Author's note:
I wrote this not too long before "Girl Meets Texas" and I've been debating if I should post it or not. They say that nothing ventured...anyway, here's a short story about my favorite non-couple. Also, I'm not used to FanFiction's story uploader so if this comes out all wonky please bear with me. Oh, one more thing. This story was meant to cross into another set of stories I wrote so there are two characters that show up, but they're not here long enough to really have an impact on anything. I'm sure you'll figure out who they are.
Chapter 1: Stoop Sale
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"Seriously? Why are we going to this thing?" Maya Penelope Hart wondered out loud. She ran her fingers though her lightly curled dirty blonde hair and straightened her black leather vest. Her best friend in the world, Riley Matthews, had convinced the rebellious blonde to spend their three day weekend in a flurry of second-hand store shopping, movie matinees, and possibly attending Farkle's "Three Days of Freedom" party, the last of which took place on that very night.
Maya didn't want to admit it, but their little Farkle had come a long way from brightly colored turtleneck sweaters and history dioramas. Though he still wore mostly black like his alter-ego Donnie Barnes, his wardrobe expanded to include splashes of color here and there. In fact yesterday he had worn what was potentially Maya's favorite combination of a black hoodie, blue jeans and hi-tops, with a bright red shirt that read "Fries Matter" in bright yellow block font. It was by far the dumbest thing she had ever read, but for some reason it was adorable on him.
"Earth to Maya!" Riley yelped as she snapped her fingers in front of her friend's face. "If you're gonna complain about our plans you can at least listen to me remind you why we're going."
Maya shook the images from her head and made eye contact with her friend. "Okay, why are we going?"
"Because we promised Farkle."
And there it was, the one thing Maya had no witty comeback for. A promise was a promise, especially when it was made to someone as loyal as Farkle. Without saying a word she slipped on her well-worn combat boots and swung open the Matthews' front door. "Alright then, Dorothy," she said with a grin, "we're off to see the wizard!"
.
The sun shown bright upon the streets of New York as the two teenagers made their way down the road past families enjoying their time together and power joggers walking their Pomeranian puppies. The two girls ooh'd and ah'd at all the knicknacks and chotchkies in the horrifically overpriced stores and tried on every frilly dress and Egyptian cotton scarf they could find.
While Riley ran like a maniac around the pink foofy section of some high-end department store Maya opted to browse the flea market that took up one end of the park across the street. Tables adorned with cheap penny tees and home-made jewelry were spread across the park grounds like a giant shining snowflake. There were only a few places in this world where Maya Hart felt like she was at home; The Matthews' house, the art room at school, Topanga's coffee house, and now this market.
She came across a table full of vintage band shirts and decided to pick out a few. There was one in particular, a retro Ted Nugent "Motor City Madhouse" shirt, that caught her eye.
Lucas might like this, she thought before immediately kicking herself mentally and dropping the shirt as if it were on fire. Ever since her little stunt during the whole yearbook debacle Maya had found herself thinking of the Southern gentleman more and more. It wasn't as if she could help it, the cowboy was just so sickeningly sweet and charming and handsome, what girl wouldn't go gaga over him?
Still, Riley would be broken beyond repair if she ever found out that her best friend was pining not only after her uncle, the boy-band hot Joshua Gabriel Matthews, but also her "unofficial thing" Lucas Friar. Oh, but Lucas was someone worth pining for.
She shook everything off like so much dirt and picked out three shirts before heading to the cashier. As she handed the fifteen dollars to the pink-haired girl behind the table Maya felt a cold stare drilling into the back of her head. Whipping around she came face to face with her best friend.
"What kind of world do we live in where two glamorous young ladies such as ourselves can't afford at least one cashmere shawl!?"
Maya patted her bubbly cohort on the head and smiled, "Aw, pumpkin, it's because a Madeleine Thompson cable-knit cashmere wrap is NINE-HUNDRED AND TEN DOLLARS." Maya knew exactly which shawl she was talking about, Riley had pined for it every day after school. They had visited the store so many times that eventually the sales people stopped asking them if they needed help and just let them be.
Riley huffed, "It's a crime against humanity."
"Of course it is." Maya replied while tossing her the lime green Shonen Knife shirt she had picked out for her friend. "Now c'mon, I hear that weird old lady Zenobia is having another stoop sale. Remember when she sold you the-"
"PINK BUNNY SLIPPERS!" Riley yelled before running off.
.
"I'm telling you this little trinket grants wishes!" the elderly Zenobia Palmyrene yelled at one of her customers while she fixed her dentures.
The young man standing before her looked skeptical, "Okay, you're gonna have to explain that one to me." he said as he reached for the large brass buckle that was the topic of their conversation.
Without warning the fiery old woman slapped his hand away. "You punk, I didn't finish explaining!"
"Hey, Mrs. Palmyrene." Riley said as the two girls skipped up to her trinket-covered table. "Why are you hollering at the handsome man with the nice head of hair and the rippling muscles hidden underneath the gray shirt with the weird phrase on it and the Army fatigue jacket with the equally weird phrase on it?"
Maya scrunched her nose, "How do you know he's got muscles?"
The handsome man in question removed his jacket that read "I'm with the HIPPIES" and flexed.
"Okay, how did you know that?"
Riley smiled, "I've studied how Lucas' jacket sits on his shoulders."
Maya patted her friend's head again, "You're adorable when you're obsessed."
"Oi!" old lady Zenobia yelled, "I'm explaining what this buckle does, I don't care who listens at this point!" She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "As I was saying, this little trinket grants wishes. It can make anything you eat delicious, it can take away concerns so you can sleep at night, and make the love of your life and you reunite." she smiled softly at that one, "It can right the wrongs in your past or your future, BUT-" she slapped Riley's hand away, "-it'll only do one thing so when you take possession of it whatever you wish it'll cling to."
The handsome man with the nice hair scoffed, "That sounds like magic."
"It is."
"Magic isn't real."
"Says the boy with the washboard for a stomach."
He blushed hard at that."Anyway," he covered, "you got any proof that it works?"
Zenobia smiled, "Of course! I got this buckle from a pawn shop in Chicago when I was about your age. The old man told me the same thing I told you now so I made a wish, I wished that my husband would come back from Laos and spend the rest of his life with me. Sure enough, six months later, he showed up on our doorstep wearing something like you are now-" she pointed to the handsome man's jacket, "-and swore to the Lord that he would never leave me again. He never did."
"AAAAAAAAAAWWWWW!" the two girls sighed.
The handsome one laughed, "That's a coincidence, there's no way-"
"Fredward Leonard Benson!"
The group turned, running up to them was a silver-haired old man wearing a black coat and slacks with a white button up. His brows were furrowed and looked like Hellfire while his smoky blue/green eyes barely contained the insanity behind them. He bee-lined it right up to the table.
The handsome one (apparently named Fredward) dropped into some kind of Karate stance. "What the heck? What's your problem? How do you know who I am?" he asked hysterically.
The old man looked him over and shook his head, "What're you doing? Stop standing like that, you look like a drunk flamingo!"
"Oh, Doctor!" Zenobia said cheerfully, "What brings you back here? Saving the world again?"
The old man (a doctor of some kind one would assume) gave her a toothy grin, "Zen! Not saving the whole world this time, just his." He grabbed Fredward's arm and began to drag him away, "We need to talk, now c'mon." He turned back to the trio of females, "I'll bring him right back, promise."
"Keep 'em!" Zenobia replied, "He wasn't gonna spend any money anyway!"
"Should we be concerned at all about whatever that was?" Riley asked as they watched the old man force Fredward around the corner.
"Probably not," Maya replied, "I'm sure we'll be too occupied with something much more personal to even remember that this happened. Now then!"
The girls turned back towards the table and put on their most sickeningly sweet smiles. "Heeeeeeeeey, Mrs. Palmyrene!" they said in unison.
"Giiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrls!" she replied in an equally sweet tone, "What can I do for you posh young things? Can I interest you in some wooden angels? I whittled them myself. Or maybe a hand mirror? The handle's broken, but it's still pretty nice. It dates back to the early fifties! Or maybe-"
"Does this actually grant wishes?" Riley interrupted, pointing to the brass buckle.
Mrs. Palmyrene laughed and picked up the trinket, "Oh, of course it does. It brought my Reginald home to me. It gave me the happiest moments of my life. It gave me the saddest one, too, but life moves on." She placed it back on the table and sighed, "It doesn't work for me anymore so I thought it was time to pass it along."
"That's pretty amazing, don't you think, Maya?" Riley turned and was greeted by an empty space. At the other end of the table she saw her friend engrossed in something. Riley smiled and walked over. "What'cha got there, peaches?"
Resting in Maya's hands were two thick metal plates, no wider than her palm and pock marked with age, linked together with well-worn brown leather straps. The larger plate was engraved with "04-30-1926" while the smaller one read "06-22-1926 / 11-19-2006."
"What are these?" she asked softly.
Zenobia gently took them from her hands, "These," she said, "belonged to my husband and I. There was a time," she began in a hushed tone, "it was after Reginald came home from the war, he was working in a machine shop after being discharged from the Army. We didn't have much money back then, always just scraping by, so one year when it was especially bad Reggie and I were forced to sell our wedding rings just to make rent."
Riley began to tear up, "That's horrible."
"Yes it was," Zenobia replied, "I was rather devastated over the whole thing. That is until Reggie came home with these." She held up the metal plates and smiled, "He made these bracelets for us on his lunch breaks out of some scrap metal and an old welder's jacket. We got new rings again eventually, but we never took these off. Never ever."
"What...what happened?" Maya asked. "Why are they on the table?"
The kind old woman pointed to the smaller plate, "Both of them have our birthdays on them, mine on Reggie's and his on mine. Mine has another date on it."
Maya looked at the dates. They encompassed about eighty years, just about the lifespan of a human being. "I'm sorry." she said.
She placed the items back in Maya's hands, "I know what it's like to not have something the symbolize your love for someone, hopefully someone will put these old things to good use."
"How much?"
Riley turned to her golden haired friend, the plates were firmly clutched in her tiny palms. "Maya, what're you-"
"And the buckle, too."
The old woman held out her hand, "You got twenty bucks?"
Without missing a beat the blond beauty reached into her pocket and slapped a ten and two fives into Zenobia's palm. "I don't know, Riles," Maya said, "I just...I think these are gonna be really important to me some day."
The old woman reached over to pick up the buckle and held it up to Maya.
"Go for it, Riles." Maya said while motioning to the item.
"What?" Riley was taken aback, "You...you don't want your one wish?"
Maya smiled, "You're better at wishing than I am. I'm sure you'll think of something that'll make the world a better place."
"There's one more thing before I hand this over," Zenobia interrupted, "this thing is VERY particular about phrasing, it's like a cocky English major. When you think about your wish you need to focus on how you word it in your head."
"Okay?" Riley replied.
"I wished for Reginald to spend the rest of his life with me," Zenobia explained, "and he did. Then he died. I should've wished for me to spend the rest of my life with him because not a day goes by that I don't miss that man."
Riley thought for a moment before turning to Maya. "You and Farkle and Lucas are my best friends." She gently plucked the brass item from the wizened woman's fingers and closed her eyes. After a moment she opened them and smiled.
"What'chu wish for, sweetie?" Maya asked.
"Don't worry about it, I'm sure we'll all find out together."
