When Lucas had texted her the night before to ask her if she wanted to rehearse she didn't really think it was that big of a deal but now that he would be there at any moment, her nerves were kicking in as she was in her room, getting ready.

She tried to remind herself that they were just studying and she shouldn't be so nervous but just the thought of being alone with him sent butterflies coursing through her stomach. As she takes a deep breath to settle her nerves, she suddenly hears the bell ring and a few seconds later she hears her brother.

"RILEY, LUCAS IS HERE" Auggie shouts from the living room

She heads out to the living room to find Lucas sitting on the couch with her younger brother and they seemed to be in the middle of a conversation. It looked like Auggie was showing Lucas his newest comic book

"My favorite is Superman" She hears Auggie tell Lucas as she stands there watching them interact

"Mine too, I actually have some of my old comics that my dad used to bring mr back from his business trips, I have some from different countries I could bring them for you next time " Lucas offers

"Awesome, thanks Lucas! " Auggie exclaims excited

Riley smiled at the scene in front of her. Lucas looked up and saw her standing there

"Hey" he says smiling at the brunette

"Hi" she replies

Lucas smiles and then looks down at the young boy next to him "Well it was fun talking to you Auggie, we'll have to do it more often" he says as he ruffles Auggies hair

Auggie smiles and nods before he grabs his comic book from Lucas and heads back to his room

"He seems to actually like you" Riley comments

"Well I am pretty awesome" Lucas teases

"And modest" Riley adds

"That too"

Riley giggles

They stay silent for a moment before Lucas finally decides to break the silence

"You look nice" he says

Riley blushes before giving him a shy thank you and again they are left in silence and this time Riley is the one to break it.

"So should we get started?" she offers

"As you wish Juliet" he smiles making her blush once again as she leads him to her room.

"So this is my first art gallery so your gonna have to excuse my lack of knowledge" James teases

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"Don't worry I'll walk you through it" Maya giggles as they continue though the exhibit. All the pieces were amazing, they had paintings, sculptures, and any other art you can think of but Maya's favorite were the sketches.

"Have you been to many of these?" James asked

"A few with my stepdad, kind of a father daughter thing we like to do" Maya explains to him

"I think its really cool that you are so close to your step dad"

"He's the best , I love him" Maya smiles. They continue through the exhibit they were currently looking to the sculptures.

"So what about your other dad?" he asks curiously

"He's not in my life anymore" Maya simply says

"I'm sorry" James says sympathetically noticing that it was a sensitive issue for her

"it's okay, so what about your dad?" she asks realizing she never met or heard anything about his father.

"He passed away" James explains

"oh my gosh I'm so sorry" Maya quickly apologizes feeling guilty for bringing the subject up

"Don't worry about , it's been a couple years now, I still miss him though. James smiles reassuringly

Maya nods and they continue in silence for a couple minutes

"So what's the story with that Josh guy?" James suddenly asks

"What do you mean?" Maya asks confused

"Is he like your ex?"

Maya looks at him wide eyed "What? no why would you ask that?" she asks

"Come on even I could sense the awkwardness there"

"Nothings going on between us, we've known each other since we were kids" Maya explains

"And he has no idea you have feelings for him" James says putting the puzzle together in his mind

"What ? I don't have..." she begins to protest but she can tell James is not buying it so she sighs in defeat

"Am I that obvious?" Maya asks.

"No I'm just very observant" James chuckles

"Well it doesn't matter because he's not interested in me"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that" James comments

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Riley and Lucas had been rehearsing now for most of the afternoon. They were currently in Riley's room, they had just finished their 5th run through of the scene.

"Well I think we are improving" Lucas comments as he takes a seat in Riley's bay window

"Yeah, you can almost run through it without looking at your script" Riley teases him as she takes a seat next to him but still keeping a good distance between them

"It's not my fault Shakespeare is hard" Lucas tries to defend himself.

Riley giggles "well if you want we can stop for today" she offers

Lucas puts his script aside, he had been trying to figure out the perfect moment and it seemed this was his opening.

"So you got any plans for the rest of the day?" he tries to ask casually as he can

"Not really, my friends decided to ditch me for the day"

"Mine too" Lucas chuckles " so maybe we hang out?" he offers

That took Riley by surprise " you wanna hang out... with me?" she asks making sure she heard him right.

"Yeah, if you want to of course" Lucas adds quickly making sure she didn't feel pressured to accept

Riley hesitated at first but she decided to put her nerves aside"ok sure" she agrees

"Really" Lucas asks surprised but really happy

"Yeah" Riley nods smiling

"Great" Lucas smiles brightly " I know this great pizza parlor the guys and I always eat there on our way back from games" he offers

"Sounds great, um let me just tell my mom I'm leaving and then we'll go" she tells him

"Okay" he nods smiling at her

Riley smiles at him for a moment before standing up and going to go find her mom to let her know.

Lucas watches her leave the room and tries to remain calm while in the inside he is bursting with excitement.