A/N: Chapter time :)

This one's shorter then the previous ones. I'm trying to make them shorter, so that I don't exahust you, but most times they end up longer than I thought. Part of it is due to many of the chapters being kind of their own story, "stand-alon-ish", part of it is because some unexpected stuff gets in when I write, like the Koothrappali fund rap ^^

I know I always write this, but I am genuinely greatful for all who read, follow, favorited, review. Write up whatever comes to mind, even if you're reading a chapter a long time after it was originally published, I enjoy reviews very much :)
Special thanks to my great beta reader joyteach.

I don't own The Big Bang Theory. Or NASA. Or Google. Just my 7 OCs, and kinda sorta this story's Michael and Halley (who doesn't look like Churchill).

Chapter 10: By my side

January, 2031.

[Riley.]

"Riley… Riley!" Hiroshi called me.

"Huh? What?" I responded, surprised. I wasn't paying attention.

"It's your turn," he said, nodding toward my cards.

"Oh, umm.." I looked at my cards. We were playing "Squirrel Squad". "Stinky Feet Squirrel," I said, as I put the card on top of the pile, over "Karaoke Squirrel" that I guess was played by Irene, who'd had her turn before me. I thought I would win this round but it turned out that Thomas had played "Foot Fetish Squirrel" before, meaning "Stinky Feet" was neutralized.

"Riley, are you alright?" Randi asked me.

"Yes, yes I'm fine," I answered.

"You just seem to be very distracted…" she said, "you've been distracted all day, actually."

"More like all week," Thomas said.

"I'm fine," I shrugged. I could see that they didn't buy it, but they let it go.

They were right, I was distracted. And for the same reason that had me spending this recess with them in the first place. I was supposed to meet Michael by the fence between our schools (because he's in middle school now), as we do every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. But he'd texted me earlier that he wouldn't make it. I would have been fine with it if it were just this one-time thing, but that was the second time this week, and the third the last two weeks, and the seventh since the beginning of the year. By that I mean school year.

It's just that lately he's become part of this kind of new friend group with kids in his grade. It was him, his friends Jackson and Ramzi, another boy they got to know recently (Ned) and four girls (Trish, Jess, Heidi and Yolanda). Heidi and Jackson became girlfriend-boyfriend, and Ned and Jess are cousins, and that brought the others closer, until they became this group. Now they hang out together a lot. They are together at lunch and many times at recess, they go to each other's houses, they go to hang out at the small clothes shopping center (Michael says the girls make them do it, but I know he loves clothes shopping), they go to the interactive movie theater. Three of the girls are also cheerleaders so they're always there when Michael and Jackson have basketball games. The other kids sit together watching. Last time they called Michael when he talked to his parents and me after the game, and they all went out for smoothies. Uncle Howard was so thrilled. He loves it that Michael is hanging out with those kids, especially the girls. He keeps asking Michael if he "got" one of them already. He also asks him about "getting" any girl but more about these girls and other cheerleaders.

I'm happy for Michael. I'm his best friend, of course I'm happy for him. Why wouldn't I be? He seems to really like hanging out with them, and I think he really likes being part of the group. And they are kinda like him, they are like kinda popular but not in a mean way, and these girls, and also Ramzi a little, like all that clothes shopping and dressing up stuff that he likes (that's more like torture if you ask me).

It's just… just… I don't know. I don't like it that we miss our recess meetings, and that sometimes when I want to meet him I can't because he's with them. He asked me some times if it were okay and said that he could skip their meetings but I never told him to do that. I don't want him to miss out and risk being taken out of the group or anything. So I didn't hurt his position in the group or anything, but… It bothers me. Ugh… okay, sometimes I kinda hate it. But I don't say it! And I'm happy for him. But I kinda hate it, some times. Am I a terrible friend for feeling this way?

I tried staying focused for the rest of the game, but that didn't last long, 'cause a few minutes later I was taken out of the game again, this time not by my thoughts.

"Pseudo-sister! Pseudo-sister!" Tivo called, running to the table my friends and I were sitting at. He seemed upset. That wouldn't be unusual, there are many things that upset Tivo and many times he turns to me to solve them.

"Whassup, Pseudo-mister?" I tried lightening the mood.

He just furrowed.

I sighed and smiled, "What's going on, Tivo?"

Now he sighed, "Riley, I told you, I am okay with 'Tivo' as long as it is in the context of a personal or 'gang' meeting," he started, not forgetting air quotes, "Otherwise, it is Stephen."

"Yeah… No," I said.

"Alright…" he scoffed. "Back to the matter in hand, I need your urgent help. A malicious cat has taken possession of my spot and will not leave."

"Which spot?" I asked, he has so many. There's his classroom spot, his cafeteria spot, his comic-book reading spot, his first floor hallway spot, his second floor hallway spot, his ball game observation spot, his group chit-chat observation spot, his I'm-open-to-conversation library spot, his do-not-disturb library spot…

"My second recess playground spot, of course," he looked at me as if I were crazy for asking.

"Sure, sure. Have you tried to make it go away?" I asked.

"I tried telepathic communication, assertive glance, assertive stance, loud, yet not provocative steps forward, all from merely 40 feet away. I'm telling you, this cat is determined to conquer my spot. I need your help, please," he said, giving me a pleading look at the end.

That was certainly not how I wanted to spend my recess. But I looked at his face, upset, helpless, pleading. I knew if I didn't do anything his aide (who his family refers to as assistant), Zoe, may get involved, but they prefer her as little involved as possible.

"Fine," I sighed and got up. "Sorry guys, see you later," I said to my friends. They were fine with it, they're used to this.

Of course, the malicious occupier was the cutest little ginger kitten.

"Okay," Tivo whispered, "here's the plan. You'll approach it, slowly but surely, while I cover you from here, repeating that it must leave, in order to mentally weaken him. Remember, assertive body language and slow pace, no need to be a hero."

As soon as he finished I walked in the cat's direction, normally. He or she just went away as soon as I got closer.

At least this took my mind away from Michael for a bit.

At home, Maxi had a friend come over, Kevin. They were running all around the house playing with toy planes, and later pretending to be prehistoric animals trying to survive an ice age. The latter was Baby Bro's idea. He was both the cutest and the most accident-prone prehistoric animal, knocking off pillows, tissue boxes, paper books, and whatever else was in his way. Good thing we don't keep anything fragile within his reach. My parents had a lot of work looking after them.

Sophie and I had a Professor Proton marathon, I thought it would cheer me up. After 4 episodes Sophie decided to go to her room to make a new bid bracelet, but I didn't feel like doing anything so I put on another episode.

"Hey Cub," Mom said, coming downstairs. She was breathing a little heavily, probably from chasing after Maxi and Kevin. "How's it going?" she asked, coming to sit next to me. I could hear worry in her voice.

I snapped out of my thoughts and looked up at her, "Umm fine, just watching Professor Proton," I nodded to the screen, noticing then that it was back on the episode list.

"Really? Doesn't seem like you are…" she said, "What's wrong, baby?"

"Nothing, I'm fine," I answered, "Just gotta put a new one…" I said, turning to do that.

"Riley…" Mom stopped me.

"What? I'm fine," I shrugged, looking ahead. I admit it came out a bit angry. Mom can sense something's wrong even when I don't show any signs, so now I didn't have a chance to get out of this.

"Aren't you supposed to be doing that model thing with Michael today? If you're so fine, how come you're not preparing for it? You always make sure to arrange everything before he gets here," she pointed out. She meant the model we planned to build of an action potential in a neuron, last week I saw a video where they made one.

"What's the point?" I shrugged, sulking and still looking ahead, "I don't even know if he's coming." Okay, I totally turned myself in this time.

I glanced at her, without moving my head. I could see her furrowing a little.

"Has anything happened between you two?"

"No," I looked down, "But he's been hanging with his friends all the time, I don't think he has time for me anymore."

Mom now got that I was sad and hugged me. "Hey… I'm sure this is not true, Michael always has time for you."

"Not really. He keeps cancelling our recess meetings and we've been spending less and less time together lately," I said, my voice becoming weaker. I took a breath, "Mommy, I don't wanna get in his way with this gang, but I… I…"

"You can tell me, baby."

"I hate it. I really really hate it. I'm a terrible friend."

"Oh, Cub, you're certainly not!" she tried to comfort me.

"Yes I am. I should just be happy for him. I mean I am happy for him, but I'm also not. It's just… We're BFFs, we've always been, so I always thought he would always be there for me, by my side, you know, forever. And now he's busy with his friends, and the smoothies, and clothes shopping with these girls…"

"And you want to fling your poop at them?" she suddenly asked.

"What?!" I asked, leaning back from the hug, looking at her, totally puzzled.

She shook her head quickly, seeming to be snapping out of something, "Never mind." She then looked at me, and put her left hand on my right cheek. After a moment of silence, she smiled this sympathetic smile. "Cub, I get that. It's scary, when there's a big change between you and a person you want to keep by your side. But I know you and Michael will make it. You may have to make some changes along the way, see each other or talk to each other less, but I know you will always be there for each other. You guys are a team, always have been, always will be. You know, we used to think it would be nice if our kids become friends, but we never imagined how close you'd be. I mean, you guys loved being with each other even when you still couldn't talk much or really play together, we kept speculating about what was going on in your little toddler world but could never understand it," she said, chuckling and caressing my cheek.

"I know!" we heard Maxi shouting upstairs, "Let's make a cave to keep us safe and warm! I'll look for big metal stuff so it is imprer..i..imper-mea..-ble, you make 10 or 20 or 30 cups of cocoa to keep us warm!"

Mom and I looked toward the stairs, concerned.

"I'm on it!" we heard Daddy yell, and were relieved.

We turned to each other again, "Just talk to him, Cub, make it clear. I'm sure you guys will figure it out."

"Figure what out?" I suddenly heard Michael's voice, he was just coming through the door (I gave him a key so he can come in whenever he wants), "Is someone bothering you, Riles?" he looked at my face and seemed to get more worried and started to talk fast, "You look sad, are you sad? If someone's making you sad I'm gonna..have a talk with them, like a serious talk!" he nodded, determined.

Mom smiled at me and caressed my cheek as she got up, "I'm gonna leave you guys to it." She passed her hand over Michael's head and then went upstairs.

Michael came to sit next to me, but I couldn't look at him. Mom told me to talk to him about it, but I felt like I couldn't. I just looked straight and said, dryly, "We need to get all the material for the model out, I didn't get to it."

"Oh okay," he said, I heard surprise in his voice.

"It's not that hard, you know, and it's technically part of building a model."

"Yes, I know," he answered, sounding like he didn't know what was going on.

I felt kind of angry, and I just spilled it, "I just didn't want to have to put everything back," I shrugged.

"Okay we both know you won't do that anyway," he pointed out. Yeah… he was right about that. I don't clean up much… I just never feel like it. He continued, "but why would you have to put everything back?"

"I don't know, what if you didn't show up?" I asked, glancing at him but only turning my head a little.

"What? Why wouldn't I show up?" he asked, looking confused.

I took a breath and looked down, "I dunno…What if your friends went clothes shopping?"

He paused for a moment. "Riles, do you have a problem with me hanging out with them? Because if you do, I told you, I don't mind turning them down, any time," he said, leaning to try to look at my face. "Well, for you any time, now for my dad and his juggling classes…" he joked.

I usually laugh at his jokes, but I wasn't in the mood. I sighed, still looking down. "No, you shouldn't turn them down. They're your people… I'm gonna be fine. I'm okay with you having fun with them. Just… I just… I don't wanna lose you," I confessed, turning my head to look up at him.

"You won't, Riles I swear! So what if they're 'my people'? You're… You're my person, but like, more than them, like my special person… You're my BFF, always by each other's side, you know? But like, for real, not like you're just someone's BFF because you're really good friends but like special BFF…" he looked thoughtful, "Super-friend?... Life companion? Uh I don't know what to call it, but…"

"Michael," I said, getting his attention, to show that I got him. I grinned, "Let's go make a neuron fire."