Half a Heart •Ricky Bowen•

13

The group of friends sat towards the back of the cafeteria as the meeting went down in front of them. Ricky sat next to Ella who was nervously bouncing her leg up and down. Ricky placed a supportive hand on her thigh to get her to stop, he leaned over and whispered in her ear, “relax babe, it’ll be okay.” 

Ella kept her eyes on her favorite teacher as she nodded her head. 

“Excuse me,” Everyone’s heads turned to Mike Bowen standing up, “Can I say something?” 

“I’m sorry. We’re not opening up the floor to parents on this.” Mr. Gutierrez said to the parent.

“Let him speak.” Nini’s mother called from the other side of the audience.

“Go ahead, Mister Bowen.” 

“I’m a little late to this party, but I gotta say the real crime here would be booting a teacher who’s making a positive impact. I’ve never seen my kid this invested in anything, and I don’t think that’s something you should punish, your… honor.” The crowd of parents murmured. Ella lightly nudged Ricky’s arm with a smile.

“Mr. Bowen, I appreciate your statement, but I think we can all agree that theater isn’t unique in this regard. It doesn’t have some special fairy dust that can’t be filled by another extracurricular.” Ella bit her tongue to the point where it drew blood. 

That was Kourntey’s start to begin humming, that was followed by other people joining in. One by one the theater family stood up as they hummed in harmony. This was about to be a performance that no one would forget.

_______________________________________

Everyone did jazz hands at the teacher who stood in the center of them, everyone panting and out of breath. The Board remained quiet, but as soon as Nini’s mother stood up and clapped, everyone joined in.

“Settle, people! Settle down. Settle down.” Mr. Gutierrez called out. Everyone’s applause died down as Mr. G asked the members if they had any further questions.

“Just one. So how do I snag two tickets for opening night?” Everyone's jaws dropped as they all began to cheer. Ella’s eyes watered with tears of joy as she wrapped her arms around Ricky’s neck. He held her close to him, he swiftly picked her up off the floor and spun her around. 

“We did it!” She gasped into his neck. “Yes we did princess.” 

Ella let go of her boy to go hug her other friends. She grabbed hold of Nini and gave her a tight hug. “You were amazing!” Ella said to the girl before being pulled away by Gina.

“We just did that!” Gina said as the girls shrieked together, jumping up and down before hugging.

______________________________________
*Ella is dreaming*
My eyes scanned across the thousands of lights that scattered the ground below us. My gaze never left as a familiar arm wrapped around my shoulders. "It's so beautiful." I spoke, mostly to myself.

"I remember when you said 'as cheesy as it sounds I wanna go to Paris and fall in love'. And you mentioned how you wanted to see the city of lights from the Effiel Tower. Since then I've been making sure I keep enough money for us to travel around." Ricky spoke, tucking his hands into his pants pocket.

I laughed quietly, catching Ricky's attention. He looked down at me with a confused look. "Look at us, we started as best friends. Best friends who had play doh fights and who always held hands on the swing set. I- I never expected to end up here with you. But there's no one else I'd rather be with. You have been the light of my life since we first met, always supporting me. Showing me you always care."

My body felt cold when Ricky left my side. Turning around to see where he went, I was surprised to see him on one knee, a velvet box in his hand. My hands cupped my mouth as I realized what was happening.

A muffled "Ricky" escaped my lips, my eyes stung with tears as he reached up and held my left hand. "Ella Varney, when I first met you I would have never imagined that we would be here in this spot. You came into my life and have given me so much love. You remind me that there will always be a light in the darkness that surrounds me. You helped me out when I felt like the whole world was agaisnt me. From our convenient store runs at 2 in the morning, to our adventures of finding places to watch the sunset. You have been the one for me. You will forever have my heart, and I hope I will always have yours. Ella Varney, will you marry me?"

Ella shot up from her position as she tried to catch her breath. She gasped loudly, reaching to grab her water bottle off her nightstand. She quickly took a swig before calming down.

She knew that the dream she had was dumb, especially since they're only 17, but whenever she was with Ricky or thought of him, everything felt right.