THE LOVE Club and the musical had been in great condition ever since the school board meeting. Even more people wanted the Love Club's help and as promised Shiloh and the others didn't try to dig into deeper issues brought to the club.

Regardless, everyone had been feeling great. Well... almost everyone.

Shiloh, Evie, Jenna, Madison, and Ashley all sat in for the blocking of Start of Something New.

Ricky and Nini had grown closer just as planned (that was the reason Ricky came to the Love Club remember) and it seemed that the mission the Love Club set out for was over for both Ricky and Miss. Jenn.

The cast had been getting along, especially after the school board meeting and Miss. Jenn could see her leads sparking just like she had asked for.

The four of them watched the duo along with the background dancers sing and dance. Shiloh on the other hand had been too deep into her thoughts.

The school bell soon rang. EJ quickly stood from his seat cheering.

"Sorry. I really love Thanksgiving."

The Love Club didn't have to stay and Shiloh wasn't planning on it either. She quickly stood from her spot, grabbing her bag, and left the room. Miss. Jenn and Evie taking notice of the girl leaving.

"Ricky and Nini, that was good, but it could be better." Miss. Jenn said, "Shi— Evie! Any notes you want to add?"

"Uh, chemistry seems to be there... for Troy and Gabriella, of course. Looks... good." They awkwardly smiled.

For the past couple of days now, Shiloh hadn't said much towards anyone in the Love Club or the musical. She physically wasn't speaking to them unless she had to and would only respond to text messages. That wasn't any better, she would only give them short responses.

"Seems like everything is working out for Ricky and Nini." Jenna smiled, "Think it may be time to close the file on Ricky Bowen?"

"Maybe." Ashley said, "But Shiloh is normally the one who closes the folder and she's been awol for the past couple of days."

"You don't think she's worried about the two star review still?" Madison asked.

Evie shook their head, "I doubt it. Remember the last time she barely spoke?"

"Yeah, her hamster died." Jenna said.

The three of them glared her way.

"Am I wrong?"

"I didn't mean that." Evie said, "Last time she barely spoke was when she and EJ broke up."

"What does that have to with her now?" Madison asked, "Are you saying that Shiloh is going through heartbreak right now? How?"

The four of them looked over at Ricky and Nini.

"She would've told us." Ashley said.

"No, she wouldn't. She doesn't even talk to us about Dylan and how the two of them even came about. She also never told us about how long she and EJ were talking before they started to date. She was even worse when the two of them broke up."

"Shiloh never talks about her relationships with us. She absolutely hates when we talk about the guys she's dated." Madison said.

"But Ricky's really cool." Jenna whispered, "I mean, I don't see a problem."

"Ricky joined for Nini. He came to us for Nini." Evie said, "She hasn't said anything because she doesn't want to lose it. She doesn't want to lose him."

"So if she keeps it to herself..."

"It's like it never happened. Shiloh liking Ricky wouldn't happen because she won't talk about it." Evie said.

"Am I interrupting something?" Ricky asked.

The four of them disbanded. Holding a very awkward smile on their faces.

"Of course not. We're always available for help." Jenna said.

"Do you think we can talk in the club room?" Ricky asked.

"Yeah, I think Shiloh might be on her way there." Evie said.

"Well— we can just... hold off then." Ricky stuttered out, "I don't want to bother her."

Evie furrowed their brows, quickly glancing at the others and back towards Ricky.

"Is it about her?"

"Kind of... it's just... you know what? Whenever you guys are free and without her let me know. See you guys at Ashlyn's for Thanksgiving?"

Evie nodded and watched as Ricky left the bomb shelter with Nini by his side.

"Whoever finds Shiloh first gets to tell her." Evie rushed out before completely booking it out of the room.

"Wait! That's not fair! I'm not a runner, especially in these shoes!" Jenna whined.

Evie was the first to find Shiloh walking towards her car. One by one, Jenna, Madison, and Ashley made it out of the school.

"You beat me?" Madison asked.

"I'm just as surprised." Jenna huffed.

"Wait, wait, wait." Evie whispered.

Ricky had been walking towards Shiloh, stopping by to have a short conversation since she had been particularly silent towards him.

"Hey." He smiled.

She whipped around. Her plan to leave before him or anyone else caught her failing her.

"Hey."

"Uh, just wanted to let you know that Ashlyn was having a get together at her place on Thanksgiving."

"Cool. I'll be there. Do I have to bring anything?" She asked.

"Just yourself."

"Well, I can definitely do that. Thanks for telling me."

"No problem."

As Ricky went in for a hug, Shiloh had gone with the high-five approach. The two of them sighed and switch towards the other persons' action. Shiloh let out a quick and breathy laugh before holding her fist out.

Ricky smiled and bumped her first.

"I'll text you."

Shiloh smiled and nodded. Ricky took slow steps backwards before completely disappearing and joining Big Red on their venture home.

"That was horrible." Madison said, "I've never seen them so awkward."

"I've never seen her so awkward." Evie said.

"Maybe she really likes him." Jenna said.

"Jenna, it shocks me every time that you're in this club. Did you know that?" Evie asked.

Jenna scoffed, "Okay, I may not be in the love department like all of you, but... I bring something to the table and I call it pizzazz."

"Don't you have a guy coming over tonight?" Ashley asked.

Jenna ran her tongue across her teeth, "You guys are lucky, but guess what? So am I. So, screw you guys."

"Something will be screwing all right." Madison joked.

"You guys wish you were me." Jenna smiled, walking backwards towards a random car.

"I could only wish to be as happy as you." Evie smiled.

The now trio moved their focus back on Ricky and Shiloh.

"Ricky obviously wants to talk about Shiloh and she's been standoff-ish because she likes him. So, how do we talk to Ricky without Shiloh knowing? And how do we actually convince Shiloh to tell us she likes Ricky?" Ashley asked.

"We do it the day before Thanksgiving." Evie answered, "She's going to be too busy trying to help her family set up for the celebration."

"Yeah, I would too if I lived in a full house." Madison said.

"I'll text Ricky that we can meet at the park. Most importantly... don't tell Shiloh."

Evie and Madison looked over at Ashley. She furrowed her brows and held her hand over her chest.

"Me? I thought Jenna was the blabbermouth?"

Evie folded their arms, "Name one of the guys Jenna has been with in the past couple of months."

"... This proves nothing."

"Don't tell Shiloh." Evie said, "I'll call you guys when I hear from Ricky."

Evie left the two of them alone.

"You're telling me you can name one person Jenna has been with?" Ashley asked.

"No, because Jenna doesn't tell us names... she just tells us the experience."

Ashley and Madison headed in the same direction.

Operation: Get Ricky Bowen and Shiloh Molina to talk about their feelings... was now a go.

NO ONE could have expected any less of Jenna Russet as she explained her past couple of days with, Mr. No Name, Butt-Out, and "Greek God". The group (excluding Shiloh) had been waiting for Ricky for almost twenty minutes.

"It was the most surreal and romantic thing ever... might see him again tonight." Jenna smiled.

Evie held Jenna's face in her hands and pulled her close, "I love you and I hope you have a great time tonight but if Ricky doesn't show up soon I'll pop your head like a grape."

"How is it my fault he's not here? I'm just making conversation."

"Hey, sorry I'm late." Ricky huffed, taking his helmet off, "My dad was mentioning more Thanksgiving plans."

"No worries." Jenna smiled, "You saved my head."

Ricky slowly nodded, already confused, and took a seat across from the four.

"No Shiloh?" He asked.

"We made sure she wasn't here or coming." Evie said, "And we promise nothing will go back to her."

Ricky glanced between the four of them. He was so use to going to Shiloh about his feelings and what he had done to get closer (or fixing his relationship) to Nini that he really didn't know how to start a conversation with them.

"The plan with Nini seems to be working." Ricky chuckled.

"There really wasn't any set plan, you know? You just slowly came out of your shell. We were your support system. Nini is possibly falling for you again because of you." Evie said.

"That's great." He smiled, "I'm just..."

A beat of silence passed.

"Ricky, remember, we can't read minds." Evie smiled.

"None of this goes back to Shiloh?"

"We promise." Madison reassured.

Ricky sighed, "I think I still like Nini."

"Oh... kay?" Evie questioned.

"Well, we knew that Ricky. That was the whole reason you came to us remember?" Jenna asked.

"But I think... I know that I really like Shiloh and these past couple of days she's been silent on me." Ricky confessed, "Which would make sense because she knows everything about anything and probably can see right through me and knows that I like her, but I joined for Nini and that was my end goal."

"What's your end goal now?" Ashley asked.

"To figure out my feelings." Ricky sighed.

"The good thing is that you know you like Shiloh, but you may still also like Nini." Evie started, "But don't beat yourself down. It surprising to some people but it's okay to like two people at the same time. You're a person with feelings. Remember that."

Ricky nodded and behind fumbling with his fingers under the table.

"As a friend of Shiloh's and I'm not speaking from a Love Club thing. I'm speaking as a friend. I wanna know if you like Shiloh for who she is and not because you feel like you're losing Nini so you have to move on to the next person."

"I wouldn't do that her." Ricky said, "I wouldn't do that to either of them."

"Good." Evie nodded, "Good to know."

"As bad as this sounds you may have to compare them." Jenna said.

"She's right. Nini and Shiloh may be meeting different emotional needs that you have." Evie said, "You've known Nini for years so you're used to her. As with Shiloh, you've only known her for a couple of months and she's new to you and you aren't used to things changing so quickly or at all."

If Ricky knew that they were going to read into him so hard he would've gone to Shiloh instead, but thinking about it more going to Shiloh would've been ten times worse.

"Well, I almost kissed Nini at her house and I told Shiloh, but then Homecoming happened and I felt... something with Shiloh. I've felt something with Shiloh before Homecoming."

"Do you want to tell us what happened at Homecoming?" Madison asked.

Ricky sighed, "I wanted to kiss her. Shiloh. And I thought about it. I've been thinking about it for a while."

"Even after Homecoming?" Evie asked.

"There was that night at Big Red's. I noticed she was gone so went looking for her and she was sitting in the hallway, we talked, I helped her to her feet, and we held hands and I thought about it, but her phone went off so I pushed the thought away." Ricky explained, "Then there was the school board meeting. She just seemed overwhelmed and happy."

Evie held a soft smile, resting their arms on the picnic table and pushing themselves toward.

"It's very obvious that you like Shiloh. It's good that you know that you like her for her, but here's the kicker. There are different types of crushes."

"What?"

"What you feel for Shiloh may be an admiration crush or a romantic crush."

"You may have these really intense feelings about Shiloh and what she's done for you. These feelings might be mistaken for romantic feelings simply because they are so intense." Madison explained, "While having a romantic crush means that you want to be with Shiloh in more than just a friendly way. You may fantasize about kissing, holding hands with, or cuddling with that person, which you've clearly done with Shiloh."

"But Nini." Jenna said.

"What you feel with Nini may be a passing crush, platonic crush, which I'll explain, or a romantic one." Evie said, "The passing crush is human nature we all have it. We see a pretty person and you're like "Oh, my God. You're cute." you know? It doesn't always mean that you want to pursue a relationship with that person. While the platonic crush is friendly. Not all strong feelings are romantic. You trust Nini, known her for years, and you're close to her."

"Is this too much information at one time?" Jenna asked, "Evie tends to do this when they're in the zone."

"I understand. I still don't know how I feel about Nini right now."

"That's fine." Evie said, "The most important things are that you're honest to yourself and what you want and that you are listening to your heart. As cheesy as it sounds."

Ricky looked between the four, "What happens now?"

"YOU GUYS want to sleepover?" Shiloh asked.

Evie, Madison, Ashley, and Jenna stood at the front door with sleeping bags in tow.

"It's the day before Thanksgiving and you guys want to sleepover?"

"Can't we have fun with our friend? Who, by the way, has been MIA on us for a couple of days." Evie asked.

"I've been busy."

"Busy enough to skip out on hearing Miss. Jenn's notes about the chemistry between the leads?" Jenna asked.

The four of them were going to dig the truth out of Shiloh if it was the last thing they did.

"I've been in my head a lot recently. Nothing big. I'm sure Ricky and Nini are getting along just fine. They haven't had any major problems recently." Shiloh stepped away from the door to return with Ricky's musical folder in her hands, "According to Miss. Jenn, Ricky and Nini are sparking and we've done our jobs. I think we may be done."

Not exactly what the four of them wanted to hear. If Shiloh closed Ricky's Love Club folder it was a shut case until he returned for help.

"Well, Ricky may still need our help after the musical, no?" Ashley asked.

Shiloh stepped to the side allowing the four of them into her house and up into her room.

She shut her bedroom door and looked over at the four sitting on her bed.

"Ricky came to us for Nini. If he needs anything else he has to come and ask again. You all know this. Why are you questioning it?" She asked.

They had no plan when they came to Shiloh's. Ricky's winging it plan seemed to work out just fine. So why not give it a try.

"We just think that Ricky may need more help." Madison smiled.

Shiloh held a tight lip, nodding her head slowly. She pulled her desk chair closer to her bed, grabbing Ricky's Love Club folder as she did so, and faced the four.

"Did you all just... assume that he needs more help or did he ask for it?" She asked.

They promised not to tell Shiloh that Ricky came to them again. It was in their morals and if he didn't want it to get back to Shiloh they had to respect that.

"Look, I know Ricky is our friend, but we can't force him to keep coming back and forth to the Love Club if he doesn't need it." Shiloh said.

"We know." Evie sighed, "But don't you think that things are still, kind of awkward between them?"

Shiloh shrugged her shoulders, "Maybe? I haven't really been to any more of blockings, so I don't know."

"Yeah... where you've been?" Jenna asked.

"Like I said, I've been thinking about a lot." She answered, "Best if I separate myself from a situation before I make it worse, you know?"

"What do you mean?" Evie asked.

Shiloh smiled, "It's not a big deal."

She stood from her chair, returning it to her desk and throwing Ricky's file on her desk.

"Well, if you say it's not a big deal... it's not a big deal." Jenna said.

"What are you doing?" Evie whispered.

Jenna brushed Evie off and stood with Shiloh, "But I need help."

"With?"

"I didn't want to say anything because I thought you guys would shoot me down, but... don't you think Ricky's cute?"

Shiloh furrowed her brows, "Uh, yeah I guess?"

"You guess?! Oh, I know Ricky Bowen is cute!" Jenna smiled, "Might need a new prescription in those glasses, Shiloh."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"When have I ever named a guy I've gotten with?"

"You got with Ricky?"

Jenna shrugged her shoulders, "I mean... I think Ricky's great. Like, I've never ever felt this way about a guy ever."

"You like Ricky too?"

"Are you saying that you do?"

Evie looked over at Ashley and Madison. Jenna had somehow, someway got a confession out of Shiloh in the most Jenna way ever and it shocked the trio.

"He came to us to get Nini back. That was the one thing he wanted and now he's going to get it." Shiloh started, "I hate that I like him because I know I'm not going to get that chance."

Jenna pushed herself off of Shiloh's desk and threw her arm over her. Kissing the side of her head causing Shiloh to squeeze her eyes shut.

"I don't like Ricky. He doesn't like me. I have never gotten with him." Jenna confessed, "I just want you to talk to us about it."

"What's the point?" Shiloh asked, "Ricky and Nini are good and I'll be fine."

"So, ignoring Ricky is fine?" Madison asked.

"Ignore Ricky is—"

"Pushing your feelings away." Evie sighed, "Which you don't want to do."

"I think pushing my feelings away is better than getting my feelings hurt. Which might happen either way."

Shiloh threw Jenna's arm off of her shoulder and sat on the edge of her bed.

Shiloh sighed, "There was Homecoming, the school board meeting, that night at Big Red's. He also tried to teach me how to skateboard and play the guitar. Two things I'm still very bad at."

"He was teaching you how to skateboard?" Ashley whispered.

Madison quickly hit Ashley and drew her attention back on to Shiloh.

"What happened at Homecoming."

"I thought we had this... moment or something, but it hypocritical because I told Ricky that not everyone shares the same connections or moment like when he left Nini that voicemail. I just feel stupid."

"For liking Ricky?" Jenna asked.

"For liking Ricky and knowing that Nini is the one he wants to be with."

"Shiloh, as your best friends we aren't going to allow you to call yourself stupid, but we can call you stupid." Evie smiled, "Do you know how stupid you sound? You're not stupid for liking Ricky. You're stupid for thinking that a guy like Ricky can't like you back."

"When did you know that you liked him?" Madison asked.

"He told me I was pretty. It was a small thing. A stupid little thing, but it was a stupid little thing that had me blushing for a long time."

"He said you were pretty?" Ashley cooed.

"He told me I was pretty." Shiloh smiled, "I really like him."

"And that's okay." Evie sighed, "There's nothing wrong with that."

Shiloh just let everything go out one ear and in the other. She knew that liking Ricky was okay. She wasn't going to deny that. But she also knew that liking another guy while he was going after his ex made her feel stupid.

Shiloh liked Ricky and Ricky liked Shiloh.

Operation: Get Ricky and Shiloh to confess their feelings to each other, was now a go.

— lucy has something to say !!

i have big things for the love club but the question is can i pull it off?

SECOND CHANCE IS JUST SO GOOD I DONT UNDERSTAND

bye :))))