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𝗡𝗢𝗪 𝗢𝗥 𝗡𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥

chapter two:
halley's comet !

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ATHENA WASN'T LATE.

Okay, maybe she was.

It was no secret that Athena was literally the worst packer ever. She didn't know what it was about it, but she absolutely despised packing for anything. Honestly, she tended to overpack, worried that she would forget anything important, and then ended up just bringing way too much. Her suitcase was practically filled to the brim.

Ricky agreed to pick her up at one, knowing that it would take them a couple hours to drive to California. He had gone home the previous night after helping her dye her hair to spend some time with his dad since he was also leaving on a trip. Mike was going on a cruise to the Caribbean with Miss Jenn (they had started to become quite serious after Ricky gave their teacher his blessing) and was leaving a couple of days after Ricky did for camp.

Now it was one thirty and she hadn't left yet. Athena, clad in a black and white plaid cropped tank top that tied at the shoulders, a pair of light jean shorts, and her black Converse high-tops, quite literally ran around her room. Her suitcase was finished on her bed, room for literally nothing in it. However, she was doing a final sweep of her room, making sure she had everything that she would need for two weeks of camp.

"Athena," her mother called from downstairs. "You have to get going!"

"Wow, really?" Athena said to herself, her mind kind of spinning. "Didn't notice."

A knock was then heard at her door. Athena looked up from her slight panicking to see Artemis. She was leaning against her doorframe, holding a glass of lemonade in her hand.

Artemis sipped her lemonade through her straw. "Do you know that Ricky's been sitting downstairs talking to mom and dad for half an hour?"

Athena sighed. "Yes, Artemis. I do know that, because I told him to stay down there or else I would get even more distracted and that's really not what I need right now."

"You're going to be fine, 'Thena. I'm sure if you forget something, the camp will have it. Or one of your friends. Most likely Vi — she's always prepared." Artemis snuck a glance at her filled suitcase. "Yeah, you'll be okay."

Athena nodded. "Yeah. For sure. I'll be fine."

Artemis gave her a knowing look. "Are you stalling up here because of packing or because you're nervous?"

Athena thought about it for a moment. "A mixture of both."

Artemis stepped forwards into the room, putting her glass of lemonade down on Athena's dresser and standing in front of her sister. "I mean it when I say you'll be okay, Athena. This is going to be fun, and you're going to have the time of your life. No need to be nervous."

"I'm going to miss you, Artie," Athena told her quietly.

Artemis gave her a soft smile and pulled her into a tight hug. "I'm going to miss you too. But I'll see you when you get back. Now, come on. Let's get you going before mom bores Ricky with another story about how she tried a new recipe."

Athena let out a small laugh at that and nodded. She grabbed her sunglasses off of her dresser and perched them on top of her head. Athena grabbed her suitcase — her heavy suitcase — and rolled it out of her room. She turned off the lights and turned back around, looking at her room for a moment. Athena took a deep breath and moved forwards, dragging her suitcase down the stairs.

She stepped out into kitchen, where voices were coming from. Adam and Amanda were standing by the oven, talking animatedly with the boy in the kitchen. Ricky was leaning against the island casually with his arms crossed against his chest. His head turned and he grinned brightly when his eyes set on her.

"Hey, gorgeous," Ricky greeted.

"I'm not late," Athena insisted. "Don't know what you're talking about."

"I literally never said anything about that."

"But you're giving me that look."

"What look?" Ricky asked innocently. He chuckled when she rolled her eyes. "You ready to go now?"

"Yep," Athena replied, gesturing to the suitcase next to her. "Got everything I need."

Adam's eyes widened when he saw her suitcase. "Jeez, 'Thena. You're going for two weeks, not a whole month."

"You never know what you might need in two weeks, dad."

"I can't believe my baby's going off to camp," Amanda said, taking Athena in her arms and pulling her close. "I'm so proud."

"Mom," Athena complained. "It's just theater camp."

"I know." Amanda pressed a kiss to her daughter's head. "Have so much fun, stay safe, text us when you get there. Love you so much."

Adam then took Athena in for a hug. "Have fun, kiddo. Love you."

"Love you guys too," Athena responded, pulling back and standing by Ricky.

Adam pointed to Ricky. "Be careful driving."

Ricky saluted him. "Yes, sir."

Athena and Ricky then left Athena's house, waving goodbye to Athena's family before descending down her front porch steps. They walked up to Mike's orange car, which he had so graciously let Ricky borrow for this trip. Athena lifted her suitcase into the trunk (with a bit of difficulty) and set it down next to Ricky's duffle bag and his guitar case.

She let out a tired breath and placed her hands on her hips. "Maybe I should start making packing lists."

"That would probably help," Ricky agreed. He stepped closer to her and put his hands on her waist, the bare part of her skin igniting from his touch. "Hi."

Athena smiled up at him, her heart racing. "Hi. Ready for camp?"

"I really didn't think I would be going to theater camp, but here we are."

"Having second thoughts?" Athena questioned, frowning slightly. "You don't have to go if you don't want to."

"And miss spending two weeks out of the summer without you?" Ricky inquired, a bit incredulously. "No way."

She gave him a look. "Don't let me pressure you into doing something."

"No, this is all me. I've made my choice, and that choice is going to camp with you." He leaned down and kissed her sweetly for a moment, making Athena get the familiar sensation of feeling like she was floating. "Now, come on. We've got a bit of a drive ahead of us."

Athena got into the passenger seat of the car while Ricky got in the drivers seat. She immediately rolled down her window so the hot summer air could escape and put her sunglasses down over her eyes to shield them from the sun. Ricky instantly handed her the aux cord to the cord (routine — she always played her music in the car.) Athena plugged her phone in while Ricky put the address of Camp Shallow Lake in his maps and proceeded to drive in the directions the GPS told him to go. Meanwhile, 21 by Gracie Abrams played in the back of the car.

"You'll never guess who texted me again this morning," Ricky voiced after about five minutes of silence and a new song, Grace by Lewis Capaldi, was halfway finished.

Athena rolled her eyes. "Let me guess. The persistent blonde girl who I literally want to smack across the face so hard?"

"Exactly." Ricky took his eyes away from the road for a moment and opened up his texts. "Let me know if you change your mind about her, Richie."

Athena wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Richie?"

"Like, at least call me Richard at that point."

"I like Ricky," Athena revealed. "Feels natural."

"Well, you've been calling me that our entire lives, so I sure hope it does," Ricky stated.

"How about baby?" Athena inquired, smiling widely when she looked over and saw, even through her tinted sunglasses, Ricky's face flush pink.

Ricky reached over and took her hand in his, pressing a kiss to the back of it. "I definitely like that one."

Suddenly, a very familiar guitar chord filled the car. Athena sat up in excitement as the chords of All Too Well progressed. Ricky glanced over at her, slightly shocked at how passionate she looked about this one song.

"I walked through the door with you, the air was cold," Athena sang. "But something about it felt like home somehow, and I left my scarf there at your sister's house, and you've still got it in your drawer even now." She looked over at Ricky when the song continued on to see him doing nothing, not even nodding his head along. "Come on, I know you know this song."

"I've really never heard it before," Ricky replied, shrugging and laughing slightly.

Athena pushed up her sunglasses to the top of her head to stare at Ricky incredulously, forcing some of her hair back so that the freshly dyed parts shone brilliantly in the sun. "What? I've never played this when we've hung out?"

"Not that I can remember."

"Nope. That is completely unacceptable. We're listening to it a minimum of five times on full blast." She reached her free hand over and turned up the volume. "This is the best song in the history of ever."

"Ever?" Ricky repeated.

Athena nodded seriously. "Ever." The chorus started, and she looked back through the windshield at the windy road they were on, her voice raising as she shouted along to the song. "'Cause there we are again on that little town street, you almost ran the red 'cause you were looking over at me. Wind in my hair, I was there, I remember it all too well . . ."

The rest of the ride pretty much went like that. Athena and Ricky didn't have to talk — their silence was always comfortable with each other, just happy to be in each other's presence. Their hands were still held tightly, Ricky sometimes letting go to change the gear of the car as they went up the sides of mountains while navigating to camp.

When the sky got dark and the summer air turned slightly chilly, Athena started to get tired from sitting in a car for so long. They had been nonstop driving for hours and only had about thirty minutes left until they got to camp according to the GPS. However, Ricky noticed that his girlfriend wasn't singing along to songs anymore and was just staring out the window.

So he did what he had to do and pulled over the car.

On the side of the road, there was a small overlook that displayed the beautiful city of Los Angeles down below them. Athena loved cities — that was a major fact. She always talked about wanting to visit Los Angeles or New York City one day — and although they weren't directly in Los Angeles, she could at least still look at the city lights.

"Ricky," Athena said, letting out a small laugh. "What are you doing?"

He looked over at her with a smile so positively bright it made her heart race. "Dance with me?"

"Right now?"

"Yes, right now. Are you in or not?"

Athena's smile matched his. "I'm in."

She got out of the car excitedly, stretching out her limbs for a second. Ricky rounded around to the passenger side of the car and opened the door momentarily. He unplugged Athena's phone from the aux cord and plugged in his own. Ricky pressed play on his phone. The song that sounded out of the car was unfamiliar to Athena she stood there for a moment, trying to see if she knew it, but she definitely didn't.

"What song is this?" Athena asked.

Ricky got a small blush on his face. "It's — uh . . . it's mine."

Her eyes widened. "It's yours?"

He nodded. "Big Red helped me record and produce it. Turns out, he's really good at producing."

"Racing toward the horizon to see the rear-view moon, I'm chasing pavement, escaping the life I knew," Ricky's voice sounded from the car, and Athena stared at her boyfriend in amazement. "Give me empty pages, just give me something new, I'm making up for the time that I lost on you."

"You're incredible," Athena told him sincerely as the song continued on, taking both of his hands in hers and lacing their fingers together. "I'm serious. This is amazing."

"You haven't even heard the whole thing," Ricky protested.

"And it's already incredible."

Ricky let go of one of her hands and lifted their still-interlocked ones above their heads, twirling Athena around as the chorus started. "Just dance with me."

Athena obliged. The two started to jump and down together like they didn't have a care in the world, which honestly, they didn't — it was summer, after all. Right now, it was just Athena and Ricky being their teenage selves. He continued to twirl her around and around until she got a little dizzy, stumbling forwards into her chest while giggling as Ricky caught her.

The song — which was a very good song, shoutout to Big Red for producing — ended sooner that Athena wanted it to be. She walked over to one of the broken tree trunks that were on the side of the road and sat down upon it, breathing a little heavily from dancing with a wide grin and flushed cheeks. Ricky sat on the one next to her. They said nothing for a moment, just trying to catch their breaths as they admired the city of Los Angeles.

"I think you should release that," Athena voiced. "I really do."

Ricky shrugged. "I don't know, Attie."

"A lot of people would love it, not just me. But no pressure." She reached up and tucked a pink strand of hair behind her ear. "So, the song's called Finally Free, huh? Stealing my song titles, I see."

"Didn't mean to, it just felt right. I wrote it for you, though."

Athena froze for a second, her head moving slightly to look away from the city lights and at Ricky. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Ricky agreed as he looked over at her, his face slightly illuminated from the city lights down below. "'Cause you make me feel like I'm finally free."

Athena's eyebrows knit in thought. "How so?"

"Things have been . . . rough. Especially in the past year." Ricky let out a deep breath. "My parents' divorce, my breakup with Nini that caused me to spiral, my dad dating Miss Jenn . . . it's been a lot of change. And I hate change."

"I know you do."

Ricky chuckled. "But if there's one thing that has stayed constant, it's you." He looked over at her. "And when I'm with you, it seems like all that bad stuff goes away. Like, everything weighing me down is just gone and I can just be myself. I'm finally free, because of you."

Athena laughed slightly in amazement. "Have I ever told you that I love you?"

Ricky shrugged. "Once or twice."

"Because I do. Oh my God, I really do."

Ricky stared at her for a long moment. "How did I ever get so lucky with you?"

She smiled softly at him, grabbing his hand and holding it tight, them dangling between the two tree trunks. "I see it as the other way around."

Ricky leaned over from his tree stump and kissed her cheek gently. Athena gave him a small smile in return and looked back down at the city. Her eyes were filled with wonder as they trailed across the vast city below.

"It's so pretty," Athena commented.

Ricky, however, wasn't looking at anything else but her. "Yeah. It is."

Athena could tell he wasn't looking at the city lights. "You did that cheesy thing, didn't you?"

"How could I not?"

Her eyes then raised up from the city lights. They caught on a star in the night sky. Although there weren't many due to all the lights from Los Angeles, there were still some prominent ones. She immediately found the Big Dipper as her head leaned back to stare up at the night sky, watching the stars twinkle and form constellations.

"Have you ever heard of Halley's Comet?" Athena questioned suddenly.

Ricky shook his head. "No."

"Well, it's a comet that's only visible from Earth around every seventy-five years. It's next sighting is supposed to be in 2061."

"You're going to make some analogy with this, aren't you?"

Athena laughed softly. "You know me too well." She paused for a moment. "Halley's Comet only comes around twice in a human lifetime. But something always convinces it to come back. Sure, probably in the science world it's gravity or an orbital pattern, but I think it's something else."

Ricky let out a small laugh. "You think Halley's Comet loves the Earth, don't you?"

"I'm a hopeless romantic, what can I say." Athena smiled to herself as she heard Ricky laugh a little more, her eyes still on the sky. "It makes me think of you and I. Like . . . I'm the Earth, you're the comet. Or vice versa. One of us might pull away for a little while, but something always pulls us back into each other. No matter what, we'll always be waiting for the other to come around." Her eyebrows knit in thought. "Does that make sense?"

Ricky tore his gaze away from her and looked up at the sky, as if he could see Halley's Comet, even though it wasn't coming for another fourty-one years. "Yeah, I get it."

"I've been loved before, Ricky," Athena admitted quietly. "But right now, in this moment . . . I feel more and more like I was made for you."

Ricky squeezed her hand. "Me too, my love."

--- ☆ • ♫ • ♪ • ♫ • ☆ ---

THEY HAD FINALLY made it to camp. Thirty more minutes in the car honestly felt like forever, but Athena felt excitement rise up in her chest when Ricky parked his car in the parking lot at Camp Shallow Lake. Walking close together underneath the camp sign and passing many cabins, Athena could tell that this place was just cute.

It was evident that an event, probably a beginning-of-camp event, had just ended, because groups of people were heading back into their cabins. Athena and Ricky walked further into camp, looking for a familiar face. They found two standing in a small amphitheater, which apparently where the event had just headed. It was Violetta and EJ, staring at each other softly.

Athena's smile widened as she quickened her pace and let go of her suitcase for the time being. She locked eyes with EJ for a moment and shook her head, making EJ look back down at his girlfriend. Athena snuck up behind Violetta and threw her arms around her best friend's neck loosely. Violetta jumped and turned around, but her scared face morphed into a grin immediately.

"'Thena!" Violetta shouted excitedly.

She jumped forwards and pretty much tackled Athena in a hug. Athena responded just as enthusiastically, practically catching Violetta in her arms. The two rocked back and forth for a moment from the force of the hug before they pulled away from each other, opting to hold onto each other's hands instead.

Violetta laughed momentarily. "You finally made it. We had a bet going to see when you two would actually show up. My money was on tomorrow morning, but I guess I underestimated you."

"Mine was tonight, so I win," EJ cut in. He then looked at Athena properly, his eyes widening slightly. "Cool hair, 'Thena."

Violetta gasped and examined her hair. "Oh my God, you look incredible."

"Thanks," Athena responded, reaching up and tucking a strand of pink behind her ear. "Did it last night. Ricky helped."

Violetta then looked over at Ricky, linking his arm in Athena's. "Well, if you don't mind, I'm stealing my girlfriend back to show her our cabin."

"Your girlfriend?" Ricky inquired incredulously. "You mean my girlfriend."

"No, I mean my girlfriend."

"Our summer romance is starting," Athena continued, giggling at Ricky and EJ's faces. "You should've seen this coming by now."

"Unbelievable," EJ replied. "Less than twenty-four hours into camp and I've already lost my girlfriend. This is a travesty."

Athena shook her head and looked back at Violetta. "Lead the way, honey."

"Let's go, sweetheart," Violetta responded. "Bye boys, see you in the morning."

"You're forgetting something, Vi," EJ insisted.

Violetta looked back at her boyfriend, rolling her eyes — fondly — before walking up to him. Athena looked back at Ricky, letting Violetta and EJ have their moment. She reached up and placed one hand on the side of his face, him leaning into her touch.

"Goodnight," Athena said quietly. She pressed up onto her toes and kissed him quickly. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Love you," Ricky stated.

"To the moon and to Saturn," she promised. Athena looked back over at Violetta. "I'm ready when you are, Vi."

Athena grabbed her suitcase and followed after Violetta, struggling slightly with the wheels in the dirt and grass. On the way, Violetta excitedly told her everything. Corbin Bleu, original High School Musical cast star, was directing the show they were putting on along with a Disney Plus documentary about the show. They would be putting on the first student production of Frozen.

Violetta eventually led her to a small cabin in the shape of a hexagon, appropriately titled Honeycomb. Athena smiled at it as Violetta opened the door.

She looked around. The cabin was ridiculously adorable. It was painted a light shade of blue and most of the decorations were yellow. There were three sets of bunk beds, which were all claimed due to the others getting there early. Each bed had a bulletin board next to them to pin things on. In the corner of the room was a large sink and a mirror by a bathroom.

Athena then noticed the other girls in there, and her grin widened. Ashlyn Caswell was sitting on a top bunk, Kourtney Greene was taking her makeup off in the mirror, and Gina Porter was taking her newly braided hair out of a ribbon she had tied it up in. There was also another girl with light brown hair sitting on a bottom bunk.

The first one to notice her was Kourtney. She gasped excitedly and threw down her makeup wipe, causing the others to look up. Ashlyn and Gina also gasped, and the three of them rushed over to the door. Athena laughed loudly as they brought her into a giant group hug.

"Athena!" Kourtney squealed.

"Hi, guys," Athena responded, letting them hug her for a couple more moments before pulling away.

"Thank God you're here," Ashlyn voiced. "This cabin felt so empty without you. It was really weird not having you with us when we got here."

"Well, I'm here now, so don't worry."

Gina's eyes then trailed up to her hair and they widened. "Oh my God, Athena, your hair."

"Oh," Athena replied. She flicked some of her hair over her shoulder dramatically, making some more of the pink shine through. "Yeah, it was just a little thing I did."

"It looks great," the girl with light brown hair announced, making everyone turn and look at her to see she was now standing up from her bunk. She was grinning brightly and walked up to Athena with her hand out. "I'm Maddox, or Gadget. You must be Athena, a fellow Wildcat."

Athena shook her hand. "Yeah, that's me. It's really nice to meet you. And thank you for the hair compliment, means a lot."

"Oh, by the way, I'm going to need your phone. Our camp is completely phone-free."

"Cool," Athena commented, taking her phone out of the pocket of her jean shorts and handing it to Maddox after she turned it off. "Here you go."

Violetta put a hand on her shoulder. "I saved the bunk above mine for you."

"Thanks."

Athena knelt down beside her suitcase and brought it down from its upright position to rest against the floor. She opened it to grab her sheets, even more excitement rising in her chest. Somehow, she just knew that this camp experience was going to be fun.

═ • ° • ✧ • ° • ═

THIS CHAPTER IS ALL OVER THE PLACE LET'S GOOOOOO

billie eilish wrote halley's comet for them it's true she told me <3

okay it's that time again besties give me your best ricky and athena headcanons GO

mine is that when ricky gets quiet and athena can tell he's getting lost in his thoughts again she gives him his space but every now and then she'll reach over and tap three times on him to say I love you without verbally saying it and if ricky taps it back she knows he's ready to talk about it but if he doesn't she continues to wait until he does tap back :)