𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 [𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙞 𝙖𝙪]

07

two months later - november

during the two months, nothing new happened between the friends. nina was living her best life in salt lake city with her closest friends ashlyn, red and carlos. she would still call her boyfriend from back home daily and they still maintained a good and
healthy relationship, despite the distance. she also would call her moms daily as mama d would constantly text her and ask her how/what she was doing.

as for ricky, things didn't change much. kourtney and seb finally got comfortable with gina hanging around them and they became a closer group. however, kourtney and seb noticed how gina would still try and get close with ricky and try to make moves on him which he was fairly oblivious to.

ricky still had negative feelings towards nina which she picked up on rather quickly as she would try her absolute hardest to stay away from him in their chem class. his friends still were confused as to why but ricky never explained himself, eventually, they just let him be.

+

"okay everyone! today we're going to be starting a week long project," mr mazzara said to the class, earning a groan from almost every student. "calm down everyone! no need to jump out of your seats from excitement."

"why do teachers always make jokes like that? like it's not funny," ricky whispered to kourtney as he rolled his eyes.

"so far you guys have been doing projects with the person sitting next to you but for this i'm going to ask you guys to switch partners with someone in the class."

everyone started looking around the classroom for someone to switch with and nina could see as they all made mental agreements. with red being her only friend in the class, she let him choose who they would be switching with, but everyone in the class had already chosen their friends to switch with.

"ok, i can see that everyone has already chosen people to switch with, is there anyone who hasn't gotten the chance?" mr mazzara asked the class, and eight people raised their hands. "okay so nina and red, kay and peirce, jenny and ethan, and ricky and kourtney? is that it?"

nina looked around to the three other pairs who hasn't switched and assumed that her teacher was going to choose for them.

please don't switch with ricky and kourtney. please don't switch with ricky and kourtney.

"nina you can go with ricky, red you can go with kourtney, and kay with jenny, peirce with ethan."

fuck.

+

"what's up with ricky?" seb asked, sitting down at their lunch table.

"he's gonna have to do a project with nina," kourtney said.

"ok and?" seb responded, to which ricky glared at him, "oh, right."

"aww, it's okay ricky! we can go out to cheer you up!" gina suggested.

"what?" ricky questioned.

"we can go out!" she repeated, but then saw the look on her friends' faces, "i mean all of us, not just us two," she laughed nervously.

"oh, it's fine i guess, i just have to spend more time with her, maybe there's a way i could still avoid her."

"sorry to burst your bubble richard, but i highly doubt you could do that," kourtney replied.

ricky glared at the girl and rolled his eyes as he saw nina walk to her table, laughing with her friends.

"why is nini always so happy? like does she not get mad at all? doesn't she hate me too? why isn't she mad we're partners?" ricky asked his friends.

"cause she's literally the nicest person ever," seb pointed out, "and ricky i told you before, she doesn't hate you, she just knows you hate her so she stays away from you."

"poor girl, she probably constantly asks herself what she did." kourtney said.

"oh well, if she wants to know she can ask. i mean, i don't know what i'll say, but i'll make something up i guess." ricky replied.

he looked over at the girl again who was talking to carlos passionately, maybe about something she loved. he stayed in that position and watched as she looked over in his direction and they made eye contact.

she gave him a small smile and quickly looked away and engaged back into her conversation with carlos again.

he couldn't help but grow a smirk on his face, despite her already looking away. he's never seen her smile before- well he has, but not to him.

a warm feeling grew in his stomach but he shook it off, trying to maintain his negative perspective of her.