So I haven't uploaded in a while because I've been having some issues with doc manager... so I might have figured it out, I just hope the formatting isn't all off. But do not worry! My lack of updates is, in fact, not from forgetfulness for once! I will figure this out eventually!
As a result of baseball and softball season beginning, the group's hangout rituals increased in volume dramatically. Usually, there would be Maya hanging out at the Matthew's apartment with Riley two out of the five weekdays and in the art room for a few hours two other days while she waited for cheerleading practice to end so the two could travel to the Matthew's or to Topanga's afterwards. Sometimes Farkle would join them, sometimes Lucas, and once in a while Zay. Sometimes Farkle and Riley hung out at Topanga's by themselves while Zay was MIA, Lucas was wrapped up in homework and Maya was working on an important painting that she finally had inspiration for. But every Friday, the whole group got together at Topanga's at around five thirty.
But recently, the dynamic had shifted. Since all except Zay had after school hobbies, they would find themselves hanging out with whoever was done at the same time as them. Which meant more of Riley and Farkle hanging out and talking about their days (with Zay included from time to time because he had picked up the habit of chatting with one of Riley's cheerleader friends after practice), and more of Maya and Lucas scrounging for food after practice and complaining about sore muscles. Fridays still meant all five friends would get together, but the new schedules meant that Riley and Maya were apart during the two and a half hours between school and hang out time at the cafe.
"So what were you thinking food wise?" Lucas asked as he buckled the his seat belt. The two sat in the blue pick up truck at four in the afternoon in the school parking lot, Maya's feet up on the dashboard. The girl shrugged her shoulders as she fiddled with the radio dial.
"Not really sure. You wanna head over to Nighthawk? My mom says they still make a mean tuna melt." Lucas thought about it for a moment before nodding in agreement.
"Sounds good. They still make onion rings?" he asked hopefully, glancing over at her out of the corner of his eye before starting the car. She responded with a silly grin on her face.
"The onion-iest rings in Greenwich village, Ranger Rick." He smiled widely and turned the key in the ignition, the engine rumbling to life immediately.
"Fantastic."
"She really ended up in the splits?!" he managed to ask through his incredulous laughter. The blonde's head bobbed in a nod as she giggled along with him.
"Really! She said her foot slipped, but she's a gymnast! I'd bet both mine and Riley's friendship rings that she did it on purpose. Such a show off," Maya muttered. He shook his head in disbelief as he took a sip of his raspberry smoothie (which wasn't as good as the raspberry smoothies they made at Topanga's but it was raspberry so he didn't mind much).
They'd been at Nighthawk for two hours and had gone through three plastic baskets of onion rings, four smoothies, and one and half a tuna melt (the other half of which Maya was saving for Riley).
"Well, you're team is definitely more fun than mine. The team this year is so competitive, it doesn't seem like anyone is having any fun except me," he said, resting his elbows on the table and leaning forward.
"That's probably why they made you starting catcher. Who better than a Huckleberry to lighten up the mood?" Maya reached over and snatched one of the onion rings from the basket with her forefinger and thumb. He sighed.
"I guess. I don't know, its not like I expected. I mean, it's a junior varsity team and I'm the only sophomore. The rest of the team is Juniors somehow, its crazy." Lucas took another sip of his smoothie, eyes downcast towards the table. The blonde across from him kicked his shin lightly so that he looked up at her with slight irritation.
"Well, if it's that competitive, it means you're really good. You deserve to be there, okay, Hop along?" The corners of his mouth turned upwards, pushing his smoothie over to her.
"Thanks, Maya." The blonde smiled sweetly as she quickly finished off the smoothie. Lucas tugged his phone out of his pocket and had to do a double take when he saw the time. He looked up at Maya with wide eyes as the girl licked the excess smoothie off of the bottom end of the straw. Her eyebrows knit together in confusion.
"What is it, Huckleberry?" she asked, pointing the straw at him.
"It's six 'o clock." She raised an eyebrow.
"So?" Lucas looked down at his phone and scrolled a little.
"So, we were supposed to be at Topanga's half an hour ago." Maya's eyes widened to the size of saucers. She quickly dug in her drawstring bag and pulled out her phone. Fifty-two missed texts and 3 missed calls from Riley, and one text and call from Farkle and Zay respectively.
"How many did you get?" She asked. Lucas visibly gulped.
"Well, I've got thirty-eight texts from Riley, a call from Farkle, and Zay's giving me a play by play of Riley's stages of freakout over text." Maya pressed one on her phone for Riley's speed dial and held the phone up to her ear, biting her lip.
"Fantastic," she muttered as it rang. Riley picked up on the first ring and though the phone wasn't on speaker, Lucas could still hear the girl's loud response.
"Maya! Oh my gosh are you okay?! Did something happen?! Is Lucas with you?! Is he okay?!" Maya winced with each question.
"Calm down, Pumpkin, we just lost track of time. We're at Nighthawk, we'll be there in a few minutes, okay?" Lucas looked at his phone as the screen lit up, signifying a text message from Zay.
ohhhh i see why youre late
Lucas breathed deeply in annoyance as the next few messages rolled in.
so you and the Blonde Beauty were together
ALONE
btw my phone autocorrected 'maya' to 'the Blonde Beauty'
is that not the greatest thing ever?
Lucas switched his phone over to his messages from Farkle when Zay sent him a smirking emoticon.
Riley thinks you two died.
You should probably get here soon.
And Zay's definitely going to be bugging you about this. Honestly, I will be too.
"Okay— Okay, Riles. We'll— Okay. See you in a few." Maya tapped the hang up button on the screen and looked at Lucas apologetically.
"So… We're in for some lecture when we get to Topanga's." Lucas sighed and let his head drop in exasperation.
"How long you thinking?"
"Hour and a half, two tops." He hooked his finger through the keychain loop of his keys as he stood up from the booth. She followed suit, stretching her stiffened legs.
"What if we just run away? You know, bag up all our stuff and start over in the midwest. We could make it, they'd never find us," he reasoned, shooting her a hopeful look as he held the door open. She rolled her eyes as she walked passed him.
"Come on, Ranger Rick, it'd look bad if you ran away from me, but running away from Princess Riley Dancing Sunshine Cotton Candy Face Matthews? You'd never live that down." He shrugged his shoulders before following her to the truck. When he turned the key, the pop station that Maya had set button number 2 on his truck. He made a face that could only be described as a grimace and shut it off. The blonde looked at him strangely.
"You know we don't have to listen to mine and Riley's station all the time, right? What music do you like anyway?" Her hand reached for the dial to turn the radio back on but he grabbed her wrist before she could reach the control panel. He shook his head in response to her quirked eyebrow.
"Trust me, you won't like my music." She scoffed.
"Well, I have a very eclectic taste, so maybe I will," she retorted, defiantly flipping the radio back on and hitting the button for preset number one. Quickly her ears were met with a cacophony of electric guitars, drums and monster screaming. He shot a look at her out of the corner of his eye before pulling out of the parking lot, trying to gauge her reaction. He mouthed along with the words quietly, continually glancing over at her to see what she was doing.
"Well."
"Well?" He could see a slow smile appearing on her face and let go of the breath he hadn't known he was holding.
"I expected some twangy country song about tractors and heartbreak but this is much better." He chuckled a little to himself. Maya had lots of unexpected tricks up her sleeves.
"Glad you like it. Riley did the same thing once, except when she changed the station she basically had a heart attack. She almost slapped me in the face she got so scared." Maya's hearty laugh rang out clearly even with the music blaring.
The two sat in silence for the majority of the ride (silence being the sound of Avenged Sevenfold screeching while Lucas mouthed the words and Maya observed him with amusement). They parked the truck and then rushed towards Topanga's. To many observers, a short blonde girl dragging a boy almost twice her height by the wrist was comical, but when they finally made it to the cafe, Riley had immediately embraced said blonde and Farkle and Zay merely checked the tall boy's wrist to make sure it hadn't been sprained.
"Peaches! Don't you ever worry me like that again! I thought you'd died, or been shot, or gotten mugged, or kidnapped, or—"
"Calm down, Riles. You gotta breathe, okay? Come on, breathe with me." As the girls did calming breathing exercises together, Zay and Farkle were pestering Lucas relentlessly.
"So. What were you two doing that made you so very distracted? I couldn't quite tell, but our very own Blonde Beauty might've sounded a little breathless picking up the phone, didn't she Farkle?" The genius just chuckled before turning to his friend who was violently pinching the bridge of his nose as if warding off an oncoming headache.
"No, but really. Where were you guys?" The former Texan shot a thankful look at his friend.
"We were at Nighthawk. Maya wanted a tuna melt and we just ended up eating a ton of crap." Zay opened his mouth to say something, but Lucas' glare shut him up quickly.
"Don't even go there, Zay." The boy put his hands up in surrender, but his cheeky smile remained on his face. Riley and Maya made their way back to where the boy's sat on the bar stools, now smiling widely and calmed down.
"I'm all good now. Neither of you are dead or injured, and I got half a tuna melt," Riley said happily. Zay pouted at the girl.
"No fair, I was fully prepared to spectate a two hour Riley rant and then y'all calmed her down with half a sandwich? Thats it?" Riley smiled and shrugged, taking a bite.
"What can I say, its a powerful sandwich," Riley murmured through her mouthful.
"So, what did you guys want to do tonight? Bowling? Movie?" Farkle asked in an attempt to keep his friends on task.
"We went bowling last week. What movies are out right now?" Lucas asked, pulling his phone from his pocket to check.
"There's not a lot of Riley-appropriate movies…" Maya noted, furrowing her eyebrows as she looked over Lucas' shoulder to look at his phone. Zay and Farkle shared a knowing look over the closeness of the two. Riley shrugged.
"I'm actually pretty tired, we worked on a new routine in cheerleading today. Do you guys just want to come over to watch something at my house?" Riley asked hopefully. The other four nodded in assent and began organizing how they would all get there. They ended out with Farkle and Zay catching a ride with Lucas to his house so that Lucas could shower and pick up a change of clothes from his practice uniform. They were planning to stock up on snacks from the Friar household while he did this. Maya and Riley would take the subway back to the apartment to do any last minute clean up.
Riley and Maya left a few minutes after the boys did, walking briskly to the subway station so not to miss their train. It was only when they were hanging onto a pole descending from the ceiling in the subway that Riley spoke.
"So you just lost track of time at Nighthawk?" Maya blinked a few times, the question catching her off guard.
"Uh, yeah. I was telling Huckleberry about this thing that happened during practice today and we ended up clearing out Nighthawk's raspberry smoothie supply. I'm not sure how it happened exactly." Riley nodded and mouthed an 'oh' but her eyes had a strange faraway look in them. Maya raised an eyebrow at her friend's odd behavior.
"Whats up, Riles? You look like you did that time when Farkle told you he didn't really like pink," Maya questioned, nudging her elbow into the brunette's ribs lightly. Riley shot her a smile and shook her head quickly."Nothing's wrong! I'm okay," she replied, her voice a little too chipper to seem natural. Maya's brow furrowed, but she didn't push. Riley wouldn't say anything until she was ready. Maya respected Riley's privacy and Riley tried her hardest to respect Maya's, so Maya asked about cheerleading and Riley brightened up significantly, immediately chattering on about what they had worked on. A small smile appeared on the blonde's face. This was how life should always be.
Tuna melts are the most powerful of sandwiches