euphoria. [ rini au ]

chapter seventeen.

Ricky wore a wide grin as he stepped out of his car in the parking lot in front of East High as school threatened to resume for another week. Behind him, the last of buses were pulling away and leaving their cargo to meander towards the front stairs while the parking lot continued to fill rapidly as students arrived. E.J. was chattering about the upcoming track and field meet for state finals that would be taking place the coming weekend at West High.

Students lounging against the steps were loudly discussing their weekends, but halted their conversation as the two basketball players approached. Ricky felt eyes latch onto him and follow his movements as he climbed one stairs at a time and pulled the door open. Before the door even closed, the talk had begun again in loud tones. Shaking his head at the typical flow of gossip, he led the way to his lockers, scanning the hallways and lockers for a glimpse of Nini. Spinning his lock, he pulled the door open.

"So, you supposed to meet her somewhere?" E.J. asked, shoving his jacket inside his locker.

"Just homeroom. She came in early to go over some changes in the charity ball proposal so she could present it to the principal this afternoon," Ricky answered, trying to ignore the hushed whispers coming from the girls behind him as they leaned against a locker across the hall.

"Ignore them," E.J. said, noticing the tense shoulders and Ricky's following gaze to the backs of the girls.

Shrugging, Ricky pulled out his phone and saw a text from Nini which made a grin break out on his face. I ran into Coach in the hallway and he said we are doing individual timings during practice this afternoon. I need someone not on the team to hold the stopwatch. Are you available?, he read, smiling slightly as he texted her back.

"So Brett just hit on her? No hinting or anything? Just full out-" Ricky cringed at the voice and the person implicated by the word 'her'.

"-Yup, no question about it. He didn't even last a minute and she was giving him some lame excuse about having to go to the washroom-" Another sound cut in, sounding excited as she informed her friend of any missed party moments.

"So they're back together?" The girl asked her friend as Ricky clenched his fingers around the handle of his locker door and E.J. shot him a look.

"All I know is that Caswell was searching for a smashed Bowen while Gina was trying to find Nini. I can do the math." Ricky was starting to hate Girl Number One and her remarkable abundance of facts.

"And Abby said that she saw them at Scoop's Ice Cream Shop last night," Girl Number Two added.

"Together? Alone?" Ricky whipped his head around and narrowed his eyes at the first girl to notice.

"Yes, we were alone," he growled, silencing everyone in the hallway. "Now, if you could kindly mind your own business and focus on your own problems, I would appreciate it."

"Come on, Ricky," E.J. said gently. "We're going to be late."

Sighing, Ricky rubbed the back of his neck as he shoved his phone away and followed E.J. down the hall. Glancing at his watch, he hurried to beat the warning bell to class so he could have a few extra minutes with Nini before their different periods separated them until lunch.

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It was oddly quiet in the hallway as Nini left the library and headed down the stairs. Students quietly talked in groups, scattered along the corridors between their classes and their lockers. Puzzled, she gripped the strap on her bag as she walked through the lobby and made her way to her locker. The metal door banged nosily as it swung around and she tossed her bag inside before grabbing a textbook and a binder. Pulling a pencil from the top shelf, she let the door slam shut just as the warning bell sounded. The noise level picked up as she made her way towards the bathroom, students rushing to make it to their classes on time.

Entering the girl's bathroom down the hall from homeroom, Nini was about to walk around the twisted entryway, when an arm reached out and yanked her int a hidden cranny. Whipping her head around, Nini's eyes widened at the sight of Ashlyn and Gina crouched on the ground behind her. Gina pressed a finger to her lips and motioned for Nini to be quiet while Ashlyn rolled her eyes.

"Just listen," Gina hissed.

'Why-" A hand clapped around her mouth and Nini finally focused on eavesdropping.

"I can't believe I missed that," a voice said but Nini couldn't place it.

"I told you it was bound to be interesting, but you insisted on staying home," someone sneered.

"I had to babysit my brother, hardly a choice," the first girl snapped, "But still, was he drunk?"

"Oh yeah, Brett was bombed. Your boy had to haul his ass home after he passed out on the patio." It suddenly clicked in Nini's head and she realized that one of the girls was Jill Prescott, whose boyfriend was a good friend of Brett Anderson.

"So she just left him standing there with a pool stick and never came back?" Jill asked, amusement in her voice. "That's priceless. I've been telling him for weeks to give up and move on. She's been off limits since school started." That's when Nini realized they were talking about her.

"Yeah, well, Brett's never been one to listen," the other girl replied.

"So where did she go? Home?" Jill asked and her friend laughed.

"God, no. She was gone for like fifteen minutes before Caswell came downstairs to find Ricky," the girl replied. "Anyways, five seconds go by and Sam yells down to tell him that Ricky was puking his guts up in the bathroom upstairs."

"What does that have to do with Nini? Wait, did she even know he was there?"

"I don't know, but let me finish. Sam came to tell E.J. that she left Ricky in Nini's hands to deal with him," the other girl was practically squealing and the only thing keeping Nini in place was Ashlyn's hand on her shoulder.

"So they made up?" Jill asked, "I always miss the good parties."

"Well, no one really knows what happened. Their friends are all being quiet and whispery, but Wess told me he saw Nini and E.J. carrying Ricky across the street."

"Thank all that's holy," Jill declared as they headed towards the exit. "I've had it with the bomb shelter aura around here. You don't realize how much them getting along affects everyone until you are eating lunch outside for a week just to avoid them." The bell sounded above Nini's head and Jill voiced the curse word in Nini's head. "I am so late."

"You have Mazzara for homeroom?" the friend asked. "Text me if anything good happens."

The moment they were gone, Nini scrambled from her spot and spun to see Gina brushing off the back of her skirt and Ashlyn straightening her shirt. Nini took a breath before expelling it slowly to diminish her frustration.

"Was that necessary?" she growled, and that she not only had to listen to two people gossip about her, but that she still needed to pee and was officially late to class.

"I wanted you to know what they were saying. At first I just heard Brett's name and thought it would be funny but they were discussing you just as you walked in. You almost ruined it," Gina added evenly, ignoring the sparks in Nini's eyes.

"Well, excuse me for needing to pee," she exclaimed before throwing her arms in the arm and turning to leave.

"Well, don't you still need to?" Gina called out.

"Gi, I'm late for class. You are late for class. Ashlyn is late for class. peeing will come later," Nini ground out, her hand on the handle of the homeroom class door. She could see Ricky watching her through the small window.

"Ugh, you're always uptight if you don't see Ricky before homeroom. Fix that for tomorrow, would you?" Gina politely inquired before following Nini into the class.

Oh, yeah, Nini thought sarcastically before seeing Ricky's curious gaze, I'll get right on that.

author's note:

hey everyone hope you liked this chapter! so i have one more chapter left to write, and there's still about 7 i have to post. do you guys want me to continue posting two chapters a day or post 3-4 or post them all at once??