Riley's sophomore year dawned soft and bright, scattering shafts of sunlight across Farkle's face. She stared at him from across the room, wondering what would come next. Because, no matter how much she wanted it, Farkle couldn't exactly stay with her for the rest of their high school careers- her parents literally couldn't afford a third child. Especially not a teenage boy, with a teenage boy's appetite and a teenage boy's need for space.

But, for a second, she could stare at him in the cold light of morning and imagine that everything was fine.

Her eyes flickered up to meet his, and she found him staring at her too.

"Good morning," he whispered, voice scratchy with sleep. She burrowed deeper under the duvet and stared at him with one open eye.

"Is it?" She snarked, grumpy at having to be awake at six in the morning. Farkle chuckled at her softly {but nicely, in that way that only Farkle could do, where it didn't sound like he was teasing but rather like he was appreciating her}.

"I'd rather be here than be where we were last year at this time."

"You didn't enjoy it?" She asked, pushing herself slightly out of bed and raising one eyebrow, "The new terrain to conquer? The new enemies to defeat?"

"It was fun, I guess," he shrugged as he stood up and started padding around the room, collecting the various clothing items he'd need in order to take a shower. "But last year this time, we were about to fight. A lot of shit hadn't gone down yet- fuck, we were still mid-triangle, you know?"

Riley did know- she knew very well how far they had all come in the last year and was very aware of how much had changed- more so than some of the others, in some cases.

"Luckily, none of that is going to be a problem this year," she asserted with put-upon confidence that she'd come by through hours of practising.

"Sure, Riles," Farkle said, and he was kind of placating her, but from his tone of voice she was pretty sure it was more like a giant, cosmic joke that only the two of them were in on- no more problems this year was laughably bullshit, and they both knew it.

"Well, whatever does go down, at least I know you'll be on my side." She shot a half-smile at him, and he briefly caught her hand as he walked past her, pressing a kiss to her knuckles.

"I'm always on your side," he told her, "Even when I'm being an idiot."

"When are you ever being an idiot?" Riley laughed, "You're the smartest person ever."

"First week of high school," he reminded her, tapping her lightly on the nose. She rolled her eyes, pushing herself up and motioning for him to sit down next to her on the bed. He obliged.

"The first week of high school was a fluke," she told him, "And if I'd needed your help, you would have been there."

"That's not the point," he argued, shaking his head and turning away so that he didn't have to look at her. "I let you down."

"I've let you down too," she reminded him, squeezing his hand.

"No you haven't," he denied.

"We don't lie to each other, Farkle. We lie to everyone else. I know I've let you down. After London, after New Years. Not… not telling anyone that I have a panic disorder."

He snapped around sharply to look at her.

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to," he promised her fiercely. "I don't expect anything from you, Riley."

"I know," she assured him, and she really did. "That doesn't mean that I couldn't have handled those things better. We're not talking about this anymore," she rushed to continue before he could try to break in again.

"We've both done some dumb stuff in the past, okay, but it's you and me. We're a team, Farkle. We've got each other's backs, no matter what. And we're probably better people because of all of it."

"Yeah," he agreed, eyes soft when they met hers, "We're a team. You and me, Riles."

She smiled, cracking her lips and almost hurting her cheeks with the force of it, and she leaned in to press her forehead to his.

They sat there for a moment, breathing each other in, and something like molten lava built in the pit of her stomach. The feeling that built every time that she was about to kiss Farkle.

Maybe she would have kissed him.

Maybe everything would have been different.

But instead, her mom's voice called out from the kitchen, wondering why there wasn't a shower running yet, and they jumped apart, both of their chests heaving.

"You and me," she confirmed to him, before grabbing a pair of socks and a hoodie and heading down to the kitchen.


The halls of Abigail Adams High School were the same as they'd been last year, but the students definitely weren't. It was weird to think that some of her friends were completely done with high school- that some of them were in college now, like Josh (and, in the case of Noah and Nikki, with Josh).

There were also a whole bunch of freshmen filling up the corridors. Riley did her best to help them out, sending them off in the direction of their new classes, introducing herself, offering her number and help at any point, as she stapled up posters for the first SAGA meeting of the year.

It was kind of cute, she thought, as her sight caught on a bunch of freshmen clustered together- middle school friends, probably.

She nudged Farkle, who was pinning up a poster for Debate Club (he was secretary this year, and she was so proud of him).

"Check them out- they're like, baby us."

"Down to the confusing feelings," Farkle agreed. "Flannel shirt is definitely crushing on Ginny Weasley."

Riley followed his gaze to the two he was talking about- a girl with fiery hair who was excitedly stammering and stuttering her way through a conversation with a Latinx boy in a blue and red checkered shirt, who was smiling fondly down at her. Riley beamed at them and knocked Farkle's shoulder, before turning around to continue sticking up posters.

"Good morning, Riley. Good morning, Farkle," Smackle greeted from behind them. Riley jumped slightly, wondering how long she'd been there. Behind her, Riley could see Lucas and Zay greeting some of their teammates with bear hugs and friendly punches.

"Morning, Smackle," she beamed, holding her hand up for a high five (Smackle wasn't always comfortable with hugs, and Riley was learning how to balance that out with her need to cuddle everyone she knew).

"I see you are already preparing for your first SAGA meeting. Would you be opposed to me joining you again? I really enjoyed PrideFest this year, and I know you have several fewer members this year." Riley grinned at her, heart light. Her friends were so, so good.

"Of course we want you there, Smackle. Everyone's wel-" she's cut off by a shriek, and when she spins around, Lucas has Maya over his shoulder. She finishes sticking up her poster and grabs Farkle's hand, pulling him (and by extension Smackle) along with her.

"Hey, peaches!" She greets, and Maya instructs Lucas to turn around so that they can speak {they're being watched by most of the corridor, and half of Riley hates it, but most of her can't be bothered to care because they're all her and they're gonna own this place}.

"Morning Riles," Maya returns, pressing a kiss to her cheek {Riley doesn't blush. She doesn't. This is Maya and this is their normal level of affection and there's no reason to be blushing}, "Ranger Rick here's decided to give me a ride." Riley can't help but burst into giggles, pushing the hair that's fallen into Maya's face into pigtails, tying them up with her own hair ties.

"Well, you know what they say," Riley remarks absentmindedly, too focused on Maya's hair and Flannel Shirt, who's talking to Ginny Weasley and two guys she thinks are juniors, "Save a horse, ride a cowboy."

An awkward silence falls over their group for a second, but Riley doesn't notice it until she's finished with Maya's hair. But when she looks up, everyone's staring at her with wide eyes, and she has to go over what she's just said-

Oh.

She can feel the blush staining her cheeks, word sticking on her lips.

"I- I didn't-" The ridiculousness of the situation settles on her, and she can't help it- she bursts into giggles. The entire situation is just too funny for her. The way every star had to align for this perfectly awkward moment to happen. When she makes eye contact with Maya, her best friend can't keep a straight face either, and they both collapse into their laughter. Everyone else joins them, their laughter and excitement for the new year contagious.

When Riley can finally smother her giggles for long enough to breathe, Lucas has had to put Maya down for fear he would drop her,and he's leaning against the lockers holding his stomach, so it's easy for her to step between his legs and kiss him thoroughly in greeting. The rest of their group groan around them, and she has to pull away for a second to laugh again.

"Good morning," Lucas says, cheeks slightly pink, hands resting on her hips, and she has to rest her head against his and take deep breaths before she can answer him.

"Hey, babe," she says, pressing another quick kiss against his lips, and she hopes it conveys how much she adores him.

"How was your evening?"

"You saw her yesterday, and then spoke on the phone until midnight! What could you possibly need to know?" Farkle asks, but he's smiling, so she doesn't think he's too mad about it. She very intently Doesn't Think about how he'd looked that morning, with his bedhead and soft eyes and his forehead pressed to hers.

"Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be 'morrow," Lucas responds, but it's really more to her than it is to Farkle, his breath warm on her lips. She's pretty sure Farkle's rolling his eyes, but she doesn't even care.

"All right, you star-crossed lovers," Maya interrupts the moment, stretching up on her toes to rest her chin on Riley's shoulder, "We have homeroom with Mr. Jackson, Riles, and that's halfway across campus, and we need to be there in like, two minutes, so lets all giddy-up." Riley grins at her, linking their pinkies, and she's about to start telling Lucas everything she's done in the last seven hours (well, you know, roughly), when her eyes catch on the red-headed freshman girl and her friends again. And the juniors that are still hanging around. And the stairwell.

"Actually, you know what, guys, I'll catch up. I just wanna put up one or two more posters." She smiles reassuringly when Maya raises an eyebrow. "Am I ever late?"

"Consistently, but you mean well," Maya quips, and Riley pushes her best friend lightly, sending her towards Zay and Lucas.

Then she squares her shoulders, readying her courage. Even if the juniors are being perfectly amicable, she figures it's better safe than sorry.

"You've got a hero complex a mile wide, you know," Farkle speaks up dryly from behind her, and she's not even really surprised.

"Would you love me if I didn't?" She asks, and he shakes his head- not in answer to her question, but at her.

"You'd still be Riley. Of course, I'd love you." She smiles at him and takes his hand, walking over to the group that- by now- are the only other students in the hall. There are about five freshmen, and they look up at her with trepidation as she approaches.

"Hi, guys! I'm Riley Matthews. You're freshmen, right? Are you having trouble finding the right class?" She inserts herself into the conversation, efficiently cutting off the junior boy, who she thinks is on the varsity football team, but she'd need Lucas to confirm.

"Hey, man, get your own freshmen. We found these ones first." His friend cuts in defensively. He's only just taller than her, and she feels pretty safe standing up to him, even if he does have a buzzcut and an eyebrow piercing (which she thinks might be against dress code, but honestly, she's not gonna be the one to enforce the stupid dress code). She raises an eyebrow.

"Okay, firstly, they're people. You don't, like, own them," she starts, and she can see the Football Player's jaw working. "Also, you're like the only people left in the hallway, so I just wanted to see if I could help." She addresses the second part to the freshmen, who look like they're trying to be as small as physically possible.

"I'm Farkle Minkus," Farkle continues before the juniors can get a word in, "We're sophomores, but we spend way too much time here. Do you guys need to find your homeroom?"

Flannel Shirt looks like he's about to answer when Buzzcut speaks again (she really needs to find out everyone's names)- "Hey, seriously, fuck off. They're freshmen, man, they gotta get hazed. Chill out and take your girlfriend with you." Riley has to try really, really hard to not roll her eyes.

"Hazing is a terrible tradition. It's literally just bullying with a different name. Seriously, this isn't worth it." She hopes that will be the end of it, but when she asks- for the third time- where the freshmen need to go when Buzzcut steps between her and the freshmen.

"Hey, bitch, we said fuck off. You don't want to get into this with us, okay?"

And she didn't, not really. She didn't want to 'get into' anything with anyone. But she also wasn't going to stand by when these guys harassed a bunch of new kids because they thought they had some kind of 'seniority' over them. She knew exactly how that felt.

"Hey man, her dad's class is just over there," Farkle gestures with a jerk of his head, "we don't really wanna bring him into this. We're all already late for class." She squeezes his hand in a silent thanks because if she'd had to say it, it would have been a lot less refined. Especially after Buzzcut called her a bitch.

"You're gonna fuckin snitch?" Buzzcut sneers, and Riley's already five minutes late to her first class and really doesn't have the patience for this.

"Not if you leave these kids alone," she says, and it's not true. She'll tell her dad tonight because it doesn't help that these guys just go find some other kids to bully when she's not there.

"Hey, man, it's not worth it," Football Player grabs his friend's arm, pulling on it lightly. "She's legit the History teacher's daughter. She runs that gay club, remember?" Something sparks in Buzzcut's eyes.

"Right. So she's a bitch and a dyke." He rolls his eyes as if that suddenly makes her weaker. "Whatever. There's other freshmen." They push past her, shoulder-checking her as they go. She stands her ground.

"You shouldn't call people dykes," she calls out when they're almost at the end of the hall, mostly because she can't let it go without being said.

She turns back to the freshmen. "Hey, sorry about that. I'm Riley."

"Yeah, you said," Flannel Shirt replies. "I'm Michael. Thanks for saving us, I guess."

"It happened to us last year," Farkle says before she can, "It sucks, and it's a waste of time. The guys who did it to us meant well, but still. It's just bullying that people excuse because it's a right of passage or whatever. But, seriously, do you guys need help finding out where to go? I know there's a freshman mixer before school starts, but it's pretty easy to get confused at first."

"That would be kind of helpful, actually?" one of the other kids in the group says- they're really short, and skinner than Farkle, and dark-skinned, "We have Mr Matthews? For homeroom?" Riley's not sure if they're really confused, or if all their sentences just sound like questions, but she takes it in her stride.

"Oh, his class is right there!" She spins around, ushering the gaggle of freshmen to her dad's class. When she gets there, of course, he's standing at the door, arms crossed over his chest.

"Okay, so I know this looks bad-" Riley starts explaining nervously, "but-"

"We'll talk about it later," her dad says, and her heart doubles its pace. "Thanks for delivering them. You guys are supposed to be here, right?" He turns to the freshmen. "Michael Delgado, August Healy- you guys went to John Quincy Adams, right?- and uh," he pauses, looking around for his class list. When he can't find it, he shrugs a little, and says, "the rest of you?"

The kids look between themselves for a second, before agreeing in unison. Riley and Farkle watch as they walk into the classroom, before exchanging wide-eyed looks and beginning the sprint to their own homeroom.

Riley hopes that that will be the end of it.

It's not.

Honestly, she barely notices it at first. She gets a couple of odd stares in the hall, but she's usually walking hand-in-hand with Lucas, Maya, Farkle, or some combination of the three, so she's actually pretty used to the weird stares.

Then she notices a couple of the SAGA posters have been vandalized with… well, exactly the kinds of things you'd expect queer posters to be vandalized with. She nods in resignation when she sees them, and spends her lunch period printing out and putting up replacements with Smackle.

When she has World History, she slips her dad a note about what happened before school, mostly because she's feeling nearly sick to her stomach with 'we'll talk about it later' clamouring around in her head, wondering if she'll be punished for being late, wondering if she'll have a chance to explain.

After the final bell, she walks Farkle to the school psychiatrist's office. He's officially "moving" back home, so her mom can't force him to go to therapy anymore, but apparently her dad had asked Dr Anderson to call Farkle to her office. As she sits on the tiny wooden bench that's been fixed to the wall, she sees her dad walking out of the office with the freshmen she'd saved. She gives them a half-smile and lifts her hand in a slight wave, but they're all hopped up on the energy of their first day of high school, and she doesn't think that they even notice her.

Riley loses track of time for a bit, letting her head rest against the wall and playing her music above the recommended level, and she jumps slightly when Farkle touches her shoulder, alerting her to his presence.

"I've been given a clean bill of health," he jokes, pulling one of her earbuds out. She grins at him.

"Hey, did those guys from earlier bother you?" She frowns in confusion.

"You mean Buzzcut and Football Player?" He chuckles slightly, chewing the inside of his cheek like he does when he's worried about something. He makes a vague noise of agreement, pushing a strand of loose hair behind her ear.

"No. I haven't seen them since this morning. "

His brow furrows for a second. "I thought I heard them outside a couple of minutes ago, but maybe it was nothing."

"They might have been here. I saw my dad leave with the freshmen earlier," she informs him, "but if they were, they didn't come near me. I'm fine."

His face clears, and he grins brightly at her.

"Topanaga's?" he offers, and she can't help but press a soft kiss to his cheekbone. "Smackle's already ordered our drinks."


The next day, a post she's tagged in on Abigail Adams High School social network gets shared over a hundred times. The post in question is a slightly blurry picture of her, sitting outside the school psychiatrist's office.

allenellings: rileymatthews not only a snitch, but fucking psycho as well.

"It's not fair," Farkle argues passionately with the computer screen. They had already asked the school administration to remove the post, but it would take time, and Riley couldn't handle thinking about the post being up for any longer.

Farkle had worked some kind of magic, getting both of them excused from their first class of the day. Instead, they were in the school's computer lab, using a computer so slow Farkle looked like he might burst into tears from the frustration, trying to hack into Alan Ellings' high school social media account. Well, Farkle's trying to hack the account. Riley is perched on the desk the computer is set on, legs crossed at the knees, trying to follow what he's doing.

"It's really fine-" Riley goes to reassure him, but he interrupts her.

"No, it's fucking not, Riley. You were helping those freshmen. You were waiting for me. It's fucking bullshit, and you know it."

She's not sure what to say, because… well, she could have been waiting for her own appointment, and they both know it. So she says nothing. Instead, she lightly knocks Farkle's elbow with her knee in a comforting gesture.

"There are worse things for people to think. One in five children between the ages of 13 and 18 have been diagnosed with a seriously debilitating mental disorder." She's parroting one of the NIMH web pages, and she's pretty sure that Farkle knows that, based on the sceptical way he quirks an eyebrow at her. She doesn't meet his eyes, and eventually, he turns back to the computer, where a Reset Your Password page is open.

Even after they've removed the post, there are people staring at her all day. Maya tries her best to take her mind off it, and she's pretty sure Zay and Lucas are warding off anyone who tries to approach, but it's still a trial to get through the school day, and she spends the day longing for it to be time for the SAGA meeting already.

When she's finally safe in the Art Theory classroom, Smackle gathers her into a bone-crushing hug, and Riley wants to start crying again.

Ashley, Emma, Mila, Heather and Chai have all returned (Emma and Mila apparently broke up over the summer, and although the air is slightly awkward between the two of them, they both promise her that they'd never leave SAGA because of that). There aren't any new members, though, and Riley tries not to let herself be disappointed. There's a rumour going around that you're 'psycho', she reminds herself, and people tend to stay away from 'psychos'.

Still, she goes around the loose circle they're sitting in (if it can even be called that. Chai is sitting on a desk that's been pushed to the wall, and Heather is all but sitting in Ashley's lap) making them all do the icebreaker because she's a firm believer in starting as you intend to continue.

She's about to set them on the topic of LGBTQ+ representation in media, which is always bound to stir up debate, when there's a quiet cough from the doorway.

It's the tiny freshman from the day before. Upon having more than a second to look at them, Riley is pretty sure they're Black. Their afro is pulled back by a brightly-coloured bandana, and they're wearing a red sundress. "Uh, hey. Is this the GSA?"

Riley would swear she's almost vibrating out of her skin in excitement. "Yeah, the SAGA committee- Sexuality and Gender Acceptance-" she clarifies when the kid looks confused; "but it's a GSA. Except GSA is kind of restrictive."

She gestures for Farkle to pull up another chair, and he does so with a put-upon air of annoyance. "We normally do icebreakers," he tells their newest member, "Name, pronouns, how you identify if you want to reveal that, but you don't have to, and then some piece of trivia that Riley comes up with- today it's your favourite book. So, like, I'm Farkle, I use he/him pronouns, and my favourite book is probably Stephen King's IT." That had surprised Riley, the first time he'd told her, but Farkle and Maya had a love for horror stories that she would never understand.

Riley chimes in with her own answers- she/her, bisexual, the Lunar Chronicles series.

The freshman brightens up at that, and Riley is pretty sure she's found some common ground.

"Uh, my name is Maggie Graves," they start, fidgeting with their nails, not meeting anyone's eyes, "I use different pronouns on different days- today's a Maggie day, so I'm using she/her pronouns. When I'm using he or they pronouns, my friends normally just call me Graves," she says.

"My favourite book is this old paperback I found in a second-hand bookstore- it's called Tangerine, and it's about this kid, Paul, who's legally blind but he's super perceptive and he has to change high schools after a sinkhole-" she cuts herself off, staring down at her hands again. "Anyway, it's a pretty cool book."

But the SAGA committee aren't the type to let that slide, and Smackle quickly starts asking Maggie questions- she doesn't seem to know the answer to most of them, cause Smackle is asking about release dates and publishers, but Riley can see her relaxing as she gets more involved. And Riley relaxes too.

Because right now, she's with her friends. The Hunters are coming over for dinner on Friday, and she and Lucas have a date planned for the next morning. The committee she started, to put some good back into the world, is going strong.

But things are by no means fixed- the whole school has seen Allen Ellings' post by now, because even though they took it down, she knows screenshots exist. And the post hits too close to home for her to be comfortable with it being a rumour that gets spread for a while and then disappears.