"Aug, can you ask Riley what her plan is for tonight?"
Auggie glanced up from his desk to his mom in the doorway. He paused his video game and leaned back in his chair. "You know her room is right across the hall."
Topanga sighed. "I really don't have time for this argument right now, August."
Auggie shrugged. "Just something to think about," he suggested, passive-aggressively raising an eyebrow.
As his mom left, Auggie got up and headed towards Riley's room, pressing on her 'doorbell' and waiting for her to open the door.
A moment later her face appeared in the doorway, and she signed, 'Hey, what's up?'
'Mom wants to know your plan for tonight,' Auggie signed silently. 'You're staying at Farkle's right?'
Riley nodded. 'I'll text her,' she signed, pulling out her phone. 'What are you doing tonight?'
'Ava and I are going to hang out, just watch TV. Nothing special.'
Riley's phone buzzed and the camera flash flickered, signaling a notification, and Riley glanced down at the text, her mom responding that she was fine with her staying at Farkle's in a guest room.
Auggie waved a hand in front of her face to get her attention, and then signed, 'Is Maya picking you up?'
'No, Lucas,' Riley signed, fingerspelling his name and then using his new name sign.
Auggie smirked a little, knowing that the fact that Riley had given Lucas a name sign meant something huge to his sister. She hadn't given her other friends official name signs, and she'd known them for years. His own name sign was an 'a' handshape tapping on his nose twice, knuckles facing in. His sister had created it before he could remember, after he bit the nose off of her teddy bear.
It was kind of mean to base his sign language identity around one bad thing he did as a kid, but he'd gotten used to it by now.
'Lucas will be here in a little bit, I have to finish getting ready,' Riley informed him, nudging him out of the room with a foot. 'I'll see you tomorrow morning.'
Auggie nodded as he left. 'Don't do anything New-Year's-related stupid.'
Riley rolled her eyes as he closed the door behind himself.
Riley and Lucas showed up to Farkle's party a little late, after the subway had been stopped up. They ended up arriving just after 8pm, after Maya had texted her about a million times asking where she was.
'Hey!' Maya signed excitedly, emerging from the crowd of classmates and adults (Farkle's parents' friends, mostly) to grab Riley and hug her tightly. She pulled back to sign, 'I've been waiting for you to get here already, you left me alone with Farkle and Smackle.'
'Where's Zay?' Riley signed, confused. He was supposed to be here, as far as she knew.
'He's been destroying Cheese Souffle in a video game for the past hour,' Maya signed silently, rolling her eyes.
Riley hadn't guessed Charlie Gardner to be good at video games, but she didn't really know him, to be fair. He'd had a crush on her for a long time, even learned some sign language to ask her out, but he just hadn't given her the spark that she thought was supposed to come with a relationship.
Lucas, on the other hand-
"I'm going to go say hi to Zay," Lucas said and signed to the girls, not entirely able to follow the fast signing conversation. Besides, he had to find his best friend. And say hi to the hosts (his mom had taught him basic party manners).
Lucas hugged Riley, then nodded to Maya and walked off into the crowd to find the boys.
'There's food,' Maya informed her as they watched him go, and Riley turned back to her, her eyes bright.
'Thank goodness; I'm starving.'
The party was fun for Riley; or, at least fun enough to justify staying. Almost none of her classmates knew sign language, and Riley was glued to Maya's side the whole night, depending on her for interpretation. She felt bad for taking advantage of her friend; there were probably other things Maya wanted to do.
(Maya actually wasn't even thinking about it; it was just part of life for her, like breathing. Automatic.)
They played some party games, and Riley and Smackle sat in front of the windows for a while, having a slow, but understandable, conversation without Maya. She didn't often get to talk to Smackle, even though Smackle had been the best at signing in her group (besides Maya) since they met.
Maya mingled with her friends, interpreted for Riley as they all had conversations, and absolutely demolished Zay at an X-Box game. She was trying her best to avoid thinking about Josh, but as she watched her classmates pair up, she couldn't help but feel disappointed that he wasn't there. She finally had a boyfriend to kiss on New Year's Eve, and he wasn't even there.
Riley and Maya found each other again around 11:30, and linked arm in arm as they ate chocolates from the dessert table and watched the party.
'Having fun?' Maya signed, and Riley nodded.
'You?'
Maya nodded back. 'Been trying to keep my mind off your annoyingly booked uncle.'
Riley smiled sympathetically.
Farkle appeared next to them, and said something to Maya before greeting Riley in sign language.
'Lucas is looking for you, I left him by the pool table,' he notified her, and Riley straightened, looking down at her watch to see that it was nearly 11:50.
'Almost midnight,' Riley signed to Maya, and Maya nodded.
'I'll find you in a bit,' she assured her, and Riley nodded, her teeth tugging at her lips in anxiety about what she was guessing was on the itinerary.
As she headed off to find her boyfriend, Maya glanced back at Farkle. "Aren't you going to go find your girlfriend?"
"Oh, we don't really do the kiss-at-midnight thing," Farkle explained. "Smackle's not a huge physical contact person and I don't like PDA. We don't need to touch a lot to be happy together."
Maya nodded. She knew a lot of Farkle and Smackle's relationship was intellectually based, long conversations and confidants. It had seemed odd to her in the beginning; all of the romantic examples she had had in her life had been kissing or cuddling all the time. However, Farkle and Smackle were happy and they connected on a deeper level than most couples did, anyways.
"Besides, I need your help with something."
Maya's ears perked up, intrigued. "What?" It wasn't like she was doing anything for the next fifteen minutes.
"My mom's thinking of having a mural commissioned in one of the hallways and I told her about your art," Farkle said.
"Really?" Maya beamed, touched that Farkle thought she was good enough to have on their walls.
"Yeah, so I wanted to show you the hall to see if you were interested."
Maya followed Farkle out of the main room and turned a few corners in the huge house, until they were far out of earshot of the loud party and the few minutes left till midnight. She was thinking about Riley, and wondering where she was and what she was doing when she realized she had totally lost Farkle in the maze that was his house, and she stopped, turning in place to try to figure out how to find him. She had decided on a direction to go into blindly, when someone grabbed her arm and whisked her against the wall behind her, pressing his lips to hers as the bells began to ring for midnight.
Her eyes widened in surprise as he pulled back, grinning.
"Happy New Year, Maya," Josh said, and Maya felt unbridled joy burst in her chest, the same as the fireworks exploding outside the window.
Meanwhile, Lucas had led Riley up to the roof of Farkle's apartment building, where they could see the stars. It was three minutes till midnight, and he was rubbing his sweaty palms on his pants, his heart beating in anticipation.
He glanced down at his watch.
Looking back up, he noticed Riley signing to him, 'The stars are beautiful up here.'
Lucas smiled. 'Not nearly as beautiful as you,' he signed with his right hand, as he took hers with his right.
Her eyes shone brighter than the stars above them, and all Lucas could think was: how did I get so lucky?
He'd never have guessed, only four months ago, that he'd be here with such an amazing girl. He'd never had any experience with a Deaf person, but the girl of his dreams had introduced him to it. And all he wanted right now, was to explain how much she meant to him, and how happy she made him. But he didn't even know the words to convey it in English; much less ASL.
So he did the second best thing.
He knew Riley couldn't hear the bells and the yelling of the crowds throughout the city, but when he placed his hands on her cheeks and leaned down, she stood on her toes to meet him halfway as their lips pressed together and fireworks exploded in the sky all around them.
He couldn't have asked for a better (and more cliche) first kiss with his first love.
A/N: Lol not me signing to myself in a college library, looking crazy to anyone who passes me. I was trying to visualize the signing conversation between Riley and Lucas and ended up basically having a conversation with myself in sign language which was… not great lol.
This chapter was a little longer than I had meant it to be, but I fell in love with Maya's experience and Riley's experience and I had to write them out separately.
First kiss for Riley, hooray! I was waiting for the right moment and I was thinking, can't ask for a better and more cliche one than New Year's.
Josh totally surprised Maya at Farkle's (with Farkle's help, isn't he such a good friend?). He did go to his friend's party but left early to come kiss Maya at midnight, (which is really giving all of us girls unrealistic expectations for our boyfriends, if you ask me).
I actually spent an hour and a half doing this when I have homework due tomorrow lol. I was just so excited about this chapter and I wanted to put it out there before I (maybe) totally disappear until April, my spring break.
(No ideas for the next chapter on Anecdoche either, so if you've got some ideas, I'd love you if you review or PM me! This story doesn't have a set plotline planned out (like Nodus Tollens does), so I'll take suggestions on whatever you've got for me. Just keep it nice and fluffy and drama free :))
Kisses,
C