It was the second week of school and already the pressure was getting to be too much for Lucas. He was having a hard time unwinding between his AP classes and his extracurriculars. It was only Tuesday and he already felt like he was going to explode. This wasn't like him and it was a bit worrisome even for him, so he kissed his mama on the cheek and told her that he was going to go for a walk to clear his head. She worried, but he assured her he'd be okay. He'd lived here for six years now and he was pretty sure he'd grown at least a little bit into a New Yorker.

He walked for half an hour, hands shoved into his pockets and feet dragging in a way that he would have been yelled at for had his father been around. He didn't have a destination in mind but when he found himself in Maya's neighborhood he settled on one. He quickened his pace and was knocking lightly at her window within a few minutes. He hadn't been here in quite some time so he was hoping against hopes that he'd remembered the right one. He said a silent prayer as he heard rustling from the other side of the glass and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her familiar blonde curls as she raised the window shade.

"Well, Lucas Friar, to what do I owe the pleasure of a gentleman caller at this hour," she asked in a mock southern accent.

He huffed out a small laugh and she was opening the window before he could even mock her back. Maybe she sensed his need for a friend or maybe she just saw him for more than their game these days. He didn't think too hard about it.

She moved back to her perch on her bed where she'd been highlighting lines in a book she was reading for an english assignment but she didn't make to pick the book back up. "What's up," she asked more seriously as he laid himself out on her floor dramatically staring up at the ceiling. If he wasn't so obviously upset it would have made her laugh.

"So I was home, right," he started, still staring up at the ceiling and making Maya feel a bit like a shrink. She didn't care. "I was doing my statistics homework, which I don't fucking get by the way at all, and I kept getting these notifications on my phone and it's like 'oh hey don't forget to wear your practice jersey tomorrow' and some girl who keeps hinting that she wants me to ask her to homecoming liking every single picture I've ever posted on facebook and I just couldn't get anything done and I don't know how people juggle everything," he explained, talking with his hands and in the most frustrated tones Maya had ever heard from him.

With a sigh she found herself sliding off of the bed and lying down on the floor opposite him so that their legs were facing opposite walls and their heads were parallel. "Well first of all, your classes are too hard and you were insane for signing up for them in the first place," she told him, trying to lighten his mood just a little bit.

It didn't.

"Honestly though, just turn your phone off sometimes and let people wait for responses. You aren't superman. You can't be everything to everyone at once."

"How do you manage it?" He turned his head toward her as if finally addressing that it was actually a person he was talking to and not just himself.

"Me? I don't manage anything. I hand in half finished assignments if I hand them in at all and the only person who ever texts me is Riley and even then I usually can't find my phone anyway." This did actually get a laugh out of him. A small one, you might even have called it a huff of air, but Maya was certain it was the best laugh he could muster up.

"Speaking of texts, I got a very interesting one from Zay the other day about whether or not I wanted chicken pot pie for dinner. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?" He smiled, but only after he saw the enormous and guilty grin break out on Maya's own face.

Rather than answer when Lucas obviously knew exactly what she'd done, she went back to the most important point he'd brought up. "Is she cute?"

His expression sobered and he looked at her a bit confused. "Is who cute?" He had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, which was probably good because it meant she was taking his mind off of his current annoyances.

"The girl, the one who wants you to take her to homecoming," she refreshed his memory, which earned her a hearty "hah" from Lucas as he turned his head back to look at the ceiling again. He'd only just realized that it was covered in sketches, much like the rest of her wall where band posters weren't taking up space.

"No," he answered finally. It was a pretty definitive statement which made him wonder why he'd even cared in the first place. Probably because taking her was what was expected of him as a popular jock. "Hey, can I ask you a question?"

"Yeah of course."

"That night, when you were talking about the person you'll end up with," he started, which startled her a little. "How do you think that all works, like, how does this whole dating thing even go? Because I feel like it's around that time when it's less about taking girls to movies and giving them your jacket and more about actually figuring that kind of stuff out. Take what you were saying for example, how do you know he won't fall for you before you get to find that kind of stuff out about him and just render all of what you said completely worthless?"

It was a loaded question and Lucas knew it, but it didn't even seem like Maya had to think on it. He didn't get how she was so sure of herself.

"I guess for me I think it'll be a long story. I think if some stranger came up to me and asked to take me to dinner I'd always remember that he wanted to get to know me because I'm hot and not because he saw something in me. I think that's where that difference is. I don't think I'll ever be the type to be courted. I know it's such an old fashioned word but that's exactly what Riley's marriage will be. She'll meet a boy, he'll ask her out, they'll go on three dates before she kisses him and he'll call after two days every time to schedule another one. I see myself being with whoever I end up with for a long time before I know I'm with him. I don't think it would work any other way for me. I want to be friends, you know?"

Lucas was quiet as he mulled over what she said in his head. "You say these things and they're so out of the box but you make them sound so simple and obvious. Like why wouldn't I want to adopt six kids when they're already there and need me, and why would I settle for someone who was only interested in me in the first place because I was cute?"

Maya just shrugged because to her it really was just that simple. "The norm just doesn't make any sense to me and it takes a special breed to feel that way. I guess we're just cut from the same cloth." She pulled at a peace of her hair, examining her split ends a little more intently than necessary because the silence, while still comfortable, was also palpable for once. "Do you really want to adopt because of me? Because I've never had someone listen to me and actually admit I had a point before."

Lucas laughed, this time a real one, and just shook his head. "Do you wanna go to homecoming with me," was all he was going to come back with, which made her laugh in return.

"Yeah, Lucas, I do."