A/N: Hello! If you've landed here following the ongoing Lucaya Project stories, welcome! If you're finding this story on its own, you might have a lot to catch up on. I have been writing daily Lucas/Maya since 2016, now on my fifth year of it. This year and the past three years' stories have all taken place in an alternate universe where Maya was the one to move to Texas instead of Lucas moving to New York. The stories so far are:

2017. A Hart in Texas (365 chapters, complete)
2018. Our Brand New Years (365 chapters, complete)
2019. Endings, Beginnings, and the Journey in Between (365 chapters, complete)
2020. Firsts of Many (ongoing)
xxxx. We Three Hearts (ongoing, alternate timeline stemming from 2018's story)

So, in light of all of us being home for the foreseeable future, I opened up the idea of doing 'deleted scenes,' basically moments in all these stories that were not part written out (they've spanned eleven years so far after all). Anything you guys want to see, let me know!

THE WORLD AROUND
The Lucaya Project 'DELETED' SCENES

I

The meeting of Asher Garcia and Ray Choi
September 2017 (A Hart in Texas)

(Soundtrack: "Someone to You" by BANNERS)

Asher Garcia had always been one of the smartest kids in his class. Every year, from first onward, he excelled. It would get to the point, year after year, teacher after teacher, where he would be told to stop putting his hand up. They got it, he knew the answer, now the other kids needed a chance to show it. So while some people might not have looked forward to the start of a new year, Asher would be up at the crack of dawn, showered, dressed, and fed breakfast, all before his twin brother and his parents had gotten through half of that.

In that same line of thought, while there were probably many kids in his year who had been nervous today, he had been thrilled not just to start a new year but also the first one in high school. He could play it cool, but any of his friends would see it on his face.

That first high school day had gone off as smoothly as one could hope. There had been curiosities, and one big surprise in the form of their middle school history teacher – also known as Riley's dad – now being their high school history teacher, thanks to a last minute transfer. The whole day had come to a close as most of their school days did, with all of them gathering at one of their homes. Today, they'd been at the Zhu house, up through the time when they all had to disperse and return to their families for dinner.

Asher and Joey lived all of fifteen minutes away on foot from Nadine's, so they had taken off together, playing a game they had played for as long as they could remember, usually on car rides, where they would talk backwards. They'd have to know what they'd say ahead of time, in order to work out the order of words, though after years of doing it they had gotten a lot better at it. Their parents would find it annoying more than anything, but that might have only made it more amusing. Joey was so shy around most people, but it was different with his twin, and Asher was only too happy to encourage it.

"Teacher biology new the was favorite my think I. You about what?" Asher asked, swinging his school bag front and back as he walked.

"Nice really was teacher English new the think I. First reading be we'll what wonder I," Joey replied with a smile.

Their phones had pinged one after the other, which they knew even before looking would be a message from their mother. She wanted to know, first and foremost, that they were on their way home by now, but coming in the way of that she also wanted them to pick up a few things on the way. One of them was to go to their uncle's diner to pick up something she'd asked to borrow from him, while the other had to go and pick up their father's suit from the dry cleaner's.

Asher and Joey looked to one another.

"Scissors, paper, rock?" Asher held his hand at the ready. Joey looked hesitant; he never won at this. Still, he played. He lost; he was off to the dry cleaner's.

After they'd split off, Asher had gone at a jog toward the bus stop, catching the bus just in time. Minutes later, he hopped off and crossed the street, walking through the diner's door.

"Hey, Nando!" he called out, looking for his uncle and finding him by following the sound of his voice. Many people over the years would have been fooled to think that the cook would be playing music back in the kitchen, some Spanish crooner, but then the singing would stop out of nowhere, and they'd realize it had not been a recording at all. "Nando!" Asher repeated, causing his uncle to stop singing as he turned toward him.

"Ah, see, now you made me stop when I was getting to the best part!" Fernando Garcia 'complained' with his big smile.

"Mom sent me to get…" Asher shrugged. Fernando shook his head in a very 'kids today' air.

"Under the counter, the box," he pointed with his spatula before resuming his singing with all the gusto it deserved. Asher rolled his eyes with a laugh and left the kitchen, ducking under the counter in search of this box. He'd just gotten his hands on it when a voice caught him by surprise and he nearly dropped it.

"Picking up an order for Choi?"

Asher just barely managed to get his grip to steady on the box and also not to fall back from his crouch. He sprang up back on his feet and blinked when he saw the boy standing on the other side of the counter. The boy blinked, too, but then he smiled.

"Hey, I think you go to my school?" he pointed.

"I literally just started there today," Asher hesitated. He looked down to the box he still held. After a beat, he set it down on the counter.

"Yeah, you're Lucas Friar's friend, aren't you?" the boy asked.

Asher's thoughts took off on a ricocheting course that seemed as though it should have taken more than the second or two it did in actual time. It was all the time he needed to lay out the facts.

Fact one, this boy looked older than him, not much, maybe just a year. Fact two, he knew Lucas. Fact three, Lucas was a year older than the rest of their group of friends because of his suspension. Fact four, this boy must have known Lucas back when he'd been a year ahead of them. Fact five, he would have seen him at school today if he'd spotted his old classmate. Fact six, he'd remembered seeing him. Fact seven…

Fact…

This boy was really… really cute.

"I am… yeah… Tenth grade? I mean… you're in tenth grade? You were in his class?" The boy smiled again… Asher's heart lurched and spun.

"I'm Ray," he introduced himself. Fact eight…

"Basketball!" Asher pointed at him. "I mean… You're Ray Choi, you were on my cousin's basketball team, he graduated last year, I saw you play." Why was he rambling?

"Eddie Garcia?" Ray guessed and Asher nodded, pointing to the team photo on the wall behind him. For some reason, the face his eyes went to on that photo right then was not his cousin's but Ray Choi's. "So you must be… Asher?" Oh, he knew his name? How did he know his name?

"How'd you know?"

"Eddie said to look out for his cousins after he was gone off to college. He said 'Asher's real smart, and Joey's real shy,' and you don't look shy to me," Ray explained.

"No, not shy at all, not me," Asher shook his head. There was a pause. "Yes… I'm Asher," he finally confirmed, and Ray chuckled. "I'll… I'll go see about your order," Asher nodded before moving toward the kitchen. "Nando?" he called.

"You've caught me between tunes. What do you think I should go for next?"

"Order for Choi?" Asher asked instead of answering. Fernando shook his head at him, regarding the lack of song request more than the order, as he went to package up one more thing for the bag waiting on the counter.

"There, all set," he put the bag in his nephew's hands. Asher stood stuck to the spot for a moment. "Waiting for a tip? You're not on the clock," Fernando joked before moving to the freezer in the corner and pulling out a flat box. "Pie for your Ma, cherry, alright?"

"Right, thanks," Asher turned on his heel and left the kitchen one again. Ray sat waiting at the counter, sending a sugar packet shooting from one hand to the other by flicking it to and fro. When he saw Asher return he stopped and put the sugar back where it belonged. "Order for Choi," Asher declared, setting the bag on the counter.

"Great, thanks," Ray smiled. Fact nine, that smile though… Without thinking, Asher was suddenly holding out the flat box which had been progressively leeching all heat from his fingers, in opposition to the piping heat of the bag he'd carried on the other side.

"For the wait," he said.

"You were gone for like thirty seconds," Ray laughed.

"And I sincerely apologize," Asher set the box down before him. "Cherry pie," he revealed, as though the label on the front didn't show it already. "My uncle's speciality, on the house."

"Cherry's the best," Ray agreed with a nod as he pulled out the money for his order and set it on the counter.

"Yeah, it really is," Asher agreed. Neither of them said a word for one, two, three, four seconds, and finally Ray picked up the bag of food in one hand and the pie box in the other.

"Do you play basketball like your cousin?"

"Better," Asher bragged without thinking. It got him a smile though, so he didn't worry about it so much.

"Maybe I'll see you at tryouts then?"

"Absolutely, yeah," he replied. "Or, you know, before that… around school…" If he ducked and hid behind the counter, would it be weird? Luckily, he got one more smile and Ray walked out of the diner. Asher realized only after he'd disappeared from sight that he had watched the boy's retreat. When he was gone, Asher grabbed the box he'd been sent to retrieve and dashed out of the diner, too. He was expected at home for dinner, and besides, he couldn't keep standing here, he needed some air.

Fact ten, high school was off to a great start.

What next? :D