Chapter 1
Riley sat at the bay window in her new room. She'd finished unpacking, but this didn't feel like home to her, not yet anyways. Her fingers played with her long brown hair, she can give Texas one thing, its views were pretty amazing. "Riles?" She continued to stare out her window. "Riley?"
"Yeah Josh." Her head rolled to glance at her twin brother.
"Quit moping, it isn't like you." Josh, short for Joshua left her doorway and sauntered down the hallway.
"Thanks Josh, that really helped!" Riley's brown eyes moved to look at her guitar. Normally when she was stressed out or upset, or it actually didn't even matter she'd always play her guitar but, right now she was enjoying the silence that her new town brought. Her eyes saw the fire escape outside and moved to the right to the apartment building across the street. There was a man, her age maybe a year or two older working out in his room.
"RILEY!" Her eyes closed at the sound of her parents who had, as she saw it destroyed her life. "RILEY GRACE, GET DOWN HERE!" Topanga yelled. The brunette sauntered into the hallway and leaned on the entryway frame.
"Yes?"
"Awe honey still feeling dramatic?" Her mother questioned.
"Mom, it isn't dramatic. It's traumatic, this is the second semester of my senior year and I moved from New York City to the outskirts of Austin." Her hands slapped her face. What was so hard for them to understand about this.
Cory, her father who looked and acted like his daughter scoffed. "I'm sorry love bug. But, this is the job of a lifetime for your mother. This will help pay for school and send you wherever you were wanting to go. This is great for our family." Riley glanced towards the ground. "I know my Riley will come to see it that way soon, but I understand why you're upset right now."
"Thank you daddy! What was the reason for me escaping my dungeon?" She questioned taking a seat on the bench that was their dining room chair.
"We were just checking on you. And I was wondering if you'd be interested in a tutoring program at your new school?" Cory opened his laptop to read the e-mail.
"Tutoring program? Like i'd tutor someone and-"
Mr. Matthews peruzzed the e-mail one more time. "You'd be assigned a specific student, next week and you'd meet twice a week till the end of the year. It'd look great for scholarships and college applications." Cory raised his eyebrows, not really giving her an option.
"Sure, that sounds fun. Since I have no friends at this new place it might help." Her father raised an eyebrow. "Last joke, and now i'm done." The brunette ran back up stairs and soaked up her father's words, 'this is great for our family'. Her hand grasped the guitar and the other held her journal. She climbed onto her fire escape. Lightly strumming with her eyes closed, and humming trying to come up with anything.
I don't like to
be alone in the night.
I don't like to
here i'm wrong when i'm right.
She continued to strum on her guitar, not noticing a window that had opened next door and a blonde girl that had climbed up the fire escape.
And I don't like to
"Whatcha doin'?" Riley jumped from being scared.
"Holy crap." The blonde girl sat down laughing. "Hi, i'm Riley Matthews."
"Maya Hart, you new around here?"
"Yeah, I just moved in. And to answer your earlier question, i'm playing guitar and singing. Was it bothering you? I'm sorry." Maya glanced at her new neighbor.
"I'm going to be good for you." The brunette giggled and took note of how blue her eyes were. "Rule number 1, don't apologize for doing something you love."
"What do you mean good for me?" She uttered shyly.
"We're best friends now. No need to argue, it's been decided and you don't really have a say in the matter." Maya climbed through her window and Riley followed.
"Don't take this as arguing." She placed her guitar on its stand. "More of like a question, because i'm extremely grateful to have a friend, but I don't get a say on who my best friend is?"
The blonde chuckled and jumped on her bed. "Not when you're with me."
"I'll take it! So you live downstairs?" The blonde nodded.
"Yes m'am, with my mom Katy. She owns the diner down the block. You hungry?" She threw herself off the bed. "Not dressed like that you aren't." Maya started rummaging through her closet. The brunette giggled and looked out her window, the man working out from earlier was looking directly at her. "Oh, this is much better. You can leave that oversized sweater on, but throw on these skinny jeans and a pair of booties." A few minutes later the girls were running downstairs.
"Bye mom, bye dad i'm going to my best friends mom's diner." The door slammed shut and the parents glanced at eachother, after a few seconds they brushed it off like nothing ever happened.
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"Chocolate milkshake please." Riley sat at the bar, rotating herself in the chair. "This is pretty cool, your mom owning her own diner. Free milkshakes anytime you want."
"It can be, but my mom's gone a lot up here. Anyways, we can walk to school in the morning it's like 5 minutes down the road, saves gas money." The brunette agreed. "Have you met anyone else yet?"
"Oh brain freeze." Riley clutched her head.
"No duh brain freeze, half the milkshake is gone. Take it easy." The girls giggled, and Riley felt at ease for the first time since she moved here.
"Wow, to answer your question, no I haven't. My dad unintentionally forced me to do this tutoring thing, so i'll make some more friends that way." The door jingled before Maya could tell her that it wasn't a great idea.
"Lady" A skinny boy with a beanie on his head landed on the stood beside Maya. "Ladies!"
"Farkle this is Riley. Riley this is Farkle. Go easy on her, she's new and needs friends." The blonde ordered some fries and sighed heavily.
"I can be your friend. I'm Maya's right brain to her left. What can I be for you?" Riley furrowed her brows, not knowing how to answer that question.
"Um, i'll get back to you on that. I'm not sure," she giggled, "thanks guys, I really appreciate it. Farkle do you live in our building?"
"No." Maya chuckled.
"My father owns Minkus International. We live in the building a block away."
"No, no they own the entire building. They live in the entire building, it's pretty sweet. They have a movie theater, a bowling alley it's awesome!" The blonde admitted.
"Well I can't wait to check it out Farkle. Is that like a nickname?" The brunette questioned.
"No, why?"
"No reason," she sipped her milkshake again, "I like it, it's original. One of a kind and you 2 really are. People in New York wouldn't randomly say 'i'm your best friend' or 'what can I be for you'. I was dreading moving down here my second semester senior year and now i've got you guys."
"Normally, i'd find affection like that gross, but it suits you. I can only tolerate it from you, in small doses, let's not get crazy." All 3 friends giggled.
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Riley slid on her black floral skirt, while tucking in her beige long sleeve skirt. Since she was already pretty tall, the brunette decided on her white keds and added in some jewelry for a little flare. She was packing her bag when she felt someone staring at her, Riley nonchalantly turned around and there he was, mystery man looking at her again. She waved her freshly polished fingers and smiled, which made him leave. "Oh."
There was a knock on her bay window and she smiled, the end of senior year was looking up for her, Maya and Farkle ended up hanging out with her the rest of the night. "What's up New York?"
"Hey Maya, good morning." The brown eyed girl slid on her backpack. "Ready?"
"Yep, Farkle is downstairs, let's go." The new best friends hurriedly ran downstairs and gave Farkle a hug.
"Ladies."
Maya and Riley glanced at eachother, "Farkle." He ended up passing out and falling into the grass.
"Is he okay?" Questioned the brunette.
"Yeah, he just liked it whenever we said 'Farkle' in unison. He'll get up in 3 . . 2 . . 1 . ."
He popped up off of the ground and smiled. "Alright, let's go." The trio started walking to school, and the new kid felt at ease.
"So, is there anything I should know about this school?"
The blonde giggled, "um, yeah. There might be a thing or two, end of senior year is the busiest. Cap and gown orders, baseball season, new beginnings dance in 2 weeks, prom in a few months, senior pictures, did I mention prom?"
"Okay, nothing I can't handle. That's why I have a planner." There was a huge grin on her face, even after almost tripping over a piece of grass.
"Honey, don't bring that thing out in public. Use your phone calendar, that's why it has one. Rule number 2, image is everything." The blue eyed girl announced.
"I don't agree with that one." Farkle pronounced.
"I don't know if I do either, isn't that from a movie?" Her 2 new friends talked back and forth for a few minutes while the brunette bit her cheek. "Is that Princess Diaries?"
"Oh, I love you already." The blonde put her arm around her and they both laughed. "I'm not sure, but either way at least this first week keep the planner at bay." The friends sauntered up the steps of the school. "Okay so let's take a little tour."
"My dad already showed me where my classes were. He's the new Government and Econ teacher."
"This isn't about classes, this is about students." Maya looped her arm through Riley's. "Okay so this group that hangs out by this set of lockers are the skater kids, too cool to hang out in the cafeteria where they're supposed to be, but close enough where teacher's don't care to get them in trouble." Her finger pointed in the cafeteria. "To the left over there, you have your band kids, kind of hiding out. To the right you have the football team, they usually tumble in here after work out in the morning to eat, to the side of them is baseball, they start practice in 2 weeks and that man standing up right there is Zay Babineaux."
"This is where I leave." Joked Farkle.
"Anyways, that's Zay." The blonde mumbled, "he's off limits to you."
"I'd never try." There was another man who stood up beside him, mystery man. "Who's that?" His green eyes could be seen staring from across the cafeteria.
"That's Lucas Friar, steer clear of him if you can. He's got a bad reputation; fighting, and not even his girlfriend can get him to chill out when he starts."
Riley slowly nodded her head. "Oh, okay."
"The girlfriend thing brings me to my next group. The popular girls, Missy Bradford and her Ashley's. Ashley M, Ashley T, Ashley A. Not even she can tell the difference between them and they don't talk much except for the occasional 'yeah', when their leader is verbally assaulting someone."
"Wow." Riley whispered.
"Just stick to me and she won't bother you. I punched her in the face a few years ago." They both started laughing.
"I can handle my own with verbal communication, i'm from New York." Her brown eyes moved from her friend to the mystery man who now had a name. Lucas, and he still had his eyes on her. She didn't know if it was creepy, or a sign of flattery, either way she was pulled away before the brunette could scare him off with a wave again.
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Riley sauntered into her Government class and sat directly in the middle of the room, like she always did. Today wasn't such a bad day after all, besides the occasional stare from Lucas. She had 2 classes with Maya, 1 with Farkle, and 1 with both of them. This was the last class of the day and she could go home. The brunette wrapped her hair around her finger, like she always did when she was thinking and bit her lip while writing in her journal. She craned her neck towards the entrance after feeling someone staring at her.
You know that feeling, the creepy aura of someone watching you. Riley grinned seeing Lucas in the doorway, watching her. She looked back down at her journal and scratched out everything she just wrote. Her pen tapped on the paper when she felt the piercing green eyes move off of her and take a desk, a few seats back and 1 row over.
"Attention my class. My name is Cory Matthews, Mr. Matthews for short, i'm your new government teacher, I also teach economics. I have 2 kids." Oh no, she thought, dad please don't. "They're twins and my daughter is actually in this class. Riley, would you like to stand up and say a few words?"
"No." Her words were abrupt. "That's okay, we can just learn about government." The class laughed, which caused Cory to lighten his facial expression. "Thanks dad."
"No problem pumpkin'."
"I hate you." She uttered, which again the class found hilarious.
"Alright, alright, alright. We're hilarious I know, I am supposed to remind you all that starting next week there will be a tutoring session, twice a week in the library. If you'd like to sign up to be the tutorer, or tutoree please come and see me. "Riles, i've got you signed up for a tutorer."
"See me after class." Riley demanded. Cory smiled, happy to see his daughters personality coming back to life.
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"Daddy, I love you. You know that right?"
"Of course pumpkin'." Mr. Matthews leaned back in his chair and crossed his feet on the desk.
"So you know, what i'm about to say is strictly for school and not for once we leave this dungeon? Right?" He raised his eyebrow in agreeance. "Okay, great. YOU CAN'T CALL ME PUMPKIN' IN CLASS!" Cory chuckled lightly. "You also can't tell everyone my business. While i'm thinking about it though, what am I tutoring?"
"Everything."
"Oh, okay that makes things easier." Riley let out a sigh of frustration. "I'm heading home. Bye daddy." She leaned in and kissed his cheek. "See you there." The brunette stepped outside and took a deep breath of the cool January air. She plugged in her headphones on the walk back, since she already missed Farkle and Maya because of chewing out her father.
I love it when we're at a party, in a downtown crowd.
But I can hear you call me baby with the music up loud.
A black truck pulled up beside her, but being in Rileytown, her own little world, she didn't even notice. Not until the horn honked. Her headphones practically jumped into her hands. "Wanna ride?"
Mystery man. "No that's okay. I'm not supposed to accept rides from strangers." He was even cuter in person, but she continued to walk.
"I'm not a stranger, we have a class together. Riley, right?" She despised her father, but her name coming out of his mouth, sounded better? How was that possible? The brunette decided to play it off.
"How do you know my name? I just moved here."
He chuckled, "you and your father are entertaining."
"Thank you again for the offer, but i'm almost home anyways. I'm used to walking, you don't really drive a whole lot of places in New York."
He sighed. "You're a New Yorker?"
"Is that a bad thing? I think the correct terminology is 'you were a New Yorker'. Unless the whole 'once a New Yorker, always a New Yorker' thing applies here. I don't know." She literally covered her mouth with her hand to prevent her from speaking.
"It's not a bad thing. Usually they can be arrogant, and I didn't get that vibe from you."
"Again, you don't really know me. I could be a jerk, you don't know. Have a nice day Lucas." She moved to put the headphones back in her ears, until he spoke again.
"How do you know my name?"
She looked like a deer in headlights, but continued to walk. "Um, you mentioned it earlier."
"No, I don't think I did." She turned her gaze towards him, his smile was dreamy.
"You did. See ya' later, bye." It was weird, he had a smile on his face but he almost seemed angry on the inside. That feeling could've been because he sped off. Riley ran up her stairs and into her room, promptly landing on her bed. "JOSH!"
"What?" Her brother stood at the doorway eating, as usual.
"Did dad embarrass you today too?"
"Um, yeah. But, I don't really care."
She sighed, "yeah, sounds about right." Her bay window opened and her beautiful blonde best friend entered her room. "Josh, this is Maya. Maya this is my twin brother Josh." Her twin seperated his lips, she was so beautiful.
"What's up other Matthews. Y'all are twins? You sure?"
"Yep. Not the kind who look alike, the other kind. I forget the terminology." Riley answered. "I'm the cooler of the two, he's the one who doesn't really care about anything." The blonde placed her hand on her right hip and smirked.
"Can I get you anything Maya?"
"Sure." The blonde bit her lip. "I'll join you."
They exited the room giggling, "gross." The brunette pulled herself off the bed and glanced out her window. There he was, pretending like he wasn't just watching her. She grabbed a pad of paper and a marker. Her hand moved quickly across the page before slamming it against the glass.
-YES?
She could see him laughing and searching for something for him to use.
-JUST BORED!
She wasn't sure if she should take that as an insult or not.
-SO YOU'RE BORED A LOT THEN.
He creased his brows from confusion. -WHY DO YOU THINK THAT?
-I FEEL YOU STARING AT ME ALL THE TIME
The green eyed man obviously scoffed, -DON'T FLATTER YOURSELF.
-THEN DON'T STARE.
Riley stood back up and sat on her bed. "MAYA, YOU'RE MY BEST FRIEND! NOT JOSH'S!" The brunette heard footsteps and a giggling girl.
"Sorry honey." The blonde shut the door and laid down on her bed. "What's wrong with you?"
"That!" Riley's finger pointed out her window to Lucas still staring at her. "What is his deal?"
"He doesn't really talk to anyone. So I wish I could help." The blonde got a mischevious grin. "He seems smitten."
Riley started pacing her room, "smitten? What are we back in the 40's?" Her finger twirled her hair.
"This could be fun Riles." The brunette sat down at her vanity chair.
"What?! Are you crazy? Actually that isn't a valid question because I don't really know where you're going with this." Maya put her hand up, instructing her to stop.
"Let's find out if he has a little crush on you."
Riles scoffed. "No, especially because when I pointed out that he kept staring at me, he said don't flatter yourself." Why did he keep staring then? Maybe he was 'smitten'. No, he didn't know her, that isn't possible. "He's annoying."
"So you think he's cute, and that's why you think this idea is crazy." The blonde giggled and sat up straighter.
"No, I don't know him. You told me to steer clear of him and besides him following me home and the note passing a few moments ago, I have." The brunette stated and pulled her hair up in a messy bun.
"So you haven't avoided him, at all. I told you to avoid him in the cafeteria this morning, and you've had 2 run in's with him since. Look, shameless flirting never hurt anyone." The blue eyed girl mumbled.
"So what are you saying?"
She giggled. "Do you want to know if he likes you or not?"
"He doesn't."
"Well, if you are ever interested. I have a few tricks up my sleeve." Maya laid back down on the bed. "No one really knows Lucas, I don't think Missy even knows who he is. He's a complete mystery and the fact he has taken a little fancy in you, interests me. But, I won't make you do something you don't want to. Like changing in front of the window-"
"No! Come on, you want food? Let's go to the diner." The girls locked arms and sauntered downstairs.
"Bye Josh."
Riley's eyes rolled while they walked outside. "I thought you had a thing for Zay?"
"Zay has no idea who I am, and Josh noticed me immediately. That could be, because I broke into your room. But, oh well. I won't do anything if it makes you uncomfortable." She knew Maya was being sincere, but she could tell from her piercing blue eyes that she may actually be interested in Josh.
"No, it doesn't make me uncomfortable. Go for it."
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Thanks for reading. Please let me know what you think, I haven't decided if I wanted to continue writing. Please follow, favorite and review.
Riley's Outfit: pinterest pin/ 492510909225055958
