Scream Me a Love Song
A Collection of Song Fics
No.2 Joey Is a Punk Rocker

A/N: Just a fun little idea that I've been toying with, based on a Broadway show tune I heard earlier this year.

Maya Hart had a serious problem.

It was the bane of her existence and it kept her in a near state of depression. In fact, it affected her so much that her best friend, Riley Matthews, refused to drop the issue.

But, Maya could never let anybody know what was eating her alive inside, because her secret was that she had a crush on a beautiful guy. A boy who was sweet and gorgeous and sexy and mysterious-but the exact opposite of Maya, her friends, and everything that she stood for.

So, nobody could ever know how she felt about this amazing boy.

She was a straight A student. She maintained her position on the honor roll every time report cards rolled around and everybody knew that she was a girl genius. She may have struggled in middle school, but by the time high school rolled around, she was a genius. Especially with the help of her best friend.

She was on the cheerleading team, because of Riley, who had forced her to keep attending tryouts with her. She was one of the captains, sharing the position with Riley, as she shared everything with her best friend.

And she was one of the most popular girls in school. She and Riley ruled the school with an iron fist and did everything in their power to maintain the status quo. For Maya threatening to be the one to break the normality of their high school's structure…well, it was blasphemy.

It was absolutely wrong for Maya to like this boy and she knew it. Despite whatever had happened in middle school, things were different now and that much should be clear to the lot of them.

Even if she had the courage to go and tell him how she felt and even if he felt the same way, things wouldn't be okay for them. If they even attempted to go out together, once they were spotted as a pair, Maya's friends would freak out. They would cause a High School Musical worthy riot in the middle of the cafeteria, urging everybody to stick to the status quo.

And Maya's mother?

She'd probably die from shock if Maya tried to bring this boy home.

It was easier for everybody if Maya just pushed aside her feelings and hoped that, eventually, they would go away. If she prayed that she would find somebody else. This had to be just a phase.

Still….all she really wanted to do was ask him if he actually liked her back, or, if he thought that she was a boring, spoiled little princess with a stick up her butt. Because she was positive that this boy thought nothing of her. Nothing positive, if he even bothered to think of her at all.

Maya didn't even care what his response was.

All of her hopes for moving on and forgetting about him were for naught, because no matter what he really thought of her, she was never going to be able to take her eyes off of that…well, different kind of "Mr. Right".

He had caught her eye because he was different from what she was used to, and that was more than enough to keep her interested. She was bored with her life, with how routine every day felt. She wanted something to add some interest to it, and a love affair with a boy like that would definitely stir up some trouble.

Maya longed for excitement. She had always longed for excitement. When she had changed in order to keep Riley as a part of her life and fit into Riley's new world once high school had started and their group had been torn apart, she had given up that excitement in exchange for a title.

Now, she just wanted that excitement back in her life.

"You have a crush on somebody!"

Riley shouted out the words excitedly as the two girls sat in the brunette's bay window, discussing all of life's important issues.

"What?" Maya gasped, glancing up from where she had been focusing her attention, painting her toe nails.

"You have a crush on somebody, and that's why you've been acting so weird," Riley accused, an excited and quirky grin on her face with a knowing sparkle to her eyes.

Maya should have known she wouldn't be able to keep her secret from Riley for long. The brunette knew her better than she knew herself. She knew absolutely anything and everything that there was to know about Maya, just as the blonde knew all there was to know about the brunette.

It was crazy for Maya to have assumed that the secret could be kept from Riley. She had to be stupid if she thought that Riley wouldn't figure it out. That Riley wouldn't put all of her attention and focus onto the issue as she tried to figure out what could possibly be bugging her best friend and affecting her in such a negative way. Because that was how Riley was-she refused to let anything go, and Maya had to accept that fact. She had accepted it, long ago.

"I do," Maya admitted, lowering her head.

The thing was…Maya could lie to Riley. As long as Riley couldn't see Maya's face and she controlled her voice, Riley would never assume that Maya wasn't being completely honest with her.

Maya knew how to play the game and she was going to play the game. She was going to make sure that everything was okay for her, because she needed to protect this secret. Because Riley finding out the truth would be worse than anybody else learning her secret.

"Who? Tell me about him! Give me hints and if I guess right, you'll tell me?" Riley asked, lining the game up perfectly without Maya needing to put in any effort.

"His hair is…. dark," Maya said, choosing to use that word over greasy or full of an excess amount of product.

"What else?"

"He paints his nails black," Maya said, an amused smirk on her face.

"You're funny, Maya," Riley giggled. "But give me serious hints! I want to know who it is!" she whined.

"Well, he wears dog tags and he has patches on his backpack," Maya said honestly, knowing that those hints could define a large amount of boys at their school and many who were suitable for her, according to her group of friends.

"That's every guy at school!"

"He swears a lot," Maya observed, focusing on her nails.

She chose to leave out the fact that he smoked, because it wasn't like this boy was any good at the habit, usually hacking himself to death before he got in a second puff. Besides, it would just lead to a lecture from Riley about the dangers of second hand smoke and how disgusting it was to date a boy who partook in such a habit.

"Maya, you give the vaguest descriptions," Riley rolled her eyes, slamming her head back against the window and crossing her arms over her chest.

"Riley, it doesn't even matter, okay?" Maya said, looking up at her best friend with a comforting smile. "Because it's just a crush and it's not going to lead to anything, ever. It's a meaningless little crush."

She was lying through her teeth, because the truth was that she was head over heels in love. She was crazy in love with this boy.

And it sucked that she couldn't even share the joys of her first love with her best friend. She hated the fact that she couldn't proclaim the news for all to hear. Because she really wanted to tell the world about it, but she knew what the response would be.

So, it didn't matter that she was in love. Nobody could ever know.

"Peaches…is this a guy that you think I'll get upset about you liking?" Riley asked suspiciously, as if she had just broken some sort of secret code.

"What?" Maya's head shot up, cursing under her breath as she smudged her nail polish due to the sudden movement.

"Are you afraid of telling me who this guy is? Because I'm not going to be angry with you. You can't control your feelings, Peaches," Riley laughed, as though she thought Maya was being absolutely ridiculous for acting in such a way.

"You seriously wouldn't care if it wasn't somebody from our group?" Maya asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Peaches!" Riley squealed. "How could I deny you your first love?" she fawned, grabbing a pillow and hugging it close to herself.

"I am so happy to hear you say that," Maya gushed.

"Besides!" Riley cut her off, stopping her from continuing. "If you and my Uncle Josh were to get married, you and I would be related and how cool would that be?" Riley beamed excitedly.

Maya's head snapped snapped back up again, eyes wide as she stared at her best friend. She didn't even notice that she had messed up yet another nail with this sudden movement. She was too overcome by shock at what her best friend had just said.

"You think it's Josh?" Maya wondered.

"Maya, you've been into Josh since middle school."

Maya was silent for a few seconds, rubbing at the smudged toe to wipe away the polish that had gotten on the skin around her nail.

She needed a few seconds to try to figure out what her next move should be. Because, she could play this one of two ways. She could be grateful that Riley had given her an our, claiming to be interested in Joshua Matthews, the uncle of her best friend who she had made a fool of herself over back in middle school. She knew that the admission would go nowhere, so it wouldn't cause any harm.

Or, she could tell Riley the truth. She could hope that Riley had been completely honest with her about not caring who it was that Maya was interested in. She could hold her best friend to being happy for her no matter who she had feelings for.

It would be so easy.

All she would have to do was say, "I'm in love with Lucas Friar."

But, that would be difficult.

Because Riley may not care, but that didn't mean that things would be easy for Maya once the admission was made.

No, she could not tell anybody about her crush.

Nobody could know that she was into the school's bad boy. The kid that barely ever showed up for school and was known for cutting classes. The boy that was in a band and didn't seem to care about what anybody else thought.

"Maya?"

"Yeah…yeah, I like Josh," Maya whispered, not even bothering to look up at Riley.

She knew that the brunette was never going to think she was lying.

They didn't go together at all.

There was no way that anybody could picture Lucas and Maya together.

They may have won cutest couple back in middle school, but that was before they both changed. That was a long time ago and they were two very different people now.

And now, they were polar opposites with absolutely nothing in common.

They went together about as well as fast food and Maya's mom's favorite, expensive wine. They went together like a pair of designer shoes and a dress from Walmart.

Meaning, they didn't go together at all.

She was constantly reminding herself of that. She always scolded herself, mentally, that they were never going to work out. It just wasn't possible that things would be easy for them. In fact, things would be so hard for the pair of them that they'd get sick of all of the effort it took to make stuff work out and they would fail epically.

They'd be like a reality show for their high school. Their fellow students would take bets on how long they would last with one another.

They'd become a pun. A term used whenever two opposites came together. It wouldn't be all cutesy and sweet like it was in the movies when the popular boy got together with the loser girl. Instead, it would just be weird.

"Come on, Maya," She muttered under her breathe, forcing herself to tear her eyes away from him as she sat in her history class. "Remember that this will never work. It can't happen," she scolded, squeezing her eyes shut.

She knew that she was being absolutely ridiculous. After all, Lucas Friar was on drugs and Maya was on kick line. He was the front runner for a punk rock band that played at a bar they were too young to get into and she was a cheerleader.

He walked around in a leather jacket with a fitted shirt and baggy jeans. He stomped around in loud combat boots and had chains attached to his jeans. His backpack advertised bands that terrified Maya and he wore a single dog tag around his neck, one that Maya knew was in respect to his grandfather, despite the fact that his father had served overseas as well.

Maya, meanwhile, walked around school in designer clothes. She broadcasted her cheerleading uniform every Friday with an oversized bow and a large star at the corner of her eye, highlighting the beautiful shade of blue. She wore a diamond-studded cross around her beck and her purity ring sparkled in the fluorescent lights of the school.

Her biggest act of rebellion was when she and Riley had snuck out when they turned sixteen and gotten their belly buttons pierced together.

She didn't even want to imagine what Lucas's biggest act of rebellion was. He probably didn't even have any idea of what his biggest act was, because he lived for breaking the rules.

Still…. there was something that set him apart from the other guys in Maya's life. Something other than the fact that they all threw themselves at her as though it were a challenge to try to date her.

Which it was, because Maya had never had a boyfriend, been kissed, or been on a date before.

But, Lucas was different for a different reason than the fact that he just didn't seem to show any sort of interest in her. While it drove her crazy that he acted as though she didn't exist, that wasn't what had her so focused on him. That wasn't why she was so interested in him when compared to the other boys around her.

No, the thing about Lucas was that he had this intense soul behind his dark, beautiful green eyes. If one only took the time to look past their red-rimmed, bloodshot exterior, they would see how much passion he possessed.

It was that passion-the artistic ability that Maya could see him possessing-that attracted her to him.

And that was why she was absolutely in love with the boy, despite the hardships that came with being in love with a guy that she had to keep secret. The only good thing of his hatred towards her was that she never had to worry about the pair of them having a relationship. Because if she had to have a secret relationship, she was sure she'd be driven mad.

Just keeping her crush a secret was driving her insane.

"So," Riley chirped, hooking her arm through Maya's as she met up with her in the hallways between classes. "I have exciting news for you!"

"What?" Maya groaned, already knowing what it was going to be.

"I got you a date with my Uncle Josh," Riley said happily.

"And how'd you make that happen? He thinks I'm some desperate little kid," Maya rolled her eyes.

For once, she was grateful for the fact that Josh thought Maya was as young as he viewed his niece of being. While it bugged her, ordinarily, to be viewed as a child, this time, it was working out in her favor. And she was more than happy to play it up.

"Not anymore," Riley insisted. "He thinks you're sexy!" Riley whispered as though it were a scandalous secret.

"He's three years older than us," Maya sighed.

"We're eighteen and he's twenty-one. Before, he was just worried about the law. Not anymore!" Riley started to skip.

She was so excited that she was skipping down the hallways. And because she was that excited, Maya wasn't going to be able to say no to her.

It was impossible for Maya to break her friend's spirit. And when Riley got excited about something, she believed that it was going to lead to the best for everybody. So, if Riley wanted Maya to go on this date, Maya was going to go on the date.

"You're right," Maya forced a smile, trying to ignore Lucas's glaring eyes drilling holes into the back of her head. "Where are we going?"

"This is the best part!" Riley squealed.

"What is?" Maya sighed.

"He's getting us fake ID's made! We're going out tomorrow night and we're going to that new bar downtown-the one with the different band every night?" Riley was beaming.

"Riley….you're planning on sneaking out and lying to your parents and breaking into a bar so that I can go on a date with Josh?"

"Peaches, you know that I'd do absolutely anything for you!" Riley said, wrapping her friend in a tight hug before hurrying off to her next class, leaving a shocked and confused Maya to stand there alone.

All that Maya wanted was the courage to go over and talk to Lucas.

This time, though, it wasn't because of her crush on him. This time, it was because she wanted to go and tell him off for glaring at her all day.

She could feel his harsh stare every single time she was in his general proximity. It seemed like she had been feeling it ever since she had talked to Riley with him so closely behind them in the hallway.

What she didn't understand was why he seemed to be so bothered by her potential date. He never seemed to have any interest in Maya before that, so she found it a little bit unfair that he was acting like this. After all, if he wasn't going to talk to her, he had to let her be happy.

And she knew that wasn't fair to him, because she wasn't going up to him to talk to him either. She didn't have the courage, either, so she couldn't be bitter about the fact that he wasn't making a move. Besides, his apparent anger could be for any number of reasons, most of which probably had nothing to do with her.

Besides, she really wanted the courage to take his hand and walk with him down the halls. She wanted to be able to be like all of the other girls when they liked a boy. The girls who hooked their arms through their boyfriend's arms. The girls who walked around, wrapped in their boyfriend's arms with his hand in their back pocket.

But, she couldn't be like that with Lucas. Because she wasn't brave enough to hold her head up high and strut her way down the hallway with a boy so different from her and her friends at her side, clutching onto her hand as they walked.

She wished that she had the courage. She knew that she was supposed to be one of the bravest girls in the school, and that she was being a disgrace by giving into her fear, but she couldn't help it.

So, instead, she was going to have to deal with the glares she was getting from him and never know why.

All because she was giving into her fears.

Because Maya Hart was not as confident as she had once been.

Now, she cared about what people thought of her. She worried about what they might say about her.

And she knew the negative connotation that would come from a relationship with Lucas Friar. She knew that she would be torn apart, ripped from her place on top.

She would lose absolutely everything, and that included Riley. And it didn't matter if she had true love-a boy who worshipped her and thought the world of her-if she didn't have Riley. A relationship meant nothing if there wasn't a best friend.

Riley would be there long after things with Lucas went south and she knew that. But if people pushed Maya aside and thought of her as a loser, Riley was not going to stay by her side. Riley lacked the confidence to lose her popularity. She needed her status, or else she felt like she was an absolute nobody at that school.

Maya knew everything that people said about Lucas. They made fun of him and they were downright mean to him. Yet, he didn't seem to care. He paid it no mind and didn't give it any attention. It was like the insults didn't bother him and Maya didn't know how that was possible. It didn't make any sense to her.

But, Lucas continued to do his own thing. He never resorted to violence to hurt somebody else in defense for himself. He only used his physical violence to defend other people-those who couldn't defend themselves. Because that was the type of guy that he was.

He didn't care if people looked at him funny. He didn't mind if they stared for too long. He paid them absolutely no mind, because he was convinced that they just didn't matter. They weren't important to him or his life in the long run.

And Maya envied him for that.

She wished that she was as confident as he was.

She longed for that ability. She wanted to be brave enough to walk around with her head held high, free to be herself. She didn't want to hide and she definitely didn't want to be afraid. She wanted to be the girl that everybody thought she was supposed to be-the brave, confident girl who ruled the school with an iron fist with her quirky best friend by her side.

If she had that type of confidence, she would be able to walk right up to Lucas, ball his shirt up in her hands the way she had when she was younger, and pull him down so that his face was close enough to her own so that she could kiss him. Right there, in the middle of the crowded school hallway, not caring about who saw them.

She could profess her love for Lucas Friar and she wouldn't be lying to her best friend. She wouldn't have to act as though she were in love with Joshua Matthews and she wouldn't be forced to go on a date with the older boy the next night.

A date that she was pretty sure was to go and see Lucas's band play, which was the very last thing she wanted to do.

Maya walked into the smoky bar, cringing at the awful scent in the air. The music was loud, filling up the tiny area and coming out clear as day, over the crowded room.

And sure enough, Lucas and his band were right up on stage, with Lucas holding the microphone and a guitar swung across his chest. The band's name-The Pagan-was lit up on the screen behind them, but Maya's focus was on the beautiful boy at the front of the stage.

Her blue eyes caught his green ones, and suddenly she was lost. She wasn't in a smoky bar, fighting her way through a crowd of sweaty bodies and unable to hear the people she had come with over the blaring music. All that she could focus on was Lucas Friar, and the fact that he was looking at her like she was the only thing that mattered to him.

He was looking at her like he had back at a campfire, back in Texas, all those years ago. He was looking at her as though he actually saw her.

"You want a drink?"

Josh's deep, velvety voice was suddenly right in her ear, tearing her out of the hypnotized state that Lucas had put her in. She was immediately torn back to the bar that she longed to leave, and the date that she was forcing herself to act excited about.

"Huh?" She asked, blinking slowly as she tried to comprehend what he had just asked her.

"Do you want something to drink? You seemed nervous when we were getting past the bouncer, so I figured I'd get you the drink so you don't have to worry about lying again."

He had pressed his mouth closer to her ear and was speaking just a bit louder, as though his volume and proximity had been the reasons she hadn't understood him. As though she merely hadn't heard him.

"Um….yeah, I'll have…a Malibu and coke?"

It came out more like a question, despite the fact that it was her drink of choice. Not too much alcohol and no bitter after taste. It was a safe choice of beverage-one that she knew she could handle.

"Be right back," Josh said, flashing her a quick wink before disappearing towards the bar.

Riley had been with them, accompanied by Charlie Gardner, the boy she'd been dating since she ditched Lucas, Farkle, Zay and Isadora back in ninth grade. The boy who had helped her in her rise towards popularity.

And, like always, Riley and Charlie had disappeared as soon as they had arrived, to go sneak off into a corner and spend their entire night attached at the lips. That was how it always was when Maya agreed to go somewhere with the couple and she was sure that that was part of the reason that Riley had become some obsessed with getting Maya a boyfriend.

"Alright, guys!"

That was Lucas's beautiful country accent and Maya immediately turned towards the stage, eyes focused on the boy.

"We've got one more song for this set-a fan favorite," he winked and Maya chose to believe that the wink was directed towards her. "But, before we sing "The Chase of Love", I've got a little dedication to make," His eyes found hers and she could see the smile forming.

Maya was frozen in time, dreading what was about to come next.

Of course Lucas had some stupid fan girl who was crazy about him. She was probably older and more mature. A girl who wouldn't be ashamed of having a relationship with him.

And now she had to watch him dedicate a song-a love song, she was sure from the title-to him. And that killed her more than anything else. She could bare knowing that Lucas had moved on, gotten over the love triangle that had consisted of Riley, him and herself. She had expected that to happen eventually. But, she didn't want to have to watch it happen.

That just seemed the cruelest and most unusual form of punishment she could possibly imagine.

And then she was distracted once again, Because Lucas was tearing off his shirt, revealing his broad and perfectly chiseled chest. Revealing the pierced nipple that Maya found somewhat sexy, even though she normally would have found it to be incredibly disgusting.

"THIS ONE GOES OUT TO MAYA!"

Her eyes grew wide, taking in the proclamation. And, for a second, she was scanning the crowd, as though waiting for a different Maya to make herself known.

When she saw the amused smirk on his face when he caught her eyes once again, however, she knew that he wanted her. She knew that he meant her, and that he was in love with her-the same way that she was so in love with him.

She started pushing through the crowd, making her way towards the stage as she forgot about everything that was happening around her.

Forgetting about Josh and the date that she was supposed to be on. She was forgetting about Riley and the fact that Riley was convinced Maya was in love with Josh. She forgot about everything, except for the gorgeous boy up on that stage. The boy who had just declared his love for her, ignoring any type of rejection or ridicule his confession could bring to him.

She had to get to that stage.

She needed to be there, so that as soon as he was done, she could jump up onto the stage and throw herself into his arms, kissing him the way she had longed to for so long.

Because she no longer cared. She had the confidence that she needed to finally be Maya Hart. The girl who wasn't afraid of anything. The girl who was unafraid to be herself, because she didn't know how to be anybody else. Because she didn't want to be anybody else.

She was going to be the Maya Hart who set off the sprinkles in the middle of class. The blonde haired beauty who danced on teachers's desks. The short stack of pancakes who fled from detention and led an army of fellow rebels in her wake.

She was sick and tired of being Riley's goody-two-shoes best friend. She wanted to be the rebel once again. The girl who truly was Shawn Hunter's step-daughter.

Sliding the purity ring off of her finger as she forced her way to the crowd, she vowed to go back to being the Maya Hart that deserved to be with a guy like Lucas Friar.

She was going to be Maya Hart the Bold, once again.

She had decided, right then and there, that she just didn't care. They could call her all of the names that they wanted to.

Riley could abandon her, choosing not to support Maya and her newfound relationship. Maya could be left to have no friends, and she still wouldn't be able to bring herself to care.

As long as she had Lucas, she really didn't care about anything else. All they needed was to have one another and they'd be okay. They'd get through anything as the two rebels without a cause-the Bad Boy Cowboy and the Rebel Blonde Beauty.

Like Bonnie and Clyde, they would be able to take on the world together, without giving the rest of the world a second thought. Because nobody else mattered but the two of them. Maya decided, right then and there, as the final chords of the song were strung, that she no longer cared about anybody else in her life.

Maybe that was wrong of her, to forget about her friends and stop caring about them all together, but she couldn't bring herself to care. Her friends couldn't be that good, because she had felt so terrified of doing this for so long. And she was already feeling so amazing at the mere thought of doing it. Why would good friends try to deny her of that feeling?

No, all of her so-called friends could look. They could gawk and stare and glare and sneer. She really didn't care what they did.

She was ready to shout it out for the whole wide would to hear.

Which was why she lifted herself up onto the stage, running towards Lucas as soon as the song ended and throwing her arms around his neck, leaping right into his own arms and kissing him, pressing her lips right up against his own.

He wrapped his arms around her waist in return, lifting her right off of the ground and kissed her back.

And it was clear, right then and there, that Lucas Friar was in love with Maya Hart, and Maya was just as in love with Lucas.