cruel summer. [ rini au ]

chapter one.

Nini Salazar-Roberts swung her backpack over her shoulders as she walked through the hallways of East High on the last day of her junior year. All of the lockers had been stripped empty and the only remains were old food wrappers and crumbled-up papers overflowing in the trash cans. As Nini swung past the chemistry hallway and down by the drama room, she saw the familiar profile of her best friend, Kourtney Reneé.

"You ready to head out?" Nini asks as she straightens her green and white flower printed dress.

"Yeah, I just finished chatting with Miss Jenn about ideas for the musical next year." Kourtney says as the two girls start walking towards the back doors to the parking lot.

Kourtney is one of the managers of the drama club at East High, alongside Carlos and the drama teacher, Miss Jenn. Although Kourtney has an amazing voice, she sticks to the hair and make-up crew as well as helping coach the drama club members with the songs. Carlos tends to all things choreography and Miss Jenn does all the other little jobs in between, making for a perfect team of three!

"Have you guys decided on the fall musical for next year yet?"

"We are still deciding between doing either Into the Woods or Beauty and the Beast"

"Oh I love Beauty and the Beast, it's a classic!"

"You know, it would never hurt to maybe try to audition next year, instead of just helping backstage."

"Oh no, I'm perfectly fine helping paint sets. Besides, who else would there be to be the understudies?"

"But, Nini, your voice is amazing! You would be the best Belle since Susan Egan!"

"Kourt, you know I have no time, I'll be busy with track and helping Ashlyn with the scholastic decathelon, I'm just meant to be behind the curtains." Nini exclaims as they walk out the school doors and onto the pavement towards Nini's white Jeep. The only problem is something seems to be blocking their view.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Nini exclaims, her face full of anger. "How much of a jackass is he?"

"Nini, girl - just calm down, let's just go out to the field and get him to move it." Kourtney says, trying to keep the 5'5 ball of fire from exploding with anger from the fact that Ricky Bowen's old, banged-up truck is blocking Nini from leaving the school.

All of a sudden, E.J. Caswell shows up, running towards the door with several empty water bottles.

"Yo, E.J., where's Mr. Dickwad?" Nini yells out, trying to get his attention.

E.J. re-routes his run over to the two girls.

"You mean Ricky?" He asks, even though he knew the answer. "What's up with him?"

"The idiot thought it would be a fricking fantastic idea to park right behind my Jeep and block me in." Nini exclaims.

"Oh Sal-Robs, don't sweat it, I'll just go grab his keys and move it for you." E.J. says, trying to make peace with the girl shooting him a death glare.

"Make it quick, I've got to get home and start packing."

"Oh yeah, you're leaving me this summer, Sal-Robs, what am I going to do without my next-door neighbour around all summer? Who's going to entertain me at all the family BBQs?" E.J. jokes around.

"Please, you should be happy, you won't have to listen to me argue with the jackass all day long."

E.J. just laughs and runs back out towards the field to grab the keys to Ricky's truck.

"E.J.'s right, it's going to be weird this summer without you around at the rec center." Kourtney confesses.

"I'll miss you guys too, but I'm in desperate need of a break from you-know-who and a summer camp in Colorado is the perfect way to find one." Nini says.

Usually, every summer since freshman year, Nini and her friends would work at the rec center in town. Some would run the day camps, some would be lifeguards at the pools and others would do maintenance and gardening. It's a great gig, except for the fact that Ricky Bowen is included in "the gang" unfortunately. Both of their friend groups like to hang out, so lucky them, they spend more time together than they would like. But, this year, Nini decided to try something new and applied for a camp counsellor position at a summer camp in Colorado. She ended up scoring the job and will be spending the next two months up at a lake in a different state, far far away from anything that has to do with Ricky Bowen.

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"Bowen, where are your keys? I need them!" E.J. shouts out to Ricky on the field. Ricky comes running over.

"In my duffel bag, why do you need them though?" Ricky questions.

"There's a certain long-haired brunette who needs to move her car and your truck is in the way." E.J. explains.

Ricky smirks, "I know, she stole my spot this morning."

"Well, now she wants to go home, and I know you're not going to move the truck, so I will instead." E.J. says reaching down on the grass to grab the keys from the front pocket of the black duffel bag. Once they were secured, he turned back towards the parking lot and started running towards the girls.

Ricky took a swig from his water bottle and jogged back onto the field where the players of the basketball team were getting ready for their annual end of school year soccer game. None of the team players were that coordinated with their feet, so it was a fun way to fool around and hang out, especially since it would be the last time they could all hang out this summer. Normally, Ricky would be working as a day camp counsellor at the rec center with his buddies, but this year, he was offered a position at a summer camp in Colorado. The owner was a friend of Mike Bowen, Ricky's dad, and he called to see if Ricky would be interested in working as a sport instructor. Aside from swimming, they were looking for someone with a background in basketball, track and baseball and Ricky checked all three boxes. The money was twice the amount that he made at the rec center and he wouldn't have to deal with Nini the whole summer.

It wasn't that Ricky and Nini were enemies; E.J. played peacekeeper too well for that to happen. It was more the fact that Nini was too perfect to be true. She was one of the most popular and friendliest girls in their grade, she had one of the highest GPAs and most impressively, she was involved with the track team, scholastic decathlon, the drama club and occasionally with student council. That is what annoyed Ricky the most. Most kids at East High would choose a niche in freshman year and stick with it all throughout high school. That's what Ricky and his friends did. Ricky and E.J. chose basketball, Big Red chose robotics, Kourtney, Gina, Carlos and Seb chose drama, and Ashlyn was apart of scholastic decathlon. No one had time to join any other teams or clubs, basketball practice ran the same time as the drama rehearsals, the robotics club had competitions around the same time as the scholastic decathlon. The only time the gang saw each other was in class, at lunch and occasionally for movie nights or bowling nights on Fridays. But Nini Salazar-Roberts was the superhuman who did everything.

Ricky would see her everywhere. He would see her before homeroom in the theatre, running lines with Gina. She would spend time at lunch helping Ashlyn with the scholastic decathlon. During her free period, she would be found either rehearsing songs with Seb in the music room or helping plan school activities with student council. After school, when Ricky would leave basketball practice, he would see her running laps around the track. Nini didn't let anything get in her way, if she wanted to be apart of something, she would. Ricky found it unsettling how she was capable of doing everything and fitting it into her schedule, so he made it his goal to go out of his way to push her buttons ever since freshman year.

It usually worked.