A/N:
Hi! This has so far turned out WAY longer than I originally planned. The first three line breaks are more of a prologue than the actual storyline. I was going to break it up onto another page but I decided to keep it all together. This is the first chapter. There is going to at least be one more. I'm not usually big on chapter stories because I think that people can get kind of rude when you don't update immediately... But I'm going to give it a shot with this one.
Please leave me some reviews as long as they're nice because I'm fragile (lol).
My tumblr is wade-wilson. xoxo
Disclaimer: I don't own GMW. If I did this triangle bs would be resolved real quick..
Clara Riley Friar was the first born child to Maya and Lucas Friar. She was born weighing in at six pounds, seven ounces and was seven inches long.
Maya had never seen anything so beautiful in her entire life. She knew from that moment on that she would do anything to protect the tiny little girl. Her entire life she had thought that her existence was meaningless. That she would never accomplish anything worth much in this world, but when Clara opened her eyes and Maya looked into them she knew that she was wrong.
Lucas had been a total mess the entire day. He was stressed out about things that could possibly go wrong. Not only for that day, but for Clara's entire life. He now had the responsibility of making sure this tiny little person was healthy, happy, and smart. The idea of molding someone who would one day be an adult was the scariest thing he had ever thought about. It was scarier than riding a bull, or being in a love triangle with best friends. It resulted in him sitting on the floor of the hospital hallway with his hands in his hands while a very pregnant Riley Minkus knelt beside him and put her hand on his shoulders just as she had done to Maya the day she found out she was pregnant.
The moment Lucas heard her cry, everything changed. His fierce need to protect his friends over the years had only grown stronger with time, and that need became even stronger as soon as he met Clara. Everyone knew that he would be that father who sat at home with a baseball bat on nights that Clara went out on dates.
Riley was the first person after the two of them who got to meet Clara. She was only a few weeks from her own due date and her stomach stuck out like a mountain.
"Oh Maya, she's perfect!" Riley held the tiny baby close to her as she sat down in the chair next to her best friend.
Maya smiled at the other woman, "I named her after you."
Tears welled up in Riley's eyes, her lips pulling into a smile.
"I love her. I love you. I am so happy that this is our life." She gave Clara a kiss on the forehead before handing her back to her mother. "Did you ever think we would have due dates two weeks apart?" A laugh fell out of both of their lips, Maya shaking her head.
"Honestly? I never thought I would make it this far."
She never expected herself to find a person who loved her as much as Lucas. She had grown up thinking that no one would ever stay with a Hart. It was in her blood to be left, and for the longest time she had just accepted it. When Lucas and Riley broke up the summer before sophomore year Maya didn't ever consider that it was because of their feelings for other people... Their feelings for her and Farkle.. It took her almost a year to even agree to go out with Lucas after that, then another year to admit to him that she loved him. It had been a long road.
"I did. You're going to be such a great mom. I just hope that little Clara falls in love with baby Minkus here." Riley patted her belly lovingly, thinking about how perfect it was that Maya had a girl and she had a boy.
It was like the universe was making sure that they would truly be together forever.
"You still haven't decided on a name yet?"
Clara's name had been picked out before she was even a thought. It was a name that Maya had heard in an old story when she was a little girl and had fallen in love with it. Her entire life she had known that if she ever did have a child, her name would be Clara. Lucas was the one to propose her middle name as Riley. As soon as he said it, Maya busted into tears and wrapped her arms around his waist. It was truly the perfect gift for someone who had been so important to her throughout her entire life.
Riley, on the other hand, had always wanted a girl. She had millions of girls names picked out, but none for boys. So when her doctor announced to her that she would be having a little boy Riley didn't know what to do. Of course she was happy.. As long as the baby was healthy she didn't really care too much about the gender... But boy names were so much harder to decide on. Farkle had listed a bunch of names that were okay, but since his last name was Minkus she wanted to make sure it was something that flowed a little better than her husband's name did.
"Nope. I'm about to give up and just let Farkle name him."
The blonde shook her head quickly, her nose scrunching up in disgust. "Last time I spoke to Farkle he said he wanted to name him Lantern... As in the Green Lantern... As in, I'm not letting my daughter marry a boy named Lantern."
Both women laughed loudly, and Riley rolled her eyes. "He's probably just feeding you crappy names so that I'll decide on one. He's having the hardest time picking a name and he just keeps throwing out names of Super heroes. For a minute there he was totally adamant on naming him Kal-El. Which is worse than Lantern.. I'll think of something eventually. It just hasn't come to me yet."
"Farkle has lost all naming privileges."
"So true."
They sat in the hospital room talking for another hour until Maya fell asleep. Riley took Clara out of her arms and sat her in the hospital crib. She then gave Maya a kiss on the top of her forehead before heading out the door.
"Lucas, babe, can you please take her? She's been crying for like thirty minutes and I'm pretty sure she hates me."
Maya was pretty sure she had been awake for the entire five months of Clara's life. She couldn't remember the last time that she had gotten a full night's sleep. If any one else had kept her from her precious sleep time Maya probably would've dropped them as a contact, but since it was her child she had no other choice than to keep awake. There was a small part of her that was pretty positive that she wouldn't sleep for the rest of her life at this point.
Clara was crying over absolutely nothing and it was frustrating to Maya that she had no idea how to help. All she could do was sit on the floor of the purple nursery room, holding the little girl to her chest. She probably would've cried with her if she didn't think that it would just make things worse.
When Lucas walked into the nursery and saw Maya sitting criss cross against the wall with their infant in her arms he felt two different emotions. The first one was an immense sense of pride. He not only had the most beautiful wife in the entire world, but he also had the greatest daughter that anyone could ask for. The second emotion that he felt was frustration. Not at Maya or Clara, but at himself. He had to spend so much time at the practice and wasn't able to help out as much as he had wanted to.
Lucas lowered himself next to his girls and reached over to take Clara out of Maya's arms. "When was the last time you slept, babe?"
Maya rested her head on his shoulder, her body meshing against his perfectly. It was the best feeling in the world. She ran her fingers through her hair, shrugging. "Umm. I slept like six hours last night. Thank you for that, by the way."
Although he had to work during the days, Lucas was the best father that Maya could have asked for her little girl. When she cried at night he would be the one to take care of her, insisting that Maya got to sleep at least a few hours at night.
"It's the least I could do. You've given me such a perfect life." Both of them adverted their eyes to Clara. She was starting to resemble Maya more and more every day. Her eyes were round and blue just like her mother's. She had the same round shaped face that Maya had as well, and she was starting to grow tiny blonde curls.
Maya looped her arms around Lucas', nuzzling her head into his body. He was wearing her favorite red plaid shirt that reminded her of when they were kids. "Mmm. You say that but you wouldn't if you had to listen to her cry ALL day."
She was half kidding. Maya wouldn't give up Clara for anything in the world... But she really wished she could just skip the infant stage and move on to the cute toddler stage.
It was the exact opposite of Riley. Her and Farkle's son Issac didn't cry as often as Clara did. Whenever the two women would get together he would sit in Riley's arms cooing at her while Clara would just scream while Maya held her. She was starting to seriously think that she was the worst mother ever.
Riley had told her that she just figured it was colic, but Katy told Maya that she had been the exact same way. It was just a stubborn gene that was passed on from mother to daughter throughout time. That made a lot more sense to her than colic did.
"Well," Lucas' voice took Maya out of her thoughts and she looked up at him through sleepy eyes. "Farkle and I have been talking about how amazing you and Riley are and we thought that you two deserved to do something special. So we got both of you a weekend at this fancy spa that Zay said was amazing."
A genuine smile fell across his lips. Tears welled up in Maya's eyes, which she wasn't the biggest fan of. She couldn't decide if it was just because she was insanely tired or because of how much she truly loved the man next to her.
"You and Farkle are amazing, have I ever told you that?"
She leaned up and kissed him softly.
"Well, you haven't made fun of me in a while so I was beginning to think maybe you didn't like me anymore."
Lucas winked at her, nudging her slightly with his shoulder. They both fell into a fit of laughter that caused Clara to laugh along with them.
It was a disgustingly cute moment that Maya would paint about later that night after he and Clara fell asleep. She couldn't believe that her life had led her to sitting in the floor of a very purple room with Huckleberry Friar and their daughter.
It was a dramatic lead up, but the outcome to their life was perfect.
Riley was one of those parents who told people that Issac was twenty-five months old. Maya, on the other hand, was the type to shrug and say "she's two-ish". They were complete polar opposites when it came to parenthood.
So on days when they decided to take the toddlers out to the park it was especially hard.
The first time that the two of them had decided that the kids were old enough to play on the playground Riley had brought sanitary napkins and followed Issac around wiping everything off before he touched it.
Maya had no idea why Riley was so stressed about everything. She could only imagine it had to do with the fact that they were brought up so differently, but she still didn't get the whole shadow mommy thing that Riley had going on.
"Riles. Kids need germs. It makes them healthier."
Clara was covered in dirt from head to toe from playing in the sandbox. Her white blonde hair was tied up in a messy bun and she had on an old blue romper that Maya had found at the goodwill for a dollar.
Issac, on the other hand, was as clean as could be. He had on an outfit that Riley had ordered off of some boutique website that made him look like a tiny hipster and he had a beenie covering his long black hair.
"That can't be true, Maya. I mean... with all of these whackos out there not vaccinating their kids I can't even begin to tell you how important it is to keep them clean. I mean, you never know how many crazy viruses there are on the swings."
The two twenty-six year olds were following Issac around the playground. Maya was only participating in the toddler chase because she wasn't going to sit alone on the mom bench and Riley wasn't slowing down any time soon.
She let out a laugh, picking up Clara. Maya pulled her thumb up to her mouth, licked it, and used it to wipe a smudge of sand off of Clara's face. Clara scrunched her nose up and shook her head, "momma no!" She giggled when Maya repeated the action to get another smudge off.
"They're kids. They're supposed to get dirty. I promise you that he is going to be such a better person in the long run if you'd just let him roll around in the dirt a little bit.
Riley stopped in her tracks and picked up Issac. She turned to face Maya, a frown on her face.
"You think so?"
The blonde nodded as she pushed a little piece of hair out of Clara's eyes.
"What do you think, Issac? Do you want your mom to let you roll around in the sandbox with Clara?"
Issac nodded, wrapping his arms around Riley's neck. "Please momma please!" He delivered a kiss to Riley's cheek which illicit a smile from the taller girl.
"Okay fine, but if he gets the bubonic plague I'm totally blaming you."
Maya rolled her eyes playfully, sitting Clara down on the ground.
"Don't catch the plague. Don't eat bugs. Don't hit unless it's well deserved. Okay?"
Clara nodded and waited for Issac to be sat down next to her. As soon as his feet touched the ground she reached over and grabbed his hand. They held onto each other's hands tightly as they both walked over to the toddler's sand pit area. Maya wrapped her arm around Riley's shoulder and smiled brightly.
"They are going to totally get married one day."
"We are going to be the cutest mothers in law, Maya!"
Maya held her hand up to the sky, her friendship ring still firmly on her finger. Riley mimicked the act and they laced their fingers together.
She was pretty positive that anyone walking past them probably thought that they were probably a couple, but that had been happening all of her life and it never bothered her before. She and Clara were truly blessed to have Riley and Issac in their lives.
Clara was three and a half when Maya realized that she needed to start looking for a decent daycare for her. Up until then she had been living at home and taking care of the little girl. Her days were spent making puppets, coloring pictures, reading books, and doing all sorts of other fun things. She loved being a mother. Especially to a child like Clara.
At three years old she could already recognize some words when read and had a bigger personality than some people did at twenty years old. She was sassy just like Maya with the added bonus of having Lucas' empathy towards people and animals. Clara cared so much about everyone and everything around her. It was one of the greatest gifts that Maya thought her daughter could've ever had. She saw so much of Lucas in the little girl.
Maya hated to send her to daycare, mostly because she didn't want to leave her. But she was starting to realize that her daughter lacked some socialization skills when it came to kids her own age. She was great with Issac and Zay's daughter Lily, but any other kid that came around really didn't interest her much. She would say a polite hello to them and offer to share whatever she had... But once they wanted to start playing with her she would become uninterested in them.
One time at the mommy and me music class that Maya took her to a little girl came over to play with Clara. Clara had been wearing her long blonde hair in two french braided pig tails that day and her dress was pink with sparkles on it. When the other mother had brought the child (Maya thought her name was Sarah, but it may have also been Serena) over to play she had said that she was a little bit shy and wanted her to branch out more.
Maya watched as her daughter sat with the other little girl, who was wearing blue overalls and a ball cap. They spoke for a few minutes about whatever it is three year olds talk about. It was a really cute scene at first until Clara came up to Maya and tugged on her arm.
"Momma, I have a secret."
She excused herself from the other woman and pulled Clara over to the side of the room. Maya knelt down on the ground and looked at her little mini me. "What is it kid?"
Clara frowned, putting both of her hands on her mother's shoulders. "I want to be nice but Sarah is SO boring." She frowned and adverted her attention to the ground. "Do I have to play with her? She just wants to chew on the insta-ments."
It was clear to Maya that her daughter was struggling with the thought of hurting someone's feelings but she couldn't help to laugh a little bit at her mispronunciation of instruments. The smaller Friar furrowed her eyebrows and crossed her arms. She was clearly not happy at the fact that her mother was laughing at her.
"I'm sorry sweetheart, I'm not laughing at your situation I promise. How about you go and tell Sarah that she was fun to talk to but you are going to go ahead and go home. Is that okay?" She smoothed Clara's pigtails down a bit and gave her a kiss on the forehead. Clara replied with an okay then headed off to talk to the other little girl.
Maya eyed the two girls the entire time. It was hilarious to her how adult her little girl acted sometimes. She had walked over to Sarah and put her hand on the other child's shoulder. Maya could tell by the animated expressions on Clara's face that she was making up something about why she was leaving. Her hands were moving everywhere while she spoke and Maya had to fight the urge to pull out her phone and take a video to show Lucas later. Once Clara was finished talking she hugged Sarah and turned quickly on her heels before skipping towards Maya.
"Phew, that was a close call! I didn't think I'd get outta there!" Clara wiped her forehead dramatically and in that moment Maya was almost positive that she was actually Riley's child.
She laughed and reached down to pick the little girl up, "did she take the news well?"
Clara shrugged, wrapping her arms around Maya's neck. "Eh. It went okay. Can we go home now?"
Maya nodded at the little girl. Honestly she wanted to get home to meet up with Lucas. He absolutely had to hear about how funny their kid was. There were times when she felt bad that she got to stay with her all day while he had to work at the vet's office. At least when he got home he was always wanting to listen to her stories of their day. Lucas was the best husband and father that Maya could've ever wanted.
On the walk home they sang songs and pointed out all of the different art in the city. Clara noticed all of the art with vibrant colors. Every time she'd see something that she deemed pretty she would point to it and yell "ART" so loud that strangers on the street would laugh at the girl's innocence. Maya, on the other hand, would point out piece of art that were more subtile. Her favorite was the sculpture on 23rd that stood as tall as a four story building and reflected the sun in beautiful glimmers. She pointed out the old brass flowers next to the small park near their building, and the wind chimes that their neighbors hung all over their porch. Clara loved all of the art and Maya loved their mini adventures that they went on to find it.
When they walked into their building Maya sat Clara on the ground and grabbed her hand as they made their way to the elevator in the corner. They lived in a huge condo on the top floor in Greenwhich. It was a beautiful place that reminded Maya of Riley's place when she was little. The rooms were spacious and gave them a lot of room if they ever wanted to expand their family. Maya had decorated the place in bright reds and purples. Lucas had even built her a bay window in the corner and an area for her to paint that looked over the best view of the city she had ever seen. Maya had even given in and let him add weird cowboy themes throughout the house. In random corners there were statues of horses and a rack for cowboy hats that his Pappy Joe had given to him when he passed away. It was the perfect place for them, and it helped that Riley and Farkle were in the apartment right below theirs.
Once they got up to their apartment she unlocked the door and allowed Clara to run in first screaming for Lucas happily. When he heard them he quickly turned and caught her in a giant hug and threw her up in the air. Maya hated when he did that, it stressed her out more than she wanted to admit. But the two of them loved it and she didn't want to be the one to put a damper on their fun.
"Guess what your daughter did today." Maya walked towards their counter and pulled out a stool so that she could sit down. Lucas turned to look at her, Clara still firmly attached to his hip.
"Uh oh, Mommy is calling you MY daughter... What did you do, punk." He laughed and let his forehead rest on the three year old's, who was scrunching up her nose.
"Nothin!" She pulled away to put her tiny hands on his face so that she could squish his cheeks. "I just didn't wanna play with that girl." She shrugged, a grin toying on her lips. Maya knew that grin well; It was the Lucas grin. The one that Clara used when she wanted to reduce Lucas into a puddle. It usually worked. Lucas was a sucker for her.
"Were you mean?" He raised his eyebrow at an attempt to not give into Clara's cute factor.
The girl shook her head quickly, her eyes going wide. "No! I'm not mean! I'm nice! She's booooooooooring!" Clara huffed loudly and let her head fall back over dramatically. It was another moment that had Maya wondering if her child was actually Riley's child. "I can't be with boring! I miss my Isaac!"
Both adults in the room laughed at how much their child reminded them of Maya in that moment. She was always thinking about when she was going to get to hang out with Isaac again. For an almost four year old, she was way too into a boy already.
"Well, I was actually about to talk to your daddy about something Isaac related. How about you run to your room and color and let us talk about SUPER boring things?" Lucas put the tiny blonde down and she nodded before running off to her room. Once she was out of the room he sat down on the opposite end of the counter and raised his eyebrow.
"What's up Shortstack?"
The nickname still made her heart skip a beat. It reminded her of when they were kids and she got into a massive fight with Riley about it. At first it had been something annoying that she didn't want to associate herself with. It was before she had told him, or anyone, about her feelings and the nickname confused her because it made her feel things that she didn't understand. She used to sit awake at night painting and thinking about how he had a pet name for her but not one for Riley. It drove her absolutely insane.
"Riley and Farkle are putting Isaac in this daycare and I think it would be good for Clara to put her in it too." She knew he wouldn't object, because it was something that she wanted and he was really terrible at saying no to her. Since Clara was also his kid, she knew even if he wouldn't care he still definitely needed to know about it before her and Riley just decided on it.
Lucas had been paying attention to the way the sun shone through the window and reflected onto the side of Maya's face, turning her golden. He had gotten lost in the way her eyes lit up every time she said Clara's name and the way her lips moved when she smiled. He had been in a Maya daze and she had to snap her fingers a few times to get him out of it. When he finally did snap out of it he was met with that smile from Maya that he fell in love with back when they were kids. The one that said, 'I know the secret to the universe but I'll never tell.' He smiled back at her apologetically and cleared his throat. "Sorry. I'm listening. Daycare. Yeah, I think that's a good thing. Which one? I'm sure Riley already has one picked out, right?"
Maya nodded, pulling a flier out of her back pocket.
"Yeah, it's called Tiny Einstein's. It's basically a preschool for kids that are going to be moving on to Einstein Academy. Apparently it's the best preschool out there. Riley's had Isaac on the waiting list since he was born. At first I wasn't too into putting Clara in such a preppy place but I want to keep them together. Plus she's already smarter than he is too, and I know how much that frustrates Farkle. It's hilarious."
She handed the wrinkled up flier to her husband who started flipping through it immediately. It was full of pictures of smiling toddlers learning how to count, speak other languages, play instruments, and basically become tiny little CIA agents. It didn't look anything like the daycare he went to back in Texas.
"I don't know, Maya. This place seems kind of snoody. I mean. The daycare I went to in Texas was ran out of this woman's garage and we got to roll around in dirt and play with Chickens. I turned out just fine."
Maya bit back the urge to crack a joke about being a big ole farm boy, which surprised him. He had practically laid it out on her lap. "Yeah, you had that nice ole cowboy livin'. You know where my daycare was? The woman in the apartment across from ours would take me whenever my parents decided to ditch me for awhile and she would lock me up in her kids room with all of the other kids from the building. We had three books, two broken crayons, and our imaginations to work with."
She sighed, pushing her hair out of her face, "I just want to give Clara the chance that neither one of us had growing up. Tuition is pretty steep but with all of my commissions I've been doing lately and you being bumped up to partner at the practice I'm sure we could manage. Plus, and this is a huge one, Cory got me a job teaching art at Abigail Adams High... If I want it."
"What?! Maya that's amaz-"
"But I can only take it if Clara is in daycare."
Lucas smiled at his wife. She was perfect with all of her dreams for their daughter. He was constantly being reminded of how amazing she was and how he could walk on fire and still not deserve her love.
"Didn't you say Riley has had Isaac on the wait list forever?"
Maya frowned, nodding at his question. "Yeah, that's the hard part. They take late applications but we have to get it in like.. tomorrow. Can you take her to the office for like an hour tomorrow and I'll run her paperwork to the school?"
She stuck out her lower lip and fluttered her eyelashes at him, pretending to pout. It was something that still worked on him even after all of these years. Lucas just laughed and made his way around the counter to wrap his arms around Maya's waist. She leaned into him, closing her eyes as he hugged her tight.
"Of course I can. Everyone loves her there. Now, can I take my hot wife into the bedroom and celebrate your new teaching job? Because I'm super excited about that."
He planted a kiss to the side of her neck which caused her to lean her head slightly, a soft 'mmmmhm' coming out of her lips. He quickly reached down and picked her up bridal style and took her into the bedroom where they celebrated for an hour before it was time for dinner.
Two weeks had gone past since Maya had given the paperwork to Tiny Einstein's and she hadn't heard anything back since. It was starting to stress her out and in turn she was feeling really sick to her stomach. It had even gone as far as making her throw up a couple of times. It was weird, Maya had never really been the one to stress out over things. That had always been Riley's job. But the fact that her daughter's future and her friendship with Isaac rested on this meant it was a big deal. It was pretty silly, really. It wasn't like the two kids didn't live in the exact same building. Not only that, but she saw Riley every day. They always made sure that Isaac and Clara spent time together because they wanted to be sure that they grew up having what Riley and Maya did.
After her fourth run to the bathroom to stress vomit again she decided maybe it was a good idea to run to the doctor to figure out what was going on.
Riley agreed to take Clara for the afternoon while Maya was at the doctors, which was a relief to her. Normally when she took Clara to the doctor's office she would end up sneaking behind the desk and taking all of their stickers that they kept in the drawers. So when Maya had to take her to her "grownup" doctors she would get into things that she shouldn't on her search for stickers. One time she ended up getting into about a thousand cotton balls and was found rolling around in them under the secretary's desk. It was hilarious to Maya, but she was asked to not bring her child anymore if it was at all possible.
It also was a great get away for her. She was able to be without her child for a few hours and had full trust in the person watching her. She could go and get her nails done or get her hair washed. Sometimes she would go down to the park and paint in complete silence. It was nice, but after two hours or so she would start to miss her tiny little sass master and would end up running home to spend the rest of the day with Riley and the kids.
On the cab ride to her doctor's office she ended up having to throw up out of the window twice. It was absolutely disgusting and she felt a rush of embarrassment come over her. She hated other people seeing her weak and if this truly was stress causing the vomiting, it was definitely a huge sign of weakness. After a twenty minute ride in mostly stand still traffic she finally arrived at the doctor's.
She apparently looked pretty rough because as soon as she walked in she was greeted with wide eyes and stuck up noses.
"Name?"
The woman behind the desk had a look on her face that just screamed how much she hated her job. She had on thick rimmed classes and her hair in a tight pony tail with a giant scowl on her cherry red lips. On a normal day it would've bugged Maya to be met with such an unfriendly look, but today she just wanted to get the doctor visit over with and go back to her warm bed.
"Maya Friar. Is there any way I can be seen immediately? I've got a three and a half year old at home with my best friend and her three and a half year old. If I leave them for too long I think the kids might eat her alive." She managed to offer up a weak smile. The secretary didn't even offer one back, which on a normal day would bug Maya (because hello? She's hilarious), but it went unnoticed today.
"Uh, sure. Normally we don't do this but you look like you're going to blow chunks in the waiting room and I really don't want to buzz someone to clean it up. Go on back to room A3. Doctor James will be back there soon."
Maya replied back with a thank you and headed through the doors. When she got into the tiny room she quickly climbed onto the paper covered bed. Her legs crossed at her ankles and she allowed herself to rest on the her arms behind her.
Luckily for her the doctor was in the room within ten minutes. He flipped open her chart and looked at her with a frown.
"Maya Friar. Twenty-Six years old, right?"
She nodded in response. She was afraid if she opened her mouth she would blow chunks on the doctor.
"What's the issue today?"
"I feel disgusting. I've been throwing up for the last few days and my entire body is just sore. I'm trying to get my daughter into this super prestigious school and it's been stressing me out waiting for the answer. So I just figured it was stress related. But every single smell is triggering nausea and I thought it would be a good idea to come see what was up with that."
The doctor stopped writing in her chart, a smile forming on the corners of her lips.
"Mrs. Friar, have you been sexually active in the last few months?"
It was like a smack in the face. She all of a sudden remembered how she felt the week before she found out she was pregnant with Clara. Her body was sore, she was exhausted, and everything made her sick. She felt like she had been hit by a truck. It made sense too because her and Lucas had been pretty damn sexually active pretty much since they were in college.
"Wait, are you insinuating what I think you are?"
The Doctor kept the smile on his face the entire time, nodding.
"I think it would be smart to test to see if you're pregnant. It definitely sounds like pregnancy. Would you like to take the test?"
She didn't have anything to lose. If she were pregnant then she obviously would be happy about it, and if she weren't then they could figure out what was actually wrong with her.
Within thirty minutes after taking the test Doctor James walked in with the results. Maya's heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest. She remembered when she found out she was pregnant with Clara, how happy she had been about starting something new and exciting. But with this possibly pregnancy she felt different. She was happy about the possibility, but also freaking out a little bit. They had just gotten over the hard part with Clara and now they were going to have to start back from the beginning with an infant. Infants were her least favorite life stage.
"I have your results. Congratulations Mrs. Friar! You are about six weeks along."
She felt the color drain from her face. Every emotion was going through her body. The two biggest were fear and excitement. Fear of having a new baby in the house while still trying to take care of a toddler... Excitement , because she couldn't wait to see Lucas' face when she told him.. When she realized she was holding her breath she let it out in a big puff, smiling at the doctor in front of her.
"Wow. I didn't see that one coming. My husband is going to be over the moon."
She thanked the doctor for his help and made her way to the front to pay for her visit. Once she got outside and the air hit her face she let herself cry. They were happy tears, although she was fairly certain that the people walking past her probably thought she was dying. Maya couldn't believe that in eight months they would be adding another addition to her family.
After she stopped crying like an idiot on the streets of Manhattan she hailed a cab. Once buckled in she picked up her phone to call Riley, but since Riley was apparently a mind reader she was already calling Maya instead.
"Peaches! We got letters from Tiny Einsteins! I haven't opened them yet. How are you? What did the doctor say?!"
Maya couldn't spring the pregnancy on her best friend over the phone. Nor could she do it before telling Lucas. It seemed like an asshole move.
"Oh it's not super important right now. I'll be home in ten! I hope these letters have good news in them."
"I think they will! I have tons of hope! The universe wants to keep us together forever, so separating our kids would definitely be a no no on the Universe's part."
Maya laughed at her best friend. She admired that after all of these years Riley still kept her hope. If Clara and the new baby could learn anything from her, Maya hoped it was to believe in the good in everyone. That was Maya's favorite part about Riley.
"I'm sure it'll work out. The cab is pulling up to the building. I'll see you in a sec."
Maya thanked the cab driver for the ride, paying him. She quickly made her way into their building and towards the familiar elevator. She took a deep breath as the numbers lit up to tell her which floor she was at. Her mind was going crazy with the thought of the new baby and Clara getting into daycare. She wanted things to fall into place perfectly.
When she walked into Riley and Farkle's place she was greeted by a giant smile from Riley who was holding two envelopes in her hand. The kids weren't in the living room, which meant that Riley had managed to get Clara down for a nap. It was somewhat of a relief because Maya didn't think she had the energy to do it today and she hated when Clara didn't get one. She ended up super cranky and would refuse to take a bath or eat dinner.
Riley handed the envelope to the other woman, a huge smile resting on her face as she toyed with her own.
"Okay. If they don't get in it's okay. We went to public school and are just fine, right?" Riley kept her eyes on the envelope and took a deep breath.
"Riles. If they don't get in I'll make Lucas go up and bribe someone at the office to get them in. Okay?" It was half a joke and half the truth. She was pretty positive that if she asked him to he would do it, but she was really hoping that they kids would just get in so that he wouldn't have to do it.
The brunette nodded, looking up at her friend. "Okay. On the count of three we open it..."
"One..." Both of them started to lift open the envelope, eyes on eachother.
"Two..." It was mostly silent in the room. The only sound that could be heard was the tearing of the paper and their shaky breaths.
"Three.." They both ripped open their envelopes and pulled out the letters. Riley let out a loud scream of joy. She started jumping up and down immediately.
"HE GOT IN!"
Maya, on the other hand, furrowed her eyebrows as she read the word 'waitlist'. It was to be expected, since she didn't get her on the wait list when she was still in the womb like Riley did. But it didn't hurt any less.
"Clara is on wait list. It says she's second in line if any kids drop out. But let's be honest here, who drops out of the best daycare in the city?"
The taller woman frowned and pulled her best friend into a tight hug. Three weeks ago Maya didn't even care about something like this, but now that Clara didn't get in it felt like a kick in the face.
"I guess it's up to Lucas then to do the bribing? She's going to go to the school, Maya. I believe in the universe."
Maya laughed at the seriousness of Riley's words. She had to know that nothing Lucas could do was going to get Clara in there any faster. In the back of her mind she figured it was the best thing any ways. She could spend the next year at home with the new baby and Clara, then they would try again. It was the best option she had.
"What are you going to do, Riles? Figure out who's in front of us in line and convince them to drop out, then convince another kid who got in to quit too?"
She knew the look on her best friend's face very well. It was her 'scheme' look that she got whenever she was going to fix things. Riley didn't reply back to her, which only told Maya one thing...
"Oh, that's exactly what you're going to do isn't it?"
Maya sighed dramatically, "Okay but you and Lucas keep me out of this. I don't want to get my hands dirty and things always go better when you two wonder twins work it out."
Riley let out a loud 'yay' and hugged Maya tightly. It was as if they were back in middle school again. Riley was always scheming while Maya just went along with her ideas. It had been like that their entire lives.
"Maya our kids are going to have SO MUCH FUN TOGETHER!"
Maya laughed under her breath, nodding.
"Yea, all three of them."
She said the words before her brain could tell her not to. She didn't mean to tell Riley before Lucas, but her dumb mouth was always overriding her brain. The taller girl's eyes went wide as she pulled away from Maya. Her jaw hung slack, "...Three?! Maya... Are you?"
The blonde nodded, offering Riley a small smile.
"But I haven't told Lucas yet, so don't tell Farkle!"
Riley hugged Maya again, then moved her hand down to her stomach.
"This is SO exciting, Maya! I hope it's a boy. I'll have a girl eventually and then we will have double the chances of a relationship! Or you know, we can have kids of the same gender and they can get together. Whatever makes them happy makes me happy! Oh wow I'm rambling, this is just so exciting Maya! You and Lucas are going to be parents again! OH! CLARA IS GOING TO BE SUCH A GOOD BIG SISTER!"
Maya laughed and reached her hand up to shush the other girl. "You're going to wake Clara up, honey... Lucas should be home in twenty minutes or so. Can Clara keep napping while I go tell him? Then we can figure out a way to tell her too."
Riley nodded and gave her friend another hug before pulling away from her. The biggest smile Maya had seen in a while was still plastered on her face, "Of course. Also mention the bribing thing if you get the chance!" She paused and let her eyes gaze at Maya's belly. "A baby, Maya! He's going to be so happy."
A quiet laugh escaped Maya's mouth and she headed towards the door, thanking Riley for watching Clara as she walked out. Before she closed the door behind her she peaked her head back into the room and smirked at her best friend.
"You and Farkle better get to it tonight if you want these kids to be close in age."
Riley's cheeks turned red as Maya winked in her direction and closed the door without waiting for a reply. She then headed up stairs to break the news to Lucas that he was going to be a father... again.