Val Meets Annie
I don't own Girl Meets World! This is an original chapter, it is not based on any other Girl Meets World episodes (at least not to my knowledge). I also don't own the idea for this chapter, it came from the wonderful user Valerie Quinn on Quotev.
Val hobbled into school on Friday. After long doctors appointments and x-rays all day Thursday to make sure her ankle wasn't broken she was exhausted. While Val wouldn't be able to compete in her first dance competition next weekend, she was grateful she hadn't wound up needing crutches.
Whispers followed Val as she made her way down the hallway towards her locker. People gossiping about how she had gotten hurt and why. It took a lot of self control for Val not to roll her eyes when she heard some sixth graders whispering as she passed.
"I heard she broke three toes when she kicked a mugger."
"No, I heard she was saving her little brother from a kidnapping and the guy stomped on her foot to get her to let him go but she still kicked his butt even after he dislocated the bones in her foot."
"That's not right! I heard this was sabotage. Val was supposed to compete in that dance competition next weekend. I heard some of the kids in the studio she's up against did this on purpose because she's so much better than them and they didn't want to lose."
"Oh, my God." Val muttered "Where are they hearing these things?"
She opened her locker and pulled out her history and math textbooks. When she shut the door she jumped and almost dropped the books in surprise.
"Happy friendiversary!" Annie grinned, her face had been hidden behind the locker door and watching Val jump in surprise even though she did this every year was one of her favorite parts of the day.
"You know, no one does that in real life." Val tried to sound annoyed but the smile playing on her lips made it clear that she wasn't really mad.
"Who says this is real life?" Annie shrugged.
"Oh, no!" Val gasped dramatically "She's becoming self-aware! Next she'll try to take over the world!"
"And I'd do a great job, thank you very much."
"Why?" Val teased.
"Because I'd give it to Farkle." Annie declared "We both know he's too nice to take over the world himself, so I'll do it then hand leadership over to him."
Val raised an eyebrow in thought "I could get behind that."
Annie laughed "So, friendiversary plans?"
"We're going to go to class and when school is out we're going to volunteer at the daycare we met at." Val began listing the plan for the day.
"We still have to go to class?" Annie complained "But it's practically a holiday!"
Val rolled her eyes jokingly at her friend's complaints "After our shift is done we are going to get takeout from that super cute Italian place with-"
"The huge meatballs." Annie was practically drooling at the mere mention of the food "Now I'm hungry."
Val pulled out an orange and tossed it to her friend.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome. Then we're going back to your place to watch movies until our eyes go square." Val finished "Now come on, the bell's about to ring."
Annie pretended to pout but it slid off her face quickly as Lucas approached and she prepared to either tease her bestie or fangirl over her current ship depending on how cute or awkward the interaction was.
"Hey, Val." Lucas greeted nervously "Hey, Annie."
"Hey, Lucas." Val smiled "How's it going?"
Lucas fidgeted with his fingers "It's okay. How about you?"
"I'm not too bad." Val nodded.
"I, um, I wanted to, uh, to ask you something." Lucas stammered out.
"Ask away."
"Would you maybe wanna hang out tonight?" Lucas chewed his lip anxiously.
Val's face fell slightly "Oh, Lucas, I'm sorry. I can't tonight. It's Annie's and my friendiversary. We already made plans." Lucas's expression dropped to disappointment and Val hurried to keep talking "Maybe we can hang out on Sunday? I don't have any plans."
Lucas smiled "Val, no worries about tonight. I can do Sunday. We can text and make official plans tomorrow." He glanced over at Annie "Happy friendiversary."
"Thanks." Annie grinned "It's been nine years of crazy dealing with this one." She joked.
Val flicked her arm teasingly.
"Wow, nine years?" Lucas didn't know why that amazed him so much, Annie and Val were great friends, maybe better than Riley and Maya because they didn't live in each other's pockets.
"Yep." Annie popped the 'p' "We met in daycare then wound up going to the same preschool. Then a couple years later I convinced my parents to rent the apartment across from the Matthews. The rest is history."
"You don't talk about your parents much." Lucas noted.
Annie's expression darkened "Yeah, well, they're not my favorite people."
"Why not?" Lucas couldn't help but be curious.
"Honestly, I don't really know them. I don't live with them. They still have custody over me and by all reports I am still living with them, but I spend most of my time at the apartment." Annie shrugged "I mean, it's not like they've ever been abusive or anything. They're just both really busy. They own this huge company and they're never at home. I don't really feel the need to be home alone with only the butler for company. He still comes over to the apartment three times a week to make sure I'm alive though."
"That's-"
"It's not a big deal, Lucas." Annie waved him off "I see them every couple of weeks for the galas they throw. It's not like I can really skip out on those. Can you imagine the scandal? I can see the headline now 'Prodigal Daughter of Carson Incorporated Corrupted into Neglecting her Duties to Family.' The press would have a field day."
Lucas looked over at Val, the concern at what Annie was saying shining in his eyes. Val was chewing her lip as Annie ranted on.
"Actually, that might not be a bad idea! The press is already after me since Val's been going to the gala's with me for years."
"And they still can't get my name right." Val joked, trying to lighten the tension "What names have they given me so far?"
"Ooh, there was Valarie, Valentina, Valah, those are just off the top of my head though." Annie rattled off.
"Why does the press come after you?" Lucas questioned.
"There are a lot of not very nice people in the world, Lucas." Val shrugged "And it's not all the press, it's mostly just the trashy tabloids who don't have any better stories. The first time I went with Annie to one of the parties we got swarmed by paparazzi asking if we were a couple and who asked who out, there were some not nice names thrown in there for effect. We made it very clear that we were just friends and the gossip columns the next day were still saying stuff about how I had 'brainwashed the daughter of the future'."
Lucas's mouth was hanging open and his brain couldn't form coherent words. Luckily Val noticed.
"It's okay, Lucas, my Mom sued them for defamation of character or something. Honestly though, I didn't care. It's not like they even got my name right. Apparently Andrea Carson had attended the gala with a Valarie Mathers." Val and Annie laughed.
The bell rang, cutting off anything else Lucas might have said.
"We'd better get to history." Annie rolled her eyes "What's the betting the lesson today will somehow involve Riley and Maya?"
"I'm not takin' that bet." Val shook her head.
"C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien." Cory read the names on the board "Who were these guys?"
"C. S. Lewis wrote 'The Chronicles of Narnia'." Val said.
"And J. R. R. Tolkien wrote 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit'." Annie doodled absently in her notebook.
"Correct!" Cory pointed at the two "But beyond that. Who were they?"
"C. S. Lewis's real name was Clive Staples Lewis." Val offered.
Cory stared at her "How did you even know that? I didn't even know that."
Val grinned "I did a report on him in sixth grade."
"I did one on J. R. R. Tolkien." Annie nodded.
"I remember a bunch of weird random facts about him. He liked mythology, Norse in particular. When his friends criticized the first version of 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe' Lewis destroyed it and started over again." Val recited.
"Oh, me too!" Annie jumped up "Tolkien was a World War One veteran so it's thought that some parts of his books come from his time in the trenches, he invented languages for fun, he called Hitler a 'ruddy little ignoramus', and his full name was John Ronald Reuel Tolkien."
"They were also good friends with each other." Val smiled "I think the teacher regretted assigning them to us after we found that out and decided to follow in their footsteps and come to class dressed like polar bears to present our reports."
"Huh?" Riley cocked her head "Polar bears?"
"Lewis and Tolkien once went to a party dressed as polar bears." Annie chuckled.
"Lewis used Tolkien as inspiration for one of his characters in 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.'" Val mentioned "He made him Digory Kirke, or the professor who built the wardrobe to Narnia."
"Tolkien did the same." Annie nodded.
"No, he did not." Val muttered, hiding her smile.
"Yes, he did." Annie rolled her eyes "He made him an Ent."
"A what?" Maya laughed "Now you're just making up words."
"I did say Tolkien made up his own languages for fun, didn't I?" Annie glared "And for your information, Ents are a species in Tolkien's books. They're basically walking, talking trees."
(I would like to say right now it's been a hot minute since I read or watched "Lord of the Rings" or "The Hobbit". I'm giving a simplified version and I'm sorry if it's not 100% accurate. I was never super into LoTR or "The Hobbit", like, it was a great story and I really enjoyed it, but it wasn't something I really got into like "Percy Jackson" or "Harry Potter".)
"I honestly don't know why I decided to give a lesson on these guys." Cory sighed "You two clearly know more about them than I do."
"You ran your lesson plan by me this morning." Val reminded her father "You said you wanted to talk about their friendship."
"I think you already told us they were friends." Maya scowled "You said they went to a party in polar bear suits."
"Hmm, yeah, I guess we did." Annie smiled at Cory "Can we leave now, then? Yes, great, CLASS DISMISSED!"
The students started to gather their things.
"No! Class is not dismissed." Cory called, ignoring his pupil's groans and whines "There's still...I still have more...It's more complicated than..."
"Dad's right." Val stood up "We'll take it from here. It's Val and Annie time."
Cory nodded and sat back behind his desk as the girls came up to the chalkboard.
"Tolkien and Lewis met in 1926 and became friends in 1927." Val began "They bonded over their time in the war, the loss of their parents, and their interests in languages, myths, storytelling, and poetry."
"They were close friends from 1927 to 1940, about thirteen years." Annie nodded "They were even in a literary club with each other, Charles Williams, Nevill Coghill, Owen Barfield, and W. H. Lewis, who was C. S. Lewis's brother."
"They started to disagree on the stories they wrote. Tolkien thought Lewis was reusing parts of his books, particularly Middle-Earth nomenclature, in his own stories. And Lewis thought that Tolkien was a perfectionist and never wanted to take advice from anyone." Val explained.
"On top of their literary disagreements, they also had different opinions on religion." Annie paused "Tolkien convinced Lewis to convert to Christianity, but Lewis didn't join the Anglican Church and Tolkien, who was Catholic, didn't really like that."
Val stepped forward "So they saw a lot less of each other. By most accounts they were still friends until 1954 when they finally cut contact. But when C. S. Lewis died, on the same day as J. F. K. incidentally, Tolkien wrote to his daughter that the loss of his friend 'feels like an axe-blow near the roots.'"
"They might not have been friends at the end, but they still mattered to each other." Annie glanced at Val then back to Cory "Class dismissed?" She asked hopefully.
"Uh..." Cory stumbled over his words "That was very in depth girls."
Val shrugged "You should stop telling me your lesson plans. And actually that was just a shorter version of our sixth grade reports."
Riley raised her hand "But, what does this have to do with anything?"
"Right." Cory stood up and clapped his hands "The point of today's lesson is that sometimes friendships don't last forever, but that doesn't mean you stop caring about your old friends. You remember them, and all the good times you had with them in the past, and maybe, one day in the future, you reconnect. Because human connection is what makes us who we are."
The bell rang and the students filed out of the classroom. Val and Annie were packing up their books when Sarah, Darby, and Yogi came up to them.
"Hey, guys." Val smiled, looking up at the group.
"Hey, Val, sorry, we were just wondering how you hurt your foot? 'Cause there's a rumor going around that you broke some toes when you kicked a mugger who was trying to kidnap your brother as leverage so you'd throw the dance competition." Sarah relayed, trying to look bored and uninterested despite her curiosity.
Val burst out laughing "Where are people getting these ideas?" She gasped.
"That would be my doing." Annie smirked smugly.
"You're giving people these ideas?" Val snorted "What did you say exactly?"
Annie opened her eyes innocently "All I said was that what happened was a lot more dramatic than people thought."
"You're crazy." Val giggle.
"But ya love me anyway." Annie grinned.
"So what really happened?" Darby asked excitedly.
"It's not that exciting." Val denied "I got knocked over in cheerleading tryouts and sprained my ankle."
"Oh." Yogi looked a little disappointed "It would've been so cool if that last rumor was true."
Val and Annie laughed loudly as they left the classroom.
Val and Annie walked into their old daycare, the volunteer badges on their clothes were bright yellow and had the cheesy "Hello, my name is..." greeting on them. As they strolled down the hall to their old classroom the memories of their first meeting hit them like a ton of bricks.
*Flashback!*
Riley and Maya had their arms linked, chattering loudly, as they walked into the classroom, Val trailed slightly behind them, looking nervous but excited. Her eyes grew to saucers when they landed on the large bookshelves in the back of the room. Sparing her sister and her sister's friend a last glance, Val slipped over to the shelves to examine the books.
When she had been in the hospital, her mother or father would sit next to her bed and read her the fantastical stories that let her escape the reality of her current situation. Val enjoyed hearing her parent's voices reading the printed words and she would often read along with them, loosing herself in the fictional world.
But as time went on and Val started to recover, her parents couldn't be with her all the time. Val was often bored, staring at the blank white walls of her hospital room waiting for her parents to bring back a new book for her. The doctors and nurses noticed how withdrawn and shy the young girl was and noted how she came alive with a book in her hand.
Nurse Violet, Val's favorite nurse, started to bring Val simple children's books. Val already knew how to read and sped through the pages in a blur. So, Nurse Violet brought her slightly higher level books, ones Val hadn't read a million times.
Val almost groaned at the sight of the books on the shelves. They were easy, children's books, more likely to be read to babies that anyone else and certainly not challenging enough to keep Val interested.
"All right, kiddo's!" Miss Mary, the daycare teacher, called, trying to get everyone's attention "Let's all take a seat on the carpet and we'll play the Get to Know You Game!"
Val obeyed and sat down with a small blonde girl wearing blue jeans and a pale blue tee-shirt on her right and Riley and Maya to her left.
"Okay, now here's how you play the Get to Know You Game..."
Miss Mary explained that they would go around the room and introduce themselves and something they liked. There was a girl named Olivia who liked horses, an Evan who liked trees, Lizzie who liked flowers, and Penny who liked collecting feathers. Then it was Riley's turn.
Maya glared at the class "I'm Maya Hart. Don't look me in the eyes."
"What's something you like, Maya?" Miss Mary asked kindly.
Maya shrugged nonchalantly "I like coloring."
"Hi, I'm Riley Matthews." Riley waved shyly "I like my best friend, Maya, and my bay window."
"Nice to meet you Riley." Miss Mary nodded.
And all of a sudden, it was Val's turn.
"I'm Valencia Matthews, but you can call me Val." Val glanced around "Um, and I like reading."
"Well we have lots of books for you to read, Val." Miss Mary nodded "I'm sure you'll be a reading pro in no time."
Val frowned "I already know how to read." She mumbled.
Miss Mary didn't seem to hear her and looked at the blonde girl next to her "And what's your name?"
"I'm Andrea Carson." Andrea introduced herself "I like reading too, but I was looking at the bookshelves earlier and those books are really easy."
"Those books are the ones selected as best for your age group." Miss Mary said sympathetically "But I'm sure we can get different ones for you if you are already familiar with those."
"Val and I."
"Excuse me?"
"Val and I." Andrea repeated "Val said she already knows how to read too."
"Well, sure, we can find other books for both of you." Miss Mary seemed surprised but recovered quickly.
"My turn!" A boy with brown hair in a bowl-cut called "I'm Farkle Minkus and I like math and science."
There were a few giggles at the boy's name but the offenders were quickly silenced by a firm glare from Miss Mary "It's very nice to meet you Farkle. I'm sorry to say that we won't be doing much science but I think there are some math workbooks somewhere. I'll see if I can find them."
Farkle, who's face had fallen when people laughed at his name, brightened considerably.
Val leaned over to Andrea "Thanks, for including me, Andrea. I wouldn't have been able to ask for more advanced books myself."
"Not a problem." Andrea waved her off with a smile "And call me Annie."
*Present*
"Do you remember the first book Miss Mary gave us?" Annie asked wistfully "She could only get one copy, all the others had been checked out of the library, so we decided to read it together."
"The beginning of a beautiful friendship." Val nodded "It was 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' wasn't it?"
"It was." Annie smiled "Then the music teacher told you there was a musical based on the book and that's where your love of theatre started."
"I think she told me in the hope that we would at least be talking about something music related in music class and not keep going on about the book." Val laughed "That backfired on her big time. Instead we started talking about the differences between the book and the musical."
Annie snorted "It's weird to think, that we still come back here every anniversary and it's like the things that we had forgotten come back."
"Like when we step inside we remember exactly how it felt to be a scared little kid in a room full of other kids." Val agreed.
"At least you knew Riley and Maya." Annie glanced at Val "I was completely alone."
"I mean, I knew them and I tried to hang out with them, but looking back they never really tried to include me. It felt like I was forcing myself into their group." Val sighed "But that didn't last long. I think the best decision of my life was sitting next to you on that awful, old carpet."
"Aww!" Annie wrapped an arm around Val's shoulders "And because of that wonderful decision, I wasn't alone anymore and wound up with a musical loving bestie."
"I don't know how we stayed friends after that fight in third grade." Val laughed lightly.
It had been a long time, and both girls could laugh about it now. Third grade had been a rough year. It was when they started to discover boys and, while Val was very clear that she wasn't going to "date" anyone until at least high school, it didn't stop a stream of crushes for both girls.
Annie had a massive crush on a boy in their class, Isaac, but Riley did too. Maya had overheard Annie gushing to Val about Isaac's big blue eyes and had told the boy in question that Annie liked him. When Isaac asked Annie about it, she blushed and silently shook her head, fuming the whole time. Humiliated and furious, Annie had screamed at Maya until she lost her voice. Val had attempted to step in and diffuse the situation, but instead Annie's anger turned on her, and she had cried that Val always sided with Riley and Maya and never her. Val had countered that she wasn't trying to do that, that what Maya had done wasn't right, but Annie had broken down in tears and run away from Val.
When Val had tried to follow her, Maya had grabbed the sleeve of her shirt and told her that Annie wasn't worth the trouble and she and Riley were all the friends Val needed. Fearful of loosing her sister, Val had decided to give Annie some space for a few hours and talk to her later. Unfortunately, a few hours turned into a few days and before anyone knew where the time had gone, it was winter break.
Val was devastated, thinking their friendship was at an end. Until Christmas Eve when Annie had knocked on the Matthews door and flung herself into Val's arms. Several thousand apologies ensued, on Annie's part for her harsh words and Val's for not trying to talk to her friend sooner. After a few mugs of hot chocolate and many cookies, the two really sat down and talked about what they could do better if something like that happened again.
Both girls had known for a long time that the proper response to an apology was not "It's okay." But "I accept your apology." Saying that everything was fine implied that if things were repeated it wouldn't matter, accepting the apology meant that the person knew what they had done was wrong and that if it happened again they would be held accountable. They had also agreed at the start of their friendship that when they fought, they would try to talk it out when they were both calm.
Annie had returned home that night in much better spirits than she had arrived. The next day Val got another surprise visit from Annie who announced that her parents had decided to rent the apartment across the hall for her.
The girls pulled themselves out of their memories as they reached their old classroom.
"Ready?" Annie smirked at Val.
"As I'll ever be." Val opened the door.
Word count: 4037 words
Like I said above, the idea for this chapter came from Quotev user Valarie Quinn, thanks for the great idea! I really enjoyed writing this as a more in-depth look at Val and Annie's friendship and how it started. I hope the part about the tabloids being rude didn't offend anyone, I feel like I'm taking a bit of a risk there, especially with my message in the last chapter, and if it offends you please let me know and I will try to edit it if I can.
Also! Can I just say how excited I am? Another update so soon? What? I'm hopeful that this is a sign that my inspiration has returned and my writing will pick back up!
Thanks for reading and putting up with all my rants at the end of these, I appreciate all you wonderful readers! Please don't forget to comment, vote, and add to your reading lists! Also stay home, stay safe, stay healthy, wash your hands, and wear a mask! #BlackLivesMatter
Love,
The Author