Title: Operation: Closet Time
Author: lucayaprompts

Disclaimer: I do not own Girl Meets World.

original prompt: Everyone knows Lucas and Maya like each other; a plan of Riley's gets them locked in the janitor's closet.


"I hereby call this emergency meeting of the For the Good of Maya Hart Council to order," Riley announced, slapping her hand down on her father's desk; immediately it started to sting. "Ouch."

"I love these meetings," Farkle leaned over to whisper in Cory's ear, ignoring the bemused look his teacher gave him and settled into his desk the way he would for any other lecture, nodding to Riley to continue. She appreciated the support; it made it easier to concentrate on the matter at hand rather than… well, her hand. That still stung. No more slapping desks, no matter how commanding it may appear to be.

"And what is the meaning of this meeting," her father asked, folding his hands in front of him on the desk.

"I'm glad you asked!" Riley walked around his desk and pulled on the map that covered the chalkboard until it rolled all the way up, revealing her painstakingly hand-drawn stick figures, the hallway outside the class she shared with her best friends, and a large arrow drawn down it to the other end, towards the ultimate goal: the janitor's closet. "We have a mission to complete. We need to get Maya and-"

"Where's Maya?" Cory interrupted.

"I think it's the one with the hair," Farkle supplied, pointing to the figure on the right.

"Oh, I thought that was a cloud."

"This is serious!" Riley exclaimed, then sighed heavily when they looked properly admonished. She wasn't too bad at this teaching game. "Look, we've all been sitting in this room all year, watching Maya" - she pointed to the figure on the board with curly hair - "and Lucas" - he was the other, cuter figure, in her opinion - "bicker and flirt, or at least I think it's flirting, I don't really know how that works-"

"You can practice with me."

"Hello, father in the room."

"And," she said a little bit louder, drawing the word out into several syllables, "I think it's time we make them do something about it. The whole… thing… they're doing, it's exhausting and I don't understand it."

"And you have a plan to make them, as you say, do something about it?" Cory asked, worry lacing though his brow.

"Yes, I do," Riley nodded, then spun around to face the board. "Now pay attention because we'll only have one chance at this."

-:-

"I'm a little confused, sweetie," Cory said as he and Riley took the train home. "I thought you liked Lucas."

"I do," she said. "He's cute and his voice is nice and I like his hands and-"

"Hello, still your father."

"But I think he likes Maya more," Riley shrugged, "and that's okay. She's my best friend, and if a guy like Lucas likes her, then that's a good thing. Especially if she likes him back the way I think she does."

"Has she told you that?"

"No." Riley shrugged again. "She wouldn't because she wouldn't want to hurt me. But that's okay. I know her and I know she didn't do it on purpose. So I forgive her, even if she doesn't know it yet. Besides, she's my best friend. I'm not going to be mad at my best friend over a guy."

"You know what Riley?" Cory said with a smile, and she knew when he smiled like that, he was proud of her; for what, she wasn't sure, but it was a good feeling. "You're a lot smarter than I was at your age."

-:-

Riley couldn't sit still in her seat, the desk wobbling a little as she stared at the clock, chewed on her nail with the chipping polish, stared at her father in the middle of his boring lesson, then tried very hard not to stare at Maya or Lucas. She was failing miserably. Maya wasn't even pretending to pay attention to anything but her failing.

"How you doing, honey?" she asked in her usual tone, worried and concerned.

"I'm fine!" Riley promised. "Perfectly fine, nothing's wrong at all. Everything is fine and not running late or anything."

"I don't know what any of that means," Maya muttered and continued to watch her. Riley groaned and sunk low in her seat, peeking around the side of it at Farkle. He seemed to sense her distress, pulling out the two liter soda from his backpack as planned, even though herresponsible adult father wasn't following through on his part.

As soon as the cap came off the soda, everything happened at once. Students started screaming and Farkle was doing his best to kick the bottle all over the floor while appearing like he was simply trying to get away from it. But the best part was that most of it ended up on it's intended victims: Lucas and Maya. She was standing on her desk, her curls dripping with lemon-lime soda while Lucas looked a little shocked at the whole ordeal.

"Oh, I'm so going to kill you," Maya growled and pretty much jumped off the desk towards Farkle but Cory caught her and set her down, passing her off to Lucas who was now out of his seat and wrapping his hand around the top of Maya's arm.

"Lucas and Maya, why don't you go get cleaned up and bring me a mop from the Janitor's closet?" Cory suggested, but Maya shook her head, eyes tracking every move Farkle made as he tried to hide behind Riley's chair.

"I have a better idea," she started. "Why don't we use Farkle's-"

"We'll get the mop," Lucas promised, leading her out of the room. She was still staring daggers when they passed the windows.

Riley smiled a smile Maya would have been proud of.

-:-

It had been ten minutes, the mess mostly cleaned up by paper towels, but Riley couldn't' stand it anymore. Why weren't they back yet? Did it work? She realized suddenly the flaw in her brilliant, master-minded plan: Lucas and Maya didn't know about it.

She knew her father was secretly waiting outside the closet - "I can't just allow my students to wander off to a closet unsupervised," he'd told her during the initial plan meeting - and she slipped out the classroom door away from her classmates, stealthily tiptoeing down the hall. She might have a future as a spy, she thought when she almost made her father yelp the way her mother did when he was in trouble.

"How's it going?" she asked and he put his finger to his lip and motioned for her to put her ear to the door. She could hear them shuffling around in the closet, Maya making remarks about Farkle while Lucas replied in his usual sweet little voice, so calm and sure. It was interesting, hearing them without seeing them. It was like a new perspective, and she could tell how well they worked together just from their voices.

But they were taking so, so long. Riley decided she was just going to have to speed things up.

"Just tell him you like him already!" she yelled through the door. The shuffling stopped, the voices stopped, and even Cory gaped at her in surprise.

"Riley?" Maya called out and Riley sighed again, pressing her face against the door as if it would make her point better.

"It's okay, you have my blessing."

"What is she talking about?" she heard Lucas asked and she could see Maya looking at him, biting her lip as she tried to pretend she didn't know what everyone already knew. "Do you like me?"

"So what? What's it do you?" Even her father groaned at that; so typical Maya.

"Because if you did, that'd be really cool."

"It's not cool, you're supposed to have some big moment with Riley."

"I think she's letting me have it with you."

Maya didn't answer and Riley felt like she was about to die from the anticipation of it all. Just say you like him, she thought over and over again, reaching for her father's hand as the silence stretched on.

"Whatever Cowboy," Maya finally said, but Riley could hear it. That was it, that was her admission and if Lucas didn't see it, then maybe she'd been wrong and he wasn't good for Maya. But if he did, then-

The door opened and Riley and Cory nearly fell over, stumbling a step or two into the closet; and there they were. Lucas and Maya, holding hands, her best friend who never blushed blushing and rolling her eyes as Lucas looked at her, so sweet and lovely and… just so Lucas.

"Oh yay!" Riley exclaimed, throwing her arms and around Maya and jumping up and down, noticing that she never let go of Lucas' hand.

Riley Matthews: super-spy matchmaker extraordinaire.