Notes: This takes place at approximately the same time as what happens in 9A. The differences should be clear.

Thursday

"Woah, Lucas. Ease up on the beat down. Show 'em a little mercy."

Farkle pauses the game and both he and Lucas stop their frantic mashing of buttons on their controllers to turn and stare at Zay. "Did you just come down on the side of the zombies in Zombies Eat Your Brains 4?" Farkle asks.

The look that Zay sends them in return is just as pointed. "They may be mindless zombies with the intent of killing you and eating your brains but that doesn't mean they're not human."

"That is exactly what that means!" Lucas' reply is a little louder and more heated than it needs to be.

In response Zay crosses his arms over his chest and shakes his head. "All I know is you have a gun and ammo in your inventory so you could humane about it but instead you're bludgeoning them with your spiky baseball bat thing and you're hitting them way after they're down. It's overkill and I don't like it."

Lucas sighs. OK, so technically he's going overboard with the zombie killing, but it's a good way to deal with some of his frustration and anger. Not to mention it's really satisfying to be given a problem and not only know the solution to it but to actually be able to put the solution into action. Problem? There's too many zombies that want to eat his brains. Solution? Kill the zombies. It's simple and straightforward in a way that the real world just hasn't been lately.

What had started as some hurt feelings and a couple of days for everyone to cool off has turned into something much bigger than anything Lucas could have imagined and the conclusion they're rapidly barreling towards is one that nobody actually wants to see happen. Riley and Maya no longer being friends. He's felt helpless and responsible for the past month.

Two people that he cares deeply for, albeit in very different ways, have been hurting and miserable at least partly because of their feelings for him. Lucas doesn't think it's possible that what happened in Texas and the subsequent explosion happened solely because Maya had feelings for him that he didn't return (and some of his talks with Mr. Matthews seemed to imply the same thing) but it's obvious that he played a role in some way and that kills him. He would never want to be the cause of someone's unhappiness, and it had been bad enough having to let Maya down at the campfire but then things got worse between the girls. Every subsequent fight, detail, and hardship has been another weight laid down across his shoulders.

It feels like he should be the one to fix things since he's part of the reason they're broken, but Lucas has no idea how.

Maya won't talk to him at all, which he understands but doesn't much like, and until the last day or so Riley would barely let him sit next to her let alone let him or anyone else be there for her. And now Maya has done the unthinkable, removing her ring and completely pulling the rug out from under Riley. He can't say how much of Riley's breakdown earlier was because of Maya and how much was other pressures, but as with his burden of responsibility for the initial conflict, it seems clear that Maya has to shoulder some of the blame here. He's not even sure what the two would need in order to even get back on the path towards fixing things, let alone actually repairing the damage that's been done.

It's part of why they're at Farkle's playing video games. The genius is at a similar loss as to what can be done, but even more unwilling to admit that this might be the end of Riley and Maya's friendship. He had invited them over for dinner after Riley, Auggie, and Mr. Turner had left for Philadelphia. When no ideas had come to them during the meal, Farkle had insisted they play Zombies Eat Your Brains 4 because mindlessly killing zombies was where he did some of his best thinking.

Lucas has, admittedly, been much more focused on the zombie killing than the brainstorming, but hopefully it's worked for Zay and Farkle. "I don't suppose either of you have come up with any bright ideas to fix all this."

"Well, if we've learned anything about conflict this year, it's that you should always try to talk things out." Farkle begins. He puts down his video game controller. "Only they've gone three weeks without saying a word to each other and if today's any indication I'm not sure that Maya's very interested in long conversation anyways." He tilts his head towards Zay. "Has anything like this ever happened on High School Love Dodecahedron?"

Lucas nearly groans.

"The dramatic end of friendship thing or the best friends not talking thing?" Zay asks. "Because yes. To both. All the time."

"How do they normally fix it?"

Lucas can't believe what he's hearing. Seriously?

Zay considers things for a moment before providing an answer. "It usually goes one of three ways. Sometimes the two that are fighting get caught up in some life threatening peril that they have to band together to get out of and realize in the process how much they'd be throwing away,"

"So that one's out." Farkle says.

Zay continues. "Sometimes they take a break away from each other, some other big thing happens to one of them to make them realize that whatever happened between them wasn't all that bad and then thy get partnered together for an English project or whatever and just start being friends again."

"Possible, but it seems like a long wait unless we could find a way to speed it up."

"Or, and this one is definitely the one that happens the most, they get locked in a room together through detention, accident, or scheming by other friends and they stay stuck until they've hashed everything out, at which point there's usually only five or so minutes left in the show so a janitor miraculously shows up with some keys or whatever."

Farkle snaps his fingers and points at Zay. "That's the one."

This time Lucas can't hold back his groan. "You've got to be kidding me. You're not seriously suggesting we use plots from a teen soap opera as solutions to actual real world problems are you?"

"Well, I don't have any better ideas." Zay shrugs. "And I don't hear you coming up with any."

"It's not that irrational. Everything happened exactly the way Zay said it happened on the show. Things were awkward, nothing resolved on it's own..."

Lucas genuinely can't believe he's hearing this. And from Farkle of all people. He, who comes out of a movie with an itemized list of everything that the film got wrong, is actually suggesting that they do things the Hollywood way. "Just because they get a couple of things right doesn't mean they're suddenly geniuses. You're talking about the same show that has characters transferring in and out of classes based on their relevance to the plot that week."

"I'm not saying we just take the plot and make it happen without any thought or tweaking." Farkle clarifies. "But we have to do something. If it were you and me, or you and Zay, Riley would be doing everything she could to fix it."

"And she probably wouldn't have waited three weeks like we did." Zay leans back in his chair when both Lucas and Farkle send mild glares his way. "What? Not helping?"

Lucas doesn't even know how to articulate how much of a bad idea he thinks forcing the girls to talk would be. Riley had barely been able to talk to him and Mr. Turner earlier for how upset and exhausted she was. How much of that was really going to go away with a single weekend away where the main distraction was her grandparents being in the hospital? You can't have the sort of serious talk needed to mend the fences between Riley and Maya if they're not on even footing. They both need to be able to make themselves heard and understood if they're going to make any progress and Lucas doesn't really see either girl as being prepared to do that (for different reasons) and he has to think if they force things before they're ready it either won't work at all or something will fester between them and they'll all be right back in the same position somewhere down the line.

Either way, it's not an acceptable outcome and he knows it will only hurt both girls more.

"Doing something doesn't mean interfering with their choices." Lucas says, ignoring Zay's comment entirely. "They're not ready to talk. I don't know if you've noticed but Maya hasn't exactly been willing to listen lately."

"I think I got through to her today. She knows she's been unfair."

Lucas raises an eyebrow. "Does she? Because you saw what happened today. Riley can't take another 'discussion' like that."

Farkle genuinely looks annoyed with him and crosses his arms over his chest. "Riley's not the only one hurting because of this fight. The longer this goes on the worse off Maya is. If we don't get them talking and fix all of this soon nothing will ever go back to how it was."

"Right, but you weren't there today when Riley told me she thought she was broken because she couldn't react to things the way she thought was expected. And you weren't there when I had to explain what was going on to make her have a panic attack to Mr. Turner while Riley was crying because she couldn't handle talking about it." Lucas counters quickly. "I want them to stay friends and have things be normal again, but not if it's going to come at her expense.

"I get that you love both of them and that you want them to be happy. So do I. But I never promised to love them the same like you did. Riley is gonna come first for me. Every time. So I will do what I can to repair their friendship because I know that's what she wants, but I'm not gonna do anything that I know has a good chance of hurting her more."

A long silence follows his speech. Lucas regrets it a little, knowing that A) he had probably just violated Riley's trust, telling the two of them about their earlier conversation, B) the last thing he wants to do is provoke a fight with Farkle and arguing so strongly is a good way to do that, and C) he's just been way more open about his feelings for Riley than he has with even her. The longer the quiet goes on, the more he worries, and Lucas opens his mouth to say something more and maybe backtrack a little but Zay claps his hands together before he can get anything out.

"OK, so locking them in a room is out. Who thinks they'd fall for it if we start sending them gifts and sign the cards saying they're from each other?"

Friday

"Mom, do you have a minute? I have something I want to talk to you about."

Katy Hart nearly drops the glass she's wiping down in shock. Maya—her daughter—actually wants to talk to her about something. It takes every speck of restraint she has not to start jumping up and down and doing her happy dance.

She's known, of course, for weeks that something is wrong, either with Maya herself or at least within her group of friends. Why else would Maya have stopped going over to the Matthews' or the group stopped hanging out together at the bakery? Only that's really all Katy knows. There's no talking to Maya when she doesn't feel like talking, so despite her near daily reminders to her daughter that she's here if she needs anything, Katy never expected in a million years that Maya would actually come to her. The girl is much too independent for that.

"Of course, baby girl." Katy smiles and lowers the glass to the counter. She reminds herself to play it cool. "Just let me tell Denise." Katy ducks out back to the storeroom to let the server currently retrieving more paper for the cash register that she was taking her break, and ditches her apron behind the counter as she returns to the bakery. It's just after the after-school rush, and the bulk of their customers have left in favor of going to get ready for dates and parties and such for the night, so she and Maya take a seat on the sofa facing each other. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

Maya takes a deep breath."Well, I was talking to Miss Kossal today and she said that the camp she was telling me about a few weeks ago, the one she works at in the summers up in the Catskills, still really needs a few junior counselors for this year. And she said she'd be willing to recommend me and get the camp to make me, like, her apprentice or teaching assistant if I can get two other teachers to write me letters of recommendation. I really want to do it, but I figured I should check with you first."

Katy's mouth hangs limply open. It's not exactly the deep heart-to-heart she's been expecting or hoping for. It's also not the sort of request that's typical of her daughter. Maya doesn't ask for a lot anyways (the reality of their financial situation seemed to sink in early despite Katy's best efforts to hide it) but she's still always shown interest in things, even if she would never say she wanted them. She's never shown any excitement over the idea of summer camp or anything like it. She's never been interested in anything that would take her away from the city and Riley.

"It won't cost you anything." Maya continues before Katy can say anything. "The camp's sorta small so they can't pay the junior counselors very much but they don't make them pay for room and board or anything."

"You...want to work at a summer camp in the Catskills."

"Yeah."

"For the whole summer?"

"Eight weeks. I'd have to go up a week after graduation."

"That's barely a month from now."

Maya isn't deterred by the protest in the slightest. It's obvious that she's come to the conversation prepared. "I know it's short notice, but it's a really good opportunity. I'll be earning a little money and I'll get to keep learning from Miss Kossal and working on my art. Plus, she says it's a great, unique first job to have on my resume."

Or her college applications, Katy mentally substitutes, almost certain that that's what Maya's art teacher had really said anyways. And she would be right, which is just one more reason it's almost impossible to say no to her daughter's request. She's brought up some good points, and it's the sort of experience that Katy has just never been able to give her. All of that aside, she just doesn't want to give up her daughter for a whole summer, not when they've actually started to bond a little, and she's not above a little bit of probing to try and see if Maya is completely sold on the idea before she says yes.

"Eight weeks is a really long time. Aren't you going to miss Riley and the guys?" As far as probing for information goes, Katy considers this one of her most subtle attempts.

"I think they'll be OK." Maya says. She twiddles her fingers in her lap. "I kinda messed things up with them. Especially Riley. I'm pretty sure even if I stick around this summer they won't want to see me."

Katy very nearly scoffs, but manages to stop herself. Even though there's been some tension and dynamic changes since the trip to Texas, she can't imagine anything so bad that it would make a sweetheart like Riley freeze anyone out. But Maya is obviously upset and worried about it, and Katy doesn't want to alienate her by dismissing that. "What makes you say that?"

"I kind of...fell for Lucas."

"Oh." That'll do it. Nothing can mess up a friendship quite like matters of the heart. Particularly when two friends start chasing after the same heart. Although last Katy understood… "What about Josh?"

"I don't know...He's never around 'cause he's so busy with senior year. And he only ever looked at me like a little kid...I just started looking at guys around here."

"And your eyes landed on Lucas?"

Maya groans, throwing herself down across Katy's lap. "I know. I'm horrible. I don't even know what happened. It's just..." Katy starts to stroke her hair while she gathers her thoughts. "He's gorgeous and we've always had this game, but it started to feel a lot more like flirting. And then the class voted us best couple in the yearbook even though we weren't actually together, and when I was pretending to be Riley and started talking about him I thought she liked him like a brother and just didn't know it yet."

So naturally she started to think that maybe there was a chance that that relationship wasn't going to work out, Katy fills in. She understands all too well how a brain under the influence of a massive crush can twist every little thing into a sign or a signal. The stories she could tell and the mistakes that she had made when she was in high school…

Of course, Katy also cringes when she realizes the role she might have played in this. In all likelihood, Maya's realization of the "familial nature" of Riley's feelings for Lucas had nothing to do with Riley. Pretending to be someone else can be confusing at the best of times, even when you're an actor who's been doing it for years, and really, Maya and Riley were much too close for any portrayal to be truly accurate and revelatory. Maybe Katy should have been firmer in her warnings when she had been teaching her how to do it in the first place.

"When he didn't ask Riley to the semi-formal, this tiny stupid voice in my head started saying it was because maybe he liked me. And even though I never would have gone out with him as long as Riley still thought she liked him, I started hoping anyways."

"Oh baby, it's never stupid to hope that the guy you like likes you back." Katy soothes. She's never gotten to do this with Maya, but she knows what she wishes people had said to her during her times of heartbreak, and it wasn't giving her a lecture about why she had been wrong.

"Riley figured out I liked him when we were in Texas." Maya continues. "And, typical Riley, she tried to make me happy by lying and saying I was right about the brother thing and trying to get Lucas to go out with me. Only he wasn't interested and he told me that and even though I pretty much knew it was coming it still..."

Katy jumps in. "Hurts? Sucks? Makes you want to throw the guy into the fiery surface of the sun?"

Maya snorts, a brief watery laugh, and she pushes herself off of Katy's lap wiping at her face. "All of the above?"

Katy comforts her daughter, all the while wondering how she had gone from the heartbreak of Lucas not returning her feelings to fighting with Riley; it sounds like Riley had been more than accepting of Maya's feelings, going so far as to lie about her own to give her friend a chance. What middle schooler is generous enough to do that? No one Katy went to school with, that's for sure.

When Katy probes a little, she gets the rest of the story. How being hurt and let down added to how crappy Maya already felt for having feelings for her best friend's sort-of boyfriend, and how she had no idea how to deal with any of it but be mad. And instead of just being mad at herself she got made at Riley because it was easier and because in a way it felt like Riley's fault. She's the one who convinced me to hope and dream again. She's the one who put my feelings out there and made me get rejected.

Maya tells the story of the month after Texas. How she hasn't been talking to Riley or Lucas, and how she got so caught up in her heartbreak and anger that she didn't pay attention to what was really happening. In her mind, Riley and Lucas were getting together, happy that she was out of the way. They would get to be the perfect couple and could leave her behind. She tells Katy about the most recent fight on Thursday, trying to make amends but being so starkly slapped in the face by a painful reminder to what she thought had been happening, and for once wanting to be the one who did the leaving.

She talks about realizing she made a mistake, but not knowing how to fix it.

"So like I said, I don't think they're going to miss me much." Maya finishes, putting what Katy recognizes as her daughter's game face on once more; the world can't know that she has hurt feelings, after all. "And I'd really rather go to that camp and be doing something then to be stuck here all summer on my own."

Katy sighs. She completely understands what Maya is saying—completely knows the feeling of wanting to avoid the conflict and pain that you know is coming—and as her mother there's a large part of her that wants to support that and let her daughter be happy. But as someone who's gone through it all and knows how little the avoidance tactic actually works, she wants to at least try and get Maya to face the problem. "You're worrying about being left behind by Riley and Lucas, but what if that's not what they want to do? What if they want things fixed just as badly as you do, but when things calm down again and they try, you're not here?" Katy has to believe that that's the reality of the situation. She knows the power of love and heartbreak can distort your perceptions, and the kids that she knows as her daughter's friends would never give up on her or abandon her like she's describing.

Maya doesn't answer her.

"Or, say you go to the camp and you have a great time. When you come back, they'll all still be here. The feelings are still gonna be there. Maybe not your feelings for Lucas, but about what Riley did and what you did...that's not gonna just go away. You can't just run and hide and hope things get better."

"I don't know how to do anything else. Mom, please. I just really need some time away from all this."

"Well..." The protective mother continues to war with the mother who wants to be a teacher and mentor to her daughter. Looking at how tired and devastated Maya looks now, Katy can only see herself reaching one decision. "I want to talk to Miss Kossal before I definitely say yes, but why don't you start thinking about which teachers you might want to ask for those recommendations."

Maya's eyes go wide. "Really?"

"I really think you should at least try to talk to Riley before you go, but yes."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

If Katy had been surprised about Maya coming to her in the first place, that shock has nothing on how she feels now, being bowled over as Maya charges into a hug.

It's definitely worth saying yes for.

Saturday

The first thing Lucas notices as he wakes up is that he forgot to close his curtains the night before and the sun is really bright as it streams across his face. The second thing he notices is that his phone is ringing loudly enough that it will catch the attention of his parents if he doesn't answer it soon. He reaches over to his bedside table blindly and grabs it, swiping his thumb across the screen as he brings it back to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Can we talk?"

The voice on the other end of the line is smaller and a little more frantic than he's used to, but still instantly recognizable as Riley and it's a bit like a jolt of caffeine to his system. Lucas rubs a hand over his face, to get the grit of sleep out of his eyes. "Of course. Is everything OK?"

"Yeah...No...I don't know. I just...I've been having all these dreams about when I first met Maya and how our friendship used to be and it's really confusing because it's nothing like how things have been lately, you know? And I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. Almost everyone seems to want me and her to be perfect best friends again, but I'm not sure if that can work after everything that's happened. I don't want to have stop being close with you because it wouldn't be fair to her, and I don't think I can go back to ignoring some of the things she does because I'm worried if I say something it'll be the thing that makes her leave."

Her rambling starts fast and moves up to warp speed quickly. Lucas doesn't have the time to interject.

"When I talked to Mr. Feeny he said that it's OK if I don't want to fix things with Maya, and that it's my choice and nobody else's but I don't know how to make that choice. I don't know how she was able to stand in that hall and look at me and take her ring off and say she was done because even knowing that she did that, I'm still wearing mine and worrying about what she'll think about what happens next, even though it shouldn't matter to me at all because it probably doesn't matter to her. How can something that was so easy for her be so hard for me? And why aren't you saying anything?"

"Well, for one, I'm waiting for you to take a breath." Lucas says. He's gotten used to the speed at which Riley can talk when she gets going, and although his mind is a little slow to catch up since he's only just waking up, he's caught most of what she said. She's starting to realize that what happened wasn't only something that she did and she's at a loss as to what she's supposed to do. Lucas doesn't have a good answer for her, he doesn't even know what she might need to hear, but he's more than a little worried that she's going to work herself up into another panic attack and settles for trying to just slow her down while he tries to figure out what else he can offer. "You know I don't like to interrupt."

"Right. You can take the boy out of Texas but you can't take the Texan manners out of the boy."

Lucas starts to sit up, arranging his pillows to prop himself up better. "Exactly." The edge in her voice is already backing off, so he keeps going down that path. "I'm gonna switch to video chat, OK?"

Riley protests halfheartedly about only just falling out of bed, but ultimately agrees and a few moments later her face, messy hair, bleary eyes and all lights up his phone screen.

"Hi."

"Hey." She's got a hint of blush in her cheeks. "I'm sorry I woke you up just to ramble at you like a crazy person. You could be sleeping right now and instead you're stuck dealing with me."

"You don't need to apologize Riley. I told you to call if you needed anything and obviously you needed to talk about this with someone."

Riley sighs, and reaches up, brushing her hair away from her face. "I just don't know what to do. I love Maya but things have so hard lately. It feels like no matter what I do I'm gonna have to give something up. It's this giant big thing and everyone else is acting like it's so easy and it's just making me feel so stupid. I'm almost in high school. I should be able to figure this out."

"No." Lucas shakes his head. "The only reason anyone is acting like it's easy is because they're not actually dealing with it. You are. It's always easier for someone on the sidelines to act like they're an expert and give their input to the players, but when you're the one in the game there's a lot more pressure on you. You're not stupid because you don't know what you want yet."

"I feel like it should be easier than this though." Her voice cracks and she turns away from her phone's camera.

Lucas can only just see as she wipes her free hand at her eyes. He clenches a fist at his side, wishing that he could find a way to Philly to be there for her. "If I could do it for you I would, but you're the only one who can decide what's right for you."

"But can I? It really doesn't feel like it."

"Riley, if there's one thing I know about you, it's that you can do absolutely anything you put your mind to. You convinced Maya to stop giving up on herself, you helped Miss Burgess keep her job... You made the cheerleading squad when everyone told you not to even try. Even if you have to think about this for weeks I know you'll figure out what you need to do."

"You always know just what to say..." After a long moment Riley turns back to the camera, wiping at her eyes again. She's got a shaky half-smile on. "Promise me, no matter what happens, that we'll go back to how things were?"

Lucas nearly freezes. Does she mean what he thinks she means?

"I don't know what's going to happen with me and Maya, or with me and everyone else after that." Riley continues. "But I know that I can't go back to pretending that you mean less to me than you do. You're really important to me Lucas, and back in Texas you said we could go back to our unofficial thing, moving towards something more. Is that still what you want?"

Now he really wishes he was in Philadelphia with her. This is the sort of promise that he wants to make in person, not over video chat. Not that it's going to stop him. "Riley Matthews, I promise, no matter what happens, whether it's official or unofficial, you're my everything."