"Thank you for the years of lies. Thank you for the world you ruined overnight. We are the ones you left behind. Don't tell us how, tell us how to live our lives." –MKTO, Thank You
She knows something is going on when she hears them whispering at the dinner table late one night.
"We can't tell the kids about this, Topanga," she hears her dad whisper.
"But—they should know. They deserve to. They're going to find out sooner or later."
"And they will. . . but when it's time. When they're ready."
Slowly, she turns the corner and enters the main room. The conversation immediately drops as soon as she comes through the doorway. Her parents turn to her, their movements somewhat stiff.
"Mom? Dad?" She asks quietly, "I need help with my homework."
Her dad turns to her, his expression and voice clear of anything that was held in it before. "Of course, Riley," he replies. She brings her book to him and in response, he flips to the correct page. "What questions do you need help with?"
"This one here, about the city of Troy," the brunette pointed out, "I can't find anything about why it was attacked so hard."
The sound of flipping pages could be heard, and a moment later, Cory spoke. "Read between pages three eighty and three ninety and you should find something in there eventually."
"Thanks," Riley nodded. She had then gathered her things and quickly raced back up the stairs. What she interrupted, she didn't know, but she certainly didn't want to find out.
After all, if her parents were hiding something from her, why would that be a good thing?
It's a late school day when he gets up and heads downstairs. It was raining outside and he had a fever along with a sore throat, so his parents allowed him to stay home. As he's about to round a corner, he hears his dad speaking to someone— possibly through Skype or Messenger video chat—and uses the wall next to him as support while he listens in.
"Mr. Walters, if I could only have more time. Maybe we could meet up later on in the week and discuss this—"
"Stuart, this is not something that can be discussed later on! There's a reason why I called you now and that's because I need to talk to you about this. Sales are dropping, money is low, and if Minkus International doesn't do anything to boost sales now, we're gonna go bankrupt—"
"I know, I know. I'll figure something out, okay? I'll be back at work in the next few days, promise."
"You can have five days then. No later. I'll see on Tuesday."
"Tuesday."
He watches his dad end the call and immediately runs back up the stairs, tripping over himself as he goes. He instantly jumps into bed and fakes being asleep, just as he hears his bedroom door open.
"Farkle?" His dad calls.
He lies still and keeps his eyes closed for another few minutes before he hears his door close. Once his father leaves, he sits up and sighs, his head in his hands.
'How can we be going bankrupt?'
For her, it's a late Saturday night when she finds out and her mom is completely honest with her. They're watching late night talk shows and eating popcorn on the couch, when she gets the call.
She takes it into the other room and Maya, in response, turns down the TV so she can hear the conversation. Jimmy Fallon can wait, her mom can't. Once that's done, she listens in closely.
"I'm sorry, what? I didn't get the part?
"Okay…thank you…for letting me know."
Quickly, Maya turns the volume back up and as her mom comes back into the main room, she looks at her, trying to make an innocent expression. "What happened?" She asks, though she already knows the answer.
"I didn't get the part, baby girl," Katy answers before settling down on the couch and wrapping her daughter in a hug.
Maya wasn't surprised, to say the least. Her mother's acting career had gone downhill, even though the big movie she starred in—created by Sarah from History—had premiered worldwide. That was great for a while—it was certainly a nice change—but it was now five months after that and while all the other actors were off starring in their own TV shows and such, her mom didn't get anything. Not one phone call, not one email.
"I'm sorry," the blonde apologized, trying to sound sincere. "I know you really wanted that part—especially after you expected your career would skyrocket, and truth to be told, I did too."
"It's alright," Katy assured her daughter, "There're always other roles. And at least I still have my job at Topanga's."
'Still,' Maya thought sadly, 'Because how long is it until that's gone too?'
It's Wednesday night when he finds out.
"Lucas!" His mother calls out as she sets her things on the dining room table. It's a small table, just big enough for the two of them, with the top made out of a nice white stone rock.
He comes running from his room, interrupted in the middle of his English paper. "Yeah?" He calls out, nervously, "Something wrong?"
His mother—Lucilla—waves a paper in her hand, angry and somewhat shocked. "What is this?!" She roars furiously, "Three C's?! In Math, Science and English?!"
"And two B's!" He protests.
"Yeah, in PE and History. What I want to know is why you're getting less than sixty percent in three of your classes!"
"I'm sorry, I just—"
"And don't lie to me either! I know you're an A and B student!"
He sighs. "I'm sorry," he explains, "Baseball has been keeping me busy lately and I haven't found the time to study—"
"You're going to have to get your grades up," she interrupts. He doesn't interrupt her, however, since he knows she's already mad and cutting her off in the middle of a sentence won't help either. He knows the signs of anger; he's seen them millions of times before. In fact, he used to be used to them.
He's tuned her out for the past few minutes with his thoughts, but manages to catch on to the last bit of her sentence.
"Either study hard or sign up for a tutor. The grades don't come higher, the baseball comes to an end. Understand?"
He nods quietly and then races back upstairs to do his English essay, muttering a "got it" as he goes.
Late one school night, a family meeting is called. They're all seated at the dinner table and Cory starts it off.
"Now, I'm sure you guys know how much of a good lawyer your mother is…" He starts, "And how much money she makes…"
She shifts in her seat and without a doubt, Riley knows her dad's trying not to make this awkward. But she also knows that it's not working and so, she cuts in.
"Dad," she interrupts, "I heard you and mom talking about something a few nights ago. What was it? Is that what this's about?"
After a moment of silence, Topanga speaks up. "Yes, honey," she replies, "That's what we're talking about. I got offered a job in London, and we both agreed to discuss it by ourselves before we told you guys anything about it."
Riley and Auggie both nod.
"Do you get more money?" Auggie asks, nervously. He loves that his mom got offered a new job—there's no doubt he's happy for her—but he's also worried about leaving his friends. Especially Ava.
Topanga, in response, writes a number on the back of a receipt and pushes it towards the two kids, who gasp in surprise.
"Alright!" Auggie exclaims as he stands up from the table, "We're moving to London, baby!"
Riley looks at her brother in shock and sadness and upon seeing his sisters face, Auggie quietly sits back down at the table.
"I want you guys to know this isn't about the money," Topanga speaks, "If anything, this is about what's best for us. I'm thinking about you guys too in this, you know that."
"We do," Riley nods, "We understand that."
"Good." Topanga replies, "I still haven't told the firm anything, so I have time to think about it. I don't want you guys to worry about this, okay?"
"We won't," Riley promises with a small smile, though you could easily see right through it. She then turns to Auggie before taking his hand and leading him back upstairs, "Come on, Aug. I'll help you with your homework."
And with that, the two head back upstairs.
It's a week later and it's Friday when he hears something. He's still home because of a fever and sore throat but now a headache's been added to the equation. However, the weathers changed and it's now bright and sunny outside on the streets of New York down below the penthouse.
"Farkle?" He hears through the door, "Farkle, are you awake?"
He immediately fakes being asleep, having automatically decided that he doesn't want to hear anything his father's going to tell him. He knows he's just going to assure him with, "don't worry about it," but that will, in fact, just do nothing and make him worry more.
When he hears his father call his name one more time and knock, he knows it's serious. "Yes," he calls back, tired and hesitantly, "I'm awake."
"Good." Stuart had then took the chance and seized the opportunity to stride into the room before sitting on his son's bed. "So, I'm sure you've heard from either the papers or your mother that the sales for Minkus International have been dropping—"
Farkle, in response, nods and listens intently. Though he was nearly asleep on his feet when he—eavesdropped, let's say, on his father, he knew what he heard. He was a smart boy, it didn't take him long to figure what could happen if sales dropped for his dad's company. Plus, the word "bankrupt" also gave him some clues. And….he also might've seen it on Google News too.
"Yeah," he answers, "I've seen it online. Is everything going okay?"
He knows it's not, but he has to make himself seem clueless, so his dad doesn't figure out that he eavesdropped on him—even if it was on accident.
Stuart nods. "Now it is. Sales are going higher and Minkus Internationals is regaining its status in the business and technology world now that more money is coming in."
"That's good, right?"
"It certainly is," Stuart replied with a smile, "But when I was talking to one of my employees through Messenger—Mr. Walters—I seem to recall hearing a thud. Is there anything you'd like to tell me?"
And just when he thought he was getting away with it too.
Farkle shifted in his seat, uncomfortably. He'd always been a bad liar, so it was always better to tell the truth than create an entire web of lies out of the entire thing. "I—I may have eavesdropped on your conversation a few days ago—but it was by accident, I swear!" He had then paused for a minute before asking, "How did you know?"
Stuart chuckled. "I wasn't that far away. I might not have seen you fall down the stairs, but that doesn't mean I didn't hear you."
Farkle nodded. "Fair point."
Stuart stood up from the bed and smiled. "Good. Now, get some rest, okay?" He had then turned on his heels and left the room, but not before looking back at his son once more. "Oh, and don't tell your mother about this, alright? She knows about the low sales and money, but she doesn't know that everything's back up yet."
Farkle nodded. "Got it," he whispered before falling back to sleep.
Maya dropped her backpack on the entrance floor, having returned from school, and headed to the kitchen to find a bag of chips before settling on the couch. However, as soon as she turned the TV in, her mother ran into the room and quickly turned it off.
"Hey!" The blonde exclaimed as she jumped up from her spot on the couch, " I was watching that!"
Her mom, though, just ignored her and carried on with her happy mood. "Baby girl!" She cheered, "I just got a new role!"
"What?! Oh my gosh—Mom, that's awesome!" The blonde teen squealed as she wrapped her mother in a hug and quickly let go.
"It is," the blonde waitress agreed, "Mr. Preminger remembered my acting in The Upside Down Life and thought I'd be perfect for the role. I'm going to be portraying the mother of a daughter who's life changes overnight when a video she uploads goes viral. The movie's supposed to be called The Skye and the Stars."
"Mom, that's really great," the blonde commented, "I'm so proud of you and Shawn's going to be as well, I just know it."
"Thanks, baby girl," Katy thanked her daughter, "But filming starts next week so I won't be able to spend as much time with you as I usually do—"
"That's okay," Maya replied, "Because as long as you're happy, I'm happy too."
"Hey man," Zay texted from his seat beside Lucas. They were both in math class and their teacher—Mr. Marco—was just about finished marking their texts. As he stood up and handed out the papers, the two boys continued texting. "You still coming to baseball after school?"
"Can't," Lucas texted back, "Mom wants me to—"
"Mr. Friar," Mr. Marco remarked sharply as he looked at the teenage boy straight on the eyes, "I'm pleasantly surprised and somewhat shocked by what a high mark you've achieved for someone like you. I don't expect this often in the future, but I won't complain if you continue it."
"Fair enough," Lucas stated. He had then taken a look at his paper before glancing back up, surprised. "Wait, what?! I got an A?!"
"I know," Mr. Marco responded, "I was in disbelief too at first. In fact, I went to the nurses office because I was so sure I was hallucinating."
Zay burst out laughing at this and nearly fell out of his chair.
"Careful, Mr. Babineaux," Mr. Marco muttered as he narrowed his eyes at the boy and glared at him, "I'd hate to see you die from a concussion or suddenly combust yourself into flames."
Zay's eyes widened with fear and shock as Mr. Marco went off to hand the rest of the papers out and left the two boys alone.
"Well," Zay said sarcastically, "Isn't he just a peach?"
"Uh huh, yeah," Lucas replied, though you could easily tell he wasn't paying attention to the conversation at all. Instead, his eyes were glued to his paper, or more specifically, to the giant A that sat on the very top corner. He had then pulled out his phone to text a photo to his mother, before Mr. Marco could be heard saying…
"No phones in class!"
And finished! So, Im actually really proud of this. I didn't think it'd be that good of a story, but hey, sometimes you can get inspiration from the most unexpected things, right?
Now, before I carry on with my super short authors notes, I have a few, well, notes I'd like to add.
-In the beginning, Cory and Topanga are talking about moving to London. This is revealed in Girl Meets Sweet Sixteen and Girl Meets Goodbye. (spoilers for those of you who haven't seen it yet)
-One time when I was younger, my relatives told me about the eight cities of Troy. I was instantly amazed by them, how they continued to rebuild it, and the Trojan Horse (which is why I was so happy when that was mentioned in Girl Meets Sneak Attack).
-I've watched Jimmy Fallon twice before—once with a friend at school and once when he appeared on iCarly. Other than that, I don't know much about him, besides the fact he's a great television host and comedian.
-Now, some of you are probably confused about why Lucas is used to his parents being angry. In my other story, Girl Meets the Adventures of Life, there's a specific chapter where it described the scene of Lucas' leaving Texas. According to the show, it's because he defended Zay from a school bully or something, which was hinted in my story. But, overall, he's used to them being mad at him because he used to disappoint them a lot when he was younger, due to his suspensions, multiple fights, and etc.
-The Skye and the Stars is a movie I made up based off of the real life movie, Jem and the Holograms (2015/2016 version).
-In Girl Meets Ski Lodge, there was supposed to be a scene where the five (Maya, Lucas, Smackle, Zay and Farkle) had to come back from a hike because Farkle ate poison berries and stared hallucinating. This is where I got inspiration from Mr. Marco's hallucinating statement.
-The only thing I remember from science last year is that (I think?) a human can spontaneously combust. Oh, and genes. I remembered learning stuff about genes too. (The only thing I remember from science two years go is to never stick a wet wire in an outlet, otherwise you could get electrocuted)
So, I think that's just about everything. Special thanks goes to LabRatFlutieKat and Brentinator (Susz) for beta reading this and offering me feedback. I hope you all liked this story and please let me know what you think in the reviews!
~Star