If you think that the group of Mathews, Hart, Minkus and Friar is like any other normal, ever-day group of friends, you are a sadly mistaken.
They are no ordinary group.
Each one of them has their own story.
Each one of them has something to say.
Each one of them feels that the only reason they should live any longer, is one another.
Let's start with Mr. Friar, shall we?
Lucas Friar was like any other guy in Texas, he wasn't anything special.
Sure, he was exceptionally attractive and incredibly popular, but that was about it.
Well, there was one thing…
Lucas had the strength of a horse.
He didn't work at it, he was born with it.
Of course, I'm not saying that he could pick up a full sized truck at the age of 2, but he could take on kids twice his size.
Despite his strength, Lucas was not a bully, in fact, he wouldn't even hurt a fly.
He was a sweet kid, he always has been. He was the kind of person who put his friends and family before anything else. He loved and cared about them so much that he would do anything for them. But when your best friend is as troublesome as Isaiah Babineaux that can be a problem.
It had been a usual day when Lucas had let out his inner beast. No one had seen it coming, and neither had he.
He had walked into the boys' bathroom and saw Zay being held up against the back wall by one of the taller, older middle school students, and immediately, something in him went off.
Bruno Cavanaugh was not a guy anyone wanted to mess with. He was 16 and in his 3rd year of 8th grade. He wasn't the brightest student but that wasn't why he kept getting held back, he was known for being the bully of the school and constantly got into fights.
He calmly walked closer to the two, his fists clenched tightly as rage flowed through his veins.
He was only 13 at the time and his voice hadn't matured yet, but in the darkest voice he could muster he uttered the words, "What do you think you're doing?"
Bruno swiftly turned his head, glancing at Lucas with a smirk, "Friar." He nodded, turning back towards Zay, "I was just about to show your friend here that he shouldn't mess with me."
"I don't think so." Lucas shook his head, a glare plastered onto his face.
"What did you just say?" He turned again, letting go of Zay who abruptly fell to his feet. Bruno crossed his arms and raised a brow threateningly at Lucas, who didn't even flinch.
"If you lay a single finger on him, I will take you down." Lucas had to look up at him as he was lot larger in both height and width, but that didn't intimidate him at all.
"Oh?" Bruno challenged, "And what makes you think that you could?" He was looking real mad by then. Nobody threatens him, nobody.
"Trust me, I'm not someone you wanna mess with." Lucas tried to hold in the urge he had to sucker punch this guy that very second.
"Let's see about that." Bruno muttered, unfolding his arms to throw a punch towards Lucas' face.
He caught it though, holding his fist in the air for about 3 seconds before abruptly grabbing the collar of his shirt and shoving him against the same wall Zay had been held up against mere moments ago.
"I don't suggest trying that again." Lucas was breathing heavily, obviously enraged by the way he glared into Bruno's eyes.
Bruno ignored his comment, glaring right back at him before pushing him off and sending a punch to his stomach, causing Lucas to double over in pain for about 0.2 seconds before he stood up straight, took a deep breath and looked Bruno right in the eyes.
"You did not just do that..."
"What are you gonna do about it?" Oh this guy has no idea what he just got himself into.
Lucas pushed him back against the wall, not blinking once, just staring at him in rage.
He didn't have time to calm himself down, and so, one minute he was glaring at the guy, the next he was launching full force punches at his face.
All the while, Zay just stood there, watching in shock and slight amusement as Lucas beat the life out of their fellow student. He had seen this side of Lucas before, it wasn't the first time Lucas got mad, but it was the first time he actually hurt someone. Usually he would be able to contain himself, but then again, his opponent usually wouldn't throw a fist to his face.
Lucas saw the cut on Bruno's lip, the blood gushing from his nose, he could see his left eye beginning to blacken, but he couldn't stop himself.
He could only continue to punch, swiftly shooting fists at his stomach and chest, pushing all the air out of him.
At some point in it all, Lucas noticed his knuckles getting bruised and bloody, and so he finally ended his attack, bringing his arms down to his sides as he took long, heavy deep breathes.
"Whoa..." Zay let out, as he looked down to Bruno who had slid to the floor in pain. He looked bad, real bad, and both of them acknowledged the fact that he was about to fall unconscious.
"Lucas...What did you just do...?" Obviously Zay knew exactly what Lucas had just done, it was as clear as day, he was just so utterly and completely shocked at what had just went on.
"I don't know..." Lucas whispered, staring at the boy on the ground. He then glanced at his hands, his veins were bulging and the dried blood on his knuckles scared him; he couldn't even tell if that was his own blood or Bruno's. He took a deep breath, calming down, before the school bell rang and he looked to Zay with wide eyes.
"Come on." He jutted his chin towards the door and so the two of them ran out, leaving the unconscious boy on the boys' bathroom floor.
Of course he felt guilty. He had not only beat a guy up but he also left him there, bloodied and bruised.
That's why, the next day when the principle called him and Zay to his office, he didn't attempt to deny what happened, especially after finding out that Bruno was in the hospital.
Lucas was kicked out of the school, and after months of hating himself for what he had done, he came upon a final decision.
He wanted a fresh start. He wanted to get rid of this Lucas; the one who hurt people, the one who couldn't hold in his anger, and so he asked his parents to move away.
Obviously, his parents weren't just going to drop everything and leave, but when his father got transferred to New York, 2 months later, he took his chance.
Lucas came to New York, he went to school like any normal guy would, of course, he had to repeat the 7th since he was expelled before he could finish up, he didn't tell anyone that of course.
While he was there, he made some new friends. Some really good friends.
He loved them. He cared for them. He protected them.
And they protected him right back; they protected him from himself, from his inner beast.
And he cherished them for that. He never wanted to let them go, they kept him sane. They kept him from going back to his old self.
If he ever went back to his old self he would probably end up doing something he'd regret. And if that ever happened again, he might even...
But he didn't want to think about that. He had them. He was the reason he kept on living, and he would forever be thankful for that.
He became best friends with a genius who wanted to take over the world.
He became best friends with a blonde beauty who teased him constantly because of his southern roots.
He became best friends with a pretty brunette who sometimes couldn't even say two words to him but loved hearing his stories anyway.
Next, we have Minkus...
Farkle Minkus, son of Stuart and Jennifer Minkus. Farkle was unbelievably intelligent, his father liked to believe he had gotten that from him.
Farkle could be frantic at times, he preferred to do things his way as he always believed he was the smartest person in any and all groups.
He was always so sure of himself...Until he wasn't.
Farkle knew he was brilliant, he knew he was adorable, he knew he had friends that cared about him. But still, other people's hurtful words got to him.
He was a victim of bullying.
He didn't know when or why it started happening exactly, it just did. It broke him, it made him stop wanting to be himself.
"You're a nothing." People would say. He would try to ignore it, he would try to remember that it didn't matter what other's thought, but he wasn't strong enough to overcome all that.
"You have no purpose." When he kept trying to push forward, the taunting would get worse.
"No one really likes you." He questioned that one, he found it confusing. Yes, Farkle, of all people, was confused. He had friends, so how could they say that no one liked him?
"Those little friends of yours...FAKERS." Those words stung the most. To think that the people he cared about the most, the people he put all his trust into were the ones that were against him all along, that really pained his tiny little Farkle heart. He tried not to believe it, he didn't want to believe that his best friends would hate him, but the more it was said, the more he began to think it was true.
After that, Farkle's mind began to come up with its own insults; things like, "You'll never amount to anything." and, "You were a mistake."
And he couldn't ignore the fact that the word 'nothing' kept repeating in his mind, over and over again, every day.
So he decided to change himself.
He dropped all his old clothes; all the multicolored turtle necks he owned, and he began to dress in black, just black.
He changed the way he spoke; he began to speak with a soft, calm voice, instead of the usual fast and frantic tone he used.
He tried to make himself better, so that all the tormenting would stop. So that he would be good enough. So that people would see that was good enough.
So that he could believe that he was good enough.
But alas, it didn't do much.
In fact, people began to make fun of his dark clothes, saying he was a freak. Saying he sounded like a robot because of how slowly he began to talk.
Saying he had some freak disease that caused him to be the way he is. That he isn't normal.
He couldn't walk the halls without feeling like everyone's eyes were on him, and although he usually adored the attention, for once, it bothered him.
How could he continue to go to school, to go anywhere, when everywhere he went people would be making fun of him? Criticizing him. Taunting him. Bullying him.
How could he even face his friends when he didn't know whether or not he could trust them?
How could he live anymore when he didn't know what his purpose was?
He couldn't.
And he didn't want to.
He wanted to end it. To end all of it. And he was going to.
But then came the day.
One random day, when one of his best friends brought it up.
"Farkle," He suddenly looked over at the brunette, slightly startled after continually staring at the ground for so long, "I've noticed that you haven't been talking as much, something wrong?"
"Are you trying to say that I talk too much?" He questioned, not thinking clearly.
"What? No." Another one of his friends chimed in, a blond boy from Texas, "We're worried about you Farkle."
"Why? There's nothing to worry about." He smiled one of those fake smiles he's been giving them for the past few weeks.
"I know you, and I know something's wrong." The boy told him, staring at his face in concern.
"We're here for you, Farkle." The brunette said.
"Yeah, we all care about you, we all want to help you through whatever it is you're going through." The short blonde girl spoke up.
"But...How do I know that's true? How do I know you aren't all faking our friendship?" Farkle asked the three of them.
They looked to each other in confusion, none of them knew what was going on with their best friend.
Farkle then got up and left without another word.
He had no idea what do anymore.
He decided to just keep walking. He walked and walked until he couldn't walk anymore.
He made it to the subway station, where he stood just a little too close to the subway grate. But before he could make any other movements, a hand came to his shoulder.
He turned to see the three of them, standing there, shooting him a bittersweet smile.
They had followed him all the way over here.
"Are you okay, Farkle?" The brunette asked him, slowly taking her hand off of his shoulder.
He frowned, unable to say actual words.
"Tell us what's wrong, buddy." The boy commented.
"We want to help you." The blonde girl told him, smiling softly.
And so he told them. The four of them sat down on the closest bench and he told them everything.
From the hurtful words, to the trust issues, to changing himself, all of it.
He wanted to get it all out, all of it. And he wouldn't stop until he did.
He spilled his guts out to the three of them and they did nothing but comfort him
He knew he could trust them. He knew they loved him. He knew they cared about him. He knew that they wouldn't ever go against him.
And he knew to cherish them for that.
"We're here for you Farkle, we'll always be here." The brunette uttered, speaking for all of them, and meaning it.
He smiled, a genuine full on smile for the first time in a long time, and nodded, pulling them all into a hug.
"I love you guys."
He didn't ever want to lose them. They kept him safe. They kept him happy. They kept him alive.
He wouldn't ever lose trust in his best friends.
His perfect best friend.
His broken best friend.
His insecure best friend.
Now moving onto Hart.
Maya Hart had felt broken for most of her life.
The biggest issue though, was the fact that she didn't know why she was broken.
When she was only 5 years old, her father left her and her mom. He said he was going out for a walk, he never came back.
She had no idea why he would leave. What had she done? What had her mother done? Why weren't they good enough?
Why wasn't she good enough?
She wanted nothing more than to know the answer to that question.
Because not knowing, it broke her. Every single day of her life.
What did she do? Why did he leave her? Those questions ran threw her mind every day after he left.
The way she saw it, if her own father couldn't handle her, than who could?
If her own father didn't want her, who ever would?
If her own father wanted to get away from her, why wouldn't everyone else?
And she beat herself up for it each and every day. Because her father leaving is the reason she never got to see her mother.
Her mom worked multiple shifts at diners and cafe's trying to support herself as well as her daughter, so Maya rarely saw her.
And she beat herself up for it each and every day. Because her father leaving is the reason she always expected her best friend to suddenly drop her.
Her dad left her. He got up and abandoned her. Who's to say her best friends won't leave her too?
And she beat herself up for it each and every day. Because her father leaving is the reason she lost all hope.
Hope is for suckers. And Maya Penelope Hart is not a sucker.
"Let me fix you." Her best friend would say to her.
"There's no point in fixing something that isn't broken." She would always respond.
But that wasn't true. Maya knew she was broken, and all she wanted was to be fixed. But it wasn't her friends' job to fix her.
Sometimes, she would go to her mother's workplace and watch her. She would notice how sweet she was with the customers. She would notice how much she would smile and grin as she walked past the tables and chairs. She would notice how hard her mom worked every day.
Her mom put so much effort into supplying her with a good home and proper food and nice clothes. Her mom cared so much about her. Her mom loved her so much.
She loved her mom. Maybe she didn't say it often, but it was true.
And even though she didn't get to see her as much as she would like, she was so grateful for what she did for her.
It was almost as if, every time her mom did something for her, she would glue a piece of her heart back together, as sappy as it may sound, it was true.
Because watching her mother do so much for her, almost made her forget how her father never did anything for her.
Almost.
If she was being completely honest, all Maya really wanted was somebody who could mend the pieces of her broken heart back together. Because maybe, just maybe, if her heart was no longer broken, she wouldn't be either.
A broken heart can't be put back together that easily though. Every time she felt herself feeling happy again, something would remind her of the man that destroyed her.
She recalls this one night, when her mom finally got off early and they watched a movie together, how ecstatic she was. She finally got to spend time with her mom, the woman who meant so much to her.
She could go to school the next day with a smile on her face because she was genuinely happy.
And then, the words were said. "Bring your father to school day."
Well, that stung. Maya had thought at the time.
It did hurt, constantly being reminded that she didn't have a father around.
Of course she had Mr. Mathews, of course she had Shawn, but they weren't her real dad. They weren't him. No one could ever be him.
He was the one who she needed. He was the one she wanted in her life.
But he already has another family. A better family. His other family isn't broken.
What did they have that she didn't have? She wondered that all the time. Why them? Why not her? Why did he leave her, but not them?
Now Maya was no cry baby, she knew that a lot of other people have to go through life without a parent, but she still wanted to know why her dad felt that she wasn't good enough.
"Maya." One of her best friend's said, he was a genius with a heart of gold. She looked up at that, averting her gaze from the spot on the floor she had been continually staring at.
"Are you okay?" Her other best friend asked, another boy, taller, who originally got here from Texas.
She nodded, not even bothering to smile, before lowering her head back down.
"Maya." The Texan said, a stern-like tone to his voice.
"What?" She looked up, an irritated look on her face, "What do you want me to say?"
"The truth." Her best friend, a brunette who has always been there for her, uttered, looking at her with the most serious look she could muster, as she suddenly spoke up out of nowhere.
"I'm fine. There's nothing wro-"
"The truth, Maya." The brunette repeated, giving her a pointed look. Maya glanced at her three best friends, her breathing slowly speeding up from all the attention on her.
Maya didn't like talking about her problems. She was supposed to be strong. She was supposed to be brave. She was supposed to hold everything in.
She was supposed to. But for once, she didn't.
She let it all out, everything.
All the tears she kept in for so long, all the whimpers and weeps, all the feelings she kept to herself, she let them all out.
"Maya, we're always going to be here for you. You don't need him." The taller boy said to her, his heart breaking with every tear that sloped down her face.
"Nothing is wrong with you Maya. You're amazing. Something is wrong with him for not being able to see that." The shorter boy told her, feeling pained every time he heard her weep.
The brunette, who had been holding Maya in her arms, held her by her shoulders, looking her right in the eye, "You're perfect just the way you are. And you need to surround yourself with people who see that."
It probably hurt her the most; Maya was her best friend. Her closest friend. The friend she told everything to. The friend who told everything to her.
But maybe not everything...
"Don't ever feel like you can't tell us something." She told her, pushing a strand of her hair out of her face, "If you have something to say, we will listen. Got that?"
Maya nodded, smiling at the three of them, before wiping a tear that was slowly falling down her cheek, chuckling as she did so.
The three friends pulled her into a tight hug, a hug that symbolized friendship, trust and loyalty.
They were her friends. They always have been, they always will be.
She could trust them with her life. They were there for her every step of the way, no matter what.
And for once in her life, Maya was no longer despondent. She finally had hope.
They wouldn't ever leave her. She knew that now, they would stick by her forever.
They were her best friends. The ones who kept her together. The ones who kept her alive.
She needed them.
They were her freak.
They were her mouse.
They were her super clutz.
Mathews comes up last.
Riley Mathews was always known as the happiest girl at John Quincy Adams Middle School.
She was hyper and weird and goofy and she didn't care. She loved that about herself.
She smiled, every week, every day, every moment. She never found a good enough reason not to smile.
And then, she did.
It started out when she got a text; she had no idea who it came from, but it still hurt her.
She couldn't get those words out of her mind.
"Your weird, stupid face...", "Stop being weird and stop being happy.", "No one should be as happy as you.", "Stop being who you are."
How could she ignore that? How could she ignore the fact that somebody thought she should stop being herself?
How could she keep on going?
The text didn't stop there though, they went on. Every day she would get a text, and no matter how hard she tried not to read it, they always drew her in.
That wasn't all.
It started with a bully, someone who made her feel bad about herself. And then it escalated.
She started feeling tired a lot. She didn't know why, but she couldn't smile as much. It's not that she wouldn't, it's that she couldn't.
She would try to smile but it would come out deformed and it didn't feel right.
And then she learned how easy it was to fake a smile. And she used it to her advantage; she didn't want her friends to worry, she didn't want them to feel like she was a burden on their shoulders, so she kept it to herself and made sure to constantly shoot them smiles, as if she was as happy as she always was.
And then came the doubt.
People began to doubt her; her friends, her family, the most important people in her life.
She wanted to try out for cheerleading, she wanted to focus on something that would make her happy so that she could stop the sadness burning inside of her.
But everyone said that she shouldn't. They said she would be upset with the outcome.
They doubted her.
When she was being tormented and the only people she could depend on began to doubt her, how could she keep on going?
She was feeling more and more tired as days past. She figured it didn't mean anything; that being tired was just a result from school work and her countless attempts at cheerleading.
And then, something else happened.
She learnt something. Something she knew a certain blonde best friend of hers didn't want her to know.
Her best friend, since they were 5, who always had her back and supported her through everything, had feelings for someone.
But not just any someone, she had feelings for Riley's crush. A Texan boy who was one of their best friends.
She tried to make herself believe that it wasn't true, that she was imagining things, but as she watched the blonde's reactions and how she acted around the boy, she knew it was true.
Obviously, her friend didn't want to hurt her and so she kept quiet about how she felt. But Riley figured it out.
How could she stand in the way of her best friend's feelings? She couldn't.
So she backed out. She told the blonde that she longer liked the boy whom they shared mutual feelings for. She told her that she only liked him as a brother. She told her that she could have him.
That's what Riley did. She put her friends first. No matter how much it would end up hurting her, she would always put their happiness before hers.
She kept going, putting up with the two's constant displays of affection. She kept going, continually getting hurtful texts. She kept going, doubting herself.
To the point where she could barely even get up in the morning.
Riley tried so hard to feel better; she didn't like feeling this way; dejected, dismal...
Depressed.
She was depressed. It had been going on for months now but she only just realized.
She never understood depression.
Until she felt it.
She never thought she would be someone who would feel that kind of pain, that kind of sadness.
No one ever thought Riley would feel that way. She was always so happy and active, she never went a day without smiling or saying something positive.
It amazed her how easily things could change.
She put up with everything. With all of it, until she couldn't any longer. She wanted to end everything, once and for all.
"Riley..." She looked up at her best friend, trying her best to smile, but unable to, "I know you're not okay with it."
"With what?" She pretended to be clueless, knowing exactly what her short, blonde friend was referring to.
"You know what I'm talking about." She told her, giving her a stern look.
"It's fine. I don't mind, really." Riley shook it off, going back to her textbook.
The blonde took the book away, closing it while staring at Riley with serious look to her face, "I know it's not fine."
"I told you, I don't like him anymore." Riley told her, shrugging nonchalantly.
"I know you. I know you aren't okay with this. I know you still like him. And I know that you're hurting." She said, Riley trying to blink back the tears, "Talk to me Riles."
"I..." She couldn't hold them back anymore. Her eyes began to water and the blonde immediately pulled her into a tight, warm hug.
She didn't need to say anything, her best friend understood everything she was feeling, and she spent the night comforting her.
After letting that out, Riley felt better. Maybe everything would be resolved now that she told her the truth.
But everything was not resolved back in Rileytown. The texts kept on coming, getting worse and worse, only making Riley feel more and more forlorn.
"You make me sick. Just looking at that weird face of yours makes me mad. You really don't deserve to live. Not that you have a life anyway." Riley would read, sniffling as she let the tears escalate down her face.
"Good for nothing. You're a disgrace to mankind." The next one would say, causing Riley's breathing to increase in speed.
"You disgust me." Why? Why would anyone do this? What did she ever do to them? Why her? Why?
She couldn't take it. It could all be over. She could make it stop. She could end it all.
She could.
But someone stopped her.
Three someone's.
"Why did I find this on your phone Riley?" Her blonde best friend asked, holding up the phone which displayed a horrid text message on the screen.
"How did you-?"
"You got a text while you were talking to your mom." She explained, "Why do I feel like this isn't the only one?"
"It's nothing. I just-" Riley attempted to cover it all up, but was cut off.
"Don't try to tell me it's nothing. This is definitely something." She told her, looking concerned and hurt that her best friend wouldn't tell her about this.
"Why wouldn't you tell us about this, Riley?" Her other best friend, a green-eyed Texan boy, asked, looking just as hurt as the blonde.
"I didn't know what to say, I..." Riley stammered, unable to process words at the moment.
"You're always here for us Riley. Why would you think that we wouldn't be here for you?" Another boy, the brainiac of their group, questioned, not wanting his friend to keep things from them, especially not something this serious.
"Maybe I thought that you guys wouldn't get it, maybe I thought that you would start to doubt me, more than you already do." She snapped, in a way.
"Riley..." The blonde began, feeling her heartbreak from the words of her best friend, "Why would you think that we doubted you?"
"I know you do. None of you believed I could be a cheerleader. You think of me as some clown who is too happy to be human." She looked down at the ground as she spoke, too scared to look up at their faces.
"We do not think of you like that, Riley." The green-eyed boy stated, "I can't even believe you would think that."
"We have always believed in you Riley. Always." The other boy commented, "We love you."
"But-" She tried to argue, but was cut off when the blonde chimed in,
"But nothing. We love you Riley, that won't ever change. And just because we didn't want you to get hurt in case you didn't get into the cheerleading squad, does not mean we doubted you. We believe in you, Riley, we always have."
Riley began to tear up again, all of her bad thoughts rushing into her mind at once.
"And as for this anonymous bully, they have no idea who you really are. You're smart and fun," The blonde added in, followed by the Texan boy,
"You're lovable and always so positive,"
"You're happy and hyper." The other boy told her, a small smile appearing on her face.
"And we love you for it." The blonde ended, as they all grinned at their brunette best friend.
"Thank you." She smiled, pulling them all into a hug as tears of joy and happiness began to trickle down her cheeks.
She didn't need to care about what anyone else thought, she had them.
And she finally felt happy again. All her prior depression had washed away.
They believed in her. They loved her for her. They never doubted her. They kept her alive.
And she would always be grateful for having such amazing friends who always stuck by her.
She would always have her freakishly perfect Texan boy.
She would always have her genius mouse who thought he was a nothing.
She would always have her broken short stack of beautiful, blonde pancakes.
They all had problems; anger issues, bullies, broken hearts, depression. But they all worked through them, together.
If you think that the group of Mathews, Hart, Minkus and Friar is like any other normal, ever-day group of friends, you are a sadly mistaken.
They are no ordinary group.