Rated: T | AO3 Link | 1367 words | Beta’d by @kaeos_tennyo on twitter and @astraadastra
AO3 tags: Sharing a Bed, Realization, Took a couple thousand years but he got it in the end
It was the little things — it was always the little things.
When created in a vast space of nothing, nothing to look at and hardly anything to touch, the little things were treasured. When you lived for thousands of years and have seen all manner of human activity, the little things helped create the memories that Aziraphale carried at all times.
A new little thing was looking up out of the kitchen window and seeing Crowley hunched over the flower beds in the back garden, surrounded by colors that stood out against the wardrobe of black. Aziraphale expected wings to come out to protect Crowley from the sun, but they never came. Not like Crowley could get burned anyway.
Aziraphale knew that Crowley talked to the plants, but in the past, he didn’t speak with kindness. But now, on the nice days when Aziraphale had the window opened, he could hear the hushed conversation with the flora. Muttered words of encouragement, astonishment on a good grow, and sometimes, little conversations of day-to-day life or a story from one of their adventures centuries ago.
It wasn’t on purpose - he hadn’t planned any of this, not how he would have liked to. There were no romantic dinners, barely even anything that could be considered a date, and he definitely hadn’t meant to tell her he loved her. How had that slipped out?
When Gibbs quit - retired - whatever, Tony had been promoted to team leader. From the outside, it may have seemed like a promotion, but it felt like being stranded on a desert island. McGee was little more than a probie, and Ziva had been stateside for all of two seconds. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust them - he just didn’t know that he would be able to wrangle them with the skill Gibbs always had.
The first few cases were tough - no one was prepared to work without Gibbs, and Tony had the sneaking suspicion that Abby resented him for becoming team lead in Gibbs’ absence. After a while, Tony, Ziva, and McGee fell into a steady routine of campfires and case reports. Steady, but certainly not comfortable. His team members resisted Tony taking point, though not intentionally. With Gibbs, there was a flow, and Tony’s sudden promotion had interrupted that.
Ziva could barely look him in the eye, and the drives to crime scenes were eerily silent. Tony couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something lurking just under the surface, something that wanted to be said - something that had been there since she had first caught him fantasizing about Kate. But now, without Gibbs’ presence, it lingered between them without a buffer. Tony felt out of control, and he didn’t like not being in control. Ziva and Tim acted dutifully, participated in campfires, filled out their paperwork without (much) complaint, but it wasn’t quite right. Tony had the job he always wanted, but nothing was right about this situation.
-
The first night he showed up on her doorstep, he hadn’t planned any of it. He had intended on driving to the nearest bar and drowning his sorrows at the bottom of a glass of aged scotch. But, as if possessed, he had driven straight past the Red Feather, continuing west towards Ziva’s apartment. And then he was at her door, knocking, and she was there, answering.
“Tony? Why are you here?” He struggled to respond, and Ziva noticed his hesitation. Laughing, she reached out to smooth the crease between his eyebrows. “Perhaps your brain has been baked by this case.” A small grin pulled at his lips, though he was surprised by the intimacy of her touch.
“Fried, Ziva. You get baked when you, well…maybe we’ll try it sometime.” She rolled her eyes and Tony felt his stomach flip. He swallowed hard, trying to force the butterflies back into their dark, deep corner somewhere to the left of his liver.
“Aren’t you gonna invite me in?” She stepped back, pulling the door open enough for him to step through. Ever the keen investigator, Tony tried to take in every possible detail of her apartment, from the surprisingly cluttered kitchen counter to her unsurprisingly bare walls.
“Would you like a drink?” He hadn’t noticed her cross the room, but there she was, head buried in the fridge.
“Just a beer, thanks. What were you up to before I unceremoniously interrupted your evening? Prepping for a hot date?” Ziva snorted, emerging from the fridge with a beer in each hand.
“Yes, a hot date with my book,” she said, handing Tony one of the bottles. He twisted it open and tossed the cap into the sink, heading towards the couch. Dropping himself onto the plush brown cushions, he picked up the book that had been left face down on the arm, leaving his finger on her page before flipping it over to check the front cover.
“Ahh, The Da Vinci Code. Very hip, Zee-vah.”
“McGee recommended it. Apparently, it is very interesting.” Tony opened his mouth, inhaling deeply as if preparing to launch into a monologue. “Do not – Tony, do not tell me what happens,” Ziva said, sitting down on the opposite end of the couch. “I would like to find out for myself.” He didn’t respond, watching her face soften as she took a sip from her bottle, then turned to him. The twisty sensation returned in his stomach, a sensation he had realised was associated with her smile, her hair, her…her. He cringed, breaking the eye contact and running a hand over his hair. The blushing tween thing was so 1980.
“Have you heard from Gibbs at all?” Ziva took a much longer pull from the bottle before answering.
“No, I have not. I do not think he wants to speak to me, Tony. Abby, perhaps, but not me.” Tony reached out to brush away an errant strand of hair from her face, fingertips trailing down her cheek.
“Are you ever going to tell me what happened? It must have been…important.” She was preoccupied with the bottlecap in her hand, avoiding his gaze. She hadn’t told him about Ari, or about the bond between them that had drawn Gibbs out of his amnesia. Gibbs’ abandonment had pressed its fingers into a very sore, very much unhealed wound, and despite the connection she felt with Tony, she couldn’t bring herself to tell him any of it.
“We don’t have to talk about it,” he said, sufficiently chastised by her uncomfortable silence. “I just thought…I thought maybe I could help.” Help with what, he thought. He knew something heavy had gone down between Gibbs and Ziva, something to do with Ari. He didn’t know what it had to do with Gibbs’ amnesia, or with his sudden Mexican sabbatical. He also didn’t really know how he intended to help Ziva, but he was certainly willing to try. Eager, even.
“Good work on the case today, Boss,” Ziva said finally, smirking at him. She had shifted seamlessly into geniality, lightly shoving him when he failed to respond. “You are blushing, Tony! I thought you liked being the team leader.” It was now Tony’s turn for an uncomfortable silence.
“It feels…dirty. It shouldn’t be mine, not this way,” he said, shaking his head.
“Then how? You did not fire Gibbs, or send him away. He chose to leave. You should be proud of how you are doing, Tony,” she said, leaning towards him. “I am proud of you.” Okay, now he was really blushing. She set her hand on his shoulder. “Truly, Tony. Gibbs would be, too.”
They held eye contact for a moment, neither willing to break the spell. Slowly, Ziva moved closer, pressing her lips to his. He leaned back, and she stared boldly at him while he floundered.
“Ziva, I – we –” She kissed him again, and this time he knew not to pull away.
-
And then it continued to happen. Night after night, Tony promised himself he wouldn’t find his way back to her apartment, back to her bed, and every night, that’s where he found himself. He wasn’t complaining, exactly, it just didn’t help his problem.
It didn’t help him to feel in control when he knew he was falling for her, hard. It didn’t help that he also couldn’t tell if the feeling was mutual. She had, in true ninja fashion, the straightest of poker faces.
By July, Tony had stopped pretending it had anything to do with “relieving tension,” as he had up to that point excused it. He hadn’t, however, stopped referring to it as, well, “it.” He didn’t know what he was supposed to call what they were doing - they weren’t dating, but whatever it was had an edge to it that friends with benefits wasn’t supposed to have. They didn’t talk about what they were doing, and Tony certainly hadn’t told anyone, but the long looks across the bullpen and silent-but-not-uncomfortably-so rides to crime scenes with McGee in the back seat had started to feel more and more obvious. Tony was getting antsy, about the job and about their extra-curricular activities.
He began to suspect Lee knew what was going on between them. She and Jimmy hadn’t been very good at hiding their own budding relationship, and he had the sense that she could feel the shift in his own with Ziva. Calling it a relationship, though, felt more intimate than what was warranted. At most, they shared a beer, or some wine, before she was stripping his shirt off and he was leading her to the bed. He craved her all day long, every second he wasn’t beside her, every second his hands weren’t on her. Tony was pretty sure the rest of the team could, at the very least, smell the longing oozing out of his pores, if they hadn’t already noticed his staring at Ziva.
She couldn’t shake him, his eyes following her every movement at work and after. Ziva knew that this couldn’t continue, that it had already gone on for too long. Eli had beaten it into her – relationships were weaknesses that could, and would, be exploited. And she felt the weakness growing, could feel her softness for Tony swallowing her whole. She couldn’t afford to let him in, for both of their sakes.
-
The heat of August settled over them slowly, softening their nights and making their days a blur of humidity and sunshine. She was his, only his, her face softening when their eyes met, his fingers tangled in her hair. He was everywhere in her apartment, inescapable, but she liked it – she wanted to drown herself in him. Her sheets smelled of him, sweat and cologne and gun powder, his jacket hung over the back of her kitchen chair, more domestic than she could have imagined. He was inside of her, all over her, never too far away, always willing to melt under her hands.
He felt her shift, felt her sigh against the crook of his neck. Sometimes – rarely, but sometimes – she dozed off beside him and he let himself pretend that they were a thing, a proper couple who shared more than a bed. She was warm, tucked into his side, though the heat pressed itself against the windows.
-
One final storm had broken the summer’s heat, the rain cooling the pavement and roofs as September inched towards them. Their most recent case had been traumatising, even for them. Too many close calls for everyone on the team had exhausted them, but Tony still appeared at her door. Ziva was bruised, tired. Her vest had kept her from being struck by a wildly-fired bullet, but it hadn’t protected her from the massive force behind the small ball of metal. Tony had almost lost his mind when he saw it, and couldn’t get the memories of Kate in the same situation out of his head. Last time, his partner hadn’t survived – but last time he hadn’t been sleeping with her, he thought.
Ziva could feel the difference that night – he was gentler, but he held her tighter, breathing her in. She had been scared, too – terrified that her luck and her training had finally failed her. She had fought to keep her composure as Tony flung himself towards her, convinced she was injured. It was a breach of their normal stoicism, and it unsettled her. She knew she was in too deep.
“Jesus, Ziva – love you. Wanna get lost in you,” he mumbled into the side of her neck. She froze in his arms, body tense.
“Tony, I can not - this is not-” Ziva was uncharacteristically inarticulate, the words catching in her throat. Her heart pounded, and she felt the room swimming as she shifted away from him. This was not what she had expected, not what she had intended to happen.
Tony was pulled from the haze as he realized what he had said.
Too good to be true ran through his mind, but he wasn’t sure where the good had been. It was just sex, had only ever been just sex, but his ears were ringing and hurt was pressing down on him, drowning him, as he struggled to reply.
“Right, no, sorry. I just got…caught up in, in…the moment.” A stammering teenager, rejected by the girl he asked to prom. Way to go, DiNozzo. Very adult. He disentangled himself from her, sliding out from under her sheets, and began gathering his clothes.
She looked like a trapped animal, eyes searching for the easiest exit, though she sat on the bed, sheets wrapped around her.
“I’m sorry, Ziva. I’ll…I’ll see myself out.” He left her, mouth agape, staring at her front door.
He clenched his jaw as tight as possible, willing the tears and humiliation away. The streetlights blurred as the tears rose defiantly. He stumbled to his car, fumbling with his keys and the door handle.
He had meant it, of course. Of course, of course, of course.
Ziva still lay frozen, though the cool air was settling over her exposed skin and raising goosebumps in its wake. Her heart refused to slow, continuing to pound wildly in her chest. Everyone believed there were only two options when confronted with a stressor - fight or flight. Ziva had certainly been trained to fight wherever possible, but there was a third option - freeze. Tony had told her that.
-
There was one final case before Tony’s flight to the security conference, one last set of uncomfortable car rides and a silent bullpen.
Ziva felt an uncharacteristic blush rise in her cheeks as she sat in the passenger seat of the blue Charger, with Tony sitting less than a foot away. It had been a week since they had been together, a week since he had fled her apartment, since she had lain frozen for hours after he left.
She saw his fingers tighten around the steering wheel, knuckles whitening from the tension. His jaw clenched as well, as if he were forcing himself not to speak.
“You have something to say, Tony,” she stated. Her voice was uneven, almost trembling. He was quiet still, his eyes on the road in front of them. When he did speak, it was so soft she almost didn’t hear.
“I meant it, Ziva.” She turned away quickly, couldn’t bear to look at him. He loved her, and it made her stomach twist and her heart pound, and she wasn’t sure what that meant. She wasn’t supposed to get attached, but here she was, wondering if maybe she was in love with him, too.
“Tony–”
“No, just – just leave it. Forget about it. I’m senior field agent, it shouldn’t have happened.” I should have known, he thought. All he could remember was the look on her face when he’d said it, stony, distant. Afraid. “I’ll go to this stupid conference and when I get back, we’ll be…normal, okay? It didn’t happen.”
Except it did, and he loved her, and it was all he could think about every second of every day, like she was the blood in his veins. But she couldn’t look at him, wouldn’t look at him, and he knew that if he pressed the issue it would only make things worse.
It was too much for her to process, not while she was still adjusting to a new country and a new job. Loving Tony – loving anyone – felt so outside of her personal and professional boundaries, and she just…couldn’t. Not right now.
Genre: AU: Romance/Angst
Rating: High T/M to be safe, has/will have adult themed content later. Summary: [The sound of cars zooming fast below him filled the night air, but they didn't reach his ears.] It's the last year of high school and everyone's holding on to something. What's Lucas holding on to? What about Maya? Starts Rilucas, ends Lucaya. Based on a Movie.
CHAPTERS: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
ALSO AVAILABLE ON [FF.NET]
Chapter 6
The day was overcast. Clouds were in the sky and there was talk on the weather channel about rain in New York in the beginning of September. The only reason Lucas remembered this tidbit of information was because his mother told him to be careful at football practices if it were to rain. His father commented on how slippery the field could get and to make sure he didn't wind up with another dislocated arm. At the time, Lucas clenched his jaw and nodded before quickly taking his truck to school. He didn't want to be caught in the rain if it actually did start to pour.
It was now lunch time and the clouds seemed dark and heavy which meant that Lucas and his four other friends were inside the cafeteria with the majority of the student body. It was humid and extremely stuffy and all Lucas wanted to do was get out of there. "Ya'll wanna go take a walk around the halls? I'm getting a little claustrophobic up in here," Lucas looked at his friends, waiting for an answer.
Riley turned her attention to him, away from the notebook she was focused on and shook her head with a small frown, dimples creasing her cheeks. "I can't, sweetie. I have to work on some Calculus homework and Farkle offered his help." She placed a hand on his shoulder, tilting her head to the side in apology.
"It's okay, but good call. I probably wouldn't have been much help, and Zay, well…" Lucas's eyes glanced at Zay who was busy eating his lunch which consisted of a turkey leg and some mashed potatoes.
Zay lifted a brow at his best friend, "Yeah? Zay's what? Come on out now, say it!"
Lucas laughed and scratched nervously at the back of his neck, "Man, you know you're not that great in math."
Zay raised broth of his brows now and nodded his head, taking a bite from the turkey leg. "I mean, yeah you right. That's why I'm taking Stats and not Calc like the rest of you guys."
Farkle sighed and looked towards Zay, his pen still on Riley's notebook where he was pointing at an equation, "I told you Zay, I could have tutored you, too." The only response Zay gave was a shrug of his shoulders.
Over the loud noise of the busy cafeteria, Smackle spoke, "I'll go with you Lucas."
"For real?" Lucas asked; Smackle was the last person he expected to join him.
Smackle nodded and pushed her chair back, the screech barely even audible what with the commotion going around them. "Yes, I have someone I wanted to talk to anyway, so you can accompany me to the art room." As she stood up, she flatted the slight creases in her navy blue circle skirt, pulling on the tops of her black knee-high socks.
Lucas followed Smackle's actions and got out of his chair, placing a hand on both Farkle and Riley's shoulders. "Alright, well we'll be back later."
Riley placed her hand upon his hand with a smile, then went back to trying to decipher Farkle's explanations and the equations in front of her. Zay just gave a nod of his head in acknowledgement along with a point of his spoon towards the tall dirty blonde haired boy.
Smackle waited for Lucas right outside the cafeteria. He walked through the double doors and with a slam, the loud ruckus was muffled and sealed behind them. The hallway was a much quieter place - every so often there would be a couple people they'd pass by either at their lockers or just walking aimlessly around during the lunch period. Lucas glanced at Smackle to his right, eyes downcast at her short stature. The shuffling of the soles of her flats was the most prominent sound resounding in the hallway.
Lucas was never particularly close to Smackle. She was his best friend's girlfriend and his own girlfriend's best friend. When Lucas had moved to New York and became good friends with Riley and Farkle, Smackle was already acquainted with them. Like most of the school, he knew that Smackle was an absolute genius. She was in all AP classes and a lot of scholar-based clubs, but with time, he found out about the girl's Asperger's syndrome. Ultimately, it didn't change the group's view on her, they treated her no different. A friend was a friend.
Smackle was leading the way to wherever they were going, Lucas was just going along because he needed the air. They walked down the very long hallway to two wooden doors that were not primed. There were flyers of all kinds of colors either stapled or taped onto the door, many with information of school events and art shows. Smackle pushed one of the doors open, "She's probably in here if I recall correctly."
"She who?" Lucas followed behind the dark brunette girl a little confused. When he entered the room, the smell of paint, ceramic clay, and freshly cut wood filled his nostrils. It appeared that he was in the large art room that housed all three art classes: painting & drawing, ceramics, and wood shop. The three classes were separated by maneuverable sliding walls and all the way in the back was where Smackle was headed. In tow, Lucas noticed that the art room wasn't at all empty. There were a couple of people working on their wood shop projects, evident by the dust coming from the wood saws they were using. There was one girl at the ceramics wheel, spinning her clay.
"Lucas, are you coming?" Smackle waited patiently by the last divider between the ceramics and art rooms.
"Yeah, my bad!" Lucas jogged a couple of paces to catch up with her and that's when he noticed that in the far corner was a very familiar short, blonde-looking female sitting at an easel, back faced towards the door. "Maya?"
Maya turned around, green paint smudged across her brow with a painter's palette in her left hand. If she was startled by their presence, she didn't show it. Instead, she had a smile on her face looking from Smackle, to Lucas, back to Smackle. "Oh, hey, Iz! What brings you and Cowboy to my little corner of the school?"
Smackle had her hands clasped together in front of her, a serious expression stamped on her face. "I would like to talk. Lucas is here because he was feeling light headed in the cafeteria. I didn't want him fainting."
Lucas shot Smackle a glare, feigning hurt. "Really, Smackle? You're ruining my street cred!"
Maya chuckled to herself and shook her head. "Alright, well grab a seat and make yourself at home. Ms. Kossal's studio es su studio."
Lucas spotted a couple of chairs stacked up together against the wall nearby and grabbed two, one for him and the other for Smackle. He sat down and laced his fingers together between his legs, feeling a little awkward.
Smackle sat down as well, tucking her skirt behind her as she did so. She then made a face, and gave a lopsided smile. "That is not how the saying goes, Maya, but thank you."
Maya only gave Smackle a smile in response.
"Okay, well, where shall I begin?" Smackle sat straight, looking straight into Maya's eyes while trying to find the right words to say. "I would like to apologize for my lack of sympathy towards your situation."
"Whoa, wait, is this a conversation I should be here for? This sounds like some deep girl talk…" Lucas looked between the two, shifting awkwardly in his seat.
Smackle raised a brow at Lucas, "I don't see why you aren't allowed to be here, but I suppose if it makes you uncomfortable since males tend to not deal well with expressions of emotions, you may leave."
Maya laughed, amused by Smackle's choice of words.
"Yeah… I'll just wait for you outside." Lucas stood up and placed his chair back on top of the others against the wall. He could feel Maya's eyes on him the whole time, causing the tiny hairs on the back of his neck to stand. He waved at her and Smackle before turning to walk away. Once he was sure they weren't watching him leave any longer, he took a sharp turn to hide behind one of the dividers and hid behind it. Now, he wasn't much for eavesdropping, but he was curious as to what Maya and Smackle's relationship was with one another, especially since he didn't know much about Smackle before he had joined high school.
"Anyway," Smackle began, "Like I was saying before. I would like to apologize for my lack of sympathy and for being distant. Now, I know that it is not the way I should have handled things, especially with a person whose friendship I valued very greatly."
Maya shook her head again, placing her brush down on the easel and reaching her hand out to Smackle's shoulder. "Izzy, I don't blame you for it. It was a tough time and I probably wouldn't have known what to do if I were put in a similar situation. Plus, the way I deal with things is to push people away, so if anything, it was my fault."
Smackle clenched her hands into fists in her lap. "Don't say that. It is not your fault. If there is anything that I have learned from my friends, it is that we should never invalidate the ways that we may feel."
Maya slowly nodded and gave the girl a small smile. "That's a very good lesson they've taught you, Izzy. You've got some great friends there." Maya reached for her paintbrush on the easel and started to paint on the canvas again, layering some blue paint on top of the green.
Smackle nodded and raised her eyebrows as she spoke, a large smile on her face. "Indeed, they are great. They are wonderful, Maya, and they would be wonderful to you as well."
"Izzy," Maya sighed and placed her paintbrush back down, turning her body to face Smackle. "You know that—"
"That's irrelevant, Maya." Smackle cut her off mid sentence, which was very unlike her. "I implore you to listen to what I have to say." When Maya didn't say anything, she continued. "I deeply regret not being there for you in your time of struggle; when your father left. During the time in which we didn't talk, the emotions I felt were very conflicting. Being the way that I am, I was not sure if going to comfort you was the right choice, especially since you yourself said that you typically close yourself off to others. I made friends with Riley and Farkle during the summer and soon after, Zay and Lucas. They are amazing friends that have helped me understand the majority of the things that I feel as well as what others feel and how to deal with certain emotions. They are the reason that I am here today, because for a long time I have been missing our friendship. If it is okay with you, I would like for us to become friends again. In addition, I would like you to become a part of our group. As they say: the more the merrier. So please tell me that you will be attending Mr. Matthews' party at Mrs. Matthews' bakery next Thursday."
A small knowing smile crept its way onto Maya's lips. "That's what this is about?"
Smackle nodded, "Yes. We thought that you would feel more comfortable knowing a friend at the party, but do not let all of that make you think that I don't value the friendship between us. I have missed Izzy and Yaya adventures." Smackle let a huge grin escape her.
"Isadora Smackle!" Maya looked around the room, as if she were trying to find anyone that could have heard their conversation. Little did she know that Lucas was still behind the wall, smirking at the little nickname.
Smackle shrugged her shoulders. "If you call me Izzy, then I am allowed to call you Yaya. It is only fair."
The bell rang before Maya could say anything else. Lucas stepped out from behind the divider and cleared his throat, grabbing the attention of the two girls. "Smackle, we should head back, I was just coming to get you."
The brunette girl stood off her chair and nodded her head, straightening her skirt. "Thank you, we should." Smackle turned back to look at Maya, give her a less than awkward hug. "I shall see you Thursday then?"
Maya returned the girl's hug and nodded, trying to keep the paint off of Smackle. "I'll see you Thursday."
Smackle walked out of the classroom, expecting Lucas to follow her. He lingered for a moment longer, eyes locked with Maya's, a glare on her expression and a smirk on his.
"How long were you listening?"
"Like I said, just came back to get Smackle." Lucas was lying and it was getting difficult for him to not laugh.
"Good." Maya turned around to place her brush in the sink.
"See you later, Yaya!" Lucas laughed and jogged quickly out of the art studio, laughing even louder when he heard a frustrated grunt and a crash that could only come from her palette dropping into the sink.
Lucas was leaning against the bakery's counter, a cup of sprite in his hand. He was talking to Riley and Zay about how great the bakery looked. There were streamers coming from the corners of the room towards the center to join into one ball of yellow and white streamers arranged and bunched together to look like a huge pom pom . There were yellow and white balloons scattered everywhere, two of each color taped to the door frame. A cake sat on the counter, three tiers high. Needless to say, the theme colors of the party were yellow and white as they were also the colors of the cake with "Happy Birthday Cory!" written in icing.
"Great, job Riles. This place really turned out looking neat." Zay was sitting on the of the stools, picking at the spaghetti on his plate.
"Thanks! My mom and I were planning this for awhile now. Well… Actually, my dad did. He discretely told us he wanted a surprise party with yellow and white themed balloons everywhere." Riley laughed, looking over her shoulder to see her dad chatting away with Topanga and Shawn. They were soon joined by Farkle's parents as well. She took Lucas' hand gently in hers and started swinging their joined hands back and forth.
Lucas smiled and placed his cup on the counter. "Yeah, that's sounds just like your dad. But still, I'm really surprised of how well this turned out."
Riley smiled brighter and tilted her head to the side. Then, as if she remembered something urgent, her head snapped towards Farkle and Smackle who were sitting on the couch towards the doorway. "Hey, didn't you say Maya was sure to come Smackle?"
Smackle nodded her head, sitting up straight on the couch as she usually did. She glanced at the watch on her wrist, sighing when she noted the time. "Yes, she said she would be here by now. I'm not sure what could be taking her so long."
Farkle leaned forward in his seat beside his girlfriend, placing his hands on his knees. "Maybe she decided not to show up."
Zay nodded, agreeing. "Yeah, maybe."
Lucas shook his head, "Don't worry. She'll show." He reassured them.
There was a knock at the open door. A blonde head ducked in shyness as the girl stepped in. A couple eyes in the room flew to her, curious as to whom the knock belonged to. Maya was dressed in a velvet looking red blazer, ripped blue jeans, and a white lacy shirt. She, of course, had her heels on to make her three inches taller than she usually was.
"Maya, you came!"
Needless to say, Riley and her friends were a little more than shocked to hear those words coming from her father. They expected Riley to be the one excited, after all she had tried so hard to become her friend. Instead, however, Cory Matthews, the newly turned 43 year old greeted Maya with open arms.
"Happy birthday, Matthews." Maya struggled to get her words out, crushed by how tightly her history teacher was hugging her.
"I'm so glad you showed up! Everyone's here, Shawn's here, there's food and cake, and Shawn's here! Did I tell you Shawn is here?" Cory guided her over to Shawn and Topanga, placing his hands on her shoulders, ushering her over to his wife and best friend. "Look, Maya's here!" Cory's face was absolutely ecstatic. Had it been anyone else, Lucas would have thought that he was overreacting, but he knew that when it came to the Matthews, both Riley and Cory were very animated people.
"Hey, kid." Shawn placed a hand on Maya's shoulder. "How you holding up?" The look between the two made it seem like they had known each other for awhile. Lucas wasn't the only one that picked up on this. Riley was soon joining the group, her index finger pointed upwards as if she was signaling that she would be interrupting their conversation.
"Hi, Maya!" Riley grabbed both of Maya's hands in her own, smiling really wide at the girl. "I'm really glad you came, Smackle and Lucas said you would so I was really excited, but I was also a little nervous and scared because I didn't know if you'd actually show up because well I get that sometimes I can come off a little too strong," As Riley spoke, Maya was slowly inching her hands away from Riley's, trying to break free of the brunette's hold as subtly as possible. "Oh, I'm doing it now, aren't I?" Riley looked around the room, an embarrassed smile on her face.
Everyone in the room that she recognized nodded. Poor girl, Lucas noted that Maya seemed like she was ready to just run out of the bakery. To ease up the tension that formed, he walked over towards the group and placed a hand on Riley's shoulder, who nearly jumped out of her skin from surprise. She relaxed when she realized that it was only him and placed her hand on top of his.
"Hey," Lucas smiled as he looked down at the short blonde.
Maya looked at him, her eyes lingering on him for a moment before looking back at Riley, then back at him. "Hi," she finally said. There wasn't much said between them, the held each other's eyes for a moment, the right corner of Maya's lips twitching upwards just slightly, forming a ghost of something between a smile and a smirk.
"So," Shawn cleared his throat beside him. "Maya, are these your... friends?" He stuffed his hands in his pockets, raising a brow at the girl. It was very evident that there was something that he was implying when the older man said, 'friends'.
"Uhh…" Maya hesitated, her eyes looking over the bunch. There was Smackle and himself that she'd be able to maybe consider friends, but then there was Riley who really wanted to be her friend, Zay who had but one conversation with her, and Farkle who he wasn't entirely sure even spoke a word to her. Maya gave a shrug of a shoulder and emphasized it with her hand gesturing to the group of friends. "Sure, I guess?"
To say that Riley was ecstatic was an understatement. The tall girl started to jump up and down, grabbing ahold of Maya's hands again. "Yay! We'll be best friends, I can already tell!"
"Hey!" Farkle dramatically pouted his lip. "What about me?!"
Without dropping Maya's hands, she turned her head around to look at Farkle. "You can have more than one best friend…" Her eyes were wide and innocent, the look she gave whenever she needed to get out of quite a predicament.
"Uhh," Lucas scratched at the back of his neck, noticing how awkward Maya looked with her hands still held onto rather tightly. He face was begging for her hands' freedom. "Maya, have you eaten yet?"
"Come on, Blondie" Zay held out his arm to the girl, which she took, and lead Maya towards the table of food in the far corner. "Let's get some food in ya'!"
"So, Uncle Shawn, how do you know Maya?" Riley asked the slightly taller male.
Shawn Hunter's eyes looked to Cory, as if seeking an answer, but Cory quickly turned away and joined Zay and Maya by the food. Left alone to answer his best friend's daughter, Shawn cleared his throat and ran a hand over his short beard. "Well you see," he began to rock back and forth, bouncing on the tips of his shoes onto the heels. "I… know her mom."
Lucas wasn't sure if that was a lie, or something that Shawn just didn't want to admit.
Riley Matthew's face lit up, placing her hands on Shawn's arm. "Oh, do you? You know, Uncle Shawn, I hear Maya's mom is single."
Lucas laughed as he watched his notorious match-maker of a girlfriend lead Shawn towards the seat by the window. He was left alone with Farkle and Smackle at this point. Farkle had an arm thrown of Smackle's shoulders, while she wa stirring a cup of ice in her hand.
"You know," Smackle began, "Maybe Riley will be able to set Mr. Shawn and Mrs. Hart up. After all," she placed a hand of hers in Farkle's, "She was able to get Farkle and I together and now look at us!" Smackle's cheeks rose with a huge grin on her lips.
Zay and Maya soon joined the three of them, both with full plates in their hands.
"Wow," Maya's mouth was full of food as she spoke, and pointed to her plate with the fork in her hand. "This bacon mac and cheese is great, who made this?!"
Farkle raised a up a hand, a smug expression on him. "That would be me."
"Wait fo'real?" Zay also had a mouth full of the mac and cheese. "You're smart and you cook?" He raised a dark brow at the boy genius then looked at the girl on his arm. "You better keep him on a leash, 'cause even I want him now."
Smackle glared at him and shook her head. "Zay, please. You could never compare to what I have to offer him."
"And what would that be?"
"My intellect, obviously." Smackle smirked at the boy.
"You callin' me stupid, Smackle?" Zay gave her a deadpanned look.
"Well I'm certainly not calling you as intelligent as I am." The smirk on Smackle's lips grew.
Lucas and Maya stood by each other, watching the two friends bicker with Farkle between them, awkwardly caught in the crossfire.
Maya leaned over towards Lucas, speaking under her breath. "Do they always fight?"
Lucas leaned down, speaking at the same volume she was. "Honestly? Kinda', but it's always fun and games. Zay just likes to pick fights with people, he's definitely a trouble maker. When we first met Smackle, she couldn't quite understand that Zay's way of showing his affection towards his friends was by picking on them, but now she's been able to throw stuff right back at him."
Maya nodded and watched them, picking at her food. "Interesting."
"Yeah…" Farkle had joined the two, finally freeing himself from Smackle's hold as she continued to battle with Zay over who was more suited to be with Farkle. "Except, I'm not quite sure she knows Zay's joking right now." The tall lanky boy stuffed his hands in his pockets, chuckling lowly.
Maya looked up at the taller brown haired boy, then back at the two arguing. "So… you're Iz's boyfriend?"
The boy in question nodded his head, then stuck his hand out for a handshake. "Yes ma'am, I'm Farkle Minkus: Boy Genius!"
Maya's eyes went Farkle's extended hand, to him, back to his hand until she finally reached out her hand with her plate in it. They awkwardly fist bumped. "Well, I know you probably haven't heard much of me from Izzy. Or anyone really. I like to fly under the radar. Not getting noticed and not drawing unnecessary attention to me is kind of my thing. But Isadora and I go a long ways back and if she ends up hurt, I'm going straight for you, Einstein."
Farkle threw his hands up, creating space between him and Maya. "Trust me, I mean no harm. I'm very fond of Smackle and I think she's fond of me, too. So no one's getting hurt here."
"You better make sure." Maya watched Farkle through narrows and skeptical eyes.
"Also," Farkle added, a smile plastered onto his lips. "I hate to be the one to break it to you, but the whole 'not drawing unnecessary attention' to you stopped the moment you decided to be friends with Riley Matthews."
Maya's confused and slightly panicked eyes went straight towards Lucas, who had the same smile on his expression. "What do mean? What does he mean? Partner, you tell me what he means right now."
Lucas laughed and placed a hand on Maya's shoulder then on Farkle's, drawing them close to him. "Riley has a tendency to make a big deal about certain things. She makes your problem her problem and then starts to solve it."
Maya shook her head when she didn't quite understand, her plate of food completely forgotten in her hand. "What do you mean by that?"
Lucas nodded his head towards where Shawn and Riley still sat at. "Well, Shawn told us how he knew you—"
"—How he knows me?" Maya repeated.
"Your mom, right? He said that he knew your mom. He didn't really say how he knew her though." Farkle piped in.
"Oh, well.. yeah." Maya's hesitated a little before answering then proceeded to nod her head slowly.
"Well," Lucas started up again, "Like I was saying, Shawn told us that he knew you and your mom. So, Riley being Riley, kind of connected the dots."
"What dots?" Maya raised her brow, utterly confused. She had no clue what dots there were to connect.
"The way Riley's head works," Farkle sighed, but stared at the brunette girl at the window with a smirk, "She remembered what Smackle said when she kind of spilled out that your dad left.." His voice trailed off and looked back at Maya to gauge her reaction.
"It's okay. I wasn't really trying to hide it anyway. No one asked, and well… It's not exactly something I want to shout out to the entire world." Maya scrunched up her face as she said the last bit, nodding her head sardonically.
Farkle nodded his head once, then continued, "Riley also knows that Shawn's still single, so…" He let her figure out the rest.
"Riley's trying to hook Shawn up with my mom." Maya didn't state it so much as a question than it was a declaration.
Both of the boys beside her nodded.
Before Maya could protest the idea, Zay and Smackle joined them as well.
"Farkle," Smackle stood beside her boyfriend, intertwining her fingers together as they held hands. "Zay and I have come to an agreement!"
"What?" Farkle looked between his girlfriend and Zay, a confused look on his face.
"I still have custody over you, but Zay will get you every other weekend, unless dates that are made with either of us are planned out and told to the other two weeks in advance. Come holidays, he gets you on Thanksgiving, I get you the rest of the time, except Kwanza, where you will be spending the holiday with Zay and his family."
"Smackle, what?! I'm not a child!" Farkle furrowed his brows together as he looked at his girlfriend in frustration. "And you!" Farkle turned around a full 180 degrees, pointing at Zay. "You went along with this! Why did you let this happen?!"
Zay fell back onto the couch, grabbing his sides as he laughed.
Lucas was trying his hardest to hold in his own laughter, hiding a couple of the chuckles that escaped him behind his closed fist. He coughed a couple of times into it, trying to keep his composure as he attempted to ask with a serious face, "Hold on, Smackle. I should have some time with Farkle too, he is one of my best friends."
Maya couldn't help but laugh at the situation. She cleared her throat and pointed her fork at Farkle, "I know I'm new and everything, but could I get him at least two days of the whole year?"
"Lucas, really? Maya, you too?!" Farkle looked at all of his other friends, his hands out in front of him, begging for someone to stop joking.
Smackle rolled her eyes and sighed. "Look, we'll set something up, type it all out, and then we can proceed to sit down together and discuss specifics when we look over the contract."
Maya, Zay and Lucas all burst out laughing while Farkle gave a loud grunt of frustration.
"Bye, guys!" Zay waved as he walked towards his car parked down the street, saying his goodbyes to his friends.
Farkle and Smackle slowly started to walk up the stairs onto the sidewalk. He had his arm around Smackle, guiding her towards his own car. "Smackle and I are going to head home, too. I told my parents that I would be home by now when they left earlier. I'll see you all tomorrow at school."
It was now just Riley, Lucas, and Maya standing out of Topanga's.
"Well," Riley smiled and moved towards the two others. "I have to get inside and help my parents clean up!" She gave Maya a warm hug, one that Maya returned, a lot less stiff that earlier in the night. "Thank you so much for coming, Maya!"
"Yeah, no problem. I'll see you at school." Maya gave the brunette girl a genuine smile.
"I'd really like that!" Riley smiled at Maya back then gave Lucas a small peck on the cheek. "I'll definitely see you tomorrow, my Prince Charming!"
Lucas gave her a slight smile and nodded, giving the girl a tight hug, "Of course, Princess."
Riley turned and headed back into the bakery. When Lucas turned back around, he found that Maya wasn't where he last saw her and instead, she was up the stairs, looking down at him with a smirk on her pink lips.
"Oooo, Prince Charming," she mocked.
Lucas shook his head and made his way up the stairs to where Maya waited for him. "Yeah, well at least it's not Yaya."
Maya rolled her eyes and stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets as they began to walk down the block. "Don't call me that."
"Oh, but why not?" Lucas took a couple faster steps in front of her then turned on his heel to face her as they continued their trek with him walking backwards.
"It's reserved for Izzy." She refused to look at him, looking straight ahead. "Unless you want me to start calling you Prince Charming." When Lucas stopped dead in his tracks, Maya laughed and raised her brows, walking around him. "Yeah, that's what I thought."
They continued walking until they hit the corner of the street. When neither of them took a step off the sidewalk, Lucas looked down at the blonde head of hair beside him. "So… do you need a ride home? Where do you live? It's pretty late to be walking."
Maya looked up at him, squinting her eyes slightly. "It's not that late, but I'm not walking home. I drove."
"Oh…" Lucas looked around awkwardly. He wasn't sure if he should say his goodbye and then leave her on the sidewalk, or if he should walk her to her car.
After a while of silence, Maya spoke, "You know that big periwinkle blue ranch house off the 5?"
"Yeah, with the white picket fence on the corner!" Lucas nodded and placed his keys back in his pocket. He had originally decided to part ways, thinking it was appropriate since Maya wasn't going to say anything. When she spoke, however, he chose the other option.
"Yup, that's me." Maya smiled up at Lucas, then looked him up and down, noticing his hand in his pocket. She chuckled to herself lowly, then chewed on the bottom of her lip. "You can go, you know. You don't have to wait for me to go to make sure I get into my car safely. It's not like this is a bad neighborhood." She held her hand out, gesturing to the street they were on.
The street was lit well with no out or flicker street lamps. There were no creepy alleyways and in fact most stores around the area still had their lights on, including the signs. It wasn't a cold winter's night either, it was late in the summer which meant that it was nearly 8 and the sun was just setting. There were even people still walking outside, taking their dogs out or just having a stroll. In fact, there was even a couple with a baby stroller that walked by the two of them just a moment ago.
"Yeah, you're right. But I just feel like I should walk you to your car." Lucas shrugged his shoulders, "I mean, Riley would be pretty upset to find out that her new best friend got kidnapped by an axe murderer." Lucas added on.
Maya scoffed and started to walk towards her car, Lucas following beside her. "Really? An axe murderer? Come on now, Cowboy, I think an axe murderer would just kill me on the spot instead of going through all the trouble to kidnap me."
Lucas laughed and stuffed his hands into his pockets. He could see the rusted yellow bug in the distance. "You have a point there."
When they reached her car, Maya took her keys out and unlocked the driver's door, sliding into her seat. "Plus, I could definitely handle myself. One kick to the groin and I'd be the one with the axe."
"So you're actually the Axe Murderer!" Lucas laughed and placed his left hand on the roof of her car, his left on the car door.
Maya laughed with him and shrugged her shoulders. "Mr. Friar, I can neither confirm nor deny that accusation of yours." She smiled up at him while he leaned over a bit as they had their conversation. "Anyway, I got to get going. Gotta make sure I reach my mom before Shawn calls her to tell her about Riley's wedding plans for them."
"Alright," Lucas stood back up, taking his right hand off the car. "You get home safe, Ms Hart." He shut her car door and waved goodbye to the rusted yellow bug that drove away.
Lucas smiled when he saw her look at him in the rear view mirror.
"Note to self," Lucas spoke into the night air, walking all the way back to the corner that they turned at and even passed that. He had walked Maya the complete opposite direction from where his car was parked just to make sure she'd get there okay. "Never give that girl an axe." Lucas laughed at his own joke inside of his truck as he drove home.
Author's note: What do you think? I feel like it slowly fell off during the birthday party, but it picked up afterwards. I can tell you right now that Smackle is one of my favorite character's to write, but for some odd reason I'm finding it hard to write Farkle. I suppose I need to really develop his character in my head more. :P Can you see Lucas' slightly shift towards Maya here? :)) I'm excited to really get things going!
Genre: AU: Romance/Angst
Rating: M to be safe, has/will have adult themed content later.
Notes: **Riley may seem a little out of character for right now, but she’ll even out in the later chapters. Angst will most likely happen in later chapters. This does start off Rilucas but will eventually be Lucaya. Promise! This is also based off of a movie that I will not name only because I don’t want the ending to be ruined if you care about spoilers. But know that the plot is not mine! If you can recognize the movie, you get a dozen Krispy Kreme Donuts :)
Summary: [The sound of cars zooming fast below him filled the night air, but they didn't reach his ears.] It's the last year of high school and everyone's holding on to something. What's Lucas holding on to? What about Maya? Starts of Rilucas, will become Lucaya, PROMISE!
CHAPTERS: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
ALSO AVAILABLE ON [FF.NET]
Chapter 3
Maya's book bag sat on a stool chair, forgotten as it's owner was bent forward with a cue stick in hand, lining up her shot to get her solid-colored ball into the left corner pocket. She drew her arm back, then pushed forward. The disdain on her face showed in a scowl as she stayed in the position for a moment longer after the ball missed the pocket. The blonde girl straightened up and gave an aggressive huff of air, eyes still glaring holes at the yellow solid ball.
From the other end of the pool table, a man about half a head taller than her laughed as he stood leaned against his own cue stick. "Nice try, kid." He ran his hand over his mouth, eying the remaining balls on the table, then ran it over his beard. As he was calculating his next move, he asked her, without looking up, "So, how's school treatin' ya'?"
Maya tucked the tall stick between her arm and her side as she grabbed her phone from her back pocket, checking to see if she had gotten any messages. "Eh, it's alright, I guess." She looked up from the screen to find him barely reaching for his shot. "Oh, come on, Shawn. Just shoot the thing already!"
Maya's impatience and raised voice startled Shawn, making him accidentally hit the ball which completely missed his target. He clenched his fist as he turned to stare at her through narrow eyes. "Kid, I swear…" Maya laughed and shrugged her shoulders, setting up for her next shot. Shawn leaned against an adjacent wall, watching her. "Meet any friends?"
"Well, there's this one kid in my chem class…" Maya took the shot and sunk a ball in. She looked at the table and the placements of all the balls before walking around to get a better angle at the pocket on the right of where she originally stood.
Shawn nodded with his arms crossed, "I hope she's nice."
Maya took the shot and as the ball sunk in, she looked up from her position at the older man with a small smile upon her lips. "He is, actually."
Shawn's look grew stern as he uncrossed his arms and propped them both on the pool table. The light above him cast an eerie shadow on his face, it made him all the more intimidating, almost like a mob boss from the 50s in Manhattan. "Maya, be careful."
Maya bit on her lip, taking his words into consideration. Quickly though, she shook it off and shrugged her shoulders and she lined herself up to make the last shot. "Don't worry, we're just friends."
Shawn rolled his eyes and stuffed his hands into his jean pockets, trying to act aloof about the fact that Maya was about to win at a game of pool—that he had challenged her to mind you— again. "I've heard that before. Did you tell him?"
Maya spun around, her blonde hair flowing behind her as she commenced her victory dance. She laid her cue stick on top of the green fabric covered table and leaned herself against its side, legs crossed in a cool pose. The teen looked at the adult with something distant in her eyes and a smile that barely reached her lips.
"Tell him what?"
"Today will be the last day to work on the lab, so I expect all of your composition notebooks on my desk at the start of tomorrow's class, you guys got it?" Ms. Krueger stuffed her hands into her white lab coat and walked around to the front of her desk where she leaned against it. Her eyes scanned the body of students in her chemistry class. They were all at their lab tables yet not one single pair of partners had even started bringing out their equipment. She sighed and pulled her hands out of her pockets and crossed her arms over her chest. "That means you guys should start now." Ms. Krueger rolled her eyes as each of her students scrambled to get started on their work.
Maya and Lucas were no different. Maya grabbed all the equipment they had used the day before while Lucas grabbed both composition notebooks from his backpack. He placed them on the table and helped Maya with the lab, reading out the instructions. He scanned the directions and did his best to paraphrase them.
Maya was staring at him, waiting for him to instruct her. He put the papers down on the table and looked at their equipment. "Okay, so grab the hydrated salt test tube with the test tube holder—"
Maya grabbed the right tool and held it up to his face, "This tong thingy?"
Lucas laughed and nodded his head, gently placing his hand on top of hers to guide it away from his face. "Yes, that thing. Be careful with that, you almost poked my eye out!"
Ms. Krueger came around and handed the both of them a pair of goggles, "And that's why you two should be using these."
Maya rolled her eyes and reluctantly took the goggles from their teacher and strapped it onto her head.
Lucas placed his own goggles on his head and raised a brow at her. "Do I look like Bill Nye?"
Maya stared at him as if he were talking crazy. "Bill? The junior?"
Lucas' eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "Bill Nye the Science guy! Have you never heard of him?! He was like every little kid's role model growing up."
Maya shrugged her shoulders and stared at the beaker she held between the tong-like tool. "Didnt watch much TV when I was younger I guess."
"Well we can discuss your lack of childhood later, we have work to do." Lucas reached out over all the other equipment and took hold of the igniter in his right hand. He turned on the Bunsen burner's gas and squeezed the igniter, creating a flame. "Okay, so hold it over the flame for five to ten minutes."
Maya moved her hand with the tongs and test tube over the flame, leaning on the lab table to support her weight. "Hold on, I have to do this for how long?" Her brows furrowed, showing her impatience.
Lucas flipped through the instructions again, making sure he read it right, and nodded his head, "Yup, says right here: five to ten minutes. But make sure not to burn it." He reached his hand out for hers, closing his fingers over her wrist, rotating her hand. "You have to make sure you don't hold one spot over the flame, just kind of rotate it."
Maya glared up at him and used her free hand to playfully hit his hand off her wrist, "Okay, I got it, I got it."
Lucas sat down on the stool and started to record their results.
By the end of class, Maya was cleaning out the test tubes in the sink and Lucas was putting the rest of the lab equipment away. Once he was done, he grabbed his notebook and stuffed it back into his backpack. Maya did the same and was already on her way out of the classroom when Lucas stopped her. "Hey, so maybe we could meet up after school for a little bit just to finish all the calculations?"
Maya paused at right under the doorway and spun on her heel with a raised brow, "Don't you have football?" She pressed her back against the door frame to let other students through.
"Yeah, but this shouldn't take long." Lucas walked through the door next and stood at the right to wait for Maya.
She gave a curt nod of her head and a shrug of her shoulders. "Sure, why not." Maya started to walk away from him towards the opposite direction he was headed.
Instead of chasing after her, he just called out to her with a loud voice, enough to be heard over the numerous chattering students in the halls. "Out by the flagpole?"
Maya turned around again to face him, but kept walking backwards down the hall. "Yeah, I'll be there."
Lucas sat with the rest of his friends outside that day during their lunch. They were all just lounging around the grassy area with Riley's head in his lap while she looked up at the clouds. Smackle and Farkle were sitting across from each other, both eating their lunch and discussing their AP Physics class with Riley. Zay was laying down between all of them, tossing a football up in the air repeatedly.
"So, Riles," Zay started, holding the ball in his hands and refraining from throwing it again. "You excited for MIT?"
Riley sat up with a huge smile on her face, bringing her knees to her chest with her arms around them. "I am! I'm super excited about their astronomy and physics department. I can't believe that I got accepted. Their acceptance rate is so low!"
Lucas leaned forward and placed his chin on her shoulder from behind her and smiled cheekily. "I knew you could do it. You're really smart, Riley and you've been going to those Astronomy camps every summer since the eighth grade."
Riley leaned her head against his, smiling right back at him. "Thanks, babe, but I couldn't have done it without you."
Smackle nodded her head in agreement, taking one last bite of her sandwich. "She's right. If it weren't for you, she wouldn't have even applied. It's a good thing you gave her those brochures."
"Yeah," Lucas took his head off Riley's shoulder and shrugged his own. "But Farkle helped. I had no clue about what colleges to even look up for that sort of thing. All I knew is that Riley really liked space. Then Farkle helped me find all the information and stuff. So, thanks, dude."
Lucas held out his hand for a high five, which Farkle took. "What are best friends for, right?"
Riley placed a hand on Farkle's bicep, smiling widely at him as gratitude. "Well thanks, Farkle."
Farkle smiled back at her and snapped his fingers at her, forming a gun-shape with his fingers. "Best friends since the first grade, right?"
Riley nodded her head ecstatically at Farkle, the both of them smiling at each other. Smackle noticed the exchange and reached her hand out to place it on top of Farkle's giving it a gentle squeeze. Farkle snapped his head back to Smackle with a smile on his face, one that she eagerly returned.
Zay, who had been watching all of this play out with very knowing eyes, cleared his throat and started to toss the football up in the air again. "So you guys know how homecoming's comin up right?"
Smackle nodded her head and adjusted her glasses on the bridge of her nose. "Yes, Zay. October 3rd. That is about three weeks from now."
"Yeah, and you know how ya'll were excited about Vanessa coming up from Texas so she could cheer me on and then go to the homecoming dance?"' Zay avoided everyone's stares but could feel them weighing on him by focusing on the football that he was tossing around. When no one said anything, he took it as a sign to go on, "Yeah well that ain't happening anymore…"
"What did you do this time?" Lucas asked, with a slight annoyance in his voice. Zay and Vanessa were so on and off, they weren't even sure if the two of them were currently on until Zay had brought this up.
"You see, we got to talking about college and how I'm going to Berklee in Boston and she's going to University of Houston. We got real grown up about stuff and man, did you know that it's 1,875 miles away from each other?" Zay stopped throwing the ball again, and held it just above him to block the sun out of his eyes. "Well it really bummed the both of us out and we just agreed that maybe going to see each other so often ain't such a good thing. Said that we both should focus on our last year at our own schools and maybe durin' the summer we could meet up before we go off to college."
The group fell silent, not sure of what to say. Lucas took a quick glance at Riley. It was a topic of conversation that they hadn't had yet. It definitely wasn't a thousand miles away from each other, but there was surely going to be distance between to the two of them while off at college. Whether they wanted to talk about it or not, it was going to come up eventually.
Riley was the first to speak up with a sad smile on her face, "Well I'm real proud of you Zay for being an adult about it. Looks like you're finally growing up."
Zay laughed, "What? Finally?! Please girl, if we left you alone in New York City, you'd freak out within five minutes!" Everyone except Riley chuckled at his joke.
Right when he tossed the ball up, Riley had playfully jabbed her foot into his side, catching him off guard. He squirmed when he tossed the ball up and it left his fingers in a forward motion. They all watched the football roll down the slight incline of the grassy hill, falling in front of some converse-shoe-clad feet.
Zay stood up to see where it had gone. "Oh, hey it's that Maya chick."
Lucas stood up as well, dusting the grass off of the back of his jeans. He lifted his hand over his head, grabbing Maya's attention. "Hey, over here, Maya!"
The blonde girl looked to the group of teens, three sitting on the grass with the other boys standing up around them. She looked at her feet and noticed the football. Bending down, she grabbed the football and did her best to line her small fingers with the laces. The brown oblong-shaped ball spun in a spiral as it flew through the sky. Needless to say, the two boys were impressed. Zay caught the ball in his arms and shuffled it into his hands.
"Wow," Riley's eyes were wide, obviously impressed as well. "We should invite her over!"
Zay nodded his head and started to make his way towards Maya, "Yeah, with a throw like that I'd love to get to know her."
Lucas laughed and caught up to him, playfully swatting his arm. "Dude, what about Vanessa?"
Zay pointed at Maya with the football in hand as they neared her, speaking low enough that she couldn't hear. "I was kidding man, but girl should try out for powder puff!"
"Hey, blondie," Zay stopped right at the edge of the lawn, just in front of Maya.
She looked at him with a raised brow, her hip cocked to the side. "It's Maya."
Zay waved his hand in the air, as if shooing away her name. "Yeah yeah, whatever. Toe-may-toe, toe-maw-toe."
Lucas smiled and placed an arm around Zay's shoulder, rolling his eyes. "You got a good arm on ya' shortstack."
Maya's blue eyes glared at the tall tanned boy, already hating the nickname. "Thanks, Cowboy. I used to play when I was younger."
Zay stretched out his arm and hand, the one with the football in it, and placed it against Maya's shoulder. "You ever think of doing Powder Puff?"
Lucas was interested to see this play out. From what he knew from her, she wasn't interested in high school's social activities and hierarchies.
"Yeah, that sounds like it would be fun." Maya looked up at Lucas, quite amused at the expression on his face. Lucas was definitely caught off guard, just when he had thought he had her type figured out, too.
Lucas shook his head and shrugged his shoulders, trying to regain his composure. "You wanna come hang out with us and the gang for lunch?" Both he and Zay pointed over their shoulders to where Smackle, Farkle, and Riley sat in the grass. Riley was enthusiastically waving over at her.
Maya gave a wave back and then looked back over at the two boys in front of her. "Can't," she paused to lift her messenger bag slightly in front of her. "I have to work on a painting I'm doing."
"Next time then?"
"We'll see."
Zay noticed the smile on Lucas' face linger while he watched Maya walk away towards the school. He looked back and forth between the two seniors and started to wag his finger accusingly at his old friend, an amused smirk upon his features. "Okay, okay. I see, very interestin'."
Lucas followed behind Zay who lead the way back to their group of friends. "What? What's interesting?"
Zay shrugged his shoulders and sat down on the grass in his original spot. "Nothin'. I like her though."
The final bell of the school day rang and students of John Adams High School were piling out of the building. Among them was Maya Hart with her art kit in hand and messenger bag strapped across her shoulders. From behind her, she heard a familiar voice call her name. The blonde teen turned around to see Lucas desperately squeezing through the numerous amount of teenage bodies. She gave him a small smirk and a raise of her brow. "Hey, Huckleberry."
When Lucas caught up to her, he swung his backpack around to the front of him, unzipping it and taking out his lab notebook. "We gotta finish the lab together, remember?"
Maya squinted her eyes as she looked at the composition book in his hand. As if she had suddenly remembered, her eyes widened when she looked back at him. "Oh yeah!" She nodded her head, gave a rather peculiar smile and spun on her heel towards the school's parking lot, wavy blonde hair whipping behind her.
Lucas stayed in his spot for a moment, confused. "Wait… what?" It took him a couple of seconds to realize that Maya wasn't stopping anytime soon to come back to where he currently stood. So, he jogged after her, keeping pace with her as she walked when he caught up with her. "Don't you want to finish?"
She looked over at him as she walked to wherever was her destination. "Well, yeah, that's what we're going to do."
Before Lucas knew it, the two of them had stopped in front of an old and rusty Volkswagen Beetle. He watched Maya put her keys into the lock and unlocked the passenger seat. His eyes continued to follow her as she got in, throwing her stuff haphazardly in the backseat. He wasn't moving in his place or stopping her, he was more bewildered. Didn't they have to finish this report for their first grade in their chem class?
With her hands on the steering wheel, she stared at him through her window and nodded her head to the passenger seat, signaling for him to hop in.
It was Lucas' turn to squint his eyes in confusion. From out of the car, he raised both of his hands by his side in an over-exaggerated fashion, "What?!"
Maya sighed, though he couldn't hear it from the outside, and rolled her eyes. With her left hand, she started to roll down her driver seat window with visible effort. "Get in!"
Lucas held up his notebook with one hand and pointed at it with the other. "But we have to—"
"—Finish, I know. So get in. I do my best thinking when I'm driving." Maya smiled up at him in such a way that left Lucas utterly dumbfounded.
"Maya, I have football practice." The teen boy put his hands down in frustration and looked over his shoulder towards the football field then back at her.
"Okay, well it won't take that long." Maya continued to smile at him like nothing she was doing was at all nonsense and everything was okay. She then patted her seat when he didn't move an inch.
Lucas sighed, defeated, and stuffed his notebook back in his backpack. "Forget it, Maya. I'll just finish it at home. I'll show it to you in the morning or something." He started to walk towards the field he had just been looking at. When he looked towards his left, he saw Maya driving right at his side, going 3 miles an hour.
"Come on, Prince Charming. You can afford to be late to the ball. It's chemistry. Two heads are better than one, right?" Maya stopped her car when Lucas stopped walking. He gave into her pressure and walked over to the passenger side where he attempted to open the door. Maya leaned over in her seat to open the door for him, laughing just a little as she did so. "Sorry, car's kinda beat."
Lucas slid into the seat and reached across him to buckle himself in. "It's fine," he said as he looked around the interior of the car. It was definitely in better shape than the exterior, but just barely. There were a couple holes and rips in all of the seats' upholstery. The car mats underneath his feet seemed to be stained with who knows what, and there was a lack of a shift knob, just a metal pole that Maya held whenever she needed to shift gears.
As if she could feel him judging her ride, Maya glanced at him through the side of her eyes before she shifted gears into drive and pulled out of the parking lot. "Her name is Sheila. She's a hand me down and I'm working on fixing her up, okay?"
Lucas placed his backpack in the back after taking out his notebook. "She's definitely a fix-me-upper. But hey, if you need help on her, I wouldn't mind. I actually enjoy cars." He opened the notebook in his hands to the page in which he had stuffed the folded the lab instructions. "My grandpa—"
Maya scoffed, interrupting him mid sentence, "—Yer Grandpappy?"
Lucas turned his head at her to find that she was biting on her lower lip, trying her hardest to not laugh out loud. "—Yeah, Grandpappy Joe, actually. He gave me his tr—"
"—Hold on, hold on, hold the fuck on. You actually call your grandpa Grandpappy Joe?!" Maya stopped at a stop sign, smacking her right hand repeatedly only the steering wheel as she laughed hysterically. "Holy crap, you really are from Texas!"
Lucas crossed his arms over his chest, a little offended. "Maya, did you think I was kidding?"
"Yeah, kind of actually," Maya's breathing returned to normal as she dabbed at the tears that pooled up in the corner of her eyes. She pressed her right foot on the gas, and they were off again.
"Well, I really am from Texas. And Gradpappy Joe," Maya giggled again as Lucas continued on, "gave me his truck on my sixteenth birthday. Drove it all the way here from Texas. She was pretty dinged up, but I fixed up her engine and transmission, got new tires, and gave her a new paint job and she was good as new."
Lucas unfolded the lab instructions and grabbed a pencil from his backpack in the backseat. "Alright," he began, his green eyes scanning all the papers in both his hands and lap. "So we just have to convert the masses to moles. Sounds easy enough, I guess…"
Maya took a right at the next stop sign, driving further and further away from the school. "Alright, Tex. Lay it on me!"
"Okay, if you say so." Lucas looked back and forth between the lab sheet and his notebook, then finally gave her the equation. "0.4200 grams multiplied by 1 mol of water over 18.02 grams of water." He started to do the math on paper, carrying numbers and putting in zeroes.
"0.02331 moles of water," Maya said suddenly. Lucas looked back and forth between Maya and his notebook and when he didn't clarify her work, Maya laughed as she kept her eyes on the road in front of them. "Go ahead, check my math."
Lucas stared down at his lap where he had put his notebook and finished penciling in his calculations. "Wow… yeah, that's right. Maya? How'd you do that?" He was bewildered.
Maya pointed at her temple with her right hand, left hand on the steering wheel that was just in front of her, she sat up so close to the wheel he figured it was because her legs were so short she could barely reach the pedals. "I picture the numbers in my head and it's really easy from there. Instead of looking at it like numbers, it's like I paint them with pretty designs and strokes and I'm able to visualize boring stuff like that better."
"Wow, that's actually really cool, Maya," Lucas let his eyes linger on the blonde driver for just a moment longer before tearing them away to read Maya some more mathematical equations. They went back and forth with him giving her the equations and her reciting the work she did in her head. There were a couple of times he would ask her how she got her answer since he couldn't seem to get his own right, and each time he was surprised at how easy these calculations came to her.
"Do you mind penciling in the answers in my lab, too?" Maya stopped at a light, throwing on her signal lights on. The ticking of her blinker was rapid, an indication that her lights were broken. She whipped her hair back and forth as she looked both directions before turning.
"Sure thing, in your messenger bag?" Lucas was answered with a simple, 'M'hmm' before he stretched his arms to reach into the backseat and grab her messenger bag. He put it into his lap and started to dig through its contents. There were random writing and drawing utensils thrown about and an open pencil case where they had came from. In his search, he found one text book, a reader, and about 3 sketch books. There were a lot of papers sticking out of the sketch books, like they had been stuffed between it's pages. "Why do you have so many of these?"
"I got lots of ideas in this head, Friar." Maya tilted her head to the side as she looked at him briefly before going back to staring at the road.
Lucas finally found her lab composition book and filled in the answers they had both come to. When he was done, he placed the pencil behind his ear and looked up from the books on his lap. He had been looking down at their notebooks and concentrated on their math for such an extended period of time that when he looked up and out the windows, he didn't quite recognize where they were. It definitely wasn't close to the school's football field. "Maya, where the fuck are we?"
Ending Notes: This was long waited, I am so sorry! For some reason this chapter just wouldn't write itself!
I apologize, this probably wasn't as juicy as you intended, but hopefully more things will happen in the next chapter! I actually had to cut this off here because I thought it was getting too long and I could just use what extra I had for the next chapter.
If you're a returning reader and read this, thank you so much for your patience! If you're a new reader, welcome!
Genre: AU: Romance/Angst
Rating: M to be safe, has/will have adult themed content later.
Notes: **Riley may seem a little out of character for right now, but she’ll even out in the later chapters. Angst will most likely happen in later chapters. This does start off Rilucas but will eventually be Lucaya. Promise! This is also based off of a movie that I will not name only because I don’t want the ending to be ruined if you care about spoilers. But know that the plot is not mine! If you can recognize the movie, you get a dozen Krispy Kreme Donuts :)
Summary: [The sound of cars zooming fast below him filled the night air, but they didn't reach his ears.] It's the last year of high school and everyone's holding on to something. What's Lucas holding on to? What about Maya? Starts of Rilucas, will become Lucaya, PROMISE!
CHAPTERS: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
ALSO AVAILABLE ON [FF.NET]
CHAPTER 2.
Riley slid her tray along as she moved forward in the cafeteria line. Behind her was Lucas with his own tray. She looked to him as the cafeteria lady placed a paper bowl of fruit on her tray. "So Smackle is actually friends with Maya?"Riley asked. Lucas nodded his head, about to tell Riley that he had already invited Maya to come with them to the Spot, but the brunette teenager went on. "So we could probably ask Smackle to invite her to come along with us tonight!" By now, both of them were at the end of the cafeteria line at the register. Riley paid and then Lucas. "Oh, you know, actually I alrea—" Lucas turned from the register with his full tray and looked around for Riley when he saw that she was no longer there. "Riles?"
"Over here!"
Lucas turned his head in the direction of the voice, finding that Riley had picked out a table close the the center of the cafeteria. He made his way over and sat down with Riley, Farkle, Smackle, and another sepia-skin-toned boy. Lucas stretched out his right arm, giving the boy a high five and tugging him close to his chest, giving a gentle pat on his back. "Zay! How you dealing with classes so far?" Zay sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know man. I have no idea what Ms. Burgess says. It goes one ear and out the other, but man," He paused momentarily and raised his brows, "She is mighty fine to look at."
Riley rolled her eyes. Farkle laughed slightly along side with Lucas and Smackle tilted her head in confusion. "Zay, it's very important that you understand what she is teaching. It may be our last year here, but our grades still matter. If you like, I could help you understand the material." Smackle smiled at the boy who sat across from her who gave her a genuine smile right back. "Thanks, doll. All jokes aside, I'm just not that great at understanding shakespeare."
"Zay," Smackle frowned slightly, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I know you have feelings for me, but please. I am with Farkle and that will never change." Farkle then put his arm around Smackle and pulled her closer to him as if to humor her. "Yeah Zay. This babe's mine get your own." Smackle smiled brightly at her boyfriend, placing a loving hand on top of his.
Riley watched her two friends with giddy excitement, she absolutely loved seeing the two of them affectionate. It was like watching two little kindergarteners hold hands for the first time. "Oh, yeah!" Riley pointed her fork over in Smackle's direction, "You're friends with Maya Hart, right?" Smakle nodded and attended to her home-brought peanut butter jelly sandwich, "Yes, that is correct."
"Well, I was wondering if you could ask her if she wanted to—"
Lucas spoke up now, putting down a fry that he was about to stuff into his mouth, covered in both ketchup and mayonnaise. "—Hey, actually. I have her in my chem class and I invited her to come with." After he finished, he popped the fry into his mouth. Riley clapped her hands together, excited. "Oh, good! What did she say?" Lucas finished chewing and took a sip of his soda. "Mmm, well she said she'd get back to me. Grabbed her number and told her we'd be with out front after my football practice."
Smackle nodded her head enthusiastically, "I do hope she comes. I don't think that she's really been out since her dad left her."
The table fell quiet, all eyes darting towards her dark haired, glasses-wearing teen who had just blurted out some pretty personal information. "Oh…. I probably should not have said that. Too much?"
In unison, the friends around the table nodded, "Too much."
The last bell of the day rang and students flooded out of their respective classrooms, going to their lockers. Sounds of the metal doors opening and closing rang in Lucas' ears. He was at his own locker, grabbing his football equipment that he had left in his locker the night before after practice. He threw the sports bag's strap over his shoulder and shut his locker.
"So, I'll see you after practice?"
The voice behind him came from none other that Riley who had a binder in her arms labeled "Newspaper Club". Lucas nodded his head while Riley leaned in to press a peck against his cheek. "Okay, great. Newspaper club ends around 6, so I'll be waiting with Farkle, and Zay by the field."
"Alright, I'll see you guys then." Lucas gave his girlfriend's hand a loving squeeze before she turned on her heel and made her way down the hall.
Lucas was on his way over to the locker rooms when he caught sight of Smackle standing over a blonde girl, bent down at her locker. As the neared them, he overheard their conversation.
"Maya, I'm so sorry, I did not mean for that to come out." Smackle was apologizing profusely, waiting for Maya to finish whatever she was attending to in her locker. Without looking up at her dark-haired friend, Maya replied, "Don't worry about it, Iz. It wasn't something I was trying to hide." Smackle furrowed her brows and nervously played with a ring on her middle finger. "Yes, but I have learned that some things are not mine to tell. I am still sorry." Maya finally stood up from her locker, a tool-box looking case. She slung her bag over one shoulder and placed a hand on Smackle, one that Smackle did not look at with question. This often didn't happen unless it was with Farkle.
Lucas then approached them and pretended he had heard nothing. He stood between the two females and gave them both a smile. He wanted to ask Maya about her dad, if she was okay, but he knew it wasn't his place to ask. If Maya wanted to tell him, then she would on her own. Lucas wasn't about to pry into a girl's private life, especially one he had just met. He looked towards Maya and gripped the straps of his backpack, "Hey, so, we'll see you later maybe?"
Maya gave him a smirk and a raise of her brow as she shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe."
Smackle shifted her eyes between the two, watching their exchange and waiting patiently until their conversation seemed over. Lucas then looked over at her and placed a hand on her shoulder, which she looked at before looking back up at him. He drew his hand back, giving an apologetic smile. "You going to debate, Smackle?" Smackle nodded her head once, "Yes. It is the first meeting of the year and we will be practicing and brushing up on our knowledge and public speaking. Farkle will be there as well and afterwards we will meet up with Riley. I assume we will meet you and Zay later." She paused and looked back at Maya, "I really do hope you will be able to come with us."
Maya smiled and left the two of them standing there as she made her way towards the art rooms. "Like I said, maybe!"
Lucas looked through his football helmet, trying to predict where the football that was tossed to him high in the air would land. He shuffled his feet towards the right, getting directly underneath the ball. With his arms bent and hands in front of him, he caught the ball on bent knees. He always had to be in a ready position, whether it was to sprint for the end zone or dodge someone on the opposing team trying to take the ball from under him. For this drill however, the team was practicing dodging a blue mat that would be diving at their feet. Lucas caught the football, tucked it into his chest, and moved it into his left arm to cradle it securely. He was quick on his feet, dodging the blue mat that was thrown where he stood. He jogged it back to the end of the line where Zay took the ball, dressed in gear similar to Lucas', who threw it across the field to the next person on the other end of the field.
A numerous amount of drills later, Lucas and Zay headed off to the locker rooms to wash up and get ready for the drive to the Spot. The two of them gathered their stuff, hair damp and equipment messily stashed into their bags. Zay was on a bench, tying his shoe laces. "Hey man, so what's the deal with asking this girl to come with us?" Lucas shrugged his shoulders and stretched one arm above his head, placing deodorant on his underarm, underneath his baseball tee. "Yeah, not too sure. All I know is Riley's dad wants us to invite her." Zay nodded his head and worked on his other shoe's lace. "Let me guess, spewed some stuff about 'the last year of high school' again?" Lucas grabbed his bags and headed out of the locker room with Zay behind him. "Exactly that."
"Ain't she kind of weird?" Zay gave him a look, one that had a quizzical brow raised.
Lucas gave him the same look back as they continued to walk. "Is she?"
Zay shrugged his shoulders, dragging his own sports bag on the ground behind him, too lazy to actually pick it up. "I mean, a little. She kind of has this 'I'm too cool for school' thing going for her. Or like a, uh, 'High school kids are so dumb, I'm over this place' kinda vibe. Like, that one dude in that book about some disease."
Lucas laughed and offered a little bit of help to his friend, "The Plague?"
Zay snapped his fingers and pointed right at Lucas, "Yeah yeah, that one! Where the dude in the book gives up on trying to find the meaning of life and just kind of says 'Fuck it, yolo'?"
Again, Lucas gave a shrug of his shoulders. "An existentialist? I guess, I don't know."
In the distance, Lucas could see Riley standing up on the bleachers waving her arms way above her head to call his attention to her. Riley waved so frantically that she nearly lost her footing, bringing a smile to Lucas' face. He gave a wave back and both he and Zay made their way over to the rest of their friends. Hand in hand, the couples, excluding Zay, made their way over to Lucas' truck. Lucas checked the time on his phone and to see if he had gotten a text from Maya while everyone else worked out other arrangements.
Riley looked between the truck and a Jeep down the road. "Okay, since Lucas invited Maya, if she decides to come with us she can ride with Lucas and I. Is that okay with you, Zay?" Zay took out his keys from his bag, unlocking his Jeep from the remote on the key. "I get to ride with these two love birds? I mean, it's better than riding with Princess Cotton Candy Face and Prince Charming, so I think I can deal." Riley smiled at Zay with a little chuckle. She then looked back at Lucas, tilting her head in question. "Hey, did you hear from her?"
Lucas looked down at his phone again, watching as the clock turned to show '6:30'. "No, not yet. Let me call her." He scrolled down his contacts, finding Maya's name and pressed the button to call. Riley watched him, waiting to hear Maya's response.
There were three rings until she finally picked up. Maya grabbed her phone from her back pocket, putting it to her ear. "Hey, Charming, what's up?"
Lucas rolled his eyes on the other end. "Haha, very funny."
Maya chuckled to herself and placed the phone between her ear and shoulder as she closed her locker, still in the school building. "Yeah, well it's a work in progress. I'm trying to see which nickname's gonna suit you the most."
Lucas placed his bags into the bed of his truck, taking Riley's and placing in the back as well. "Good luck with that. Anyway, did you decide if you were gonna come?"
Maya at this point was on the second floor of the school, looking out a window that faced towards the front. She looked down at where Lucas had told her that his truck would be. She saw the group of friends waiting by the car. Riley was watching Lucas was such a longing in her eyes. Farkle and Smackle stood close together while talking to Zay who was animatedly talking about who knows what, hands in the air and wild expressions on his face. She clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth and bit on her lower lip. "Yeah, about that. I don't think so. I don't think I can make it tonight."
"Oh," Lucas made a face and shook his head, letting Riley know that Maya wouldn't be coming. Riley sighed with a pout. She gave a shrug of her shoulders as if to say, 'Well, we tried'. Lucas leaned against his truck, crossing one arm over his chest and tucked it under the arm that held his phone. "Sorry you can't make it. But hey, everyone's gonna be there until around midnight, maybe even later. If you change your mind, swing by later. We'll probably be there."
Maya watched from the window, still, as they split off into two. Smackle, Farkle, and Zay went down the road into a red jeep while Riley and Lucas piled into his truck. "Yeah… maybe."
Lucas shut his car door and put his key in the ignition, turning the engine on. "Alright, well then I'll see you tomorrow in Chem."
Maya looked down the hall towards the open Chem lab and gave a smile, one that wasn't particularly directed at anyone. "See you then, sunshine."
Lucas laughed and shook his head as he placed his seatbelt on. As if he had just realized there was no way she could see him through the phone, he let out an exaggerated sigh. "Not that one."
Maya laughed out loud, the sound of both her laugh and the click clacks of her shoes as she walked down the hall bouncing off the white walls of the school's hallway. "Yeah, I didn't think so either. Bye, Lucas."
"Bye." Lucas hung up and placed his phone on the seat between him and Riley. He looked at her with a smile, one that she returned. "Guess it's just us five tonight."
Riley shrugged her shoulders, her hair falling behind her. "Well maybe she can come with us next time. Is that so bad?"
Lucas didn't say anything. He simply shook his head with a slight smile and pulled out between two cars he was parked between, going towards the Spot.
The Spot was about 30 minutes away, about ten minutes away from the overpopulated towns and cities. By the time they had gotten there, the sun was low on the horizon. It was an old run down swimming pool. There were multiple bonfires in the area. Two were not actually in the pool, but close to the ledges, one on the south end and the other on the north. There was also one down in the center of the pool, the water long gone. There was even a stain on the pool's walls where the water used to be. Teenagers were scattered throughout the area, red cups in hands as they mindlessly danced to whatever hit song was playing on one of the cars radios.
Lucas and Zay pulled up their cars right by the fence that was used to separate the pool from the public. Lucas hopped over the fence first, followed by Zay. Farkle stayed on the other side to help Smackle and Riley up. First was Smackle. He squatted low and laced his fingers together so that she could use it as a stepping aid. Smackle placed her foot in his hands and Farkle boosted her up on the fence. He did the same thing with Riley. On the other side, Zay and Lucas helped the two girls down. Farkle hopped over the fence with little struggle as if he had been doing this for years.
"Woo!" Riley took Lucas' hand and lifted it above her head, twirling underneath their joined hands. "Can you guys believe it?" Smackle watched her friend with a smile while Zay and Farkle went towards one of the kegs lined up on the other end of the pool. With Riley's hand still holding on to Lucas', her free hand grasped Smackle and she pulled the two of her friends closer to the fire. "This is our last year of high school. We started at the very bottom of the high school ladder and now we are on top!"
Zay and Farkle came back with drinks in their hands. They handed them to Riley and Smackle, both of which graciously accepted. Riley took one sip of her red cup and started to dance, Smackle mimicking her and dancing just as awkwardly right beside her. Lucas, Farkle, and Zay just watched them.
Zay had taken the liberty of taking a bag of chips from the food that was supplied and was cradling it in one of his arms as his hand dug into the bag to reach for some of the chips. "So," He paused pulling his hand out and then tilting the bag to the other boys. "You guys ready for college?"
Farkle nodded and took some chips and stuffed a couple into his mouth. "Yeah, I'm really excited to start at NYU. I wonder if Lucas and I will see each other at NYU, after all we're both Business Majors, right?"
Lucas pursed his lips into a thin line, looking between the two of them. He nodded his head then, but it was as if he were trying to convince himself. If Lucas was being honest, he wasn't really sure how he felt about majoring in business. It definitely wasn't his first choice. "Uh, yeah. But don't count on it much. I do have football."
Zay nodded and pointed the bag of chips at Lucas. "Oh, yeah. Don't you got that football scholarship?" Lucas shook his head and shrugged a shoulder. He grabbed some chips from the bag and just kept them in his hand as he spoke. "Well, a scout's actually coming to watch a couple of us play. You know about this Zay."
Zay laughed and shrugged his shoulders with exaggeration, a chip in hand. "Well, yeah. But I have another scholarship lined up for Berklee." Farkle pointed a finger at Zay and nodded, "That's right! You're going to Berklee College of Music over in Boston, yeah?" Zay gave a very smug nod. "Yup, Music Production. Watch out for me in the future boys, I'll be producing songs for people like The Weeknd, Kendrick, Bieber, and Adele."
Lucas gave a chuckle, "How do you go from The Weeknd to Adele?" Zay smiled and placed a hand on Lucas's shoulder and his other with the bag of chips on Farkle's. "I mean, come on. It's Adele. What person in the music industry doesn't want to work with her. Think about it."
The boys looked up into the sky, like they were imagining working with Adele. All three of them laughed and nodded their heads, going back to the girls who were sitting by the pool with their legs dangling over the edge.
From a distance away, the bonfires from the Spot lit up a sea of darkness. In that darkness were just a bunch of green fields and dirt roads. On higher ground, a hill to be exact, Maya sat on the hood of a rusty old yellow Bug Volkswagen, watching the little ants that were high school students dance, laugh, and socialize in merriment.
The next morning, Lucas woke up later than usual to a knock at the door.
"Lucas, honey. You're going to be late for school."
He sat up and placed a hand on his face, rubbing the sleep away. It was going to be a long day.
In homeroom, Cory approached Lucas, Riley, and Farkle as the morning announcements were being read over the PA system. "So, how was your first night at the Spot as seniors?" The three of them groaned and simultaneously slumped in their chairs. Riley's dad laughed and patted his daughter on the back. "Yeah, trust me, I've been there."
Riley sighed, looking up at Cory. "I'm sorry I didn't get home until 1 am, dad."
"Yeah, I tried telling her it was time to go." Lucas sat up a bit straighter in his desk, lacing his fingers together on his desk and twiddling his thumbs together. Riley nodded, placing a hand on top of Lucas'. "He did. He really did, don't blame him. I was just having too much fun." Cory nodded and slumped his shoulders with a sigh. "I don't doubt he did. But your mother and I are not mad at you because you're currently paying the price. Just remember, being adult is great but you do have responsibilities you need to uphold. Like getting enough sleep to pay attention in class the next day. Just because you got into your college doesn't mean they don't look at your grades for your last year."
The school bell rang and most of Cory's homeroom students gathered their belongings and headed towards their classes. After Lucas and Farkle walked Riley to her class, they both went their separate ways. When Lucas entered his Chemistry class, he looked towards his seat, finding Maya Hart already there at the lab table they had shared he previous day before. He went over and placed his backpack on the tabletop.
"Alright, class!" Ms. Krueger called attention to herself int he front of the room. "I'll be reading your names off in groups of two completely at random. Go ahead and sit at a table with each other. They will be your lab partner for the rest of the year, so get comfortable."
As their teacher read off names, Lucas looked over at Maya, making sure that he was also paying attention enough to hear his name being called. "You should have come last night, it was really fun." Maya looked back at him with a raised brow, placing her pen down on her notebook that she had been scribbling in. "Oh, yeah? Is that why most of the senior class looks dead tired?"
Lucas laughed and nodded guiltily. "Yeah, actually. Most of us left around midnight and that drive back is a killer." Maya nodded in response as if she knew exactly what he was talking about.
"Lucas Friar and… Maya Hart." Ms. Krueger said out loud as she crossed two names off of her list.
Maya ran a hand through her blonde hair and inspected her ends, "Looks like we're lab partners." Lucas smiled down at her and tipped an imaginary hat, "I guess we are, huh, Partner?"
Maya eyed him from the corner of her eyes for a moment before she rolled them and laughed to herself.
Stacks of stapled paper were handed out through the class. Ms. Krueger explained the lab and soon students were working at their stations. Maya watched Lucas as he weighed the test tube and when he read out it's mass, Maya wrote it down in a composition notebook. Lucas held up the empty test tube towards her. "Here, why don't you pour the colored hydrated compound into the tube and weigh it on the scale?"
Maya chewed on her lower lip, looking from Lucas to the tube in his hand. With a shrug of her shoulders, she grabbed the tube and the packet and poured its contents into it slowly. "How much of this needs to go in here?"
Lucas looked over the packet, trying to find the instructions. "Uh… Oh, it's right here. It says to pour all of it." Maya nodded and followed his directions, pouring the rest of the compound into the tube. She then placed it on the scale, and recorded it's number. Lucas watched her right the number down. He stood up from his stool and got behind her as she sat in her seat, reaching around her to point at her notebook, indicating the last empty box in the table she had drawn up. "Okay, for his one we're looking for the mass of the compound."
Maya looked up at him over her shoulder, then back at her notebook. "So… we subtract the mass that we just recorded from the one we got when we weighed the empty tube, right?" Lucas nodded and Maya went to do the math below the table. "Yup, that's right," Lucas said after he checked her result.
The rest of the forty-five minute class went by in a similar fashion; Lucas and Maya sharing the lab work and Maya writing down their findings. Before they knew it, the bell rang and some students were already out the door. A couple groups, Maya and Lucas included, were caught up in the lab that they had no idea of what the time was. Lucas looked at the clock on top of the door and then back to Maya. "Well, I guess we can finish the lab tomorrow. You mind if I can copy what you've written in your comp book tonight? I'll get it back to you tomorrow during class."
Maya closed her composition notebook and handed it to him, still sitting on the stool. "Yup, no problem. But you better not be thinking of leaving and making me clean up." Lucas took the notebook and shoved it into his backpack on the floor. "Not a chance." Maya smiled and went to work on cleaning their station. She placed the scales away while Lucas stored away the test tubes and beakers.
While Lucas was bent down placing the beakers in the cabinets and drawers, Maya wiped down the table top. She chewed on her lower lip and avoided eye contact with him. "So…" She started off, a little nervous which seemed unlike her to Lucas. From the two days he'd spent with her, she was never at a loss for words. In fact, she was always quick on her tongue, ready to give him a witty or sarcastic comeback. He stood up and grabbed his backpack, placing a strap on his shoulder. "What's up?"
Maya grabbed her own bag from the floor and dumped her pencil bag in it before slinging it over herself. "What do you do after practices."
Lucas looked down at her, shocked that she would even ask about his personal life. Well, she didn't really ask, it wasn't a question. There was no inflection in her voice at the end of her sentence, in fact, it was more like she demanded the answer. When he didn't answer fast enough for Maya's liking, she made her way out of the door, but he quickly caught up with her. "Uh, usually I'm either volunteering, studying, with Riley, or studying with Riley."
Maya stopped by her locker and traded her AP chemistry text book for a French III one. Lucas waited for her, not completely sure why. From behind, Smackle and Riley approached him. Riley placed a hand on Lucas' bicep, catching him off guard. He jumped, though only slightly, and relaxed when he turned to see his two friends. "Oh, hey Riles."
Riley smiled up at him, finding his hand with her own and lacing her fingers with his. "Hi! How was class?" It was then Riley noticed Maya who was stuffing things into her messenger bag. "Oh, Hi Maya!" Maya gave Riley a small smile back and a raise of her brows. "Hey. Riley right?"
Riley nodded, "Yeah, I'm really sorry you couldn't make it to the Spot last night. Maybe next Friday you can come with us! We're really friendly, so don't worry about it being awkward or anything." Maya nodded and kept the same smile on her face. "Yeah, hopefully!" Maya added some fake enthusiasm. Around people who were just so happy, she couldn't help but feel the need to act just as enthusiastic. Except mostly, it was out of sarcasm. It was something Riley didn't pick up on, though, or if she did, Lucas figured that Riley thought Maya meant no harm from it.
Maya gave a genuine smile to the darker brunette girl with glasses. "Hey, Iz. How's your mom?" Smackle smiled at Maya and gave a sigh. "She is the same. She is still pestering me about joining her debutant club with her friends and their daughters. She doesn't seem to understand that I have a full and packed schedule. I must maintain my 4.5 GPA, perform well during debates, and have a social life. It is important that I enjoy my time with my boyfriend and my friends."
Maya gave a small chuckle and shut her locker. "Well tell Janet I say hi."
"I will."
Lucas looked down at the two girls to his right and nodded his chin over towards the cafeteria. "You guys go on ahead, I was just talking to Maya about our Lab that we're going to finish tomorrow."
"Are you sure?" Riley looked at him with large eyes, squeezing his hand in hers tightly.
"Yeah, it won't take long." Lucas gave her hand a squeeze back. His hold on her hand loosened until he let it go. Riley and Smackle walked away from them towards the cafeteria then.
"She's a peach." Maya lifted her messenger bag's strap over her head and on her shoulder.
Lucas gave a small chuckle, hands holding on to the straps of his backpack. "Yeah, she just takes some getting used to." He leaned his body against the lockers, trying to remember what they were talking about, "Oh, did you want to grab your notebook after my practice, is that why?"
Maya shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "Nah, I was just wondering." With that, Maya Hart walked the opposite way of the cafeteria, down the hall and towards the out door quad. Lucas turned to watch her leave with a brow lifted, both in curiosity and in confusion.
Maya Hart was quick with her witty responses and banter. She seemed to not care about the social standings of high school. She was nervous one second, then confident and fired up the next. There was an odd air of presence to her, like she didn't pay any mind to everyone else's rules and instead made her own and followed them.
"That girl is weird." Lucas said aloud before turning around and jogging towards the cafeteria.
Ending Notes: Sorry this took awhile, first week of school came up! Don't fret, Riley and Maya will become friends. Maybe. Or they'll just be friendlier towards each other. Well, more like Maya will be friendlier..
Long days. Many would next expect days at the Veterinarian hospital to be long, but they were particularly long. One might think, “Well hey, they close at 10pm, its not like they’re open like emergency rooms.” But people often forget that some pets stay overnight. Some pets need time to recover, some pets can have traumatic experiences. The veterinarian hospital is no happy place for any kind of animal. It’s Lucas’ job and the job of his staff to make sure that these animals are safe and feel safe.
So when Lucas comes home every night at 1am he is exceptionally tired. Some nights, Lucas would come home to his studio apartment to Maya still up, painting on her canvas and easel by the window. She would be covered in all kinds of paint and her nose would be marked with reds and blues from whenever her nose itched during another of her binge painting moods. Lucas would walk in the door and from across the room, Maya would stick her head out from behind her canvas with a very happy, “Welcome home, Ranger Rick!”
One particular night, Lucas came home at 1am to Maya baking in their kitchen. It was extremely odd to him, Maya was never the baker. But holy cow did it smell good, even from down the hall! Whatever she was baking had scents of vanilla and peanut butter, two things he was rather fond of. Maya was so caught up in her baking that she had no clue that her boyfriend since high school was right behind her as she stared at the oven, watching her treats bake. He snaked his arms around her, holding her onto him. She jumped, startled, in his arms but he felt her slowly relax and intense against him. He pressed a very innocent and loving kiss at the temple of her head before she turned around to give a kiss to his lips from the very tips of her toes. She turned around again, unintentionally—or completely intention, he didn’t know—whipping her blonde hair in her face. She held up an already baked batch of cookies on a pan with a huge grin on her face. “Cookie?”
Other nights he would find her already in bed, underneath their white comforter. She would be up in a sitting position, her back against their headboard as she held a huge iPad in her hands. Her tongue would stick out from her mouth as it usually did while she was in deep concentration, playing a game of Dots. The music from the app is what drew him to their bedroom, very calming and almost woodsy. She must have still been in the forrest levels. Still in his work clothes, he would crawl ontop of the bed towards her and rest his chin on her shoulder, peering over at her progress in the game. It wouldn’t be long until she would sigh with frustration and exclaim, “Damnit, Huckleberry! I’ve been working on the same level all damn night!”
Tonight, though there was no music, no aroma of freshly baked cookies, and there was no Maya at her easel by the window. A little worry started to build in his chest as he dropped his keys on the kitchen counter and placed his briefcase on the floor. He loosened his tie up and uncuffed the sleeves of his shirt.
“Maya?”
He was only answered by silence.
He checked for her in his office, in the hallway bathroom, even in the pantry where she often closed the door behind her whenever she would be looking for some snacks.
One time he found her on the floor of the pantry with the door closed, munching on some Lucky Charms after work. He asked what she was doing and she only shrugged her shoulders and offered the box to him. He mimicked her in shrugging his own shoulders then sat down next to her. They sat in the pantry for hours talking about anything that came to mind, but not before she said, “Close the door, it’s rude to leave it open.”
The worry in his chest was bubbling up now and it was about to send him in a panic. That is, until, he walked into their shared bedroom and found a sleeping Maya curled up on top of the covers, her cellphone clutched in her hand. An alarm then went off at 1:00 am to the song of Bootylicious by Beyonce.
Lucas sat on top of the bed and gently shifted Maya to have her head lay in his lap. She stirred awake, looking at the time on her phone before silencing her alarm. She looked at him with her blue eyes, a little confused. It didn’t take long for her to realize that she had fallen asleep waiting up for him.
“Fuck, sorry Lucas. I was trying to wait up for you and I set an alarm and everything. I’m usually awake when you get home so I thought I could just sneak in a little nap an—” Lucas laughed and cut her of, bending down to place a kiss on her lips. “It’s okay, Clutterbucket. Get some sleep.”
The blonde woman didn’t object. She only smiled, nodded her head and closed her eyes again.
“Goodnight, Soarin’ Eagle. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Sorry this one wasn’t as good as the previous one!
She didn’t know when she fell in love, but if she had to put a guess on it, she’d say it started when he first kissed her. It wasn’t romantic in any of the sorts. It was in Yogi’s basement for this 13th birthday party. A game of truth or dare. Naturally, Darby saw the chemistry and sparks flying between the two blonds and dared them to kiss. Well, actually she had given Maya a truth, to tell the group her middle name. She cringed at the thought and last minute chose the dare.
Their kiss was only to count under the following conditions: a picture was to be taken and put on instagram—for public humiliation of course— and it must last at least 7 seconds. Thinking back on it, Maya couldn’t recall them counting down the given time as their lips locked together. She couldn’t even remember people around them. It was like everything in that moment other than the kiss that they had shared wasn’t even in her memories.
But Maya didn’t fall in love as other girls usually did. It wasn’t his grand gestures, it wasn’t his constant and blunt affection. If she were honest, it wasn’t those things at all because those things were never really given to her.
She fell in love with him by the things he said after their first kiss.
On the night of the school dance back in 7th grade when Farkle, Cory, and Riley had already left, he said to her her, “I’ll walk you home.”
Sometime in the winter after eighth grade, they had all decided to go ice skating. Maya was freezing her butt off and was too stubborn to bring an extra jacket that all her friends had suggested her to. When he was helping her put her skates on, he looked up at her and asked, “Do you want to borrow my jacket?”
The first day of high school, some junior had passed by their group and mumbled something about fresh meat. He proceeded to whistle as he walked by Maya, giving her rump a smack. The look on her face was absolutely mortified and before she could give him a piece of her mind, that boy of hers was face to face, leaning dangerously close to the junior’s ears. He whispered, but Maya was sure that he meant it to be loud enough for her to hear as well, “If you disrespect or lay a hand on any of my friends again, I will personally make sure you’ll no longer be able to use that hand.”
Sophomore year, he had made the football team which didn’t surprise anyone in their friend group at all. He was so nervous to talk to her and at the time, Maya didn’t quite understand why. He and told her that it was tradition that a player’s friend make a poster that said the player’s jersey number and name. “So, will you make mine?” She didn’t know why he had asked her specifically, Riley and Farkle would also make posters, but she did know she was happy he asked her specifically.
Junior year, Maya had an art piece in the school’s art exhibit. She invited her friends to the opening night, but Farkle told her that he had a big debate. Riley said she had to go to her grandparents’ place for the weekend for their anniversary. Before she could ask him, he already had the hugest smile on his face. He told her, “I’ll be there.” Farkle and Riley came other nights and so did he. Actually, he came every night.
Senior year came along and she was stressed out beyond belief. She had gotten a conditional acceptance college letter and was working her butt off to make sure her grades were in the best shape they could be. So when prom was only 2 weeks away she had no idea about it. She panicked and eventually told herself that she had no time to be thinking about such things when her acceptance to the only college she applied to was on the line. Around 1 am, he showed up at her window. She told him to go home, she had lots of studying to do. He barged right in and said, “Me. You. Prom. I’m not asking you, I’m telling you. You and I are going to go to prom together and the night will be great. If there’s anyone that needs a break from all the hard work their putting in, it’s you. It’s just one night, one stress free night.” She smiled and agreed. In the beginning, she thought she’d regret it. But she didn’t. In fact, she thoroughly enjoyed it.
Last month was the worst month of her life. Maya and her dad weren’t particular close. In fact, she kind of despised him. He had left her and her mom when she was only 5. He told them that he would be right back, just going to grab a carton of milk. For years she waited for him to come back, and when he did he told her that he had a new family. He apologized, said that it was a mistake. But he grew up and learned from it. She didn’t forgive him. Maya told him it was too late for apologies. But when the news came that her dad had died in a car crash she wished she could have taken it back. She wished she could have told him that she accepted his apology. She wished she could apologize to him for treating him so harshly and shutting him out even when he tried to get back in. All day she cried in her room. At about 3 in the morning, eyes red and bloodshot from nonstop crying, he snuck in through the window. And though she didn’t know he was there, she didn’t object as he sat on her bed and pulled her close to him. She cradled up to him, using his shirt as a rag. The tears that she didn’t know she still had kept flowing and he just stayed there, rubbing circles into her back and combing fingers through her hair. She didn’t talk, there was no words to say. So he said it all. “Shhh, it’s okay. It’s fine. I’m here. He knows you love him. He knows you forgive him now.” And before she could even think of the question she was going to ask, he said, “He’s here with you, watching over you.”
It was senior graduation. All students had received their diploma. All they needed was the principal to say, “Congratulations to the Class of 2020″ and they would all stand up and throw their caps in the air. Maya sat beside him, gripping onto his hand in excitement. “Maya,” he said. She shushed him, waiting for the speaker to say those final words. “Maya, I need to tell you something.” Maya shook her head, not paying him any attention. There it was, the final words of their last year in high school! She was in the process of standing up when she felt his hand tug on hers from his spot on the chair. She sat down with him, an annoyed look on her face. “What is it, huckleberry?”
Genre: AU: Romance/Angst
Rating: M to be safe, has/will have adult themed content later.
Notes: **Riley may seem a little out of character for right now, but she’ll even out in the later chapters. Angst will most likely happen in later chapters. This does start off Rilucas but will eventually be Lucaya. Promise! This is also based off of a movie that I will not name only because I don’t want the ending to be ruined if you care about spoilers. But know that the plot is not mine! If you can recognize the movie, you get a dozen Krispy Kreme Donuts :)
Summary: [The sound of cars zooming fast below him filled the night air, but they didn’t reach his ears.] It’s the last year of high school and everyone’s holding on to something. What’s Lucas holding on to? What about Maya? Starts of Rilucas, will become Lucaya, PROMISE!
CHAPTERS: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
ALSO AVAILABLE ON [FF.NET]
Lucas exhaled slowly, his breath leaving physical evidence that it was there in the cold night air. He blew into the palms of his hands before rubbing them together, trying to get warm. Up here, the only company he had was the sound of his heart beat ringing in his ears. Lucas took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to bring himself to a place of calmness. Slowly, he shuffled his feet, taking it only half an inch at a time. Suddenly he stopped and opened his eyes, looking straight ahead of him at complete darkness.
The sound of cars zooming fast below him filled the night air, but they didn’t reach his ears.
“Thanks for breakfast, Mom.” Lucas stood up from the dining table, pushing his chair back against the wooden floor in the process. He picked up his plate as well as his mother’s and brought them both to the sink. He ran the tap for just a few seconds, just enough to soak the dishes in water. From her place still at the table, Lucas’ mom smiled as she watched her son, calling out to him as he reached for his keys on the kitchen counter. “Will you be home in time for supper today?” Lucas paused at the door to turn around and answer, “Probably not. Most likely going to hang out with Riles and everyone.” Before Mrs. Friar could say anything else, Lucas was out the door, a gentle slam of the door resounding through the house.
The woman in her mid 40s rose from the table and made her way to the sink, deciding to finish cleaning up before heading off to work. As she scrubbed her crumbs off of the plates, she felt a smooch placed upon her cheek. She smiled fondly at her son, only a couple inches taller than her, and grabbed his hand on her shoulder in a loving maternal squeeze. “Sorry, mom. Forgot. Have a good day at work, love ya’!”
Lucas, again, was out the door and headed to his hand-me-down 1967 Chevrolet C/K pick up truck that he inherited from his grandfather. Before he got into the driver seat, he squatted down by the front tire to inspect it, pressing a thumb against the rubber to check the air pressure. Once he deemed that it was acceptable, he tossed his backpack into the bed of the truck and climbed into the driver’s seat.
The drive was only about 3 minutes, Lucas could have easily walked to school, but he and the gang planned to head over to The Spot later in the evening. As he pulled up along the sidewalk across from the old stone-bricked high school, a tall and slim brunette ran up to the driver’s side to greet him. Tall enough, she easily lifted her chin to reach Lucas’ cheek, placing a very gentle kiss upon his tan skin. He returned the peck, turned the old truck’s ignition off and, rolled up the driver’s seat window. He hopped out of the car, slammed the door shut and reached an arm to wrap around the girl, the other hand reaching into the bed of the truck to fetch his backpack.
“Hey.” Lucas laced his fingers with his girlfriend’s over her shoulder and guided the both of them to the front doors of John Quincy Addams High School.
“Hi,” Riley Matthews looked over at her boyfriend with a wide grin on her face. “You didn’t get my text last night?” They continued to walk directly over to her locker, just at the end of the hallway.
Lucas leaned against some nearby lockers as he waited for Riley to place her unneeded texts and notebooks into her own, “No, sorry. I fell asleep. I was really tired when I got home from football practice. Coach has got me and a couple guys on the team practicing longer hours. I didn’t even get to stop by the pet clinic.” Riley shut her yellow painted locker and sighed, readjusting the strap of her backpack on her shoulder. “Well, that’s okay. I’m glad that you’re really working hard. Your mom told me that a Harvard scouter’s visiting to look at some potential candidates for a scholarship. I’m sure the clinic will be fine without you for a couple of quarters.” She placed a baby pink manicured hand on his chest reassuringly. Lucas gave a lopsided smile and nodded, pushing himself off of the lockers.
“I have journalism first period, so I’ll see you in homeroom after your Calc class, right?” Riley started to walk backwards, clumsy as ever as she nearly tripped over her own shoelaces. Lucas couldn’t help but smirk when she caught herself and looked around to see if anyone had seen her struggle. “Yeah. Your dad’s our homeroom, right?”
As if on queue, a brown short-haired man somewhere in his 40s walked down the hallway. “That’s Mr. Matthews to you, Friar.” He paused to stand midway between his daughter and her boyfriend. Lucas nodded his head politely, grasping the adjustable straps of his backpack. “Yes, Mr. Matthews, Sir.”
The bell rang, it’s shrill noise resounding in the hallways. Like ants, students scrambled into their first class of the school year. Riley waited until her father went into his own classroom to run back up to Lucas and smash her lips against his. Lucas, taken by surprise, had his backpack straps still grasped in his hands. “I’ll see you later, Charming!” She took a couple steps back and then turned on her heel. Lucas called to her retreating form, “Later, Princess.”
Lucas was in Calculus class, hunched over his desk as his eyes were trained on the whiteboard at the front of class, his right hand frantically writing the notes displayed all the while keeping up with what the teacher was saying. To his right, a lankily built brown haired teen age boy was leaned back in his chair, taking notes in a much more calm fashion than Lucas. The boy paused in his writings, raising a brow as he looked to Lucas, “Dude, calm down. You know you could copy from my notes.”
It was hard for Lucas to tear his eyes away from the whiteboard. Even as he turned his head, his vision lingered on the messy slanted handwriting on the dry-erase board, scribbling in his notebook even after he finally gave his attention to the other boy. “Yeah, I know Farkle. But I’m not going to have much time for that this semester. I have football practice, the games, helping out at the clinic, Riley…. Plus, it’s better to just soak in all the information now, right?” Farkle raised a skeptical brow again at Lucas as the dirty blonde gave him a quick smile and went right back to work on his notes. “I guess you’re right,” Farkle sat up in his chair and resumed his own note taking. “I kind of forgot that different people have different ways of retaining information.” Beside him, Lucas scoffed playfully, “Yeah, not everyone’s a genius like you Farkle.”
Lucas dropped his pencil when their teacher paused to shuffle through an arrangement of papers on his desk. He stretched his arms over his head, peering over at Farkle. “Wait, what are you doing in this class, I thought you took it last year?” Farkle nodded with a small smirk on his lips. “Yeah, I did. I’m TA for Mr. Morrison.” Lucas turned at his waist, placing his his left elbow on his desk, the other on the back of his chair. “So what does he have you do?” Farkle sighed and reached down into his backpack, pulling out a stack of papers. “I make copies, I help grade papers, and I take notes for him in case anyone is out sick and misses the lecture.”
Lucas’ brow raised, a smug look upon his face, “So… What you’re saying is that you’re willing to help out your best friend, Lucas Friar, during his last year of high school? Thanks, bud!”
Farkle shot him a glare. “What happened to the Lucas that wanted to be self-dependent and do things on his own just a minute ago?”
Lucas gave a small chuckle and shook his head, going back to read over his notes. “I was kidding, Minkus. Don’t get your panties in a bunch.”
“Oh.” Farkle’s glare was soon replaced with a smile, proud of his friend.
“No, but really, you think you can help a guy out?”
Farkle rolled his eyes.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, class.” Lucas’ calculus teacher stood by the door, seeing each of his students out. Lucas gave a very courteous nod on his way out while Farkle simply raised his hand as a goodbye, following Lucas through the door. Across their classroom stood Riley and another female, a darker brunette coming up to just under Riley’s eyes. The shorter girl’s eyes lit up when she saw Farkle pop out form behind the tall Lucas Friar. “Minkus!”
“Smackle,” Farkle tossed an arm around Smackle’s shoulders, pressing his lips to the side of his girlfriend’s head, nose in her hair. “How was Journalism with Riley?” Smackle tilted her head, looking up at Farkle with a smile on her rosy painted lips. “It was fine. We have an assignment due by the end of the week, quite easy. Isn’t that right, Riley?”
Riley gave Smackle a crooked smile that looked somewhere between an actual smile and a frown, her brows furrowed and scrunched up on her forehead. “Yeah.. Quite.” Riley shook her head and chuckled, lacing her fingers with Lucas as they all headed down the hall towards the back of the building.
“Hi, daddy!” Riley skipped into her father’s classroom, tugging her boyfriend behind her. Lucas, who seemed embarrassed and was trying to save face in front of his girlfriend’s father, nodded his head and waved with his free hand to his homeroom teacher. “Mr. Matthews.” Farkle gave a smile to the man and followed his two friends to the first couple of rows of desks in the front. Smackle stayed by the door, waving a goodbye to her friends.
Cory paused his conversation with a student to look over at the trio’s direction. “Hi, sweetie. Minkus. Friar.” He acknowledged the two boys, sending the latter a very stern look seeing the public display of affection with his daughter before him. As they sat and unlatched themselves from one another, he gave them an over the top smile and continued on with the conversation between him and a long blonde haired girl. “Anyway, how was your summer, Maya?” Maya looked up at her history teacher, holding her books down by her thigh as she shrugged her shoulders. “Eh, well you know. I’m still living.” Cory gave a small chuckle as he turned around to erase his writings from the chalkboard. “Ha! Well, I’m real happy to hear that. I’m glad you were able to make it to class at least once this semester.” Cory turned back around, looking at the very short girl with his brows raised, as if expecting her to give a witty retort back. Maya gave a bright smile, most likely oozing with sarcasm, as was her voice as she spoke, “I guess miracles can happen, huh Matthews?” She walked towards the door, meeting up with Smackle to go to their own homeroom together. “Who knows,” she continued, her voice traveling as she walked out, “Maybe I’ll actually graduate this year, too!”
The school bell rang once again, signaling the start of homeroom. Bodies rushed into the classroom’s door as Cory waited with his wrist watch in front of him, counting until the very last second of the minute, “Four, three, two… one.” He shut the door and spun on his heel, a huge grin upon his face, his fists in front of him in an excited clench. “Welcome back to school seniors! I’m Mr. Matthews,” he walked in front of his desk and then sat on top of it, legs crossed at the ankles in front of him. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing most of you in my history class. I’m also sure you guys are really excited to just get this last year over with, so let’s just get through the last days of your high school career without me issuing out detentions, alright?” The class agreed with a couple of laughs and soon the morning announcements came on over the PA system.
“Daddy,” Riley called out to Cory with her hands folded neatly on her desk. “I’ll probably be home late tonight. We’re all going to head out to the Spot after school.” Cory stared at the group of friends. He wanted to scold and lecture them about going to such a place at night, but he knew that doing so would make him a hypocrite. His stare lingered on Lucas for a moment before he sighed loudly and nodded his head. “Alright. You guys be safe.”
Riley blinked her eyes twice very slowly in disbelief. “Wait, really, dad?” Both Lucas and Farkle had the same looks on their faces.
Cory nodded and placed one hand on his daughter’s shoulder, the other on Lucas’. “Yeah. It’s your senior year. I trust you guys,” Cory’s grip on Lucas’ shoulder tightened ever so slightly. “And I trust you guys to not do anything stupid. You hear me?” Lucas gulped, swallowing the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat. “Yes sir.”
“Thanks, dad. Don’t wait up too late!” Riley tiled her head to the side, a smile upon her lips. Farkle and Lucas looked at each other, small chuckles escaping them. Riley was trying to act rebellious again, but everyone knew, including Riley—especially Riley—, that she’d be back before her own curfew that was set at 11:00. Cory gave a reassuring pat on his daughter’s shoulder and began to walk towards his desk. “Oh, honey, I won’t. Don’t worry.”
The bell rang a couple of minutes later. Cory was writing the next class’ agenda on the blackboard while Riley, Lucas, and Farkle gathered their things to leave. Lucas had one arm around Riley’s shoulders as the two of them followed Farkle out the door. Right as they exited the door, Cory called out to them, “Hey, kids!” They stopped and turned on their heels, finding that Cory had left his notes on the board to meet them where they stood. “Before I forget, maybe you guys can bring Maya with you tonight?”
Riley’s brow raised, a little surprised that her dad had suggested such a thing. “Maya Hart?” She repeated. Cory pursed his lips and nodded his head. “You mean Maya-I-D-G-A-F-Hart?” Cory crossed his arms over his chest. “Riley,” he began with a stern voice, “It’s not nice to judge people.” Riley mimicked her father, crossing her own arms. “Dad, I’ve tried so many times to talk to her. She doesn’t want any of it. All she does is make some cruel joke, roll her eyes, and then walk away!” Lucas looked between his girlfriend and their teacher awkwardly. What was he supposed to do?
Farkle was the one to speak up, “All due respect sir, she’s right. Maya isn’t exactly the friendliest person in the school.”
Cory nodded his head once more and sighed, “She can be tough, I know. But don’t give up on her. Everyone needs some friends. It’s your senior year of high school, guys.” He repeated again for emphasis, “Enjoy it. And enjoy it with people you never thought you would.”
Farkle, Riley, and Lucas looked between each other in that moment, as if trying to decide if it was a good idea. “Now go,” Cory brought the attention back to himself. “The bell’s gonna ring in three minutes and I doubt any of you want to be late to the Spot tonight because of detention.”
The group of three turned away from their teacher and made their way down the hall. Lucas and Farkle walked Riley to her next class. “Look,” Riley sighed, dropping her shoulders as if to admit defeat. “Everyone in school usually shows up to the Spot for the first week anyway. She’ll probably be going, too. So we’ll just ask her if she wants to come with us. But if this doesn’t work, we tried, right?” The boys nodded their heads in agreement. “Great!” Riley leaned up and pressed another kiss on Lucas’ cheek and gave Farkle a hug. “I’ll see you guys later!”
Lucas made his way to the second floor of the school, rushing into the first door on the left to the chemistry lab. All eyes were on him as he bounded in through the door, panting to catch his breath just when the bell rang. “Name?” Lucas turned his head to his right towards the source of the voice. A blonde woman in her early thirties was looking over her list before she looked directly at Lucas as he closed the door behind him. “Uh.. Friar, ma’am. Lucas Friar.” With a red inked pen, she marked him as present. “Well Friar Lucas, go ahead and take your seat.”
“Yes Ma’am.” Lucas shrugged his backpack off of his shoulders and placed it on the empty stool beside him. He was about to grab his notebook form his backpack when the classroom door creaked open. Maya Hart, the girl from homeroom shuffled her feet towards the teacher’s desk. She held out a white paper folded in two to which the woman grabbed with her red painted nails. The teacher scanned it and gave Maya a sort of smile. “Alright, Miss Hart. Why don’t you go and take a seat next to Lucas over there.” Maya whipped her head towards Lucas, blonde hair messily falling over her shoulder, “Thanks, Krueger.”
Lucas watched as Maya neared him, the click-clack of her healed booties getting louder with each step she took towards him. He seemed wary as she looked down at the stool that was occupied by his bag. Her blue eyes met his with a raised brow. “You mind?” Lucas quickly grabbed his backpack and set it down on the ground. The teen age girl placed her own backpack on the tabletop in front of them and slid into the seat, tucking her black circle skirt underneath her.
He sat stiff, straight-backed. Every so often, his eyes would glance over to the small girl to his right. He examined her, as if she was a lion out in the wild. The teacher, Ms. Krueger he assumed, was rambling on about safety precautions that needed to be taken in the lab. He took another glance at Maya, but this time he was met with a girl who was very much aware that he was looking at her. She had a serious look on her, almost as if she were glaring at him. Soon, however, the straight-lined lips on her face twisted into a smirk. “Jeez, I know I’m super fun to look at and all, but could you not stare at me like that?”
Lucas’ jaw slacked, his mouth slightly open. How long had she known he was stealing glances at her? She probably thought he was some creep. “Also,” Maya brought him back from his thoughts, “You can relax, cowboy. Don’t be so tense, I’m not gonna bite you.” She raised her hand up, “Scout’s honor.” With the same hand, she turned it towards herself to examine her nails, “…Unless you’re into that.”
The dirty blonde haired boy quickly shook his head, slumping his posture as if to hide from someone, or just to keep low. “What!? No! I have a girlfri—“
She cut him off, rolling her eyes. “Okay, seriously, dude? Calm down. I’m just making fun of you, of course you have a girlfriend.” Maya tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder and placed her chin on top of her backpack on the table.
“Alright,” Ms. Krueger’s voice was louder now, calling the attention of everyone in the class. “I’ll be handing out a sheet of paper with a list of supplies. These supplies should be tucked away in drawers and cabinets by your tables which will be your work stations as of tomorrow when I will be randomly pairing you off into groups.” She walked around the stations, handing each table one sheet of paper. “For today, your job is to make sure you have all the appropriate supplies. You and your partner will be responsible for them. If a beaker breaks, you’ll be owing the lab $8 dollars. Science isn’t cheap, guys.”
The classroom broke its silence as students scrambled to make sure that everything on the list was accounted for. Lucas looked over the list while Maya stayed slumped over the table. When he tore his eyes away from the paper, he found Maya focused on blowing a lock of blonde hair away from her face. Lucas cleared his throat, placing the sheet between the two of them. “Uh, I can look in the cabinets if you don’t mind looking in the drawers.” Maya looked him up and down before she sat up and shrugged her shoulders, taking the piece of paper into her own hands. “Sure thing, Stretch.”
It took them about 4 minutes to locate everything that they needed to. Ms. Krueger seemed to be in her own thoughts at her desk, scribbling things down in a notebook of hers and every so often looking up at the students who were just chatting away. Between Lucas and Maya was an awkward silence. She was looking at the ends of her hair while he was just sitting there, trying to think of a way to break the silence.
“So, did you really know I have a girlfriend?” Lucas tried for that question.
Maya dropped the ends of her hair and turned her wait towards him, something akin to a smirk on her lips. “Yeah, but even if I didn’t it would have been a no brainer. Smiley Riley, right?”
“Uh,” Lucas stuttered, “Well, Riley Matthews, yeah. How’d you know?” He turned his whole body towards her on the stool, his hands gripping his seat.
“You mean other than the fact she’s latched onto you basically twenty four seven?” Maya chuckled softly and shrugged her shoulders. “You guys were voted Junior Prom Queen and King last year.”
“Oh,” Lucas smiled a little, remembering that they were indeed the ‘couple of the school’. “I’m actually kind of surprised, you didn’t peg me as—“
“—As the type to go to prom?” Maya turned in her chair, resting her elbows on the table now. “Well, I’m not. Prom is just some stupid gathering for a bunch of hormonal teenagers that know nothing about dancing. If the punch doesn’t get spiked, someone always sneaks booze in or people will bring their own flasks and hide them in their underwear. Prom Queen and King is just a popularity contest. But I do have friends that went.” There was a small pause before she smiled over at him, her thick brows raised, “And before you say anything: Yes, I do have friends.”
Lucas squinted his eyes at Maya, trying to figure out what she was about. “Well, what about Senior Ball, not going to that either?”
Maya rolled her eyes and shook her head, almost as if she were disgusted he would ask a question. “Please, you’re killing me here!”
“But, its your last year of high school.”
“Yeah, but Senior Ball is really the same thing. Except the girls wear floor length dresses, the boys have hotel room keys in their pockets, and everyone’s even more horny.”
Lucas rubbed the back of his head. He couldn’t really argue with her. As much as all of what she was describing was the stereotypical TV Senior Prom scenario, it was for the most part true. “Well, it is senior year. It’s the last year you get to spend with your friends from high school. Next year, we’ll all be going to college. Think about it, we’re seniors. It’s our last year to be on top of everyone. We basically run this school, so we should live it up!”
Maya gave a playful smirk, trying to hide her laugh behind it. “Well, I do like being on top…”
Lucas shook his head, trying to ignore what she had said. “Look, all I’m saying is that you should have fun your last year. Everyone’s going to the Spot later tonight. My friends and I are probably going to leave around 6:30 right after my football practice.” He watched as Maya’s expression twisted into a look of consideration. He continued on when she didn’t say anything, “You can come with us if you want?”
Maya looked at him as she considered the offer, biting on her lower lip in thought. Right as she opened her mouth to say something, the bell rang. Startled, she nearly jumped out of her chair. Once she regained her composure, she looked back at Lucas who hadn’t moved an inch, waiting for her response. “Alright, I’ll check my schedule.”
Lucas smiled brightly at her, grabbing his backpack from the floor and hopping out of his seat. “Great!”
Just as he was about to leave, Maya called out to him. “Hey, cowboy!”
Lucas turned around, pointing at himself. “Me?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Maya grabbed her bag and took a couple steps towards him, holding her hand out. “Give me your phone.” Lucas looked at her hand, a bit skeptical. “Relax, I won’t steal it.” She rolled her eyes and waved her open hand at him, still waiting for him to give her his phone. Lucas fished it out of his front pocket and placed it in her small hand. She swiped the bar to the right to unlock the phone and held it out to him so that he could input his passcode. Once he did, she put in her number, sent herself a text, and then saved her number into his phone. When he looked at the name she had saved herself under in his contacts, he looked at her as if she had grown a second head. “Maya H. AKA The Coolest Person You’ll Ever Meet?” He read out loud.
“Yeah, it’s kinda’ long, but what can I say, it’s true!” Maya grabbed her own phone from her back pocket when it vibrated to notify her of a new text. “Now I have your number and you have mine. I’ll let you know if I can go tonight.”
Lucas nodded his head slowly and placed his phone back into his pocket. “Okay, cool, but it’s only fair that you save my number as “Lucas Friar, best person in the world.”
“Keep dreaming!” Maya laughed and was already on her way out.
Lucas followed her just outside of the classroom door, cupping his hands over his mouth as he called out to remind her, “6:30 in front of the school!”
Without turning around, Maya continued walking down the hallway, raising her hand and giving him a thumbs up to let him know that she heard him.
