Chapter Text
Gina is sick of moving schools. She’s sick of being the new girl all the time, of being the weird girl who only stays for four months and then is gone. More than anything, she is sick of having no friends.
Moving to Salt Lake City, Utah, didn’t feel any different to Gina. It was another house and another school and another town that she was just going to have to leave behind eventually. Except, her mother has promised her that this will be the last stop for a while. Possibly even the last stop until Gina’s graduation.
Gina wants to believe her mom — of course she does — but she’s heard this all before. Just when she really starts to believe it, they’re packing again.
Nevertheless, she promised her mom she would make the most of it. And if Gina really was going to be at the same school until her senior year, then she was going to do something she had never done at another school before. She was going to make friends.
—
Gina had zero experience making friends. She’d never had to do it before. That’s not to say she was socially awkward or anything. She had taken extracurriculars at her old schools, and always got along with her classmates and teachers. It just never lasted long enough for her to put down roots.
Things were going to be different this year. Yes, she was going to be the new girl again, but a new girl at the beginning of the year instead of halfway through a semester are two very different things. When you transfer halfway through the school year, everyone either thinks you're an army brat or your parents have some cool jet-setting job. Either way, nobody gets too close, because you all know you won’t be around for very much longer.
A new girl at the beginning of the year, however, can be intriguing. People want to be your friend, want to know what you hobbies are, what clubs you’ll be joining. They want to know what you have in common.
Gina is determined that by the end of the school day tomorrow, she will have made a friend.
—
Gina is practically buzzing in her seat when her mom drops her off outside East High. She’s never been so excited to start a new school before, but she’s actually let her mom convince her that this time will be different.
The school is big. Like, intimidatingly huge. But Gina squares her shoulders and heads inside, just in time for the first bell to ring.
She’s only a little lost trying to find her homeroom, eyes more on the map in her hand that on where she is actually going. Just when she thinks she’s got herself in the right direction, she collides with something solid.
Something solid that makes an ‘oof’ sound as it hits the floor.
“Oh my God,” Gina says, picking herself off the floor. She watches with deep embarrassment as the boy she bulldozed stands up and dusts himself off. “I am so sorry.”
“No worries,” the boy replies, shooting her a grin. Gina can’t help but notice he has a really nice smile. “I’ve taken worse hits.”
Still mortified, Gina reaches down to pick up her books that didn’t survive the crash. When the boy notices what she’s doing, he crouches down to help.
“You’re new?” the boy asks, as if it isn’t painfully obvious.
Gina scrunches her nose. “Yeah. Sophomore. My name’s Gina.”
The boy stands, handing her the books he recovered for her and holding out a hand for her to shake. “I’m Ricky. I could, uh, show you around if you need any help.”
Gina grins. Making friends might actually be easier than she thought. “Yeah, I would like that! Could you tell me where Mr. Mazzara’s homeroom is.”
“Absolutely,” Ricky says. “That’s where I’m going.”
As they walk together, Gina looks around, taking in as much as she can so that she hopefully won’t get lost next time. Although, if she runs into cute boys every time she gets lost, it might not be so bad.
“Oh, tryouts,” Gina says almost involuntarily, gazing at a poster advertising tryouts for the cheerleading squad. She had plenty of experience with cheerleaders at her old schools. They were always around each other, eating lunch together and presumably going to each others houses and hanging out after school. Gina would love nothing more.
Ricky stopped with her. “Oh yeah,” he said, and some of his previous energy left him as he saw what Gina was looking at. “My girlfriend — sorry, ex-girlfriend is on the team.”
Gina shot him a sympathetic look. “Recent breakup?”
Ricky nodded, cringing a little. “Very recent.”
Not wanting to make the boy she’d just met any more uncomfortable, Gina quickly took a mental note of the date and time of tryouts and subtly moved them along.
—
Okay, so Gina might have underestimated just how busy her first day of school would be. After figuring out where all her classes were, meeting with different teachers and taking a note of all the after school clubs she would be interested in doing, she barely had enough time for her initial plan.
In fact, the only people she had actually managed to talk to was Ricky, who kindly let her sit at his lunch table, and Big Red, the only other person who sits at Ricky’s lunch table, apparently.
But still, she was optimistic that things were going to be different. Cheerleading tryouts were tomorrow, and although she didn’t have any practice on a squad, she had had enough dance lessons to hopefully impress the coaches.
—
“Hey, Gina!” Ricky called across the school’s lunch hall.
Gina noticed that a few heads turned in her direction as he shouted, but she was so elated to have a friend that actually wanted her to come sit with him at lunch, that she didn’t even care.
“Hey,” Gina said, taking the free seat next to Ricky. Across from her, a red headed girl was taking the seat next to Big Red.
“Oh,” the red headed girl said, looking over at her. “Hi. You must be Gina. I’m Ashlyn.”
Gina grinned. “Hi, Ashlyn. I guess the whole school knows my name now.”
Ashlyn laughed. “After Ricky yelling across the entire cafeteria? Possibly.”
They both shared a laugh, and Ricky rolled his eyes at them.
Gina assumed Big Red and Ashlyn must be a couple from the way they were sitting close and sharing food off of each other’s tray. “You guys are such a cute couple.”
Ashlyn blushed and moved slightly away from the other boy. Big Red looks alarmed, his face going as red as his hair.
“We’re not a couple,” they said, almost in unison.
“Just friends,” Big Red said.
“Just friends,” Ashlyn agreed, although she definitely didn’t look happy about it.
Gina’s face burned. “Oh, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed. Foot in mouth disease.”
That got a little smile out of Ashlyn. “It’s cool. Hey, what are you doing after school? Biggie and Ricky always go the skatepark and as much as I love watching, it can get a bit boring. We should do something.”
Gina nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, I would love that! But, oh — I have cheerleading tryouts after school…”
Ricky’s head shot round to look at her. “You’re trying out for the cheerleading squad?”
Gina frowned, confused to why Ricky cared. “Um, yeah…?”
Ricky didn’t say anything, although his eyes wandered over Gina’s shoulder and when Gina looked behind her, it seemed as though he was looking at the lunch table where a whole group of jocks and cheerleaders were gathered around.
Ashlyn’s hand touched hers, pulling her gaze away from the table. “Never mind Ricky,” she said in a low voice, although seeing as though Ricky was right next to them, didn’t make much of a difference. “He’s just hung up on his cheerleader girlfriend.”
“She wasn’t a cheerleader when she was my girlfriend,” Ricky said, frowning.
Ashlyn just rolled her eyes at him. “I can wait for you until tryouts are over,” Ashlyn said to Gina. “And then we could go over to my house and hang out?”
Gina was over the moon. “Yeah, that sounds great!”
—
Gina was strangely nervous. She had been to plenty dance and singing competitions, and she had no qualms whatsoever about being on stage, but something was different about dancing on stage in front of judges and performing a routine she had only learned last nigh from YouTube in front of a bleacher filled with her peers.
She spotted Ashlyn on the bleachers, sitting in amongst the cheerleaders, chatting away to two girls sitting near the front. Gina’s nerves managed to settle a little. They couldn’t be so scary if Ashlyn liked them.
“Gina Porter,” one of the cheerleaders called and Gina took her cue to position herself in the middle of the gym, in front of the cheerleading captain.
The captain smiled sweetly. “Whenever you’re ready.”
The music started and Gina got straight into it. As soon as she found her rhythm, it was like coming home. Nothing felt so right or so natural to Gina as dancing. And all she had to do was throw in a couple of stunts, show off how flexible she was and a back hand spring, and she was cheerleading. Honestly, it felt amazing.
Gina finished to applause. At first, she thought maybe it was just Ashlyn, but the two cheerleaders she had been talking to were clapping as well and a couple jocks were standing at the side of the gym, clearly just having finished practice, were hooting and hollering as well.
Gina’s face burned slightly, but she had always been someone to preen at praise, so she stood there, taking it all, trying not to let her smile look too triumphant.
The captain was still smiling, although now she was also nodding her head. She motioned for Gina to come closer.
“Look, we’re not supposed to announce who got on the team until Friday,” the captain said. “But if you keep this between you and me, you’re in.”
Gina beamed, nodding and promising she wouldn’t tell anyone. Walking away, her arm was grabbed by Ashlyn who spun her around.
“Wow,” the red headed girl said, an excited grin on her face. “That was amazing.”
“Thanks!” Gina said, still buzzing from her performance.
“That was unbelievable,” said one of the cheerleaders that Ashlyn had been speaking to before Gina had been called out. “What was your name again?”
“Gina,” she replied, looking between the girl who had spoken and another girl who had just came up to join them.
“Nice to meet you, Gina,” the cheerleader said. “I’m Kourtney, and that’s Nini. We’ll be on the team with you!”
Nini smiled and waved at Gina, who reciprocated. “So great to meet you guys.”
They all sat together to watch the rest of the tryouts, and Gina was revelling in the company. She couldn’t believe that yesterday, she only had had Ricky to talk to and now she was sitting with three different people and two of them were her soon-to-be teammates.
This was shaping up to be the best school year ever.
—
Ashlyn’s house was gorgeous. Gina told her as much when they walked through the front door, but the other girl just waved her off, dumping her school bag on the floor.
Gina placed her bag next to Ashlyn’s and followed her into the living room.
“I hope you don’t mind,” Ashlyn started, taking a seat on the couch. “But I really just want to chill out and watch cheesy movies.”
Gina took a seat on the opposite end of the couch. “Honestly? Me too.”
That’s how the two girls ended up laughing together, watching Clueless and quoting their favourite scenes.
“Ugh, as if,” Ashlyn imitated and Gina responded by snorting.
“Hey, what’re you laughing at?”
Suddenly, their space was invaded by a tall boy wearing a letterman jacket with his school bag still strung over his shoulder.
“Oh,” the boy said, gazing down at Gina. “Sorry, didn’t know you had company. I’m EJ.”
EJ stuck out his hand and Gina reached up to shake it. “I’m Gina.”
EJ grinned. “I know,” he replied. “I saw you at tryouts. Amazing routine.”
Gina blushed. “Thanks.”
“What do you want, EJ?” Ashlyn asked. “Apart from to flirt with my friends.” EJ scoffed and rolled his eyes but Gina sat up straighter. Ashlyn had said friends. She thought of Gina as a friend.
“My parents are out tonight and didn’t trust me alone in the house,” EJ explained to Ashlyn. “I have to crash here tonight. Don’t worry, I won’t interrupt girls night.”
Gina watched as EJ left, turning around as he reached the stairs. EJ caught her eye, winked and disappeared. When she turned back to face the TV, Ashlyn was frowning at her.
“Don’t tell me you’re having heart eyes for my cousin, Gina,” Ashlyn groaned.
Gina spluttered. “What? No! Of course not.” She paused. “Although… he is very handsome.”
Thankfully, Ashlyn caught on that Gina was teasing her and grinned, grabbing one of the couch cushions and whacking Gina lightly with it. “Gross.”
Gina laughed, enjoying being around someone she could joke around with. “Speaking of heart eyes,” Gina said, her tone becoming more serious. “You don’t really expect me to believe that you and Big Red are just friends, do you?”
Ashlyn squinted her eyes. “We are just friends.”
“Oh, come on,” Gina moaned. “Spill. ‘Just friends’ don’t look at each other like that.”
Ashlyn looked down, fiddling with one of the rings on her fingers. “I’ve liked him for so long. I just don’t think he sees me like that.”
Gina stared at her new friend, wondering if she was being serious. Gina has only been at East High for, like, five minutes, and even she can see that Big Red is crazy about Ashlyn.
Expect, Gina doesn’t really know the rules of their friendship and she’s not sure if they’re at a point were she can be so blunt with Ashlyn, so instead she just wraps a comforting arm around the other girl and presses play on the movie.
—
Friday at school, the official roster was posted for the cheerleading squad. Gina knew she would be on the team, the captain had said so herself, but she was still elated to see her name in black and white.
Squeals sounded behind her and she spun around to see Nini and Kourtney approaching her, already sporting their new cheerleading uniforms.
“Congratulations!” Nini exclaimed. “We knew you’d make the team!”
They both took turns hugging her, and Kourtney pulled back to give her a once over.
“You need to look the part,” the other girl tutted. “Uniforms are in coaches office. We can show you if you want.”
Gina nodded. “Lead the way.”
After collecting her uniform and accepting more congratulations from the teams coach, Gina quickly got changed in the girls bathroom and joined Nini and Kourtney, all three of them now wearing matching uniforms.
“Do we have to wear this every day?” Gina asked, pulling slightly at the short skirt.
Kourtney shook her head. “Not every day, thank goodness. My fashion sense needs to breath.”
Nini laughed. “Just on game days,” she told Gina. “And if we have a pep rally or something. Coach just likes us to wear them today because it indicates to the rest of the school who made the team.”
Gina nodded. “That makes sense.”
The bell rung for lunch and Gina’s first thoughts was of her table with Ricky, Big Red and Ashlyn. She was so excited to tell them she made the team.
Nini and Kourtney linked arms with her and the trio walked together to the cafeteria. Gina was automatically led to the table where a lot of other cheerleaders were already sitting as well as some football and basketball players.
Just as she was about to take a seat, she heard her name being called. Gina looked over to see Ricky waving at her. He was sitting on his own, obviously waiting for Big Red and Ashlyn to join him.
Gina waved back, taking a step towards him before pausing. She looked over and saw Kourtney and Nini watching her from their seats at the table.
“You know Ricky Bowen?” Nini asked in a weird voice.
Gina got the distinct impression that there was a wrong answer to her question. “Um, yes? He showed me around the first day of school.”
Kourtney snorted. “I bet he did.”
Nini elbowed her, frowning, before looking back up at Gina. “I understand if you want to sit with him, but it’s probably a good idea to sit with us. Just for today. You know, get to know your other teammates.”
Gina nodded. That did make sense. After all, she wasn’t just new to the team, she was new to the whole school, and not sitting with the squad on her very first day on the team didn’t make for a very good first impression.
Slowly, she sat down opposite Kourtney and Nini, shooting Ricky an apologetic glance and getting a frown in return.
—
After school, Gina took Ashlyn up on her offer to join her at the skate park. Ashlyn was practically begging Gina to come, because apparently she would be so bored otherwise. Gina didn’t think Ashlyn realised that Gina was just so excited to have a friend that she would’ve done anything she’d suggested that afternoon.
Gina had changed out of her uniform, back into the clothes she’d worn to school that day, and she and Ashlyn followed behind Big Red and Ricky as they skated to the park.
“Is Ricky being weird?” Gina asked Ashlyn quietly, making sure the boy ahead didn’t hear. “I don’t think I know him well enough, but I feel like he’s not talking to me.”Ashlyn grimaced. “Yeah… It’s nothing to do with you, honest. Ricky just has a thing about cheerleaders.”
Gina frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Well, him and Nini used to date, and I don’t know what happened — he won’t talk about it — but suddenly they have a big blow up and now Nini is a cheerleader and they don’t talk anymore. It was a whole thing.”
“So… he hates cheerleaders because his ex-girlfriend is a cheerleader? That’s kind of stupid.”
Ashlyn laughed. “Yeah, it’s very stupid. But I don’t know the whole story. Like I said, he never talks about it.”
Gina watched as Ricky swerved down the pavement. She hopes she wasn’t going to lose the first friend she’d made at her new school over something so silly.
—
A few weeks into the school year, and Gina had finally found some balance.
She was doing great on the cheer squad, and she managed to sit with Ashlyn, Ricky and Big Red most of the time, except for when it was a uniform day and she was expected to sit with her team.
Most of the time, she was on good terms with Ricky. They had gotten closer in the last couple of weeks, and while Gina could sense that they boy did still have an issue with her being a cheerleader, it didn’t really affect their friendship very much.
Although, today, a uniform day for Gina, which meant no lunch with her friends, Ricky was acting extra strange. Gina kept trying to catch him and talk but the boy was elusive when he wanted to be.
She was just turning a corner, looking for Ricky in between periods, when she bumped into something hard.
“Ow,” Gina groaned, rubbing her shoulder.
EJ turned around, frowning. “Sorry, my bad,” he said, “I wasn’t looking where I was going.”
“No, it’s okay. I wasn’t paying attention either.”
EJ raised an eyebrow. “Something on your mind, Porter?”
Gina blinked, surprised EJ knew her last name. “Uh, no. Just got my head in the clouds.” “You don’t need to do that.”
“Oh, I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it to save other countless lives from your reckless speed walking.”
Gina laughed out loud. “Very funny. I have English right now. Lead the way?”
EJ grinned and gestured dramatically in the direction of Gina’s classroom. Which was actually only across the hallway. Gina giggled and rolled her eyes but followed him when he started walking away.
—
When Gina finally caught up with Ricky, school had finished and everyone not at their lockers were busy pushing their way to the front doors.
“Can we talk?” Gina asked, leaning against the locker next to Ricky.
Ricky spared her a glance. Then looked at the uniform she was wearing. “I can’t today. I have a lot of homework.”
Gina reached out and placed a hand on his arm. “Ricky, please.”
The other boy sighed, hanging his head. “Yeah, okay.”
He closed his locker and motioned for Gina to follow him outside.
They sat on a bench outside of school, watching as their classmates boarded the bus.
“Ricky, what is going on?” Gina asked bluntly, cutting right to the chase.
“What do you mean?” Ricky played dumb.
“Look, I can’t keep doing this. You can’t be my friend one minute and then act like you don’t even know me the next.”
Ricky took a deep breath and then nodded. “Yeah. I know. You’re right.”
Gina turned to face him fully. “So what is going on? Talk to me.”
“Look… I’ve never really told you about Nini and I — about what went down last year.” Gina stayed silent, listening with rapt attention. “Nini and I are —were— best friends. Like, friends since birth kind of best friends. I always thought we’d be together forever, honestly. We started dating at the start of freshman year, and it was great. It was like hanging out with your best friend, only better. But then she started to change, and I don’t know how it happened but suddenly she didn’t want to hang out with me much anymore.”
Gina nodded, prompting Ricky to continue.
“I don’t hate cheerleaders,” Ricky said. “But Nini joining the squad was the end for us. She didn’t ever have time for me and when we did get to see each other, it was like she was a completely different person. I don’t even recognise her anymore…”
“I get that,” Gina said, putting a hand on Ricky’s shoulder. “High school changes people, Ricky. I’ve been to enough schools to know that. And it’s understandable that you are looking for something to blame for losing your best friend, but it’s not anyone’s fault. Maybe Nini just felt like she needed to try new things. That doesn’t mean you’ve done anything wrong. But it doesn’t mean Nini did anything wrong either.”
Ricky nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. And I’m sorry for the way I’ve been treating you. You deserve to be on the team, you’re really good. It’s just — I don’t want you to change.”
They stared at each other for a beat too long, and Gina wondered if this was how it felt to have a crush on someone. She’d never been around somewhere long enough to develop feelings for anyone.
Then the moment shattered by Big Red rolling up on his board and smacking into the bench they were sitting on. “Rick, you coming?”
Ricky blinked, coming out of his daze. He nodded and stood up. “I’ll see you later,” he said softly to Gina before skating off with his friend.
“That looked like a pretty heavy conversation.”
Gina jumped, looking around. She hadn’t even noticed EJ approaching her.
“What?” she asked. “Oh — no, just a regular conversation. Between regular people.”
EJ squinted at her. “Hm. There’s a lot of words I would use to describe you, Gina Porter, but regular isn’t one of them.”
Gina frowned up at her friends cousin, unsure whether or not he was making fun of her. Before she could say anything though, EJ was holding out a hand to pull her up from her seat. “Come on, Ash is already in the car. I said I’d give her a ride home and she insisted you come over and hang out again.”
Gina nodded, grabbing her bag from the bench, taking EJ's offered hand and following him to his car.
—
Gina debated whether or not to tell Ashlyn about her talk with Ricky, but ultimately decided against it. First of all, if Ricky wasn’t broadcasting what went down between him and Nini, then Gina wasn’t going to break his trust. And secondly, she really wasn’t sure what she was feeling for Ricky, and she wanted more time to figure that out before divulging that to her friend.
At least after airing it out with Ricky, things were a lot better. She still sat with Kourtney and Nini some days, but he was a lot cooler about it, waving at her from across the room and managing to keep any judgement from his face. And because she could stop feeling so guilty for being around them, Gina grew closer to Kourtney and Nini, who were really kind and supportive and great people to be around.
It was the first time in Gina’s life that she really felt like she belonged at a school.
-
“Ugh, I hate school dances,” Kourtney complained as she set her tray down between Nini and Gina at their regular lunch table.
Nini rolled her eyes. “That’s just because your boyfriend goes to a different school.”
“I didn’t know you had a boyfriend, Kourt,” Gina said.
Kourtney smiled fondly. “Yeah. He goes to North High. His name is Howie.”
Gina frowned. “Aren’t North High, like, our mortal enemies?”
Nini sighed, staring off into the distance like it was the most romantic thing she’d ever heard. “Like Romeo and Juliet.”
Kourtney and Gina both laughed at that, Kourtney tossing a grape at Nini to snap her out of her daze.
“Anyway,” Kourtney continued. “Who are we asking?”
“Asking?” Gina repeated. “Do girls ask the guys here? My old schools did it backwards.”
Nini giggled. “It’s a Sadie Hawkins dance, G.”
“Oh.” She’d never been to a school that had a Sadie Hawkins dance, at least not while she had been there, but she knew the basic premise. “I don’t think I know anyone well enough to ask them to a dance.” But even as Gina said this, she found her gaze wandering over to Ashlyn’s table, where Ricky and Big Red were taking turns throwing food into each others mouths while Ashlyn watched them fondly.
“Don’t worry, Kourt and I can help you out,” Nini said, hopefully not noticing where had been staring.
Gina looked back to her friends, smiling. “That would be great.”
Nini nodded before standing up to take away her empty tray. Gina went to follow her but was stopped by Kourtney’s hand on her arm.
“Gina,” Kourtney said softly. “I don’t want to stop you doing something you really want to do.”
“Okay?” Gina replied, uncertainly.
“If you really like him, then I think you should go for it. But I also think it would really hurt Nini to see one of her friends with her ex.”
Gina stared. Kourtney really didn’t miss a thing. “Oh. Oh! No, Kourt, I would never — I didn’t even think —“
“It’s okay,” Kourtney said. “I don’t want to hold you back from him. If you like him and you think it would work out, I’m sure Nini would come around. All I’m saying is think about it.”
Gina panicked. “No, Kourtney, you’ve got it all wrong. I actually like someone else.”
Kourtney raised an eyebrow. “Oh, yeah? Who?”
Gina tried to glance around the room subtly. Her eyes met a familiar pair and she didn’t hesitate. “EJ. I like EJ.”
Kourtney followed her gaze. “EJ Caswell?”
“Yeah,” Gina said, trying not to sound too desperate. “I want to ask him, but I’m not sure how Ashlyn would react. I’m her friend and he’s her cousin.” She hoped this would explain why she was looking a bit too longingly at Ricky’s table.
Kourtney stared at her for a second before nodding, apparently buying her story. “Okay. We can work with that.”
“Work with what?” Nini asked, returning to the table.
Kourtney grinned up at Nini. “We’re getting Gina a date to the dance.”