Finding Belle (a Ricky Bowen fanfiction)🌹

Chapter Fourteen

Ricky Bowen

*Monday February 8th*

T-6 days till the valentine's day dance. I still haven't asked Nini if she can come over  that weekend yet. I've been too busy thinking about her Cabaret adventure with that new guy. What's his name, Luke? Will? All I remember is that he had three friends that were better looking than me.

"Attention East High I would like to make an announcement." I heard my best friend Big Red over the morning message P.A system.

Weird. I thought Ashlyn did morning messages. I thought to myself.

"Big Red. I'd love to talk but I have to do morning messages right now." I heard Ashlyn over the P.A system.

"Ashlyn Caswell will you be my date to the Valentine's day dance?" I heard my best friend blurt out of the system nervously. (A/N: Sorry I don't know her last name.)

"OMG yes I'd love to." I heard over the speakers in the hallway.

Great just great. Another one of my friends had planned a proposal for their date and I still haven't told Nini about the dance. I talked to her last night though she seemed to be pretty happy about her classes at YAC. I was happy for her, but I still missed her like crazy.

"Excuse me love birds, and now for the morning messages." I heard another guy over the speaker.

Oh no. I really hope this was not going to end in another proposal to the dance.

"Hey Ricky. Ashlyn said yes!" Big Red popped out of nowhere as I closed my locker. Jesus Christ. He's a great best friend but he needs to stop giving me mini heart attacks.

"Yup. The whole school heard over the P.A. System," I sighed walking with Big Red down the hall.

"You haven't asked Nini to come yet, have you?" Big Red asked me in a serious tone.

"Not yet. I've been talking to her, and she seems really happy at YAC. She's made a lot of friends and I'm afraid that she's going to forget about East High soon. I don't want to push her to come home if she's comfortable where she is."

"All you've seen is a few Instagram pictures on her profile and you've called her at least three times a week. You can't know if she's really happy there. She might not be. That's why I don't use social media. It's so easy to believe people are happy on them. You should ask her to come down. We all miss her, and you won't stop complaining about it." Big Red replied to me.

Damn. Even my best friend has started to give me good pep talks now that Nini is at YAC. He's changed since he's been with Ashlyn.

"I'll ask her over the phone call tonight. Thanks for the encouragement. I'm going to head to American Lit. See you at lunch." I said as I walked down the hall.

Big Red is right. I have to tell Nini about the dance or else I'll lose the chance to see her again until spring break.

Why was I so scared to ask her to a Valentine's day dance?

I walked into the American Lit classroom and saw Isabella sitting in the back reading her book like she always did. I decided to go talk to her before class started since, we were on good terms now.

"Hey watcha' reading?" I honestly couldn't think of anything else to say even though she was reading the same book that she had a week or so ago.

"Oh, hey Ricky. Read any good books lately?" She teased me putting her book on her desk.

"Oh, you are still bugging me about that. I thought we discussed my lack of interest in reading?" I gently nudged her teasing her playfully.

"It's been a few weeks since we started reading To Kill a Mockingbird, it's a really good book. In fact, it's a American classic. Oh, I bet you didn't know that because you haven't read it yet." she teased me back.

"I read on google that it was a classic. You see, I do read." I crossed my arms for effect.

"You better cross your fingers that we don't have a pop quiz today Mr. Spark Notes." Isabella replied before taking out her notebook and book full of sticky notes.

Isabella was right, we did have a pop quiz today and the questions were even harder. I didn't know any of the answers and just wrote down random names in the blanks. I probably failed that quiz anyway.

The rest of the day was pretty lonely without Nini by my side. I saw Isabella sitting at the theatre kids table at lunch again, but she sat next to Brandon and his new friend. I kind of distanced myself from everyone and just ate my lunch.

As soon as I got home, I checked Nini's schedule to make sure that she was done with classes and called her as soon as I got to my bedroom. I needed to ask her tonight.

"Hey Ricky, what's up? How were rehearsals today?" I heard my beautiful girlfriend's voice through the phone.

"Rehearsals went ok. Gina is so good at dancing and I keep stepping on her feet. Hey, can I ask you about something serious?" I heard her laugh on the other side.

"Ricky, you got to watch where you step when you dance. What's up?"

"There's this Valentine's day dance on the 14th and I was wondering if you would want to come down to visit for the weekend and be my date?" I bit my lip nervously.

"Oh, I'd love to go Ricky, but I don't think my moms can get me a plane ticket in a week and auditions for Grease are the following Monday and I want to practice my lines. I'm sorry. I miss you so much." I heard her voice crack on the other side.

I should've asked her earlier like Carlos did. I sighed and ran my hand through mt curls.

"It's ok. Nini please don't think it's your fault or be upset about. I hope you get the lead for the musical at YAC. I miss you every day." I said trying to calm her down through the phone.

"How's Kourtney and everyone else?" She said trying to change the subject.

"Kourtney has a boyfriend, as you probably already know. Everyone else is getting asked to the dance and the proposals are quite cute. Big Red asked Ashlyn over morning announcements this morning. I wish you were here." I sighed but she couldn't hear me through the call.

"Yeah Kourtney  told me about her new guy. It's quite interesting. Don't worry Ricky I'll be home for spring break mid-March. I miss you so much every day. I love you."

"I love you too." I was finally able to say to her.

We talked some more about updates at East High and her discoveries at YAC. By the time she had to go to sleep, and I started my homework she started mumbling. I could tell she was getting tired considering the fact that we were talking for two and a half hours and it was now 9:00pm. She had mentioned that the classes at YAC were harder and she had less energy by the end of the day, so she went to bed earlier.

"Ricky can you sing to me asleep please?" I heard her mumble through the phone. Damn I loved her sleepy voice.

I softly began to sing to her through the phone till I heard her soft snores.

(Play song now)

I'm only one call away
I'll be there to save the day
Superman got nothing on me
I'm only one call away

Call me, baby, if you need a friend
I just wanna give you love
Come on, come on, come on
Reaching out to you, so take a chance

No matter where you go
You know you're not alone

I'm only one call away
I'll be there to save the day
Superman got nothing on me
I'm only one call away

I hung up when I knew she was sleeping peacefully and decided to actually start reading that American Lit book that I was supposed to start read three weeks ago. Maybe I would actually pass those pop quizzes if I read the chapters?