Ethereal Love

School Girl Days

Nini stayed home for the rest of the summer, only leaving the house once to empty the mailbox. She was so confused and upset and she just didn't know what to do with herself. She'd always thought that losing her virginity would be a big deal, and that she would regret it and it would hurt, but she also always imagined that it would be with some popular, gorgeous football player or maybe even a college guy, like all her friends. She never imagined that she would lose her virginity to Ricky Bowen. And especially not while she was dating someone else.

But the main thing was that she found herself not regretting it as much as she should. She wished, of course, that she hadn't done it while dating someone else, but if she could have gone back in time and changed her mind... she wouldn't have.

Ej had texted her a couple of days after she got home.

I never would have thought you were the type of girl to run away rather than breaking up with a guy. We're done. Have a nice life.

The message was too vague for her to figure out whether or not he knew about her and Ricky, so she did her best to push away all the memories of the cute raven haired boy who's heart she had probably broken.

LINE BREAK

When it was finally time to go back to school, Nini was surprised to find herself dreading it. She'd never enjoyed school, per se, but it was always something she had conquered... she was top of the food chain, and nobody messed with her. She could go about her own business with little interruption. But after being out of contact with all her 'friends' over summer, she wasn't sure where she would stand. She was sure she would have lost all her popularity and be ignored by everybody.

And this is why she was so surprised when she walked out of her front door and found Kourtney waiting for her, smiling that same fake smile she'd seen so often over the last few years. She immediately found herself comparing her supposed 'bestie' to Gina, even as she squealed and hugged her friend and told her how much she'd missed her.

"Oh God, Neeners, no one has seen or heard from you all summer! Where have you been?" she exclaimed, linking their arms as they started down the street.

"Well, after the incident with the car at school, my mom decided she couldn't deal with me anymore and sent me to spend the summer at my mom's music camp..." she explained. Kourtney winced, looking apologetic.

"Oh Girl, how did you even survive? Camp! Ugh... and your mom... did you speak to her at all? Let her know what a trampy, slutty, fugly bitch she is?" even though Kourt was simply repeating the things that Nini had said about her mother herself before, Nini found herself reddening with anger.

"Kourt, don't you dare talk about my mother that way." She muttered darkly. Kourtney's eyes widened at her threatening tone but she nodded and apologized quietly.

They walked the rest of the way to school in a tense silence, but when they got there and saw the rest of their friends waiting for them outside of the gates they both plastered on fake smiles and ran over, greeting everyone with as much enthusiasm as they could muster. When they walked into school and everyone moved out of their way as usual, Nini sighed in quiet relief. Everything was okay, nothing had changed.

And then her eyes met Ricky's.