Riley woke up incredibly early, giving herself two hours to get ready for her first day. She showered and dried her hair, got dressed, applied a little makeup, and sorted out her backpack for school. When she was making breakfast, Maya dragged herself out of bed.

"What's for breakfast?" she asked, groggily.

"Bacon sandwiches." Riley replied. "My speciality, as you know."

Maya smiled. "What would I do without you, Riley?"

"You'd starve before college." Riley shrugged, placing a plate with two bacon sandwiches on it in front of Maya. "Eat quickly. You only have an hour to get ready."

"Plenty of time." Maya said dismissively, but after a pointed look from Riley, she began eating faster.

Riley checked her bag once again before tucking into her bacon sandwiches. She wanted today to go well – the butterflies in her stomach indicated how nervous she was, though she was trying her very best to ignore those feelings. What could possibly go wrong?

Her mind decided to start generating all these pointless, probably impossible scenarios to answer that question, so she decided to shut off her mind until she was in classes.

Maya got ready quickly enough, and the two girls walked over to school together. It had brightened up today – no sign of yesterday's rain, much to Riley's relief. She really didn't want to get her clothes wet on her first day.

They walked across campus arm in arm. They'd come here to look around a few months ago, so Riley had an idea of where she was supposed to be going. They'd been given schedules and whatnot already, so there wasn't much left to do. The bell hadn't rung yet, so Maya sat down on a nearby bench, whilst Riley stayed standing, looking around at all the faces.

"Nobody looks familiar." Riley said.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Maya asked.

"I don't know." the brunette admitted. "Do I look okay?"

"Of course you do." Maya encouraged. "You look great."

Riley smiled. She could always rely on Maya to be honest, so she knew for a fact that the blonde wouldn't have told her she looked great if she didn't.

"Oh god." Maya's eyes widened. "There's Lucas."

She pointed across campus. Riley's eyes landed on the boy in question – tall, sandy brown hair, muscular...and walking this way.

Riley turned to Maya with a bright smile on her face. "This should be good." she winked. "See you later."

With that, Riley made her way into the building, prepared to just wander around until the bell rang. She had Literature for the first two periods, which she knew she'd enjoy. A small smile curved up onto her features. Maybe she'd be alright after all.

"Hey, baby!"

An arm wrapped around her waist and Riley's heart began hammering in her chest as she was pulled into the side of a tall, muscular boy with black hair and brown eyes. He winked at her. "I've never seen you around here before. What's your name, sweet pea?"

"None of your business." Riley replied, trying to keep her voice firm although it was shaking.

"Aww, don't be like that. Here, I'll start – my name's Jack." he said, and she rolled her eyes, shoving him away from her and backing up a few steps. "Careful, girlie. If you wanna survive here, you'll have to respect guys like me."

"Take your respect and shove it up your ass." a voice cut in, and then a boy was standing in front of Riley, almost protectively. "Leave off, Jack." he said warningly.

Jack's eyes widened and his tough guy act deflated. "Sorry, Farkle. Didn't realize you'd called dibs."

"Get lost." the boy – Farkle – replied.

The boys scarpered and Riley's saviour turned to face her. Her jaw almost dropped.

He had brown hair and eyes that seemed to be a mixture of blue and green. They were pretty mesmerizing. A black beanie sat upon his head, and his clothes were all dark, but they looked good on him. Riley couldn't help but stare.

"You alright?" Farkle asked.

"Fine. Thanks for that." Riley replied.

He smiled. Then, almost a second later, the smile faded and he looked away. "Whatever. Jack's an asshole, anyway. I've been gagging for an opportunity to get at him."

Riley was very confused. How could this boy have gone from rescuing her to not caring less? It certainly hadn't seemed like that was his reasoning a few minutes ago.

"You should be more careful." Farkle added. "Guys are always going to want to cop a feel. You're pretty, so there are gonna be creeps lurking around every corner. Watch your back, okay?" and then he was gone, vanishing into the crowd.

Riley was dazed. He'd called her pretty, and maybe it was idiotic, but that was the part of that little monologue that stuck out to her the most.

Once the bell had rung, Riley made her way to class. As soon as she entered, she immediately noticed Farkle sitting at the back of class with his friends. She knew immediately that he was popular – mainly because of how many people were staring enviously, and how many girls were swooning.

But why would a popular boy rescue her? She was still so confused.

She sat in the middle row, the seat by the window, and soon a shadow had fallen over her.

"That's my seat." Riley looked up to see a blonde girl standing over her. The first thing the brunette noticed was how this girl's hair wasn't as nice as Maya's – it was platinum blonde, almost white, and Riley couldn't help wondering how long it had taken to dye her hair like that. She could see a few strands of brown among the blonde.

"Actually, this is my seat." Riley said. "Since I decided to sit here."

"Well, I want to sit here. So move." the girl snapped. Two other girls were standing either side of her, one with black hair, the other with red. Riley had the crushing urge to laugh at them. They looked like one of those high school cliques who charged around calling people names that didn't make much sense.

"I'm quite comfortable here, actually." Riley replied evenly. "Come earlier next time if you want a certain seat."

"Don't tell her what to do." the black haired girl snapped, and this time Riley did laugh.

"Something funny?" the redhead was quick to say.

"Yeah, actually." Riley said, staring the blonde girl in the eye. "If you're going to dye your hair, maybe you should do it properly. The brown shows pretty clearly through the blonde. Nobody's going to believe that hair color is natural if you can't even do it right."

The blonde looked outraged. She raised her hand, as if she were going to smack Riley, but the latter stared her down. As the teacher walked in, the three girls stormed off to the back of the classroom.

As Riley looked back, she noted the blonde girl was snuggling up to Farkle, and yet Farkle's eyes were on Riley, his gaze lingering upon hers without a smidge of embarrassment.

Uncomfortable with the way he was looking at her – as if she were the only light in the room – she turned away, and listened as the teacher began to talk.