AN: Alright well, I've gotten a few reviews already about wanting more Ramy interaction and, while I said that the next chapter wouldn't be up until next week, this one came barreling out of my brain and onto the page so fast and with such intensity that it just couldn't be kept at bay for another week. Therefore, I offer it to you my dear readers and hope that you sincerely enjoy it. Please review. And maybe if I get enough I'll feel prone to updating again in the next few days. These first three chapters are really the foundation of the story anyway, but there is a LOT more to come. Love, life, drama...everything we love about Secret Life. =] happy reading!


"I want three balls please!" Came a small squeaky voice from behind the post. Amy looked around the corner and smiled at the little girl waving her tickets up at her, laughing as she bent down to take them.

"Sure thing Gracie, you having fun so far?" Amy shot a look at Gracie's mom, a young mother of twenty-two named Laura, who nodded and knelt beside her daughter.

"Lots of fun, right Gracie? You got to jump in the bounce house?"

The little girl nodded eagerly and clapped her hands pointing across the grass to a pink bounce house in the corner of everything. "I was in the princess jump house, because I'm a princess!"

Amy laughed and nodded, grabbing three ping-pong balls and handing them over to Laura. "That's right you are a little princess. So you ready to play to see if you can win that sparkly tiara up there." Again Gracie nodded eagerly as her eyes found the plastic silver tiara hanging above their heads. Taking one ball from her mother she squared herself up in front of the giant pool of green, red, and blue bowls.

"You just got to get the ball to stay in one of the green bowls alright?" Amy coached, leaning against the post of the booth and sitting on the wooden crate that acted as a table. Gracie nodded, screwing up her face in concentration and sticking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth. She looked adorable as she did this and Amy shared a glance with Laura as they watched Gracie toss the ball toward the pool, hopping on one foot as she did so. The ball soared through the air and plopped into the water without hitting any bowl, but Gracie was quick to recover. She turned toward her mother and grabbed another ball. "That was just practice! Just practice! I'll get it."

Again Amy and Laura laughed, but could only watch again as Gracie followed the same pattern, falling short of a bowl once more.

"Alright." Laura coached. "Last chance bug. Aim for the red bowl okay?" Gracie breathed in deep and nodded, jumping from one foot to the other in anticipation. She took a bit longer this time, moving to throw the ball then backing out at the last minute. Amy thought it was extremely cute and couldn't help but smile as she finally shut her eyes and let the ball fly.

It sailed through the air and seemed to be heading straight for a the water, when at the last minute the floating bowls, rotated in accordance to the summer breeze and the ball landed in a blue bowl. Both Amy and Laura cheered, clapping their hands and congratulating Gracie on a good throw. "You got it in the bowl sweetie, you got it in the bowl."

Gracie at first smiled wide, excited and giddy until her eyes slipped to where the ball landed and the color of the bowl. "But I thought you said I had to get to get it in the green bowl?" She looked up at Amy with large eyes and Amy could already feel the disappointment seeping out of them.

"Well, to get the tiara yes, but…getting in the blue bowl means that you get a stuffed monkey." She pulled out a small, stuffed monkey sitting inside a banana peel and offered it to her. "See? Isn't it cute?"

Gracie took the monkey and looked at it, the smile not returning to her face as she stared at the monkey then back up at Amy. "But I wanted the tiara. I wanted to be a Princess."

Laura knelt down beside her daughter once more and snaked an arm around her shoulder. "Oh, your still a princess, bug. You don't need a tiara to tell you that."

"Yes you do!" Gracie argued, looking at her mom completely deflated and offended at the same time. "If you didn't need a tiara then Princesses wouldn't wear them! You need a tiara to be a Princess! And now I'll never be one!"

Amy leaned forward to try and console the girl, "Oh Gracie, what if I let you try again, we could—"

"Excuse me."

The three looked up to find Ricky, Mariah's brother standing beside the booth, his hands behind his back. "Uh, I couldn't help but overhear that there was a Princess over here?"

Amy looked at him confused, but Ricky didn't miss a beat as he knelt down in front of Gracie and revealed a glittering tiara from behind his back. Immediately her mouth dropped open, but she remained silent. Ricky only smiled. "Well, you see, I won this earlier today while I was trying to win one of those stuffed monkeys and I was wondering if you'd be willing to trade. Seeing as you are a Princess and you're in need of tiara, would you be interested."

Gracie didn't respond at first, she just kept her eyes transfixed on the tiara before looking up at Ricky, her eyes watery and then rushing at him to give him a hug. "Oh yes! Yes! Please can I trade my monkey for your tiara?"

Ricky chuckled and patted her back politely, Laura pulling her off him gently before he offered the crown to her. "It's all yours. It doesn't really fit my head anyway and I think it would look ten billion times better on you." She hugged him again with a squeal and then took the crown, tossing the monkey at him, which brought laughs from both Amy and Ricky and a scolding from her mother. As Laura pulled Gracie away, she waved at both Ricky and Amy, who now stood on either side of the booth desk watching the little girl go.

When they disappeared in the distance Amy turned toward Ricky, "That was awfully sweet of you." He met her gaze and shrugged, looking down at the monkey in his hand waving it at her.

"Least I could do. Like I said, I really wanted the monkey." Amy chuckled and nodded, pushing herself off of the post toward the pool of bowls and grabbing the ping-pong ball out of its place.

"Well then it's a win-win."

She turned back to Ricky, whom she noticed was gazing at her with a sort of steady gaze and she couldn't help the blush. "But even still, it was very sweet and I'm sure you just made that little girl's day."

He smiled lightly at her and leaned against the wooden table, setting the stuffed monkey on the counter. "So," he started, "how long have you and Mari been friends?"

Amy set the ping-pong balls back in the bucket beneath the table and turned, wiping her hands as she thought of his question. "Uh," she let her mind wander back to the first time she met Mariah in freshman homeroom and sighed. "About two years. We met the first day of high school and have been friends ever since. Megan, I met through Mariah in band."

At this Ricky's interest peaked and he smiled. "So you play an instrument?"

Amy nodded and slipped her hands into her back pockets as she leaned against the beam of the tent once more. "French horn. I wanted to be a professional musician in the New York Philharmonic."

Ricky nodded. "You don't want that anymore?"

She brushed back the bangs that fell just in front of her eyes and shook her head, dropping her gaze before letting it sweep out across the many kids running and laughing through the different booths. "No. I got into a summer program a few years back and realized that being a musician just wasn't for me." Her gaze stayed trained on a little boy smiling up at his mother as she helped him eat a bit of her snow cone and smiled. "Then after that Mariah got Margaret to hire me to be a summer counselor and my whole life changed. I realized how much I love kids, so I decided I want to be a teacher."

Ricky had watched as the expressions on her face changed as she looked out on all the families partaking in the fun. There was a focus to her and a definitiveness that he liked. She wasn't cocky or overly independent, she was just driven and confident. She was beginning to interest him even more. "I play the drums in my school band." He said, pulling out sticks from his back pocket and twirling them through his fingers. She reached out to take then and he let her grasp the sticks, watching with a smile as she twirled them clumsily at first then a little more practiced. Then, to his surprise, she set the sticks in a traditional stance in her hands, slowly tapping out a rhythm, which grew into a complicated cadence.

"Wow," he laughed as she finished. "Don't tell me you play the drums too."

Amy laughed as well and shook her head, returning the drum sticks to him with a tilt of her head. "No, I just dated a drummer for a while. He taught me a few things."

Ricky let his gaze linger on her as he leaned closer, turning his body towards her with a smirk. "I could teach you a few things too Amy. If you'd be interested."

He expected her to blush, maybe even shy away and stutter, but she didn't. Instead she reached out a hand and pushed him away gently, smiling politely and shaking her head. "I don't think so. But thanks for the offer."

He was slightly put off by her ease in rejecting him, but he shook it off, standing up to face her completely with a puppy dog pout he had used on a lot of different girls. "Come on Amy, we could make some beautiful music together."

She laughed and took a step back, rolling her eyes at him as she circled out of the booth and waved at an oncoming girl who was working the next booth shift. His body followed her as she crossed in front of the booth and him, his hands itching to reach out and pull her to him, wanting to see what she would do if he did. But her gaze on him made him stop in mid reach. "Like I told you, I realized I didn't want to be a musician anymore, so I think it best you find someone else to make that music with."

She pressed the stuffed monkey he had traded Gracie for into his chest and left him with one last smile before taking off through the crowd. He watched her go, stunned that she had just walked away from him, but more so that there was no baited or coy invitation to follow her. She had simply let him down, gently and without a game to play. She was really willing to leave him there. And though he thought he should have felt offended in some way he couldn't ignore the fact that it made her all the more attractive to him.

"So…you wanna play or something?" He turned to see the girl who had just relieved Amy from her booth duty watching him, her eyes steady and a familiar glint of interest glimmering in her eye. He weighed his options, looking the girl up and down and deeming her cute enough to entertain, but at the last minute shook his head. "No, already spent all my tickets playing for Amy."

The girl leaned closer to him and smirked, whispering suggestively, "Well then maybe you should go get more."

He smirked back at her, but didn't lean forward. Instead he stepped back from the booth and nodded. "Good idea. Thanks." Then left the girl to her own devices, passing a group of screaming kids who were motioning and pointing to the stuffed animals hanging above her booth. He would need more tickets to keep playing for Amy. And he was going to keep playing until he won.


AN: Can I just say...I love it when Ricky is so sure of himself. XD Like, for instance, in this week's episode, the way he said to Adrian, "Not for long." I about near died. No one can stop Ricky Underwood once he's set his mind on something. That's part of the reason why we love him so much right? But we also love Amy cause she's strong enough to combat Ricky when necessary. *sigh* Alright, again I say REVIEW. That's really the only indication I have that people actually like this story. Thanks a bunch!