"Look at that eleventh grade woman!" Riley said as we were standing by my locker waiting for class to start, "We're going to be eleventh grade women someday." She was amazed at the way the girl was putting on makeup.

"I wear makeup," I shrugged getting my history book out of my locker and then closing it.

"This thing goes to eleventh grade?" Maya turned to me.

"To twelfth," I nodded at her as she frowned.

The older girl was putting on eyeliner and Riley watched her, "why that?"

"Brings out your eyes," I said handing her mine.

"Why would I want to take out my eyes?" she asked concerned.

"She's not taking out her eyes," Maya clarified laughing at Riley's childishness.

"And I think she is!" Riley said pointing at the girl who was now curling her eyelashes.

"It's an eyelash curler, it doesn't even hurt," the girl rolled her eyes and handed it to Riley.

Riley chucked, "I have eyelashes."

"Here we go," I said.

"Watch this," Maya told the girl.

Riley closed the curler on her eye wrong, "Ahhh."

"Anyone else would let go," I said watching Riley.

Cory walked by, "Open it."

Riley finally let go, "Thanks Daddy."

"Yeah okay," Cory shook his head and walked into his classroom.

Riley handed the girl back her eyelash curler and she walked away.

"Ladies," Farkle came up to us.

"Farkle," we all responded.

"School dance, I'm gonna put you three down for numbers one through all of them," he winked at us, "we will alternate. You and me, me and you, and you and me. When you are not dancing with me, you may not dance with anyone else. You may sit and wait until you dance with me again."

"Yeah, none of this is happening," I said smiling at him.

"Oh. Well, then may I have one dance with each of you?" He asked hopefully.

"Sure," Riley answered.

"Ha! That's all I wanted. You just got played by the Farkle." he said and quickly ran away.

Lucas came down the stairs, "Hey guys."

"Lucas!" I said raising my hand to high five him.

"Hand," Maya said and I put it down.

"Lucas!" I said again without my hand.

"Grown up voice," Riley said.
"Lucas, hello," I said internally screaming at my dorkiness.

"Hey," He laughed at me.

"Hey, heehaw," Maya said still trying to make him mad with her constant teasing, "You going to the dance? Because you know it's not a square dance, so there's not gonna be a whole lot of do-si-doin'"

"Well, then I'm sure I'll have no idea what to do and you can make fun of me," he responded completely calm.

She pointed at him accusingly, "You're not playing this right!"

"Well, that's certainly not my intention. I'll try harder next time," He smiled at me when he saw I was laughing.

"I will break you," Maya promised.

"Well, if that's what makes you happy, then I certainly can't wait for it...mam," He tipped his imaginary hat at her and she shuddered in anger.

"You going to the school dance, Lucas?" I asked ignoring Maya's little breakdown.

"Thought I would, what about you?"

Maya started to mimic a gagging sound, "You'll both be there. He'll be the one in the cowboy hat going like this," Maya started doing a weird cowboy dance.

"Wow he's really getting to her," Riley said and I nodded.

"So, you going to class?" Lucas asked me as the bell rung.

"Thought I would, you?" I answered.

"Let's go," He said and we started walking to class side by side.

"Mom, can we talk to you?" Riley asked Topanga as she pulled me into the living room with her.

"You can ask me a question," Auggie ran up to me and hugged my legs.

"It's a girl thing, Auggie," I said ruffling his hair.

"You think I don't know about girls?" He asked me.

"Okay, Riley's at a certain age," I started.

He ran away, "I don't care."

I laughed at him and sat on the couch with Riley.
"She's at a certain age?" Topanga asked me and I nodded.

"Mom, you had to know this was going to happen," Riley said.

"I know a lot of things are going to happen, which one is this?" Topanga asked me.

"Makeup," I said pointing to the stuff on my face.

"Oh, good."

"Can I have some?" Riley asked hopefully.

"No," Topanga shook her head.

"Why not? Violet wears makeup," Riley said upset with the answer she got.

"Well, because makeup leads to other things," Topanga said pulling her hair back into a ponytail.

"We have our first school dance on Friday night," I told her.

"And we're there." Topanga looked stressed out

"What's the difference between daytime makeup and nighttime makeup?" Riley asked.

"No difference," I shrugged laying back on the couch and texting Lucas.

"Because you're never wearing any," Topanga added.

"I wanna paint my face," Riley said excitedly.

"Wait, the dance is Friday?" Topanga asked.

"You're doing that thing with your voice." I said sitting up.

"But Friday is the last day for the Coney Island Cyclone."

"But it's our first dance!" I said looking from Topanga to Riley.

"And dad takes us to ride the roller coaster a bunch of times, right?" Riley asked her mom.

"Your father thinks of it as a tradition," Topanga explains, "Your father thinks of it as the reason he wakes up in the morning."

"Maybe he won't remember it this year?" I say.

Cory burst into the apartment, "Three days until cyclone day!"

"I think he remembers," I whispered to Riley.

"When's my birthday?" Topanga asked.

"A hundred and forty-eight days from cyclone day," Cory said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Good luck to you," Topanga told us.

"Daddy!" Auggie came running into the room.

"Auggie!" Cory picked up the small child, "Tell me stuff."

"Riley wants to wear makeup." Auggie told his father what he had heard.

"Hey, ya little spy!" Riley accused.

"Don't call him a spy. He is not a spy" Cory defended.

"I am a spy, you made me a card," he pulled out a little laminated card that said 'Auggie spy'.

"All right, he is a spy." Cory stated, "And guess what? He's working for me and he just got promoted," Cory pulled out another small card this one said 'superspy'.

"Cory?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah Violet?"

I hugged him tightly, "Coryyyy" I dragged out his name.

"Hey, super spy, tell me stuff."

"Violet and Riley want to go to the dance on-dun dun dun- cyclone night."

"Oh, wow it's the same night?" Cory played it cool, "I understand, I understand completely. I'm sorry you'll have to miss the dance."

"Try again, Topanga said.

Cory cleared his throat, "I'm sorry you'll have to miss the dance," he looked to Topanga, "Nope, same thing."

"But it's our first high school dance, Cory" I pleaded sitting next to him on the couch.

"Oh!" Cory grabbed his chest with one hand.
"Oh boy" Topanga said watching her husband.

"No, no, I'm down with this," Cory insisted.

"Dad, when it comes to this stuff, I don't think, there's anything you can teach us," Riley said and I nodded agreeing with her.

Cory groaned loudly and grabbed his chest with both arms this time.

"We're growing up, Cory" I said as I got off of the couch

"Goodbye!" Cory fell back on the couch.

"You're breaking him!" Auggie yelled at me.

"You were a great father to me when we were kids. Don't take this the wrong way, Dad, but there's just some things that mom can naturally teach me." Riley kept going.

"Like, what do you know about makeup?" She rolled her eyes.
"I know it's what you're gonna have to do with me." Cory said sadly looking at both of us.

"Mom?" Riley asked.
"That went better than I thought." Topanga said patting Riley's back.

We walked into class in a line behind out friends the next day.

"Friar, Farkle, Hart," Cory greeted them as they came into class, when me and Riley came in he said, "You two."

"Cory, I didn't-" I started.

Cory cut me off, "Nope."

"Okay," I said as we took our seats.

"Well, guys, I've got your test results on Darwin to give back to you. And, uh, I'm pleased to see some of you have evolved since the last quiz."

No one laughed at Cory's joke so Farkle fake laughed loudly.

"Thanks, Farkle."

"Well, you were drowning, sir" Farkle said nonchalantly.

Cory was passing out papers and stopped in front of Maya, "Ms. Hart."

Maya just stared at her paper.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Mr. Friar, nice work," I heard Cory from behind me.

"Maya?" I asked again

"Mr. Farkle."

"'A' number seven hundred. Hazzah!" Farkle blew a noise maker loudly.

"You," Cory handed me my paper.

"Maya seriously, what's wrong?" I asked for the third time.

"He gave me an 'f'." she said showing me her paper.

I looked at Riley who said, "That's nuts, you're a solid 'D' student!"

"Mr. Friar, I took particular note of your position that evolution does not preclude the existence of, how did you put it?"

"A guiding hand that has your best interest at heart," Lucas answered politely.

Maya raised her hand, "Yes, Ms. Hart?"

"You failed me," she said in disbelief.

"Why don't we talk about this after class," Cory suggested.

"What's there to talk about, you failed me," she said again holding back her tears, "You think I'm a failure. There's nothing more for you to teach me."

"Oh, come on! All three of you are gonna say that to me?" Cory looked at us all.

Maya started to walk out of the class.

"You mean I lost all three of you?" Cory asked, "Maya! You do not walk out of here."

She ignored him and kept going. Riley and I raised our hands.

"Go," he nodded to the door and we both quickly left the room.

Maya was moving stuff from her locker to her backpack, "Redecorating?" I asked.

"Nope, cleaning it out."

"Maya it's just one 'f'" Riley said as Maya handed us to freshly made cotton candy sticks from the machine she kept in her locker.

"It's not about the paper, guys, your dad failed me." Maya said and I felt a little awkward when she called him my dad.

"Yeah we know. And we aren't going on the cyclone, we failed him too." Riley said sadly.

"Can't we just call it even?" I asked hopefully.

"No. We can call it I'm leaving," Maya said picking up all her stuff.

"Maya, I know you. You'll make a big deal out of this, pretend to leave school forever, and you'll be back by gym class," I said giving her a small smile.

"No, this time I mean it," she said seriously.

"All right Maya, I'll see you tomorrow!" Riley said.

"No you won't."

"You'll pick us up at 7," I said.

"I won't be there, Violet," She said and then left up the stairs.

"Maya, you proved your point, you didn't come to school and now your teacher is mad at you," I said frowning at her as we were sitting in my room.

"He's not my teacher anymore, I now attend a prestigious online academy," she told me.

She pressed a button and the computer started playing a shady voice asking for four hundred dollars.

"You paid for this?" I asked in disbelief.

"Free trial," she said, 'Well I took the test to see if I qualify for the free trial."

"Maya! It's a scam they take anybody!" Riley exclaimed.

The computer started talking again but this time it told Maya she failed the test.

"Maya you didn't even answer the name question right." Riley said reading over the wrong answers.

"At least she's smart enough to not give them her name." I shrugged.
'It's not that I'm smart enough," Maya said shaking her head,

"Then what is it?" I asked.

"Maybe sometimes, I'm not so proud of who I am." Maya said looking at her lap.

Topanga opened the door, "How's it going in here?"

"Topanga, tell Maya to come back to school- regular school," I said looking at Maya.

"So you guys don't like this?" Topanga asked Riley and I.
"Of course not! Maya always comes to school with us," Riley said.

"She always picks us up at 7, we look forward to it," I said.

"Like a tradition?" Topanga asked.

"Yeah, oh..."

"You know even though you're a mother that was creepy good," Riley said.

"So Maya doesn't show up like she's supposed to and how does that make you feel?" Topanga asks us.

"Oh," I said feeling bad about what we said to Cory.

"You guys have to go to him, he feels bad. Violet, Riley you have to go to your father," Topanga said looking at me when she said the word father.

"I feel bad, is he gonna come to me?" Maya asked Topanga.

"No. He's your teacher. He doesn't have to," Riley said.

"But he will," Topanga said.

"What?" Maya asked confused.

"He doesn't have to, but he will," She smiled at Maya.

"Why?" I asked.
"Because he's always there." Topanga said.

Cory comes into the room and pulls out Maya, Riley, and I.

We all sit down at the kitchen table and Cory pulls out Maya's test, "Read it."

"Mr. Matthews, I don't want to do this." Maya said getting up.

"Sit down." I told her

"You can't tell me-" Maya started to argue.

"I just did," I said and she sat down again.

I scooted my chair closer to her, "Go ahead."

"Darwin animal studies were thought to be when the travels he took on the boat with the beetles." Maya read aloud.
"Are you kidding me?" I asked.

"Does she have to be here?" Maya asked pointing at me.

"What were you trying to do?' Cory asked her.

"I tried to write it like I was smart." Maya explained.

"You are smart," Riley told her.
'What did you mean to say?" Cory pressed her.

"Darwin studied animals." Maya shrugged.

"What kind?"

"I don't know."

"She does know," I said.
'I don't know" Maya said again, "You think I don't know what I don't know?"

"I think you more than you don't know, but you don't know," I said.

"You know what?" She said

"What did Darwin study?" I asked, 'Think about Maya."

"Birds."

"Really? I got that one wrong." Riley said.

"You want to be smart Maya?" Cory asked, "Say what you mean. I understood that perfectly, and you're correct."

"That's all I had to say?" Maya asked shocked.

"What was the name of his boat?"

"The Beatles," Maya said.

"The Beagle," Cory said, "It's a tiny difference, but an important one. Because if you know it Maya, you won't fail."

"I want to not fail," She decided.
"What kind of birds did he study?" Cory asked.

"I don't know," Maya said and I rolled my eyes.

"You do," I said.
"Finches."

"And what else?" I asked.

"Finches and mockingbirds." Maya answered.

"Yes," I said.

"How did you know she knew?" he asked me.

"I know she listens to you." I told him, "We all do."

"Then you won't fail, and neither will I." Cory said.

"How about some turkey sandwiches?" Topanga asked.

"Darwin didn't study turkeys he studied finches and mockingbirds and his boat was the beagle." Maya said.

"And for extra credit?" Cory asked.
'The islands he studied were the Galapagos." she said smiling.

"Because she listens to me." Cory told Topanga.

"Hey Maya, watch this" Cory turned the F on her paper into an A.

"You're giving me an A?" She asked.

"No, I'm giving you a C+, but I wanted you to see how easily and F can become an A," Cory said.

"Nothing to be ashamed of anymore Maya," Riley said.

"My dad doesn't live with-" Maya started.

"It's okay," I said, I know how it feels more than anyone at this table.

"He's got this new family," She said and Cory and Topanga's eyes shifted to me.

"Maya, you don't have to" Topanga told her.
"I do have to." She decided, "I have to be able to talk to you. If you give me an F, if you decide I'm not worth working on"

"Maya take a look around you. We're all here for you. Does this look like we thing you're not worth working on?"

"I just don't want to fail Mr. Matthews."

"Maya, do you know why I live with them?" I asked her shifting my body so I'm facing her.

She shook her head no.

"My mom and dad got divorced when I was in first grade, my mom decided she didn't want to be a mom, that she only cared about her job. She works all the time and she travels constantly and the only time I even get news about her is on my birthday when she sends a card. My dad found a new woman got married, and they have kids, who I've never seen" I let a tear slip out of my eye; "Topanga and Cory have been my parents for as long as I can remember. But I know how you feel Maya." I hugged her tightly.

"I love you guys so much, thank you for everything you've done for me," I hugged Cory and Topanga.

"Violet, we are your parents, it doesn't matter if you aren't biological ours, we love you just as much as we love Riley or Auggie," Topanga said hugging me.

"Thanks mom," I said smiling into the hug.

"I don't want to go to the dance." I decided, "the dance doesn't matter to me at all."

"I want to go on the cyclone with you more than anything in the world!" Riley joined in.

"You're going to the dance." Cory told us.

"Hooray," Riley said breathily.

"I'm going to chaperone," Cory said.

"What?" I put my hand up.

"Hand." Maya said.

I put my hand down, "What?"

"Grown up voice." Riley reminded me.

"Lucas, hello," I said on accident.

"What's that mean?" Cory asked Maya.

At the dance a slow song was playing and I was dancing with Lucas, he had his hands on my waist and I had mine around his neck. Farkle was making Maya do the tango.

"You're a really good dancer Lucas," I told him as we swayed side to side.

"Thanks so are you."

Farkle dipped Maya right next to us.

"That hat is just for me isn't it?" Maya asked Lucas, annoyed she still couldn't get to him, He nodded, "You actually put though into our little game, don't you?"

"I actually do" Lucas said as he pulled a flower out of his hat and put it in her mouth. Farkle immediately put it in his and started to tango again.

I laughed at Lucas and Maya's little game.

'This is for you," Lucas handed me a red rose.
I smiled at him, "Thank you. It's so pretty."

"Just like you Violet." He said as we continued to dance and I blushed.

Cory went up to the stage and grabbed the mike, "Well guys, it looks like the night is winding down. We hope you all enjoyed the dance. But before we go, I noticed that some of the fathers have arrived to pick up their daughters. I wonder if we might have one last dance. A father daughter dance."

As the music stopped playing, Cory walked off the stage to me and Maya, "May I please have this dance?"

He danced with both Maya and I for a while and then Riley came and danced with us too. His three daughters.