𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐞 || 𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐫-𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝟭𝟯 - 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸𝘀𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴

a/n - please vote, have a good day or night :)

i walk into ashlyn's house. "hey! look who's here," nini says, standing on the bottom of the stairs, "nice hat." i chuckle, pulling it off, "thanks, it was a gift." nini chuckles too. "i didn't know if you'd make it," i say. "oh yeah, my moms are watching the dog competition and kourtney's out of town at her grandma's so i figured i'd come and check in on all my uh... buddies," she says awkwardly, pointing at me as she leans on the stair railing.

i chuckle again, "nice. we heard a rumor that carlos went off the deep end, and we did not wanna miss it," i say, smiling. "we?" nini says, the door opening. "hi, nini," gina says, "happy thanksgiving." "oh, hey," nini says, giving the most awkwardest laugh i've heard from her. "turkey cupcakes," she says, looking at them, "gobble gobble." "it's a gluten-free cupcake recipe i made from scratch! from... youtube." "again? with you and youtube!" i exclaim, gina and i chuckling, nini forcing another chuckle.

"okay so knights, you guys won the coin toss so you guys get to pick the first challenge," carlos says. "we gotta do looking for glee," i say. "okay, we're gonna look for glee," ashlyn says.

"alright, we're gonna bop!" ej says. "okay. pick one member from each team." there was an overlapping chatter. "do you wanna do it, ricky?" i ask. "no, no! you can y/n," he says, smiling. i stand up, and so does ej. "oh boy," seb says as the everyone falls silent. "your challenge is to stare at your partner and do the sharpay and ryan warm-up thing for 60 seconds straight without laughing," carlos says, "or killing each other. okay... go!"

i bring my hands in front of my face, dropping it as i shake my hands. "brr! brr! brr!" ej and i make noises. i spit my hands at him, which he does the same, "ma! ma! ma!" everyone starts to laugh, making this harder to not join in.

gina walks with a root beer in hand back to the living room, and i smile, walking past her to the kitchen. "hey," i say to nini. "oh, hi," she responds. "root beer?" she offers. "can i just take a sip from yours?" i ask. she hums, handing it to me. i take a sip, handing it back. "um... party's great," she says. "yeah... yeah, it is," i respond, standing back to her. "mhm," she responds. "did i do something?" i ask. "no?" she says, confused. "you seem really awkward with me now," i say. "no, you're good- we're good. me and you are good." "nini! y/n! hurry up!" i nod, walking back to the living room.

carlos holds a polaroid camera, everyone sitting on the couch. i stand behind the couch next to gina, nini laying across everyone. i sling an arm around gina, and carlos takes a picture.

i walk up to carlos, "i'll take a selfie so you're in it too," i say. carlos hands me the camera, and i stretch my arms out, hopefully getting everyone in frame. "ready everyone?" i ask. "3, 2, 1!" i take the photo, closing my eyes and smiling.

"mom! two things. one, i was just crowned the queen of crazytown, and two um, can i spend the night at ashlyn's house?" gina asks to her mom on the phone. "um, it's actually the crown of east high," carlos corrects, getting shushed by gina. "mom sorry i can't hear you," she puts her on speaker, "okay, you're on speaker. say happy thanksgiving to my mom, everyone!" she says, panning her phone across the room. "happy thanksgiving!" we all yell. "oh! same to all of you. gina, honey, can you take me off speaker?" no one says anything, and gina excuses herself, walking out of the living room.

we all chatter softly. "they can't do this to us again. we just moved here!" gina yells, walking away further. i stand up too, walking to the kitchen.

gina walks in. "hey, you okay?" i ask. "i will be," she responds, picking up her bag. "wanna talk about it or..." i ask. "not even a little." "i'll call you?" "honestly, you heard what happened," she takes her empty cupcake tray from my hands, "i don't think there's any point in calling me anymore, do you?" she walks out, and i sigh.

"the cupcakes were-" nini gets cut off as gina closes the door without a word. "amazing," she finishes. i put my jacket on, and nini turns to me. "hey, you all right?" she asks. "what?" i say. "uh, this is pretty intense," she says, looking at the door then back at me. "yeah, i was there," i walk, to the door. "y/n, i know you've been going through a lot." "nini, please don't do that." "i'm just trying to help you." "it's not just gina, okay? my mom moved out like two weeks ago and she's already got a new boyfriend." nini sighs, and before she could speak, i beat her to it. "i gotta go." "you should talk to your mom, y/n. you know you always feel better when you..." "thanks, but i don't really need advice right now. just focus on yourself, yeah?" i open the door and walk out before nini could say anything.

nini's pov
i sit on my hanging chair. "write something for yourself," i whisper ashlyn's quote. i close my eyes, holding my ukulele.

eventually writing a song, i place my ukulele down. i sigh, remembering y/n. then gina. or should i say and gina? i feel bad about stealing all of gina's stuff, especially since she apologized about the whole wonderstudy thing today.

was y/n finally outgrowing me? surely not, right? god, i hope not. i don't know what i'd do without her.

y/n's pov
'hey nini, i really didn't mean what i said' i delete the message as i sit on my stairs, shaking my head. i go to mom's contact, calling her. after a few rings, she answers. "hey mom? it's me. i miss you so much."

i walk into the cafeteria holding my tray, looking around at the seats. nini was sitting with the theater group on one table, gina and the volleyball girls on another. "hey y/n!" julie yells out. "y/n!" carlos yells out at the same time. gina and carlos look at each other.

oh shit.

"uh..." i trail off, switching between the two tables. i catch eye contact with nini, who looks at me for a split second, looking down at her food. "come y/n," emma beckons me over. i take one last look at the theater table, walking over to the other table.

i sit down beside gina, placing my tray on the table. "hey," gina says, smiling at me. "hi," i respond, slightly smiling back at her and picking up my chocolate milk.

we look around the bomb shelter, now completely destroyed. "oh my gosh, what happened?" nini asks as i watch water drip from the ceiling. "it's okay! nobody was hurt, there was a small fire in the theater over the holiday, and the sprinklers did their jobs," miss jenn says. i flinch as i feel water drop on my head.

"unfortunately, the show cannot go on," the worker says. "what?" i whisper. after the worker talks, miss jenn faces us, holding a burnet basketball- that was still burning. "okay! okay, listen up. hug your neighbour, take a moment, and lets reconvene in the cafeteria after school and talk about options."

i pull out my phone, texting gina. 'hey, please lmk if you're okay. i'm getting real worried.' "y/n?" miss jenn yells. "huh? sorry! after school in the cafeteria, got it," i say, turning off my phone.

i sit at the cafeteria, watching miss jenn talk."i don't know, i guess we could consider other venues?" she suggests. "how about the el ray?" carlos suggests, getting a bunch of approval. "any other ideas?" miss jenn asks. "miss jenn, i feel like you just had a really weird reaction to what i just said," carlos says. "sorry, what did you say?" she asks. "carlos is asking if we can try and use the el ray theater," nini repeats. "my uncle reuben is the listing agent, and the last thing they had in there was a fashion show like 4 years ago," carlos says. "this place has 500 seats!" seb says, looking at his phone. "i can't imagine we'd be able to get in on such short notice," miss jenn says. carlos speaks spanish to his uncle. "sounded like a yes to me!" ashlyn cheers, all of us joining in. "the el ray theater it is!" miss jenn agrees, "wildcats! let's grab all the props and costumes that didn't get damaged and let's load out!"

another a/n - lowkey not satisfied with the way i ended under the mask, i'll add more chapters after i'm done with this book :))