Authors' Note: Hey, everybody! I'm Khara, and this is my first Girl Meets World fanfiction. Piece. Thing. I'm not focused on shipping, it's a friendship/family themed story, though there may be some hints of Riley/Lucas. And because I'm a stuffy old fan of Boy Meets World, this story heavily features two major characters from the old show (aside from Cory). Don't worry if you're not familiar with them: Maya's meeting the strange adults in Riley's life for the first time too, so all shall be revealed! So without further ado, let the show begin:

Maya walked the few blocks to the Matthews' home with a spring in her step. All was well with the world: she had Riley at her side, they were looking great, and best of all, they'd see Brideghoul in concert tonight! All she needed to do was get her nervous little friend past her parents.

Unfortunately, said nervous friend suddenly latched onto Maya's arm, jerking her to a stop. "Maya, wait! I think I need another runthrough of the plan."

Again? Maya shook her head, lifting a hand to pat her friend's arm. "Oh, Riley. My sweet Riley. Trust me, it'll work. If you just let us get up those stairs."

"Okay, stairs. I can do stairs. But what are we telling them?" Riley asked again, biting her lip.

"See, the beauty of this one is that it's the truth," Maya grinned, flicking a bright yellow flyer in front of her. "We tell your parents it's a free library concert, Mrs. Davis is the chaperone, and we'll be home by 9. On a Friday. Which is a much earlier curfew than most of our classmates have on weekends, I'd like to add," she finished on a grumble.

"So...how about we just show them the flyer?" Riley asked, snatching it from her friend's fingers. "No talking required. And you know how I get when I have to talk."

"Unfortunately, I do," Maya agreed, patting her friend's shoulder. "You've got a point there. So, new plan: don't talk, show them the flyer. And we'll be in the clear before you know it."

"So...we're ready, then. Come on!" Riley rallied, snatching her friend's hand and racing up the last few steps. She jammed her key in the lock, wrenched the door open...

...and was immediately yanked from Maya's grasp and into the arms of a grinning older man with a rounded baby-face and a smashing goatee. "There's my smiley Riley! Where've you been, I've been waiting all day for you! Oh, you're gonna love this!"

"She's been at school, oh strange one," said Maya, giving the man a wide berth. Who was this weirdo? Riley definitely hadn't prepared her for this. "And put my girl down, would you?"

"School! Oh yeah," he laughed, finally setting poor Riley down. She was now clutching the yellow flyer to her chest, looking a little frazzled. Oblivious to this, the boisterous man continued. "So I heard you're in your dad's class this year? Oh man, I bet the other kids bug you for favors all the time. Word of advice: you should wrap those other kids around your finger while you can."

Maya finally interrupted, yanking Riley back to safety and hissing in her ear. "Riley, what gives? Who is this guy?"

"...oh! I don't think you've ever met, have you?" Riley realized with an awkward laugh, lightly slapping her forehead. She stepped between her best friend and her uncle, gesturing to each. "Maya, this is my uncle Eric. Uncle Eric, this is my best friend, Maya."

"Nice to meet you, Maya," Eric said grandly, oblivious to her weirded out expression. "I've heard so much about you. Rough and tough, nothing but trouble, kind of like a certain friend of my brother's?"

"Uh...nice to meet you too, Uncle Eric," Maya answered. "And to answer your question...no, no one bothers Riley. Not while I'm around, 'cause you're right about me. And they don't really need Riley's help with her dad. Mr. Matthews isn't exactly the king of the classroom, if you know what I'm saying."

"Yeah. Dad's class is a little wild. But that's okay! I don't mind wild," added Riley, waving things off with her usual laughter.

"Great! Then you're ready for the WILD-erness!" said another voice from behind them. Mr. Matthews bounded through the doorway faster than the girls had ever seen, dropping a fishing cap on Riley's head. "It'll be just us and the majesty of the Poconos, baby! Your bags, they're a-packing, the van's a-rolling, and let's GO!"

"Hey, wait a second! Where's MY hat?" asked an indignant Eric, but Riley and Maya tuned out the squabbling of the Matthews brothers. Instead, Riley flashed a look of horror at her best friend. Maya answered with a blank stare.

"Maya, this is not good!" Riley whined, pulling the brim of the new hat over her ears. "Are you hearing what I'm hearing?"

"That your father's gone ahead and planned a whole weekend for you and we're not going to the Brideghoul concert? I heard it too."

"Worse! We're going...camping! In the woods! With tents and bugs and lions and tigers and bears!" Riley worried, her fingers shaking in front of her.

"Oh my," Maya said flatly. She sighed, taking her friend's shoulders once again. "You don't have lions and tigers in this neck of the woods, sweetie. Bears, maybe, but that's why you seal our food and string it up a tree."

"...okay?" Riley didn't sound convinced, but they could work on that. She then seemed to remember something, and rapidly shook her head to jostle the memory loose. "But we're losing sight of what's important here! The concert! Daddy, we can't go this weekend!"

While the girls had been discussing their predicament, good old Uncle Eric had somehow acquired a hot pink fishing cap of his own. Maybe it was better if they didn't ask questions. They didn't have time to, because they now faced a pouting Cory Matthews.

"Oh? And why can't you spend a weekend in the mountains with your good old dad?"

"Because this!" Riley replied, doing the only thing that came to mind. In that she shoved the bright yellow Brideghoul flyer in her father's face.

"Ah, a concert," Mr. Matthews observed, giving the flyer a quick glance. The band's logo, a 'brideghoul', seemed to wrinkle his nose. "Nope, you're not going. This is far too scary for my little girl."

"But it's at the library, Dad! What could possibly happen at the library?"

"Let's see...you could be terrified. You could run into some weirdo in the urban legends section. You and your band could be chased out by an angry mob that wants quiet in a library...need I go on?"

"Yes, and if you take her into the woods, she could be chased by bears. Your point?" added Maya, who stepped close to Riley protectively.

"No, she won't, because we're in a cabin. No tents, no food up trees, no bear attacks. And you'll be there to protect her!" Cory insisted, passing a bag and a matching fishing cap into Maya's hands. "Already got permission for you. Maya, you're going."

"Really? Thanks, Mr. Matthews." That was a surprise. Maya's eyes lit up at the mention of he trip. Already she was reaching for an interesting-looking pamphlet on the table. "But what about your family, Mr. Matthews? Don't you need room in the car for them?"

"Not helping!" hissed Riley.

"Oh, Topanga and Auggie aren't going. They're staying with the nice lady who runs the bakery downstairs. She thought it'd be great for us to really get the chance to bond outside of school!"

"...yeah, you're totally going about this the wrong way, Cor," Eric interrupted, dropping a heavy hand on his brother's shoulder. "No one goes to the mountain cabin to spend time with their teacher! I mean, unless it's Mr. Feeny. He has a way of sneaking up on you."

"Actually, Eric, about that..."

"Ladies," Eric said, slinging his arms over Riley and Maya's shoulders. The hand near Riley now held the yellow flyer, which he showed to her before tossing aside. "Why go see a band in concert when you can see a real brideghoul? The cabin we're going to is totally haunted, you know. There's an axe murderer ghost bride!"

"You can't be serious," groaned Maya, hiding her face behind the pamphlet she'd been reading. "Ghosts aren't real. It's just stories for tourist traps and a few strobe lights on Halloween."

"Oh, I can assure you that ghosts are very real," whispered Eric, drawing them close with a conspiratorial grin. "Why do ghostbusters exist if there aren't ghosts, huh?"

"Uncle Eric, that was a movie. It's not real!"

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," he insisted. "I mean, witches are real too. Hey, did I ever tell you girls about the time witches almost sacrificed my best friend to the devil?"

"Uh...no?" Riley said, a dazed and confused expression on her face.

"And you only just met me today," Maya pointed out, forcibly disentangling herself. Though she was smiling just a little. As deranged as he was, the man was entertaining. What a surprise that he was related to Riley!

Their awkward confrontation was then interrupted by Cory, who was carrying yet another heavy bag to the car. "Well why don't you tell them on the way, Uncle Eric? We've got a ways to go to the Poconos, and I don't want to hear any more songs about cans on the wall. You hear me?"

"Not even the one about diet coke?"

"Especially not that one."

"Aww. Well, come on girls. If we hurry up, we might get to the ghost stories tonight!" Eric said gleefully, leading the way out to the car.

Much to Riley's surprise, Maya seemed content to follow him out. She squeaked and latched onto her friend's arm. "What are you doing? You mean we're not gonna stand up and fight for the concert?"

"Uh...looks like your dad's taking your laptop and your iPod with him. Wow, he's playing hardball," Maya whistled as she watched Cory take another pile of stuff from the house. Did he think they were moving to the mountains forever?

"Are you saying you WANT to go face the bears?" Riley accused, hands on her hips.

"Sure, why not?" Maya answered. When she saw the look of dismay on Riley's face, though, she took her arm. "I'm sorry. It's just that...my parents never took me camping, and I want to know. Plus, I'm kinda curious about how deep the rabbit hole goes with your uncle."

"Uncle Eric's a sweet guy, but I'm not sure you really want to know," Riley said just a little too quickly. Her face looked a little flushed.

"Lemme guess: embarrassing stories that you don't want me to know about?" Maya said with a wicked grin. Riley's heart sunk. It was over and she knew it.

"No..."

"You're still a bad liar, Riley. So! Let's head up that mountain! Come on, I'm sure it can't be that bad," Maya encouraged her, gently steering her friend out the door. "Besides, there might be cute mountain boys around!"

"With my dad waving his prized 2008 Phillies bat at the slightest whiff of a boy? No way," Riley pointed out, as Cory and Eric carried the sporting equipment out the door.

"It's way too early to be giving up," Maya said, steering Riley right into the car. She lowered her voice to a whisper as Cory and Eric left to lock up the apartment. "You see, I've got us a plan. And if we play our cards right...we might just have a better weekend than that concert ever would've been."

"How do you know all this?" Riley whispered back. The revving of the engine thankfully distracted the adults, and she could focus entirely on this new scheme as the Matthews family road trip got underway.

"Oh, I have my ways," Maya grinned. She whipped out the pamphlet with a flourish, waving a particularly enticing photo of cute boys riding horses under Riley's nose.

Judging by the look on Riley's face? They were golden. As the two girls shared a smile, it almost seemed like the weekend wouldn't be wasted after all. At least, until...

"99 bottles of diet Coke on the wall, 99 bottles of diet Coke..."

"ERIC!" came a strangled yell from the driver's seat. "What did I tell you about that song? It makes no sense! There's no rhyme, or reason! And why does it have to be DIET Coke?"

"'Cause diet Coke's what all the cool and hip people drink, little bro."

"Well if you don't stop singing that song right now, I'll tell you what's gonna be cool and hip. We'll pull over at the next gas station. And we will buy a bottle of diet Coke. And pour it all over your head. And leave without you, so that you may wallow in your stickiness. Maybe we'll pick you up Sunday, if you're lucky!"

From what the girls could see in the rearview mirror, Eric looked rather creeped out. "...geez, Cor, has Topanga been giving you enough attention?"

"No, but that has absolutely nothing to do with this!"

"Sure it doesn't," Eric rolled his eyes, leaning back to whisper to the girls. "Don't worry, ladies. I'll calm him down by tonight. Promise."

Maya answered with a proud smile. Riley was less sure, but hopeful. If Uncle Eric was going to distract their dad...maybe they'd get to meet some cute mountain boys after all? Endless possibility awaited them.

They might just have to plug their ears for the next few hours.

End Note: I promise Eric isn't this clueless all the time! Next chapter: Boy Meets World fans probably already know who's waiting for them at the cabin, but needless to say Maya's plan won't exactly go off without a hitch. They'll definitely have an interesting night, though!