a new home (a rini au)

3 - cardboard angst

Nini wakes up to the sun in her face, she groans, rolling over and rubbing her eyes.

"Good morning sleepyhead" Carol chuckles from the kitchen, smiling. "What time is it?"

"Almost twelve, it's okay you were tired"

Nini nods slightly, not pleased with herself. She gets up and runs up to the bathroom to freshen up. Fifteen minutes later she runs down, Winnie following her around insistently. "Ah ah ah stop" Carol holds her back "food first, then you can go all crazy on your room"

She sits down at the kitchen island, drinking a cup of water. Carol slides a plate in front of her with a sandwich and some apples on it. "Where is everyone?"

"Mom and May took lola to the hospital for her appointment, they'll be back in a bit. I'm just prepping for dinner today"

"Okay, I really want to finish unpacking so I can get all the cardboard out of my room" Nini says, making a list of stuff to do on her phone. Carol cuts some apple and gives it to Winter, who was begging her with puppy eyes. "Hey Ni, where did this chicken rice thing come from?" She asks pulling out the glass Tupperware badly placed in the middle of the fridge and rearranging it.

"Ricky brought it by last night, for Winter"

Carol raises her eyebrows slightly, a small smile on her face. "What?"

"Nothing"

"You're making a face"

"It's nooothing, I just think it's good for you to make new friends, that's all"

"I am going to go unpack" she declares, rushing to put her plate in the sink and then sprinting up the stairs, Winnie follows.

Nini goes through a box at a time at first, eventually post of them end up empty, all her stuff splayed around the room. She shuffles around, moving her desk and bed repeatedly. Winter runs off, sitting under the dining table where Carol is going through patient files.

Across the road, Ricky paces around in frustration, staring down at the chapter list for his AP chem test next week. He groans, slamming it down on his desk. Ricky looks out his window and see's her dragging a huge white desk around her room with one hand for at least eight minutes before she settles on a fixed place for it. He watches her scramble around the room for the next couple hours, looking up from his text book every few minutes without even realizing it.

At around three in the afternoon, Malou and Dana come back home. Nini takes a break and sits with Malou for a bit before going back to unpacking, at about five Dana and Carol start on dinner while Malou rests.

By six, it's starting to get darker outside and it's quite windy. Ricky closes his books, pushing them aside. He looks out again and finds himself smiling immediately, she's dancing around with headphones on, putting books onto a shelf. She tumbles onto the bed, which makes him laugh. He doesn't hear the knock on his door.

"Hey Rick"

The voice startles him, he draws the curtains close, fumbling around slightly. "Hey dad"

"So mom's back from Chicago tomorrow, and Nonna and Pappy are gonna be here for dinner"

"Right..."

"Uhm it's just you and me tonight though" Mike says trying to put on a smile "what'd you feel like for dinner? We can order whatever you like"

Ricky tries to smile back, though he's not so sure he is. "Um how about Chinese, from that small place by 4th street?"

"Perfect" Mike says, slipping out of the room.