker, walking away before Ricky got the chance to say anything.

🎥

Ricky, East High Junior

"I haven't talked to Soul in over a year and I feel really bad about it. I really do miss her."

🎥

Soul quickly made it to the gym, looking around the gym and saw all of her siblings sitting with their own groups of friends laughing, causing her to sigh.

'So much for sitting together' she thought to herself as she found a seat next to a curly-haired girl who gave her a look.

"Hey, I'm Soul." Soul introduced, sticking her hand out towards the girl. "You must be new here."

"Gina. Gina Porter." The girl smirked, shaking her hand.