Thankfully, the rest of the weekend passed by without much pomp or circumstance for Lucas. The only other eventful thing that happened was that he was emotionally blackmailed by his mother to accompany her to the grocery store. Lucas spent little to no thought at all about Riley Matthews after Saturday.

However, that didn't stop him from thinking about her once the school week started back up. It seemed as though he was even more hyperaware of her presence than he was before. Everywhere he turned she was there, either putting away her books in her locker or fooling around with her phone. It was like his eyes were moths that gravitated to her light. The whole day, Lucas had to keep telling himself to stop looking over towards her whenever they were in proximity. Old, dusty feelings that Lucas thought his cold heart could no longer feel, started again. It was starting to really irritate him.

Just like Zay was right now.

"Man, I still can't believe you have to work with the drama club for the spring musical." Zay said, laughing as he opened his locker.

Lucas sighed, already reaching into his own locker for his backpack. This was literally the fiftieth time Zay had said this today. Which made sense since today was the first day of rehearsal.

"I know." Lucas replied. After getting everything he needed, Lucas slammed the door with a bit more force than he usually did. He hoped that Zay was finally done with his disbelief so Lucas can finally get to the school auditorium. At this point, he was bound to be late given that the auditorium was located on the other side of the building and he had to use a crutch.

Once again, fate decided not to side with Lucas. Zay was not finished. "Do they even know you cannot sing for the life of you? I mean, I love you man, but you sound like a tone deaf, choking walrus." Zay saw that Lucas was hobbling on his good foot to reach the crutch that he placed on the ground when he opened his locker. So Zay picked it up and handed it to him.

"Thank you, really. I appreciate being told things I already know." Lucas sniped, sarcasm dripping from his lips as he took the crutch from his friend.

"No problem, you know me. Keeping it real." Zay replied with a bright smile, knowing and loving how much he was getting to Lucas. As he was leaving, Zay decided to add one more thing. "You could look on the bright side of this situation."

Lucas scoffed and raised his eyebrow. "Oh yeah, and what is that?"

"Well," Zay started. "Girls dig actor types." He finished with a wink.

Lucas wanted to be mad, but he couldn't help but be amused by his friend's antics. Lucas elbowed him playfully in the ribs. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. See you." He told Zay as he was leaving.

"See you, dude." And with a wave, Lucas was off to the auditorium.

He was right in his assessment that he would be late. As he was approaching the door, he could hear the drama club teacher, Mrs. Dansbury, speaking.

"This year's spring musical is a story of burning passing and blazing tommy guns. Written by our very own Farkle Minkus, with words and music co-written by Maya Hart and Riley Matthews. It follows the rise and fall of Tommy Thorton in Prohibition era New York. Farkle, perhaps you…"

At this point Lucas decided it would be best to make an appearance. Mrs. Dansbury and the rest of the drama club turned their attention to him as soon as the old, creaky door opened. "Ah, Mr. Friar, better late than never. Please join us." Mrs. Dansbury told him, mentioning to one of the empty seats available on stage.

"Sure." Lucas slowly made his way to the chair, and joined in with the rest of the group. On his way, he saw Riley sitting with Maya and Farkle, all three of whom were giving him more attention than the rest of their peers were. Maya's eyes had that ever present fire specifically aimed at him, and Farkle sent him a small, weak smile that looked more like a grimace than anything else. Riley, on the other hand, caught his stare and held it until Mrs. Dansbury spoke again.

"Now then, let's see. Riley will be our Alicia, mysterious club singer. Maya will be playing Caroline. And Lucas will read for Tommy Thorton." Mrs. Dansbury said, reading off from her notepad.

Lucas, who wasn't paying much attention to what was going on, suddenly sat up straight in his chair when what the teacher said sunk in.

"Ha, no. No. See, I didn't plan on acting or anything." Lucas explained, trying desperately to remain collected despite internally panicking.

If Mrs. Dansbury heard his objections, she didn't acknowledge them. She just kept pushing on. Lucas eyes immediately looked at his old friends. He groaned softly when he saw the big, satisfied smirk on Maya's face. Lucas knew that he would not be able to get out of this.

"Before we start, any questions?" Mrs. Dansbury asked.

Lucas wondered if now would be a good time to ask if someone would kill him. He's pretty sure Maya wouldn't object to that.

"Alright," Mrs. Dansbury said, clapping her hands together cheerfully. "Let's begin." And when no one raised their hands, they promptly began running lines.

"When did you know, Tommy?" Maya asked him in a southern accent her character in the play was written to have.

Lucas swallowed and looked down at his copy of the script. "Know what?" He read out, slowly.

"That we were in love." Maya said, still in character and without even needed to peek at script in her lap.

"Love? Uh," Lucas, however, didn't know what his lines were at all. He knew he was horrible at this, and he did tell Mrs. Dansbury that he didn't plan on acting. It wasn't his fault that she didn't listen. "Uh, baby, believe me. You wouldn't want to be falling in love with a guy like me."

"It's too late, Tommy. I'm crazy about you. I'm breathing it, drinking it all in. Aren't you?"

The only thing Lucas was doing at the moment was feeling nauseous. Forget the fact that this was the dialogue in the play, hearing those words coming out of Maya Hart's lips directed to him was just so damn weird. He did have to hand it to her though, for being able to say all that without a flinch.

"Yeah. I don't know what I am drinking, Dollface, but if this is love pour me again glass?" Lucas couldn't keep in character with this line. He face scrunched up in disgust at the cheesiness.

Mrs. Dansbury took off her glasses and looked at him in disapproval. "Mr. Friar, are you trying to be bad at this?" She asked.

"Um, no. It just comes naturally." Lucas replied, trying to hide the truth of his words behind self-depreciating humor. It always works for him as a defense mechanism after all.

The rest of the students giggled and laughed, and Lucas put a fake smile on his face. Mrs. Dansbury just shook her head. "Alright everybody. Let's just go to the end now, and then we can all leave."

Lucas exhaled slowly, and flipped his script to the end of the play. It was blatantly obvious that Lucas was no actor, and yet Mrs. Dansbury expected him to be the lead. He didn't know that he could feel such utter joy to what he felt when Mrs. Dansbury told them that rehearsal was over. Despite his injured foot, Lucas was one of the first ones out of the auditorium.

Unfortunately, it wasn't until he was outside did he realize he had a bit of an issue. He needed to take the subway to go home. However, since his injury, he had been riding with Zay so that his friend could help him with his things. Since Zay had been long gone back home, Lucas was a bit anxious about riding the subway alone. So he decided to wait a bit outside the school to mentally and physically prepare himself.

As he was waiting he saw students leaving in groups. One such group held his three ex-friends. Not wanting to be seen, he ducked away behind the side of the building.

"Don't even pretend that you won't be great, Pumpkin. You're a kickass actor." He heard Maya say.

"Aw, thanks Peaches. But I think Farkle deserves some credit. Can't really perform all that well if you don't understand the writer's vision." Riley replied, cheeks most likely pink due to the compliment. Still modest as ever.

"Nah. Maya's right, Riley. Just take the compliment." Farkle said, giving her hand a squeeze.

"Okay, okay. Thank you guys." Riley gushed, appreciation coating her tone.

"No problem, Riles." Farkle replied. "I have to get going, Mom and Dad decided today would a good day for a family meeting."

"Family meeting?" Riley asked in concern.

"Yeah, Farkle. Everything good with the Minkii?" Despite her teasing tone, even Maya was concerned for her friend.

"Oh, yeah, everything is good. I think my parents just want to know what is happening in their childrens' lives. Touch base and all that since they've been busy lately." Farkle reassured them.

"That's great. I'm glad they are spending time with you guys." Riley said sincerely. Maya nodded her head to show she was glad too.

"Thanks guys. See you tomorrow." Farkle hugged them both and walked away.

"Alright, Riles, I need to get going myself. Otherwise I'll be late for a very important date." Maya said once it was just the two of them.

Riley laughed. "Yeah, I know. You've only just mentioned it a million times."

A big smile stretched across Maya's face. "What can I say, I'm in love."

"Still not calling you Aunt, Maya." Riley told her mockingly.

"We'll see." Maya pulled her tongue out in fun and said goodbye.

"Say hi to Uncle Josh for me, Peaches!" Riley called out as Maya was walking away.

Maya turned around to blow her a fly kiss, and then kept on walking.

It was only once both Farkle and Maya left that Lucas came out from his hiding spot. He had no idea that in doing so would cause Riley to come up to him again.

"So," Riley said, resignation in her voice. "Would it kill you to try harder for the play?"

Lucas was surprised that Riley decided to try talking to him again so soon after the dastardly conversation they had on the bus Saturday. "Yep. And I'm too young to die." He told her, trying to cover up his surprise.

Riley let out a breath and briefly closed her eyes before opening them again, collecting herself. "Okay, so you don't care about classes or graduating. But you like school because you are popular and you'll never be on top again." She told him, plainly.

"That's thoroughly predictable." Lucas replied, throwing the same words she told him on Saturday back in her face.

She just nodded, and started walking away.

It wasn't until a split second later that he realized that they both take the same subway line home. Knowing that he would probably regret it at some point later, he hobbled his way towards her.

"Hey," Lucas called out. Riley turned around and looked at him expectantly. "You feeling Christian?" No one ever did say that Lucas was never an asshole.

Regardless of his asshole tendencies or not, that is how Lucas found himself fifteen minutes later riding the subway with Riley Matthews, questioning his sanity.

To distract himself from that thought, he started tapping against his knee.

"Will you stop that?" Riley asked him, after the first few minutes he started to.

"How about no?" Lucas replied in defiance and started tapping his knee louder.

Riley just rolled her eyes. "Fine, you win."

Lucas knew that it was immature, but he was happy with his victory.

"Forty-two." Riley said out loud, out of the blue.

This got Lucas to stop his tapping. He turned to the brown haired girl sitting next to him, wondering if she was having some psychotic episode or something.

"Forty-two? What do you mean forty-two?" Lucas asked.

"Forty-two is be kind to people I don't like. It's a to-do list I have for my life." Riley explained.

"To-do list? What, like getting a new personality?"

Riley shook her head. "No. Like spend a year in the Peace Corp, make a medical discovery, be in two places at once, get a tattoo, and a whole lot more."

"Okay, so what's number one?" Lucas asked, swaying to the side as the train pulled up to the current station's platform.

"I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." With a bright smile, Riley got up from her seat, took her things, and skipped out of the train's door without giving Lucas another glance.