Author's Note: So, I'm posting this chapter to let everyone know that I will be continuing this story. I will try to update at least once every week or two, so this is a "special" chapter as I'm posting it so quickly after the first one! Hope you enjoy it, and I would love any comments, criticisms, and reviews! Thanks for reading! (Edited by Chereche!)

UPDATED: 10-23-16

Disclaimer: I don't own Girl Meets World, just the story!

Chapter Two: Friends Involve Themselves

"C'mon. It'll be fun!" Riley insisted, tugging on Maya's hand.

"No, I really think it won't." She remained planted in her place, ignoring her efforts to move her.

"What can I do to get you to experience the world?" the brunette cried in exasperation.

The blonde raised an eyebrow. "Um, you do remember that college party I had the idea to sneak out to, right?"

"It started at ten," Riley reminded her as she shook her head.

Maya laughed. "Look, I hardly think going there will change my life."

"It will!"

"It's the mall!" She threw up her hands, exasperated.

"Yes," Riley declared, bouncing slightly. "I knew you'd get it!"

"Riles, I'm failing every class. I don't get it."

"Oh! We can work on that too! I was talking to Farkle, and he'd love to set up a study group with us."

"What do you mean "work on that too"?" Maya asked suspiciously.

Riley took Maya's hand and led her to the bay window, knowing Maya would sit and listen better if they were at their sacred place.

"I thought maybe it would be a good idea to go shopping," she started again.

"Why?" Maya said with reluctance.

"Because, Peaches. You're having an insecurity issue, and maybe changing some of your clothes would help. You know, find clothes that you feel really good in?"

"That's what you think my problem is?" she laughed.

"Aha! So you admit you have a problem." Riley said with satisfaction.

"No…" Maya's voice lacked some of the usual confidence, but, had Riley not known her so well, she would not have been able to tell. "But where the heck did you get the insecurity idea from?"

"The whole braces thing," she answered.

"One time I do something different, and you guys jump all over me!" She ran a hand through her hair, still finding stray pieces of food in it.

"What you did wasn't necessarily different, Maya. But what you did and said definitely was not you."

"You can be so frustrating sometimes, Riles," she sighed.

Farkle popped his head inside the window, his hair damp from the recent shower he had taken after the food fight.

"Ladies."

"Farkle," they replied in unison instinctively.

"I brought friends!" He watched as Lucas climbed through the window.

Zay crouched right outside, and looked at the group of friends in disbelief. "So, you all still just climb through here?"

"Yah, come on in!" Riley waved cheerily from her spot.

"It just doesn't feel right," he grumbled, but came through anyway. After he made his reluctant journey, the rest of them stared at him, as he continued to shake his head. "All I'm saying is it's weird, man. No matter how often I do it." Zay said defensively.

"Okay, back to Maya now!" Riley sing-songed.

"No, we're done with whatever that conversation was." Maya brushed her off, and stood up.

"What's going on?" Farkle asked.

"Oh, you know us girls. Just planning on going shopping," Riley said as she smiled.

"Okay? I don't see the big deal, here," Lucas admitted, completely lost.

"Well, Maya hates the mall." The brunette grinned at her friend, who simply glared back.

"No!" Zay said, holding a hand to his heart, his face full of shock and horror.

"How much sarcasm do you have in you?" Maya sighed.

Zay got up, and crossed to her, clicking his tongue in fake disapproval. "Ms. Hart, I am the king of sarcasm; I never run out of it, something you obviously should have known."

"And why should I know that?" She raised her eyebrows.

He smirked. "Why, you're the queen. Sarcasm just drips off of you like chocolate pudding."

She gave him an annoyed glare; part of it being for the reference to the very food they had dumped in her hair. It had caused her at least a half-hour of painful scrubbing.

The rest of the group watched them in amusement, but Riley was the one to change the subject once again.

"So, anyway. I'm trying to get her to go with me."

"Question. Why are you telling us this?" Farkle spoke up. "How is this a big deal?"

Riley sighed in disappointment, obviously believing that her friends should have known this information. "Because, it's going to help her."

"How is it going to help, Riley?" Maya asked crossly, slouching on her friend's bed.

"The Maya I know isn't insecure, and I want to fix this before it gets bad," the brunette suddenly exclaimed.

"I'm not insecure, I'm just fine! Ask Farkle." She pointed to the boy sitting next to Riley.

"Farkle?" Riley asked innocently, already knowing the answer.

"You're dealing with insecurity, Maya," he admitted gently.

Her eyes grew bright with anger, and she tried her best to control her breathing. Why were they trying to put a label on her constantly? She hated it when her friends did this; when they judged her, and they decided who she was.

"Zay? Lucas?" Maya dared them to agree with Riley.

"I'm not sure I want to get involved." Zay said nervously.

Riley looked at him. "We're all friends. You're already involved."

Her comment warmed him a little bit, even if was a cheesy feeling. He was fairly new to the group, and sometimes still wondered about his place. The fact that she would say something like that made it clear that he was accepted; it gave him the nerve to say something.

"Look, Maya. It's not a big deal. We just want to help you, especially so it doesn't get bad."

Maya stared Lucas down, daring him to disagree with her, and decide to side with the rest of her friends. He cleared his throat sheepishly, and refused to look at her as he stated that he agreed with the rest of the group.

"Okay, then. Let me get this straight. Because of one day where I don't want to show you I have braces, you all of a sudden think I'm insecure? Doesn't that sound ridiculous?" Maya asked as she crossed her arms.

"Yes, and it would be if that was the only case," Lucas finally chimed in.

"Oh?" she snarled, looking at all of them. "Please tell me what else I've done?"

"Well, over the last couple of months, I haven't seen you wear flats. At all." Riley stated.

"Come on! How is that—"

"And you don't show anyone your art. Or you don't know what to paint. In fact, I haven't seen you paint in a classroom in a while." Farkle pointed out.

"I paint better when it's quiet," she said defensively.

"Quiet, Ms. Penelope! You may speak when we are finished," Zay interrupted boldly.

She whipped her head in his direction. "How could you possibly know that?"

"Uh, it's on your backpack?" he suggested tentatively.

"I'll just kill you later." Maya promised, sounding serious enough for everyone to know she could actually be planning something – not necessarily death but something equally worse.

Lucas gave his friend a pitying look before adding his commentary. "You're not even trying in school anymore."

Maya laughed. "Even for a Huckleberry, that was a lame attempt. You all know I never do the homework."

"We also all know that you actually do or try sometimes. Sure it's not very often, but we all know you at least listen when the teacher is talking."

She remained silent.

"And you get a detention like, every day," Zay added.

"How could that possibly—"

He held up a stilling hand, and gestured for Farkle to speak.

"It's been scientifically proven that insecure people like to one up people, offend others way too easily, and take offense themselves often. Maya, these are things that cause the problems that you get in trouble for."

"No kidding." Zay snorted and smirked. "Especially these last couple of months. You've been taking offense to almost everything now."

"I don't take offense at anything, Babineaux. So why don't you just shut your ballet dancing mouth, and stop!" She trembled in anger.

"It was just a joke, Maya." He raised his eyebrows, seeming indifferent, although inside he wondered if he really had gone too far.

The group was quiet, and everyone was afraid to make the next move. Right now it felt like the world was holding its breath, and they themselves were walking on eggshells. No one dared point out that Maya had just proven Zay's point right of course, but it was the only thing going through their minds at the moment. The girl in question shook her head in disgust, and much to Riley's surprise, walked out her bedroom door. The brunette immediately rose, and started after her best friend, her face full of alarm. She was quickly held back by Lucas though, who got up to block her movement.

"Let her go, Riley," he said softly.

"No, I need to fix this," she said, her voice thick with emotion, still straining to catch a glimpse of Maya.

"Not yet. She needs to be alone right now."

Maya never cried. She knew that, her friends knew that, and she wasn't going to change that now; even though she was on the verge of it. Or maybe it was just the anger threatening to spill out somehow. Maybe it was better for it to come out of her eyes than her fists or something else. How could they just accuse her of something like that, and expect her not to get upset? They had all lined up, one by one, and listed the things she did wrong. Every single one of them. Like she needed that; she already had enough of that in her head as it was. Maya second guessed everything she did. But of course she would never admit it to anyone - she barely could tell herself.

Then there was the whole thing with the braces, which wasn't even important - it just drove her crazy until she wanted to smash a hole in the wall. Which she had before; there was a reason she was okay with hanging her artwork on her bedroom walls, and not just keep them safely in her sketchbook.

How could they just rag on her like that? As long as she could remember, Maya had tried hard to keep her mask on, to forget her own problems. She didn't laugh at Ranger Rick's odd problem with singing that one time in choir, or Farkle's funny rants and raves about little things no one else cared about. She didn't bat an eyelash whenever Riley complained to her about the stupidest things in her life, that to her were mountains but to Maya felt like insignificant molehills compared to her own issues. She loved Riley, and would go to the moon and back to help her; because that's what friends did, and that's all that mattered. Apparently though, the feeling wasn't mutual. Oh, Riley tried to help her obviously, but, she didn't do it the way she should have; the way Maya had done with every single one of Riley's problems. Instead, so far it felt like her best friend was "helping" her by ganging up on her with their friends, giving her reasons why they felt she was insecure, and thinking they knew all about her, and she was wrong and they were right.

And that was the only problem…they were right, weren't they? She felt like maybe she was insecure sometimes, but then her old self would take over and tell her to buck up and be confident and she would ignore it. Maya knew part of that came from years of putting up walls to protect herself and to prevent others from seeing past her mask. But what about before her "old self" showed up? Who was that Maya? Was that the true Maya; the one that was insecure? What really wrapped it all up was that she was too dumb to even know if she was insecure or not. Maya couldn't even answer questions about herself, so how could anyone expect her to write an essay on how the World Wars were influential on herself and her family, so many decades after it had passed? So, there it was; Maya Penelope Hart's essence. She was too stupid to pass anything, so she got in trouble instead, not just because of the reasons Farkle had listed off. They were true to a certain extent, but were far from the being the full reason why. It was easier this way. Maybe her mom would notice her more too, as an added bonus, which so far though had only resulted in groundings along with her detentions. And she had started to give up art, because even though in the past it had been her outlet, trying to draw or paint had become harder... Why did all of this matter? She didn't know.

Maya stared at her reflection, and criticized the face she saw staring back at her. Her thoughts and emotions had drawn out an ugly expression on her face, and she hated looking at herself, but she also couldn't look away at the same time. Then it hit her as she realized that what she was doing now, she had been doing for a long time. She was insecure. About her face, her clothes, her art, her family life, her height, her stupid brain—the list went on and on. And she recognized what she herself did, she hid behind a facade and had created this confident, rebellious leader. And alongside her friends, she herself had fallen for it, she herself had too. And now she had slowly, unknowingly, been letting her insecurities show. Maya didn't know how she was going to plug up the cracks where her troubles were seeping through, but she would do it. So, for now, she was just going to take it as life came along, go with the flow, and keep up her seemingly rock solid facade.

Riley glanced over at the canvas besides her own. Blank white nothing stared back at her, and her fingers ached to add a swipe of purple, but it was Maya's canvas so she wouldn't. The artist in question wasn't even looking at her canvas; she was zoned out, her gaze fixated on something outside.

"...can somebody tell me why we're focusing on painting people from memory?" Their art teacher's question jerked the two girls out of their thoughts.

He looked around the room, searching for his victim, when his eyes landed on Riley and Maya. Mr. Mendez crossed over to his two students, and squinted at the artwork they had—or hadn't in Maya's case—created. Folding his arms, he decided to deal with Riley first.

"Can you tell me, Ms. Matthews?"

"Uh—no sir," she admitted. Then her face brightened. "But, I can tell you that this is one of the best purple cats I have ever painted!"

"Riley. Your assignment was to paint a person, not a cat," Mr. Mendez sighed and rubbed his forehead. "How did you even find the purple? I swear I hid it with—"

He broke off, and turned to Maya, who smiled back at him with fake innocence.

"What can she say?" Riley shrugged. "She's a bad, bad girl!"

"Speaking of which, where's your art?" The teacher turned to Maya, puzzlement filling his face.

She shrugged and, dipping her pointer finger in Riley's purple paint, proceeded to draw a cat very similar to her friend's. Riley beamed and hugged Maya, trying not to get the paint on her arms and hands all over their shirts.

"Ms. Hart, are you aware that you are failing art?" Mr. Mendez asked as he grew stern.

Riley gasped and got up to face the teacher. "But she can't fail art! She's Maya; a serious artist who paints what she feels."

"Why don't you tell her that?" He gave one last look at the twin purple cats, and walked away shaking his head and muttering something about getting a safe to hide the paint in.

"Maya," Riley said as sat back down, and made her friend face her. "Why aren't you painting?"

"Don't feel like it, Riles. That's it." Maya said, trying to sound disinterested, but not succeeding.

"That's not it. How could you not paint?"

The blonde sighed impatiently, and turned to glance at Lucas who was only a couple of seats over, and was listening intently. She glared at the boy, who quickly went back to his art.

"Just not in the mood, Riley." Maya muttered, and tried to control her breathing; she knew that more questions were coming.

"No. You're being insecure. And it's one thing to be worried about your appearance, but Maya, you won't even paint anymore! Doesn't something about that seem off to you?"

"Why won't you just leave this alone?" she fumed.

"I'm never going to leave this alone. Maya—"

Riley gasped in shock as a wet paintbrush brushed over her nose and cheeks. Zay noticed the storm brewing, and nudged his friends to take notice. Lucas quickly put down his brushes, and wiped his hands on a rag, marching swiftly to the girls. Maya raised her arm for another paint inflicted punishment, but Lucas grabbed it, and snatched the paintbrush out of her hand.

"Okay, Maya. Calm down," he said, still holding her arm down.

Farkle came over with a wet towel, which he handed to Riley, who proceeded to wipe her purple face. Zay decided to watch from a safe distance, every once in a while glancing at their art teacher, who seemed to be preoccupied with another student.

"Leave me alone, Sundance," Maya hissed and glared at her captor.

He shook his head. "Can't do that. Do you really want to get suspended?"

"How do you know about that?"

"I told him," Riley said, scrubbing at a spot on her nose.

"Why?!"

"Because." She looked at Farkle, who nodded in confirmation as he surveyed her now paint-free face. "He's your friend too, and shouldn't friends know what's going on?"

Maya shook her head. "No one needs to know everything about everyone. And you all need to leave this alone."

"We can't do that Maya." Farkle said solemnly.

"And why not?" she growled.

"Because, you've helped us with every single problem we've ever had, so shouldn't we step in when it's your turn? And that's not even mentioning that we're your friends and will do anything to help you."

"Well, I don't want your help; I'm just fine." Maya waved him off.

"You're not fine!" Riley shouted suddenly.

Mr. Mendez straightened from bending over another student's artwork, and squinted at the group across the room, trying to decide if they were creating a problem. Guessing they probably were, he strode over to the friends, and gestured for Farkle and Lucas to go back to their own seats. Turning to Maya and Riley, he took away their art supplies, and put them away.

"Because you can't be trusted to handle paint," Mr. Mendez explained and crossed his arms. "You can just sit here until class is over. Seriously, you two? This is high school, not some kindergarten free for all craft show."

He gave them one last warning look, before returning to the rest of his class. Riley looked sheepishly down at her purple stained hands.

"I didn't mean to push you, Peaches."

"Of course you did, Riley. That's what you do."

It was said without malice, and Riley felt confused by the double sided comment. She slid her eyes to the clock, and anticipating its bell to ring any minute, she gathered up her books and bags, hastening Maya to do the same. Her friend ignored her, instead gazing out the window again. Once the bell had rung, the class piled into the hallway, scurrying to get to their next class, all except for Riley and Maya.

"Come on, Peaches!" She tugged on the blonde's hand, leaving remnants of purple paint on it.

"No, I'll catch up. I just need to—think for a little while, okay?" Maya said persuasively.

Riley reluctantly let go, and walked out the door. Maya sighed, and grabbing a dripping blue paintbrush from another easel, began to draw something. She didn't know what it was - she never did, but it usually turned out fine; her hands knew what to do. After a moment, she stepped back and looked at her canvas.

Wrong.

It was all wrong.