Hey, guys. Sorry I haven't updated many of my other stories lately, but I've been really busy. Also, all my other stories will be on hold for a while, because I'm really excited about this one.

Tourette's syndrome is a real thing. It's usually where a neurological disorder characterized by involuntary tics and vocalizations and often the compulsive utterance of obscenities. Which basically means the person affected by the syndrome will randomly say something they're thinking, or twitch or move a part of their body involuntarily. In this story, Maya's tics are sniffing, sometimes winking, and her hand twitches. I'll probably add a few more as the story goes on, but I thought I'd start simple. Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

I took a deep breath, pushing open the door to my new classroom. It was my first day at John Quincy Adams, and all I wanted was to fit in.

"Ah." A curly haired man welcomed me into the room. "Class, this is the new girl. Maya Hart. Maya, I'm Mr. Matthews."

I sniffed. Sniffing was probably my most common tick. I hated it, but there was nothing I could do.

"Maya just transferred from Kessler." Mr. Matthews continued. "She'll be sitting…"

Please not in the front I thought.

"Next to Riley."

I sighed. A girl in the front row smiled, gesturing at the seat next to her. Must be Riley.

I shuffled to my seat, sitting down next to the smiling girl.

"Hi." She whispered. "I'm Riley."

"Yeah." I murmured back. "I figured."

She giggled. Apparently my sarcasm had no affect on her. I sighed, sniffed, then turned to the front of the class.

"So," Mr. Matthews began. "Who can tell me about the American Revolution?"

"Farkle!" Someone called from behind me. I turned to see a short, unathletic-looking boy with bowl-cut brown hair, practically bouncing in his seat.

"Farkle." The teacher called.

I wasn't paying attention through the rest of the lesson. I was mainly concentrating on keeping my nerves in check. I didn't want a repeat of my first day at Kessler. The bell snapped me back into reality. I looked up to see Riley staring at me, still smiling.

"Hey." She greeted. "My dad says I'm supposed to show you around. I have the same class schedule as you."

"Your-" Sniff. "Your dad?"

"The teacher. Mr. Matthews."

My fingers twitched. "Oh. Cool."

"So." She bounced. "Wanna go to art?"

"Art?" I broke into a small smile. "We have art class?"

"Yeah." She took my hand, leading me out the door. "Didn't you have art class at Kessler?"

I shook my head slowly.

"Oh." She shrugged, pulling me into another room. "Well, we have it here. For an hour."

My smile grew a bit bigger. Riley stopped, looking at me intently. "You're pretty when you smile."

I blushed, letting my hair fall in my face. Riley giggled again, sitting down by an empty easel. I sat next to her, pushing my sleeves up my arms.

"Oh, hello." A tall woman walked up. "I'm Ms. Kossal. You must be the new student, Maya. Your mom tells me you're quite the artist."

I looked down at my feet, sniffing. My mom had never actually seen my work. She was always too busy with her work, trying to support my family since my dad-

"Left." I mumbled involuntarily. Riley and Ms. Kossal looked at me, confused.

"What?" Riley asked.

"Nothing." I blushed again.

"Well, I can't wait to see your work, Maya." Ms. Kossal said, already drifting towards the other students.

I began squirting paint onto a pallet. Riley was already working on a drawing. An old project, probably. Just another reminder that I was new here. I shook my head, reaching for a paint brush. Turning back toward my canvas, I began to paint.

"So why'd you transfer here?" Riley asked suddenly. I froze, dropping my brush.

"Sorry." I whispered, bending down to pick it up. I glanced at her, watching her eyes. She was looking at my canvas.

"Hey, Ms. Kossal was right. You're good." She complimented.

"Thanks." I said uncertainly.

"Who taught you?" She asked, moving her eyes from the painting to my face.

"I taught myself." I told her.

"Wow. You're really good for someone who taught themselves. Lucas is trying to teach me to draw better, but he's not the best teacher. He's a bit impatient." She gushed.

Who is Lucas? I wondered. And why didn't I ask that out loud?

Riley continued to babble, while I worked on my picture. When the bell rang, I put down my brush and began to walk out.

"Wait!" Riley called. She scrambled to put her things away, knocking over a stool as she ran out of the room after me. I almost laughed at her childish clumsiness.

"You don't know where you're going." She said, grabbing my hand again and leading me out the door. "We have English, then lunch. English is really boring. Mr. Bilic never lets us do any projects. We always have lessons."

I shrugged, tapping my fingers on my leg as she lead me to the next class.

"So you don't talk a lot, huh?" She asked. "That's okay. I talk a lot, so I can talk if you don't want to yet. Farkle talks a lot, too. You already met him, kinda, in History. He's really smart."

I was almost in the room when I heard a crash from behind me. I glanced back to see a tall, blonde man grabbing his books from a locker. He slammed it shut, running down the hall to make it to his class before the bell rang.

Riley stuck her head back through the door to see what I was looking at.

"That's Lucas." She told me. "He's cute, but he's been with Missy Bradford all year. I don't get why he would ever want to hang out with Missy. She's a total brat, y'know?"

"Yeah." I turned back towards Riley. "Let's go."

English went by quickly, despite the long lecture Mr. Bilic insisted on giving us. After class, I managed to dodge Riley, slipping into the girl's bathroom. I glanced under the stall doors to make sure they were empty before pulling a small pill bottle.

See, I have Tourette's syndrome. It's awful, annoying, embarrassing, etc., but I can't do anything about it. I just take my meds and hope nothing awful happens. One time I was nervous, because I had to give a speech in math. We had lunch right before math, and I kept winking. Normally, winking isn't one of my ticks, but it happens sometimes. And some dirtbag thought I was hitting on him.

Turns out that dirtbag was the captain of the Kessler Middle School football team. So when word got out that he and I got in a fight, I was an outcast for the rest of the year.

I swallowed my pills, stuffed the bottle in my bag, then ducked back out of the bathroom. It took me a few minutes to find the cafeteria, but eventually I stumbled through a set of red double doors into the lunch room.

"Maya!" A familiar voice called. Riley ran up, looking worried. "I'm so sorry I lost you, I'm just not very good at keeping track of things. Not that you're a 'thing', but you know what I mean, right?"

I nodded, which calmed her down a little.

"Good. Come on. I want you to meet Farkle and Lucas."

She pulled me (what is it with this girl and dragging me places?) to a table on the side of the room, where two boys were shaping their food into horses.

"Guys, this is Maya. Farkle, you already met her in history."

"Why hello." The short brown haired boy, Farkle, greeted flirtatiously.

"Hey." I said quietly.

"And this is Lucas." Riley said, pointing to the other boy. "Lucas, this is Maya. She's in all my classes, which means she'll be in some of yours, too."

"Hey." Lucas nodded, working intently on his mashed potato horse.

"Sorry, he's not very polite." Farkle apologized, elbowing Lucas in the ribs.

"That's okay." I mumbled, sniffing. I sat down by Riley.

"Aren't you gonna get something to eat?" She asked. I shrugged, then shook my head.

"I, uh, I forgot my money." I lied.

"Oh. Well then, you can share my food." She offered, pushing her tray closer to me.

"No, really, that's okay." I assured her, trying to push the tray back. She gave me a look that said eat it.

"Riley feels the need to help everyone she knows." Lucas explained, finally looking up from his potato art.

"That's… Nice." I looked back and forth between Lucas and Riley.

"She's crazy." He whispered to me loudly, causing Farkle and I to grin. Riley threw a paper napkin at his head, which he batted away easily.

"If anyone's crazy, it's you, Mr. I Make Potato Horses Because I Miss Texas." She responded.

"Texas?" I sat up straighter. "I didn't know you were a cowboy."

"Yeah." He smiled. "Ever been there?"

"I was born there." I told him. "It's beautiful."

"Yeah." He agreed. "It is."

"Don't get him started." Riley laughed. "Here, have my burger."

"Thanks." I smiled, taking half the smashed cafeteria burger. "I'll pay you back."

"Nope!" She sang. "Friends pay for each other's food. Right, guys?"

"You still owe me $7 for that lamp you broke, though." Farkle reminded her, which made the rest of us laugh.

Friends. I thought. I guess we're friends now.

"So, Maya." Riley turned towards me. "Wanna come over today? I live pretty close, so we can take the subway."

I sniffed, tapping my fingers against the table. On one hand, I wanted to be friends with Riley. She seemed nice, if a little quirky. On the other hand, I didn't want my new friends to find out about my Tourette's. Not yet, anyway. Finally, I shrugged.

"Sure." I told her. "Why not."

Leave a review.