Chapter 2

A New

Year's Confrontation

Part 2

A Chat

Between a

Daughter and Parents

Disclaimer: I own nothing but what you see here. BOOM! Studios' Fiction Squad is a read I highly recommend. This takes place a few hours later from the first chapter.

Matthews' Apartment around 4:02 PM

Things had gotten quite busy in the time since the party had been thought up by Riley. Calls were made to their classmates to invite them to the fun for the night and Mrs. Jansen had promised she would make sure Lucas would be there as well since she didn't want him sitting around the house doing nothing. Talk of a night out on the town was also learned of in regards to Katy and Shawn and Maya was happy about that since it would mean her mom wouldn't be hanging out at home with Gammy and Ginger for company. Around three Riley had even convinced Shawn to take her to the grocery store for much needed supplies for the party. Though the man had amusingly tried to get out of it until the girl had gotten him where it counted by making a remark that it would allow them to spend a little quality time together and would help make up for his not being around as much in earlier years if they did the shopping together.

Shawn had slumped his shoulders thanks to the reminder and he was much more agreeable about it after that. Maya had decided to stay back at the Matthews' place since she was wanting a moment to herself since the whole party thing had kept her from being able to leave thanks to Riley wanting her help in the whole thing. She was sitting on the couch absentmindedly playing with some string when Cory and Topanga came into the living room. "Ohh! What's this Topanga?"

"I don't know Cory, but I think its a Wild Blonde in our living room."

Cory fake gasped over his wife's response. "A Wild Blonde you say!?"

"Mm-hmm. And this one's quite the Amazon Warrior too."

Maya couldn't help but roll her eyes while smiling at the two adults' antics. Looking at them with tha smile still on her face she felt grateful for the fact she had them in her life. They then both sat down next to her on opposite sides of her. "So, what's got ya on this couch instead of out there with Riley and Shawnie? Asked Cory curiously.

"I… Just needed a moment to myself. To try and think about stuff."

"What kinds of stuff honey?" Topanga asked concernedly.

"Stuff that's just got me all confused." Admitted the girl and making the two adults more concerned then before.

"Aww, what about?" Asked Topanga before Cory could.

She was silent for a moment before finally answering. "Feelings… Boys… Feelings for boys."

"The Jerks!" Groused Cory much to Maya's amusement.

Teenagers and feelings, gotta love it. Mused Topanga.

Topanga wrapped an arm around her surrogate daughter in comfort and Maya felt happy over it and leaned in a little. "Feelings tend to be big for girls and boys your age and can be pretty confusing. Even for a fierce, Amazon warrior like you."

Maya nodded at her words as it was seriously true and sucky. "Yeah, tell me about it. For the longest time I thought I had actual feelings for him you know? But now? I'm not so sure about that."

"Would this 'him' be my little brother?" Cory asked as it was obvious as can be that Maya tended to act pretty differently around him compared to how she was with other boys like Lucas, Farkle, and Zay. Though how she was with Lucas a lot of the time was very telling in the man's view.

Heh, leave it to her teacher to instantly figure it out. Looking at him, she nodded. "Yeah, that would be the one."

The Blonde Beauty just hoped he wouldn't freak out over what she was about to tell the two of them. "Now please don't freak out like you tend to do with Riley when it comes to boys she likes." Pleaded the girl.

Cory raised an eyebrow at her over that. "Sweetie, you're like a daughter to me so I can't promise you anything there." He told her with a smile and causing her to feel touched and pretty happy by his words.

"Okay… So umm… Before we came back home, I decided to talk with Josh while we were still at the house. And I decided to go for it and kiss him after we got done talking."

Cory and Topanga were honestly surprised by that bit of news even though they both knew she was the type to charge head on. Cory of course wanted to go and have a little talk with his little brother about the whole thing. "Boys! Always lurin' ya in with their pretty faces!"

"I don't know about that honey, it was your vibe of celery that lured me in." Teased Topanga and making Maya laugh in the process.

"Well, I'm obviously the exception to the rule."

Cory then got serious afterwards. "So your first big kiss and it left you unsure huh?"

Maya nodded with a sad look on her face and got a rub of comfort on her arm from Topanga. "Sometimes all it takes is a kiss to know whether or not something's actually there. Even with any feelings you feel you have to begin with." Said the mother sagely.

A chuckle came from Cory. "Yeah, God knows I was kinda freaked out when you kissed me against that locker back in the sixth grade. But even then I could feel something for you even if I didn't exactly understand what that was until later."

Topanga smiled at him and Maya could practically feel the love radiating between the two before the two gave her their attention once more. The affection in their eyes decided to make the young girl speak further on her confusion and unsureness. "Don't get me wrong, the kiss with him was wow worthy. Especially for my first time but while it was happening Lucas popped into my head."

"I wish I could say I was surprised to hear that sweetie but with the way you two act around one another its easy to see there's something there between you two."

Maya looked at him in surprise as the man didn't sound all that upset when he had spoken. "You're not… You're not mad?"

Her hesitance was easy to hear in her voice for the two and Cory quickly reassured her that he wasn't. "Not at all, what you feel is what you feel and it can't be helped." Topanga gave a hum of agreement to that.

"But what about Riley? I really don't want to hurt her as I know she has feelings for him."

Topanga took that one after a quick look at her husband. "Sometimes hurting is unavoidable. And even if you aren't doing anything about it to keep her happy, in the long run it hurts you too by not doing anything. Another thing to consider about all this is that Riley has a certain view point about Lucas thanks to the idea of her father and I."

"A view point that clearly keeps her from being accepting of all sides of him as those other sides hurts that view of hers. That view point is something she's going to need to learn to let go of as otherwise, she won't be able to have her own story and happiness." Threw in Cory and Maya had to agree with that as she clearly remembered the whole fiasco that got started when Zay first showed up.

Heck, had she not started to make comments during Riley's grilling of the guy things might have gotten a bit ugly too. And now that she was thinking about it, the Blonde Beauty wasn't too sure if Riles ever even apologized to him for how she was acting either. "Yeah, I get what you mean by that."

"The last thing we want of course is to see you and Riley falling out over a boy. But I truly think because of the strong friendship you two have that may not even happen. You clearly have feelings for Lucas if he's what popped into your head while you were kissing Josh and if you want to try to see where that goes? Then by all means go for it as I doubt that's something you want to look back on and regret not doing because of fear." Added Topanga encouragingly.

A sigh escaped the young girl as she knew Mrs. Matthews had a really good point. She wanted to live life and do all that she could so that when she was old and gray she could look back on life and not have any regrets. Maya didn't want to turn out like May Clutterbucket had by never trying and making for so many missed opportunies in the process. "Does this get easier in any way?"

"Nope." Cory told her while popping the 'p'.

"In fact it gets harder. Especially in high school. But as long as you have your friends by your side you'll be just fine as you go through it."

The fact these two don't sugarcoat things for me makes me glad Riley came into my life.

"So I can either leave things be or actually try and let what happens happen."

The two adults nodded at her and she let out a breath afterwards. "Thank you, I really needed this talk." The girl told them gratefully and they both smiled at her warmly.

Maya then wrapped Topanga in a hug before kissing her on the cheek, then leaned over to Cory and gave him a hug as well. "Anytime you need to talk, we are always here for you." The father told her and Topanga nodded in full on agreement.

Those would be words the artist would take to heart as she knew there was no lie to be heard in that. "I think… I think I'm gonna head home for a bit." Maya then rose up and headed for the door while making sure to grab her coat.

Giving the two one last look and getting encouragingly warm smiles in return, she made her way out as she began to think on everything. Cory and Topanga looked at one another before she slid to his side and he wrapped an arm around her. Both hoped that things for their surrogate daughter would lead to much in the way of happiness as she definitely deserved it. Things no doubt would be a little tense with Riley but their friendship would no doubt pull them through in the end.

Author's Notes: This was something of a challenge to write considering the feelings involved. But hopefully I handled it extremely well. Had the kiss with Josh not happened, her conversation with Cory and Topanga probably would have played out somewhat closely to how it did on the GMNY episode. Up next: The party gets in full swing, and its sure to be quite the event!