I might fail my calc test next saturday, but I'm tired of studying and I took a rest to write this chapter. Btw, OMG I can't believe the story got +50 followers! That is crazy!

KING LUCAS

CHAPTER 10

"El hombre anda unos zapatos muy bonitos." The Spanish teacher was pointing to the simple sentence written in the whiteboard.

"Anda... muy... bonitos." Zay was trying to keep up with the class, he looked at Lucas frowning, he was asking what it meant. Lucas made a motion of taking a cap off, Zay's eyes widened and nodded.

"Isaac, what does it mean?" They both knew this was going to happen, every time Zay arrived late in class he was used by Ms. Martinez in every exercise they did.

"Well, it clearly says 'The man has a nice hat'." Zay said with that smug smile on his face. Lucas bit his lip, trying to contain his laughter.

"And it clearly shows that you are not paying attention." Ms. Martinez replied, asking another person and getting the correct answer. When she turned around to write the next sentence, Zay stood up and hit Lucas on his arm.

"You suck." Zay whispered, Lucas was snickering.

"Aww come on, it was funny." But Zay didn't turn around to see him, he remained silent for a while but Lucas had learned a lot about Zay in those first weeks and he couldn't stay mad at him for a long time. So after the teacher mispronounced clock, the class laughed like a bunch of 7 year olds, Zay the loudest of them, he turned to Lucas with a big smile on his face and everything that happened before forgotten.

She gave them the last 20 minutes to work on the sheets as she always did. Zay brought his chair closer to Lucas'.

"How was the cupcake baking?" He asked raising his eyebrows.

"It went well." Lucas simply said, answering some texts.

"So, you and Maya?" He whispered, Lucas looked at him, warning him to be careful with his big mouth.

"She has a boyfriend." Lucas responded.

"Has that stop you before?" Zay asked, Lucas gave him a look but didn't answer. "I thought you were interested in Maya, you asked around for her and all that."

"I was, before everything got too complicated." Lucas replied.

He wasn't lying entirely, things had really proven to be more of a challenge than he expected. He wanted to break Riley first because of that, she was an easy target, but now that he had his eyes on Maya he couldn't play with Riley because of the friendship they had. If he broke Riley's heart that would be the end of his goal, he was certain that their relationship was more important than anything he could have with either of them, the fact that the girls were aware of this made getting both impossible.

So he settled with Maya, he didn't know what made her so special that she didn't fall for his tricks. Even more importantly, he still couldn't explain why her eyes had nothing in them, besides the blue color of her irises.

If Zay knew what he was trying to do to Maya, he would try to stop him, he was sure of that. This means that Zay had to be left out of the challenge, this was a lonely journey but Lucas preferred it this way, no one got in his way, no one slowed him down, he was used to working alone. Now that everyone here related him to Zay, he had to keep appearances, plus Zay had proven himself useful since he somehow knew everything that went down in school. Still, Lucas couldn't share what he was planning, but he had to make him think that he still likes her so in case he asked something, it wouldn't raise any suspicion.

"What are you going to do, then?" He leaned back.

"Nothing." Lucas responded. Zay narrowed his eyes, baffled by his friend and everything he knew he was hiding.

The bell rang shortly after that, in the a Billy whistled loudly, calling for their attention. He moved his hand forward, so they could follow him, pointing at the table in which the baseball team was sitting.

"C'mon, shooting star! Sit with the best scoring team of Abigail High!" He said, with the team laughing around him.

As they were headed their way, someone called for him.

"Hey, shooting star!" It was Maya, with a smirk on her face, she was sitting next to Riley, with Farkle in front of them. "Wanna sit with us? Although I must warn you, we are not the star team of Abigail High." She said, Riley was looking at them smiling.

He looked back at Billy and winked an eye at him, he smiled and nodded, turning back to his teammates. Zay sat next to Farkle and Lucas next to him, so he could be in front of Maya.

"Hey, guys." He said smiling, looking at Maya and then changing his eyes towards Riley.

"How was Spanish?" Riley asked, he would walk with her to her class every day and then he would leave for his classroom, she had learned his morning schedule.

"Ms. Martinez already hated me, since she saw my name on her list, now Lukey here hasn't helped very much..." Zay began telling them all the trouble Lucas had been the cause of in their Spanish class. Of course, he overdramatized most of the events, he still made everyone laugh, even Maya.

He was looking at her, he still didn't know why she had asked them to sit. It could be because Riley asked her to do it, or she had thought about what he said last night.

Suddenly an alarm went off from Riley's phone, she turned it off and jumped out of her seat.

"Oh, I have to go, it's my turn to be in the cupcake stand." She said, putting her bag over her shoulder. "They're selling very well, thanks to you guys!" She kissed Maya's forehead and left, waving goodbye to the rest.

"I should leave too, I need to finish my lab report." Farkle said, closing his laptop and putting in away.

"Farkle, we had the lab yesterday." Maya said frowning.

"Yeah, but I have to finish it today so tomorrow I can do the English essays and start the next chapter of chemistry." He said, like it all made sense, Lucas looked at him half smiling. Farkle was his own person and he liked that about him, but sometimes he understood why he was bullied by other people. Since he had started hanging out with him, the jokes had diminished, although Lucas was sure they continued whenever he wasn't around.

"That Farkle kid is weird, huh?" Zay said, emptying his plate.

"Yep, that's why we love him." Maya said, stealing one of Lucas' fries, he didn't give it too much importance.

"How did you meet him?" Zay asked, watching Lucas slide his plate over to Maya who had almost finished his fries.

"He saved Riley's life in kindergarten." She simply said, like that had explained everything. Lucas lifted his head up to see her, suddenly interested in the story.

"Why would she need saving in kindergarten?" Lucas asked, grabbing a fry himself.

"She was trying to grab an apple from a bucket in Halloween, but she got stuck and Farkle got her out." Maya explained.

"How did she get stuck?" Zay asked, intrigued.

"She wouldn't come up until she had an apple." Zay bursted out laughing and Lucas smiled, that sounded like something Riley would get herself into.

"Where were you when this happened?" Lucas asked, finishing his carton of milk.

"I was telling her to lift her head, that's all she had to do." She said with her mouth full.

"Well as invested as I was about that story, I have to go." Zay announced.

"Where are you going?" Lucas asked frowning.

"I promised Mr. Diebold that I would clean his whiteboards if he cancelled my detention. This way I can watch the game tomorrow." Zay stood up, "See ya!" He left, taking his tray with him.

"Nervous about your first game tomorrow?" Maya asked, looking at him. "After all, you're carrying the fate of the best scoring team in school." He smiled.

"Nah, I saw the other team practice on Monday, we are going to win." He said with a smug smile. Zay had told him about the practice, so they went and sat on their benches while Lucas made mental notes about every player. Number 4 walked funny, his left leg was hurting him, number 1 was very distracted and the pitcher always threw the same fast balls and when he planted his foot on the floor he drew a curve ball. That's all Lucas needed to win, now that he had something on almost everyone on their team, a victory was certain for the Patriots of Abigail High School.

"Are you going to drink your juice?" She asked, eyeing the can of apple juice sitting on the corner of his tray.

"It's all yours." He pushed it forward. "Has Farkle always been like that?"

"If you ever meet his dad it will all make sense, it's all genetic." He scoffed, picturing an older version of Farkle.

The bell rang again, she stood up quickly, he followed her, placing the tray over the trash and staying closely behind her as they walked out of the cafeteria.

"Where are you going now?" He asked, as kids passed hurriedly next to them.

"I have art class." She said, giving an unforgiving look at the sophomore that pushed her side, he said sorry with a terrified expression and disappeared among the rest.

"I'll walk you there." Lucas said, next to her, as the hallways emptied.

"You don't need to, yesterday was kind, now it's just stupid." She replied, looking up at him.

"I had fun yesterday, I liked your neighborhood." She scoffed.

"Sure, Eastside." She responded sarcastically.

"I didn't mean it like that, you don't find that in Houston, your street came to life at night, I really liked that." He said, carefully, he knew Maya didn't come from money, her mom worked as a waitress and he didn't have any information about her father, at this stage of the game he couldn't afford to bring out any insecurities.

She didn't say anything else, so Lucas took his chance.

"I meant what I said yesterday... about being friends." He said quietly, stopping her in the middle of the empty hallway.

"Just friends?" She asked, rolling her eyes.

"That's it." She suspected something, he didn't know what, but he was almost sure that it still involved Riley. Maya was too devoted to see her best friend happy, Farkle had told him about the Riley committee and what they did to keep the real world and sad news away from her, Lucas thought that was stupid.

Maya looked around them, thinking.

"Can I still call you Huckleberry?" She narrowed her eyes.

"I wouldn't want it any other way." He said, with the best smile he had, she licked her lips trying to hide a smile.

"Fine, you can tell everyone we are acquaintances." She said entering her class, looking at him one last time before closing the door.

"I'll take it." He laughed and turned around, he was one step closer, as small as it was.