angels like you (rini au)

O N E

~chapter one~

"Don't worry Ricky, I promise," EJ reassured him. "I mean it, this needs to get done on time," the curly haired boy repeated, causing his friend to roll his eyes jokingly. "Relax," he laughed, "it's gonna get done."

"Are you sure? Because it seems like we've been waiting on this playbook for weeks," Ricky complained. He forced a smile as they both walked past the cheerleaders who were also practicing at the same time as them. They waved at the girls who he was friends with, and gave a friendly grin to the girls he was civil with, and all of the waved back enthusiastically.

He was civil with almost everybody in that school. Teachers, students, janitors. Almost everybody loved him.

"It's been like 3 days! Just chill," EJ chuckled, amused by how his best friend managed to get himself so worked up so quickly.

Ricky had a terrible habit of overthinking almost everything. Most of the time, he would overthink things to the point where he causes his own problems. It was sometimes funny to watch him get himself so anxious about the most simple of situations.

"You need to calm down! Even if coach orders the playbook next week, it'll still get here well before that day. Just chill," EJ said, at an attempt to calm him down.

He took a deep breath and suddenly all he could hear were the sounds of basketballs bouncing from every point of the court and he realised everything was under control. He just needed to get himself under control.

"Okay, you're right," he sighed, nodding his head. "Everything is fine, everything is under control."

He repeated it in his head non stop, almost trying to convince himself as well as EJ.

"See, what do I always tell you? Always trust me..because I am always right," EJ said confidently as he stole the ball from Ricky's hands.

"You do have your moments, you're still a dumbass," Ricky teased. "No, I just have my off days. Besides, I'm still so much better at basketball than you," he added.

"We'll see," Ricky responded as he snatched his ball back from his teammate.

"Okay, warm up time!"

The two co-captains put their game faces on as the rest of their teammates also got ready for their official practice to begin. Tossing his ball to the side, Ricky stood beside EJ as he led the stretching.

After about 5 minutes of stretching their tired muscles, he was beginning to get lost in his own little world.

Another bad habit he had. Well, it was only really bad in some situations. He was a daydreamer. He often dreamed about different scenarios. Meeting celebrity crushes, playing in the NBA, stuff like that. Other times, his daytime fantasies felt like they could only ever happen in poorly written overly predictable Wattpad fictional stories.

Most times though, he dreamed about better times. He loved thinking about how he would love to live. He wanted to be stress free, pressure free. He wanted to be free from all things negative. He liked being happy. But this was real life. And real life didn't seem to like treating him as well as his fantasy life did.

Life would've been so much better for him if he lived in a Wattpad fictional story.

His eyes drifted off to the stands behind the cheerleaders, which were mostly empty during practices. Complete opposite of how they were during their games.

They were on the basketball team of East High. They were Wildcats. It would be a capital crime for the stands to be empty at any one of their games. Practices, however, were usually empty. Generally just the basketball team, the cheerleading squad, the coaches and one other girl.