Prologue. 1/?
"And if something beautiful happens- paint me a picture."
Mr. Matthews bestowed a gift and an obligation upon you with those words. When you feel the warm, soft sketch pad underneath your fingers after opening it once you get home, you know it's special. You sit on your bed, left hand on the first page, pencil in the right, waiting for creativity to come. Nothing. You don't want to draw stray lines only to erase them, you know this was expensive and you don't want to waste a single page. Besides, you're supposed to wait for that something beautiful to happen. Your eyes trail to your purple walls, and you imagine filling them up with paintings and drawings. You sit for hours, just waiting for a spark to fill you up and for your hand to move across the page. Nothing. Then you think back to what Mr. Matthews told you as he gave you his gifts: "If something beautiful happens, paint me a picture." You set the pad to the side, on your plain white sheets, and decide to wait until that something beautiful.
You fall back on your bed, and your hand moves to your pocket, pulling out your brand new iPhone, white and shiny. You tried not to show it, but you were so happy when Mr. Matthews handed you the phone. You hold down the power button and it comes to life, a little apple logo lighting up the screen. This is one of the nicest things… if not the nicest thing you own. As the screen lights up and fades to the home screen, your phone immediately vibrates with notifications from Riley. You know Mr. Matthews activated it before giving it to you, and let Riley set it up because your background picture is a silly selfie of Riley, and her contact name is paired with multiple hearts and emoticons. You smile at their effort, something that is sort of unfamiliar to you. Sixteen messages, saying: "Maya!" "Mayaaaaaaaaaaa!" "Mayaaaanaiseeeee :)" "My dad is SO COOL!" "Hurry up and come over!" You giggle at your best friend's excitement, and make your way to crawl out of your window and onto the fire escape. It's hot and sticky despite the sun having gone down an hour or two ago, and your steps clang loud as you make your way down the metal stairs. Her window is already open, so you climb through.
Riley is laying on her bed, and she doesn't move as you loudly make your way in. She only says, "I've been waiting for hours, you know." She laughs a little bit, then pats the spot next to her. You join her on her sheets, laying back with a heavy sigh.
"Your dad is cool for the phone, you know." You say, slightly embarrassed at the fact that he thought you even needed one. The Matthews always went above and beyond for you, and this topped anything they ever did for you. Riley turns her head towards you, and you smile at her. She returns the grin, and turns her entire body towards you, leaning her head on her hand. You follow suit.
"Yeah, I didn't even mention it to him or anything. He just did it. Now we can FaceTime, and text all the time!" She says excitedly. You raise an eyebrow at her, and roll your eyes.
"We always texted all the time."
"Still, now we can video chat, and play games, and do other stuff!" Her eyes are wide, a smile splitting her face. You laugh a little, then continue.
"He gave me a sketch pad too." You leave out the whole, "if something beautiful happens" stuff, because it's a little embarrassing and personal. Riley is your best friend, but it's still hard to talk to her about your feelings. There's been times where you've cried to her about your father, and that shame embarrassed you, to where you've avoided the subject as much as possible. "Tell him thanks, again." Riley nods. Then she smirks, and turns a little red.
"Soooooo….. Me and Lucas." She playfully sings. You raise your eyebrows. This is new. "We were in the library today."
"I know, Riles, I was there too." You scoff. She always forgot little things like that.
"Right. But… we had a little bonding moment if I must say so myself." She says in a faux brag voice. "I think things are getting pre-tty serious." You stop yourself from rolling your eyes. It's Riley's first crush, and from what you can tell, Lucas is crushing on her right back. It's cute. You've never seen her like this.
"Geez, just let me know when the wedding is," You joke. "I'll be sure to send you a blender." Riley laughs, and counters back.
"Oh please, you know you're going to be my maid of honor. I'm thinking pink and white." You stick out your tongue in disgust.
"Riles, you know I hate pink. No can do." Riley pouts, her eyebrows coming together.
"Not even for me?" She says in a puppy voice, her lower lip jutting out. You can't help but turn a little red, and you sit up, swinging your legs over the side of the bed.
"Not even for you, babes." You smirk, tossing your hair over your left shoulder. Riley groans, and sits up. She twists her lips for a second before speaking.
"So, I know you guys dated for like, thirty seconds, but what do you think of Lucas?" She asks, hesitant. You think for a moment. You hardly know the guy, but he seems so full of himself, like he knows he looks good. He knows everyone at school wants him. You hate his stupid Texas accent, and the way he counters right off of you when you try to make fun of him.
"I think that cowboy needs to mosey on back to the rodeo." You huff. Riley frowns, and you raise an eyebrow. "I mean, he's…. Whatever. I just don't like the kid. But… whatever makes you happy." She take this as approval, and smiles hard.
"You gotta tell me how to get him, Maya!" She begs, clasping her hands together. "Boys have had crushes on you ever since we were in kindergarten. Remember Eric Wilson? Fourth grade? He was crazy for you." You smirk at the memory. Oh, Eric. Good times. Handball was never the same. "You gotta know the magic secret." You laugh at this, it only had a little bit of truth to it. Sure, you may not be school smart most of the time, you might not know the fanciest words, but you sure do know people. You're smart with people. It came naturally.
"You just have to have confidence, Riles." As her BFF, you know everything about her. And what you do know, is that Riley is horrible with self confidence. You catch her putting her head down when Lucas walks by, she turns into a tomato when she sees a cute boy. It sucks, but she has to learn. And she groans at this, and you smile a little bit.
"Just wish I could like... do some magic and he'd fall in love with me." She sighs. "I don't even know how to talk to him." Your eyes glaze over as she continues speaking, you remember a time where she would stutter anytime anyone would just mention the word "boy".
"Maya! I'm talking to you!" You jump, and chuckle. "He's just so..."
"Annoying? Ugly? Freaky?" You finish, half smiling. She frowns, and punches your shoulder.
"Awesome." She rolls off of the bed, and crosses to her windowseat. You follow her, taking a seat at the opposite end.
"I feel like something amazing is going to happen, My." She says, looking you in the eyes. You grin, and put your feet up.
"With Lucas?" You stick your tongue out teasingly. She shakes her head, her eyebrows scrunching together a little bit.
"No, with us." Your face heats up a tiny bit, and you raise your eyebrows. "Something huge is going to happen to us. You and me."
"Like?"
"I'm not sure." She lets out a long breath. "I just know that one day, something is going to change our life in a big way. And we're gonna be there, together, to experience it. Like best friends are supposed to." Your eyes flick to the ground as you can't help yourself from smiling hard.
"You're so weird," your head shakes. "But I can't wait for whatever you have in store." She smiles at you, and you begin to share the feeling with her. You two are destined for amazing things. It might take forever, and it might happen now, but when it does, you'll be ready.
She looks out of the window, up at the moon and smiles. You don't hear what she's saying about Lucas, with a shine in her eyes, hugging her knees to her chest, but a feeling washes over you.
You consider Riley for a second, you eyes unable to tear away from her in this moment, and your throat constricts slightly before you swallow. You're not sure why, but you feel as if you should have your sketch pad with you, right at that moment.
This prologue is to set up the basis of a symbol that will be prevalent in this story- Maya's sketchpad. This story will quickly deviate from the current canon seasons- events that occur as the show airs may and will be mentioned, but specific verbatim may be altered, or omitted.
We will follow Maya and Riley as they grow up. I couldn't write a slash pairing such as that if they remained twelve or thirteen years old, and many scenarios will be age or grade specific. This story will include drugs, sex, and cursing in later chapters, and chapters will be lengthy. We will be exploring the dynamic of codependency, and improbable possibilities. Thank you.