Chapter Two: After It's All Said and Done

The comments have spoken, so thank you everyone who commented and because of you, here's the second chapter of this story. Make sure to comment and follow it. ALSO I WILL TAKE AWHILE TO UPDATE BUT THERE WILL BE MORE THIS MONTH AND I POSTED THIS SO SOON BECAUSE I WANTED YOU ALL TO KNOW I AM CONTINUING THE STORY SO THANKS FOR ALL OF YOU WHO COMMENTED!

"MAYA!"

I shot up from my laying position to find Riley sitting a few inches away from me with her back pressed against what looks to be a thick tree branch which connects to the entire right side of the structure. She stares at me, brown eyes opened wide and fear as clear as glass expressed on her face.

"Wait a minute, I thought I left you place when your dad said I couldn't stay over."

"You did," she replies, moving her hand to her mouth and begins nipping on her fingernail. The occasional clacking of them when she bites of the nail and begins sputtering them out. I lean forward and lightly take her wrist, tugging her hand away from her mouth.

"Okay, so what happened?" I ask, trying to calm her down.

"So I went to bed and when I woke up I was here with you, remembering you left I looked outside and realized that we aren't in New York anymore. We're in a tree house Maya, a tree house!"

I wave her down, shushing her at the same time as I creep forward and open the door to the tree house to see a wooden porch with slight gaps between each board slab. Tree branches and leaves were bunched together in heavy clusters making a good shielding for Riley and me, so if anyone happens to walk by they shouldn't notice us.

"What's the big deal? We're in a tree house."

"Maya, don't you get it, we're in the past! I saw my dad and Uncle Shawn walk by while you were still asleep and they were out age, what are we going to do!?"

"Okay, first of all," I say, covering my ears with my hands due to Riley's high voice stinging my ears. "Get a grip, because if we are in the past like you said then we need to keep it together."

"How am I supposed to face my dad who doesn't even know I'm the daughter he's going to have without loosing it?" she says, voice much softer now. I smile slightly, lowering my hands.

"Play it cool, don't call him dad, if we meet him call him Cory and call Shawn by his name because they don't know and I'm not familiar with the rules of time traveling but I think exposing yourself is a big no-no."

Riley nods, letting long brown hair fall in her face as she takes a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, or at least I assume so. I know I should be more freaked out by this but I'm actually looking forward to this. My mother isn't around to hit me and I can meet young Shawn, see what he's like and get some dirt on Mr. Matthews just in case.

"I'm better now, thanks Maya. Now what?"

Riley crawls beside me and peers out at the doorway of the younger Matthews house and I make a decision. "We need to find out what the year is and introduce ourselves to your grandparents, without actually saying that."

"What!?" Riley shrieks, taking the sleeve of my zip up hoodie in her hands. Her face is strike with an array of emotions, so many that it'd be nearly impossible to name them all but the only one I can tell for sure is fear. Not that I can blame her, I'd be feeling much the same if this was my case, Riley would see my horrible childhood and abusive mother. I've made up my mind so I crawl down the wooden latter, one step at a time and walk around from the backyard to the front with Riley at my side. Confidently I step up the stairs and knock three times on the door and wait for them to answer.

A young girl with blond hair pulled back in a ponytail opens the door. This must be Morgan, Riley's aunt when she was young. Her Uncle Joshua doesn't exist right now so she's currently the baby of the family.

"Hello, how can I help you," she says, in a low monotone voice without putting much emotion into her words.

"Um, yeah, are your parents home?" I ask, trying to sound nice and not at all strange or odd. Morgan calls for her parents and runs away from the door, climbing up onto the couch as footsteps sound. A man with curly-ish brown hair steps forward and a woman, his wife with her hair curled out like they use to do back then say hello.

"How can we help you girls?" Amy Matthews asks, tightening the back on her left earring.

"I'm sorry to bother you but my name's Maya and this," I maneuver to Riley who stands behind me with her head ducked with very unsubtle biting her lip. "Is my best friend Riley and we're new in town and can' t seem to locate the high school and the local restaurant all the kids go to so I was wondering if you'd be kind enough to point us in the right direction."

Since the Matthews are such nice and friendly people they point us towards the high school and inform us that Chubbies is the restaurant their son Cory often hangs out at and that's where all the kids do. We head towards the local restaurant seeing as there's no way we can possibly go to school seeing as we don't have any records of us in the system. We head towards Chubbies when the wailing sirens of a police car freezes Riley firmly in her spot and I stay with her. The police car pulls to a stop and I scoff, rolling my eyes. Police don't scare me, they never have.

They can send me to juvie because it's better than being at home anyways, that's how I feel about it but I need to keep my personality in check seeing as how we aren't in our time and no one here would be able to bail me out if I'm arrested and Riley will be on her own in the past and that girl cracks under pressure. The police car pulls to a stop at the curb and exits the vehicle in a black police uniform with messy brown hair falling from the hat. He's a heavy man who's more rounded than other people.

"H-how can we help you officer, s-sir?" Riley stutters over her words and he stares down at her, seeing as the guys six feet tall and about as round as a 16 wheeler's tire.

"What my friend over here mean is, what is it you need sir?"

"Well," he says in a deep, scratchy, and ruff monotone voice. "You are your friend here are breaking the law, shouldn't you kids be in school?"

"I can explain officer, we are new here and we are having a hard time finding the school," I say, totally lying through my teeth as I grin up and the man who stands over us, scowling.

"How stupid do you think I am?"

Very but I don't open my mouth and say that. He motions for us to get into the back of his police car which I oblige to and Riley gets in after me, biting her fingernails down to the numb so they are pink and sore. She closes her eyes and shakes at my side and I can tell she want to cry, she's scared we're getting arrested but we're not. He'd have handcuffed us if that was the case and I'm proven right when we pull up in front of a tall brown/red brick building with a set of stairs leading to the doorway. The police officers opens the door and watches as we walk up the stairs and enter the high school building where the halls are empty as the passing period must be over.

We look around the room and see a sign that says OFFICE and head for it. We enter the small room and the a woman with long blonde hair behind the bulky oak wood desk waves us forward. Her lips are scarlet and her chestnut brown eyes examine us for a minute then she speaks.

"Are you here to see Principal Feeny?"

"Um—" I cut Riley off.

"Yes, we're new and not sure exactly where we supposed to be," I reply, waving my hand as if it's not a big deal. The lady gets up from her cushions rolling chair and goes into the back where I can only faintly hear the tones of her voice and no more than a few seconds later she returns and tell Riley and me to go ahead and enter the office. When we enter Principal Feeny, I think that was what the blonde lady called him, sits at his desk in a brown leather chair organizing papers. He's an older man with gray hair and a gray mustache, dressed in a darker shade of gray suit with a stripped tie. He pushes his glasses up off the bridge of his nose and looks up and Riley and me, nodding for us to take a seat in the chair provided.

"I see that you young ladies are running late, wouldn't you say?"

I know it's a rhetorical question but apparently Riley didn't get the memo because she begins stuttering responses.

"N-no, sir, that's n-not what happened. W-what happened was that we-we're new and c-couldn't get to the s-school and I-I'l so-so sorry, it won't happen again sir!"

Feeny simply raises his hand silencing her and look from her to me, as if looking for my explanation either that or to corroborate Riley's story. I give a sugary smile that shows my rebellious nature as clear as day before responding.

"Riley is a good kid, she doesn't lie."

That catches Feeny's attention because he looks up and turns towards her in surprise as if something I said was shocking. It's not like I said she robbed a bank so what's the big deal?

The sound of a metal filing cabinet being open fills the room with the loud and obnoxious creaking sound and the blonde steps in with two files in her hand. She leans over slightly and hands Feeny the files and he opens them and I can see Riley's and my name but not our last names which is odd. Riley isn't even looking at him, her gaze is focused on her twiddling thumbs, anxious. It's one of Riley's many tells, when she gets nervous or is hiding something her twiddles her fingers. I nudge Riley's foot while my own, trying to catch her attention to tell her what I noticed but that Feeny guy beats me to the punch and begins talking again.

"You two must be the new students. Riley Mathers, a straight A student, known for being honest and does extremely well in school. It is great to have you in this school Miss Mathers." He turns to me and pulls out my files that he has somehow. "Maya Harke, doesn't do all that well in school, seems to lack drive in taking part in school activities."

"That's me," I say, grinning as I lean back farther in my chair trying to get more laid back. Riley lightly slaps my arm and glares with a face that says knock-it-off so I do.

"We are glad to have you here at John Adams High School but there are a few rules you must follow which consist of—" I tune him out after that but can tell that Riley is paying total attention and taking mental notes in her head to fall back on. He pulls a paper out of each of out files and hands them to us accordingly which turns out to be our schedule which Riley and I quickly compare and are relieved when we realize we have all the same classes. Feeny stands up and so I do when Riley gets up and follows him from the office.

"Since today is a slow day I'll show you to your first class and then I'll return to my office," he says, stopping at a classroom door. "This is it, if you girls need anything you know where my office is, I'll be glad to help you. Goodbye Miss Mathers, Miss Harke."

With that Feeny turns and walks away and Riley looks to me to open the door to the class room so with a sigh, I do. When I open the door I can practically feel Riley's face fall and she's behind me, I can't see her. In the back two seats on the second row from the left sits none other than Cory Matthews and Shawn Hunter. This has to be the world conspiring against Riley and me too.

Awkwardly I wave and say, "The name's Maya..."