ALIVE - R. BOWEN

two

The end of the first day wasn't even over and Ricky found it harder and harder to keep up his end of the promise he made to his dad. He already felt like skipping and he still had one more class to go. He walked in and found that his teacher had chosen to neglect assigning him a seat, which meant Ricky knew where he was headed, straight to the back. He was about to take a seat when like a shining light Nini walked in, talking to another girl who Ricky couldn't recall meeting.

Nini stopped and scanned the room for an open seat. She saw the boy she had met at lunch today sitting in alone in the back, and she was tempted to take the empty seat next to him, but instead opted to sit up near the teacher in her usual spot. She couldn't let herself be distracted, not when physics was her worst subject and certainly not when she already had a boyfriend that she was pretty sure she was in love with.

Pretty sure.

She decided that a small wave would suffice, and dove right back into the conversation she had interrupted with Natalie Bagdley.

Ricky sighed and rested his head in his arms that were folded on the desk. Big Red entered the room, not noticing Ricky. He went over to Nini's desk as Ricky lifted his head when he heard a familiar voice come in. Ricky watched as the two conversed. Even though he couldn't see Nini's face, he knew she was laughing because Big Red had a large smile on his face as he talked. He pointed in Ricky's direction as the teacher told him to find a seat. He walked to the back and sat next to Ricky.

"Hey Ricky. How's your first day been?" Red asked.

Ricky rolled his eyes, "Don't take this the wrong way, but it hasn't been so good. School isn't really my thing, but I made this promise to myself that I'd start being a better son which means holding up my end of this deal I made with my dad to actually try in school."

"Yeah. I'm not huge on school either, but this place isn't so bad." Red tried to sympathize, but couldn't really figure out how. "Hey, if you want some of the people you met earlier including Gina are going to my dad's pizzeria. Gina's boyfriend works there and I'm sure you'd like him. He's pretty dope."

Ricky almost scoffed at the offer but decided that since he didn't find Red so bad, he'd try and turn him down politely as possible. "Nah, that's okay. I'm still kinda grounded from getting expelled so I'm supposed to go straight home after school." Ricky frowned. He wasn't lying about being grounded, but he knew if his dad knew that Ricky had an offer to hang out with what seemed like a pretty wholesome group then his dad let him go without any hesitation.

But Big Red didn't need to know that.

"Woah, expelled? What did you do?" Big Red asked when the teacher, who's name Ricky didn't catch because he was too busy talking to Red, cleared her throat.

"So nice of you to join us, boys." She raised and eyebrow at them and Big Red's face turned as red as his hair. Ricky was stoic, he was used to getting called out by teacher. He heard a small giggle come from somewhere in the front of the glass and he looked over to see Nini trying her best to hold in her laughter. "I don't give you guys a seating chart for reason, but I would hate for you both to be the reason I start assigning one." She frowned disappointingly at the boys before giving them one last glare and going back into teaching.

Ricky was glad that her empty threat meant nothing to him, if she had threatened something more serious like detention then that would've put Ricky in some hot water at school and at home. Ricky however, was almost happy that the teacher had interrupted because that meant he got out of answering Big Red's question.

☆彡

When class was over, Nini abandoned her desk to race after Big Red and the new boy, even though she knew Red would wait for her.

Sure enough, he did, and Nini came out of the classroom and burst into laughing, "Red!" She exclaimed, "You should've seen your face! I swear it was the color of you hair!"

Big Red rolled his eyes, "C'mon you know how I feel about Ms. Carter." Nini gently shoved his shoulder, and he acted like it hurt.

Nini rolled her eyes and tried to look at Ricky who was trailing slightly behind Red and Nini. "So, Ricky, right?" Ricky nodded his head, slightly hurt that Nini didn't remember his name but also thrilled that she acknowledged him, "How was your first day?" She stopped walking for a second so that he could catch up to her.

Ricky opened his mouth to answer, but Big Red cut him off, "Don't ask, it's all doom and gloom for him. I even invited him out for pizza at my dad's place tonight but he can't because he's like grounded for eternity." Big Red explained as he walked backwards down the hall so that he could be face to face with the two.

Ricky felt a wave of embarrassment pass over him as Big Red mentioned his punishment, but he was thankful that he hadn't mentioned the expulsion in front of Nini.

"Oh so does that mean you can't like, come to a party this weekend?" Nini teased.

Ricky raised an eyebrow. "Well it all depends on what kind of party it is." He shrugged.

"We're gonna sit in a circle and sing Kumbaya, and then maybe do some crafts." Red joked, earning him another shove from Nini.

"He's joking, one of the guys on the water polo team is having a huge party since his parents are out of town. It'd be pretty cool if you could come." Nini smiled and Ricky tried not to blush at the invitation.

"Yeah I might be able to make it." He said, trying not to bring up the grounding situation again.

"Hey Nini, who's this?" Said an unfamiliar voice to the small group of three. It came from behind and when Ricky turned around he was met with Nini throwing her arms around the tall boy's neck. His dark features and tall stature almost threatened Ricky, and then he remember that he had been expelled from four different schools for bad behavior and suddenly this mystery man didn't seem so scary.

"Ricky, this is my boyfriend, EJ." Nini said.

"Boyfriend?" Ricky asked Nini, not making eye contact with EJ as he shook his hand.

"For four months now." EJ faked a smile as he tightened the grip on his handshake which forced Ricky to make eye contact with him.

Ricky looked like a deer in headlights, and that relaxed EJ.

"I hope you don't mind but I invited him to Jared's party on Friday." Nini smiled up at her boyfriend.

EJ kept up the act as he looked at Ricky and back at Nini, "Yeah sounds awesome."

"Great, well I guess I'll see you tomorrow." Nini said to Ricky and he gave her an awkward wave as she turned around and walked off with EJ.

"Well, he's pleasant." Ricky remarked.

Ricky could see Big Red shrug of our the corner of his eye, "Eh, he's not too bad. He's Ashlyn's cousin and Nini seems to like him. If she's happy, I'm happy." Big Red smiled before to turning to face Ricky, "Are you sure I can't convince you to get pizza with us?"

Ricky sighed, "Positive. I'll see you tomorrow." He said just as the two had walked out of the front of the building. Ricky unstrapped the skateboard from his backpack and rode off in the direction of home.