I ship Zay/Riley friendship so hard. I fell in love with Girl Meets Rileytown and thought it was the perfect opportunity to fulfill my craving. I realize the text message that Riley relayed to Maya in the show probably was all in one and not drawn out over the course of a few weeks, but for all intents and purposes, for this story, it is.

It could be a little sloppy; I don't spend a lot of time editing, otherwise I end up changing the entire story. But the objective should be clear.

Disclaimer: I don't own the show; if I did, Rucas would be endgame and Farkle would never have had a Justin Bieber haircut.

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"You exist and you're weird and you get in the way of where I'm looking."

Riley got the first of many unwanted dings from her phone one day at lunch. She was sitting amongst the fab five on a Friday afternoon in the school cafeteria, acting quirky and goofy as usual, hands flailing about and body shaking excitedly as she recounted an earlier experience from gym class. Maya grinned widely watching her best friend advance deeper into Rileytown. Lucas smiled warmly, a mixture of amusement and fondness evident in his features as he studied the rambunctious brunette in front of him. Farkle smirked, relishing in the beauty of her innocence. Zay watched from the other end of the table, mouth agape, eyes fleeting from Maya to Lucas to Farkle to Riley; his wonderment of the clumsy teen still not acclimated, even months after meeting her. Suddenly, a soft buzzing from under the table jolted the happy girl out of her story telling. She pulled her phone out from her bag and looked with perplexity at her friends in front of her, mentally counting each one of them. Wondering who could possibly be texting her at 12:30 in the afternoon on a Friday, she held her phone in front of her and read the script.

Annonymous: You exist and you're weird and you get in the way of where I'm looking.

Riley's face fell and immediately she began scanning the cafeteria, hoping to catch an indication of the unknown aggressor. Her friends, having witnessed her sudden change in demeanor, began searching the cafeteria as well, weary on what exactly they were looking for.

After a few moments, Maya turned back to Riley. "What is it, Riles?"

Riley's eyes were noticeably larger than normal, but she shook her head and smiled. "Nothing. Nothing, just a wrong number." She swallowed hard and placed her phone gently back in her bag, folding her hands on her lap when she was done. Maya looked at her best friend, bewilderment clouding her features, but Riley smiled a washed-out smile and Maya knew the topic was over. For now.

"So stop being weird and stop being happy."

The second time that dreaded ding came was one night when they were congregated at Topanga's. The fearsome five had been brainstorming the entire night on how to stop the arts program from being eliminated at John Quincy Adams. As soon as Maya had uttered the words "Why can't we think creatively?" And Riley had countered with "there's my little artist", as if on cue, the sound of her buzzing phone had gone off. Naturally thinking one of her parents were texting her to return home, Riley casually pulled her phone out of her pocket.

Anonymous: So stop being weird and stop being happy.

For the second time in a week, Riley's face betrayed her and her lips curved downward and quivered. This time, Farkle was the first to notice.

"You okay, Riley?"

Riley lifted her gaze from her phone to her friends, who were all currently staring at her.

"I-I'm fine." She stumbled, standing up and grabbing her bag. "My parents just want me home for dinner. See you guys later."

"That's weird." Maya exclaimed after watching Riley's retreating form clamber up the stairs and away from Topanga's.

"What?" Zay questioned.

She shrugged. "Well, we already ate dinner before coming here tonight."

"No one should be as happy as you."

The next time Riley Matthews' phone went off with unwanted messages was roughly a week later.

Maya and Isadora Smackle had left her room through the bay window about ten minutes before and Riley had just finished getting in her pajamas and brushing her teeth. The kids had exhausted themselves with worry over the probability of Farkle having Asperger's; don't get them wrong, they would have loved the evil genius all the same, but they were nothing if not fiercely protective of their clan. And they had learned the hard way that not everyone is as accepting of one's eccentricity as they were. They had been relieved when they found out Farkle did not have Asperger's Syndrome, though Riley and Maya now faced another dilemma involving Smackle. Riley sighed as she grabbed her phone from her dresser. She flopped onto her bed and scrolled through her texts.

Maya: I think this is something Farkle and Smackle need to figure out on their own. See ya tomorrow. xoxo

Farkle: Thank you for being there for me.

Anonymous: No one should be as happy as you.

Riley's smile fell from her lips and her brows knitted in confusion. Why was this still going on? Realization finally started to settle into her mind that she wasn't dealing with just a few mean texts. What she was dealing with was much worse. She turned off her phone and tossed it into a pile of clothes on the other side of the room. She clutched her stuffed pig close to her chest and let the tears guide her breathlessly into an afflictive sleep.

"Stop being who you are, or I'm going to put my foot in your weird, stupid face."

Riley woke up the next morning with her eyes puffy and her nose red. She groaned after glancing at the damage in her mirror, gently taking a finger to trace the bags under her eyes. This was nothing a hot shower and some of her mother's concealer couldn't fix...

"You okay?" Maya nudged her best friend. They had been lucky enough to sit down on the subway this morning and Riley was uncharacteristically quiet.

Riley shook herself out of her thoughts and smiled at the blonde beauty. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired."

"Okay." Maya smiled back.

Riley wanted so badly to unleash the last two weeks of turmoil onto her best friend. She wanted desperately to share her burden with Maya; to loosen the load off of her own shoulders and commiserate sullenly with her unbiological sister. She wanted to bury her face into her shoulder and have Maya stroke her hair as she comforted her, "We love you just the way you are, Riley Matthews."

But Riley knew she couldn't do that. Riley and Maya had spent their lives from pre-k on living as one person. They celebrated each other's joy, cried for one another's heartbreak, raged together when the world singled one of them out, and ached during the other one's pain. Riley had learned to be the pillar of strength in their friendship; Maya had been through so much of her own pain, Riley didn't have the heart to mix even a sliver of her own to Maya's pallet.

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Riley grabbed her history book from her locker. Maya had run to drop off an art project to Ms. Kossal before the first bell. She sighed as she took one last look at her phone before turning it off. Nothing yet. She turned to walk into her father's classroom but a sturdy frame halted her mobility.

"Whoa, Riley" and strong arms kept her from crashing to the floor. One look into his emerald eyes and she felt her knees go weak once more, and she was silently thankful he was still holding her in place.

"H-h-hi." She breathed.

"Hi." And she could have melted into his smile. "You okay?"

For the second time that morning, the fleeting thought of confiding her secret to someone else, to share her distress with one of her best friends, to maybe gain some guidance with how to handle this situation, entered her mind. But it left almost as quickly as it came. She remembered how Lucas had acted that first week that Zay had arrived at their school and gotten himself into some trouble. She had heard the story about how he had gotten kicked out of his old school for fighting, it had even caused a slight rift in their friendship. She could still picture Lucas holding that guy up against the wall in the hallway, his face inches away, murmuring that he's as strong as a horse and doesn't even need to work at it... She shuddered. No, confiding in Lucas was not a good idea. He was intensely loyal to his friends and the last thing Riley wanted was for Lucas to turn back into Texas Lucas on her behalf.

"Riley?" Riley shook her head out of her thoughts and smiled up at him. "You okay?" he repeated, concern etched in his voice.

She nodded. "Um, Lucas? You can let go of my shoulders now." They both blushed as Lucas let one of his hands drop to his side and brought the other one to rub the back of his neck. He motioned for Riley to enter the classroom before him. She placed her books on her desk and smiled at Farkle as she sat down.

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Riley grabbed her books from her locker and clumsily stuffed them into her book bag. It was finally the end of the day and she was maybe a little too eager to go home she realized as several books missed the opening of her bag and plummeted to the floor.

She groaned as she crouched down to pick them up. "You okay?" a familiar voice asked her and suddenly Farkle was crouched in an identical position beside her.

"Yes, I'm fine! Would people stop asking me that today?" She snapped, immediately regretting her tone as Farkle recoiled slightly with surprise. She sighed. "I'm sorry, Farkle. I really am. Just had a lot on my mind today, that's all."

"No problem." He said, grabbing her books and standing up. He held his hand out to her to help her up and she gladly accepted the assistance. "You wanna talk about it?"

For a moment, Riley could hear the gears in her brain turning. Yes, yes, yes. Who better to understand what she was going through than Farkle? Farkle Minkus, who had been bullied nearly all his life for being different, who had just recently stood up to Billy Ross and proved that he was anything and everything but a nothing.

"Actually, Farkle, there is-" and suddenly Riley couldn't bring herself to finish her sentence. Because, yes, Farkle was bullied and yes Farkle overcame it, but Farkle is going through stuff, too. Didn't Farkle just go through his own transformation from Farkle Minkus to Donnie Barnes to Farkle Minkus? And isn't Farkle just getting over the fact that he doesn't actually have Asperger's Syndrome? Farkle has his own problems to face, he doesn't need to worry about one of hers. "-absolutely nothing wrong. Everything's perfect." She smiled a smile that didn't quite meet her eyes, and Farkle knew it, but he rubbed her shoulder and smiled back.

"Okay, then. I'll see you later, Riley."

Riley grabbed her phone out of her bag to text Maya that she would meet her at Topanga's at four-o-clock. As soon as she turned it on her stomach dropped.

Anonymous: Stop being who you are, or I'm going to put my foot in your weird, stupid face.

An array of emotions inundated Riley at once: anger, heartbreak, confusion. She couldn't understand how one person could be filled with so much hate for someone they didn't even know.

Observing that it was well after school hours and the halls were empty, Riley slid against her locker to the floor, bringing her knees up her chin, and she let herself cry.

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"Hey, Sugar, what you doing out here all by your lonesome?" A lighthearted voice teased.

Riley didn't bother to lift her head, but rather grunted in acknowledgement. She felt the darker-skinned Texan boy's presence beside her a moment later.

"Hey." He said softly, moving one arm around her shoulder and using the other to lift her chin from between her knees. Riley looked at Zay with tear-stained cheeks and red eyes. "It's okay." He soothed as Riley dropped her head onto his shoulder and he wrapped his other arm around her. He didn't need to ask her if she was okay; he knew she wasn't. He didn't need to know what she was crying about; he knew she would go to them when she was ready. What he did know was Riley Matthews needed a friend, and dagnabit if Zay Babineaux couldn't be a damn good friend.