It's Still Rock and Roll to Me.
I know I probably shouldn't be starting another story, but this one has been sitting with me in my head for quite some time. I originally wanted to make this a one shot, but didn't think that would do it justice! Love it? Hate it? Please leave me a review letting me know what you think! :)
Lucas Friar had only been in New York for a few weeks, and today was his first day at the new school. He was able to convince his parents to let him take the subway, leaving the house early so he'd have plenty of time to get there, even if he missed his stop. He boarded the subway and sat down on the seat, comic book in hand and his iPod on shuffle. He rode along, occasionally glancing up to make sure he didn't miss the stop for his new school. He looked up from his comic book when the last notes of his favorite song faded from his ears. His eyes caught the sight of a blonde haired girl wearing an ACDC shirt and a bright smile, standing beside a brunette, both looking over at him. He couldn't help but smile as the blonde started walking towards him. He removed his earbuds as she approached him.
"Hi! I'm Maya. You're really cute! We should hang out sometime…" he still hadn't had a chance to say a word to her as she proceeded to profess her love for him and then dump him in a matter of seconds. He couldn't help the puzzled look on his face as she walked back over to her friend. He wasn't sure what exactly just happened, but his mama taught him that he should always be polite and speak when he's spoken to. His stop was approaching, so Lucas stood up and walked over to the blonde and the brunette, smiling as he approached them. The brunette had a big cheesy grin on her face, awkwardly laughing as he stopped to stand right in front of them. "Hi Maya, I'm Lucas. I like your shirt. You're really cute too." He said with a wink and a nod of his head as he stepped off the subway and walked away. Over his shoulder he heard the brunette shout "I'M RILEY!"
It turned out that Maya and Riley went to the same school that he did. He shares the same history class with them, which is taught by Riley's dad. He likes the class, but Mr. Matthews is always trying to get rid of him, which probably has something to do with Riley awkwardly giggling every time she walks by him. He hopes that one day she'll be able to talk to him as friends without giggling, but he likes that he and Maya have a kind of teasing game going back and forth.
He's not really sure exactly why, but every time Maya teases him he can't help but feel a funny feeling in his stomach. He asks Maya and Riley if they plan on going to the dance, and he can't help but chuckle when Maya says, "He'll be the one in the cowboy hat going like this," before doing a silly jig he remembers seeing Cletus do at the rodeo a few years ago. He decides to wear a cowboy hat to the dance and brings a rose to give to Maya. The look on her face when she realizes that he actually enjoys the game they play with each other makes him smile.
They're working on their history projects about the 1960s when she finds out that his great grandfather was a country singer. Even though his family moved here from Texas he had hoped that he could keep the cowboy jokes and nicknames to a minimum. When Riley gave Maya the guitar and she sang the song about Bucky McBoing Boing he knew that the cowboy names were here to stay.
They'd all hung out together, Riley, Maya, Farkle, and him. They'd spent time together at the bakery, at Riley's house, and at Farkle's house, but never at his or at Maya's house. When Mr. Matthews decided that they would have their own muffin business, he knew that they would need to work together to make their business successful, so he invited Maya to his house so they could make muffins.
They decided to meet at Maya's locker and walk to Lucas's house together as soon as school ended so they could get started making the muffins for their company. Lucas walked out of his math class and walked towards Maya's locker, seeing Riley trying to talk to Maya as Maya was busy putting her things in her locker. He couldn't help but overhear Maya's voice as she responded back to whatever Riley was saying. "… Riles, we're literally going to be making muffins… He doesn't wanna go out with me… Yes, I'll invite you to the wedding when I marry anyone besides Lucas… I'll call you when I get home tonight." Lucas decided that was enough eavesdropping and walked up to the pair, making his presence known. "Hey." He announced, adjusting his bag on his shoulder. He smiled at both Maya and Riley. "Ready to go?" He asked Maya.
"Yep. The sooner we can get this over with, the sooner I can get home and binge watch Red Planet Diaries." Maya answered.
Lucas smirked and waved goodbye to Riley and Farkle as they walked out the front door of the school and headed towards the subway to head to his house.
They didn't really talk the entire way to his house, only the quietly whispered "thanks" from Maya when Lucas caught her when she stumbled as someone bumped into her on the subway. Neither of the mentioned that his hand stayed there on the small of Maya's back until they reached the stop that led to his house.
Maya was surprised when Lucas grabbed her hand and headed towards his apartment building. He continued to hold her hand as they walked up the two flights of stairs to his apartment, only dropping it once they reached the front door of his apartment as he dug his keys out of his pocket.
"Alright Huckleberry, what kind of muffins are we trying to make?" Maya asked as they walked in the front door of his apartment.
Before Lucas could respond a shout of "Luke, honey, is that you?" rang out through the apartment.
"Yes Mama, it's me, and I brought a friend." Lucas responded back as he took Maya's jacket from her and placed it on the hook by the door.
Lynn Friar walked out of the kitchen and saw Lucas and Maya standing in the hallway. "Well hey darlin'! I'm Lynn, and you must be Maya. You're just a pretty as you sound from the stories I've been told, and I heard you have good taste in music too."
Maya smiled and shot a glance towards Lucas, whose face was turning red. "Uh, mama, we're here because we have to make muffins for school."
"Well you're in luck, I just got back from the store and we have all the ingredients for those berry oat muffins that I was gonna make for brunch on Sunday. Y'all can just make them and use those."
"Thank you, Mrs. Friar." Maya said with a smile as she followed Lucas into the kitchen.
"Thanks mama."
"If y'all need any help, just let me know." Lynn said before walking away.
After a couple of minutes of awkward silence, Maya looked up at Lucas with a smirk. "So… you talk about me with your mom? And she thinks I have good taste in music? Is this because I wrote a country sound about you, Huckleberry?"
Lucas rubbed the back of his neck and let out a slight chuckle. "I might have told my parents about how we first met, and how you told me that I was cute. And the good taste in music is because you were wearing an ACDC shirt when I first met you."
"I find it hard to believe that you listen to anything but country music. You have a country singing great grandfather, and you wore a cowboy hat to the school dance."
"You'd be surprised at the things you don't know about me." He responded.
Maya didn't say anything back, she just walked over to the sink to wash her hands so they could get started.
They gathered all the ingredients and got everything ready to start making the muffins. After almost 2 hours they had made more than 90 muffins, and they were both covered in flour and muffin ingredients. Sometime in the middle of the muffin making, Lucas turned on the radio and Maya was surprised to hear Lucas singing along to the sounds of Aerosmith. It really surprised her when he attempted to sing the really high part of "Dream On" using the wooden spoon as a microphone and he actually didn't sound that bad.
Maya couldn't stop the laughter and the smile that kept bubbling up as they danced around the kitchen, cleaning up the mess that they'd made while making the muffins. "This has actually been a pretty fun way to spend a Tuesday afternoon."
Lucas's mother walked into the kitchen and smiled when she noticed the two teens laughing and joking around. "Well I'm about to start cooking supper, you're more than welcome to stay for supper, darlin'."
"I appreciate the offer, but I really should probably get going." Maya replied.
"Nonsense. I won't take no for an answer! Besides, its Taco Tuesday, and Lucas told me how much you love tacos." Lynn responded.
"Well alright, I guess I'll stay for supper." Maya relented.
Lucas smiled as Maya agreed to stay for supper.
"Ooh! And you'll finally get to meet Luke's dad, Mark!"
"… and then, Luke jumped off the porch of Pappy Joe's ranch and broke his arm! My little daredevil son. He couldn't play piano for weeks!" Lynn said with a chuckle.
"We were all convinced that Luke did that so he wouldn't have to help out with the chores on the farm." Mark Friar replied, winking towards his son.
"I was 9! And besides, that was the summer I learned how to cook. Grammy Jean wouldn't take a broken arm as an excuse to not help out somehow." Lucas responded with a laugh.
"Your brother was so mad that he had to spend all summer taking care of all the horses while you got to stay inside in the air conditioning." Mark Friar laughed.
"Yeah, John didn't talk to me for days after I broke my arm, I'm pretty sure he was just feeling guilty that he dared me to jump and I ended up breaking my arm." Lucas replied.
"I didn't know you had a brother!" Maya exclaimed, face still smiling from laughing at all of the Friars' stories.
"Yep, I have an older brother, Johnathan. He's 5 years older than me. He's at University of Tennessee, but he'll be in town for fall break." Lucas answered.
"Well I can't wait to meet him." Maya said, placing her hand on Lucas's arm, the two older Friars watching the exchange between the two teens with faint smiles on their faces.
The clock on the wall chimed 8:30. "Oh my gosh, it's already 8:30! I should really get going!" Maya announced, jumping up from her seat at the table. "Thank you so much for having me over for dinner!"
"Well thank you for staying and visiting with us, Darlin'. You're more than welcome to come over and visit any time." Lynn Friar said as she stood up to walk Maya to the door. "Luke, honey, get her jacket and help her into it."
"No, it's okay." Maya tried to protest, but Lynn just waved it off.
"I'm trying to raise my boys to be gentlemen, which is why he's gonna walk you home as well."
Lucas knew better than to argue with his mother. "Yes ma'am."
"That you again for a lovely evening." Maya called out as Lucas held the front door open for her.
The pair slowly walked down the stairs and headed out into the chilly New York night. After a few moments of silence, Maya spoke up. "Well that was a pretty fun night, Huckleberry. And those tacos were amazing."
"I'll have to tell mama that you liked them. Just be warned, you'll probably be expected to show up for every taco Tuesday." Lucas chuckled.
"And I'm okay with that." Maya replied with a laugh. "So how long have you played piano?" she asked as she shoved her hands into her coat pockets.
Lucas smiled down at her. "I started lessons when I was 4, so 10 years?" he answered.
"10 years?! Wow that's a long time to do anything. I bet you're pretty good." Maya stated. After a second, she did the math. "Wait, you're 14? No wonder you're so freakishly tall!"
Lucas's face flushed, and he rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I'm a year older than everyone."
"Did you get held back or something? It's okay if you did, they wanted to have me repeat 1st grade because they thought I didn't know how to read, when really I was just lazy." Maya said.
"Something like that…" Lucas stopped walking and turned towards Maya, and grabbed her hands in his hands. He took a deep breath.
"Whatever it is Huckleberry, you can tell me." Maya whispered, Lucas could see the sincerity reflecting in her eyes.
"The reason I'm a year older than everyone isn't because I was held back, but because I was kicked out of school. I got into a really bad fight and got expelled for an entire year." Lucas took another deep breath.
Maya's eyes went wide with surprise before a smirk graced her lips. "Wow Lucas, who knew you were such a badass piano playing cowboy." She winked at him before looking at him sincerely again. "Don't worry Huckleberry, your secret is safe with me. Riley still needs her perfect Prince Charming." Maya quietly mumbled the last part, but Lucas still heard it.
They slowly started walking in silence again. "Hey Maya, tell me a secret. I shared one with you, now it's your turn."
Maya looked over at Lucas and reached over to grab his hand. "I enjoyed spending time with you today."
Lucas's face had a look of surprise for a couple of seconds before settling into a smile.
Both of them could feel the shift in their friendship. They finally reached the steps to Maya's apartment building, and another awkward silence surfaced. "Thanks for walking me home, Huckleberry. I'll have to tell your mom that you were a perfect gentleman."
"Any time Maya. Maybe next time you can even hear me play the piano."
Maya smiled at Lucas at the thought of next time and squeezed his hand one last time before walking into her apartment. "Good night Huckleberry."
"Good night Maya Penelope Hart."