— act one, scene five: the contract

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     "So... basically, you want to pretend to date me to get her back," Megara concluded, arms crossed over her chest as she pressed her index finger to her chin.  She stared up at his ceiling, her back nestled between his comfy pillows.

     Ricky thought about it for a second.  "Yeah, pretty much."

     "That's a horrible idea," she shook her head.  "She'd never believe it."

     Ricky took another moment to think.  "We could really sell it."

     "I really don't think anyone would believe it," Megara insisted, sitting up from her spot on his bed, a stuffed teddy bear fell from the middle of the bed next to her, she grabbed it with her hand and placed it back between the pillows again.  She hadn't noticed just how comfortable she had made herself in the time he was talking.

     "Just... think about it, okay?  I really need this," Ricky pleaded.

     "And I really don't," Megara retorted.  "See you tomorrow, Rick," she quickly turned on her heel and left him alone in his bedroom.

     That night, both of them had trouble resting their eyes for the next day of school.  Ricky tossed and turned, grunting when he realized his sheets smelled like Megara's perfume.  Megara laid on her back, staring straight up at her ceiling with her long locks scattered amongst her cream-white pillowcases.  She sat in silence for what seemed to be an eternity, bringing her black painted nails to her forearm and scratching softly as Ricky's words played over like a broken record.

     "First off, no kissing on the lips."

     Megara stood at the picnic table in the cafeteria being occupied by Ricky and Big Red, plopping down her notebook with a slam.  It was already open to a blank page and a pen was clipped onto the spirals.  She slid her legs in between the bench and table, the boys watching her with wide eyes as she sat down on the other side of Ricky.  Her psychology textbook was in her other hand, which she set down next to her notebook gently.  "What?" Big Red asked, clearly the most confused out of the three.

     Megara looked around the cafeteria spaces around them.  If they were going to pull this off, they had to make sure nobody knew a thing.  Thankfully, nobody had noticed Megara sitting with Ricky and his best friend because all eyes were on EJ as he had his arms around a tiny brunette.  Nini had quickly become the talk of the small town as she had been practically a nobody until today.

     Okay, that was a little bit harsh.  Meg was a nobody.  Nini actually had things going for her.   Nini was sweet, sang to herself when she did her homework, invited her friends over for movie nights and occasionally played the cow or tree in the school plays.  But now she was being cradled by the co-captain of the water polo team and the most popular guy in school, who was also a senior, for everyone to see.  It was safe to say Nini's popularity had gone up in the ranks.  Megara felt a pang in her heart when she looked at her old friend, but that's all she was now.  Just her old friend.  If she could even call it that.

     Megara knew Ricky was stupid, like, really stupid.  But did he really deserve to feel as heartbroken as he did right now?

     She leaned in closer towards the boys, Ricky and Red anticipating her next words.  "Okay, well, we need rules if we're going to be doing this."

     Slowly, Ricky nodded.  "That's a good idea."

     Big Red followed.  "What kind of rules?"

     "We need to know when it starts and when it begins, and what's going to make people believe it's real," Megara released her pen from the spiral of her notebook and tapped it against the thick stack of paper in her notebook before her.  She turned to Big Red.  "That's what's important because we really want to achieve the goal."

     She wasn't sure if Ricky had told his friend about his idea to fake date Meg and how he had asked the girl about it the night before but seeing the look on his face, she was now sure Big Red had nearly no clue what they were talking about.  "And what's the goal?"

     Megara wanted to throw up at the thought of even saying it out loud, but Ricky was surely too stunned by her dominance towards the situation to even speak.  "Get team Rini back together, I guess," she mumbled, bringing the pen to the paper.  She wrote big, chunky letters at the top reading; The Contract.

     "You guess?" Ricky questioned.

     "I'm tired of you whining about her every day," Megara shrugged.

     "And what's in it for you?" he continued.  Megara looked up at him to see he had raised his eyebrows, not that you could hardly tell with stray curls landing on his forehead and bouncing with every move he made.  "Aw, don't tell me little Meg had a change of heart!"

     "Please shut up."

     "No, really, what made you change your mind?" he asked, his face softening up.  Something Megara couldn't read.  Maybe because she had never seen what Ricky looked like when expressing gratitude or basic kindness towards the girl.  If that's what this was.

     "I know how hard you've been trying to get to her, thinking about all these ideas, concocting these elaborate plans that don't make sense..."

     "Concocting," Big Red repeated, as if impressed.

     "And maybe it'll get Isaiah off my back," Megara shrugged, sticking her bottom lip out as she surveyed the two boys for looks.  "So with that, let's make some rules.  You can add some and I can add some, we'll make it even.  The first one I have is no kissing on the lips."

     Ricky opened his palms in shock.  "No kissing?  Then how are people supposed to believe it?"

     Megara shook her head.  "I don't know, Ricky, haven't you ever watched a movie before?  There are tons of ways you can act as a couple without kissing on the lips!  Haven't you ever seen like, Pretty Woman, or like, How To Lose a Guy in Ten Days?"

     "No, but—"

     "No PDA!" she said, writing "no kissing" as her first bullet point in perfect print.  "And also a double feature so you can watch those movies," she added a tad bitterly.

     "Fine," Ricky sighed, defeated.

     "For obvious reasons, no snitching," she looked to Big Red with pointed eyebrows.  "Absolutely no one can find out about this plan.  It has to look legit like we started dating within days."

     "Yeah, obviously," Big Red grinned.  "I got you guys."

     "Good," Megara and Ricky nodded.  "What are some things we can do to make it look real?"

     "Um, go to parties together," Ricky offered.

     "Good, we can do that."

     "Write together?"

     "Let me stop you right there," Megara held a hand up to his face.  "I'm not gonna sit around the campfire singing Disney hits with you."

     Ricky rolled his eyes.  "I meant like, make people believe we were writing music together.  Since Nini and I used to do that."

     "Ohhh," Megara slowly nodded.  "That... makes sense."

     "I could also write you little poems, like love letters," Ricky said.

     Megara paused, staring at him for a moment before sliding the pen and paper over to him.  "You gotta write that yourself, there's no way I'm saying I want you to write a sappy note for me."

     "You're so high strung sometimes," Ricky shook his head, scribbling down more bullet points.

     "Not any more than you're a loser."

     "Guys!" Big Red interrupted.

     Both teens groaned.  Unable to think of anything else, Megara drew another bullet point that read "anything else Meg might need".  Then she drew two lines at the bottom of the page and signed her name on one of them.  "Just sign here, like a little contract."

     Ricky took the pen from her hand gently and signed "Ricky B." on the bottom where she pointed her black-painted fingernail on the page.  "Thanks, Meg.  I—"

     "Owe me one?" she finished for him.

     "Yeah," he nodded.  "Yeah."

     "Yeah..."

     "We can call it operation cobra, you know, something really cool only we know!" Ricky grinned.

     "Yeah, I'm not calling our fake relationship operation cobra," Megara said, scrunching her nose when Ricky frowned.

     "Why not?" Ricky pouted.

     "Why would I call my fake relationship operation cobra?"

     "Guys!"

#JJ
the contract LFGGG