Notes: In continuation with this being a canon divergent work, I have changed the original meeting between Riley and Maya.

Harley puts off returning to his "office", better known to most of the school as the janitor's closet, for as long as he can on this particular Thursday. He makes do with the supplies that he already has out in the school, raids the supply closet of the night janitor (who's a little weird and insists on keeping their equipment and supplies separate despite the fact that they use almost exactly the same things) and changes up the order of his normal cleaning routine to compensate for the things that he doesn't have with him, all to give the student hiding out in there a little extra time to figure things out.

For all that Harley resented the bulk of his fellow students in his middle and high school years and did his best to torment them and let them know that fact, he has a much deeper understanding of people and the world now and he tries his best to follow Cory and Mr. Feeny's example. Middle school is a complicated enough time for most kids what with the changing responsibilities and the influx of rushing hormones and who knows what else going on at home; the students don't need unfriendly or unsympathetic adults making things even harder. And while most of the kids aren't that interested in getting life advice from a guy who ended up as a janitor, they do all seem to appreciate that he's willing to give them a space that's not a bathroom to hide away and think things through for a little while.

Like the girl sitting in there now. Maya Hart.

Harley has known the girl for a couple of years. She's one of the more interesting students in the school in his opinion. Maya works hard to project a very specific image to the world: that she's tough and independent and above all of the feelings that are complicating things for everyone else. According to her, she knows exactly what she has and what she can get from the world, so she knows exactly where she's going to end up. It's the same attitude that he owned during his teenage years. But the image is only a small piece of the story.

Maya is also one of the handful of students that will always say hi to him and actually listen to what he has to say. She's got buckets of talent, she's surrounded by friends and teachers who believe that she's bound for great things and will do everything to motivate and encourage her to get there, and she goes out of her way to protect them from some of the harsher realities of the world and adolescence. While his rough edges and lack of motivation were his entire being when he was her age, hers have been rapidly softening and vanishing, held in place more as a mask than as an actual reality.

Harley's seen her a lot in his office these past few weeks, ever since she went on a trip to Texas with the rest of her little group. She hasn't been interested in talking about what had happened on the trip to make things fall apart between her and Riley, her best friend, but given that he's a janitor, that hasn't stopped him from figuring it all out. Students don't stop talking when he walks into the room like they do if a teacher shows up. Every story and every piece of gossip is available to him, without any trouble whatsoever. And he gets to hear everyone's version of events, so he normally stands a fairly good chance of piecing together what it is that's actually going on.

So Harley knows that at some point, Maya found herself with feelings for Lucas, one of the other upstanding students in the school. And this was a problem. Not because it's middle school and every time you get a crush on someone in middle school it's a problem, but because Lucas was the guy who had a mutual, undefined but ambiguously romantic relationship with Riley. Then somehow while they were in Texas, those feelings all came to a head, and things didn't go Maya's way. Things get a little less clear after that, because it also appears that things didn't go Riley and Lucas' way either and yet suddenly the closest friendship Harley has seen since Cory and his friend Shawn appears to have dissolved. Things have been very awkward, tense, and sad in the eighth grade as of late, and Maya's been riding a good portion of it out in his closet.

Harley's only tried to talk to her about it a couple of times. He knows kids don't always want to talk to people his age about their problems, and that she's got plenty of other people in her life that she can go to, so he hasn't thought much of her declining, but the longer the conflict goes on and shows no sign of being repaired, the more he considers ratting the girl out to one of the other teachers who she might be more inclined to open up to.

Then he learns the reason she's taken refuge on this particular Thursday.

Harley knows that Riley succumbed to all the pressure that she's been under (he had been the one to deal with the mess in the hall that had been left behind) and that the consensus with most of the students is that it happened after she and Maya were supposed to have a discussion, but it's much closer to the end of the day when he gets a detailed report that he can surmise to be fairly accurate. According to young Mr. Babineaux, who has gathered his intel from discussions with Lucas (who spoke with Riley) and texts from Farkle (who spoke with Maya) and is sharing it in hushed tones with some of the cheerleaders in the hallway between classes under the promise that they'll only use minimal details to stop everyone from using the event as grist for the gossip mill, Riley had been trying to offer an apology for the incident in Texas, when Maya had found something innocent that she deemed to be a betrayal; this resulted in Maya taking off some ring, which was apparently a very big deal and was enough to break through the walls Riley had built around herself.

After hearing the details of the story, Harley starts to understand the situation a bit more, particularly what it is that Maya might be going through and trying to hide from. With this newfound insight he decides that it's time that someone gets the girl to talk, or at least to listen, and with the other likely candidate out of town dealing with his family emergency, the duty essentially falls to him. Harley likes to think that he's matured enough to be able to handle it and handle it well.

So when he returns to his office a little before the bell rings to start the final class of the day and Maya is still there, sitting on his desk, he grabs his chair and spins it so he can sit on it backwards. "The word out in the halls is that you haven't had a very good day."

Not unsurprisingly, her walls are up in full force and she rolls her eyes. "What was your first clue, Sherlock?"

"I'm a highly observant and caring individual." Harley matches her tone. His experience as the hurting kid, angry at the world and everyone in it tells him he's more likely to get a response if she realizes he's not just another adult telling her to straighten up; attitude from him might make Maya get frustrated and close herself off further, but it just might make him more relatable. "I hear everyone's stories and today they're all about you. Word in the halls is that you and Little Matthews are ending your friendship."

"Yeah, you're really solving the mysteries now. Keep it up and Fred and Daphne might let you join the gang."

"I'm going to ignore your sarcasm because I know you're just trying to prove that the day hasn't beaten you."

"Keep telling yourself that."

"You know, you and me, we're not so different." Harley says after waiting a moment for Maya's obvious annoyance to dissipate a little. "I know what it's like. Having less than everyone else, missing parts of your family...I know it's not easy to grow up feeling like everyone else has these perfect little lives and you're so far behind you'll barely grow good enough to shine their shoes."

Maya scoffs. "I don't think that's a thing anymore.

Now Harley rolls his eyes. Trust a teenager to latch onto an outdated reference and miss the point entirely. "That wasn't what I was getting at."

"No, what you're getting at is that if I 'keep up the attitude like you did when you were my age I'll be wasting my full potential.'" She shifts into a mocking lecture tone and then slumps back out of it. "Thanks, but I've heard it before."

"Actually, I was going to tell you that you're lucky." Harley shrugs. "You've got something I never had when I was your age. But please, do continue putting words in my mouth. It sounds like you've got all the lectures down pat."

Maya blinks, staring at him and Harley mentally puts a tally mark on his side of the scoreboard; she's at least starting to hear him. Maya shakes her head, hard look sliding back into place. "Well, let's see...If you're going down the 'I'm actually really lucky' route, then next'll be, 'You're gonna wind up alone if you keep this up.'"

"That doesn't bother you?"

Maya pauses. Her breath hitches and she stares down at her hands, fiddling with something in her fingers. Harley just barely catches a glint of silver in the light before she shoves it into the pocket of her jeans. "Better to be alone where no one can hurt you than deal with this feelings crap."

And there it is. The reasoning that Harley is oh-so-familiar with. You have to hurt everyone else and push them away before they can do it to you. "Is that so?"

"Yep."

"Huh. And here I thought it was being alone that made me such a miserable jerk when I was in high school. I stand corrected."

"You weren't alone." Maya looks up, eyes just the tiniest bit wider. "Mr. Matthews told us a few stories. He said you always had those two guys with you." She taps her finger on her leg a couple of times, trying to draw on the names. "Freddie and the mouse!"

"Frankie." A smile pulls at the corner of his mouth at the mistake as he corrects her. "And Joey the Rat. And they were lackeys, not friends."

"There's a difference?"

"About the only thing a good friend has in common with a good lackey is that they're always around. But you can't talk to a lackey. Not about anything real. And they might take the fall for you, or intimidate someone so you don't have to, but every lackey has their limits; they're not gonna give you the kind of support that really helps you out, they just want things to stay the same. A lackey uses you just as much as you use them."

Maya takes a long moment to respond. "So you think things would have turned out different for you if you'd had real friends around?"

"I dunno." Harley shrugs. Honesty is important with these kids, even if it means revealing not-so-great truths about himself. "I was pretty messed up back then."

Maya scoffs and shoves herself off of the desk. She stands, arms crossed her chest. "Then why bother trying to convince me that I should keep them? You said yourself, we're not that different."

"I also said you have something I never had. A lot of somethings, actually. You've got a lot of people in your corner, Maya. A lot of people who give a damn and want to see you happy and succeeding. And I think you're smart enough to know that. So why are you trying to push them away? It can't only be because Lucas doesn't like you." Maya looks away, but doesn't say anything, so Harley keeps talking. He's on a roll now, and it feels like he's close to getting through to her. Maybe this is what Cory likes so much about teaching. "'Cause it may hurt now, but someday that heartache's gonna go away, and at the rate you're going, not a lot of people are gonna be around waiting for you when it happens."

"Has it occurred to you that that's what I want?"

"Nope. Because deep down, I think you know it's not."

"How do you do it?"

Charlie lets his head fall to the side, looking at the asker of the question. He's on his back underneath a row of desks, scraping gum off of the undersides in a detention he earned thanks to his repeated late arrivals in the mornings (having so many sisters and only one bathroom makes for a tight schedule in the mornings and it seems it doesn't matter how early he gets up, he still winds up getting pushed to the back of the line and therefore, leaves the house late) and even though the grunt-work started nearly half an hour ago now, his companion has been silent until this point. Not that he can blame her.

It's common knowledge around the school that Maya Hart has a lot to be thinking about.

When Charlie had first heard all of the rumors about Texas and everything that had happened there between that group of friends, he hadn't been surprised in the slightest. Everyone had been tracking Maya's obvious crush on Lucas for nearly six months, wondering what was going to happen and why Riley wasn't upset or doing anything about it when she and Lucas were actually close to being a thing.

The act of voting them best couple in the yearbook had been a poorly executed scheme by some of the girls to shake things up and make Riley take notice and fight for herself, only it hadn't worked. It was one of the reasons Charlie had gone for it and asked her to the semi-formal, even knowing that there was something between her and Lucas; whatever the feelings were, it seemed possible that they weren't that strong if she wasn't mad at her best friend for flirting with him so blatantly that the school was willing to call them the couple. But nothing had come from that night either, so Charlie took a step back, thinking that either everyone was misreading the situation, or the timing just wasn't right yet.

Then the group went to Texas, where it seemed everything came to a head. Plenty of rumors circulated, but the gist of them seemed to be that Riley brother-zoned Lucas and forced a conversation between him and Maya that hadn't gone well. Ever since, things in the group have been tense and downright frosty between the girls, with Maya suddenly spending a lot more time with the other artsy kids or on her own, and Riley still with Farkle, Zay, and Lucas but maintaining a certain distance between them.

Charlie had allowed his own wishful thinking that the brother thing was true and a nudge from Sarah convince him to ask Riley to the Spring Fling, but in reality the truth of what had happened should have been obvious to anyone who'd met Riley.

Something had happened to finally make Maya's feelings for Lucas clear to Riley, and instead of getting upset like anyone else probably would have, Riley had stepped back and removed herself from the equation to give Maya the chance to explore her feelings. Only for whatever reason, none of it had worked and now everyone is miserable, to the point where a lot of people are saying that the strongest friendship in the school might actually be over and done with.

So yeah, Maya has a lot on her mind and Charlie can't believe she's trying to talk about it with him of all people.

"How do I do what?"

Maya has stopped her work scraping at the desks as well, but she doesn't look at him until well after she starts talking. "Well, you like Riley, right? Like, you liker her a lot and she's turned you down, but you still have feelings for her, don't you?"

Charlie hesitates for a moment, but eventually confirms that she's right. It's not like other people don't already know.

"So how do you spend time with her every day? How can you see her and just let go of the fact that she doesn't think you're good enough? How do you look at Lucas and not want to punch him in the face for getting something that you wanted so badly without even try-" Maya cuts herself off. From the look on her face as she turns away, Charlie can guess that she's just said much more than she meant to.

"You want to punch Riley in the face?" It's hard not to make the connection between Maya's words about him and what she's really thinking, and even harder to control his shock at the insinuation, but the glare Maya sends his way at the comment is enough to make him leave that alone for now and search out the broader point she's looking for help with: dealing with rejection from someone you're close to. Charlie still can't believe she's asking him, but quickly realizes that the people she would normally go to just aren't options for this. "OK. So you want to know how I can still spend time with Riley even though I know she doesn't return my feelings?"

"Yeah."

"Well, it's not like the only thing I liked about her was her potential to be my girlfriend." Charlie says. "She's a great person that I want in my life, even if it's just as friends. It's a little hard right now, but it helps that she's always been understanding and polite about the situation. You know, neutral situations and conversation topics...really respectful and conscious of how things might affect me."

Maya closes her eyes, grimacing. "She really is Mary freakin' Poppins, isn't she?"

There's an odd mix of resentment and regret in her voice that Charlie can't figure out the reasoning of or how to deal with. He just moves on to the next thing he wants to say. "It also helps that I only have one class and lunch with her. A little distance, without staring and analyzing her every move and stalking her instagram," something he has a feeling Maya has been doing a lot of, "goes a long way."

"But..." She cringes again, this time letting her head fall to face entirely away from him. "Doesn't doing all of that hurt? You want her to be with you and she-,"

"I want her to be with whoever's going to make her happy." Charlie cuts her off. He's not sure if Maya is just confused about her situation or if she genuinely thinks he feels the way she's describing, but he feels like he has to correct her either way. "It would be great if that was me, but it's not and I have to respect that. If I ever can't handle it, I'll take another step back until I can."

"But-"

"My feelings for Riley are nobody's problem but mine. I wouldn't like myself very much if I made them her problem or Lucas', because it's not their fault things didn't work. The situation just wasn't right. I would be a jerk if I didn't respect that."

A thick silence falls over them. Charlie can imagine that she's trying to apply what he's told her to her feelings for Lucas and maybe seeing if the approach could work for her. At least until she opens her mouth. "You know you talk like a girl about this, right?"

A small laugh huffs out. "I have a mother who's a therapist and five sisters, Hart. I can do talks about feelings better than most of the girls in this school." This gets Maya to actually smile. She smothers it almost as quickly but considering how miserable she's looked lately, Charlie's going to count that as a win.

Things go quiet again and Maya sets back to work at scraping away the gum. Charlie follows suit. As he works, their conversation plays over in his head, one thing that Maya said in particular looping over and over. How can you see her and just let go of the fact that she doesn't think you're good enough?

He can't believe that Maya, a girl who he has never seen be anything less than bold, confident, and self-assured, actually thinks she's not good enough for someone. It strikes him as kind of awful if she really does; Charlie'll be the first to admit that her attitude can get a little old sometimes (even the biggest rebels in the school take a day off from the hating class routine once in a while) and that he doesn't totally understand the cheese souffle thing or why it hasn't gone away yet, but he knows she's a good person with a good heart. Riley wouldn't be friends with her otherwise. And nobody should ever feel like they're not good enough for another person.

Charlie stops chipping away at the gum once more. "Did Lucas tell you that you weren't good enough for him?" He doesn't think it's likely but he will rethink his position on punching Friar in the face if he's wrong. Even if it probably would result in him getting roughed up in return. Maya eventually denies the accusation. "Then why do think that's his reason?" This time she doesn't answer. "Maya, Lucas doesn't like you the way you like him. But as far as I know, he does like you as a friend and care about you. So whatever his reasons are for not wanting to date you, they have nothing to do with who you are."

If she has a response, Charlie doesn't get to hear it. The detention supervisor comes in tells them that they're free to go, and Maya bolts.

"And one for Yindra, and one for Dave, and one for Darby..."

Riley grabs Farkle's hand as Missy approaches their lunch table, a stack of birthday party invitations in hand. It's technically against the rules at Benjamin Franklin Elementary to pass out invitations or gifts or anything else that might leave students feeling excluded, but everyone knows that if you do it in the cafeteria, the teachers don't notice or care. And if there's one thing Missy likes to do as the queen bee of the third grade, it's make people feel excluded. The weeks before her birthday in late September are the worst power trip of them all and this year appears to be no exception.

This year the rumor is that the party is going to be at the movies and Disney themed. Riley really wants to go. She loves Disney, and she's never been to a movie theater with only people she knows in it, but she's not sure if Missy will have an invitation for her this year. Missy is picky and a little bit flakey; you could be on her good side one day and the next she's telling everyone you called the teacher mom and told her you loved her during indoor recess, deeming you the ultimate baby.

"And one for Farkle..." Missy lays a glittery envelope next to his tray. That's no surprise. Now that they're a bit older and everyone has realized that he's from that Minkus family, they all want him at their birthday parties. Missy then passes over Riley to give invites to a few of the other kids sitting at the table, but stops in front of her once more, flipping through the remaining envelopes in her hand. "And that's it for this table. RSVP by next Friday!"

Riley's heart falls below her stomach as she realizes that this year, she's one of the few who won't be going to the party. The only person at her lunch table in fact. Her cheeks are hot and red, and she's struggling to hold her head high and not cry when Farkle's hand slips out of hers and he gets up.

"I think you forgot Riley."

"Oh, no I didn't." Missy shakes her head, smiling sweetly. "Riley's not invited."

"Why not?" Farkle asks.

Missy glances towards her friend that had been following her during the handing out of the invitations and hands her the remaining stack of envelopes. She turns back to Farkle. "Because. Riley is a goofy klutz who smiles too much and I don't want anyone that weird at my party."

If Riley could make herself vanish and reappear in her bay window at home she would. Things always seemed better in the bay window.

"You have no evidentiary support for your conclusions." Farkle puffs out his chest. He's only making more trouble for himself, but Riley doesn't know how to stop him; Farkle has always tried to protect her. "Riley's perfect."

"Perfectly dorky." Missy and her friend cackle. "And if you don't want to lose your invitation, I would stop defending her. Your family money only goes so far to cover up your geekiness."

"Then it's a good thing the three of us don't want to go to your party anyways."A new voice chimes in. Riley recognizes the little blonde in torn jeans and a red flannel shirt as a new student this year, but she's not in her class so she has no idea of her name. But the girl plucks the party invitation out of Farkle's hand, and actually starts to tear it up, dropping the pieces at Missy's feet. "I've heard you can catch 'jerk' if you're not careful."

Riley's eyes widen. Nobody just stands up to Missy. And certainly not to defend her and Farkle.

Missy's eyes narrow at the newcomer. "Who are you?"

"Maya Penelope Hart." The blonde grins. "I'm new here. And I like weird. So maybe think about that before you start insulting my friends again."

Missy sputters a few times before spinning on her heels and huffing as she stalks away. Several of the students nearby who witnessed the confrontation quietly clap. The new girl, Maya, bounces through a bow before sliding onto the lunch table bench across from Riley.

"That was fun. Is she always like that?"

Riley still can't believe that any of it happened. "Kind of." She wipes her hand over her face to shake off the encounter with Missy then smiles, holding out her hand. "I'm Riley, and this is Farkle." She gestures towards her genius friend, who's slowly sitting back down next to her. "Why did you do that?"

"Like I said. I'm new here. I need a new best friend. And I'd much rather it be one of the weird kids than anyone like that. Plus she's a jerk." Maya grabs the apple off of Farkle's lunch tray and bites into it. "What kind of a name is Farkle?"

Farkle rests his elbow on the table, his chin on his hand and sighs loudly. Riley can practically see the hearts forming in his eyes. "You're gorgeous."

"You can't handle me." Maya turns in her seat, blonde hair flying over her shoulder. She grins and quirks an eyebrow at Riley. "So what do you say? Best friends?"

Riley can only imagine a world where she's friends with a girl like this. Maya is everything that she's not. Brave and cool and sassy...Riley's only ever been the girl that sits quietly and follows the rules. She's almost certain that the opportunity is temporary; at some point Maya will realize that she and Farkle just aren't cool and she'll look for friends that are more like her. But it could be a fun few weeks until that happens.

She nods, grinning so wide that it feels like her cheeks might split. "Best friends."

Riley's eyes snap open and she gasps. She's not quite awake as she realizes her room is moving, and it takes her a few moments of rapidly glancing around to realize that she's not in her room, she's in the front seat of her Uncle Jon's car.

The talk with him and Lucas in the nurse's office had wrapped up with Uncle Jon insisting that she can no longer try and handle the various problems on her own, and since the school would already be talking to her parents about the incident in the hallway (Uncle Jon's still calling it a panic attack and Lucas latched onto that as well, but Riley is resolutely avoiding that term since she has no idea how to hide a panic attack or make it go away so it absolutely has to be something else) that would open the door for the whole conversation. Riley had tried to argue the point, but Lucas was on his side too and she had been too tired and upset to form a coherent argument.

Riley hadn't been present to hear the conversation, having been sent home with Farkle and his mom to clean up and get some rest, but the next thing she knows it's late afternoon and her parents have agreed that she and Auggie can miss school the next day and Uncle Jon is driving them down. She fell asleep only a few minutes after they got on the road, and then she had started dreaming.

"You OK over there, Riles?"

She jumps a little at Uncle Jon's question, unaware that he had even noticed her wake up. Riley forces herself to take a slow breath and nods, running a hand through her hair. "Yeah, I'm fine. Where are we?" She looks out the window, but there aren't any signs and in the twilight hours she can't get a good look at the area.

He meets her eyes when he glances briefly away from the road. "About halfway there."

On a perfect day it normally took a little over an hour and a half to get to Philly. Riley mentally calculates the approximate 45 minutes left in the drive and is more than a little surprised when the thought makes her heart pound; in just 45 minutes she'll have to see how her grandparents are doing and see the rest of her family. She'll have to tell them that she's a broken disaster of a person and that not only is she failing at handling any of her own problems, but now she's turning them into some sort of side show and that she's driven away her best friend, the girl they think of like a second daughter and-

"You sure you're OK?"

Uncle Jon's voice cuts through her train of thought and Riley's head snaps in his direction. She tries to muster up a smile to be more convincing but she can feel how fake it is and quickly looks away instead. "Yeah, just a little.." She trails off and glances in the rear-view mirror, spotting her brother. The perfect distraction. "Has Auggie been OK?"

"Auggie is watching some Lion King show that I didn't know existed." Uncle Jon answers. "And I haven't heard a peep out of him."

Auggie has a tablet borrowed from the Minkus' in hand and a large pair of headphones pushing down his curls. "The Lion Guard." Riley clarifies for Uncle Jon. "It's his favorite right now. He won't notice anything until we get there unless he has to go the bathroom."

"Good to know."

Riley turns to look out the window when Uncle Jon doesn't say anything else right away. There isn't much to look at, but she at least feels like she can think without her face giving everything away to him.

"I'm a little surprised you didn't sleep the whole way." He comments after a few moments.

"No, I suck at sleeping in cars. I always have weird dreams when I'm moving."

"Weird dreams, huh? Is that what woke you up?"

Riley had given the explanation without really thinking about it. Her mind flashes back to the dream. The day she and Maya had first met and decided to be friends. It's no mystery to Riley why she would be dreaming of that now, not on the day that Maya has decided that they're no longer friends. She's always remembered the day, but the details seem so vivid now. From Maya's swift treatment of Missy and her ability to put her firmly in her place to Riley's own prediction that the friendship would have an expiration date.

Really, it's a miracle it lasted six whole years.

It still hurts though. A giant, aching void, and Riley can't figure out a way to patch it or ignore it. Assuring herself that it was always going to happen doesn't work, nor does thinking about ways to fix the situation (not that she's come up with any way to convince Maya that things are worth fixing). From day one, she and Maya have shared everything with each other, and been as close as sisters. Her sister is walking out of her life and she can't do anything about it. How is she supposed to make that pain go away?

"Riley?"

She jumps again, jolting back into reality when Uncle Jon's hand falls onto her elbow. "Huh?"

"I said your name three times, kid." He says, drawing back his hand.

"Really?"

"You looked like you were gonna have another panic attack." There's those words again. "I thought I was going to have to pull over to help you."

Jeez, how much of a freaky burden can she be? No wonder Maya is bailing.

Riley feels the wave of shame and embarrassment spill over her. It seems like all she's done lately is make trouble for everyone else. Farkle and Zay have to watch what they say with her and Maya and split their time. All of her teachers have to take time to try and coach her back into being a good student. Lucas has practically become some sort of babysitter instead of a friend or potential boyfriend. And now Uncle Jon is taking time off of work to bring her to her parents (who are going to have to deal with her problems instead of helping with her grandparents) and it's not even a quiet trip because she's still freaking out over nothing.

"I'm sorry I'm being so much trouble." She apologizes, wiping at the tears that she hadn't even realized were falling again. Riley would have thought she was long out of tears, considering how puffy, red, and sore her eyes were (even after napping with one of Mrs. Minkus' cold compress masks) but somehow they keep coming. She sniffs a little. "I don't even know what's wrong with me."

"You don't need to apologize, Riley. You're not being any trouble. You've just been trying to deal with a lot these past few weeks on your own and it's finally catching up with you."

"Right. Because normal kids freak out in the middle of the hall because of one fight with their friend."

"From what Lucas was saying this is more than just a fight. And you didn't freak out. You had a panic attack." Uncle Jon corrects with an understanding tone when she scoffs. "You're not any less normal for having one."

Riley doesn't respond because she can't figure out if he really means it. He's practically family and it's family's job to tell you your pretty or normal or anything else even when it's not always true, but at the same time, she's fairly sure that he hasn't lied to her before about anything important.

"I mean, I'm pretty normal, aren't I?" He asks. Riley agrees quickly; they don't let weirdos run an entire school district. "What if I told you that I had a few panic attacks after my motorcycle accident? Does that make me less normal?"

Riley's automatic answer falls short from coming out. Things suddenly make a bit more sense. Why he's so insistent on calling the incident a panic attack, how he knew how to help her when no one else did, why he seems so understanding compared to almost everyone else (who just seems awkward). "You've...felt like that before?"

"Maybe not the exact same way you did," he hedges, "but I've felt like the world was being pulled out from under my feet and no matter how much I fought or scrambled I couldn't pull it back to me. I know how scary it is."

Oh.

"Riley, I don't know if this was just a one-time response to the situation for you, or something more, but you don't need to worry about being a burden or anything less than normal while we figure it out. Your parents and I want to be there for you if you'll let us. You're not doing any of this alone anymore."

Riley doesn't want to be doing any of it alone. She just wishes it felt easier to let anyone in.