Girl Meets The Real World

Girl Meets World: Part One

Taking the subway was the first thing we did after we arrived in New York because it was apparently the most New York-y thing to do. "Nobody will look at us weird, Hadley. If we learn how to take the subway now, when we go to school we won't be completely lost," Lucas reasoned with me.

"How do we even know we're going to be in the same school? I'm a year younger," I reminded him. My older brother Lucas was this 13-year-old cowboy man(well, technically child. Man-child.) who literally did not work out to maintain his strength, but still carried with him the unshakable brain cells of a lower IQ. I was a year younger than him and already topping his class back in Texas.

"C'mon, you've got the raw intellect of Einstein. Of course we're going to be in the same year. You could've figured it out yourself, genius." He said teasingly as the train pulled into the station with a deafening screech. We boarded it together and the whole place seemed positively foreign.

Lucas spied a corner seat and motioned for me to sit with him, so I did. Moments later, I turned to him. "This is already boring. Where are we heading?" I asked Lucas.

"Pa told us to travel to the school and see what it's like," he muttered without looking to from his magazine. Just then, we arrived at the next station- Bleecker Street Station. Two chattering girls boarded, and one began applying lip gloss. I turned away from them and continued my game of people-watching.

One man was eating a sandwich rather messily, mayonnaise covering his chin. I laughed and nudged Lucas. The man continued to tear into his sandwich and as he went on more sauce began to cover more of his face.

Suddenly, one of the girls turned at looked at my brother just as he was settling back into his seat. I could have sworn I saw the spark between them.

The girl turned back to her friend and giggled. The blonde one smiled, walked over to Lucas and said rather loudly, "Hi, I'm Maya. You're really cute. We should hang out sometime!" She butted me out of my seat. "Hey!" I protested. 'Maya' continued on.

"You make me happy. You don't pay enough attention to me! That's it. This isn't working out. It's you, not me. We can still be friends! ...Not really." And with that, she sashayed away back to her friend. I sat back down in my seat and caught the brunette girl giggling at Lucas. Oh boy, I thought.

I was about to close my eyes to take a nap (Lucas promised he would wake me up), the shriek that I thought would ultimately deafen me cut through the air, followed by a whoosh past me. The whoosh came from where Maya was standing, and right next to me, in my brother's lap was...

"Hi, I'm Riley. We were just talking about you," she blushed. Aww, sweet. Riley has a crush on Lucas. I smiled and got up to make room, and Riley slid into my seat with a grateful look on her face. I walked over to Maya.

"Didja push her?" I asked Maya, still grinning. "What can I say, I like to take care of my best friend." She replied smugly. I laughed.

"Hey, by any chance- do you attend John Quincy Adams?" I wondered aloud.

"Yeah, me and Riles over there are in seventh grade. How 'bout you?"

"I'm actu- yeah, I'm in the seventh. So is my brother Lucas over there," I said quickly. I didn't really want people to know I was a year younger.

"So hotshot over there's your brother. Are you twins or something?" Maya told me curiously. I blinked and said we were, completely aware of how big this lie is going to become.

I smiled once again and turned to Lucas, only to find Riley walking back to where Maya and I were standing and Lucas now seated next to another woman.