TS42 Chapter 43- Take A Jump, Feel The Fall:

Well, hello there once again everyone! I'm trying to get this done before school starts, because I am going to be crazy busy 24/7 with working on newspaper crew, my spring (and maybe fall) plays, choir and all sorts of stuff. So, that's why I'm pushing out chapters now! :) Anyways, thanks again everyone for the reviews! I appreciate them all! Finally, Shoutout to I Lived by Coldplay to the title of this chapter! :) Now, time to get to it!

Riley's POV:

Time to start college. Everything I've known my whole life is coming to an end. No more parents controlling my life, no more local schools, no more classes with my three best friends, everything's changed. I made it. The steps to this place. Well, here goes nothing...

"Ow!" I say after missing the first step. I instantly clutch my right knee, which fortunately isn't bleeding.

"Need help, Riley?" A boy asked holding out his hand. I take it, allowing him to pull me up.

"Thanks, uh..." I say, realizing I never met this kid before.

"Danny, I'm Lucas's roommate," he told me.

"Lucas, like, Friar, Lucas?" I ask to make sure.

"How else would I know you're name already?" He asked.

"Good point. So I'm assuming you know about us?" I asked, making sure he had no intentions.

"Hmm... Well, I'd say so. I only saw him put up like a million pictures of you guys on his side of our room, and he went on and on about you when I made the mistake of asking about you," I laugh at Lucas' antics.

"That... Sounds like him! I just wanted to make sure you didn't, you know..." I say.

"Haha! I get it, nah, you see... It's kind of a weird story... I kind of already have a crush on your roommate," he says. I give him a small smile.

"Aww! You aren't a couple yet?" I ask.

"Nope. Not yet," he says. I smirk.

"Well, I have a feeling we will have to change that sometime, won't we?" I say teasingly. I feel like I'm his friend already, and I think he feels the same.

"I guess I'll just wait and see," he says. We then get to a big building, which looks like a dorm room. "I figured we could sneak in and surprise Lucas. Our room is in here," he explained. So that's exactly what we did. We snuck into the room and surprised Lucas.

"Surprise!" I yelled at him. He turned around mortified, until he realized it was me and Danny.

"Oh, hey. You guys met?" He asked.

"Yeah, I kind of fell while trying to walk up the steps and he was right there when I did," I said laughing a little at the now distant memory.

"That's why I said not to take too big a step when you get here!" Lucas said.

"I thought you meant that figuratively, not literally!" Lucas just laughed at me.

"Sorry, you'll get used to it eventually, Danny," I said "I Hope."

"No, no, I like this. It's good entertainment!" He says with the positive attitude. Good for him!

"Just wait until you do it someday, you always lose!" Lucas cries.

"Wah Wah, poor you. You act like losing to me is a bad thing," I tease.

"See, Danny? Case in point," Lucas says, I just laugh.

"Well, I'll let you guys stay here and talk and bond over guy things and totally mess up the room while I go find my own. What did you say her name was again?" I ask Danny.

"Neither of us are like that you know," I smirk. Lucas holds back a laugh. "And her name is Valerie, but she goes by Val," Danny told me.

"Thanks! See you guys soon!" I say as I walk back to my room, hoping Valerie might be there this time I see it. It's actually not that long a walk between the dorm buildings. The walk between the class buildings is quite a bit farther. The door is open, meaning she must be there already. It will be nice to meet my roommate.

"Hey, are you Riley?" Valerie asked me.

"Riley? I didn't know you went here?" Emily asked me.

"Yeah, you're sister was our tour guide when we visited. I didn't think I'd see you in the dorm room though..." I said kind of surprised, but a little bit happy.

"Yeah, me neither. I mean it's not a bad thing, just kind of small world," Emily said.

"I'm assuming you're Valerie then, right?" I asked the other girl.

"Yeah, I am. Nice to actually see you here," she says, smiling.

"You know about me?" I ask her.

"Yeah, same way you knew me before I saw you," Well, I guess it wasn't that long ago.

"How was that?" I asked.

"The paper we got with our dorm partners on it," She said, a little confused, almost.

"Oh, haha I didn't even look at that. I just heard about you from Danny," her eyes went wide almost instantly. Well, this should be fun! They like each other!

"Oh gosh, I'm thinking I'll just let you guys talk and I'll see you in a little bit. I'm right across the hall if you need me," Emily said before leaving.

"Don't worry, my boyfriend is Danny's roommate, that's how I knew him," she instantly showed a little sign of relief. "Don't feel threatened by me! Haha! I wouldn't want to get on bad terms with my roommate like that, especially that quick," I said. She smiled a little.

"You seem nice. And happy. I like that," she said. She must be a little shy.

"Thanks! I try to be," I respond as I start organizing my dresser.

"So, how'd you meet Danny, anyways?" She asked.

"I feel on the first step of this place, and he helped me up. Introduced ourselves, found out he was my boyfriends roommate so he showed me their dorm room. Good to know that kind of stuff!" She laughed a little bit.

"Think you remember where it was?" she asked me.

"Yeah, I do. I'll take you there in a little bit if you want," she responded with a quick okay, and I finished putting my stuff away.

"So, you and Lucas are actually together?" She asked me as we started walking pretty slow to the guys dorms.

"Yeah, first and only. Since middle school, you guys?" I asked referring to Val and Danny.

"I like him, don't know if he likes me or not, and he probably is thinking something similar. We just happen to both be kind of shy, and it doubles around each other," Val explained.

"You know how many times I've kissed Lucas without him asking? A LOT. I met Lucas by falling into his lap twice on a subway, and it took me forever to not be frightened by him, every time we'd talk our conversations were just hey and hi, and hi and hey," I told her.

"Well, you guys seem to have worked out fine five years later," Val said.

"Haha, yeah... We have, haven't we?" I ask rhetorically. "Anyways, sometimes you just gotta face your fears, and time ticks faster than any clock will show you," I tell her.

"You seem to be quite wise. Where do you get all this good advice?" She says.

"My father was my high school and middle school history teacher, and my friends including Lucas and my experiences with them are the best," I say, beginning to think of Maya, who's probably hanging out with her roommate and Farkle.

"This it?" She asked as we got to the building. The girls got good instincts.

"Yeah. Follow me," I tell her, leading her to the boys apartment.

"Yeah, of course I like her! I mean, I have for ages!" I hear Danny say. I instantly tell Val to hold back a little bit by giving her a hand like a stop sign. She instantly becomes confused, while I just inform her they are talking about her. She then gives me an Ahh... Look, while I continue listening.

"What do you expect her to do? Wait for you to do something? You can't really expect that," Lucas says.

"I don't know what I can do though, I mean, it just seems like I like where it is now," he says.

"Yeah, don't ever say that. It can always get better until you're married and you kiss her at the special place you decide to get married," Lucas says. "And it can always get better with anyone until you have a girlfriend, in which case you do everything you can to keep making it better, and one you get to the point when it's as good as it can get, work as hard as ever to keep it there before everything just gets totally destroyed," Lucas giving out good girl advice? I must say I'm not surprised.

"Before what gets totally destroyed?" I ask Lucas, after telling Val to stay back and out of sight for a minute.

"Oh, uh, hi Riley. Back so soon?" He asks, trying to change topics, but I'm not letting him.

"Don't change topics, I have Val with me," I whisper extremely lightly to him so Danny has no idea what's going on.

"Yeah, but answer my question," I demand.

"Fine, I was giving relationship advice to Danny," Lucas said.

"Was it any good?" I ask, playing along.

"I'd say so, but you judge it for yourself. I told him that relationships can always get better until you're married, and you have to take steps to make it as good as it can be," Lucas said.

"Sounds great, although it seems like you two have to make the decision yourselves," I said as I told Val to walk in. Lucas and I smiled while Danny was a little scared it seemed.

"Hey," Danny said to her. This was going to be fun.

"Hi," she responded. This was going to be really fun. The Rucas matchmakers? YAS!

"So... What do you think?" He asked her.

"About what?" She asked.

"Being in a relationship," he added.

"I like it," she said. Maya then came in and screamed just kiss the girl thinking it was Lucas when it wasn't, but they kissed, and all seemed well. In the meantime, all of us got and gave good relationship advice. You know college might be fun.

Lucas's POV:

Now that we are in college I have to really start thinking about our future. Riley's and mine. When do I propose to her? When do we get jobs and start working? When do we (shudders) have children? And how many? And where do we live? And all those lifelong questions. The first step is when do I propose? And how?

"Knowing her for most of her life, I'd say marry her on September ninth next year. That would mean propose in... Around November or December at the latest," Farkle told me reading my mind. Why then?

"Why that day?" I ask.

"A long, long time ago, like, in middle school I think, something happened," Farkle said. "Riley doesn't know I know this, but it was the anniversary of when you guys met, and she planned a fake wedding. It was basically a wedding with no guests allowed and a picture of you instead of you. She got everything ready like it was a real wedding. It was crazy," I start blushing.

"Well, what happened?" I asked, wanting to know.

"As far as I know, she got as far as she could before someone crashed the party. Might've been Maya. Never finished, which is why she still wants you to marry her. She can finish what she started," Farkle said.

"Well, I guess that makes sense, although that is pretty embarrassing," little do they know I did something similar myself...

"Don't worry, I saw yours too. I'd say go with her day though, gotta keep the girl happy!" WHAT?! HE KNOWS?! HOW?!

"How? You know? About? That?! How?!" I flip.

"I have ways," Farkle says, not providing answers.

"Fine, September ninth, I'll have to do that instead," Farkle smiled.

"Good idea. As for me, I'll propose at your wedding party. Gives me time to plan ahead!" Farkle said. We exchange smiles. We are both going to be marrying our middle school sweethearts. What a great love story?!

Hey guys, so I know that chapter was pretty short compared to normal, with a lot of Riley and my OC's. It was mostly just a filler chapter, and I didn't feel like spending too much time on Riley and Lucas giving my OC's relationship advice, it just didn't make much sense. All that matters is that they are roommates and they are now boyfriend/girlfriend because of Riley and Lucas. So, if you want a physical description of Danny and Valerie just go to my profile page and scroll down until you get to their names. Emily, who's Maya's roommate for practicality purposes is also there, along with her sister Christina who was mentioned earlier. Fortunately, the role of my OC's is extremely limited, and mostly minor backup parts in large group scenes like class and such from here on out. With that, thanks guys for reading this chapter! I've got about six more days left, and about 5 more days until schedule pickup, and that's two weeks before school stuff starts. Hopefully I finish before then. Anyways, thanks again guys, and I'll see you later! RWC :)