After saying goodbye to Maya and the boys, Riley ran up to her apartment and shut the door loudly. She ripped off her coat in anger and threw her boots to the ground. Tears threatened to spill out of her eyes as she dumped her backpack from her shoulders and went to her room.

Quickly changing into sweats and a t-shirt, Riley pulled out her diary and began writing. When all else failed, she often turned to the small, purple journal that housed all of her deepest thoughts. Thoughts that not even Maya knew. Riley kept it hidden underneath her mattress.

Dear Diary,

It's me. Riley. Today was a rough day in Rileytown. Farkle and I got to help some teachers after school, and we all went to that fro-yo shop afterwards. Things were fine until that.

A girl tried to flirt with Lucas. I felt like yelling at her and pulling her hair out. She didn't deserve to even look at Lucas, much less talk to him. But I could feel Farkle and Maya silently waiting for my reaction: was I going to be the little immature goofball who couldn't handle anything?

Everyone's judging me. I haven't grown up as fast as the others have. I still act like a nine year-old girl, one who doesn't want her toy to be taken away from her. I've been trying to calm myself down. Trying to act like everything's fine. But it has just led me into a bipolar state of panic. One minute I'm mature, the next minute I'm not. Sometimes I can't even recognize myself. I'm so volatile.

I don't want to be like that. I want to be like Maya. She's so strong and so amazingly quick on her feet. Nobody says that she is immature or annoying. Everyone looks up to her. She is strong. Confident, despite what else is going on in her life. My life is a thousand times better than hers, but I still have the need to complain.

She hasn't even been asked to the school dance yet. I don't know why. Out of at least 100 boys, no one wants to go with her? It doesn't make any sense.

My "hang-man" placemarkers have five letters. But they don't stand for "Lucas". I found that out today. His tattoo only has four letters.

A tear fell onto the paper. Riley laughed bitterly and wiped it away.

Is it Maya? He didn't want to show it to me. Maya has been on edge this whole time, too. It would explain her little outburst the other day.

But wouldn't Maya trust me?

Riley's hand hovered over her diary as she stared at the words. Before all of this commotion, Riley and Maya had always told each other everything. They went everywhere together. No secrets were kept- her dad even said that their co-dependency was almost unhealthy. The girls always ignored him when he said that.

But now, Riley kept a diary. One that she hid underneath her mattress so that Maya wouldn't accidentally find it and read it. And apparently, Maya had a secret, too. So did Lucas.

Riley sighed. Sure, she was angry that Lucas wasn't her soulmate. She felt led-on, embarrassed, and disappointed. He never once mentioned that she wasn't his. He just let her continue on, pretending that what they had was special enough to last. She was embarrassed- everyone knew that she was a fake. What they had was never real enough to be real. Everyone knew that she was head-over-heels for a guy who never really felt the same way. Disappointment flooded her emotions like a tidal wave. She had wasted her once-in-a-lifetime chance on a boy she met in a subway. Her mom and dad had spent at least two years getting to know each other as friends. Maybe that's why they worked out. She plastered a label on Lucas that he rejected.

In favor of a girl with a four letter name. Like Maya.

Riley was done being angry. Yes, she had enough to fuel a hatred that could last well into college. She felt like shutting Maya out of her life forever. After everything that they'd been through, Riley felt like she had been betrayed. Like Maya stole Lucas away, even though, in the back of her mind, Riley knew that it wasn't so.

Riley was a good girl. She got good grades. She helped her parents with Auggie and with the chores. She helped Maya, Farkle, and Lucas with whatever they needed help with. She was kind. She wasn't rebellious, like Maya. She followed the rules. She dressed neatly, never showing too much skin. She smiled a lot. She made people feel welcome.

So how come the universe decided that she wasn't worthy of a "happily ever after"?

Riley's eyes teared up again, and she threw the diary across the room. It hit the wall with a resounding thump and fell to the floor.

Topanga came in when she heard the commotion. Upon entering Riley's room, she noticed the girl with puffy eyes and a sad smile. Topanga sighed.

"What happened, Riley?" Topanga walked on over to the bed and sat down. She smoothed Riley's hair down and gave her a tissue.

Riley blew her nose loudly and took a deep breath.

"I don't even know where to start, Mom," she admitted. Her red eyes once again filled with tears.

"How about you start with the first thing that made you upset?" Topanga asked gently.

Riley nodded, agreeing. That seemed like a good place to start.

"We went for fro-yo and a girl started flirting with Lucas."

Topanga raised her eyebrows. "Oh? Did you try and stop her?"

Riley shook her head. "No, I left them. I thought that it was funny at the time. And I trusted that Lucas wouldn't try anything."

Topanga looked at her daughter, proud and surprised. "Well, that was very mature of you. I'm sure that you felt like kicking her out of the store."

Riley laughed sadly and nodded. "Yeah, I did. But that wasn't the worst part."

"No?"

Riley shook her head. "No. I finally got the courage to ask Lucas what his tattoo was. And he wouldn't tell me anything, except for the fact that it was four letters. And I know that his tattoo already came in, because Farkle said it did. But even Farkle hasn't brought it up yet. So it could only mean that Lucas is hiding something from me because he knew that it would hurt me even more than what he had already disclosed. And the only thing that could make me feel even worse right now is knowing that the four letters stand for Maya."

Riley smiled. "It's funny. I only had five lines on my wrist, and I amped up all this hope. All this anticipation that it would be Lucas. And this whole time, he knew that it was somebody else. I never would have thought that a week could change our lives so much. He knew that it wasn't me for a whole week. But he never bothered to tell me."

Riley turned to her mom. "And you know what the worst part is? I wouldn't have been so angry if it was a random 'Dani' that Lucas was supposed to marry. I'm almost 100% certain that Maya is his soulmate. And even though I know that they would make each other happy, it hurts even more that the girl who stole Lucas away was my own best friend. I almost want to drive them away from each other, even though I know that it would ruin their whole lives. Does that make me a bad person?"

Topanga blew some air through her teeth. "Y-es..." She said.

Riley threw her hands up in the air. "Mom, you weren't supposed to answer that! It was a rhetorical question! You were supposed to comfort me, not make me feel worse!"

Topanga held up her hands in mock surrender. "Now, Riley, you didn't let me finish. This action does paint you in a bad light. And I am a firm believer in looking at the motives behind the actions. For example, if a man stole medicine because he wanted to help his daughter, I wouldn't think that he was a bad person. Just irresponsible and wild, if you will."

She turned to look towards her daughter. "But the fact that you want to separate your two best friends because of your own selfish reasons makes you... Slightly worse than the average human, even if all your feelings are perfectly reasonable. Which they are," Topanga worded her answer carefully. "But it doesn't have to be like this. Do Maya and Lucas know about each other?"

Riley folded her arms and turned away from her mom. "How would I know? They act like they don't, but for all I know, they've already married!"

"I think you're over-exaggerating."

"Yeah. And a week ago, I thought that Maya asking about Lucas was me over-exaggerating. And look at where we are now!" Riley grabbed another tissue and blew her nose.

Topanga sighed. "Listen, I am obviously not going to be able to talk some sense into you. I'll be back later. In the meantime, your dad is going to be home soon. I am going to send him in to talk to you. I expect that full respect and attention will be given to him. Do you hear me, young lady?"

Riley nodded sullenly.

Topanga left the room and closed the door silently, only to slam into Cory's chest.

"Well, hello," Cory said slyly, wiggling his eyebrows up and down.

Topanga rolled her eyes. "Not now, Cory. Your daughter is dealing with her teenage crisis right now, and I can't get through to her. Perhaps you would like to try?"

Cory shook his head hard. "No-no, I think that I'm good." He just got home from work. The last thing that he wanted to do was confront a teenager.

Topanga raised her eyebrows at him.

He sighed, defeated. "Yes, dear. I'll check on her," Cory said as he turned towards Riley's room.

He braced himself for the torrential storm that was Riley Matthews and opened the door quietly. "Riley? You okay?"

Riley's face brightened at seeing that it was her father. He had a soft spot for her and was always nicer than Topanga. Topanga had a "lawyer" streak about her: right was right and wrong was wrong. She seldom sugar-coated anything and often laid things down in cold, stone facts.

"Dad! Mom's being mean, and she said that I was a bad person."

"I'm sure that she didn't mean it like that. Did you let her finish?" Cory asked the girl.

"No. But I don't need to. Those kinds of things don't need explanations, Dad," Riley explained patronizingly. "She quite obviously meant what she said."

"Okay," Cory gave in quickly. "So, what happened? Why did you go all God-zilla on your mom?"

Riley sighed. "Lucas's tattoo only has four letters. Not five. And even though Farkle said that all the letters came in already, Lucas wouldn't show me. So that means that the name would upset me a lot- that's why he didn't want to show me. And who else has a four letter name? Maya." Riley explained all of this to Cory, who sat in deep thought.

"Okay... And where in this mess do you come in? Why are you a bad person?" Cory asked. The news about Maya and Lucas didn't surprise him, although Farkle's quietness did. Farkle was always one to make Riley happy- maybe that's why he didn't tell her the truth.

"I'm not!" Riley exclaimed. "Mom said that I was because of what I told her."

"And what did you tell her?"

Riley looked at the ground sheepishly. "I said that it hurt more because it was Maya instead of any other girl. Because she's so close to me."

Cory nodded thoughtfully. "I'm not sure that you understood what your mother was trying to say, darling," he said as he took Riley by the arm. "I'm pretty sure we can all agree that it is more hurtful when someone is close to us. If I stole money from somebody else, that's bad. But if I stole money from you, oh boy. That's even worse."

Riley nodded. "I get it. So what was Mom trying to say if she understood my side of the story?"

"What she meant was that if you truly loved Maya, even more than Lucas or whatever you guys had... You would be happy for her regardless- especially because you are so close. Do you understand? Her happiness should mean so much more to you because you guys are best friends. Somebody getting married is great. But having your brother marry a nice girl means so much more. Am I being clear?"

"Yes, daddy," Riley said with a sigh of defeat. "I really should go and have a talk with Maya."

Cory raised his eyebrows. "She doesn't know about any of this?"

Riley shook her head and flopped onto her bed. "I acted like everything was fine! Of course she doesn't know. I mean, I think she probably suspects something. But she hasn't brought it up. And neither have I."

"You should talk to her," Cory said gently. "Communication is the foundation of any relationship. At the end of the day, you will realize that telling her how you feel is better than keeping it bottled up inside."

Riley smiled a real smile for the first time since she got home. "Thanks, dad. I should probably go call her now. In fact, I think that I'm going to go surprise her at her house!"

Cory looked at his daughter in astonishment. "Wow! You're venturing out into the deep end?"

Riley laughed. "It's not that bad."