If Maya knew that agreeing to be civil with Lucas meant that Riley was going to try and butter her up, she would've considered agreeing to it a little earlier. Especially if it meant that the three of them would go have breakfast without the three stooges. She would be able to have some peace before seeing Lucas and although it still made her skin crawl, she would deal with it. After all, she knew that this little game of being Isadora and Riley's friend was just that, a game. And once she had enough evidence to show her two friends, the rest of the school year would be cake and most importantly Friar free.

Something plopping on her tray knocked her back into reality where she sat at her usual lunch table with Riley and Isadora. Even though her morning started off perfectly without seeing Lucas and her friends not mentioning him, her mind wandered and thought about things that the five of them must've done together while she was in Europe. Did he sit at this lunch table too? Did he—

"Earth to Maya! Do you want my grapes or not?" Riley repeated loudly, waving her hand in Maya's face. She had to get her act together if she was gonna try spending a month with Lucas. Most importantly, she needed to take advantage of the fact that he wasn't there with them and that that was probably one of the few moments she was going to have with the two of them.

"Do you really have to ask?" she smiled at her friend sitting across from her and plopped one of the green grapes sitting in the styrofoam bowl, into her mouth. Enjoy this now, she thought to herself. Because the moment Lucas showed up with his posse and obnoxious accent, she knew she would have to start her mission to expose him as the spawn of satan he truly was.

One thing she didn't miss about Abigail Adams or just Adams Prep now, would be the annoying and impractical uniforms. Who wanted to wear a skirt, knee highs, flats, a blazer, dress shirt and tie? Certainly not Maya, who was just a few minutes from ripping the stupid blazer off and untucking her shirt. Looking around the hallway, now that she was alone after Riley and Isadora went to their respective classes, she knew she could take it off, but what if she passed by a security guard or the receptionist? She'd surely get a dress code violation she wasn't really in the mood to get. She was too busy enjoying not seeing Lucas.

Remembering that she had art first and Ms. Kossal never did care about dress code, she quickened her pace until she got to her class. Once she got inside, she saw the classroom set up a bit differently. The paint that usually stacked up in a cluttered mess by the door on a paint stained shelf was now lined up on a stainless steel cart that looked a lot more expensive than the shelf. The art class was usually separated into two sides where people painted but was now together forming a circle with stools creating the frame of said circle and a sketchbook sitting on a black easel directly in front of them.

Maya smiled at that, at least the new school was giving them more supplies. Her smile didn't last though because the door she just walked in from opened again and in came a man wearing a black button down and slacks and an overly cheery grin. It startled her and rushed her to take a seat next to Sarah who looked unfazed by this strangely happy man.

"Hello class, welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful summer, I'm Mr. Jackson and will be teaching Art Theory I. Now, if you're in the wrong class, I would suggest you run over to where you're actually supposed to be otherwise you're in for a lot of sketching and scrapping." he joked and the class chuckled. Was she missing something? Where was Ms. Kossal? She was the only art teacher in Abigail Adams as sad as that sounded. It was a small program that she helped keep afloat and she wasn't teaching it anymore?

Mr. Jackson went on to talk about the syllabus and how the rest of the year was going to go in the class. His smile fell as he started to explain and he finally started to look like a teacher that hated their life like the rest of the Abigail Adams staff. Except Ms. Kossal who still hadn't made an appearance and had yet to be mentioned by someone in the class.

Not wanting Mr. Jackson's attention on her on the first day, she nudged Sarah from her stool in the circle and asked, "What happened to Ms. Kossal? Is she teaching a different class?"

Sarah looked at her, almost with pity. Similar to how most people were looking at her now that she missed a whole school year. It was beginning to irritate her.

"Maybe at a different school." Sarah muttered back to her. Maya's eyes immediately shot open. Ms. Kossal quit? Were they not paying her enough? Did some gross teacher try putting their hands on her? Dozens of things came to mind at the thought of running into the pervert that made Ms. Kossal quit.

"Did something happen to her? Did someone do something?"

Sarah shook her head, "Not directly. Since they merged schools, they had to let some faculty go. They decided that having Mr. Jackson teach would be a better option than Ms. Kossal." Sarah whispered back to her like she was telling her the weather. They fired Ms. Kossal?

"What?" Maya said a little louder than she meant to. Instantly, Mr. Jackson stopped speaking and his eyes found hers as they just peeked over the easel and sketchbook.

"Do you have anything to add, Ms.?" he lingered on the ms and Maya responded reluctantly, "Hart." His eyes grew wide as if he recognized her from a picture or an old story.

"Maya Hart? Well, I've heard a lot about you. You're the one who vandalized a teacher's car because they gave your friend a low grade?" she clenched her hand into a fist but the memory wasn't what bothered her. Mr. DeGrazia deserved the big D she carved into the side of his black BMW. It made him look over Isadora's grade and realize that instead of giving her a bad grade to prove a point to the class about studying, giving her the grade she deserved would have the same effect.

She crossed her arms over her chest, "I wouldn't have to if he did his job properly." instead of his facing falling and him being afraid of her, he smiled big again and started laughing.

"Ah, Maya. You're much more complex than you come across through stories." he said and wiped a tear from the corner of his eye with his finger.

"Thanks?"

Mr. Jackson took her confused thank you as an assured one and told her, "I look forward to the rest of the semester." and then he continued to speak about the work expected for the course. Maya wanted to taunt him, curse at him for making Ms. Kossal lose her job but all she could do was clench her fist and look at the smiley man animatedly talking about their future assignments and work load.

[*]

The rest of her classes were similar to art though no other teacher felt like challenging Maya as much as Mr. Jackson did. Although she did have these thoughts before walking into her second to last class, the class she was looking forward to more than art that morning when she got her schedule.

It was the class she had with both Riley and Isadora. English. Not that she liked the subject all that much but it was the only time she had with the two of them since Lucas wouldn't be there but once again, the moment she walked into the classroom, she realized she spoke too soon. Not only was Missy in the class along with her own little clique of minions but Farkle was there with the rest of his posse and ring leader. To top it off, he was sitting in the seat behind Riley. The seat that she usually sat in.

She already had enough of the day and the teachers and Ms. Kossal not working there that she didn't stop herself from going to the desk he sat at and slamming her palms on top of it to get his attention. Turning his head up to look at her, he shot her a small smile and waved, "Hey, Maya."

Ignoring him she said, "Up. That's my seat." she even hit the desk again for him to better understand that she wasn't messing around.

"Maya." Riley called her name but Maya ignored her.

"But...this is my seat." Farkle argued weakly. Maya rolled her eyes and tried to keep the anger and frustration she had built up over her day not all unleash itself on Farkle but he was making it incredibly difficult.

"Your seat? Since when? When he told you to sit there?" her eyes found the puppet master in all of this, sitting in a seat next to him. Lucas had his feet propped up on the desk and a lollipop in his mouth that Maya silently hoped he choked on. He returned her gaze and scoffed.

"You really must be losing it, Hart. I didn't tell him to do anything."

"Maya." Riley called again just as Maya leant forward on Farkle's desk, lessening the gap between her and Lucas. The classroom that had been lively and loud when Maya walked in had noticeably gotten quieter. If Maya wasn't so keen on strangling Lucas, she probably would've listened to Riley and stopped. But the bastard was looking at her like she was the one that was wrong. Was she not supposed to be mad that Farkle was in her seat? It's like everything changed at this school and there was nothing left of what she used to love about it.

"You obviously must've told him something, huckleberry. I know these two," she gestured from Farkle to Zay who was sitting on the other side of him, chatting to Isadora, "are at your beck and call."

"I'd like to interject for a second and say—" Farkle began but Maya cut him off.

"I really can't believe you, are you that dedicated to ruining this school for me? Was freshman year not enough for you? Seriously, there isn't a moment where you stop being an asshole." Maya raised her voice and couldn't hide the cracking in it at the end of her sentence. She just wanted to sit in her seat and for the day to be over. She was so busy wallowing in her self pity that she missed Lucas get up from his chair, lollipop still in his mouth and spin her around to face the teacher's desk.

His breath brushed past her ear as he whispered, "Just like there isn't a moment where you shut up and listen. The seats are assigned—" the sound of heels clicking against the marble floor snatched the attention away from the two of them and towards the front of the class. There was a woman with all gray hair and slightly hunched posture. She wore a powder blue button down and a black midi skirt. She didn't look that much older but the all over gray gave it the effect that she was practically ancient. It was either that or the glare she was shooting at Maya and Lucas, the only two who were out of their seats.

"Good morning, everyone. Now that vacation is over, I hope that mindset is long gone and that you'll get down to work. You two," she nodded in their direction, "what are you doing out of your seats? Was a seating chart too hard to decipher?"

Maya blames the shock of Lucas suddenly smiling and appearing to be a decent person for her sudden voice disappearance. He shot his picture perfect smile at the old woman at the front and let go of Maya, "No, ma'am. I found my seat just fine." then he sat back down, leaving Maya to have the old woman's attention all to herself.

"Well? Were you not able to read the seating chart?"

"I—"

"She didn't know there was a seating chart, Mrs. Hurtley. She just came back from a break and—" Riley interjected when Maya came up with nothing.

"Excuse me? Are you her lawyer?" The woman lifted one thin eyebrow at Riley as if her speaking seemed like the ultimate form of disrespect. It was that look that she gave Riley that snapped Maya back to her senses.

"Hey lady, don't yell at her when I know you wanna yell at me. I didn't know about the stupid seating chart, so I didn't know where to sit." Mrs. Hurtley went from being extremely offended to mildly irritated in a matter of moments. She took a deep breath and picked up the seating chart from the top of her desk. She made sure to make eye contact with Maya before telling her her seat.

"Maya Hart? You're gonna be behind Charlie Gardner, over there." she pointed with her wrinkly old manicured finger towards the back of the classroom which Maya wouldn't have been opposed to if the way she was pointing wasn't the exact row that Lucas was in.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." she meant to say under her breath. Apparently the day was not only full of surprises but quick tempers.

"Did you have something to say, Maya?"

"No, Mrs. Hurtley."

"Good, so if you would be so kind as to hurry to your seat, I may actually be able to go over the complete syllabus before the period is over." Maya rolled her eyes once her back was turned and made her way over to her row. Even though she was trying to keep her eyes trained on the empty seat, they couldn't help but wander over to the cowboy who was now going to be two seats in front of her for the rest of the year.

She found him smiling and swallowed all the profanities she wanted to shout at him for finding the whole ordeal amusing.