A/N: I wrote most of this drabble-y ficlet before Girl Meets Hurricane and when that episode basically did a take on this same concept, I went back to incorporate references to that episode. I like how it turned out in the end. Maya is so intriguing to me as a character, which is why she features prominently in all the fics I've written but haven't posted yet (save Quantifiable, though she is referenced). Anyway, I hope you like this little introspective on Maya (with references to Shawn x Katy). Look out for both Lucaya and Joshaya fics, coming soon. Enjoy! R&R! Thanks! ~Mac

Disclaimer: Girl Meets World does not belong to me.

Hope Whispers

Maya Hart knows that fairy tales don't often happen for girls like her. Fairy tales are for girls who shine like rays of sunshine, filling the world with vibrant light. They're not for cynical girls like her that only spread darkness. Which is fine by her, because she doesn't believe in those kinds of things anyway.

She stopped believing in princesses and magic a long time ago. She had been inoculated by real life. She had grown up before her time and now she sees the world through the haze of its betrayal. It has stolen from her an innocence that everyone around her has managed to retain. She decides that its better that way, because that's one less way that she can end up disappointed.

Fairy tales are for children and people like Riley, whose optimism only grows with age. With Riley, a small disappointment can roll off of her shoulders because she has so much to fall back on. Maya is afraid that she wouldn't have anything to catch her, so the slightest let down could be a catastrophe.

It's easier to let Riley dream and wish and hope enough for the both of them. But Riley is so full of life and possibility that she's instilled in Maya this small ball of light, that flickers but holds out inside of her. It's that place deep down inside of her that has taught her to hope.

Still, when she dreams of a fairy tale ending, she isn't dreaming of falling into the arms of her true love like her best friend does. Maya dreams of a happily ever after for her mother—which would indirectly be one for her too after all. She dreams of the day when Prince Charming rides in and sweeps her mother off her feet.

It doesn't even have to be a prince.

Maya would settle for a travel photographer, who knows what it's like to have lived in her shoes and who learned all he knows about love from the experts, the Matthews, who were the only authorities on the subject that Maya trusted. Someone who is brave enough to take a fatherless young girl under his wing when he is under no obligation to do so. Someone who knows what it's like to be left, to have his hopes dashed, to witness his best friend living a fairy tale right before his eyes knowing he might never have that himself—who wouldn't take walking away lightly. Someone who could find little ways to change her and her mother's worlds for the better simply because he likes the look of the smiles on their faces.

So, Maya learns to hope. She risks it all on the one thing she wants enough to believe it could come true. This hope is so new and so fresh that nothing is going to take it away from her.

Not even a hurricane can tear it away from her. She'll hold on to tight in her tiny fingers even as flood waters threaten to wash her away and drown her in disappointment.

She fears this Angela, that's true, even if she doesn't let it show. Even if she hides it beneath blinding layers of hope and optimism. She has always imagined Angela as a villain, as an obstacle, and as the one thing that could steal hers and her mother's happily ever after right out from under them them. But Angela isn't a dark cloaked sorceress coming into their lives at this pivotal moment to cast her evil spell on Shawn. And even if she is, Maya is convinced that they'll see a way through it.

Because isn't that the real point of fairy tales? That anything that is meant to be will triumph over all that stands in its way? When the world constantly tells her that it's all over, hope whispers in her ear to never give up. If it's meant to be, it'll happen somehow. She keeps the hope alive, because she's not ready to lose what she just found.

And the storm blows away as quickly as it blew in.

Maya keeps her hope alive. She'll never be like Riley, who's dreams are big and bold and beautiful, but she'll hold her hope close to her heart where it will serve her best. It has taught her that small dreams are just as worthwhile, and having one wish that she longs for with every fiber of her being is more fulfilling than pretending that she is fine with an okay life without the possibility of something more.

It is possible that she discovers that she hasn't been hoping for a fairy tale ending after all. That watching her mother and Shawn stand in front of each other with a question hanging in the air makes it clear. She's not ready for the happily ever after yet. What she's been looking for is the Once Upon A Time. She wants a beginning—a new beginning, a better beginning—for all of them, to make up for the less than perfect stories they have been living so far.

And Maya is not ashamed to admit that, for a moment, she can't help acting just like Riley when she gets it, because sometimes real life can be a fairy tale. Sometimes real life can be better than any fairy tale, even for a girl like her.

It's during those times that hope doesn't just whisper, it shouts.

-fin-

inspired by this quote:

"When the world says give up, hope whispers...try it one more time."