The last two weeks of school were mercilessly unforgiving. Teachers piled on homework assignments and projects one after the other. There were as many as seven unit tests on the last day before the holiday break. To top it all off, Maya and Riley hadn't spoken since Riley's birthday party, and their friends were dancing around the subject of their friendship as carefully as handling broken glass. Even Zay wasn't his normal, carefree, easy-going self.

"This is getting ridiculous," Lucas said finally one day, surrounded by Farkle, Zay, and Billy Ross. The four of them had called an emergency study session over lunch to try and get all their work done. "It's like the apocalypse has come."

"I know what you mean," Farkle agreed. "Riley and Maya not speaking to each other? This is worse than the fight they had in seventh grade about Maya being short."

"Their fight over Lucas doesn't even come close," Billy commented. "This is bad."

"A lot of stuff came to light that night," Zay said. "It's not going to be easy to fix this."

"It's not like we can even-" Farkle began but stopped when Maya sat down in between him and Billy. "Hey," he said to her.

"Hi," Maya said. "Can I ask you a question? It's about derivatives."

While Farkle helped Maya with her math homework, Lucas noticed Riley enter the cafeteria and spot their little group. She started to walk over until she recognized Maya sitting at the table with them. A look crossed her face. "Uh-oh," he muttered.

"What?" Billy asked, turning to spot the angry brunette stomp over to them. "This isn't good," he breathed.

"Hey," Riley said, her voice dangerously calm.

"Hi Riley," Zay said nervously. "What's up?"

"What's she doing over there?" Riley asked, pointing an accusing finger at Maya, who looked up.

"I'm just asking Farkle a question about math," Maya said tightly. "Unless Her Royal Highness has a problem with that?"

"I do, actually," Riley said, clenching her fists. "You guys decided to side with her?"

"Whoa, we're not siding with either of you," Lucas said. "We're neutrally Swiss."

"Then why is she allowed to sit here and I'm not?" Riley asked, her voice rising.

"You're both allowed to sit here," Billy said. "We never said anything about neither of you being allowed to sit with us."

"Why are you helping her?" Riley demanded to Farkle. "She doesn't need your help. Go find a math tutor," she snarled at Maya.

"Why are you telling me what to do?" Maya snapped. "I'll do what I want."

"Also, I'm going to help her because I'm a nice person," Farkle added. "And I'm her friend."

"Well don't be, she's a traitorous bitch. She'll stab you all in the back sooner or later," she added, looking directly at Lucas. "Like she did with you."

"What happened between Maya and I has nothing to do with you," Lucas said, beginning to get annoyed with Riley. "If you don't have anything to do here except start drama, can you let us get back to studying then?"

Riley's eyes flared. "Why don't you tell Maya to get lost too?"

"Because she came here to ask Farkle a question, not to put us through the wringer," Billy told her.

"I thought you were all my friends," Riley said furiously.

"We are, Riley, but you're asking us to choose between you and Maya and it's not going to happen," Farkle said. "We'll support both of you."

"You can't," Maya said finally, speaking up. "Eventually, you're going to think one of us is more right." She stood up. "Thanks for your help, Farkle, but I'll go find someone else to help me. I don't want to sway your opinions."

"Don't go," Zay told her. "You're not the one who's being ridiculous right now."

"I don't want to make this any worse than it already is," Maya said, her eyes meeting Riley's briefly. "I'll see you around. I'll call you later if I can't figure it out," she added to Farkle before gathering her books and walking away.

Riley smirked, proud of herself. She prepared herself to sit down at the table when Billy stopped her. "What do you think you're doing?" he asked. "You just drove Maya away, and now you think we'll let you sit here?"

"I thought you said-" Riley said, confused.

"We said it was open to both of you, before you decided to question our loyalties and then proceed to drive your best friend into basically exile," Lucas clarified. "You're not welcome to sit here anymore."

"This whole thing in itself is utter ludicrous," Farkle sighed. "You are not making things better by acting this way, Riley."

"Who says I want to make things better?" Riley snapped.

"Maya apologized," Billy reminded her. "It's you who's in the wrong now."

Suddenly mortified and furious that her friends would side with Maya, Riley picked up her things. "You guys think she's right? Don't hold your breath for my help when she stabs you all in the back like she did to me."

When she finally left, the boys stared at each other in equal shock. "What are we going to do?" Farkle asked finally.

"It's not up to us," Lucas said, turning a page in his chemistry book.

"Yeah, but we're caught in the crossfire, man," Zay said. "Like, hugely caught in the crossfire."

"If Riley thinks we're siding with Maya, she's going to take us down," Billy added. "We're as much a part of it as they are."

Lucas groaned. "And all I wanted was a nice and peaceful senior year. Why did everything have to start going wrong now?"

-GMW-

"My brotha!" Josh said when Cory flung the door open.

"My brotha!" Cory replied, grinning. "Glad you're here. We need your help."

"My help?" Josh asked, confused.

"Riley and Maya are fighting again," Cory said as Josh walked inside. He slammed the door shut. "It's really bad this time."

"Yeah, Maya mentioned something like that, but didn't go into specifics. But why do you need me to help?" Josh wasn't exactly the helpful type when it came to people problems.

"Eric's out of the state on official senatorial business, so you're kind of like the second person I came to," Cory said, grinning cheekily. "I figured that if my older brother could fix them, maybe my younger brother could too? It's also because you're closer in age and will be able to relate a little better to what they're both going through," he added seriously.

"Can't you relate to it better? You and Shawn went through it. I didn't have a best friend to fight with this stuff over," Josh groaned.

"Josh, just try and talk to Riley, please." Cory sounded upset. "I'm just at wits end with this girl. Also, we were supposed to go on vacation with Maya and her mother over the holidays, and Riley's trying to talk me into forcing Maya to stay here!"

Josh shook his head. "I'll do my best, but I can't promise anything."

"Thank you, Josh. This means a lot to me." Cory clapped his brother on the back and sent Josh on his way to Riley's room.

Josh knocked once, and the door opened a fraction. The room was completely pitch black. Josh stepped inside, bracing himself for the worst. He closed the door and spoke into the darkness: "Riley?"

"What do you want?" A bitter Riley Matthews asked from somewhere in the room.

Josh frowned. Riley's room wasn't big, but in the dark expanse he could see nothing in front of him. "Can you at least turn on a light?" he asked, exasperated.

"No."

"Riley, please don't be like this," Josh tried.

"I don't want to talk to you. You're on Maya's side," Riley accused.

Josh held his hands up. "I'm not anyone's side."

"Bullshit."

"I'm really not. I have no idea what went down between the two of you. And I'd rather hear it from you than from Lucas and Farkle when they break down my dorm door later tonight," Josh said, referring to the text message he'd gotten from Lucas earlier that evening. That text message had convinced him to pay a visit to Cory's to check to see if everything was all right. As it turned out, things were far from it. "Please talk to me, Riles. I'm here to help."

Riley sniffed and suddenly, Josh was blinded by the light switch being flicked on. "What do you want to know?" Riley sniffled. "Maya isn't my best friend anymore. She didn't consult me in her decision-"

"Yes, because that was her decision to make, not yours," Josh interrupted, and shrank back when she shot him a look that could kill. "Sorry. Continue."

"Then I find out she lied to me about getting into Juilliard," Riley said angrily.

"She did what?" Josh demanded. "Okay, that was not a smart move on her part."

"No kidding," Riley snapped. "Then she proceeded to tell me that I should be glad that she's moving to another state, because that way I have Lucas and Farkle and Blake all to myself to choose from. She's nuts."

Josh bit his lip. "Why would she say that?"

"Because she seems to think that I'm with Blake just for the sake of dating someone!" Riley shouted.

"There's no need to shout," Josh cautioned.

"AND TO TOP IT ALL OFF," Riley continued, her voice rising at an alarmingly fast rate, "LUCAS AND FARKLE SIDED WITH HER TODAY AT LUNCH AND I'M LOSING ALL MY FRIENDS AND I FEEL ALL ALONE!" Then she burst into tears.

Immediately, Josh was at her side and wrapped her in a hug. "It's going to be all right," he told her. "Why did they take her side?"

"I got mad because they let Maya sit with them at lunch today and they're supposed to be on my side! So when I called them out on it-"

"Hold on, that was today, right? Lucas told me about it," Josh said, staring at his niece. "You weren't very nice to Maya at all."

"Please, spare me. I had every right to be a bitch to her after all the hurtful things she said to me," Riley said, rolling her eyes.

"Since when does someone being a bitch to you mean you can be a bitch back?" Josh asked her. "That doesn't sound logical."

"Nothing about this fight is logical," Riley muttered.

"Sure it is." Josh looked her in the eye. "Best friends, since the dawn of time, are faced with sudden and drastic change. They're moving away from each other for the first time. It's logical that both of you would be upset and therefore make rash decisions in order to keep the other one with you. In spite of that, you were clearly in the wrong at lunch today. What's more is that Maya shouldn't have said those things to you today. You're both at fault here, and if you want to make things right, you've both got to apologize to each other." Josh didn't even know where this was coming from, words just kept tumbling out of his mouth. "You know I'm right."

"But is Maya?" Riley whispered. "Am I just with Blake because I'm that desperate to be in a relationship?"

"Do you like him?" Josh asked.

"Of course I do."

"Why did you start dating him?"

"Because he asked me out."

"Okay...any other reason? Why did you stay with him then?" Josh inquired.

"He was nice." Riley didn't know how else to phrase it.

"That's not enough, Riley. Give me something." Josh stared out Riley's bay window, to the lights of New York. "Look. When I'm with Maya, there's just something about her that when I see her, even if I'm having the shittiest day of my life, things seem better all of a sudden. She always makes me smile, even when I'm just thinking about her." Sure enough, as he continued on, he started to smile. "She makes my heart beat like, a million times a minute when we're together. I love spending time with her. Can you say the same thing about you and Blake?"

Riley fell silent. "No."

"So maybe you don't like him as much as I like Maya. But there's gotta be something that attracts you to him, isn't there?" Josh asked finally, feeling slightly less manly for spilling his feelings to his niece. But the room was silent for a very, very long time.

A/N:

So what do you think Riley's answer is going to be? Are you surprised by the way their friendship took a turn in this chapter after their fight? How do you think they're going to fix things (if at all)?

Let me know what you think so far (and what you want to happen!) Leave me a review and maybe I'll make your wants into happens ;)

- Lauren.