I Don't Wanna Be Anything Other Than Me
A Girl Meets World Fan Fiction
Chapter 1: My Songs Know What you Did In the Dark
A/N: What are you guys thinking of this so far? I started off this chapter sort of without a solid plan and now I've got so many ideas that I'm not sure which one I should go with.
B-b-b-be careful making wishes in the dark, dark
Can't be sure when they've hit their mark
And besides in the mean time I'm just dreaming
Maya Hart led the pack as she waltzed into Abigail Adams High School-her high school. The place where she was on top and led the pack.
Missy Bradford was to her right, dressed in a short, black plaid mini skirt with white, grey and electric blue accents and buckles on the waist. She wore a sleeveless mock neck crop top in a bright shade of blue while her dark brown and caramel highlighted hair was pulled back with a blue bow. A pair of black knee socks finished off her innocent, school girl appearance.
And then one saw her high heeled black ankle boots and the black leather jacket swung over her shoulder, covering the white leather designer back pack she was carrying, made by the same designer as her blue purse with matching wallet. Despite having entered the school, she was still wearing an oversized pair of blue sunglasses. A pair of gold hoop earrings dangled with every step and her arm full of bangles clattered, informing every student that she had been whoring herself around, enjoying every male she could find.
If Missy wasn't such a slut, Maya would live in constant fear of her "best friend" trying to take away her spot at the top of the food chain. Instead, however, she enjoyed the fact that her good girl status as the virgin queen helped her to clutch onto her placement with all of her strength.
After all, Missy was just a brunette Maya.
She had hit her maximum height back in seventh grade. While she had been a tall middle schooler, standing at five foot four and rising at the same height as most of the boys in the grade, she had stopped growing after and was now just below the average height of the girls in their grade.
She was still perfectly skinny with curves that never failed to gain attention and her face was undeniably beautiful. The only thing she was lacking was the impossibly long, seemingly endless legs that Maya broadcasted.
On Maya's left was Darby Walker, the tall and leggy blonde. She was beautiful and sweet, hilariously funny yet slightly dim witted. While she excelled in her classes, she lacked common sense.
Her long, wavy blonde hair fell in a thick mess of beach-styled, wind-blown waves just past her shoulders is a mess of layers. Her round face with round, warm features always houses a smile and her mediterranean blue eyes sparkled at all times.
True to the rest of Maya's group, the beautiful girl was dressed in a floral print skater skirt in a mess of bright colors. A hot pink, form fitting crop top finished off the outfit and a pair of flat, matching pink sandals ensured that she wasn't any taller than her five foot eight height already made her. A hot pink wristlet dangled from her wrist and matching pink and silver flower-studded jewelry sparkled beneath the fluorescent lights of the school. Her Victoria's secret, black and pink backpack was swung over one shoulder as she followed in Maya's wake.
As the trio made their way down the halls, the crowds parted for them. They didn't have to push people out of their way, because everybody immediately moved away for them. Nobody wanted to get in the way of Maya Hart, because nobody wanted to deal with the aftermath of messing with the perfect blonde.
Whenever people did anything to upset the beautiful girl, the culprit immediately had to deal with two individuals who would threaten their life for daring to threaten the beautiful smile that boy boys always fought to keep on Maya's face at all times.
Joshua Matthews would publicly humiliate anybody who dared to mess with Maya. Her boyfriend never failed to hide how far he was willing to go to keep Maya happy, which was why the majority of their relationship was public knowledge.
Normally, Maya would hate the constant PDA that their relationship consisted of, but a part of her sort of loved being shown off and bragged about constantly. It made her feel important, loved, and cherished. She felt worthy of attachment and attraction. That was the part of her relationship with Josh that she loved the most. Rather than constantly being rejected for the better offer, she was the first pick.
The other person who people would have to answer to when Maya was disrespected was Lucas Friar. Nobody ever saw it happen and most people refused to believe it until it happened to them, but rumors flew through the school that warned everybody that messing with Maya Hart would result in a death threat from Lucas Friar.
"So," Missy said, purposefully speaking just a tad louder the necessary as the three cheerleaders passed by a group of less popular students-students that Maya didn't even know the names of, which made her want to lower her head in shame.
"So what?" Maya wondered, removing her sunglasses from her denim blue eyes and dropping them into her purse.
"So, what party are we hitting up tonight to celebrate the first day of school?" Missy asked, raising her eyebrows towards her hair line as though the question should have been obvious to the blonde haired leader.
"That's a stupid question," Maya yawned, turning a corner and smirking.
Once again, the trio had gotten their lockers in the best location in the school. It was on the second floor, at the end of the hallway and far enough away from any classrooms that teachers wouldn't be able to hover and watch over them constantly. There were two walls full of ten lockers each, and on the third wall was a series of windows. The best part was the way the area seemed to jut out and turn just sightly to the left, so that it had a private and separate feeling to it.
"Why?" Missy asked indignantly.
"Because I'm hosting the best back to school bash ever," Maya boasted.
I'm a young lover's rage
Gonna need a spark to ignite
My songs know what you did in the dark
Farkle was sick and tired of Missy Bradford constantly trying to make him and his friends feel like they were nothing, just because they were cheerleaders or athletes.
It wasn't right and it wasn't fair.
Not that Farkle's one and only friend seemed to mind.
Isadora Smackle was completely content with her place at the bottom of the social pyramid. She accepted that fact, as long as she had Farkle by her side and maintained her 4.0 GPA at all times.
She didn't even seem to notice that if she would just ditch Farkle and branch out a little bit, she could be one of the most popular girls in school.
With her long, waist-length, pin-straight, glossy, jet black hair and soft yet intense, perfectly defined features making up her symmetrical face, she was a classical beauty. Her hazel eyes were mysteriously narrow, always making the rest of the world wonder what they were missing out on when it came to her. She had thick, pale pink lips that Farkle loved kissing and thinking about kissing. Her skin was like porcelain and she was just the right height with just the right curves.
Even the way she dressed would be accepted into the popular crowed.
Simple and mature, she had on a geek-chic type of look that never failed to leave Farkle in complete awe, especially since he knew as well as anybody else that she simply didn't care about what she looked like.
That day, for example-the first day of school, when most people would dress up and strive to be the best version of themselves possible-she was dressed in a pair of form fitting, ultra skinny, dark denim skinny jeans that hugged every curve that Farkle tried his hardest not to notice. She had paired the jeans with an orange, off the shoulder flow-blouse. A white and orange chevron turban headband held her hair from her face, so it wouldn't get in the way of any of her science experiments and she was wearing closed toe shoes so she wouldn't have to waste time changing. The brown suede backpack with the fringe that she'd had since freshman year was still in perfect condition and she was currently filling it up with the books she'd need for her first few classes that day.
If it weren't for the large, black, oversized glasses she had on, she could easily blend in with Maya, Missy and Darby who had just paraded by. She could have joined their triangle, making it a diamond, and nobody would have noticed or cared, because she was a pretty girl.
But, Farkle knew that she was far from being a normal teenage girl.
While he showered her with expensive and lavish gifts on her birthday every year and for Christmas, he knew that he could never buy her bracelets. She would never wear them because it would take away from her lab time if she had to remove them and then replace them every class. So, he settled for necklaces, like the infinity sign she was currently wearing that had their names engraved in it. Sometimes he bought her earrings, like the shiny, diamond studded balls she had in her ears that day. But, usually it was a necklace.
"I hate when they do that," Farkle rolled his eyes, slamming his locker shut and turning around to face the bustle of the hallway.
His locker was positioned just outside of the secluded area where Maya's locker was. Technically, his locker should have been directly across from hers, but Lucas Friar had been waiting there when Farkle had arrived and demanded that the smaller boy switch lockers with him, no questions asked.
Since Lucas's was positioned next to Lucas's, Farkle didn't need anymore persuasion. He agreed to give up his locker, despite its location in the "cool kid's hallway" and settled for watching their interactions from afar, the way he had for years.
"When who does what?" Isadora frowned, studying her locker intently as though she were forgetting something inside of it.
"When Missy and Maya and all of their friends brag about their plans and how many offers they have each night in front of us, as if we'd be jealous and offended," Farkle replied bitterly, pulling the strap of his backpack higher on his arm in protest.
"Maya didn't even say anything, Farkle, and Missy was just asking a question," Isadora responded, shooting Farkle a pointed look.
Yeah, but-"
"And the fact that it bothers you means that even if they were doing it to make you jealous…well, it's working, isn't it?" Isadora pointed out, slamming her locker shut.
"I'm not jealous," Farkle defended himself. "I'm just annoyed that I live in the same building as Maya-one floor below her, to be exact-and she can't even be bothered to walk downstairs and invite me to her parties, even though we all know that she knows where I live," Farkle complained.
"Does this have something to do with the fact that you used to have some sort of weird crush on Maya and Riley back in middle school? Are you still mad about the fact that you guys aren't friends anymore?" Isadora sighed.
"It was just a stupid middle school crush," Farkle shrugged. "It wasn't anything serious. And I could care less about my friendship with them. I've got you, now and you're the best friend that a guy could ask for. Who needs some air-head cheerleader, a guy who's always in the principal's office and some freak who fell off the face of the earth?" Farkle asked, shooting Smackle a reassuring smile.
He knew that she had a crush on him. It was why Maya and Riley were such a sore subject for her to talk about, even though she shouldn't.
After all, he had a crush on her, too.
He was just too chicken to do anything about it, so they were just friends.
Somewhere another pretty vein just dies
I've got scars from tomorrow and I wish you could see
That your the antidote to everything except for me
Lucas hated Joshua Matthews.
He knew it was wrong, because Josh was the quarterback, the star of the football team-the team's co-captain. Sure, Lucas was a captain as well, but he needed to be able to get along with Josh for the team to do well.
And since Lucas was the star running back, it was pretty important that Josh and him got along, because they had to work together.
But, he hated the dark haired boy with a harsh passion and would do anything to ruin Mr. Perfect's reputation. He was on a constant lookout to find something that could be used to tear the boy down and ruin his place at the top.
Not because Lucas wanted Josh's status for himself.
He could care less about being the future prom king and he really didn't want to be on Homecoming court. He didn't want to have to make attempts to attend every party every Friday and Saturday night. He didn't want to kiss ass to everybody and act like he was everybody's friend. He didn't want to be the go-to guy that every teacher thought of for a new student or some volunteer work.
All that he wanted was Josh's girlfriend.
Maya Hart, the blonde beauty that she was, was lusted after by every single male at Abigail Adams high school.
Lucas didn't want her because of her looks, though and he hated to think of his feelings as something as awful as 'lust'.
No, no, no-Lucas in love with Maya Hart and he had been ever since he had spotted her on the subway back in the seventh grade when he had moved to New York City from a small town just outside of Austin, Texas.
She was confident and smart. She was funny and loyal. She was compassionate and artistic. She was talented and mature. She was intense and dedicated. She was experienced and dedicated. She was sad and angry. She had been through so much, but she hadn't allowed it to make her jaded.
Instead, she used it to better herself and the people around her.
What Lucas couldn't get over was how much she had been willing to sacrifice for her best friend back in middle school.
Back in seventh and eighth grade, Maya had been a rebel. Rules were merely suggestions to her and school was an obstacle. She was the class loud-mouth and she was sarcastic more than she was sincere. She loved to tease people and she always had an insult ready at a moment's notice.
All of that was because Riley was the happiest girl on the planet. She was full of sunshine and rainbows. She saw the world in a warped sense, believing that everyone and everything were full of goodness, despite any evidence to the contrary.
Taking in Riley's darkness, the way Maya had done for so long, had allowed Riley to maintain that constant state of annoying happiness. The state of ignorant bliss she had lived in for her entire adolescence was sort of adorable…until it just got strange, as it had when she started high school and refused to believe in the world as it really was.
Once Maya had stopped taking in all of Riley's happiness, trying to forth her to see the world the way it really was, everything changed for them both.
Riley, who had been protected from the harsh reality of the world, lost it. She was unable to cope with the idea that not everything was going to work out in her benefit in the end. That sometimes, bad things happened, even to good people.
She allowed herself to be overcome by the darkness, despite the fact that her life remained the same. All that had happened was that the Riley committee had been dismantled.
But, she had been ruined by the protection her friends had given her for so long. There was no going back from that.
Maya, however, saw the light.
Rather than focusing on every negative aspect in her life, she sought out the good things and cherished them, broadcasting them for the world to see.
She became "little miss perfect", something Lucas found incredibly ironic, because of all the teams she had mocked him in their childhood for being "Mr. Perfect" or "the Moral Compass" or "Lucas the Good".
But, she was the school's good girl now and Lucas was the school's bad boy.
There were total opposites, and maybe they would be able to work out in some cliche high school movie full of stereotypes, but they lived in the real world and things didn't work out that perfectly in reality.
"Dude, just talk to her," Isaiah Babineaux said, tearing Lucas out of his thoughts as he watched the blonde disappear down the hallway, heading towards her homeroom class with her little minions in tow.
"Don't do that," Lucas snapped, jumping at the sudden voice behind him.
He slammed his locker shut, whirling around and glaring at his best friend.
It wasn't because Zay had snuck up on him. It wasn't because he had startled him. Lucas was angry with him because of what he had said, at a perfectly audible volume with Maya within earshot-especially when the blonde had super sonic hearing.
"She picked you over Josh before," Zay reminded him. "She was going to pick you over Riley, but you didn't know what you wanted back then. Can you blame her moving on and settled for the guy that picked her?"
"Don't remind me about how stupid I was back then," Lucas shook his head, fighting the urge to look at the blonde over his shoulder.
He spent too much time staring at her and he was going to get himself caught eventually. He knew that soon enough, he would have to tell her about his feelings. He wasn't stupid and he didn't think it could stay a secret forever. But, once she knew, everything would change. So, he was going to try to keep things exactly how they were for just a little bit longer.
He would do all that it took to keep his dirty little secret, so that she had no idea what was really happening.
"She's having a party at her house tonight, for the start of the school year. You game?" Lucas asked, pulling his backpack higher up onto his shoulder.
"I'm always down for a party," Zay grinned.
They were a strange friendship, since Zay had remained the smart-ass class clown through the years. Despite Lucas's transformation into the school's bad boy, Zay was the lovably dorky boy-next-door.
And, while Maya couldn't stand Lucas and was constantly ranting about how much of an ass he was to everybody, Zay was Maya's best friend.
Zay was the only one who had managed to hold onto any of his middle school friendships. While he hadn't spoken to Farkle or Riley on a regular basis for years, he was still best friends with Maya and Lucas. He had more ties to the former group than any of the rest of them, and sometimes Lucas envied him for that.
Then he remembered the bitterness in Farkle's eyes every single time Lucas walked by him with a different girl on his arm. The hurt in Riley's eyes when Lucas flirted with a girl who wasn't the brunette. The disgust on Maya's face as Lucas approached her.
He was perfectly content with the way he was, and while it was different than the person he had been back when the four of them had met, he didn't think that it was necessarily a bad thing. The fact that his former friends just seemed so frustrated with the changes he had made with himself showed that eventually they would have drifted apart. They couldn't accept him as the guy he was, so why should he waste time missing them?
Besides, he wasn't happy with who they were either.
He was annoyed with the fact that Riley had turned herself into an invisible stalker, wondering the halls with her camera and on the prowl for her next headline.
Farkle's arrogance about his intelligence never failed to make him angry. Everybody knew that the boy was smart-so smart that many people thought he was a robot. But, they didn't need it constantly rubbed in their face the way that Farkle enjoyed to do.
Maya was the only one who didn't annoy him.
He couldn't be annoyed with her, because he loved her.
To him, the blonde was perfect.
Her only flaw?
She had sacrificed the fire that had always been so dominate in her beautiful blue eyes so that she could be with Joshua Matthews, who prided himself in his perfection-his perfect family, his perfect plan and his perfect relationship.
Maya was so desperate to have somebody to love her that she had settled and given up a large piece of herself in the process.
Burn everything you love, then burn the ashes
In the end everything collides
My childhood spat back out the monster that you see
What was so special about Maya Hart?
Riley didn't understand the appeal.
The two might have been best friends years ago, but not anymore.
Maya had left her. She had walked out of her life when things had gotten too complicated. She had forgotten about their vow to one another and she had taken everything that Riley had ever wanted in life for herself.
It just wasn't fair that Maya Hart got everything, because the blonde just didn't deserve it. It wasn't right that the girl who had come from nothing got everything that she wanted, while Riley was forced to live on the outskirts of the social circle.
She felt unloved and unwanted. She felt like a nothing. And a part of her felt bad for being so bitter about what Maya had gotten in life, because she knew that what she was currently going through was what Maya had gone through in middle school.
But, there was a big difference between the two girls's experiences. After all, Maya hadn't been forced to be on her own as her world crumbled around her. Her world fell to pieces and Riley was there to put them all back together again so that Maya could remain whole. So that Maya could be happy.
The blonde hadn't had the same courtesy for Riley. When things had started to go south for the brunette, she had been rejected and ignored. She was pushed aside as though she just wasn't useful anymore. Once Maya proved that she could do perfectly fine without Riley, she left her in her wake and forced her to watch in her rise to the top.
For years, Riley had dreamt of being a cheerleader. Maya took that from her. She took Lucas from her and she had even taken Riley's twin brother, who should have stayed as her best friend. She had taken a spot as the most popular girl in school and she took the position of being the school's good girl.
What was left for Riley? Even if she had remained friends with Maya-even if the blonde hadn't pushed her out of her life-there wouldn't have been anything left for her.
She would have gotten lost in the shuffle. She would have lost a large piece of herself as she attempted to fit in with Maya's new world.
Nothing about her would be the same. She wouldn't have found her passions in life and she wouldn't have any chance for happiness.
As angry as she was with Maya for all that the blonde had done to her, she knew that she had a lot to thank the blonde for as well. Maya had promised that they wouldn't be like the friends who drifted apart in high school, but she had lied. That had been exactly what had happened to the lot of them and it had happened quickly. It had happened within the first week of the school year.
Maybe Maya had realized that she had been wrong. Maybe she had meant what she had promised, but quickly realized that she was wrong. And everybody knew what Maya got like when she was wrong. Knowing that she was going to lose Riley eventually was all the motivation Maya would need to push all of her former friends away, so that-for once in her life-she wasn't the one who was left.
For the first time in her entire life, Maya was the one to do the leaving. Nobody left her and she didn't have to deal with any feelings of worthlessness. She didn't feel rejected or unloved. Instead, she forced her friends to deal with those feelings. She made Riley wonder what was wrong with her that nobody seemed to want to know her anymore. She made Farkle feel like he was forgettable and she made Lucas feel inferior.
Lucas, who was so perfect in every way.
Lucas, the boy who Riley would do anything for in her life.
Lucas, who was in love with Maya and didn't even spare Riley a second glance, despite the fact that she was his first kiss and he had been her first kiss.
Lucas, who was crazy about Maya and would do absolutely anything to have her in his life-to be able to show her off to the world.
No, Maya had chosen Joshua Matthews as her boyfriend and after that, Lucas had never been the same. He had become a player and a jerk. He treated girls like possessions and he treated every male around him as though they were nothing in comparison to him. And he acted as though he didn't deserve to be loved or to be cherished. He turned himself into an empty shell of what he used to be.
And Riley hated that. She wanted the boy that she had kissed on the subway back. She wanted her prince charming. The one who had ridden a sheep and helped a horse give birth. The boy who had told her that he wanted to be a veterinarian when he grew up. The boy who rode a bull just because he wanted to make his grandfather proud and the boy who had found a white horse for him and Riley to ride on together.
That boy, unfortunately, was long gone. He had been gone for years and Riley knew that a part of it was her fault. If she hadn't told him that he would get killed on the football team, Lucas would have stayed in the hole with them and gotten over his anger at not being able to protect them anymore.
But, Riley had destroyed his ego and helped to break his spirit. She had played just as big a part in his self-destruction as Maya had played, and she knew that it was unfair to blame the blonde for what had happened, but it was so much easier for her to blame the blonde and put all of the blame on her former best friend.
After all, Maya wasn't the one forced to sit there and watch the boy that she loved pine over some other girl. She didn't have to deal with the fact that she wasn't good enough to keep the attention of the boy she loved.
Maya just got to enjoy her life. Her popularity. Her boyfriend. Her money. Her pent-house suite. Her friends. Her social life. Her swarm of followers. Her place on the cheerleading team. Her fan club of male suitors.
"Still obsessing over Lucas?"
Riley whirled around, snapping a picture of Charlie Gardner, her best friend, before lowering her camera and glaring at the dark haired, pale skinned boy.
"I'm not obsessed," Riley told him, rolling her eyes.
"You're right," Charlie nodded his head. "Following him around with a camera is stalker-ish, not obsessive," He teased.
"I'm taking pictures for the yearbook!"
"Is this year's theme going to be Lucas Friar?"
"Shut up," Riley gasped, turning towards her locker.
"I'm not asking," Charlie went on, still teasing her. "I'm the yearbook editor in training. I should be aware of any and all details of the yearbook," He told her seriously.
"Shut up," Riley grumbled, stuffing the camera into her locker and slamming the door shut. "You're not as funny as you think you are," She reminded him.
"You know….he's in love with Maya and he has been for years," Charlie told her.
"She knows that," Sarah Carpenter said, walking up towards the two other brunettes and punching Charlie on the shoulder. "Don't remind her of a sore subject," She ordered.
"It's fine, Sarah. He's just trying to help," Riley sighed.
"It's not fine," Sarah rolled her eyes, pushing her large, black-framed glasses higher up onto the bridge of her nose, grumbling as the mascara extending her already thick and long eyelashes and brightening her blue-green eyes touched the lenses.
Sarah and Charlie had never really gotten along, constantly bickering with one another. Sarah, like her doppleganger Maya, was incredibly protective of Riley and did everything to keep her happy and safe at all times. Charlie, however, loved to tease her and drove her a little insane.
"He's being a jerk," Sarah explained, reaching up to pull her dark chocolate waves up into a high ponytail.
Sarah had a talent of being able to perfectly pull her hair back into a ponytail without any effort or a mirror. She never failed to ensure that all bumps were absent and that the ponytail wasn't missing a single strand of hair.
"It's really fine," Riley insisted.
"No," Sarah insisted.
"She said it was fine, Sarah," Charlie groaned.
"Don't make fun of her for liking Lucas," Sarah barked.
"Can we please talk about something else?"
"Fine," Sarah smirked. "Let's talk about how we're totally crashing Maya Hart's back-to-school party tonight," her eyes sparkled mischievously.
Sarah always knew everything going on at the school. Without fail, if there was a party, she knew where it was and when. She knew who would be there and what people were saying about it. She was always telling her friends about them, as though they would be attending. This was the first time she had tried to convince them to go, however.
"What?" Riley froze.
"You like Lucas? You want a chance with him? No time like the present. So, we're hitting up that party," Sarah declared.