𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 [𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙞 𝙖𝙪]

09

in class the next day, again, ricky and nina sat in the back of the classroom together to work on their project. as expected, nina tried talking to him, but he still would ignore her or answer with a simple 'yes' or 'no'.

she just gave up on trying to talk to him after about five minutes into the class and stopped talking to him for the remaining time as the two worked on their own parts of the project.

ricky tried his best to avoid making eye contact with the girl as they continued to work but every couple minutes he would look over and observe as she did her work. she looked so happy, which confused him considering he wasn't talking to her, but there was still that glow in her eyes.

he was almost caught staring a couple times but he looked away as fast as he could when he saw her head begin to turn.

nina on the other hand, could tell that he was watching her. she felt his eyes on her, which made her smile harder than she had already been, trying to hold in her laughter. She settled on just leaving it but after a minute or so, she turned her head to see if he would still be looking- which he wasn't, so she just looked away and focused on her work once again.

+

at lunch, nina walked to her table, alongside red and they sat down at their seats.

"hey neens, where were you after school yesterday?" carlos asked her.

"uh, i was talking to ricky about when we were going to do the project outside of school," she answered, "which by the way, you guys can't come over today, he's coming."

"aww, you're trying to get alone with him? too soon neens, and gina would probably hate you." carlos replied.

"shut up los, i am not, ashlyn's gonna be there. and i think gina already knows, she was pretty cold to me when i introduced myself to her."

"she should be, all the girls who used to chase after ricky were scared off by her. you're pretty much the only competition she has." ashlyn pointed out.

"well, it's not my fault mazzara made us partners. why couldn't i have been with kourtney," nina groaned, "she's like the nicest person ever- aside from seb of course."

"seb is not nice," carlos replied.

"los, he's your boyfriend, he's the only person aside from us who would be allowed to bully you," red said.

"i guess," carlos rolled his eyes. "okay, i miss him, i'll be right back," carlos got up from his lunch table and ran over to the other side of the cafeteria where his boyfriend sat.

nina, red, and ashlyn watched as he scurried over there, surprising his boyfriend, who had his back turned to them, and his friends smile at the happy couple.

nina shifted her eyes from carlos and seb and onto ricky who was talking to kourtney. she saw past him as he shifted his position, revealing gina, who was glaring at her.

confused, she looked down at her lunch tray set in front of her and continued to eat as ashlyn and red engaged in conversation beside her, and carlos stayed at his boyfriend's table.

+

after school, just like the day before, nina walked over to ricky's locker, where he stood there putting books into his locker and his friends talking beside him.

"hi nina!" seb exclaimed, noticing she was approaching.

"hi," she smiled at ricky's friends, earning smiles back from seb and kourtney. she smiled at gina but got a mock smile in return.

"oh hey," ricky said.

"i uh, i didn't know if you knew where my locker was, so i just came here, sorry."