𝙢𝙮 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 ~ 𝙝𝙨𝙢𝙩𝙢𝙩𝙨 (𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙞)

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐.

Nini only had a day to settle in at the Conservatory before classes started. It felt like a good idea at the time. She wanted as much time with her people in Salt Lake as she could have; but now, as she stood outside the door of her first class panting after sprinting through the building and having gotten herself thoroughly lost looking for it, she started to second guess those choices. She checked her phone, 9:25. Class was starting in five minutes. It was now or never.

She took a deep breath to steady her nerves and pulled the door open.

---

"So I open the door, and everyone turns to look at me," Nini told Ricky over facetime that evening, "and I literally wanted to just shut the door and run, but the teacher's like 'oh are you the new girl? We were wondering where you were' so turns out the class starts at 9, not 9:30."

"Oh no!" Ricky said, eyes going wide as he clearly tried not to laugh at her.

"Oh yes," she sighed dramatically. "If that's not a terrible first impression I don't know what is. Also, none of the teachers asked me if I had a preferred name, so I guess I'm Nina here, which I- I don't know-" Ricky gave her a questioning look, waiting for her to elaborate. "It just never occurred to me that there would be a point in my life when people wouldn't be calling me Nini, but I guess I don't mind it. I kind of like the idea that only my people from back home get to call me that," she said looking at Ricky to see if he understood.

"I mean, it'll take some getting used to, but I hear what you're saying." Nini could tell he was trying to be diplomatic, but she also knew how he felt about change.

"So how was EHS today?" She asked, eager to change the subject.

"It was miserable without you," Ricky said. She knew he was being dramatic, but her heart still constricted a bit. "Really, Nins, I overheard teachers crying in the hallway, mourning your absence," he winked at her and she laughed.

"You're insufferable," she scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"No, but seriously," Ricky said growing quiet. "In calc Mrs.Windsor told the whole class about it and like half the class looked at me, it was so uncomfortable. Same with Mr.Romulo in history. The worst was chem though, cause Miss Frey is still out, apparently, she's in Spain till the end of the week, so we had a sub and they called your name during roll and everybody started talking over each other telling him how you're 'gone' and, I don't know, something about the way they were talking about you. They made it sound like you died or something." Nini could see that Ricky was struggling to understand his own feelings about it, but she knew what was going around in his head.

"Ricky," she said gently. His eyes, which had begun to glaze over, snapped up to meet hers. "I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere." Ricky's face warmed with a soft smile.

"I know," he said. "I love you."

"I love you too."

"And give it a little time, those Y.A.C. people are gonna love you too," Ricky said it with so much sincerity that she could almost believe him. "So I'm still kind of confused about this place. Paint me a picture, what does it look like?"

"Okay so there's only about two hundred students here and it's kind of like a college campus cause it's more than one building, but it's a lot smaller than an actual campus. So basically we have dorms, and we each get our own room but there's a laundry room, kitchen, and bathrooms in the common space. There's a girls building and a guys building- which, come to think of it, seems kind of outdated to me, like what about non-binary kids, right? But anyway, the main building is between the two dorms and it has all of our classrooms and the dining hall, and a convenience store which just has the essentials like chips, hairbrushes, tampons, ya know?"