John Quincy Middle School Hallways
I was hanging out in the hallways with Amelia, Lucas, and Maya when Riley and Farkle walk in, carrying a box.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the hallway, it's yearbook time!" Riley says as the set the boss with the yearbooks down. She turns to pass them out. "Hi, page 42."
"Hi, pages 27, 34, and 58. You're doing too much. You should calm down." Farkle tells a boy as he hands him a yearbook.
"Did you guys really memorize who was on every page?" Amelia asks them.
"Yes." the say at the same time.
"Yearbooks! Find out who we are and what we really think about each other." Riley tells us.
Maya looks at Lucas. "You wanna know what I think about you?"
Lucas shakes his head. "No, I do not."
Maya gets off the bench. "But I wanna tell you."
"I don't think you need to," Lucas tells her.
"I'm gonna do it anyway," Maya tells him.
"Don't do it." Lucas pleads.
"It's been a while," Maya says.
"I'm asking you not to do it," Lucas tells her
"I'm gonna do it," Maya tells him. "You wanna run, or you want it straight in the face?"
"Well, I wanna run, but how would that look?" Lucas asks her. Maya starts to hum and Lucas looks over at the rest of us. "You guys wouldn't judge me if I run, right?" Maya continues to hum. "Come on, man. There's always another option."
"Hurr," Maya screams in his face.
"You okay now?" Lucas asks him his hair blown back.
"Hmm." Maya nods. "That was good."
"You know else is good? Yearbooks." Riley says handing us all yearbooks. "All of our classmates say what they think of us."
"Yearbook, find out how we'll be remembered," Farkle says giving Lucas a yearbook. "Guess what. You took another nice picture, you freak."
"Thanks, Farkle," Lucas tells him. "How will you be remembered?"
"Did they do it to you again?" Maya asks Farkle.
"Most likely to be Farkle... Farkle." Lucas reads.
"I didn't think I'd win it again this year, but I did," Farkle says.
"What does that mean exactly, Farkle?" Riley asks him.
"How should I know? They turned being me into a category." He tells her.
"Hey, Riley won most likely to smile herself to death," Lucas says.
"Aw. Well, who wouldn't wanna go that way?" Riley asks. "I mean, when the time comes, why you gotta be a gloomy Gus?"
Maya scoffs. "Riles, I don't think they meant this as a good thing."
"They're making fun of me, and they're making fun of you too," Farkle tells her.
"What?" Riley asks making her upset face.
Maya looks at her. "Would you stop smiling?"
"She's/ I'm not smiling, Maya." Riley and I tell her. "That's her/ This is my upset face."
"This is smiling," Riley says making an awkward face.
"You know what? I don't care what they say." Farkle says.
Riley nods in agreement. "Neither do I."
"I don't care what they say at all," Farkle says.
Riley nods her head again. "Neither do I at all."
"How did this stuff even get in here? We're the editors." Riley says looking through the yearbook.
"Wow, we must have very poor quality control," Farkle says.
"Please don't take this into a bigger deal than it is?" I plead with them.
"What did you get, Huckleberry?" Maya asks Lucas.
"I got most likely to be okay with anything that ever happens." Lucas reads.
"How do you feel about that?" Amelia asks him.
"Well, actually, I'm okay with that," Lucas says before his eyes widen in realization. "Oh!"
I nod my head. "Yeah."
"What did you get Amelia?" Lucas asks.
Amelia looks through the yearbook. "I got Beauty and Brains." she looks at us. "When they're right they're right."
"I'm not all sunshine and rainbows. I have a dark side." Riley says bringing the attention back to her.
"Let me see your dark-side face," Maya says to her.
"Aw. Aw." we all awed at the face Riley made.
Riley looks at me. "What did you get Rose."
I close my yearbook. "Nothing because I'm learning that what other people think of me does not matter."
Maya flips through the yearbook. "Most Likely to Be Queen."
I glare at her. "Really Maya." I looked back at Riley to see that she looked upset.
Riley nods. "Of course you did, you're Rose."
"Look, guys, we're not gonna make a huge deal out of this, are we?" Lucas asks Riley and Farkle.
"Yeah. Who cares?" Farkle says.
"It's only what everybody thinks of us." Riley reminds him.
"What's more important to you? What you think of yourself or what other people think of you?" Maya asks them.
"What I think of myself," Riley says.
"Yeah." Farkle agrees.
"And what I think of myself is that it really bothers me what other people think of me," Riley tells us.
"Yeah," Farkle says again.
"Well, forget about it. It's not like you can just turn around and be someone new." Lucas tells them.
"Yeah," Farkle says before he rips off his clothes to reveal a different set and puts on a beanie. "This is me now."
"Farkle?" Riley questions.
"Nope, Farkle is gone. You will never see him again." Farkle tells us before walking into the classroom. The rest of us just stare at him in shock.
John Quincy Adams Middle School, History Class
Dad walks in the classroom to Farkle leaning on his desk. "Okay, what have we got here?"
"I'm Donnie Barnes," Farkle tells him.
Maya snorts. "Really, Farkle, of all the names in the world you could pick for another personality, you pick Donnie Barnes?"
"You don't get it, do you?" Farkle asks her. "I'm Donnie Barnes: Regular guy."
"I'd see that movie," Dad says.
"Nothing helping," I tell him.
"Donnie Barnes is the real me. Farkle Minkus is my goofy other personality." Farkle explains to us.
Lucas gets out of his desk. "No, you're Farkle. Look, I'll prove it to you." he turns Dads name plate around so that it showed Farkle. "See?" Farkle turns it around again and this time it said Donnie Barns: Regular guy. "How did you possibly do that?"
"I don't wanna be most likely to be Farkle," Farkle says walking down the aisle, he turns to Lucas. "Face it, cowboy. There's a new pretty boy in town. Thank you. I am..." he pauses with his arms raised. "Donnie Barnes." he sits down.
Lucas turns to Dad. "Are you gonna do something? Because this is where you do something, right? Are you gonna do something? Is there a lesson? You got a lesson? Is there a lesson?"
"Iceland," Dad says.
"Iceland!" Lucas yells before turning to Farkle. "You all fixed? No? I don't think he's all fixed. If that was Riley, you know you'd fix her."
Dad smiles. "Sit down, Lucas,"
"Oh, you know I'm right," Lucas says as he walks over to his seat.
"Iceland and Greenland," Dad says as he stands behind his desk. "What do you think about them, Mr. Barnes?"
Farkle shrugs. "When I look like this, I don't have to think, right, Lucas?"
Amelia snorts. "Ouch."
Lucas glares at him. "Dude, I won the scholar-athlete award."
"Ooh, nerd alert!" Farkle makes fun.
"Iceland and Greenland, anybody?" Dad asks the class.
"Iceland is a land of ice," Riley says. I slam my head on the table.
"Wrong," Dad tells her.
"Then Greenland is a land of green," Maya says. I groan face still on the desk.
"Wrong," Dad says.
"If she's wrong about Iceland being made of ice, what makes you think that you'll be right about Greenland being a land of green?" I hear Amelia asks her. I lift my head up and nod in agreement with her.
"Well, who cares?" Maya asks. "Stupid countries don't even know who they are." she starts to mutter. "Stupid countries."
"The Vikings discovered this beautiful green country," Dad says.
"I come from Vikings," Farkle chimes in.
Lucas looks over at him. "You do?"
"You don't know me," Farkle tells him.
Lucas shrugs. "Okay."
"So, the Vikings, they didn't want anyone else taking their new country, so they decided to name it Iceland. Everyone figures it must be cold. Nobody wants to go there." Dad continues to explain.
"So they made everybody think of it in that way even though it wasn't true?" Riley asks.
"That's right," Dad confirms. "Then another Viking comes along, Erik the red, and he discovers a land of snow and ice. And he wants everyone to go there instead, so he names that Greenland and everyone goes jerks!"
"So you're saying the perception of a thing doesn't make it so?" Lucas asks Dad as he glances at Farkle.
"I'm saying people are always gonna say stuff," Dad tells him. "How you react to what they say is what makes you the person you are."
"So don't react," Riley says.
"That's right," Dad tells her.
Riley grins. "Just keep on smiling."
Dad lifts his arms up. "Would you, please? Lesson over."
"And nothing anybody else says is ever going to make me feel any different," Riley says.
I sigh. "Why do you always jinx yourself?"
"Hey, Maya, Lucas, congratulations on winning favorite couple," Yindra says from the back, lifting the yearbook so we could all see.
"I feel different." Riley says.
"How is that possible?" Lucas asks in bewilderment.
Maya agrees. "How could anybody ever see me and Lucas as a couple?"
"Everybody does," Yidra tells them.
"But we're so much alike." Riley says.
"And they're so different." Darby tells her.
"But we're like a summer rain." Riley tries again.
"And they're like fire." Sarah tells her.
"Daddy, remember when you told me not to react?" Riley asks Dad.
Dad nods. "Yeah."
"I'm gonna react," Riley tells him before cover her face with her hair.
Matthews Apartment
"Hey Mom," I call out as I walked into the dining area. "Have you seen my black tights? And everything else that I own that's black."
"Funny, I'm missing everything black that I own too," Mom tells me and we share a look before heading to Riley's room. "Hey, Riley, funny question. Have you seen everything black that Rose and I own?" They two of us take in the changes Riley made to her room. "Oh, hey, look at you."
I stare at her incredulous. "Really Riley, don't you think you're going overboard with this?"
"There is no more Riley. My name is Morotia M. Black."
"What does the M. Stand for?"
"Morotia."
"Poor, dark thing, you." Mom deadpans.
I gave Mom a look. "No poor dark thing. She's being ridiculous."
"Yeah, she's very depressed," Maya says.
"Oh?" Mom questions taking a seat on the other side of Riley while I stayed in the doorway. "Well, that's too bad. You know, the neighbor's golden retriever just gave birth to six puppies."
Riley smiles before grimacing. "Must fight cute!"
"Oh, but have they met the other neighbor's bunnies yet?" Maya asks causing Riley to gasp.
Mom nods her head. "They just did."
"There is a bunny and a puppy nibbling at opposite ends of the same carrot," Mom says excitedly.
"Gah!" Riley breathes out.
"They're gonna kiss," Maya says. "This is fantastic."
"That's exactly what the pony said."
"No! Cut it out!" Riley exclaims as she stands.
"You snap out of it," Maya tells her also standing up.
"And do what?" Riley asks her as she sits on her bed. "Smile myself to death? Riley is gone. Everybody else is right. I'm wasting my life, and I'm tired of being chip-chip-chipper."
"You are being ridiculous," Mom tells her walking over to her.
"Just said that," I tell Mom.
"Is there anybody more ridiculous than you?" Mom asks.
"Just wait for it," I tell her.
Farkle comes through the window. "Knock, knock."
"Who's there?" Maya asks exasperatedly.
"I'm Donnie Barnes!" Farkel tells her.
" I can't believe I'm saying this, but I really miss, 'ladies.'" Maya tells him.
"That's a catchphrase, and Donnie Barnes don't need no stinking catchphrase," Farkle tells her. "You know why? I'm Donnie Barnes. Shplidow!"
"Okay that does it," I say shaking my head. "The both of you are being absurd. Why does what people think you matter so much?"
Riley's lip tightens into a hard line. "You wouldn't understand, they like you were chosen to be there next Queen," she said the word queen with so much contempt that I was shocked.
My eyes harden a bit. "Okay, I'm not dealing with this right now. I'm gonna finish getting ready for my date, then I'm gonna go on my date and when I get back everything in this room that belongs to me better be back in my room, and I'm mean everything, not just black." with that I return back to my room, leaving Mom and Maya to deal with the two of them.
The movie was over and Maximo and decided that we should go get something to eat. Maximo and I stumbled into the diner and made for the back, taking a seat in one of the booths.
I look around the diner, the smell of burgers grilling and onions frying was prominent in the air. "I didn't know there was diner here."
"I didn't know either until my team decided to stop by after a met," Maximo says picking up the menu. "The serve some pretty good burgers here too."
"Good because that's what I want," I tell him.
He chuckles. "So what's going on in Rosamund land right now."
I glare at him and point the knife at him. "I will hurt you."
He raises his hands up in defeat, at that moment the waiter comes up to us. "Hi what can I get you?"
"I'll get a Bacon and Cheeseburger extra bacon, with a side of steak fries and a peanut butter milkshake," I tell her.
Maximo glances through the menu. "And I'll have the chicken-fried-steak and gravy with a side of onion rings and a coke."
The water rights it down. "Okay, you're order will be here soon."
Maximo and I turned back to each other. "So honestly what's going on in, you seemed annoyed when I came to pick you up for the movies."
I sigh. "Yearbook came out and Riley was voted most likely to smile are self to death." I glare at him when he snorts. "At the same time, Farkle was voted most likely to be Farkle."
"So they're making fun of them."
I nod. "Exactly. Now Riley is no longer Riley and Farkle is no longer Farkle."
He raises an eyebrow at me. "Then who are they?"
"Morotia M. Black, the M stands for Morotia and Donnie Barnes: Regular Guy."
Maximo starts to laugh. "Where did they come up with those names."
I shrug. "Too much t.v?"
"You still haven't explained why you were annoyed."
"Riley told me that she doesn't want to hear advice from the people's choice."
"What did she mean by that?"
"I got most likely to be Queen," I tell him.
He looks me over. "I can see that."
I smile at him, at the moment the waiter appears with our food. "Here you go."
"Thank you," we tell her as he sets the food on the table. The waiter smiles at us before leaving.
I take a bite of the burger and instantly moan. "This is so good."
"Right?" Maximo says after taking a bite of his steak. "Wanna a piece."
I nod and he holds out a piece for me on his fork, I take the piece and moan again. "So good." He chuckles at me and I stick my tongue at him before I holding out my burger for him.
He takes a bite. "So we still haven't gotten to why you're annoyed."
I sigh. "I just feel like with Riley we take one step forward than a couple weeks later 2 steps back, This is just like when she became a Harajuku girl. Like we had this lesson already, lets progress forward." Maximo hums and takes a sip of his coke. "What?"
"Nothing." I glare at him. "It's just that Riley's insecure."
"I know that."
"Than you should know that she isn't just gonna wake up one-day realize that she cares way too much about what people think about her, and stop caring. It's something that she has to work through herself, no matter how many lessons this is something that she has to figure out herself, if she isn't confident in herself than whatever you guys tell her isn't gonna stick and it's going to take time for her to be secure in herself. You still have moments when you feel like you need to be perfect."
I pout at him. "Your right."
"I know I'm right." I throw a fry at him and he catches it in his mouth. "Delicious. But it probably doesn't help that she's starting to notice the difference between you two."
I give him a perplexed look. "I think Riley knows that we're different, I mean we are fraternal twins. Plus our personalities are different."
"Yeah, and when people think of Riley, they think Riley Super Klutz, most likely to smile herself to death, and a little overbearing. Don't give me that look Riley can be overbearing. When they think of you the think of graceful, loving but not too involved, and the Queen.
"You think she's comparing herself to me?"
"Yeah, I think her changing as a bit to do with that."
"I'll talk to her about it," I tell him.
"You do that, right now let's eat." I smile at him and the both us tucked
"We should come here again," I told Maximo as we exited the diner. "Maybe for a brunch date."
He pecked me on the lips before holding my hand. "Whatever you want."
John Quincy Adams Middle School, History Class
Amelia and I were sitting at our desk making light conversation when Lucas walked into the classroom covering his eyes. "Please be back to normal. Please be back to normal."
"I'm Donnie Barnes," Farkle says.
"You might as well remove your hands," Amelia tells Lucas.
Lucas sighs and does so at that moment Riley flutters into the room still dressed as Morotia and takes a seat at her desk. "What the..." Lucas says startled.
"Life is what we do between nothing," Riley says in a monotone.
"Is this a New York thing, or what is this?" Lucas asks, Amelia and I shrug, we were New Yorkers and we weren't acting like this. "Maya?"
"Lollipops, and circuses, and things that rhyme with that," Maya says from the door.
I look at her in shock. "I thought you were trying to fix this."
"No!" Lucas exclaims. "This is your solution, Maya?"
Maya looks at him shyly. "Hi."
Lucas smiles at her. "Hey."
"Hi," Maya says again.
Lucas shakes his head. "No!" he takes sits down at his desk.
Dad walks into the classroom covering his eyes. "Please be back to normal. Please be back to normal."
"Daddy, remove your hands," I tell him.
He does as told. "What's up, hambone?" Farkle greats him.
"Don't worry, daddy. I'm going to fix everybody right up." Maya says causing Dad to look over at her and scream.
"All right, you know what?" Lucas asks standing up and walking to the front. "It's Lucas time. You're the best Farkle we got, and everyone knows it." he looks over at Riley. "And you are a complete ray of sunshine." he turns to Maya. "And you are not. And that's who we are. I don't know what this is. But I do know that if you let someone say who you are, then you really won't be who you are, and you certainly won't end up being who you were meant to be."
"If you end this with Iceland or Greenland, I'll give you an A on the report right now," Dad tells him. "Because your one of the only ones in here I recognize."
"Don't worry. I'm not gonna stay Riley. I know how much everybody would miss me if I did." Maya tells Lucas.
"No, no, stay Riley," Sarah tells her.
Darby nods in agreement. "Yeah, you're a good Riley."
"Wait. You like us all like this?" Maya asks.
"We like Riley. We don't care who plays her." Yindra tells her.
I groan. "Oh no."
"What about Maya?" Maya asks upset.
"Nothing we do matters," Riley tells her.
Lucas tries to improve her mood. "Maya, you're the most secure person in this room. You have a great life. Why would you change? I mean, okay, not great life. I mean, your family life could be, you know, better. But at least at school, you're, uh... you're here a lot. Right?" Little help, please. Donnie Barnes?"
I shake my head at him. "Stop just stop," Amelia tells him.
"I think people should be the best person they can be," Farkle says.
"I agree," Maya says. "Riley Matthews is the best person I can be. Maya is gone, and you're never gonna see her again." she puts her head in her book. " La la la la la la World peace. And bunnies!
"All right, you all say I'm most likely to be okay with anything. Well, I'm not okay with any of this. I'm not okay with all you guys not realizing that what you say about people matters. And I'm not okay with you guys thinking what people say about you matters." Lucas says before sitting down.
"You know what happened after everybody went to Greenland because someone told them to?" Dad asks. "Donnie?"
"Riley?" Farkle asks.
"Black swan?" Maya asks.
"They all died," Riley says not taking it seriously.
"Yep," Dad tells her.
"What? Really?" Riley asks in surprise.
"Really," Dad confirms, he looks over at me and Amelia. "You two wanna take this."
"Sure," I tell him as the both of us get and face the class.
Amelia starts. "They came to an inhospitable, uninhabited ice ball named Greenland because someone said it was pretty, and the first thing they did was die."
"The jerks!" Dad adds from the side.
"I got voted most likely to be queen while Amelia got beauty and brain. Both things are pretty superficial."
Amelia nods. "You voted me beauty because of my outer looks and you voted me brain because you've seen me in class. you don't actually know me to say anything else about me."
"I don't really know why you guys voted me Queen, I can count on a hand how many of you I see outside of this class, so there's no way any of you know me enough to say they see me as a queen, so your opinions of me don't matter. But yesterday I went on a date and my boyfriend told me he could see being a queen, and that made me light up."
Yindra raises her hand. "Do you think you're a queen."
I thought about it. "Yeah, I do."
"Why?" Darby asks.
"Because I think like a queen. I used to be a perfectionist. Failure was not an option for me. But know I see failure as another stepping stone to greatness." I answered. With that Amelia and I sat back down and allowed Dad to take over again.
"So please remember, you shouldn't pay attention to what everybody says. Because if you listen to everybody else, you just might end up crashing your little ships onto the rocks." Dad tells the class.
"But you should listen to the people who care about you. Because they have your best interest at heart. " Lucas looks over at Farkle. "Right, buddy? You're much more than just a regular guy."
"Aw, Lucas," Maya says ruining the moment. "You're a very sweet guy. That's why I always liked you since I fell into your lap on the subway. It's why we should have been favorite couple, because we're so much alike. You know, it's like we're two sunshine-y people from the same sunshine-y family. That's why I like you so much. It's like you're my brother. Oh," Maya pauses and looks at Riley. "It's like he's your... "
"What?" Riley asks her.
"Whoa." Maya breathes out.
"What just happened?" Riley asks her.
"Uh, nothing. Nothing happened," Maya says as she takes off her wig. I don't wanna be Riley anymore. Only you're Riley. I'm Maya." she faces the other students. "We don't care what you say. We're not crashing our ships." she looks back to Riley. "Come back. Come back right now."
There was silence as Maya stared at Riley, just before the bell rang. Amelia and I shared a look before packing up our stuff and leaving the classroom.
Matthews Apartment
I was in my room when I heard Riley walking down the hall, I got up and opened my door. "Can we talk?"
Riley smiles at me. "Sure." she walks into my room and lays on my bed. "What's wrong?"
I sat next to her. "I just wanna know I had anything to do with you wanting to change yourself."
Riley's smile wains before returning. "Nope."
I nodded not believing her one bit. "Okay, well I just want you to know that I think your amazing and I hope that you won't let anybody's opinions change you and that you don't compare yourself to anybody else because Riley is perfect."
She grins at me before hugging me. "Thank you."
I hug her back. "Your welcome."
A/N: I'm so proud of myself right now I made it my goal to finish this chapter before March ends, I just made the deadline. So what did you guys think, I felt like there hasn't been a lot of Maximo and Roe lately so I added a scene. Don't forget to comment and review. Question: Do you guys want me to go back and do Girl Meets Demolition and Girl Meets Fish. I didn't really do them because they're more specials and not really part of the plot.