A/N: Merry (Belated) Christmas and/or Happy Holidays beautiful people! I got a new LAPTOP (FINALLY) so time to get more serious about updating now that I don't have to share a computer with Maman though I am sooo tired from all this celebration going on lol! I'm loopy right now ahahahhaha. I hope you all have a wonderful day/week/holiday season!

Thank you guys for being so sweet! I appreciate the reviews and I thank you for all being so kind and supportive! I love you guys! :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Girl Meets World, but… eh I got nothing…

"Okay!" Melanie Sanchez said, "So that concludes all discussions in our meeting. Now let's talk Fall Fair. Mrs. Gherkins, president of the PTA, is here to relay to you the information about the fair and planning and where it is so far."

Maya mentally groaned. She hated these parent teacher association meetings. They always took forever and a day to finish and since Maya was the representative of the teachers for the second grade, she was required to go to each one.

Mrs. Gherkins stood up from her chair at the front of the room, smiling widely. "Hello everyone. It's good to see you all again. So let's cut right to the chase. Here's where we are with the planning committee…"

Every year, JQA Elementary had a Fall Fair. Every year, they needed all the teachers to come man booths and participate in the events. Maya loved the children and the Fall Fair, don't get her wrong, but it was an all day event that lasted from Friday to Sunday and on that particular weekend, all plans had to be cancelled because there was no way anyone was going to be able to fit anything else in their schedule. Maya had been a student teacher at the school before she became a second grade teacher, but she'd been participating in the Fall Fair for about four years now, always as the head of the face paint booth. One year, she'd tried to plan an outing with Missy that she'd had to cancel because of the time requirements.

"I probably won't be able to participate this year." Riley grumbled dejectedly as she rubbed her belly.

"Probably not. But you can still show up. Maybe run one of the calmer booths. Petting zoo maybe?"

Riley gave Maya an offended look, and Maya chuckled under her breath. Petting zoo was the worst stall to run. Hands down. Teachers fought each other not to end up with that booth.

"The smelly animals? No."

"Alright." Mrs. Gherkins said, moving her chart off of the whiteboard behind her. "As you all know, the Fall Fair is a fundraiser to raise money to improve something in the school. This year, we are raising money for a new lower field for the kids since this one is just about done. But we're missing one big event that will serve as the big main event to pull a large crowd that people will need to buy additional tickets for. So let's brainstorm. What can we do?"

"A play maybe?" Amanda suggested. "We can have the parents and the teachers work together to put on a play."

"Hmm… While a play would be perfect, we don't have enough time to choose one, get a script, run auditions, find our cast, rehearse, and create sets by the time the Fall Fair comes around. It's the weekend after this one. It has to be something we can scrounge up last minute."

Riley's brows lifted. "Well then, why not do a sports' game? Parents' team versus teachers' team playing against each other for some prize. And to incentivize them properly, make the prize a pool of cash. Every participant inputs ten bucks and the winning team will get the pool."

"Ooooh that's a great idea," Mrs. Gherkins said excitedly. "But we need a sport that is fun and easy for everyone so even people who aren't used to that sport can participate. And a sport that has crowd appeal that they can actively participate in, in a sense. Something simple that people will want to come see."

"Well that's an easy one." Karina replied. "We're in New York. Baseball."

"Baseballs are pretty hard though and a bit more of a hazard." Riley responded. "Softball is a safer bet. We can do tossing as pitching which also diminishes the possibility of outrageous homeruns in another stratosphere. Annnnnd…"

Riley turned to Maya with a huge grin on her face, and Maya automatically bristled, not liking Riley's expression in the least. She knew what was coming before Riley even opened her mouth.

"We can have our very own Miss Maya Hart be the teacher's team captain. She played softball through college, and she can definitely coach our team to victory."

Everyone turned to Maya curiously, and she fought the urge to drop her forehead onto the table with a clunk and bang it repeatedly.

"Maya? Is that true? Would you be willing to be our captain? I know you usually handle the face painting booth, but the game would only be a few hours chunk on the Saturday of the fair."

Maya sighed, knowing even though she didn't particularly want to participate, they looked expectant and refusing wouldn't make sense considering she would be there anyway.

"Yeah. I can be the captain."

There were smiles around the room, and Mrs. Gherkins clapped her hands in excitement.

"Excellent! And to make it even better, we can do costume softball, where the teams are dressed in some theme. So then everyone is in favour of the softball game?"

There were nods in affirmation, and Maya gave Riley a dirty look.

"Riley…"

Riley shrugged sheepishly with a smile. "What?"

Maya rolled her eyes and leaned back into her chair as Mrs. Gherkins continued on with the next topic of conversation, the appointing of the booths and time shifts to various teachers.

~.~.~

After she and Riley got off the subway, they made their way out of the underground station and up the stairs back into city life. The streets and sidewalks were already starting to get crowded with multiple people as the work day had been drawing to a close.

"Ice cream?" Riley asked hopefully. "I got the baby daycare so I think I should celebrate not ending up with the animals."

"Riley, you slacked on healthy eating all week. Not a good idea."

"Well you should have kept me on track." Riley pouted.

"Plus, you voted for me as team captain in the fundraiser." Maya said in a fake irritated voice. "We're not friends right now."

"But Maya…" Riley whined. "Who else could have been captain other than you? You would have participated anyway."

"True, but you should have given me the option to nominate myself instead of basically pressuring me into the position."

"You're being ridiculous."

Maya rolled her eyes with a chuckle, but she and Riley crossed the street, heading over to their favourite ice cream shop, Belles. It was obscure and not one of the well-known famous ones, but the ice cream there was so rich and creamy and delicious that Riley refused to get it from anywhere else. Before Maya knew it, it had become her favourite place too. It wasn't on the way to their home and in a different part of town, but since they were headed to Smackle's birthday celebration anyway, Maya figured the quick stop wouldn't be a problem.

"Can you order for me please?" Riley asked as soon as they walked in, batting her eyelashes. "I'm tired. And Aiden wants you to order for me too."

"Fine." Maya grumbled, unable to argue against Riley when she was doing that with her doe eyes. She leaned down in front of Riley's abdomen. "Hey Aiden? Watch out for your mother's treacherous puppy dog eyes in the future. She will guilt you into doing everything for her like the deviant she is."

Riley giggled and made her way to one of the seats to relax her tired feet as Maya headed over to the counter.

"Maya!" Jacqueline greeted when she saw her. "Good to see you both. What'll it be?"

"Hey Jackie. A cup with two scoops of Rocky Road for Riley, please."

"Of course."

"Maya? I thought it was you walking down the sidewalk."

Maya turned around at the familiar voice, and her brows lifted in slight surprise when she saw Lucas. He looked like he must have just gotten off work. His hair was a little disheveled, he still had his stethoscope around his neck, and he was holding a white lab coat on his arm.

"Unbelievable," Maya said. "You. You're everywhere."

"You know Maya, Lucas?" Jackie asked curiously as she scooped some rocky road into the small cup.

"She's Anna's teacher." Lucas responded.

"How do I keep running into you everywhere?" Maya said, shaking her head in disbelief. "It's like you're following me around."

Maya found it especially interesting considering she had never run into Lucas before she found out about what Anna's home life had been like. Now it was like she couldn't go one week without seeing him often.

"Well, I live nearby here for one." Lucas chuckled. "But this is definitely a coincidence. Anna's in a pretty bad mood today. I thought I could cheer her up."

"Bad mood? What did you do?"

"Oh so you hear Anna's in a bad mood and suddenly it's my fault?" He snorted with a raised brow. "I actually did something right for once, thank you. She's in a bad mood because I think she's coming down with something."

"So Anna might be sick… and you're feeding her ice cream?" Maya asked flatly.

Lucas' brows rose, and Maya almost laughed at the confused expression on his face.

"Well now that you mention it… I guess that's not the brightest idea."

"I guess you didn't do something right then, Huckleberry." Maya teased.

"This being a father thing is harder than I thought." he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck in slight embarrassment.

"Relax, okay? You're doing a great job for a half a dad who almost fed his sick daughter ice cream."

He smiled, a brow quirked in amusement. "I'm sorry. I'm not sure I heard you correctly. Was that almost a compliment?"

"It may or may not have been." Maya responded, trying to hide her own smile. "Make sure Anna gets some rest, okay?"

"I will." Lucas said. "I guess I came all the way here for nothing. Sorry, Jackie."

"It's quite fine, Lucas." Jackie replied, "Take care of bébé."

"I'll see you tomorrow, Maya."

"Yeah."

After Lucas left, Jackie brought Maya's order to her. She rang her up and after thanking her and saying goodbye, Maya grabbed a spoon and made her way over to Riley who was watching her with a raised eyebrow.

"I got your stuff, Honey. Let's go."

Riley stood up carefully, using the table for support. "You were flirting."

"What?" Maya asked as they slowly ambled out of the place and made their way back down the sidewalk.

"I saw you flirting with Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome."

"For the last time Riley—"

"For the last time nothing. I know what I saw." Riley said matter of factly. "My brand of flirting may involve giggling and cutesy smiles and batting eyelashes, but I know flirting when I see it. And that was flirting to the extreme."

"Riley…"

"Maya just hear me out." Riley stopped walking down the sidewalk, turning to Maya seriously. "You have a tendency not to realize that some of the decisions you make are kind of crazy sometimes."

Maya's eyes narrowed.

"So me talking with Lucas is crazy?"

"No. You talking to him isn't crazy, if that's all that was."

"What do you mean?"

"Maya, you're going to fall for him. Even if you can't see it yet. It's happening. And it's only going to make things worse because you can't recognize it's happening."

Maya stared at Riley incredulously, wondering if Riley was joking or not. When she realized Riley was completely serious, Maya rolled her eyes with a snort.

"You know, I thought your pregnancy brain only made you forgetful. I didn't realize delusional was also a symptom."

"You're attracted to him, Maya." Riley stated around a mouthful of ice cream. "And he's attracted to you too."

"I'm not." Maya said in annoyance.

"Yes you are. Even if you try to deny it, your face when you were talking to him begs to differ. I'm not trying to chastise you. All I'm saying is that you should be careful because getting too close to the parent of one of your students isn't a good idea."

Clearly, Riley wasn't going to let this whole thing slide any time soon. And if that was the case, Maya would have to find some way to redirect the conversation, because she really didn't want to be talking about this right now.

"Right. So now that we're done with that, can we head to some store and find Smackle a gift? We only have a few hours before the party."

Riley gave her an annoyed look, as if she knew Maya was deflecting, but thankfully, she let the conversation drop. They continued their easy walk down the sidewalk, Riley munching on her ice cream and letting out these low, happy sighs every few seconds.

Maya just didn't understand why Riley was so worried about this. Yes, Lucas was attractive, but that didn't mean Maya was attracted to him. Yes, arguably, they had become closer, but they were still acquaintances at most. She barely knew anything about him and he barely knew anything about her. There was nothing wrong with a casual friendship. Maya was fairly well acquainted with several parents in her classroom. It wasn't uncommon for a teacher to befriend the parents of the students.

Riley was wrong anyway.

Romance was the farthest thing on her mind.

And she wouldn't let herself even think of it at all until she atoned for her mistake.

If that took years, then so be it.