Hey, there, guys! It's Pebble here with a behind the scenes look at the making of Unexpected Ties. For those who don't know, UT is a series of Girl Meets World fanfictions centering around Lucas and Maya- but it's far from a Lucaya fic. If you haven't read it I would love it if you'd check it out!

With the first book of the series drawing to a close soon, I thought it would be cool to make a sort of behind the scenes look at the story that I've been working on these past few months. Everyone seems to love it, so why not? So, without further ado... The Making of Unexpected Ties: Behind the Scenes!

Premise

Unexpected Ties was first thought of in late January-early Febuary of 2014, the idea being tossed around in my head for a few weeks before I finally decided to pitch the idea to my good friend and fellow Rucas and Faya shipper, Cowgirlangel95. It was originally inspired by a conversation the two of us had had a while back about Lucaya shippers and their belief that Maya and Lucas's bickering is flirting. We both agreed that they argue more like siblings, and the idea just kind of spun from there. I was nervous about it at first, because it was something nobody had done before, but I decided to bounce the idea off of Cowgirl, because I knew she would be honest with me.

On Febuary 21st, long after the original conversation, I told her about the idea;

"This is just a rough draft of an idea, but here it is:
It would be a darker, more angsty fic than I usually write. I know that Maya-centric fics are becoming kind of cliche, but I want to try my hand at one, and I don't think anyone has used this plot. It wouldn't even be completely Maya centric, either...
Anyways, so it would be set when they're like fifteen or sixteen, and Maya's father comes back and all of a sudden wants a part in her life. As mad as she is, she still wants to try to get to know him, but is scared to get too close to him and have him just leave.
Then it's revealed that her father has been living in Texas and had started a new family only shortly after Maya was born, but the marriage had failed a few years back (around the time the show started) and his second wife had taken their son to New York.
Maya and Lucas are half-siblings."

She quickly replied; "Oh my gosh that would be...AAAAAAAAAH!" and that's when I decided to write it. A few days later she pitched the idea for the title because I was having trouble coming up with one, and she said Unexpected Ties. In short, the story would not have made it past an idea if it weren't for Cowgirl.

I cannot take full credit for any of the contents of Unexpected Ties. Without the ideas and inspiration of Cowgirlangel95 and Bethany Tucker, another close friend of mine on here, none of my stories would be what they are.

The Universe

UT is set in an alternate universe from the actual show, with many differences, the key difference being the entire basis of the story- that Lucas and Maya are siblings.

Due to the continuity errors and such surrounding the character's ages, I went with my own headcannons for this story;

* Riley's birthday is confirmed to be December 8th, 2001, and that aspect has not changed. Since the story starts in early January of 2017, Riley would have recently turned 15 in the beggining, but she will be 16 in Shadows of the Past.

* Girl Meets Master Plan depicts the events of Maya's 14th birthday. The only problem? That's about halfway through seventh grade, which is usually when a student turns 13. Which means she must have either been held back a year or started school late, though I stuck with the latter rather than the former for this story because it makes more sense to me. So at the very beggining of UT, she's 15. But January 16th (the date Master Plan originally aired; I just kept that as her actual birthday because we haven't been given any reason not to) marks her sixteenth birthday- by the end of SotP, she will have turned 17.

* We haven't been given much information about Farkle's birthday in the show, but because I don't think he's a clone or a robot, we'll just say he's the same age as Riley, give or take a few months.

* Lucas... we learned a lot about his past in Girl Meets the Secret of Life... after I'd already started this story, which kind of messed up things. But I wanted to keep the fighting and things, so here's my in-this-universe conclusion about the Maya-Lucas-Daniel thing;

Lucas is only a few months younger than Maya because after Daniel got mad at Katy because he wanted a boy, not a girl, he got Lucas's mother pregnant. The influence of his father made him act out at school, eventually leading him to be held back a grade and eventually expelled after he took it too far in a fight. He's fifteen in Unexpected Ties, but by Shadows of the Past he's turned 16, leaving he and Maya nearly a year older than their classmates.

This not only helped me clear things up, but quite frankly it made Daniel seem like more of the jerk he is.

Though most of the things that have happened in the show have happened, some things either haven't or have changed.

* Lucas and Maya have their mother's last names

** Even further, Maya revealing her great-grandmother's last name in 1961 would have had some sort of impact on Lucas, who knew his father's last name was Clutterbucket, and it's not exactly a common name. So the events of the episode simply didn't happen, or else they would have known that they wre related way sooner.

* At the beggining of the story, nothing has really changed about Lucas and Riley's relationship since The New World. They're still very close friends, but are kind of awkwardly skirting around each other, not quite ready to take the next step. This sort of changes by the end of the story.

Well, this is all I can think of at the moment, but if you want to know any more, feel free to ask! I'll use this "story" for FAQ and interviews and such, so just shoot me a PM or a review and I'll answer as soon as I possibly can!

You guys are gonna hate me for how Sunday's chapter ends, lol. See you then! :D

- Pebblemist