the flaw in being perfect - rini au

two

Ricky doesn't want to walk into school today. He knows he's sort of repetitive with not wanting to do things, but it's hard not to be when he genuinely doesn't want to be in this city to begin with.

It's just because people are going to start recognizing him more and more after the party  he went to over the weekend. The boys on the team warned him about that.

Well, to them it was a 'hey congrats!', but to him it was more like a 'here's more attention that you don't want!'

Ricky has never liked to be the center of attention. His family has moved around a lot in the past, so he has plenty of experience with being the new kid everyone is intrigued by.

"Hey, Ricky," a girl winks at him as she passes.

Great, Ricky thinks to himself sarcastically.

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Ricky walks up to the football team's lunch table and sets his bag down before plopping into a chair.

"Rough day?" Carl Krugman asks.

"You could say that," Ricky grunts, tossing a school-provided fry into his mouth.

Before Ricky even has time to chew the fry, he sees a familiar girl practically skip over to the moderately full table.

"Hey boys!" Nini says cheerfully.

"Hey Neens," Jonathan Taylor winks.

"What's up?" EJ asks her.

"Gi and I are in charge of fundraiser ideas this year, and we were wondering how against a car wash you guys are," Nini starts, handing him her phone.

The phone gets passed around and Ricky soon sees that it is displaying a flyer she had designed for the potential car wash event.

"It would be five dollars a car and they can choose if they'd rather have football or cheer clean it." Nini smiles.

The boys all start to nod enthusiastically as Ricky stays slumped in his seat, continuing to eat his lunch and practically ignoring the entire situation.

Once Ricky is done eating, he packs up his stuff and leaves the cafeteria.

As he exits the doors he hears someone calling after him.

"Hey! Ricky, right?"

He turns, with his eyebrow raised at the perfect little cheer captain. "What's it to you?"

Nini approaches him at full, holding out her hand for him to shake. "I'm Nini," she offers with a sweet smile.

Ricky's hard exterior doesn't budge.

Nini drops her hand awkwardly. "Um, well, anyway. I just, y'know, wanted to get your input. On the car wash thing. Since you're, um, part of the team."

Nini fidgets awkwardly. She's not used to being so outwardly denied by someone.

"Look, Ms. Perfect. I'm not interested in your whole facade," Ricky drawls. "You can go back and mess with all your other fuck buddies, but your flirting isn't going to work on me."

Nini looks taken aback. "I'm sorry, what are you talking about?"

"Come on, you can't tell me you haven't been with at least half the team." Ricky rolls his eyes. "It's obvious in the way you interact with all of them."

Nini's eyes narrow slightly, wondering if this guy is serious. "Look, buddy," she starts, her words dangerously articulated. "You don't get to come to my school and try to tell me who I am and what I do. Not that it's any of your business, but I would never even think about being something more with any of them. Those boys are the best people in my life, but they know we're better as friends, and if you think you're better than them, you're so incredibly incorrect. I'd be careful, if I were you, what you say to me. You'd be surprised how much of an influence I have over my boys."

Nini is incredibly protective over her idiotic friends on the football team, especially after everything they've helped her through.

She quickly flips the switch and brings the smile back to her face, though Ricky can suddenly see how fake it really is. "So, what do you say? Does the car wash sound good?"

It takes Ricky a moment to process the situation, his face a mixture of trying to keep his cool and a glimmer of disbelief.

"Yeah, a car wash is fine."

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anddd there's chapter 2!! what do you think??

-jenna