Girl Meets The Real World

Girl Meets First Date

No no no no.

No.

Oh no.

The day hadn't even begun, and Riley had already activated end-of-year-romance mode. Well, that's apparently what happened, because me and Maya's conversation was interrupted when Mr Matthews dumped a screeching Riley onto her desk.

"Dad, are you out of your mind?!" Riley exclaimed, staring daggers at her father.

Mr Matthews took a deep breath, then let it out in one quick sentence. "Riley, it's time for the talk."

"In front of the whole class?" She looked so shell shocked that it was hilarious. I swear I caught Maya trying not to laugh.

Mr Matthews glanced between Maya and I. "Yeah, give her the talk, Matthews," Maya chuckled.

"Let's see what you know," I scoffed.

He seemed to take that as consent to proceed with his talk, because he clasped his hands and went, "When a daughter-"

"Stop," Riley said, disgusted. I saw Mr Matthews' eyes flicker to the back of the classroom for a split second, and then he excused himself and dashed to the back door.

He slammed face-first into the wood, glaring at Lucas through the small window. "Not today, Chachi!" He yelled. However, he had clearly underestimated Lucas's raw strength, because he pushed the door open with Matthews behind it easily.

"Sir, you've known me all year. You like me, admit it," Lucas said. I raised my hand.

"Actually, it's Riley who likes you, bro-bro."

Ignoring me, Lucas turned back to Matthews. "I"m one of the good kids," he tried to reason. "What are you so afraid of?"

Mr Matthews sighed reluctantly and let Lucas go to his desk. "Okay," he breathed out, grabbing the duster and erasing 'BELGIUM'. I hadn't even noticed it was there. But, clearly someone had, because there was a loud 'NOOOOOOO!" from around the center of the room.

Once he put the duster down and had wiped his hands, he started. "Okay, guys. It's seventh grade spring fever, which leads to dating, which leads to movies, which leads to popcorn, which leads to putting your hands together in the dark touching the popcorn, which leads to holding hands, which leads to that!" He pointed a finger at a girl I only knew as Darby, who was nuzzling noses with Yogi. How he even got past Matthews to get there was a marvel in itself. "Oh, I am not ready for this." Matthews picked up Yogi, but the kid kept struggling back to Darby. "Come with me. Come here. Come on, no, come on. Come with me." He finally managed to pry him away from Darby, he went over to Riley, still clutching a squirming Yogi "Riley, I am begging you stay in Neverland, okay? No growing up." Matthews placed Yogi on his desk, and he slid into his seat.

Farkle raised his hand. Mr Matthews glared and said, "What do you want?"

"The way I see it, I'm in an interesting position here," Farkle explained.

Matthews frowned, rubbing his hands together. "How d'you figure, Farkle?"

I tilted my head to the side as Farkle continued. "Well, you're scared of Lucas going out with Riley, right?"

"Oh, does it show?"

"Yeah, he's good-looking and athletic," I butted in.

Matthews looked at me with wide eyes and pointed to my brother. "He's thirty-six!"

Farkle looked like her was about to say something, but Riley had had enough. She stood up and pushed her chair back, making a cringe-y scraping sound echo through the room. Don't you just hate it when that happens?