bittersweet • rini au

03

nini walked the hall aimlessly, even though she knew she was dreading room 205, she was five minutes left, and somehow she couldn't care less.

after a dreadful eight hours of high school, and the start of a fresh new week, she was fighting with her whole being to enter the tutoring class. she felt tiny, she felt small in a huge and shiny school, filled with unmotivated and stereotypical people. all from the nerdy glasses boy, to the insatiable cheerleader, that only joined the team for the popularity.

she was another fish in that big sea, with the only exception of a higher IQ and actual aspirations for her future. she rarely attended parties, or social gatherings altogether, and only participated in the cheer squad for competitions.

she stopped mid hallway, and took a deap breath, and reminded herself.  "Yale, it's for Yale" and she did, she swallowed her pride and anxiety away and got inside room 205.

an empty classroom met her sight, except him.

and there he was, richard bowen, in all his glory, earbuds in place, feet prompted up on the desk and mindlessly chewing his bubblegum. 

"Yale, it's for Yale"
she took another deep breath and approached the young boy, who hadn't even recognized someone had entered.

"you dropped these," she said as she picked up a few pages that had fallen from the desk.

"WHAT ?" the boy obnoxiously screamed at her showing zero interest in what she was referring too. 
swallowing her pride yet again she sat in the desk in front of him and took the decency of pushing his feet off the desk and placing the papers in front of him.

" YOU. DROPPED. THESE." she growled lowly for him to hear her loud and clear.

he looked at her with contempt and went back to concentrating on the loud music in his earbuds.
"um, bowen," she looked directly into his eyes. agitated and annoyed he finally caved "what."

"i'm here for tutoring." she hadn't spoken to him since probably, middle school, even though she remembered them being childhood best friends back in the day. nonetheless, he became a jock, a player and someone who didn't deserve her time anyway.

"golden girl, i don't need your help," he huffed "i'm only here because davis makes me, in an hour and a half i go my way you go yours, simple as that." nini was fuming, who did he think he was ? and who doesn't he think he is talking to her that way.

"i'm here to help you, and i'm not walking away without doing so."

"seems like a personal problem to me" he responded without even giving her the decency of looking at her.

"actually, i think is also a "you" problem," she insisted while pulling a blue folder from her backpack. "i took the liberty to look at your grades, and with a GPA being 2.3, looks like someone won't be able to play his last season."

"how did you get that ?" he took the folder with a dumbfounded. "wait, are you like stalking me or something ?"

"i have my ways, and emma might have helped a little," she answered simply.

"emma?" he raised his eyebrows at her.  realizing her mistake she studdered and corrected herself "i meant, Mrs delaney, the guidance counselor, she helps me a lot with, uh, college applications"

"i know what this is," he said putting down the folder and looking straight at her                           "you have a crush on me."

she held back a laugh "on you? what on earth gave you that idea ?"
"stalking me, showing up instead of chloe, i know the ways golden girl," he said pointing at her.
"chloe tutors you?"
"for a while, yeah, and by tutoring, you know what i mean." he winked.

"well, you will not be getting that from me, i think ill be good,"

"however i think there is something you could do," he said with a mischievous look in his brown eyes. "you can give me some study drugs, all smart kids have them."
"NO" she responded out loud. she couldn't believe this guy.
"okay, this is a long shot, but any weed?"
nini just brutally stood up and picked her stuff from the ground. "that's it, forget Yale, you're impossible."

"giving up so soon miss salazar-roberts ?" principal davis said to her as she was getting out of the classroom.
she was about to speak up when but the curly boy beat her to it. "don't you have anything more important to do than bother than harras girls davis?"

she let out a small laugh while principal davis rolled his eyes and continued his way. "i guess you don't like him either," she leaned against the lockers in defeat.
ricky just shook his head in agreement. "the guy is an idiot. i resent him,"

she huffed at his response, "never thought you would say that,"
"and why is that golden girl?"
"please, he has bent the rules for you for years, figured you were even friends."

ricky shook his head "yeah, but not for the team, and it pisses me off. they're even got more brains than i do."

"at least you have good grammar," she chuckled nicely.
"look this is not going to work out. i appreciate you even coming, but at least chloe was a distraction, but i have to go."
nini sighted, Yale was gone. all the work she had put in the last three and a half years vanished in the span of two days. but she got herself together. ricky bowen wasn't going to ruin this for her. he was everything she didn't want to become, at she was not letting him ruin her dream.
"no," she said as he started to walk away.
"look nina, you and i won't work, we don't mix," he said in defeat.

"why not," she said with a slight pain in her voice. "we both need something, and we can both get it if we work together. at least give it a try, please ?" she crossed her fingers looking directly into those brown orbs hoping to make him stay. "you need this to graduate."

he kept looking at her and got closer to where she was standing.
"all I need is 100 hours, all i need is for you to give us a chance, and davis just needs to sign so i can go to Yale," she pleaded, trying to look for a way to reach beyond his hard shell. "i know college isn't your thing," she finally looked up to catch him and convince him. "i might not know a lot about football, or sports altogether, but, bowen listen, i know we don't really talk since our childhood, and i know we have no reason but," she steadied herself trying not to crumble. "Yale is the comparison of you winning the season, states. all the work you've done, all the training, all the beating and you have it all. and then, one of your guys gets hurt, so you have to take one of the guys on the bench. it's a risk, but the prize is bigger and this is your dream, you wouldn't forfeit right ?"

she took a deep breath, holding herself together and calming down the anxiety she felt in the back of her throat. he just stared at her, a mixture of confusion and lack of emotion. "please ricky, i know we're not friends, but can you just be human for once ?"

he looked back at her taking time to process, "only if you bring weed."

and then he was gone before she could protest.