As Maya and Riley waited for the subway to take them to school, Riley let out an excited squeal.

"Riles, chill," Maya told her best friend. "It's just school."

"It is not 'just school,' Peaches. This is the first day of our sophomore year," Riley proclaimed. "Did you know sophomore has three O's in it?!"

Maya thought about this for a second. "Wait, where's the third O?"

The subway car pulled up as Maya was thinking. Riley took her friend's hand and pulled her in.

"Where is it?" Maya asked again.

Riley put her arm around Maya. "Right in the middle!"

"Why would they do that?" Maya asked, annoyed once again with the English language. "That's not fair! Who puts a silent O in a word that already has two perfectly good O's?!"

….

Maya saw Riley, but she looked different, like there was some longing in her eyes. She cupped Maya's face in her hands and brought their lips together. And then they were kissing. Really kissing, not just a quick peck on the lips. Maya had never kissed anyone like this before. And neither one of them pulled away. Suddenly a loud beeping noise rang out and Maya's eyes flashed open.

She was in her bedroom. She had been dreaming. About kissing her best friend. About kissing a girl. But she wasn't… No, it had just been a weird dream. Of course she saw Riley's face in her dream; she did pretty much everything with Riley. Because they were best friends, not because… No, it was stupid to worry about this. Dreams are weird.

….

"Hey Riles, can I ask you a question?" Maya said as they were walking towards the subway the next day.

"Peaches, you can ask me anything."

"Do you believe dreams mean something?" Maya asked hesitantly.

"If you can dream it, you can do it!" Riley looked off into the distance as she said this, as if imagining it written in the sky.

"No, I mean like-"

"Walt Disney said that." Riley interrupted.

"Okay, but not that-"

"Do you not believe in Walt Disney's dreams?"

"No, not like what you want to do with your life kind of dreams, the kind that you have when you're asleep." Maya explained.

"Oh, so like when you're the princess of a fairy kingdom."

"Yeah."

"That's also my dream of what I hope to accomplish in life."

Maya laughed. Only Riley would say stuff like that. So innocent, so adorable.

….

"Farkle, you've taken psychology, right?" Maya cornered him at his locker on the way to lunch.

"Yeah" he replied nervously.

"And they teach you about dreams and stuff, right?"

"Well, there's many different schools of thought on dreams. Freud, for instance-"

"If you do something in a dream," Maya asked hesitantly. "Does that mean you want to do it in real life?"

"Freud would say so, but he also said a bunch of other stuff that doesn't have a whole lot of scientific backing. Some scientists think that dreams are just a bunch of nonsense caused by random electrical signals in your brain while you're unconscious. But you also have to understand that you have to connect all the pieces in order to remember your dream, and that's your conscious mind."

"Can you skip the science and just give me a clear answer?"

It would be a lot easier if you could tell me what specifically we're talking about here.

Maya grabbed Farkle by his shirt collar and dragged him down the hall into a janitor's closet.

"If you tell anyone about this-" Maya threatened.

"I won't." Farkle promised.

"Like a dream about another person," Maya hesitated. "And their mouth."

"Like a kissing dream?" Farkle asked. Maya didn't say anything. Farkle grinned. "You had a kissing dream?! Was it about me? Ow!" Farkle exclaimed as Maya punched him in the arm. "Was it about Lucas?" he asked in a more serious tone.

"I don't want to talk about this!" Maya said angrily.

"It was about Riley," Farkle realized. He put up his arms to defend his face as Maya raised her fist again. But she didn't hit him. "I won't tell anybody. I promised, remember?"

Maya sat down holding her head in her hands.

"Listen, it's okay to have feelings," Farkle told her, sitting down next to her.

"Shut up! I don't have feelings for anyone." Maya insisted.

"I'm trying to help you. It's good to talk about this kind of thing."

"I don't want to talk." Maya grumbled, still staring at the floor.

"Just listen then, okay? And don't tell anyone I told you this."

Maya didn't say anything and Farkle continued.

"Remember in 7th grade when Lucas moved here and he became our friend? I always thought he was so cool. At the time, I thought I liked him so much because he was popular and athletic and good looking, everything I wanted to be. But then when he and Riley started dating, and I thought that was because I liked Riley, and I do, but now I think it was mostly because I liked Lucas."

Maya looked up at Farkle, but she didn't say anything, so Farkle continued.

"I know it's scary, finding out something new about yourself. But it's okay to have feelings, Maya."

He gave her a hug and she didn't protest like she normally would.

"We should probably leave this closet and go to lunch though," Farkle said. "Unless you want people to think we're making out in here."