nikki-shi

[nikki-shi]

closed for @milonavarroo​ ! 

greer’s birthday party, october 25th 

───✰✰✰✰✰───    

nikki cheered for herself when she spiked the ball. it barely made it over the net, but it was another point for her and milo nonetheless. her head spun at the quick movement, and she called for a time out. “two minutes!” she said, making her way to the side of the pool. she folded her elbows over the edge and leaned heavily against the platform. a few feet away, a group of friends took jello shots. “we -” she looked around for milo. “should take another shot.”

#{ activity } #{ the tomboy and the jerk jock }

[nikki-shi]

mari:

“It probably will just be weird, anyways,” Mari said, a slight flare of her nostrils at the thought - again - of celebrating Greer’s birthday without her. “You don’t need to avoid me,” she said, the protest losing its effectiveness with how soft her voice was. “It’s just….you know.” Mari shrugged, reaching for her phone instead of elaborating.  She unlocked it, scrolling through her photos until she found the ones she was looking for. “I have a new one piece…but I was thinking maybe this one,” she said, sending a photo of herself in one of her swimsuits to Nikki’s phone, before continuing to scroll. “Or…this one,” she said, dragging out the syllables until she found her second option, sending that photo over to the other girl as well, before locking her phone and rolling over, chin leaning on Nikki’s shoulder as the pictures loaded onto her phone. “Any opinions?” 

───✰✰✰✰✰───    

nikki did know. mari wasn’t out, and nikki certainly didn’t want to pressure her or make her feel uncomfortable in public. “okay. then we’ll take a shot together,” she said. “promise?” looking back towards her phone screen, she smiled and raised her brows as the photos loaded before her. “i like the black,” she said. “but i think green is a good color on you. you look good in jewel tones. it’s a tough choice... but you’ll look good in whatever you wear.” she looked at mari from the corner of her eyes. “what about the one piece? though, for the record, i am totally team bikini.”

#{ activity } #{ the tomboy and the closet gay }

[nikki-shi]

dulce​:

“Nothing much, I can’t really say the last few days have been particularly exciting.” No, they’d been exhausting and drama-filled, both of which Dulce could’ve lived without, but sadly they were forced into this situation, every single one of them, with G, or Greer or whoever, ruling over this school with an iron fist. Any ally would be a great method to get some info and to keep each other safe. “You’d be surprised. If this is actually Greer, then I’m sure she’d want me to not know much and I’m left out of things. Lovely,” Dulce joked, rolling her eyes in the process. She nodded at Nikki’s request, raising her coffee as a mean of toasting. “To new allies? Who don’t ask questions like that,” she scolded the other, clicking her tongue in disapproval, “that’s not what this is about. Asking questions, alright? We all got our secrets.” 

───✰✰✰✰✰───  

nikki raised her coffee cup and tapped it lightly against the other. she took a long gulp afterwards and immediately regretted it, having surely burnt her tongue and throat by doing so. she tried to hide the pain from her face, instead quirking an eyebrow at dulce’s scolding. “don’t have a crap attack,” she said, quoting bob’s burgers. she had been binge watching the show for the past three nights. “i know you’re a woman of secrets, and i can respect that. but...” she took a bite of a french fry, a thoughtful expression on her face. “allies are supposed to trust each other. how can i trust you if you don’t trust me? just give me something, anything out of your bag of secrets.”

#{ activity } #{ the tomboy and the femme fatale }

[nikki-shi]

monty:

“You an island gal?” he teased with a slow drawl, smile settling into something easier as the topic at hand shifted. Hypothetical vacations were much more fun to think about without Greer in the picture. “Really?” Monty asked, more surprised by Nikki’s choice than he should’ve been, given her very much sporty reputation. “What if it was the Winter Olympics? Would you still wanna go? Or are we strictly talking the summer games here?” It was just like him to create addendums and additional rules that didn’t really matter, just to be a pain in the ass. Sometimes he liked to think through little mini puzzles, even if that puzzle was literally just calculating layover times. Monty hummed, lips rubbing together as he tried to come up with a good answer. “Somewhere in Europe, I guess,” he finally decided, shrugging without much enthusiasm. “I haven’t ever really thought about traveling, but it’d be cool to get out of the country, even just the once. See some ancient shit and eat weird food.”

───✰✰✰✰✰───    

“more like an “anywhere but here” type of girl,” she corrected. “ogden isn’t terrible, but between this and a beach, i’d choose the beach.” nikki didn’t need to ponder his next question. she already knew the answer. “absolutely not,” she said, looking at him with an expression of faux insult. “do i look like i give a shit about ice hockey and figure skating?” she despised figure skating, the most out of all the sports she could currently think of. she took another drag from the joint, then passed it back to him, and turned again to lay on her stomach. “i can imagine you in europe,” she remarked. “you look like the backpacking type. ... that’s sorta lame.” she said the last bit before she thought about it, and she didn’t know why, but all she could imagine was monty backpacking across london and how much of a dork he’d look like. “no offense.”

#drug use tw #{ activity } #{ the tomboy and the scholarship student }

[nikki-shi]

{ BRIANNE TJU, 20, CIS WOMAN, SHE/HER } Is that NICOLE “NIKKI” SHÍ? A SOPHMORE originally from MOUNT FOREST, ONTARIO, CANADA, they decided to come to Ogden College to study CHEMICAL ENGINEERING on an ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIP. They’re THE TOMBOY on campus, but even they could get blamed for Greer’s disappearance.

O V E R V I E W 

nicole shí was born on june 20th to shen and atlas shí in ontario, canada. she is a ciswoman. she is bisexual and uses she/her pronouns. english is her primary language. however, she is also familiar with chinese and french. her father is a pilot for the ontario international airport. as his work required him to be away from home most of the time, nicole, often known as “nikki”, and her three brothers were raised primarily by their stay at home mother. as a result, nikki had a closer relationship with her mother than with her father throughout her childhood and young adulthood. her and her brothers were raised into the buddhist religion. the family was upper middle class, though shen and atlas raised their children to be frugal. nikki had two older brothers, charles and eric, and one younger brother, adam. surrounded by boys, nikki learned to appreciate sports at a young age. she experimented with gymnastics as a child, volleyball in middle school, and soccer, tennis, and basketball in high school. she graduated summa cum laude from wellington heights secondary school and earned an academic scholarship to ogden college. she studies chemical engineering and plays on the tennis team and as goalie on the soccer team, all while maintaining a 4.0 grade point average.

P E R S O N A L I T Y

nikki is determined to get what she wants. she is a perfectionist and holds herself to high standards in all aspects of life, something she inherited from both parents. from this trait, she acquires perseverance, but her determination can sometimes blind her from reality and distract her from others’ feelings as well as her own. she is competitive and often willing to do whatever it takes to win, whether it’s a simple board game or soccer game. she is temperamental with a short temper. her love languages are physical touch and words of affirmation. her character inspirations are: emily fields (pretty little liars), darlene connors (roseanne), ginny weasley (harry potter), jessie spano (saved by the bell), katniss everdeen (the hunger games), prue halliwell (charmed), kat stratford (10 things i hate about you), max mayfield (stranger things), monica geller (friends).

A S T R O L O G Y

nikki is a sun gemini, rising aries, and moon libra. as a gemini, she is restless, curious, persuasive, and short-tempered. the gemini flower is lavender, the color is yellow, the metal is bronze, and the stone is agate. as a rising aries, she is confident, impulsive, and quick to anger. as a moon libra, she is sexual, diplomatic, and skillful. she is most compatible with leo, libra, aquarius, and aries. 

#ogdenintro #{ inspiration }

[nikki-shi]

mari:

-

Mari froze at Nikki’s question where she was sitting, hand holding the sheets to her chest as they were tugged away, the reminder of Greer making her feel utterly bare. It wasn’t exactly one she wanted at the moment…or at all, with the way things were now. “I hadn’t decided,” she said, her voice small through the lie. Of course Mari was going to go - it was stupid, pathetic even, but she couldn’t help but think about how it would be such a Greer thing to do to appear out of nowhere, with no word, at a party for her - that no one even expected her at. And while half of her was longing for the satisfaction of not being there if Greer did show up (a large if, but one that was surely pounding through her brain), the larger half of her couldn’t stop thinking about it, and certainly wouldn’t let herself sit at home wondering the entire night. “You saying me in a bikini would be the only thing that got you there?” she asked, turning to look over her shoulder at Nikki with a raised up eyebrow. “You could appreciate that more not at a party,” she pointed out quietly. 

───✰✰✰✰✰───  

nikki quirked a brow and titled her head slightly, as though to say, yeah, pretty much. “you’re the best reason i have to go,” she said. it was no secret that her and greer were closer to rivals than they were friends. if the golden girl were here, nikki surely wouldn’t have even received an invite to the party. or maybe she would, out of some fake nicety bullshit. she tapped twice on the instagram post and continued scrolling. “don’t worry. i’ll adamantly avoid you at the party,” she jokingly assured. “if that means i can get a sneak peek at the fit. what are you wearing?” 

#{ activity } #{ the tomboy and the closet gay }

[nikki-shi]

monty:

He hummed softly, caught up in his head for a few seconds more before he could manage to answer, “I guess it would be hard to keep everything straight. Being in everyone’s business and having so many people confide in you.” Monty didn’t know how Greer did it, but at least in his experience, she had the uncanny ability to make people feel seen, and that went an awfully long way – regardless of how sincere it truly was. Fingers twisting together where they rested on his abdomen, he turned his head to look at Nikki, giving one sturdy nod in reply. “For sure. What’s that one saying… the simplest explanation is usually the right one?” That was probably a butchered misquote, but whatever, he was getting the point across. He shrugged, a joking smiling teasing at the corner of his mouth as he insisted, “I’d still be willing to bet that she’s getting baked and tanned in the Bahamas or some shit. Not a care in the world…” That sounded like the Greer that Ogden had come to know and love – and hate.

───✰✰✰✰✰───  

nikki laughed at the thought of greer in the bahamas, because it was exactly what she expected from the campus golden girl. driving everyone here mad while she relaxed on a beach. personally, she had a theory that greer disappeared for attention. she would show up again sooner or later, ready to reap the benefits of the chaos she had caused. she had even gained more instagram followers since she was gone. not that nikki had noticed or anything. 

“i wish i was on the bahamas,” she remarked. she took a smaller drag from the joint, held her breath for a moment, then breathed out. “if you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you travel?” she wasn’t typically one for hypothetical questions, but it was the only segway she could find to move on from the greer topic that she already regretted bringing up. she much preferred if no one, including monty, knew that greer even still crossed her mind. “i’d go anywhere the olympics were being held.” 

#{ activity } #{ the tomboy and the scholarship student }

[nikki-shi]

closed for @mari-zuko​

the night of october 24th

───✰✰✰✰✰───  

nikki turned to lay on her stomach, pulling the sheets with her to cover her bare back. she propped herself up on both elbows and scrolled through her instagram feed. one post in particular - a friend pleading for answers, claiming how much they missed greer - reminded her of something she wanted to ask mari. “are you going to that pool party?” she asked. “kinda weird to have a birthday party for someone who isn’t even here. no one snuck into the school pool for my birthday. ... but i’ll go if you go. i’d love to see you in a little bikini.”

#{ activity } #{ the tomboy and the closet gay }

[nikki-shi]

parisa:

.

“Geminis really do get a lot of hate, don’t they?” Parisa agreed, scrunching her nose. Why was that? She wasn’t super well-versed in astrology, but she knew that Virgos were pretty well-received for the most part. “Well, always hungry, let’s go get something to eat,” she joked, eyes then widening at Nikki’s comment about jousting. “Me? I can ride, sure, but jousting? With a lance? Do you want me to fall?” she joked in response, shoving her back playfully. “We can loosen the corset if you want, it won’t ruin the outfit if we just let you have a little breathing room. What do you say?” Parisa suggested, knowing she had an array of safety pins and fashion tabe in her bag specifically for incidents like this. No wardrobe malfunction she couldn’t fix. 

“Okay, since you came to this with me - what are we doing next weekend? I owe you one, so whatever you want to do. As long as it doesn’t involve too much physical labor, you know I’m not a fan of that,” she whined with a pout, hoping Nikki wouldn’t say they were going to do farm work - even if it was just to mess with Parisa. 

───✰✰✰✰✰───    

“a little bit. what? tell me it wouldn’t be funny if you fell on your ass!” nikki lauged. “are you crazy? my boobs have never looked better!” usually, they looked, well, non-existent. she looked down at her chest. “it’s fine. if i can handle sled pushes, i can handle a corset.” though, she did pull on the side of her dress in attempt to take a bit of pressure off her ribs. beauty is pain, and all that bullshit. 

she hummed at the proposal, a thoughtful expression crossing her features. “trust me, i learned my lesson last time i went to the gym with you,” she said. “how about a good ole’ fashion movie night? we can watch halloween - no, texas chainsaw massacre.” a fan of horror movies, and a lowkey fan of parisa’s gossip, she needed a relaxing night of both. “and eat a shit ton of popcorn.”

#{ activity } #{ the tomboy and the nepo baby }

[nikki-shi]

closed for @wrathblooded​

one night in october, after casino night 

───✰✰✰✰✰───  

nikki fell back on her bed with a heavy sigh. she nursed a bloody nose, courtesy of a disgruntled team mate. avery zhao was causing a stir on the soccer team. she thought about all the things she’d like to say to her, but she most wanted to scold her team mates and herself for falling avery’s stupid charm. a knock at the door interrupted her thoughts, and she groaned loudly. “it’s open!” she expected gabe, but it wasn’t. she sat up quickly and pulled the tissue away from her nose. it had stopped bleeding, mostly. “hey, kj. what’s up? gabe isn’t here.” 

#{ activity } #{ the tomboy and the wolf in sheep's clothing }

[nikki-shi]

carew​:

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

Carew shrugged as he took another sip from his beer, lulling his head back slightly like he could will the gummies to take effect faster that way. He knew well enough that wasn’t the case, but he could dream. “I sure to fuck hope so. I’m actually riding solo for the evening, so if you insist, might make my way back to my dorm before these kick in too much.” He explained, taking that as an excellent excuse to slip out sooner than planned. But he still waited a beat as she continued talking. It didn’t surprise him, what she had to say of the boys on the basketball team. You’ve seen one jock you’ve seen them all. Although at the mention of the football boys he shot her a look of irritation. “Hope you’re talking about the American football players. The soccer team’s not bad. Mostly tolerable guys.” He mused, putting a little American accent on the word soccer as he said it. “So is that your plan for tonight then? Piss off the lads?” 

───✰✰✰✰✰───    

“what?” nikki asked when he glanced at her with a look of annoyance. then, she threw her head back with a laugh. “football. not fut-ball,” she said with a poor british impression. “i would never talk shit about the soccer team. i support the men’s team only slightly less than i support the women’s.” he was right. most guys on the team were tolerable. “huh. you don’t strike me as a soccer fan.” she shifted on the couch, tucking an ankle under her knee, so she was sitting with her legs partially folded. “the plan is always to piss off the lads,” she confirmed. anywhere and anytime. it didn’t matter the circumstance. “it’s funny when they’re mad, especially when they’re trying to impress the cheerleaders at the same time. they look like their heads are going to explode. don’t know if that’s a show you wanna miss, mate.” 

#{ activity } #{ the tomboy and the ineffectual loner }

[nikki-shi]

avery:

-

Avery blinked. Hard. She was welcome? Hardly ever the bigger person, Avery couldn’t help but counter back. “Yeah, you really contributed when you were gripping my hair and screaming my name. I think the actual words you’re looking for are ‘thank you’.” She gave a slight roll of her eyes. Call it a hunch but Avery had a feeling this wasn’t the end of their back and forth on this particular subject. “Okay, you say that like I have list and I’m ticking you guys off one by one – I’m not.” The idea was so ridiculous, Avery couldn’t help out but release an amused sort of noise. Something between a laugh and a huff. “It’s not a ‘game’.” She made air quotes with her fingers. “No one’s playing anything. I also feel like half is an exaggeration. Are you sure it’s half?”

───✰✰✰✰✰───    

nikki nearly laughed out loud. that night was pretty good. on a scale of one to ten, she gave it a solid eight, but avery didn’t deserve the compliment. “be fucking for real. it was mediocre, at best.” she crossed her arms over her chest and popped her hip impatiently. “sure seems like it,” she said. it did. she didn’t care how childish it seemed. she didn’t put it passed avery. once she made up her mind about something, it was nearly impossible for her not to fixate on it until it became her reality. “the other girls think so, too,” she added. they had a long discussion about it in their group chat. “you lost track? typical.”

#{ activity } #{ the tomboy and the tortured artist }

[nikki-shi]

alethea:

per usual, alethea was caught up in their thoughts. recounting everything from the past days, greer’s threats, their own feelings that were becoming a more complicated mess. and all of this was coming together inside her as she stepped around a corner and came into contact with another body. and just their luck, it was nikki. her books and bag dropped to the ground and alethea groaned as they reached to pick it up. “sorry, sorry.” alethea mumbled pulling her things back into her arms. “you could also watch, or maybe they should put a mirror here for people. it’s a dangerous corner after all.” she tried to joke with a small chuckle and shrug. 

───✰✰✰✰✰───  

nikki was rarely unknowingly a bitch. she liked the witty repartee that so often accompanied bitchiness. when she encountered someone so easily submissive, however, it tended to take away the fun. now, she just felt... well, like a bitch. “i think a mirror might pose more of a hazard than the corner,” she commented, and tried to offer alethea a smile. “ya know, sharp corner, breakable glass... anyways. are you good? you look a little spacey.” 

#{ activity } #{ the tomboy and the manic pixie dream girl }

[nikki-shi]

ace:

♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣

Booker chuckled. “I would hope so, or we’re just a bunch of shittalkers.” He teased. “Team is alright. They didn’t make it to the championship last year and coach is insisting all the guys stay focused. I’m just happy to be starting at all, as a freshman too.” He said it casually, before slyly mentioning his humble brag. It was rare for a freshman to start in any sport, but the baseball team needed players. 

“Wow, wait, are you on the tennis team?” Booker started, eyes widening. “I haven’t had the chance to meet everyone yet. Do you do singles or doubles?” Truthfully, he preferred baseball over tennis. Maybe because the baseball team is more malleable to what he wants it to be, or it could be that the tennis team’s captain insists on making practice harder for him. 

───✰✰✰✰✰───

nikki quirked a brow and looked at him with an expression that said, i’m impressed. she knew how uncommon it was for a freshman to start. “you must be pretty good,” she said. “yeah! you too, huh? i thought you looked familiar.” the tennis team was pretty big, for a college tennis team. it didn’t surprise her that they didn’t know each other, especially since he was a freshman. “both. what about you?”

“maybe we can partner up sometime,” she suggested. “if you’re any good. i usually partner up with sassa, but she doesn’t really take it seriously. personally, i think if you’re gonna play, you should play to win.”

#{ activity } #{ the tomboy and the homegrown hero }

[nikki-shi]

monty:

“Because I’m weird and funny.” It was a debatable claim that Monty didn’t really have any evidence for, except for the smile that he watched stretch across Nikki’s lips. Getting high tended to have that effect on people, too. He stayed quiet for a long time, listening and debating how much he actually trusted her before ultimately deciding: fuck it. “I think about Greer all the time,” he admitted. It was Monty’s turn to cough then, lifting his head to take too deep of a hit while laying on his stomach, smoke catching in his diaphragm and sputtering out in the least elegant way possible. His eyes were squeezed shut as he blindly passed the joint to Nikki, flopping over onto his back and clearing his throat. “I tried –” a cough – “I tried really hard to be her friend, but I don’t think I ever made the cut.” He was her dealer and nothing more, pretty cut and dry on reflection. He almost wondered how long it’d take to forget Greer entirely, or if this freaky year would be forever burned into his brain, turned into some impactful and formative period for him, whether or not she ever showed her face around Ogden again. Monty hummed as he glanced over. “The cops are saying she’s a runaway now, you know, but then it’s like… what the fuck could she be running from? Greer of all people.” She was golden girl; didn’t she have it all figured out?

───✰✰✰✰✰───  

“all the time?” nikki repeated in surprise. “shit. i only think about her, like, sometimes. when it feels like i’ve thought about everything else and that’s all that’s left.” she remembered when she and monty began talking last year, and how opposing their views were of the campus’ golden girl. he wanted to be greer’s friend. she wanted to beat greer at something just once. it was ironic how different opinions of greer morrison split the student body more now than it had when she was around. nikki took the joint and held it while he coughed. “amateur,” she teased dryly.

“maybe a bad hair day,” nikki snorted. she felt the slightest bit of guilt afterwards and didn’t meet monty’s gaze. “who knows? it feels like she knew everyone. maybe someone knew something she didn’t want them to.” or maybe she knew something someone didn’t want her to. “there could be a completely reasonable explanation, and maybe it’s not our business.” that didn’t explain the texts, though.

#{ activity } #{ the tomboy and the scholarship student }

[nikki-shi]

leaky:

open starter where: library  when: tuesday oct 18 morning

he was supposed to be writing an essay. and usually leaky had no problem with his homework, ecological ethics was actually one of his favorite classes. but it was game day, and it was always harder to concentrate on game day. so there he sat, fake tapping away at his computer at the shared table of the library commons. every sound caught his attention, causing him to look around, trying to catch anyone’s eye to use as an excuse. and finally he decided to give in, leaning toward the other that sat at the table careful keep his voice low cause in all honesty he was a bit afraid of the librarians. “psst, hey, hey.” he tapped his fingers against the wood. “are you going to the game tonight?” he smiled brightly at them. 

───✰✰✰✰✰───  

nikki looked up at the tapping. “that depends,” she said with a coy smile. “do you plan on winning?” she attended most sports games the school had to offer, but her appearance at the game that night depended entirely on how productive she was at the library that day. “now fuck off. i have a bio report due at midnight and i can’t focus with you smiling at me like that.” whether it was on the field or in the classroom, she always believed in being number one. “if you’re going to stay, then you need to help.”

#{ activity } #{ the tomboy and the trusty sidekick }

[nikki-shi]

link​:

   her responses elicits a raise in his brow, a bit of a surprise — he hadn’t seen this sort of bitterness coming, to be honest. but perhaps they should have seen it coming. feelings or not, hooking up with two best friends ? always a red zone. though, it’s not like he planned this thing with parisa… just happened. it’s not every day you end up fooling around with a rival, per se. “ — i wasn’t aware i was meant to have just one. does that bother you ? ” he asks, opting to try to be blunt in this situation, a shrug on his shoulders.

───✰✰✰✰✰───  

“no.” every other word through her mind was a swear word, directly solely at the boy before her. nikki hated the way he was so nonchalant, as though he didn’t know perfectly well what she was talking about. “you know perfectly well what i’m talking about,” she said. “i don’t care how many people you fuck, but if you wanted to hook up with parisa, you could have just told me.” if it was any other person, she wouldn’t have cared, but it was her best friend. the situation planted a seed of insecurity within her, which she didn’t handle well. “you didn’t even have to waste time sleeping with me. i could have just told parisa you wanted her.”

#{ activity } #{ the tomboy and the puppermaster }