Photograph [Maya Hart]

12 ~ pompeii

Harley and his friends sat in Mr. Matthews' classroom for their history class. Harley had his leg shaking as he tapped his pencil on the desk, listening to his teacher lecture them. He leaned his head against the wall behind him, patiently waiting for class to end. All he wanted was to go back home and the day barely started.

"Pompeii," Mr Matthews said. "Lucas!"

"You mean Farkle?" Lucas said.

"I mean Farkle."

"Oh."

"I wanna see what you know," Mr. Matthews said.

"Okay," Lucas said. "Here's what I know."

Harley raised an eyebrow as he watched Lucas hit Farkle.

"Farkle!" Lucas exclaimed.

"Why, thank you!" Farkle said, smiling proudly.

Harley glanced at Cassie and noticed the change of expression on her face.

"Pompeii was an ancient village in Italy located near the beauty and culture of Naples. It was a resort town where the wealthy would go to soak up the sun."

"It was like Hawaii of Italy," Lucas said.

"Thanks, Lucas," Mr. Matthews said.

"Call on me anytime," Lucas smiled.

"Pompeii sounds so beautiful, Maya," Riley said, turning to her best friend. "We should go there. We should go there and be calm."

"Let me tell you about a while city that became very calm, very quick," Mr. Matthews said. "Now, who here knows about Mount Vesuvius."

Harley was still getting to know Maya, but he had a feeling that that comment was directed at Maya. Gabriel had told him and Cassie about middle school and what they had done then. Based on the information that he had told them, they had an idea of what each one of them were like.

"Mount Vesuvius was a pent-up, boiling cauldron of 'I wanna do something,'" Maya said.

"Vesuvius sat quiet for a long time," Mr. Matthews said. "But then, it did what volcanoes in time must do. It 'sploded!"

"Why does a volcano have to 'splode?" Riley asked her father.

"Because if it doesn't, it'll just blow up worse later," Mr. Matthews explained. "Vesuvius wiped out the entire population of Pompeii. It was one of the greatest natural disasters the world had ever known."

Oh, shit, Harley thought.

Riley turned quickly to Maya.

"Okay, then do it right now!" Riley demanded from Maya. "Do what you need to do to be Maya. But please don't wipe us all out, Peaches."

Ever since their art teacher, Mr. Jackson pointed out how Riley had a huge impact on Maya, it lead to the blonde to have an identity crisis.

Based on what Gabriel had told him and Cassie, Maya wasn't like this. She was rebellious. She had this tough girl act. Harley had an idea what led to her to act the way she did, but he didn't want to voice it. A part of him was terrified that she'd get bad at him.

Since her identity crisis, Riley has been anxiously waiting for Maya to blow up.

The fire alarm suddenly goes off and Riley smiled.

"That's it!" she exclaimed. "Oh, a fire alarm! Ooh, you sassy troublemaker!"

Realization hit Riley and she gasped and stood up.