Chapter Thirty-One: Girl Meets Rules
We were sitting in glass waiting for my dad to come, but he wasn't here yet. "Alright, where's your father?" Lucas asked me. "Are we getting a sub? I don't wanna sub. You never know where they've been." Farkle said. "Will you calm down, he's one minute late. Stop overreacting." I told them. "What if he never shows up? What if I never learn anything else?" Farkle asked freaking out. "I'm going down, sir! Oh, he's not even here." Farkle then fell out of his chair. "We lost Farkle." Riley said as she got up to help him while Maya walked up to dad's desk. "A little help, Maya, Caroline?"
"Matthews is out, Farkle's down, it's Maya time." Maya declared. Riley lifted Farkle and placed him back in his seat. "Farkle's fixed, no Maya time." Riley said. Farkle once again fell out of his chair. "You may proceed." Riley said before she sat back down. "During Maya time, we open the confiscation drawer and take back all the stuff from the land of unfairly taken toys." Maya explained. Riley scoffed, "Maya, I don't think anyone really wants." Everybody started to cheer and clap. "Alright, whose is this?" Maya asked holding up a frisbee, someone in the back raised their hand. "What'd I miss?" Farkle asked only to get hit by the frisbee and fall back on to the floor.
"Maya! He is going to walk in and catch you and you're going to be in trouble and we are here to keep you out of trouble, and we will have failed. Do you want us to fail?" Riley and I asked Maya. "Do you want me to show you how to have fun?" Maya asked us. "Behaving is fun." We retorted. "Come here." Maya ordered. "I really don't want." Riley and I told her. "You come here right now, ring power." She told us, showing us her ring. Riley and I looked at each other before getting up. "When you say ring power you have to." Riley said. "It's a rule." I added. We walked over to the desk when Maya pulled out a ball shooter.
"Tell me this isn't fun." She said to us as she started to shoot the class with balls. "Yeah that seems like fun, but now you did it, so we don't get to do it." Riley said. "So are we sitting down now?" I asked. Maya pulled out two more ball shooters. "Of course there's more than on!" Riley and I exclaimed as we took them from Maya. "Do it." She told us. "There is nothing in this world that can make me do it." Riley and I told her. "Ring power." Maya said holding up her hand. "What'd I miss?" Farkle asked again as he stood up. Riley and I screamed as we shot the balls at Farkle. He fell back down and then everyone went crazy well except for two people. We stopped what we were doing when I think everyone noticed that my dad had walked into the room.
"When did you guys decide there were no rules in here?" He asked. Everyone besides Riley, Maya, and myself sat back down. "When did my generosity in allowing you to express yourselves make you think you could turn my class into a zoo?" He asked. Riley and I handed the ball shooters back to Maya so she could put them in the drawer. "I'm sorry." Riley, Maya, and I apologized as we went to sit back down in our seats. "I'm sorry." Farkle apologized. "I'm sorry." The rest of the class apologized. "Lucas, Austin. Why are you the only two here that didn't say I'm sorry?" Dad asked my boyfriend and his cousin. "Because we never do anything." Lucas and Austin answered.
"No, because you respect the rules. Because you know without them civilization becomes chaos. The rest of you are gonna spend the afternoon thinking about that, with the exception of Lucas and Austin the good." My dad said. "Oh boy! Is that going to stick?" Austin asked Maya. "I'm already making teachers." Maya told him. Lucas and Austin walked up to my dad's desk. "You put us in a real bad position here, sir." Lucas told my dad. Austin and Lucas turned around to see all of us wearing "Lucas and Austin the good" shirts. "We gotta do something." Austin decided. "You can fight this, Lucas and Austin." My dad told them. "No, we can't, sir. Everyone's looking." Lucas told him. "I mean even his girlfriend agrees with them." Austin added.
"Okay. Do what you gotta do." My dad told them. Lucas and Austin both took out the phones and sent a text to my dad I'm guessing. My dad pulled out his phone and read what it said. "Detention." He told the cousins. "Oh, thank you, sir." Austin and Lucas thanked, relieved. They went and sat back in their seats. "Feel better, Huckleberries?" Maya asked. "We're just like you now." Austin told her. "Yeah. We're exactly the same." Maya said. "Yeah, you're all the same. Detention, all of ya." Dad told us. Riley and I raised our hands. "What do you want?" He asked as. "We're going to be home late today, daddy." We told him. "I know, honey and sweetie." He replied.
After school everyone walked into the classroom and sat down in their seats. "I've always allowed you to bend the rules. But the best of students know just how far they can push before those rules are broken. Today, you are not the best of students." Dad lectures us. "But, you know we're good people most of the time, don't you daddy? Daddy? You're my daddy." Riley said. "Riles, give it a rest." I whispered to her. "Why do we need rules at all?" Maya asked. "You think you can make it in a world without rules?" Dad asked her. "I think I could do fine in any world." Maya answered, honestly. "The rest of you believe that?"dad asked the class and everyone nods. "Okay. School's out. You've got the whole place to yourselves. No rules. One hour to behave however you want. Let's see what becomes of you."
"Well, I think we'll be perfectly behaved ladies and gentlemen." Riley voiced her thoughts. "And I think within one minute, you'll be eating each other." Dad said before he walked towards the door. "Where are you going?" I asked him. "I'm locking you in." He answered. "The best punishment I can give is to force you to spend some time with yourselves. I'll see you in a hour. Whoever's left." He walked out of the room, closed the door and locked it. He showed us the key before walking away. "I can't believe it, he locked us in." Riley said. "That's fine. I don't have a problem with that. I'm not claustrophobic or anything. We're trapped." Farkle started to gasped. "I can't breathe. There's more carbon dioxide than oxygen! The ratio is all wrong!"
"Okay, Farkle's gotsa go." Maya said. "I gotsa?" Farkle asked. "Stop." I said before I stood up. "This is exactly what my father wants. He wants us to panic and fall apart. We have to show him that we can get through this without turning into a pack of wild animals." "I'm hungry." Lucas stated, looking at Farkle. "Me too." Austin agreed, also looking at Farkle. "What do you mean by that?" Farkle asked looking at them. "Nothing." They both answered as the stood up. "We're just really hungry." Lucas stood behind Farkle and Austin stood next to him. "Because we're best friends." Farkle said. "Yeah, you know what else? I don't think I've ever been this hungry." Lucas said. "Me either." Austin added.
"I feel ya, ranger Rick and Roy." Maya stood up. "I'm kinda hungry, too." "And it's not like a regular kind of hungry, right?" Lucas questioned. "No, no. This one's deep. It must be attended to." Maya said. Riley and I walked over to Maya, Lucas and Austin. "Oh, guys, can we just show a little discipline? I mean how much more time in here could we possibly have?" Riley questioned. We all turned to look at the clock, and it only moved a minute so now it was 3:01. "You know I could eat too." Riley and I said. Farkle stood up and started to back away from us. "What? What are you guys looking at? Guys! What are you seeing right now?" Farkle asked. "Stop talking, chicken." Austin said. I realized what we were doing.
"All right, come on! Let's prove my father wrong." I said. Riley and I walked to the front of the class. "Let's form our own perfect society. Rilolinetown is a land of goodness and rainbows where everyone folds their hand nicely like so." Riley said. Riley and I folded our hands. "Who wants to live in Rilonlinetown?" We asked. "Nobody wants Rilonlinetown. It's too lollipop." Maya stated. "You're lollipop." Riley retorted. Maya laughed at Riley. "Sister, I'm a lot of things, but I ain't lollipop." "Rilolinetown has order, structure and our hand folded like so!" I told her as Riley and I folded our hands. "What do you got?"
Maya stood on a desk. "I got Mayaville! No rules, no laws, no hand folding and nobody says no!" Maya staed. Farkle looked up at Maya. "No." She told him. "You got chaos is what you got!" I told her. "We got order, you got chaos." Riley said. "You got lollipop, I got whoo!" Maya retorted. "Okay, detention may be bringing out the worst in us, but at least we're making the time pass." Riley said. We all looked up at the clock, the clock ticked and now it is 3:02. "Eat Riley and Caroline!" Maya declared. "Okay." We said. Riley and I hold out an arm each and cover our eyes. "But no biting."
So after the whole Rilonlinetwon and Mayaville delima, we split the class in half. Mine and Riley's side is organized and on Maya's side they are stacking up the desks. "Why are you guys over there? Why can't we just be one happy society that runs the way I think it should?" Riley asked. "Because you want us to be all you." Maya said. "We're not all you, Riley and Caroline. I mean, you know the only reason I've never been able to choose between you? Because if it was you all the time, life would be like, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la." Farkle said and Riley began to join him. "Caroline's in the middle of that and if it was you all the time." Farkle walked over to Maya, "Life would be like," Farkle growled. "Descensus in cuniculi cavum!" Then he screamed. After that Maya started snarling.
"I need to be all three of you guys." Farkle said. "But who are you going to be with right now, Farkle?" I asked. "Before you answer that," Maya walked over to the back door, "you may want to consider a little thing I call this." Then she opened the back door. "He forgot to lock the back door?" Lucas questioned. "Maya, we're in detention you can't leave." Riley told Maya as we walked over to her. "Hey, school's out. He said we get the place to ourselves. He said to make our own rules. Rule number one: See you around, suckers." Maya told us before she walked out of the classroom. Some of the other kids followed her.
"Farkle?" Riley questioned. "Hey. What part of "descensus in cuniculi cavum" do you not understand?" Farkle asked her. "All of it." Riley answered. "It means we drip down into the rabbit hole, man." Farkle explained to her before he left the room. "Lucas?" I asked my boyfriend. I could hear Riley talking to Austin. "I never do anything, Care." He told me. He gave me a kiss on the cheek before he left yelling, "Yeah." And I saw Austin following him which meant Riley couldn't get him to stay. "Okay." Riley and I said. We turned around to look at the clock as it struck 3:04.
"We don't need them. We can just be in here, hands folded like so." Riley said as she folded her hands and our classmates did the same. "So, what do you guys want to talk about?" I asked, but they didn't say anything. "Oh, that's right. You guys don't talk, do you? Well, the first of Rilolinetown is that everyone in here get's to talk." I decided. "You there." Riley said pointing at a boy. "What do you have to say?" "Hi. My name is Dave. I like corn chips and I'm sorry I didn't go with the other group." Dave said. "Dave!" Riley said. "I mean don't get us wrong." A girl said. "We really do respect you and everything." Sarah told us. "You do?" Riley and I questioned.
"You're two of the good ones and we'd follow you anywhere." She told us. "Thank you." Riley and I thanked her. "It's just that without the others, we're kinda bored out of our minds." Dave confessed. "Dave! We're safe and sound and not getting into trouble." Riley said. "yeah, but the problem with that is all the good kids are in here." The girl said, I decided I am going to call her student #4. "We just know that they're having a lot more fun out there." Sarah said. I turned to the sound of the door opening and janitor Harley walked in. "What are you doing in here? They're having a lot more fun out there." He told us.
"We're in detention, janitor Harley." I told him as Riley and I walked over to him. "How 'bout that? Little zippy and C crossed the line." Janitor Harley commented. "Maya influenced us." We told him. "I've noticed that over the years." He said. He picked up the garbage bag and looked at the ajarred back door. "You do realize the back door's open don't you, zippy and C?" "We're aware." Riley and I told him. "And yet this group stays in here, while the other group is rampaging down the hallway." Janitor Harley said. "Well, what do you make of that?" I asked him. "I'm sure we'll find out." He told me. "This lesson has your father written all over it." "You're supposed to lock the front door." Riley told janitor Harley as he walked out of the room.
"Actually, I'm not. it's time to find out what Maya is up to. Goodbye." He said as he left, closing the door behind him. "Maya will be fine." I stated. "Lucas, Austin, and Farkle won't let her get into trouble." Riley added. "She's stronger than them." Dave commented. "She's better when you're around her." Sarah added. "Oh please." Riley and I said. "Fourteen years of good influence can't possibly come apart in..." We look up at the clock as it strikes 3:05.
So Riley decided that we should play duck duck goose, but playing with Riley isn't the best idea. "Duck. Duck. Duck." Riley said as she patted out heads. "She's actually too nice to make someone the goose." Dave said. "Without Maya around, she's actually getting worse." Sarah said. "It's not nice to comment on someone like that." I told them. "It's affecting her too." Sarah whispered to Dave, but I heard it. "Duck." Riley said, tapping my head. The next thing I could hear was screaming. Maya's group came in with a giant net. I felt myself getting picked up and the put me next to Riley while they put a net on us.
"Wait!" Riley screamed and they stopped. "Duck." She said patting someone's head. "Okay." They picked us up and carried us out of the classroom while screaming. After a while they finally stopped running and put us down. They took the net off of us and just looked at us. "Everybody clean off your faces. You look ridiculous." Riley and I told them pulling out the wipes that we carried. "Lucas, I'll get you." I told my boyfriend. I pulled him away from everyone else and started to wipe his face.
"Thank you." He thanked me. "You know they call me "mad dog"." "Of course they do." I replied. "Would you call me "mad dog"?" Lucas asked me. "Would you call me "princess sugarplum of wishes'?" I asked him. "No, I would not." He answered. "Well, there you go." I replied. I almost felt like telling him about the Chase thing, but I didn't think now was the most appropriate time.
We were sitting in class when Maya and the kids that were originally in our group came into the room chanting before they sat down. "You have fun?" Riley and I asked Maya. "I did. It was quite enjoyable. And you?" Maya asked. "Somebody had the idea to put us in a bag. Did you hear about that?" We asked. "Really? Well, you know, there's some bad kids out there." Maya said. "Okay, guys. Detention over." Dad told us as he entered the room. "Dad?" I asked. "Yeah?" He asked. "Remember how you told us that people change people?" I asked. "Secret of life." He stated.
"Well, when you're not with those people, how do you keep from changing back?" Maya asked. "You went a little wild, did you?" Dad asked. "Whatever I got is strong in me, Matthews." Maya said. "Yeah, us too, but the other way." Riley and I added. "Harley!" Dad called out and janitor Harley entered. "Right here." He said. "You watched them?" dad asked. "Like a hawk." Janitor Harley answered. "What?" Riley and I questioned. "You're with him?" Maya asked. "Yeah. He's one of my good kids." Janitor Harley answered. "What do you got?" Dad asked him. "Everyone went nuts, excpet for Zippy and C. Why didn't you go nuts, Zippy and C?" He asked me and Riley.
"I was without Maya. Without Maya, I don't think I'd ever unfold my hands." Riley admitted. "Yeah, without Maya, I don't think I would ever let go as much." I added. "What about this one here?" Dad asked, pointing at Maya. "Maya was the ringleader. Maya was the first one out the door." Janitor Harley told him. "I was without Riley and Caroline. Without Riley and Caroline, I may never come back." Maya stated. "Okay. Well, detention over, guys. Everyone out, except for Maya." Dad said. "Dad." Riley and I said. "Everyone out." He repeated. Everyone stood up and we left the room. "We're waiting for him to leave aren't we?" I asked her. "Of course we are." She answered. We sat down and waited till we could go keep Maya company.
"Care, when are you going to tell Lucas?" Riley asked me. "I don't know. I just want to tell him before something happens with Chase." I told her. "Well, how about I make a deal with you." She told me. "What kind of deal?" I asked her. "If you tell Maya first, then we will be there for you when you tell Lucas." She suggested. "I like that." I told her. "Come on I think we can go." Riley said. We got up and walked towards the classroom. Our dad was walking away from the classroom after he closed the door. "Riley! Caroline!" Maya called out. Riley and I looked in through the window. "Right here." We told her before we sat down against the door. I let Riley lean her head on my shoulder as we waited for Maya to be finished with detention.