Nini was walking back to school for rehearsals after she had walked back home to get her script that she accidentally left behind in her room early this morning. It was also the first tech rehearsal. But Nini couldn't stop thinking about one thing.

The last time she spoke to Ricky.

"Thanks, but I don't really need advice from a 'buddy' right now."

The look in his eyes as he spatted out the word "buddy" to her, killed her.

And now here was Nini, still feeling bad about it and everything, just walking quietly back to school.

Though, over the weekend, Nini started thinking about leaving East High and applying for a performing arts school. Her old friend, Emily Pratt, from summer had mentioned about going to a boarding school for the arts and said, "It makes all that stuff last summer feel like kindergarten."

But leaving East High also meant leaving her friends.

Anyways, Nini had arrived and entered the school and made her way to the theater. She saw no one else outside waiting and so she entered the theater, only to be shocked at what she saw.

Everyone else was already inside, except Gina and Natalie.

"Oh my gosh, what happened?" Nini asked as she looked around. The theater was wet and things had looked burnt.

Ms. Jenn noticed the group and walked over to them. "It's okay! Nobody was hurt. There was a small fire over the holiday, and the sprinklers did their job."

"We're almost done in here, just have to finish up the faculty room next. Some circuits blew in there over break." A fire woman said as she walked over to Ms. Jenn. "Unfortunately, the show can't go on."

"What?" Ms. Jenn said as everyone else looked around in worry.

Fire ripped through half of your costumes and the sprinklers ruined a bunch of your sets. I'm sorry, but i'm gonna have to red tag the entire backstage area for a month at least." She said as she handed over a burnt basketball with smoke coming out of it to Ms. Jenn.

"Did she just say costumes?" Kourtney asked sadly.

"Okay listen up, hug your neighbor, take a moment, and let's reconvene in the cafeteria after school to talk about options. Nini and Ricky, spread the word."

Nini agreed and immediately spoke. "Got it. Yeah, of course."

Ms. Jenn waited on Ricky to respond. Nini looked over and saw that he was on his phone texting someone.

"Ricky? Ricky?"

Ricky looked up and quickly put his phone away. "Huh? Sorry. After school in the cafeteria, got it."

Nini bit her lip and left the room. She walked to the cafeteria and started to spread the word to the other cast members and crew.

Soon after, everyone else had gathered in the cafeteria talking about what was going to happen. Ms. Jenn had came back and everyone began to talk about what was going to happen. They all found out that Gina had a family thing, and so wasn't going to be there. They eventually had came up with an idea to look into other venues for the show, and Carlos had gotten his Uncle Ruben to agree in letting them use the El Rey theater. Ms. Jenn had looked hesitant at first, but eventually agreed.

"Wildcats, let's grab all the props and costumes that didn't get damaged and let's load out." Ms. Jenn said as she turned around slowly and followed everyone else into getting something.

Everyone had arrived at the El Rey theater. It was dark, and multiple people had used flashlights for light. Nini entered in and looked around at the place. There were still props everywhere from the fashion show that was here before them.

"Hey sis, how you holding up?" Someone had said. Nini turned around to see that it was Kourtney.

Nini had let a breath out and responded. "I don't know Kourt, I actually feel weirdly guilty. Almost like I caused this. Like it's a sign."

Kourtney gave her a strange look. "How could you have caused this?"

And so, Nini told her about herself thinking about applying to a performing arts school. Kourtney, of course, was a bit sad to hear about Nini thinking to leave the school before their senior year together.

"But that's over now and we have a show to stage. It's not important anymore, and besides, the whole fire thing could've been worse." Nini said as she gave Kourtney a reassuring smile and walked to the middle of the stage where everybody else was.

Ms. Jenn had gave everybody instructions on what to do for the day.

"Troy and Gabriella, find somewhere quiet and run the rooftop scene. It's been a while and I need you opening night ready by dinner time." Ms. Jenn instructed the two. They looked at each other, but quickly looked away as they both walked out, Ricky leading the way.

Both of them walked in silence until they had found a door. Ricky had opened it as Nini entered the room using the flashlight to see where they were.

"This place totally is not creepy at all." Nini muttered as she walked more into the room.

Ricky had let out a "tsk" sound and responded as he closed the door. "Right." He looked around and found a light switch and flipped it to see if it worked, which it did.

"Wow" Nini said as she continued walking, Ricky now following her.

"Yeah." Ricky quietly said. "So, how have you been?"

"Fine, and you?" Nini responded not stopping or turning around. Nini had started getting chills a little from the room, something didn't feel right.

"I'm okay. Look, about the other night at Ashlyn's party."

"I get it." Nini interjected as she placed her script on a piano that was in the room and placed her flashlight down.

Ricky looked at her blankly. "You do?"

"Yeah, I mean, I said something nice, you acted like a punk, what's there to discuss?"

"Cool, then we don't have to talk at all." Nini said as she looked down.

"Sounds like a plan." Ricky said as he shook his head and frowned. Suddenly, Nini started to hear a beating sound. She was starting to feel scared a bit now, but she ignored it. She was here to get things down with Ricky, then she could leave and regroup with everybody else.

"For the record, you're the one who called me your "buddy" and i've been iced out for weeks, so maybe it was building up." Ricky had said after Nini didn't say anything.

"And that's on that. Let's just get started now." Nini said quickly to avoid any other conversation other than working on the scene as she got her script out, Ricky doing the same.

"What page?" Ricky asked as he flipped the pages of his script.

"Page 53."

Ricky flipped around until he got to the page.

"Ready?" Nini asked. Ricky nodded his head.

Nini had started off reading her lines and Ricky the same. The tension around them was thick and awkward and Nini really couldn't wait to leave.

Ricky was in the middle of reading his line when he suddenly stopped.

"You know, I know these lines. Should we just lose the scripts?" He asked looking into Nini's eyes.

Nini looked up from her script. "Um, okay, sure." She said as she placed hers down, and started to say her lines again.

"Remember in kindergarten, you'd meet a kid, know nothing about them, and then ten seconds later, you're best friends." Nini said looking straight at Ricky in the eyes.

"Yeah."

"Singing with you felt like that."

"I never really thought about singing, that's" Ricky had said in character, but once again stopped. "Actually, sorry, do you remember in kindergarten when I couldn't pronounce your name?"

Nini looked away and chuckled. "Yep. Vowels weren't really your best friend back then. I never really liked the name Nina though."

The two of them had taken a brief pause and sat down and reminisced about when they were younger, forgetting why they both seemed to avoid each other. Nini was laughing when she started to hear that beating sound again.

"Ricky?" Nini asked as she suddenly stopped laughing. Ricky looked at Nini and saw her expression.

"Yea, what's wrong?"

"Do you hear that?" She asked as she stayed still.

Ricky kept quiet for a bit, then spoke up. "No, why?"

Nini bit her lip and stood up and walked to where she was hearing things. Ricky stood up as well to see where she was going.

They both eventually ended up walking to the back of the room, but there was nothing there.

"Come on Nini, let's just get back to practicing our lines. There's nothing there" Ricky said as he started to walk back. Nini furrowed her brows and walked to where there was another door, a smaller one. Probably a closet.

She had opened the door and ducked down to see what was inside, and then entered it. There wasn't anything there.

"Nini? Come on." Ricky said. Nini crouched back down to exit. She then closed the door, but as she turned around she screamed and bumped her head.

"Nini? Nini!" Ricky said as he saw Nini on the ground. He ran over to her and helped her out.

"Here" He then said as he slinged Nini's arm around his shoulder and held her by her waist as he helped her walk back to the bench.

Nini sat down as Ricky checked if there were any bruises forming on her head. Thankfully, there weren't any.

"Do you want me to get you anything, water?" Ricky asked. Nini just shook her head.

"I'm okay, let's just continue now."

Ricky looked at her, concerned. "Are you sure? We can just wait for 5-10 minutes and then continue."

"I'm fine Richard." Nini said as she looked at him and smirked. Ricky pouted.

Nini laughed at him. "I'm sorry, but no one under the age of 50 should be named Richard. Hence, I gave you the nickname, Ricky."

"I guess, but did you give it for that reason, or because I microwaved your Barbie that same year?"

"Maybe, maybe both." Nini said as she grinned at him.

"Man, I guess we've had a few mishaps." Nini then said as she sighed.

"Yea, more me than you, right." Ricky replied as he smiled to himself as he remembered something else. "Remember when I took out your lemonade stand doing a wheelie. Or when I ate your science project about mouldy bread in the fourth grade?"

Nini laughed again. "Yeah, we about suffered on that one."

"And then I couldn't say, 'I love you' when you wrote me that song." Ricky then said not even noticing it.

Nini was caught off guard and accidentally dropped her hand on the piano. Ricky widened his eyes in realization.

"Too soon?" He asked awkwardly. Nini nodded her head, and it was back to silence.

"Nini?" Ricky said.

"Hm?" Nini hummed not looking at him.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"That I didn't say 'I love you' when you wrote me that song. I realized how jerkish that was. And to think that I even asked to take a break with you just because-"

Nini cut him off as she realized that he was rambling. "Ricky, it's, it's okay." She said quietly.

"Really Nini? Because if you're still mad about it, I don't blame you."

"Ricky, it's okay. I understand." Nini said as she stood up and faced Ricky.

"You couldn't say it at the time, and it probably wasn't the best idea to say it to you over social media." Nini added as she laughed at thinking about her posting the video. Ricky smiled softly at her and looked away.

"Nini?"

"Yes?"

"Have you ever thought, I don't know, if we never broke up, if we were still together?"

Nini looked down again at her shoes, but then straight into Ricky's eyes. "In all honestly, yes."

The two of them just stared into each other's eyes and slowly began to lean in and kiss.

Nini felt a hard slap to her face as someone had screamed her name. Nini had opened her eyes to see Kourtney in front of her.

"Oww..." Nini mumbled as she sat up. She noticed that she was still in the same room she and Ricky were in practicing.

"What happened?" She asked Kourtney who gave her a bottle of water.

"Apparently you had passed out and hit your head. Ricky said you heard something and so you got scared from it."

Nini looked around and noticed it was just the two of them.

"Where's everybody else?"

"They're waiting outside. Ms. Jenn is having a moment to herself." Kourtney answered as she then helped Nini stand up.

"Oh, okay. And Ricky?"

"With everyone else. He actually just left 5 minutes ago after I offered to wait here until you woke up, but I got impatient so I slapped you. Which, by the way, sorry." Kourtney said sheepishly as she noticed the red mark on Nini's face.

"It's alright." Nini said. "Let's just get out of here."

The two of them headed out but Nini had realized she left her script.

"Hey Kourt, I left my script. I'm going to just get it real quick." Kourtney nodded.

"Well, it's not like we're in a rush, so go ahead."

Nini walked back into the room and sighed as she grabbed her script.