The sun was just peaking over the New York skyline when Lucas' phone buzzed in his pocket. A soft groan escaped his lips as he opened his eyes to see a room that was not his own. He heard light breathing from the bed beside him and knew Maya was still sleeping. This was a blessing, since she was not a morning person.

Lucas stood up and looked over at the blond, who was cuddled into the comforter and a smile was glazed on her lips. The cowboy ruffled his hair before quickly taking a picture. He knew it was wrong and very stalker like, but he didn't want to forget how peaceful she looked with her guard down. Perhaps he could get her to be that relaxed when she was awake. That, however, was wishful thinking on his part.

Maya woke up to her alarm just minutes after Lucas left. She almost forgot he was there except for the fact that he placed the pillow he used over a nicely folded blanket. The blond smiled softly at the gesture and got up to get ready for the day and meet up with Riley.

It was when she was walking up to Riley's apartment that her phone dinged with a message alert. Her fingers quickly opened the text and her heart skipped a beat. Those simple words made her feel things that she shouldn't feel for her best friend's crush, but she couldn't deny the butterflies in her stomach at the thought of him.

"Thanks for letting me stay the night. My mama thought I was at Farkle's, but I really wanted to know why you wouldn't run for anything. You would be a great leader, Hart. Oh, and Farkle gave me your number."

There was a campaign Rally during their normal History class. Mr. Matthews somehow got permission to hold it in the gym. Those who were running had homeroom off so they could set up their stage and prepare their speeches. Maya did her best to help Riley, who had the least to set up, but her eyes were flickering to Lucas in his dress shirt and tie. He looked older, more so than he did before hand, and she wondered for a brief moment how old he actually was. Then the moment passed and she heard Riley gushing about how attractive he was. She rolled her eyes and made a snappy comeback, yet not contradicting the brunet's statement.

"Everybody deserves the right to vote. Because if that right is taken away, you know what you get?" Lucas smiled and gestured to Farkle.

The shorter boy turned around with a dramatic flair. His cape shifting behind him as he questioned if people would be in his nation. The seventh graders were not impressed, well that was until he bribed them all with free t-shirts. Then they were all for his dictatorship. Lucas and Maya both saw just how gullible the student body was. Riley on the other hand just kept talking about the issues, which of course none of the young minds wanted to hear while they were getting free stuff.

Maya brought this problem up to her moments later. "Nobody cares about the issues, Riles, they only care about who's having the most fun."

The crowd was cheering for Farkle and Maya looked passed his stage to see what Lucas was thinking. He only smiled at her with a worried glint in his eye. They both knew that having any kind of dictator would be a bad idea for any government, even seventh grade.

Lucas heard a few words of Maya and Riley's discussion over the roaring crowd, but what he did hear baffled him. A unicorn? How was that even feasible? And who in the world did Maya know who could attain such a thing?

He did know that he should be working on his own campaign. Yet, the spunky blond refused to leave his thoughts. It was moments later that he got a text from her asking if the cowboy knew any other cowboys here in New York state that owned horses. He should have figured that he was her guy. He froze for a second, liking the sound of that.

"There's a ranch a few miles west of the city, ma'am J"

"Thanks' huckleberry."

"Anytime."

Wednesday morning rolled around and Lucas smiled as he watched the campaign advertisement for Riley. Maya had found a beautiful white stallion and when he saw her smiling next to him Lucas knew the city girl would fit in well in his country world. Well, he hoped so, but with a heart as big as Maya Hart's he just knew. Now if only she could see that he liked her and didn't want to be with Riley romantically.

However, after Farkle's smear campaign against the girls his jaw was clenched as he tried to figure out what they, meaning Maya, would do about it.

"Okay, this campaign just got dirty." Maya smirked. "Yay. Team princess needs to strike back hard."

Riley stood back up and feed the class some story about how the horse always wanted to be a unicorn. The class at it up and the princess was amazed how gullible they all were. Maya than took it as her turn and went on a much more serious topic. She went on about surveillance from Farkle Nation and how he would spy on everyone. Lucas' frown deepened and disappointment marred his face.

"Do you want to live in a magical kingdom or a police state?"

It was rare that anyone actually got to see how smart Maya was. This was one of those times that her vocabulary was truly utilized and if he wasn't so upset about his friends bashing on each other he would be proud of her.

"Hey, cut it out! Friends don't attack each other. No going after Farkle." Lucas demanded. His eyes looked with Maya's blue ones.

"Okay, Moral Compass, I promise we won't go after Farkle."

"Good. Thank you."

The bell rang and Maya waited for everyone else to leave before addressing her new plan to Riley.

"We're going after Lucas."

"Why?"

"Farkle is nothing without his army. Lucas is the competition now."

"I'm not going after Lucas."

"You don't have to do anything."

"No."

"Riley, this is your last chance to be a princess. Everybody has got something they're hiding, even Lucas. I'm going to find out what it is."

Maya had other motives as well to finding out more about the Cowboy. She was searching for the skeletons in his closet that would smear the image of him she had in her head. To hopefully shatter these feelings and thoughts that overwhelmed her.

"Maya, if you do."

"Yeah?"

"Don't tell me."

Maya had no intention to do so anyway. That is unless she found something that Riley really should know. Like if he was a player, a troublemaker, a criminal, or anything else along those lines.