"It might've taken forever to get off, but it was totally worth it," Maya decides. "I'm gonna miss the war paint look."
"I'm not," a blue and red faced Farkle says. "I'm never taking this off."
Cory smiles, shaking his head as he closes the classroom door behind him. And then he
narrows his eyes. Wait. Something's missing. Make that someone. Make that three someones. "Where's Zay?" he asks a little too innocently.
"Cleaning off his face paint," Maya answers, looking down at her nails with an air of nonchalance.
Cory waits for more information, specifically about his two other missing students. Maya
offers none. "And? Where is Riley?"
"Not with Sundance, that's for sure."
...
"Here, Lucas, I got you," Riley offers, taking a wet cloth to his face. Sure, maybe the
bathroom would've been a more practical place for him to take off his face paint, but the way she sees it, this way she gets to help him, and that's really much more efficient.
At least, that's what she told Lucas when she dragged him into the art room and away from the boys' bathroom (to the disgruntlement of a bathroom-headed Zay).
"Thank you, Riley," he smiles gently.
She stifles a giggle. "Anytime."
"Riley?" She turns around to find her father standing the doorway. Smiling.
Wait. Smiling? At her and Lucas? Together? Could it be possible that he'd finally moved past his crazy shoe-stealing stage and onto the stage of acceptance towards Riley and Lucas' friendship? "Dad?" she returns, smiling back hopefully.
"Can I talk to you for a minute? Away from here?"
Okay, so maybe he's not onto the stage of acceptance… but he still doesn't have either one of Lucas' shoes in his hands!
She sighs lightly, handing the wet cloth to Lucas. "Sure, Dad." She smiles apologetically at Lucas before turning to leave the room.
...
Lucas smiles a little as Riley and her dad leave; he can't help but be amused at how he
and Riley no longer dating has failed to put a stop to Mr. Matthew's overprotective streak. He's about to head to the bathroom now that he has no one to help him get his paint off when a voice behind him breaks his thoughts.
"Your life here is a lot more complicated than it was back in Texas-"
He jumps.
"-isn't it, Lucas?"
"Zay," he breathes. "You scared me. What's up?"
His friend shoots him an uncertain looking half smile. "That's what I'm trying to figure out."
Lucas narrows his eyes. "Pardon me?"
Zay leans his head forward, an incredulous grin plastered across his face. "'Pardon me?' Man, you've really got this whole Southern gentleman act down to a T, don'cha?"
...
"Now, Riley, I know that you and Lucas have a, what shall we say, history-"
"Dad. We went on one date."
Maya scrunches her face in a teasing smile at Riley as she follows her dad past her friends and into their classroom. Poor Riles; Maya couldn't imagine living with a dad that overprotective.
Oh. The thought makes her wince the second she thinks it, and she can't help but vaguely wonder how her own father would react to her dating life if he hadn't left.
Well, maybe not really dating, she thought, an image of Riley's Uncle Boing coming to mind. More like… well, no, "stalking" isn't the right word, more like-
"What was that?"
Maya tilts her head at the high pitched squeal, shaken out of her thoughts. "What?"
"You and Lucas?" Farkle's wide eyes did nothing to downplay the wild streaks of color on his face. "And the closeness and the teasing and the-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Farkle. What?"
"You were flirting with Lucas." Farkle's face is a complete blank.
Wait. Flirting? With Ranger Rick?
...
Lucas can feel his face heating up the way it did when Zay first walked into their class. His shoulders are tense. "It's not an act."
"What I can't figure out," Zay goes on, ignoring Lucas' response, "is how much of it is an act." He raises a brow. "Was that little moment you had with Maya earlier an act?"
Lucas sputters. "What moment? You mean when she grabbed my collar and called me Hopalong?"
He swears Zay's nod is almost solemn.
...
Maya sighs and just barely resists tossing him an eye roll. "Farkle, we've been over this a million times-when I grab you by the collar, it's cause I'm mad, not cause I'm hitting on you."
"I'm not asking for me," he says, pausing to gather his courage (or so Maya assumes-because lord knows it took a whole lot of courage to say what he did next). "I'm asking for Riley."
Wait. "What?"
...
"That was nothing-we're like that all the time," Lucas says.
"I know; that's what's throwing me off!" Zay shakes his head and then laughs a little. "Do you know that when I first came here, I thought you and Maya had something going on?"
Lucas' mouth falls open. "You thought we were dating?"
"Dating? No. Crushing? Yes! Big time!"
Lucas huffs.
"On the way to dating?" Zay adds, and he waits until Lucas has met his eye again to answer. "Maybe." He doesn't smile, doesn't blink, and Lucas sees by the glint in his eye that he is completely serious.
"Well you were wrong." He can't listen to this anymore; he starts out the door.
...
Farkle shrinks back at Maya's sharp tone. "I'm just saying-"
"What are you saying, Farkle? Are you saying you think I would hurt Riley? Ever?" And she's about to go for his collar when-
"I'm saying that sometimes you do things without considering what the consequences will be," Farkle blurts, and the paint on his face does nothing to hide the blush. The truth of his words sends Maya reeling back a few steps; when he speaks again, his voice is soft. "And I don't want you to do something you'll regret."
It's ridiculous, but even as Maya is furious with Farkle for even implying she would hurt Riley, she can't help but feel proud of him for speaking his mind like that.
That pride, of course, is the only thing stopping her from killing him in that moment. "Well no need to worry, Farkle the Brave, Sundance and I aren't like that. We're friends."
"We're friends," a second voice echos as Lucas barrels ahead of Zay through the hall. Until he sees Maya and Farkle. And then he and Zay both stop (Lucas by choice; Zay more or less by tripping over Lucas' standing body).
"You guys okay there?" Maya queries. "Oh, I get it: they don't want us to know they're talking about Riley," she says to Farkle, shooting him a meaningful look.
Lucas and Zay, for their part, give away nothing of their conversation.
By staring. In silence. At any place other than Maya. For a full ten seconds.
Maya raises a brow inquisitively but only says, "Right. Well, my mom's waiting for me outside-we're going out for her birthday. So I'll see you guys."
Lucas sideyes Zay a second before declaring, "I'll walk you out."
"Really, Hopalong? I think I can make out of the building safely on my own," she teases as they leave a dumbstruck Farkle and Zay.
"Hey, that's Maddog to you, " Lucas returns, grinning from ear to ear.
Farkle and Zay stare at the two-Lucas pulling the door open for Maya, Maya rolling her eyes and no doubt making a comment on how she is more than capable of opening a door for herself-faces scrunched up in identical suspicion, before seeming to remember the other's presence.
Farkle clears his throat. "So," he ventures, trying and failing to appear casual. "What were you and Lucas talking about?"
Zay's answer is easy, relaxed, and comes with a smile. "I was helping him get the paint off his face."
"I thought Riley was doing that."
His smile falls. "So what were you and Maya talking about?"
Farkle huffs out a little laugh. "She was asking me out again; I told her I'd think about it." His arms stretch over his head in what is totally a relaxed stretch and not at all a nervous reflex.
"I thought you were the one always asking her out."
He slowly sets his arms back to his sides.
Um.
"So I'll see-"
"I'll see you around," they blurt at once, Zay striding towards the entrance doors and Farkle darting in the opposite direction.
...
A moment later, Riley steps out of the classroom, holding the door out for her dad. "So you and Lucas really aren't going out anymore?" Cory repeats.
"Huh," she says to the empty hallway. "I wonder where everyone went? And, no, Dad, we're not dating anymore." She pulls out her phone then, pressing Maya's contact number.
tell your mom happy bday from me! and you'll never guess what my dad just said. he STILL thinks lucas and me like each other. do you believe that?! no seriously do you? like has he said anything about me lately?
She smiles to herself as she presses send-true, she and Lucas had a rocky start to building their friendship since she found out he got expelled from his last school, but they'd moved past that. In fact, since she'd accepted the truth about why Lucas left Texas, she felt closer to him than ever: no more secrets. Maybe that's what had been holding them back from couple status the whole time; maybe now that all the cards were out on the table, they could finally have a fresh start.
She keeps her phone in her hand rather than putting it in her pocket, eagerly awaiting a response from her best friend.