New York City. It's known as the Big Apple and the City That Never Sleeps. It was a very big city. There were more people in the city than any other city in America. Even if you only counted Manhattan where I live, it would still be in the top 10. It's also one of the most densely populated places in the country. You would think that with so many people, being just one person makes you pretty unnoticeable. I wasn't the most popular person at my school, partly because my dad was a teacher there. My name is Riley Matthews and this is my story.
I began to get ready for school. I was going to be meeting my friends and we would be heading there together. I was old enough to drive but I didn't have a car. That was actually quite common for Manhattan. There would nowhere near enough parking spaces for everyone, so most people preferred public transportation. I headed down to the kitchen where my father Cory and my mother Topanga were. My dad could have given me a ride to school but we both knew that I didn't want that. At school we kept our distance when I wasn't in his class.
When I got outside my apartment building, I saw my friends Emma and Maxine. The three of us had known each other for years and both of them had larger families than I did. Maxine had two older siblings and Emma had two younger, albeit adopted siblings. (She used to have another one but we don't talk about it.)
"So I have some exciting news." Maxine replied. "I'm pretty sure that I'm a witch."
"That would be exciting why?" Emma asked. "I don't see what would be so great about being green and warty."
"That's literally only from The Wizard of Oz." Maxine pointed out.
"Let's talk about something that's actually important." Emma replied as she looked at me. "How are things going with Lucas."
"They're good." I answered.
"So have the two of you had sex yet?" Maxine asked with a grin.
"No." I replied with a blush. "Things just haven't come up right. It's like whenever I'm with other people are always around. I want to, but I haven't been able to yet."
The thing was I wasn't even sure how much I wanted to. I knew that if I said that, the two of them would press me on why I didn't. Lucas was a really good boyfriend. We hadn't even talked about it. He was a Southern boy, so maybe he was one of those people that wanted to wait until marriage. Once again, I didn't know because we didn't talk about it.
"Well I think you that you will love it." Emma replied as we started to walk the bus stop.
"Who did you have sex with?" I asked.
"Farkle." She declared. "Before you laugh at me, it was really good. He really knew what he was doing."
"I'm just surprised that you went with him." Maxine replied. "I'm not looking to lose my virginity any time soon so I'll have to take your word for it."
The three of us then took the bus to school. The thing that was different was it not a school bus. It was just a regular bus that stopped at the school because it was just easier for the city I guess.
The school wasn't anything spectacular. It was a pretty normal school that had all of the basics: a gym, art studio, weight room, auditorium and an indoor pool. It wasn't like we could have an outdoor pool with what our winters were like. I was happy at school. I didn't dislike it because even though my dad was a teacher, he wasn't one of those teachers that nobody liked. In fact, a lot of people did like him. That wasn't to say that he was easy, but he wasn't overly strict either and he was good at his job. He always told me that he wanted to be a teacher because of his mentor, and former next door neighbor, Mr. Feeny. I'd only met the guy once and while he was pretty old, I thought that he was a pretty cool old guy.
I found Lucas by my locker. He usually met me by my locker, which made sense because his locker was only a few down from mine. I greeted him with a kiss like I usually did.
"Hi." He told me.
"Hi." I stated. "So how was your weekend?"
"You know you were with me during a lot of it." He pointed out.
"But I wasn't there for all of it. Like how was church?" I asked. My family was not very religious. We weren't atheists but as far as church went, we didn't really go.
"Church was church." He responded. "You should come with me some time."
"I might. I might not." I replied. I would have to talk to my parents about that because I wanted to make sure that they were okay with it.
"So I heard that we're going to be getting a new student today." He told me. "It's a girl. I heard that she is a real sinner."
"What do you mean a sinner?" I asked. I did know that there were a lot of sins in the Bible, some more important than others.
"You know theft, premarital sex, truancy and some people are saying that she's a lesbian." He declared. So that basically made it sound like the idea of having sex any time soon was off the table.
"Why would it be so bad if she's a lesbian?" I asked.
"You know because the Bible says it's wrong." He replied a little bit sheepishly.
"Mr. Friar, you shouldn't go spreading rumors about your fellow classmates." Mr. Dad declared as he walked over to us. He also took his arms off of me. "I'll see you two in class."
"Dad, wait." I replied. I did have something to ask him. He stopped. "Can you at least tell me if the rumor of us getting a new student is true?"
"There will be a new student in one of our classes today. I haven't seen her yet, but she will be joining us."
I began to look around for someone that I hadn't see before. It probably wouldn't be easy because there were a lot of normal students that I didn't recognize well enough to tell if they were a new student or not. I knew that I needed to head to the bathroom before class since they didn't allow us to go during class, unless we made a fool out of ourselves. Even girls got to go more often, but we had to tell everyone that we were on our periods. I don't know who would lie about that.
As I was coming out of the bathroom, I nearly collided with a short blonde girl. She wasn't like anyone that I had ever seen before. She was so pretty despite the heigh difference that I had on her. The reason why we didn't collide was that she held her hands out to keep me from crashing into her. She was wearing a leather jacket with a green tank top and leather miniskirt with a pair of matching boots. I had never seen so much leather on a person before.
"Sorry." I apologized.
"You should probably watch where you're going more in the future." She said before she walked off.
"I'll make sure to do that." I remarked before she walked away. Okay that was weird. It was then that I noticed the smell of her perfume. I knew I shouldn't since she had left, but I was pretty sure that it was a delayed reaction. She smelled really nice too, kind of like peaches.
I then realized that I needed to get to class. To make matters worse, I had my dad for first period, so being late was one hundred percent not an option. Fortunately, it was the only class that I had with him. I started to rush to the classroom in order to make it there before the bell rang. Fortunately, I had about a minute to spare when I got there. I headed over to my seat, which was next to Lucas. He smiled as I sat next to him.
At that time, my father walked in. He had a cup of coffee in his hand. He wasn't the most morning person. He started to talk about our lesson before the day before he was suddenly interrupted.
"Mr. Matthews?" Justin, one of the assistant secretaries and Maxine's older brother interrupted. "I don't mean to interrupt but there's someone here that you should meet."
At that point, he walked in with the blonde girl. So she was the new student. I knew that I had to stop staring at her but I couldn't exactly look away. It wasn't like I was the only one who was staring at her. Not only was she the center of attention in that she was a new student, but she was also dressed like a…I don't think I should say that word.
"Ah, yes. Class, this is Maya Hart and she will be joining us for the rest of the school year." Dad stated. "Maya, why don't you tell us some things about yourself?"
"Sure, I'm Maya. I like to sing and I love to make grown men cry." The blonde said with a smile. I wasn't sure if she was joking or not. "Maybe I should start with you."
"Yeah, let's not do that." Dad declared with a nervous chuckle. I couldn't help but think that I was going to like this girl. "You can go ahead and take any open seat."
"There's only one open seat." Maya noted. I realized that it was the seat next to me. Well that was going to be interesting.
"Then go sit in it." He replied before Maya took the seat next to me.
"Hi." I declared.
"Hey." She reciprocated before she started to look at my dad. I then realized that I needed to look at him too.
Needless to say, it was a little bit hard to focus. I didn't know why. Maybe it was just the way that she was dressed. Maybe it was because we hadn't had a new student in a while. Maybe it was just because no one ever sat next to me besides Lucas. Whatever the reason, I would probably have to reread over the lesson to make sure that I understood what he had talked about. I would not spend my whole day focused on this Maya Hart, even though this was my second time meeting her.
Later at lunch, I was at my table with Maxine and Emma. Lucas had a different lunch period, so I didn't get to see him that much.
"So that new girl is really something." Maxine commented. That was definitely one way to describe her.
"She looks like a slut in those boots." Emma remarked.
"Emma, you shouldn't go saying things like that about her especially since you don't know her." I replied before I noticed Maya across the cafeteria. It was a good thing that she didn't hear any of that. What was also interesting was the fact that she didn't have any food in front of her, be it a lunchbox or a tray.
"Why are you looking at her like that?" Maxine inquired.
"Because she doesn't have any lunch and she's all alone." I remarked. Those seemed like good reasons.
"Maybe she just doesn't want any of the crap they serve here." Emma proposed. Each of us brought our lunches. Well Emma brought her lunch and Maxine brought lunch for me and her. Her parents owned a sub shop which was easier than me making anything or asking my parents to do it. I then got up. "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to invite her to come and sit with us." I replied as I walked over to her. She turned her to look out the window. "Hey Maya."
"What?" She asked as she looked at me.
"I just couldn't help but notice that you didn't have any lunch in front of you." I commented.
"I don't want to eat this stuff. I'll eat when I get home." She declared. That seemed kind of defensive if you asked me. What reason did she have to be defensive? It was just a statement. "Is there anything else?"
"Yeah, I wanted to know if you wanted to sit with my friends and me," I offered.
"I probably shouldn't." She declared.
"Come on it will be fine." I replied as I grabbed her hand and took her over with me. "Girls, this is Maya and these are my friends: Emma and Maxine."
"So are you going to tell me your name now that you told me theirs?" Maya asked. I then realized that I had never actually introduced myself to her and blushed red.
"Oh I'm Riley Matthews." I declared as I sat back down, hoping that she would do the same.
"Matthews? So you must be the daughter of the History teacher." She remarked.
"You know a lot of people have the name Matthews." I replied. I wasn't related to Dave Matthews, that I knew of at least.
"Yeah, but you also look a lot like him." She added. "Just like Emma looks a lot less Christina Ross, who I assume is her mother."
"How did you know that?" Emma asked with in surprise.
"Lucky guess." Maya replied. At that point, the lunch bell rang. "Well I should probably be going. I'll see you girls around."
I didn't see her for the rest of the day. My thoughts were that she was a bit of an enigma. I knew so little about her and I wanted to know more. I wasn't even sure why I was so interested in this one person in a city that had millions in it. I wanted to know where she lived, about her family, what kind of food she ate…and I need to stop. I sounded a little bit like a stalker there. I did not need to follow Maya home or anything because that would be weird and I was not weird.
Like how I went to school, I also went home with Emma and Maxine, though the three of us liked to alternate whose home we went to. We liked to take the subway home, but we never went to the Subway in the subway because we were loyal to Maxine's family's store. Today we were going to my house.
"So why do you like that Maya so much?" Emma asked.
"I'm just trying to be friendly towards her since she's new and all." I replied.
"Well she kind of creeps me out. Seriously how did she know about my mom?" She replied.
"You really do look a lot like her." Maxine commented. "It was probably just a lucky guess."
So today, the two of them were going to come over to my house. My dad had teacher stuff to do so it would take him a little while to get home. My mom was sometimes home and sometimes wasn't. She was a lawyer so sometimes she worked at home and sometimes she was in the office.
"So what's this about you being a witch?" I asked Maxine once we were there. We took off our shoes and headed to my bedroom. "Can you cast any spells or anything?"
"No, but my sister says that I am." Maxine stated.
"I don't know if you should trust what your sister says. She's kind of a habitual liar." I pointed out.
"Girls, let's get back to talking about me." Emma said.
As she talked, my thoughts couldn't help but drift back to Maya. I didn't know why I was thinking about her so much. Maybe I didn't need to know some of the weird stuff about her that I was thinking, but I knew that I definitely did need to know more about her.
So let me start by saying that I am not an expert in this fandom, but I've been on a bit of a Sabrina Carpenter fix lately and wanted to write something else starring her. I made Riley friends with some other New York-based Disney stars because I know more about them. Maxine doesn't know about her powers yet. Anyway, Maya made quite an impression on Riley. How will things go when they get closer? Please don't forget to review.
