Girl Meets The Real World

Girl Meets Sneak Attack: Part Two

As the bell rang, Lucas tried to walk out with Missy Bradford but I grabbed the back of his shirt. "What's your deal?" He asked irritatedly.

I rolled my eyes. "What's yours? Why do you love Missy so much?" He scoffed and wrenched away from my grip.

"I don't love anyone! Y'know Hadley, if you want to start over so badly like you told me on the plane here, you should really work on your social skills."

I let go, hurt. "How can you say that?" Around me, my classmates trickled out of the classroom, some whispering about our fight. "I thought you loved me."

I pushed past him, deliberately hitting his shoulder as I left. As I walked into the hallway, I saw Maya sitting on the bench with Riley. She saw me and stood up.

"Hey, you alright?" She asked when she saw the tears in my eyes. I sniffed a little and wiped them away with my sleeve. "I'm fine. How's Riley?"

Maya winced and gestured for me to see for myself. I looked over, at Riley was positively catatonic. Her mouth was closed and unsmiling, and her her eyes stared into space like glass marbles. I crossed the space between us and sat down with her.

"Riley," I called, snapping my fingers in front of her face. She didn't respond. "Riley," I repeated louder. I kept going until Farkle popped his head out from a wall.

"Can you keep it down? I'm trying to tame my orange dancing spider and this noise isn't helping," he told me. I ignored the spider he held in his hands. "Can you help me? Riley's catatonic."

"But he already bit me twice!" Farkle protested. Finally, after negotiating to help him with his spider, he came over to help the now stuck-in-a-locker Riley.

"You want me to bring you lunch?" Farkle offered. Riley spoke for the first time in twenty minutes.

"No. Food would only keep me alive," she told him.

"Come on, little plant, come back into the sun," Maya coaxed. Riley sounded determined. "I'm afraid something terrible will happen if I ever come out of here. Maya chuckled despite the situation.

"Riley, that's crazy. Nothing could be worse than what's already happened!"

Just then, Missy walked up and leaned against the lockers. "Oh there you are," she said airily. "I've been looking for you. You're not upset with me, are you? Because I didn't hear that you and Lucas were together or anything."

"We're not," Riley admitted. Missy grinned smugly.

"Hmm, yeah, that's what I thought. So if you're not, then it's not a problem if I ask Lucas out, because he's really cute. Don't you think?" She asked her. I smiled at her.

"I absolutely loathe you," I told Missy. She smirked. "Well, your brother doesn't," she said as she pushed me back by my shoulder. "In fact, I think he's kind of into me. Shocker." With that, she flounced off. Riley nodded her head thoughtfully.

"I live here now," she declared.
-
That same evening I couldn't stand being in the same house as Lucas, so I visited Riley. "I think of this as a personal challenge issued by Missy Bradford to grow up, and to grow up fast. What do I do?" She confessed.

I shrugged. "Nothing," Maya said simply and I nodded. Riley kept going.

"Give me advice. You're a genius at this. Grow me up." I put a hand on her shoulder.