Hello! Happy late-Thanksgiving to you guys that had it on Thursday! My Thanksgiving was in October (Canadian), remember? This chapter takes place during She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not. Thanks for all the reviews guys! Just to clarify, season 1 of this story is not over yet. There are still six or seven more chapters after this one that cover the majority and the rest of season 1. Cory/Topanga moments in this chapter and a lot more later :) To clear things up with the Tumblr blogs, I often post the link to my next blog before I post the new chapter just so that I don't forget. Sorry for the confusion, I know some of you thought I posted chapter 11 last week but this is it. I didn't know most of you guys looked at my blog but don't get me wrong, I am VERY happy that you do. It's why I make them.
I just want to bring something up before you guys read the chapter, a long time ago I encouraged you guys that love the whole time-travelling concept to make a GMW/BMW story like I did, and then I come across this story that I thought was sort of like mine. Makeup, insecurity, escaping through the bay window, warehouse, orphanage, school of choice...Then I saw Ali6132's review (thanks by the way for mentioning this), "Good story. It kind of sounds like the story "Seven Years in the Nineties" by Mimi1239, though." I could tell the author has read my story, but now I encourage you guys to come up with an original idea to how you think Riley and Maya would go to the nineties. Repetition is boring, right? Shout out to those who reviewed my previous chapter: HK, Awkward Teen, L.H, Nat-Marie, Kelse56, Ali6132, ultrablu2, Pebblemist of LightClan, Esthernight, Glee Clue Rock 1251, Ariel, jenna323.m, and LoveShipper.
Enjoy! :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Boy Meets World, or its spin off series Girl Meets World.
Riley's Point of View
Tuesday, January 11th, 1994, Philadelphia
Past time, 8:00 A.M
Christmas break ended the first week of January. We were all back in school and the kids were even wilder than before, if that was even possible. Love seemed to be blooming among the "nerd set" as Cory would put it. Minkus was starting to leave Topanga roses on her desk. That was starting to make me nervous. As Cory and Shawn were making fun of Minkus and Topanga, I walked up to the two best friends.
"Hey Cory. Why don't you do something like that for Topanga? Give her a rose or write her a poem," I suggested. Both Cory and Shawn looked at me as if I were insane.
"Why would I do that? It's not like I like her," Cory answered, shuddering at the thought. It was hard work waiting around all the time for my parents to realize they belonged with each other and that they were going to spend the rest of their lives together. But no, that only happened in the movies. It was going to take a lot of convincing and planning to make sure everything turned out right.
"Good morning, class. I trust you all had a good weekend," Mr. Feeny said as he walked into the classroom just as the bell rung. I went to take my seat. "This morning we have a guest lecturer. The school board feels that since you're all starting the seventh grade next year it would behoove you to have an advanced taste of the experience." Just then, Eric walked into the classroom while looking at a piece of paper he held in his hand.
"Eric?" Cory asked, shocked that his brother was in his class.
"Cory?"
"Mr. Matthews?" Mr. Feeny questioned, with the same level of shock as Cory.
"Mr. Feeny?" Eric walked up to the front of the class. I noticed the way my mom was following Eric's every move. It was sort of creepy. After Eric explained that the reason why he was there was because he wanted to get out of algebra, he began with by saying, "Hi, kids, I'm Eric. I'm in the 10th grade at Adams High, the school you'll all be going to next year."
"At least all of us who pass," Minkus stated, looking over at Cory and Shawn.
After Cory made some farting noises and the class returned to its loud and chaotic mode , Mr. Feeny said, "Please, class, give Mr. Matthews your attention."
"Matthews?" Topanga asked, a smile forming on her face.
"Oh, yeah, I'm Cory's older brother," Eric answered. "I got the good hair. Anyway, next year you guys will be seventh graders or, as we upper class-men will be calling you phlegmballs. Now, there's gonna be a few things you're gonna need to know for survival on the mean streets of high school. Parties are gonna be a lot better because you can stay out later. And, of course, cool clothes are a must. Uh, you're gonna want to know where the parking lot is, too because that's where the most popular kids hang. And you're gonna want to hang with them unless, of course you want to look like a complete nerd," Eric laughed to himself, but then stopped when he saw Minkus' serious face. "No offense, Mink."
Cory and Shawn tried to get Eric to agree that he would drive them to school next year, but of course Eric answered, "Drop dead," and Cory jokingly fell to the floor. What a goofball.
After school, Cory invited Maya and I to his house with Shawn to hang out and work on some homework together. I thought it was a little strange that he would do that, but I guess they considered us as part of their group now. Nurse Millar gave us the week off from picking up the orphans and told us she would only ask us for our help when she needed it. As we were all sitting around the table with Cory, Shawn, and Maya fooling around, and me doing my homework, there was a knock on the back door and Cory got up to answer it. It was Topanga carrying a container.
"Hi Cory. I have some freshly baked brownies here I thought you might enjoy." Topanga smiled brightly.
"Thanks for dropping them off," Cory said, grabbing the container, but Topanga wouldn't let go of the container.
"I thought perhaps I could stay here and enjoy them with you." My mom kept her forced smile on her face as she walked past Cory and settled the brownies on the kitchen table next to us.
Shawn didn't seem to mind that Topanga was here, as long as she brought food. "Milk's in the fridge, babe," he said taking a bite out of a brownie.
"Hey, these are pretty good," Maya complimented as she tasted the brownie in her mouth. Indeed they were.
"Thanks. I helped Chloe make them," Topanga responded, referring to her mother. Morgan came downstairs and complimented Topanga on her braided crimped hair.
Topanga offered to put a braid on Morgan's hair and before they went upstairs to Morgan's room, Morgan said to Cory, "You know, I'd like to see more of them and less of him." She pointed at Shawn. I thought it was adorable!
Shawn was smirking at Cory once the girls left. "What?" Cory finally asked.
"Comes over with the brownies, tries to get in good with your sister..." Shawn's smirk only grew wider. Now I knew what he was getting at.
Cory still didn't get it. "So?"
"So, Cory and Topanga sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g," Shawn sang.
Cory scoffed and shook his head. "No way. Minkus wants her."
"And yet she's not over at Minkus' house unloading brownies," Maya defended. She did bring up a good point.
"That's just what I want, to be Topanga's boyfriend and then we can name our children Chewbacca and Plankton," Cory answered sarcastically. I imagined what my life would be like if I was named any one of those names and I just stared at Cory in horror.
"Hey, can I get that in writing?" Maya smirked amusingly. I widened my eyes. She just really liked playing with my future.
"Okay future 'social worker'. What's your theory?" Cory put air quotes around social worker.
"Well Cory, it all has to start somewhere," I began, trying to get the horrible names out of my head. "Minkus gets squishy about Topanga. Topanga gets squishy about you. One day your solid as a rock the next day- squish." Cory rolled his eyes.
"Riley, Topanga does not have a squish on me." I was glad I came over today. At least my parents' love life was finally getting somewhere, even though my dad refused to believe it was.
"Yes she does," I insisted. "She has a squish on you, you have a squish on her, and pretty soon, the universe will make sense again."
"No, it's more like, I hate her, she hates me, and that's the way the universe works."
"She brought you brownies, dude," Shawn concluded just as Mrs. Matthews walked into the kitchen carrying a bag of groceries. Simultaneously, Eric walked in from the back door just as Topanga and Morgan came down the stairs.
"Mommy! Mommy, look! Topanga made my hair pretty," Morgan said excitedly showing her mom her braided strand of hair.
"She sure did." Mrs. Matthews smiled as she touched the braid.
"Yep," Cory agreed, taking the container of brownies from the table and gave them to Topanga and started pushing her out the door. "Brownies, braids- she does it all but, uh, now she has to do it all at home."
"But I was hoping I could stay-"
"You can't. We're over the legal hair limit of this room," Cory said shutting the door in Topanga's face much like did the first time I came over and Topanga performed her "Doughnut in the Sky" poem. Then he opened the door and took the container out of Topanga's hand and then shut the door again.
"Well, that wasn't very polite," Mrs. Matthews commented giving Cory a disapproving look.
"I can't afford to be polite, Mom. I'm polite- squish."
"I hear a lot of men treat the women they love like that," Shawn teased smirking. Everybody turned to look at Cory with a knowing look.
Cory glared at Shawn. "I'll kill you, Shawn," he threatened.
"We got a little girlfriend action going on here?" Eric smirked.
"Yep," Maya said.
"No." Cory said.
"Cory and Topanga sitting in a tree A-B-C-D-E-F-G," Morgan sang.
During lunch the next day of school, Topanga walked up to our table. "Here comes the future Mrs. Cory Matthews," I announced quietly so that only the four of us could hear.
"Riley, shut up. Topanga doesn't like me." Was my dad always this stubborn and blind? I guess so. "Look, I'll prove it."
"Hey guys. Hello, Cory," Topanga greeted as she arrived at our table. After Cory's lame attempt to avoid Topanga, she offered to loan him her rented tape of Godzilla Goes to College. That made both Cory and Shawn alert and jumpy.
"When can we borrow it?" Cory asked excitedly.
"You can't. It's my cousin's tape. He said I can't let it out of my sight and our VCR is broken. I'll have to bring it to your house."
"All right," Cory agreed reluctantly. "How about 4:00?"
"That will give me time to get home and get ready- I mean get the tape. Bye," Topanga said nervously and left. Aw, my mom wanted to look good for my dad on their "movie date". How cute!
"Oh, man, she's got a thang for you," Shawn snickered.
"Yeah, did you see the way she was looking at you Cory? And the way she slipped up definitely means she likes you," Maya said.
"What are you guys? The 'love experts'? What do I care? All I want from her is brownies and videos," Cory said simply. We all resumed our eating until a very infuriated Minkus stormed to our table.
"You maggot," Minkus spat.
"Huh?" Cory asked confusingly.
"All these years pretending to be my close friend all so you could get to her." Since when were Cory and Minkus "close"?
"Her? Topanga?" Cory shook his head. "I don't think so."
Minkus scoffed. "Oh, please! The whole school's talking about you two." He crossed his arm, his face still red with fury.
"What?" Cory shrugged. "I ate a couple brownies. I said I'd watch a video."
"Do you really care about her or are you just doing this to humiliate me?"
Cory threw his hands in the air. "I give up."
"Don't worry Minkus. You'll find your soul mate and make lots of baby Minkii," Maya reassured. I glared at her while everybody else just stared at her in confusion.
"Be afraid. Be very afraid," Minkus threatened before he left.
"What's going on here? I don't want girls to like me. Why is everything changing?" Cory wondered.
"Trust me. Change is inevitable. Just try to keep up with it," I responded wisely. Yep, ever since I excepted the fact that Maya and I were going to be stuck in the past for a while, my level of wisdom just grew. "Hey, Topanga forgot her notebook," I said picking up the notebook sitting on the edge of the table that Topanga must have forgotten while she was here. Shawn took the notebook from my hands and opened it up to the first page.
"Oh look, it's a heart with a name doodled in swirly things. 'Mrs. Matthews'," Shawn taunted turning to the next page.
"Give me a break," Cory said covering his face with his hand. I took a slip out of my water bottle.
"'Mrs. Topanga Matthews'," Shawn turned flipped the next page. "Ooh 'Mrs. Eric Matthews'..."
"Would you get off my- what?" Cory said in shock. I on the other hand, was coughing up a lung. I was choking on the water that I was drinking just as Shawn said "Mrs. Eric Matthews" while Maya was patting my back. OH MY GOD! MY MOM WAS IN LOVE WITH MY UNCLE!
"Are you okay Riley? It looks like you're more surprised than I am," Cory asked seemingly concerned. After I was able to get some air back into my lungs, I nodded.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just need some air. Maya, join me," I demanded dragging Maya out into the halls. Since everybody was in the cafeteria eating their lunch, we didn't have to worry about anybody overhearing our conversation. I didn't even know where to begin. "Maya! How could this happen?"
Maya grabbed my both of my shoulders. "No, no Riley. Don't freak out. This is just a phase. You're mom's just going through a phase. It's just a crush. She doesn't really love Eric. She'll get over it."
"How do you know so much? How can you think everything will be okay?"
"I just do. Your mom loves your dad. She just doesn't know it yet."
I still wasn't convinced. My lips formed a tight straight line as I thought about something disturbing. "What if we really did change the future Maya? And now my mom is going to end up with Uncle Eric?"
"Trust me, we won't let that happen. This has nothing to do with what happened before Christmas. This will all blow over by tomorrow."
I didn't get much sleep that night. I was too worried about my parents. It was hard to pretend like everything was okay when the reality was that everything seemed to be falling apart. The next day at school, though, changed it all. Eric walked into our classroom just as Mr. Feeny was in the middle of reading us some American poems.
"Mr. Feeny? Um, may I come in?" Eric asked uncomfortably.
"Of course."
Eric walked up to the front of the classroom, much like he did two days ago. "Uh, could I speak to your class?"
"Be my guest."
"So, uh, a couple of days ago I pretty much covered the big high school picture but, uh, I left out one little tiny detail. You've all known each other since like, kindergarten. But next year there's gonna be maybe nine or ten other sixth grade classes from different schools making up your seventh grade class and you're not gonna know all those kids. A lot of them are gonna think differently than you."
"What do you mean?" Minkus asked.
"Well," Eric paused his speech to come up with an example, "do you smoke cigarettes?
"No."
"A lot of kids in your new school will. A lot of them are gonna try to pressure you into it. They're gonna tell how cool it is to smoke." Eric turned to look specifically at Minkus. "You want to be cool, don't you?
"More than you could ever know," Minkus answered dreamily.
"Maybe you'll smoke," Eric suggested.
Minkus shook his head. "I don't think so."
"Well," Eric pointed at Topanga, who had a sad expression on her face. "What if she thought it was cool? Then would you smoke?"
"In a heartbeat."
"But that's peer pressure," I realized.
"Yes it is Riley." Eric nodded toward me. He shifted his eyes toward Topanga. "So he smokes. Do you think that's cool?"
"I think anyone who smokes is a disgusting pig," Topanga responded, her voice breaking a little and a look of disgust and hatred formed in her eyes.
Minkus threw his hands in the air in defeat. "I'm trying to quit," he insisted.
"Well. It's not that easy, Minkus. There's all kinds of pressure." Eric walked around the class. He pointed at Cory. "I mean, what about alcohol?"
"What about it?" Cory shrugged.
"What about drugs?" Tension was increasing in the room.
"Hey, calm down, Eric. We're not into that stuff. All we like is baseball and comic books."
"Yeah, that's what you like now. But that's going to change just like you're changing schools. Just like you're going to start feeling a lot of new stuff inside you you're not really gonna understand.
"How do you know what's going to happen to us Eric?" Maya asked.
"Because you're growing up." Eric looked down at Topanga and smiled sincerely. "Some of you have already started." Topanga looked down and smiled to herself.
During lunch, using the paper flowers he had made for Topanga, Minkus sat at a table by himself and with each petal he ripped from the flower, he chanted, "She loves me, she loves me not. She loves me, she loves me not." Obviously, he was doing that because of Topanga.
"Look at him," I said, feeling bad for Minkus and his misery.
"The love bomb has blown his head off," Shawn said.
"This is big. This love thing could kill us if we let it," Cory said, referring to himself and Shawn. Maya had to go talk to the art teacher about something and that was why she wasn't eating lunch with us. "You and I have to make a deal right now. Let everyone else go nuts."
"We stay the same," Shawn said as he and Cory shook hands, creating a pack.
"Forever," Cory concluded, looking relieved that he had someone on his side.
"You know that's not going to work," I whispered to Cory.
"Why not?" he asked. Just then, Maya came in and walked to our table.
"Hey losers, do you guys know where Mrs. Engles is? I can't find her anywhere." Cory and Shawn were still held their grip on each other's hands representing the force they just made. Shawn looked Maya and gave her this weird-looking lovey-dovey smile and then he looked at Cory.
Cory's eyes widened. "Oh no. We have a deal," he warned Shawn.
Shawn ignored Cory and turned to Maya. "I saw her at the principal's office. I've been there a million times, let me take you." Shawn eagerly got out of his seat, still holding on to Cory's hand. Cory put extra pressure on his grip.
Maya gave Shawn a puzzled look. "Uh, I know where it is too. It's okay Hunter. I can go by myself," Maya said, beginning to walk out of the cafeteria.
"We have a deal," Cory repeated.
"Hey, that's alright. I'll walk with you anyway," Shawn walked out of the cafeteria closely behind Maya and Cory tried to hold on to Shawn and keep him from leaving by holding on to the table.
"We have a deal! We have a deal!" Cory almost ended up flipping the table around. Eventually, Cory let go of Shawn's hand and helped me put the table and chairs back to their places. Man that was weird. Why was Shawn so fixated on Maya? Did that mean what I thought it meant?
A few minutes later, Topanga walked inside the cafeteria and sat at a table by herself, far away from Minkus I must add. I got up from my seat and walked to her table. "Hi Topanga, can I sit here?" I asked.
"Of course Riley. You're always welcomed to sit with me." Aw, was my mom sweet! I sat right across from her as I watched her eat her lunch.
I didn't really know how to ask her what I wanted to know, so I just said, "so Topanga, uh are you okay?" I mean, she had no idea the four of us accidentally found and looked inside her "doodling book".
"Yes I am. Thank you for asking Riley. Are you okay?" she asked in her normal slow voice. I guess she was really feeling better if she was acting like herself.
"Yeah, I'm great. So what did you think of Eric's speech?"
She titled her head, and thought about it for a moment. "Well, he was a lot informative about the dangers of high school than he was two days ago. I think he did a magnificent job of opening his soul to us. Could you tell his Ora was glowing?" I didn't know what that meant. but I didn't want to find out.
"Yeah, I could tell. But you don't like-like him, right?" Oh god, please say no!
She shrugged her shoulders. "I used to, but I suppose he's too mature for me. I've learned that I shouldn't fall for someone so easily. I will most likely live in abstinence from marriage." I looked over at Cory, who still looked pretty upset because Shawn chose to go with Maya instead of sticking to the pact. Currently, Cory probably wanted to live in abstinence from marriage too. My parents were so alike.
"Don't give up hope Topanga. I'm sure the right guy for you is closer than you think."
The weekend. I enjoyed the weekend because that meant I didn't have to worry about changing anybody's future since I didn't see Cory, Topanga, Shawn, or Minkus during the weekend. Only during school. Maya and I mostly helped out Nurse Millar with the kids. Without meaning to, we sort of took this motherly/sisterly role for them ever since we arrived at the orphanage in mid-September.
I couldn't help but finally feel relieved about everything. The fact that my parents were going to get together was a done deal. It was only my mom's first crush. Nothing Maya and I did really influenced my mom's feelings and she was over her crush on my uncle.
A knock on our bedroom door got me awake at eight in the morning that Saturday.
"Riley, someone's at the door," Maya mumbled from the top bunk. I rolled my eyes. Yep, my best friend was very lazy. I yawned and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as I got up and opened the door. It was Nurse Millar.
"I'm sorry for having to wake you girls up this early on a Saturday, but there are two boys outside that are asking for you two. They refuse to leave until you girls come out. You better go see who they are," Nurse Millar informed.
I waited for Maya to jump out of her bunk bed, and in our PJs, we followed Nurse Millar to the front door. The two boys, a very big shock to both of us, were Cory and Shawn! Oh my god. This wasn't happening!
"Hey guys," Shawn greeted. "We went around the neighborhood asking for you guys and the guys next door said you lived...here," Shawn stopped and looked up at the sign above the door which read, Needy Kids Orphanage. Both Cory and Shawn had puzzled looks on their faces. I knew Maya's lie was going to get us into trouble. I winced, knowing exactly what Shawn was going to ask. "Uh, have you guys noticed you live in an orphanage?"
Author's Note: Ooh! Another cliffhanger! How do you think they're gonna get out of this situation? Again, this chapter was inspired by ultrablud2. Thanks for suggesting this! Next week, guess what's coming? GIRL MEETS HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS! Search up the promos on Youtube for those of you who haven't seen it yet. My favorite part of one promo is the last bit when Cory's hugging Shawn and saying, "I told you he was real!" to Riley and Maya. Poor Auggie, getting squished like that! :) My other favorite part was the Farkle/Shawn scene. It would have been so cool if Minkus guest starred for that episode! As I was watching Girl Meets Brother in a live stream on Friday (which by the way, loved the flashbacks and Cory/Topanga moments!) as I usually do, but with my sister for the very first time, she got soooo excited about the new promo (behind the scenes) of Home for the Holidays that she actually dropped my laptop and it hit the floor hard when she saw Farkle coming in through the window and both him and Shawn were so confused! Thankfully, it's alright or I wouldn't be posting this right now :) Unfortunately, she knows when Home for the Holidays premieres and she is going to want to watch it with me, so I have no choice but to let her watch it with me. I'm going to taking good care of my laptop though ;)
Next chapter is taken place during Model Family/Risky Business and it will be about how this group of friends become a family. The chapter in which I include "The Fugitive" episode will be the most important chapter from season 1. If you have a twitter and you don't follow the Girl Meets World Writers, I suggest you do because they answer a lot of questions regarding the show. In late September, they mentioned that they would have a "Big Announcement" and this Wednesday, they will reveal to the fans what this announcement is. Hopefully it has to do with Will Friedle reprising his role as Eric on the show! One can dream, right? Till next week!
P.S- Don't forget to check out the link in my profile for the Q&A for this chapter!
Quote of the week:
"Life is a lot tougher than school my dears." -George Feeny
-Mimi1239
