Translucent Melody || rini au

16

nini woke up early on a cold monday morning as she felt herself beam with a little happiness

she didn't know how she could have this emotion so early in the day and week, but she did

as she got ready, she made her way downstairs with her bag over her shoulder, humming a melody that she couldn't get out of her head recently

this whole weekend, she spent her time writing and working on the song to the melody ricky had hummed a couple weeks ago

she left her house after saying goodbye to her moms and owen, heading towards ej's car

"hey neens," he smiles

"hey," she breathes, setting her bag on the floor of the car as she closes the door and he starts driving

"how's owen feeling?" ej asks

nini nods with a small smile "he's good. he still has a bit of pain from the surgery but the doctor said it's normal."

ej beams "that's great. maybe i should come over tomorrow so that we can play a few video games." he suggests

"he'd love that," she laughs

suddenly, she feels her head beginning to hurt and takes a deep breath to control herself before closing her eyes, feeling something weird happening inside

"hey, you okay?" ej asks worried as he pulls into the school parking lot

nini opens her eyes and lets out a breath before nodding "y-yeah! no-yeah, i'm good."

ej looks at her cautiously for a few seconds before nodding as he parks the car and they both get out of the vehicle

the two start walking towards the entrance and nini catches a glimpse of the curly-haired boy, who looks up from his notebook and smiles a 'hello'

she nods and smiles back as she passes his friends, luckily they were all in the midst of a conversation to notice ej and nini walking by

"what was that?" ej smirks

nini looks up at her best friend "nothing-"

"it didn't seem like nothing," he sings

she rolls her eyes playfully "we get along now, it's nothing."

"if you say so," he says under his breath

they both meet up with kourtney and seb at their lockers as they catch up over their weekends and make their way to class

***

ricky walked in to his second class of the day, which was english

he made his way around the tables, brushing off the cheerleaders who were hitting on him as he arrived to the front table where the brunette girl was sitting and writing in a small notebook

"hey,"

nini shoots her head up and quickly closes her book as a smile comes on her face when she sees ricky

"oh hi!" she exclaims

ricky notices something different in her facial expression - it's like her smile wasn't quite reaching her eyes and she looked almost...tired

"you good?" he asks

nini forces her smile to widen and she nods "yeah, i'm perfectly fine. why?"

he shrugs his shoulders "never mind,"

ricky sits at the table next to her and the two look up as the class' chattering dies down, seeing mr carter stand up

"alright class, i'm going to remind you all that your project is due tomorrow. so make the most of today to get it done and perfect!" he exclaims