3. Something's Wrong With Maya
"You don't just disappear for two years and then come back expecting everything to be the way it was. So tell me, Maya, where were you?"
The room that was already silent somehow managed to become quieter. Eyes were on either Lucas, Farkle, Riley or Maya, waiting for any form of reaction.
Maya quickly glanced up at her old friends, quickly darting her eyes back to the floor to avoid the looks. Her arms came to wrap around her waist as if she was blocking out the others in the classroom.
Cory seemed to study her for a moment, trying to figure something out but shook his head, "Welcome back, Miss Hart. There's a seat next to Riley you may take."
At the mention of her old best friend's name, Maya's head shot back up. Cory couldn't exactly tell what the other was thinking but just watched as she nodded and made her way to the seat, avoiding all eye contact with anyone.
She dropped her battered backpack onto the table with a thump and sat, digging through to find what supplies she could. For some reason, she didn't seem to have as many items as the rest of the people in the class.
The teacher that had brought Maya into the room turned and left, leaving Cory to get back to his teaching. Throughout the rest of the class, Maya didn't once raise her head from her notebook, constantly writing down notes. That seemed to shock Cory, since the Maya he knew wouldn't be doing such a thing, relying on Riley to have notes for her to study from.
Riley, on the other hand, couldn't focus on the lesson. She couldn't help the glances she shot at Maya every few minutes and although her pen was poised in her hand, ready to write, nothing was going down.
Cory had just finished assigning that night's homework when the bell rang. Packing her stuff slowly, as if she was in pain, Maya rose and left the room quietly. Riley, who was yet to move, sat and watched her do so.
A tray dropped opposite the pair onto the lunch table and upon glancing up, Riley stood in front of them, "Can I sit here?"
"Uh, sure," Farkle hesitated, but only because Riley rarely spoke to them anymore. "What about your cheerleading friends?"
"Well, I wouldn't call us friends," She told them as she pulled the chair out and placed her bag on the floor. "Maybe acquaintances."
There was an awkward silence before Lucas broke it, "So, Maya's back."
It was the thing that had been on everyone's minds since the blonde walked into history during first period, yet they hadn't seen each other to talk about it. Glancing around the cafeteria and not seeing the blonde, Riley replied, "Yeah."
"Did she seem different to you?" Farkle asked, glancing between the pair for an answer.
"Well, after two years people do tend to change," Riley replied bitterly as she stabbed at a piece of meat. Lucas and Farkle exchanged a look at the sudden attitude change.
Lucas pulled a face, "Something didn't seem right about her."
Raising an eyebrow at him, she asked, "How so?"
"Just…" He pushed some mashed potato around his plate. "Something wasn't right with her. The Maya we knew was happy and somewhat smiley. This one is sad and quiet."
"In art today we were free to draw what we wanted," Farkle piped up. "I was on the next desk over from hers and she just painted a dark room. It was quite creepy, honestly."
"You're probably looking way too into it," Riley told them matter-of-factly before changing the subject. "What was my dad's homework? I, uh, I wasn't paying much attention."
The front door slammed behind Riley as she and Cory entered that night. Topanga, who was stood in the kitchen cooking dinner, turned to look at the pair. "What's wrong?" She asked, looking at her husband.
Cory didn't answer immediately, just watching as Riley silently trudged into her room, looking deep in thought. Finally turning back to Topanga, he answered, "She's back."
The latter seemed to understand instantly, her eyes widening a little in shock, "She's really back. You're positive?"
"How can I not be positive that it's Maya?" Cory snapped back before closing his eyes and sighing. "I'm sorry, but when Maya came back in this morning to history, Riley just seemed to stop paying attention. I don't know about the rest of her classes but I can only assume they were similar. Her return has really seemed to throw her off guard."
Topanga paused for a moment to think of what she was going to say next, "Did Maya say where she had been these last two years?"
Stepping around her, Cory sat on the couch and threw his head back before sitting straighter, "Something doesn't seem quite right about her."
"How so?"
"I can't put my finger on it," Cory told her honestly. "She was quiet. And she threw herself into note taking."
"Maybe she just wanted to learn something?" Topanga suggested.
It was a complete possibility, Cory thought to himself, but it wasn't the answer, "Possibly," He answered instead, keeping his thoughts to himself. Something wasn't right and Cory intended to find out what was happening with his second daughter.
Riley was perched in the bay window. The moment she sat there, she was hit with the past memories she had done so well to bury. In fact, she had almost managed to completely bury the memory of Maya, and she probably would have been successful in doing so if she hadn't had turned up that day.
Tucked away in a corner of one of her shelves was a worn and tattered picture frame. Inside was her and Maya sat next to each other, arms wound tightly around the other. Their smiles couldn't have been bigger and their eyes were shining with youthful glee. That was one of Riley's favourite pictures of the pair but a month after Maya left, she had hidden it out of sight.
All she wanted to do was go back to the time the pair were eight years old and just discovering the world. Now, at age seventeen, things were a lot more complicated than she could have ever imagined.
A single tear escaped her barrier, slowly trickling down her cheek and dropping off her chin, landing on her hand, "Why now? Why are you back, Maya?"
Again, I'm not too sure if I like this chapter, but you're the judges of that, aren't you? Thank you for 800+ reads on the last two chapters! Also, thank you for your reviews/follows/favourites! Are you looking forward to the new episode of GMW tonight (and Sabrina's movie) because I know that I defiantly am :D
