𝐓𝐎𝐎 𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃 » ғᴀʀᴋʟᴇ ᴍɪɴᴋᴜs

four

"you don't have to thank us," the other girl called to the confused freshman. "yeah, trust me, we won't," lucas scowled.

"trust me, you will. if there's nothing else, we wish you a good day." then they walked off, leaving the seven friends in the hole.

"i'm sorry we're in here guys," lucas looked down and kicked the ground. "you can't protect us." riley said, patting his arm. "i used to."

silence crept over them it was as if they didn't know what to do. they were stuck. it was weird.

the seven exchanged glances with each other until the bell rang. even after that, they walked to history in silence.

somehow cory matthews managed to squish his favorite students from middle school all into one class. it baffled misha that the clique six [now seven] were all able to be in the same history class. misha took a seat next to farkle, behind smackle.

"good morning and welcome to world history."cory matthews stood in front of his freshmen class with a smile. "who's ready to learn?"

"what's that on the board?" a girl asked. misha didn't recognize her from middle school. she must've been new this year. "we were kings. now we're patriots," he read.

"why does it say that? it's cryptic. you can't teach us cryptic. what are you trying to get away with, huh?" her eye had a slight twitch to it as she interrogated mr. matthews.

"i'll be right back," he panicked. she hummed in response. cory walked over to riley's seat, crouching to her height. he whispered to riley and she turned to the girl. "what's your name?"

"marly," the girl had a scowl on her face. "marly," riley tried to mimic the way marly carried herself. cory whispered to his daughter again. "just keep on teaching about our lives, she'll come around," she tried to be super supportive to her father.

he stood up, straightening himself out. "abigail adams was the wife of john adams and the momma of johnny q." mr. matthews chuckled to himself. "they were quite the historical triangle."

farkle's eyes widened, and he turned to misha. "ha," she laughed. "triangle," farkle laughed too. "ha," she repeated herself. smackle turned around, furrowing her eyebrows at farkle.

"and i'll tell you that the one thing they understood about this brand-new nation was to stick together because every direction they turned was brand-new, undiscovered country," mr. matthews continued.

riley grinned. "i am an abigail adams patriot!" lucas countered her, starting an argument that lasted for the rest of class in between cory's statements.

after class misha followed farkle, zay, and smackle to the hole again. they watched maya, riley, and lucas bicker about the hole.

"this is not how i'm going to live my high school life," lucas wanted to yell at riley so badly. he stayed quiet. "what if there's a good reason the seniors wanted us here?" riley asked. she always had faith in people. "what if it's to teach us something?"

"what if you have just too much faith in people?" lucas went too far. everyone knew riley had faith in everyone. she believed that people were always good before evil. her shoulders slumped when lucas said that to her. "what if i have exactly the right amount of faith in people?"