"What do you want?" Maya asked, a little confused when she pulled her door open to see Josh standing on her doorstep, first day of school.

"Oh, you thought we were just going to show up to parties together out of nowhere?" Josh laughed. "No one would believe that, Maya. If we're going to sell this to my friends, we need to be seen together."

"Alright, whatever," Maya shrugged, pulling the door shut behind her, attempting to appear nonchalant, although she was more nervous than she'd let on. She hadn't expected that Josh would want to hang out with her outside of their agreed-upon party dates.

Hanging out with Josh's friends, too, wasn't something she was looking forward to. There was a reason she didn't have any friends, and it was because she avoided the popular crowd like the plague. She'd seen Josh around with his group of friends of varying grades, but she only really knew Riley, Missy, and Farkle, all of whom had been in her classes in the last few years. Of course, she never talked to them or anything.

She and Josh rode the subway and walked up the stairs pretty much in silence. She had no clue what to say to him, and he seemed perfectly content to travel with her without really speaking.

Maya expected him to head straight to his class, but he walked her all the way to hers before leaving towards his. Maya turned to enter the room, but glanced around her shoulder to see him strolling down the hall with his hands in his pockets.

Through all four of her classes, she barely paid attention, too distracted thinking. Josh had told her he'd meet her at her locker at lunch, and Maya was already kind of regretting it. She had no clue how his friends were going to react to her.

But, hey, she needed experience going forward in life, because she had less than none. Not only had she never dated anyone - she'd never even kissed a guy. At sixteen, though, she did not broadcast information about her romantic life.

Standing in the lunch line, Josh glanced down at her shifting from foot to foot and seemed to smirk. "You okay?"

She laughed a little. "I don't tend to enjoy the lunch room. So many teenagers in one space - it's a miracle we don't regularly catch something."

As they stood waiting for the line to move, Josh pointed to a table in the middle of the sea of kids. "There's our table. Riley, Missy, and Farkle are already there."

She squinted to see the table. She could see the three she knew, and also a few other girls and boys. "Who else is there?" She asked him.

He squinted. "Iz, Charlie, Lucas… And Zay." Looking back to the expression on her face, he laughed. "Our group isn't introverted, in case you didn't notice. Plenty of other guys and girls join us for lunch all the time. Lucas and Charlie are on the football team with me and Zay, Iz is in the robotics club with Farkle, and Missy and Riley have been friends since they were in kindergarten." He looked up. "Come on, the line's moving."

Maya glanced up and realized that there was a gap between her and Josh. As she hurried to close it, she looked again to the table. The brunette that Riley was talking to had her hair tucked back behind her ears, and she was wearing a pretty flowered dress and a smart blue blazer. Her glasses had light blue frames and were a larger oval shape. Maya watched her take them off and rub the bridge of her nose as a brunet boy grinned stupidly. She could imagine that she would say, "Seriously, you are an idiot."

"So what do you want?"

Maya glanced back up at Josh and shrugged. "Not that hungry, to be honest."

He accepted her lie without a second thought and cast his gaze over the options. "I think I'll have pizza." Glancing back at her, he raised his eyebrows. "Are you gonna get anything?"

"Maybe an apple and a bag of carrots," she said.

He laughed shortly. "That's what comes with the meal." Turning to get a tray, he said, "You can take mine. I don't eat them anyways, and it doesn't make sense for you to buy a whole meal just to eat the sides."

Embarrassed, she reached for a tray. "You don't have to do that, I'll be fine."

He put his hand on her arm to stop her, and her heart jumped into her throat. He gave her a kind smile, and she almost melted at his beautiful green eyes. "I want to. It makes sense. Come on, Hart. Besides, that's what couples do, right?"

She stared at his face so long as butterflies erupted in her stomach. Finally, she nodded, and drew back her hand to let him lead her further through the line.

After Josh had paid for the meal, they struggled through the waves of teens toward their table.

"-and that's not even half the ways that you're wrong." Farkle was sitting on the table talking animatedly as he explained to another boy why he was wrong about something.

"Oh, I know," the boy smirked, leaning back. "It's just super funny to get you all worked up."

Farkle sputtered frustratedly, as the girl sitting next to where his legs were propped on the bench rolled her eyes.

"Hey guys," Josh said, sitting down next to the boy Farkle had been arguing with, and patting the seat next to him for Maya.

Sitting down, Maya took the small bag of baby carrots from his tray and smiled at the general table, wanting to give off a good vibe (if this was going to work).

"Hey, Maya…?" Riley said confusedly from across the table. She looked at her brother and then back at Maya cautiously. "I didn't realize you'd be joining us."

"You are?" The boy sitting on the other side of Josh noticed her.

"Maya Hart," she responded, giving no further information.

"Cool," the boy accepted, his face breaking into a grin. "I'm Zay. Junior." He kicked the sandy-haired boy across from him under the table, and the guy looked up and smiled dashingly. "That's my man Lucas, he's a senior."

"Nice to meet you," he replied politely.

"That's Charlie," Zay continued his self-imposed role of introducer, nodding his head towards the sweet looking boy sitting next to Riley. "Also a sophomore." He leaned back and craned his neck around to motion towards the girl sitting next to Farkle's legs before saying, "That's Iz, she and Farkle are…whatever."

"Isadora Smackle," the girl smiled and held out her hand to shake. "I am a senior, but I skipped fifth and sixth grade. And this is Farkle. Although he and I do share some advanced classes, he is not as academically gifted as I am so he is a sophomore."

Maya snorted before she realized that Iz had not meant it as a joke.

"Yeah, I know you," Farkle leaned back, pulling his black beanie over his head a little further. "We've been around the same classes since we were kids. Never knew you to run in our circles though."

Maya shrugged, popping a carrot into her mouth so she didn't have to answer.

"And I'm guessing you know Josh's baby sis, Riley," Zay raised an eyebrow at Maya, and Riley glanced at her out of the corner of her eye suspiciously, although she stayed silent.

"Yeah, we know her," Missy answered for the both of them. "What is she doing here?"

"She's my girlfriend," Josh stated smoothly, and half the table (Maya included) stopped moving.

"When did that happen?" Riley was the first to break the silence.

Josh shrugged. "Couple weeks ago." He took a bite of his pizza and swallowed before saying, "I don't need to tell you about my sexual life, Riley."

"God, no, I do not want to know," Riley agreed, rolling her eyes as she turned back to her food.

"I kinda want to know," Zay pushed. He settled his chin on his propped up fists and grinned brightly at Maya, his voice settling into a bit of a sing-song tone. "So how did you two meet?"

"We live next door to each other," Josh said. "We started hanging out over the summer. I snapped her up." His arm creeped around her waist and tugged her a bit closer to him. Catching the hint, Maya leaned her head against his arm.

"We're just having fun," she suggested, looking up at him with a bit of a smirk in her eye. Out of the corner of her vision, she could see Riley staring at them with a seemingly perplexed look.

She clearly wasn't buying it.

"I love fun," Zay raised an eyebrow suggestively.

"Well you are not invited," Maya smirked, nudging Josh's side a bit.

"Darn," Zay sighed, turning back towards Lucas. "What about you, Luc?"

"What about me?" Lucas asked, not looking up from whatever it was he was reading.

"Wanna have fun?"

Lucas looked up and glanced towards Riley, sitting on the other end of his bench between Charlie and Missy. "Is Riley going?"

Riley blushed, and Maya felt Josh's leg flex as he kicked Lucas in the knee.

"Ah," Lucas grunted. "Guys, I need my legs. We have football practice."

"If you want to keep them, stop hitting on my little sister," Josh warned. "You're way too old for her."

Lucas held his hands up, frowning. "And what is the age difference between you and your new lady friend?"

"Clearly it is not the same thing," Josh retorted.

"Maya's a sophomore too," Farkle informed them, and Lucas threw his hands up.

"Hypocrite."

"Don't test me, Friar."

Lucas rolled his eyes, shaking his head. "You all are witnesses. When he murders me you're going on the stand."

"Won't do any good," Missy quipped, her gaze hovering on Josh almost hungrily. "Josh is too smart not to cover his tracks."

"It'll be an accident," Josh declared, and Maya smirked a little, although her mind was still on Missy.

"So Maya," Lucas changed the subject, directing his question towards her, "will you be at the party at my house this weekend?"

Maya shrugged. "Maybe."

"You might need to keep an eye on your boy-toy here," Zay sang.

Josh snorted. "Come on. Who the hell would cheat on her?" He glanced back down at Maya, grinning a little. "She's hotter than anyone you could push at me and she's mine. Not messing that up."

Maya smiled, her heart jumping a little at the way he was looking at her. He was pretty damn convincing, but she knew he was probably just clarifying for his friends that he didn't want them to set him up anymore.

A/N: People need stop calling Maya a whore in reviews I have to delete. She was a twelve year old character from a disney channel show. If you're getting that upset over her character on a fanfiction story... do you not have anything better to do?

Also I find it kind of hypocritical how people are upset about Maya dating anyone at any point in her life but if Josh has relationships they usually don't care. Clearly misogyny and hypocritical female purity culture extends to disney shows and that makes me really sad.

But I try not to focus on trolls. Do whatever you want but be aware that if you use a slur or a curse word in your review it will just be deleted. Use nice words if you want your reviews to post. Thank you for those who are civil in their criticism.

Kisses,

C