Girl Meets World: They're Us

Chapter 9 (The Maze Begins)

All rights belong to Disney

A few days after Shawn had left to Europe (since Cory had politely denied his offer), it was the night before his return, and Maya was in her room, writing down a song.

"Don't stay up too late, Maya," yelled out her mother as she went off to work.

"Got it!"

Ever since that time when Riley had gone to the diner, Maya and her mother were slowly trying to put their relationship on the right track... At least, one good enough for Riley to be pleased.

I've got a ticket for the ride of my life

Beeep Beeep beeep!

All of a sudden, her cellphone went off, and Maya was surprised to see that it was Shawn requesting a video chat.

"Hey, Maya, what's up?" said Shawn, looking a bit more younger with a shaved face. "How you been?"

"Eh, nothing much," shrugged Maya. "Fine... It's thanksgiving break, and... Oh, wait, check this, Riley got her hair messed up."

"Her?" said Shawn, confused. "Why, what happened?"

"The machine she had her head in at the salon went a little berserk," replied Maya. "So Mr. Matthews is trying to calm her down."

The photographer chucked, remembering when he had accidentally been a part of Cory's hair getting messed up. "Can't say I ain't surprised. Like two peas in a pod, them too..."

All of a sudden, Maya saw darkness for a second on Shawn's screen, then after a few seconds, the light came back.

"What's going on?"

"I'm in the subway," explained Shawn. "But in a train with electric problems. It's fine."

Then, he took a deep breath, and he said, "Anyway, Maya, uh... I know I'm coming back tomorrow, but I needed to tell you this one thing real quick."

"Sure, what is it?"

"Er... Well..." Shawn could feel the letter in his lap. Its contents were of deep importance to him, and he was surprised at who the author was.

"There is, this, um..."

Maya just nodded, while Shawn said, "I wanted you to know that-"

But before he could finish, the cellphone went straight to black, and Maya realized that her phone had died, she quickly plugged in the charger, but Shawn had already signed off.

"Oh, for the love of..." Maya groaned. "Oh, well, I can just wait for tomorrow."

Before going to bed, the 13-year-old girl put the "song" paper on top of her writing materials, which included paper and pink envelopes.

"Hey, Maya, I didn't know you wrote cursive."

It was the next day, and the two best friends were spending the first day of their break watching television.

"Huh?"

Riley explained, "I looked at your homework papers, and almost half of it is in cursive. It looks nice."

"Oh, it's just something new," shrugged Maya, acting like it was not really important. "Don't get used to it."

Before Riley could say more, Cory came into the living room, and was surprised to see them awake. "I thought you two would sleep in..."

As she got snacks from the cabinet, Riley said, "Daddy, please, we are going to spend this time to relax and have FUN, not on-"

"Zzzzzzz..."

Cory and Riley turned to see Maya, who was now fast asleep.

"You were saying?" chucked Cory, making himself a cup of coffee.

Riley just smirked, and went over to cover Maya with blankets before going to eat some cereal. "Hey, Dad, you notice Maya's new writing style?"

"You mean, the 'detention' style, or the 'do not care' style?"

Riley rolled her eyes, and said, "No, Dad, I meant her cursive..."

Cory chuckled, and said, "It's probably just a new thing she's trying out, Riley. Don't go into assumptions about anything."

"And why would I do that?"

"Cause I know that you know that we know that you're like me, and I always wanted to-"

Before Cory could finish, there was a knock at the door, and he went to answer it, seeing a familiar little girl.

"Oh, it's Elizabeth, right?" Cory said, recognizing Lauren's daughter, also seeing Lauren walk inside. "Hi, there..."

"Hey, Cory," smiled his former crush. "Is Shawn back yet? I wanted to tell him something..."

Cory said, "Well, I think he's coming this afternoon, but you can wait for a little bit. Is everything alright?"

"Oh, yeah, it's fine," chucked Lauren. "It's just that I wanted him to... Oh..."

She froze for a moment after seeing Maya asleep on the couch, and said, "That... I have a photo job open for him."

"Well, great," smiled Cory, going back to his coffee. "I'm sure he'd love that."

Riley looked at the young woman, and said, "So, Lauren... How did you end up in New York? It must have been a surprise seeing my dad at the diner a few nights ago."

"Riley!" exclaimed Cory.

Lauren laughed, and said, "No, no, it's okay, Cor, it isn't that interesting anyway. I just needed to get away from the mountains. You can only take so much cool."

"Something that Mr. Matthews needs," mumbled Maya, smiling.

Cory rolled his eyes, and said, "Ha, ha... Go back to sleep, Maya."

"Not with you all talking so loud," replied Maya. "We're supposed to be on break..."

"You are," replied Cory.

"Then why do I have a feeling you're gonna be teaching us something?"

At the train station, Shawn was just exiting out, and was trying to call for a taxi.

When it came, he told the driver where to go, and as the vehicle drove away, Shawn pulled out the letter in the pink envelope.

Why couldn't she just tell me?

The photographer sighed, and put it back in his coat pocket, deciding to focus on seeing his family again.