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Ricky was so happy when his mom told him that he could come over to Chicago for the summer.
As much as he was convinced that he was successfully moving on from Nina, many of his favourite places to go to in Salt Lake were places he always went to with Nina and it was too much emotions all at once.
Big Red was spending a lot of time at the pizza shop and the rest of his spare time were spent doing a lot of random stuff with his girlfriend.
Although Ashlyn was his co-star at this semester's musical, Ricky and her barely spent any time together outside of rehearsals, it was safe to say that Big Red was the factor they had in common and when they were not reciting their lines, Ricky was always scrambling to fill the awkward moments between them. It was either that or Ash will try to talk him into getting back with Nina for the hundredth time.
He loved the Caswell sunshine but sometimes she was a lot especially when she was poking into other people's business.
Ricky decided not to tell anyone including big red that he was spending the vacation outside of town, he wasn't ready for all the questions and potential interventions but one thing he did was pack his East high sweat shirt and hoodie because yes he wasn't the most excited East High schooler at the moment but he had every intention of flying the colours high wherever he went to.
Gina Porter is an all star dance student at the Chicago high school for the arts, even though she just got promoted to junior class, she had a chance at graduating early because of her equally excellent academic performances.
She hasn't really been anywhere, well she has but it has mostly been dance related trips that circled around dance studio, hotels, straight from the airport and back home.
Gina absolutely loved being an only child but sometimes it felt as if her parents smoother her with love, I mean she wasn't complaining but she also wished they spent more alone times by themselves instead of trying to include her in every of their activities.
Nathan and Nadine Porter were both doctors at the Chicago memorial hospital a few blocks away from the Porter residence. Gina was practically raised in the hospital and spent most of her time after school and dance rehearsals volunteering at the St Luke (the children section of Chicago memorial).
The star dancer knew exactly what she was going to do this summer; she was going to host mini dance shows at St Luke and she already got her approval from the CMO aka Nadine Porter, wasn't she the luckiest girl in town.
Despite being popular at Chicago high, Gina prefers to keep a low profile; this was her own way of preparing for her inevitable stardom even though she never told anyone.
She barely kept friends outside of school and it would be so much fun hanging out at the nurse's lounge which wouldn't be a problem if they weren't all too busy to help with her show. Her cousin was supposed to fly in from Louisiana to help but he cancelled at the last minute and was she surprised, no! Jordan Porter was the sweetest eighteen year old she knew but he was massively unreliable but Gi loved him nonetheless.
Her show was in a couple of hours and there she was in the nurse's lounge thinking of who to call, most of her school friends were already at summer camp and she was going to ask her mom and dad if it came to that.
Gina was drifting away in her thoughts when nurse Bowen rushed into the lounge almost barging into her where she stood near the changing lockers.
'Oh hey Gina, I didn't see you there. I'm sorry!'
'Hey Lynne, are you ok? what's up?'
'Well my shift starts in a few minutes and my son will be at the airport any minute now, he's staying with me over the summer. I have no idea how I'm going to go get him and he absolutely hates the airport taxi. If only I can find someone who will go get him for me.'
Gina was half listening and she was stunned at herself when she let out...
'Oh, no worries, I'll go pick him up.'
Before she could regain her composure and take back her offer, Lynne was already halfway out of the room.
'By the way, his name is Ricky and he has curly black hair, you won't miss him. I'll send you his number as well'.
A relieved Lynne said about five thank yous all at once before she finally disappeared into the beehive situation that Chicago memorial usually is on Fridays.
'Darn it.' Gina muttered under her breath as she struggled to put on her seat belt. Here she was two hours away from a show that wasn't quite ready to kick off and somehow she was on her way to the airport to pick up some kid from the airport.
Her sixteen year old self loved driving, heck that's one of her hobbies but today wasn't one of the days she was enjoying it.
Granted the airport wasn't far off, Gina was at a stop sign when her phone beeped.
'Hi, this is Ricky, landed a few minutes ago. Thanks for coming to pick me.'
Gina heaved a sigh of relief as the traffic lights turned green.
She turned up the radio a little higher and the Sunday Morning chorus filled the interior of her car.
Gina wore her friendly smile as she looked around the airport. She was doing one more round when she spotted a boy that looked like he will be Lynne's soon; pale face, check, curly hair; check and check.
For the first time today, Gina was suddenly conscious of what she was wearing, I mean she had no plans of making an impromptu airport run so what she had on was a neon top over a black jeans paired with faded vans.
She was a bit distracted that she didn't realise that Ricky had also spotted her and was making his way to her.
'Hey, you must be Gina!'
Gina stopped on her tracks and took a look at her new companion.
'Oh you must be Ricky then, sorry I don't have a lot of time to chitchat. Can we get going?'
'Sure.' His wide grin faded as he moved to get his stuff. Gina noticing the change of mood quickly followed him.
'Hey look I'm sorry, it's just that I have this thing at the hospital and there's not enough time and I'm still looking for someone to help with and... it doesn't even matter, I'm sorry.'
'Well I can help with your thing.' Ricky grabbed his backpack and guitar case as he and Gina made their way to the car.
'Umm, you don't even know what I need help with.' Gina teased as she reversed out of the car park.
'Well whatever it is, I'll do it. You didn't have to come pick me from the airport but you did, consider this as my little way of saying thank you.
Except there was nothing little about helping Gina Porter execute her mini music show for the children of St Luke.
Ricky had barely dropped his stuff in the nurse's lounge when Gina handed him a notepad for song writing, they agreed on the ride to the hospital that Ricky was going to create some sort of jingle for the kids to sing along.
He had only known him for a little while but Gina was a breath of fresh air, one could feel her softness and kindness from the way she talked about the children and called them by name. He had also learnt that she was a dancer and he couldn't wait to see her do her thing in about thirty minutes.
'Let you go' was the last song Ricky wrote and he hasn't had so much of a success writing anything since then, something he was trying to explain to Gina before she hurriedly excused herself from the lounge.
He looked around the room and let out a little laugh. I mean he could be stuffing his face with pizza right now and bothering big red when he comes to check on him at his booth but no he was here doing a thing with some girl he just met.
Speaking of Big red, he decided to shoot him a text message.
'Hey dude, last minute plans but I flew to Chicago to spend some time with my mom, I'll probably be back before summer ends. Just thought you should know before you decide to come over later today.'
Ricky went back to writing the jingle and honestly, it was easier than he thought it would be, maybe because this was for kids.
this visit already feels different; maybe because this was his first time of coming to the hospital or because he was excited to sing to these kids or Gina... he was definitely excited to be around Gina and no not in whatever way, she just seemed like a really nice person to be around.
He has only been in Chicago for a little over an hour but this trip was already better than the one he had during spring break.
Ricky was strumming his guitar when Gina quietly came back to the lounge.
'OMG, the kids are gonna love it and I know that because I absolutely do.'
'Thank you Gina, it means a lot.'
'Well, it's five minutes to show time, and shoot I don't have a change of clothe.'
'You can have have my sweatshirt.' Ricky handed her one of his most cherished East High shirt, the one clothing he never shared with Nina. It was his little treasure but somehow, he did not hesitate to let Gina wear it.
'I'll excuse you while you change.'
'Thank you so much Ricky. St Luke is just down the hall by your left, you'll hardly miss. I'll meet you there in a bit,'
Gina was right, you cannot miss the beautifully decorated children's ward. The kids all seemed excited and some nurses were trickling in and out of the ward. A firm warm hand on his shoulder and he turned to see Lynne all smiles and happy to see him
'I'm so sorry that I couldn't come to see you any sooner.'
'It's alright mom, I know how busy your Fridays are and it's okay since I'm doing this show with Gina so you can watch me since you couldn't come for my opening night.'
An uncomfortable Lynne was thrown back with guilt as she tried to explain herself but Ricky's attention was turned to the door.
Gina looked incredibly beautiful in the sweatshirt, with her hair let down, her curls bounced along as she walked into the room. The kids cheered. Gina Porter was kinda like their hero and they adored her.
The music came on and Gina shot Ricky a smile and a thumbs up as she stepped into her element, the boy was stunned at his sight; Gina was doing some simple yet fantastic one-two steps as she swayed back and forth to the music. She went on for all of five minutes as the kids and some of the hospital staff cheered her on! Nathan and Nadine were one of the proud members of the audience, they knew their daughter was special but no matter how many times they've seen her dance, each performance felt fresh and amazing.
When she took her final spin(curls up in the air), the ward sort of erupted as everyone cheered again.
To say that Ricky was amazed was an understatement, they had good dancers back at East High but the boy has never seen anyone dance as good as Gina Porter. He was thoroughly impressed and that's not something he feels a lot.
'Wow! Gina you were great out there.'
Gina was still trying to catch her breath and could only offer him a thumbs up.'
'I think they are ready for you she said in between breaths.'
Breaking the exciting chatter for a minute, Gina announced: 'I have one more special act for you, someone I met barely two hours ago was kind enough to write you all a special jingle. He is nurse Lynne's son visiting from Salt Lake, St Luke please give a warm welcome to Ricky Bowen.'
A slightly shy Ricky came up to Gina in the middle of the ward with his guitar slung across his shoulder.
'You'll do great' she half whispered as she stepped away from his imagined spotlight.
When the clapping quietened down, Ricky calmly looked across the room and his eyes met Lynne's and she gave him her biggest supportive smile. Gina was talking to one of the kids, her curls covering the side of her face.
He loudly cleared his throat. 'Hi everyone, I had about an hour to write this and I hope you like it.'
Ricky sang about the moon and stars and about how joy comes in the morning and it didn't take long before the kids joined in to sing along.
Opening night was great but this right here gave him a different beautiful feeling and it was all thanks to Gina. As he strummed his guitar for the final note, he looked in her direction and she looked as happy as everyone else; singing along, tapping her right foot and snapping her fingers.
Thank you Ricky filled the air as he ended his jingle, what a mini show!
'That was so good Ricky, I'm sure the kids enjoyed that.'
'Yeah I think they did.'
'Umm my mom is done with her shift and she's ready to take me back to the apartment. Is it ok if I text you? and also, you can keep the sweatshirt, it looks way better on you than it ever did on me. See you soon hopefully.'
Gina couldn't believe her ears, in the space of two hours, she met a boy who sang at her mini show and is now offering her his school sweatshirt... definitely feels like she was living out some scripted fantasy.
Gina hasn't exactly allowed herself to get into relationships, sure she has had a couple boys make advances at her in school and at dance studios, she wasn't just about that life, not yet anyway.
Ricky asking to text her doesn't mean he likes her in that way but then again, this was the first time a boy had given her his sweatshirt so it did feel nice.
Of course her parents wouldn't be back home until later in the evening so Gina seized the opportunity to enjoy the quiet house.
She wasn't exactly hungry, the success of her mini show left her satisfied, a few scoops of ice-cream sounded nice though.
Gina took her cream filled bowl and went into her room and neatly tied her hair with a pink scrunchy.
A message came in from Ricky.
'Hey Gina, this is Ricky(in case you haven't saved my number), thanks for the airport ride, for letting me be in your show and for giving me a great first day back in Chicago.'
It made her smile and she does have a lot of great days here but this one was pretty special all thanks to him but she can't tell him that, at least not yet.
'Are you kidding me! I'm glad I made that airport trip cos it gave me a beautiful jingle and an East High sweatshirt in return, so thank you.'
Another text message from him came in almost immediately.
'If you don't have plans already for tomorrow, would you like to go to the skatepark with me? I hope it's not too soon.'
Gina Porter has never been to the skate park before despite it being a few blocks away from her house. She has driven and walked past the place but she has never had a reason to go in there. There's always a first time for things right...
'I'd love that, just give me a heads up.'
Gina went back to her melting ice cream, she has never been to salt lake city but looking at the East High sweatshirt, something about the new addition on her wardrobe made her think of visiting the city, of visiting him, sometime, someday.
Crazy yeah but that's Gina and her wild spontaneous thoughts.
The doorbell called her back to reality.
As soon as she opened the door, Nathan and Nadine began their showers of praise for her show.
She was loved, she knew she was loved and she wouldn't trade it for anything.
Ricky had just finished his plantain and dip sauce as he read Gina's message.
Once again, he was grateful that he mom offered an escape away from Salt Lake.
He doesn't know what the rest of summer had in store for him but he knows exactly what he wants to do tomorrow; give Gina Porter a great time at the skate park.
Things just felt like the start of something new and he let out a breath that he had no idea that he was holding in.
A chime on his phone and it was a message from Big red.
'Ricky, wtf dude! I didn't get your message until I got to your house, well now I'm stuck with Mike watching some old people's movie. Thanks a lot for the last minute heads up,'
'Sorry dude, try and have some fun and get ready for some movie commentary. Tell me all about it tomorrow.'
Big Red was the closest thing Ricky had to a brother and he loved him very much but for the next two weeks, he was going to enjoy his stay in Chicago considering the last visit was a sullen and sad one.
A part of him had a feeling that all his plans of having fun in Chicago will revolve around Gina Porter and he only hoped that the curly haired girl will give him a chance to be her summer buddy.
After what was a long semester at East high, Ricky Bowen was finally in a good headspace and it felt pretty nice.