"Maya!" Did she really think he hadn't seen her when they'd come face to face in front of school? Or was her blatantly ignoring him their new game? Because, if so, Lucas didn't like their new game. He missed their old one. "Maya, I KNOW you can hear me!"
"No, I can't!" Ugh, she thought, cutting through a couple taking up the middle of the hall. Why did Riley have to show up to class early to take missed test today? This conversation would be a LOT easier to avoid with the other girl at her side.

"Maya-" he starts again, striding to catch up with her. How could someone so short move so fast?

Fortunately for Lucas, Zay approaches them then, forcing Maya to come to a stop. "Hey, guys!" he greets, totally oblivious to her straightened posture and narrowed eyes. "Check it out: new skateboard. I got it from a place in Texas over the weekend."
The skateboard is the only thing stopping Maya from skirting around Zay to get to class; the four-wheeled boards have been her transportation of choice since she was eight (until she'd started riding the subway, of course). "Oohhooh," she exclaims, forgetting about Lucas for a moment as she takes the red and black board in her hands for closer examination.
"Hey. I thought your 'oohhooh's' were for me," Lucas frowns, sidling up beside her, hair disheveled and shirt unusually wrinkly.
"You don't OWN my 'oohhhooh's,' Lucas Friar," she scowls, throwing her hands, along with Zay's skateboard, stiffly to her sides.

"Hey!" Lucas repeats. "'Lucas Friar?' What happened to Huckleberry?"
"You tell me," she returns. "I called you Huckleberry back when you ACTED like a huckleberry. Now? I don't know what to call you, so I have no choice but to use your given name."

"Okay, first of all, why don't we give this back to Zay?" their friend jumps in, gently taking the skateboard back from Maya's now clenched hands. "Second of all," he continues, a smile already turning up at the corners of his mouth, "let me get this straight: last month, you were fighting about her calling you names, and now you're fighting because she isn't?"
"That's not why we're fighting," he says.
"We're not fighting," she says.
"Okay. So why ARE you doing... whatever it is you're doing?"
"It doesn't matter!" she says.
"I didn't do anything!" he says.

"You know what you did!" Maya's pointer finger is just centimeters away from jabbing Lucas' chest, a visual exclamation point at the end of her assertion. Lucas, for his part, opens his mouth to say something back-it's just that no words come out; he seems to have temporarily lost all ability to produce sound (though his face has lost none of its ability to produce the color red).
Zay just laughs. "Riiight. Well as long as you two know what you're fighting about, I gotta go put this bad boy in my locker." He gestures to the skateboard before setting it back on the linoleum tile and-to the dismay of several teachers-skating off on it, leaving the aforementioned two alone in the hallway.
Well, mostly alone. A few other kids are still getting books out of lockers, flocking outside open classrooms, waiting until the last possible second before the bell rings to go to class.
Lucas clears his throat. "Maya-"
"Well, I sure don't wanna be late!" she cuts in, already skipping off to their nearby classroom.
"Can we just TALK about this?" he calls after her.
"Go ahead! Talk!" she yells back, turning to him for only a second before bounding through the open classroom entrance.
"Maya-you're looking chipper today," Mr. Matthews notes as she swaggers into class. He raises a brow. "Should I be worried?"
"Not today!" she answers, bouncing over to her desk. "I'm giving you the day off, Matthews; I have absolutely NO shenanigans on my to-do list." With that, she slides into her seat, opening her history book for what has to be the first time this year.
Huh.
Lucas walks in next, shoulders slumped, looking like he hasn't slept in two days. "Mr. Friar," Cory greets. His brow furrows. "You alright?" Wait: Maya's opened her history book; Lucas looks like he hasn't sleep in two days. Huh. He glances back at Maya, oddly absorbed in what appears to be the Table of Contents, before turning back to Lucas; his question has a more serious air to it this time: "Should I be worried?"
"No, Sir. I just didn't get a lot of sleep."
"I got a ton of sleep," Maya pipes up. "I slept like a baby; I slept like a person with absolutely no worries on her mind."
Riley's already turned around in her seat to flash her a quizzical smile. "Okay, it's my turn to ask: how ya doing, Peaches?"
"Great," Maya answers. Lucas saunters over to his desk and plops down behind her. "Less great."
Riley looks from Maya to Lucas and back again: Maya staring down at her history book (Wait, what?), Lucas staring at the back of Maya's head. ...Huh. "Am I missing something?"
Zay walks in then, not missing a beat. "Oh, these two? They're in a fight." The late bell rings as if in confirmation.
"Again?" Farkle blurts as Zay sits down behind him. "We barely made it through the last one! I'm not ready to go to war again!" His hand's already reaching for the pocket of his flannel jacket, no doubt for another hidden toy gun. Of course, this sets Riley off. "Are we gonna bring in Uncle Eric again?" she asks, whipping around to where her dad's stood at the front of the room. Mr. Matthews seems to be considering it.
Okay, someone needs to stop this domino effect before it gets out of hand. "Nobody needs to bring nobody in! Me and Lucas weren't in a fight then, and we aren't in one now." There, Maya thinks. That should end the discussion.
Riley's turned back around to look at her, brow furrowed. "Well if you aren't in a fight then... what's going on?"
So that didn't work.
Everyone seems to be looking at Maya for an answer to that one. Including Lucas. She'd be able to feel his stare even if she hadn't turned her head to glance at him.
...Welp. Here's something she never thought she'd say: "Mr. Matthews? Can we just start the lesson?"

He smiles kindly. "Sure, Maya. Today we will be discussing the story of Romeo and Juliet."