Ari POV:
"Strawberry" Lucas asks me as he holds one up as we sit in a field by the ranch where we kept Thunder and Baja. We hadn't been horseback riding in a while so we decided to make a date out of it and have a picnic.
"Mmhm" I hum nodding my head as he feeds it to my laughing as I nibble on it giggling with him before we finish up the food and clean up and lay there Lucas with his head on my lap as I run my fingers through his hair.
"I love you" I whisper in his ear before kissing his forehead.
"Uh i love your forehead kisses" he replies smiling up at me.
"Yeah?" I ask him.
"Yeah" he answers before leaning up to kiss my lips. "I love you so much baby" he says as we continue to cuddle together for a bit longer before we eventually clean up.
"I bet I could beat you in a race back to the stables" he challenges and I scoff in response.
"You're on cowboy, we both know I'm going to win this" I say as we climb up on our horses and hold onto our stuff.
"Three" Lucas says as he stops Thunder right next to me.
"Two" I respond looking into his eyes.
"One" we say before we fly off. We pass through the field me in the lead. We continue to ride our horses all the way back constantly cutting each other off before we approach the finish line at the stables, me launching Baja and I forward arriving first.
"Yes!!!" I yell as I cheer for my victory before we dismount and put our stuff down. "I win" I say wrapping my arms around him.
"Yeah Yeah" he replies smiling before leaning down and giving my nose a little nudge with his before I close the gap kissing him as he wraps his arms around me tightly holding me close as I wrap mine around his neck pulling him closer to me. A few minutes later we pull apart gasping for air before we continue to head towards Lucas' car and go home laughing and singing to the music we played.
Lucas POV:
"In every life, there are landmarks. What are the historical markers of our lives? Most important first." Mr.Matthews asks on Monday as we sit in class ready for another week.
"Sweet Sixteen." Riley answers.
"No." Mr.Matthews replies.
"Arbor Day!" Maya exclaims.
"No. Even Sweet Sixteen is more important than Arbor Day."
"Sweet Sixteen." Riley repeats.
"Arbor Day!" Maya says putting a hand towards her mouth.
"No, most important first." Mr.Matthews says.
"Sweet Sixteen is the doorway to our driver's license." Riley tells him.
"Arbor Day is the doorway to nobody knows what it is." Maya replies.
"And college." Riley mentions.
"You're going without me?" Maya asks her shocked.
"No, you're going to the little one next door." Riley says turning around to look at her.
"Yay!" Maya cheers.
"Farkle?" Mr.Matthews asks desperate for a good answer.
"Birth." He responds.
"Okay, let's go with that because it's not what you said. What's next?" Mr.Matthews asks us.
"I win the Nobel Prize for Physics." Smackle exclaims.
"Smackle, we just got born." Mr.Matthews tells her.
"Okay. I'll wait." She tells him.
"Our first birthday." I say looking at our teacher.
"Okay, birth. So then, we celebrate our birth every year. What's next?" Mr.Matthews says continuing to ask the class for landmarks.
"I win the Nobel Prize for Physics." Smackle says again.
"Not yet." Mr.Matthews tells her.
"Get to it!" Smackle yells.
"Our first steps, our first words, our first day at school." Zay speaks up.
"Yay! The day I met Riley and Maya and Smackle and Lucas and Zay and Ari" Farkle cheers as everyone else groans at the thought of school.
"Okay, so we get born. We learn to walk and talk. We meet our friends. Then what?" Mr.Matthews asks looking at the class.
"You know" Smackle says pointing her finger towards him.
"Then we grew up and we're not little kids anymore." Ari speaks up smiling softly. "And it went by fast, didn't it?"
"It goes by very fast, Ms.Black. Your adventures were my adventures not very long ago. Then we have our various coming of age ceremonies." Mr.Matthews says as he walks around the classroom.
"Oh, you mean like" Maya starts to say.
"I want us to have a Surprise Sweet Sixteen party." Riley says happily.
"Riley, how is it a surprise if we all know about it?" I ask confused.
" 'Cause we're gonna have it now while we're all 15 and you're 24." Maya says causing me shake my head before I hear Ari's giggles.
"Really Angel?" I ask jokingly looking at her causing her to nod as she continues to giggle.
"Okay, everybody, make a big surprise face." Riley says as everyone mocks surprise.
"Yeah, don't do that. And anyway, it doesn't matter. It doesn't count. I mean, it must have been a "Sweet Sixteen" for a reason. Why? I don't care." Zay says not moving as he continues to look at his notebook.
"Well, now actually, Zay brings up an interesting point." Mr.Matthews says from the front of the class.
"No, I don't." Zay responds shaking his head.
"Riley has an instinct to accelerate the clock. Why do you think that is?" Mr.Matthews asks the class.
"Because I want a party." Riley responds.
"Try again." He tells her.
"Well, 'cause I agree with Zay. We are growing up very fast." Riley says looking towards Zay.
"What? You agree with me?" Zay asks her.
"Yeah." Riley tells him nodding causing him to gasp and make a surprise face.
"Okay. Yeah, that was fun. Hey, but watch this surprise face." Zay says making another surprise face, "Okay, only one was fun."
"Okay, so there it is, freshmen. You guys are all gonna be 16 or 17 in your junior year. You're gonna be thinkin' about where to go to college." Mr.Matthews tells us.
"Stockholm University so I can be nearby to pick up my Nobel Prize." Smackle interrupts as she states her plan.
"We'll talk." Farkle tells her as he turns around.
"We'll talk in Swedish." She says.
"Okay, Smackle has her life worked out. What about the rest of you? Are you better off letting life surprise you or is there a way to be ready for whatever is gonna happen?" Mr.Matthews asks as he looks around the class.
"How would that be possible?" Riley asks him.
"By looking at the landmarks of our lives so far. Have they prepared you for what's gonna come next? Happy Sweet Sixteen, everybody. Your assignment is to tell me what's gonna happen next." Mr.Matthews says before we all look around at our friends.
Ari POV:
A few hours later we sit at Topanga's to begin thinking out our assignment.
"I'm just saying we just had a party why did we need another one? Now we gotta think about this stuff" I groan as Lucas drags me along into the cafe.
"Come on we'll hang out talk about the assignment and then we can go to your place and watch a movie or do whatever" Lucas says as he turns towards me kissing my cheek as I pout.
"I just wanted to take a nap" I say as he pulls me close.
"Then we'll cuddle and take a nap later" he says smiling.
"Okay fine come on" I say as i move to stand on my tip toes and kiss his forehead before we walk in and sit down alongside the group.
"Okay, let's pretend that we've finished our sophomore year and we're juniors now. What's changed?" Riley asks when we're all gathered.
"I don't understand what could be calculated by projecting the future." Smackle says.
"You and Maya still best friends?" Lucas asks Riley and Maya.
"Better than now. Absolutely." The two respond.
"That is speculation." Smackle points out.
"Speculation is not scientific. We can't learn anything this way." Farkle mentions.
"You and I still together?" I ask looking up at Lucas.
"Yup and we just celebrated our 6 year anniversary, so happy anniversary" Lucas says as the waitress brings over a milkshake.
"Yay" I cheer grabbing it before kissing his cheek. "I love you" I say pecking his lips and taking a sip.
"Huh, Riley and Maya are more confident in their relationship then Ari and Lucas are" Farkle says causing Lucas and I to look at each other and tilt our heads.
"What're you talking about? I gave him this" I say holding Lucas' wrist up which held the promise bracelet I had given him a little while back.
"Yeah She practically put a ring on it" Lucas says lifting me onto his lap causing Zay to chuckle at us.
"So regular friends are stronger relationships than boyfriends and girlfriends" Farkle says ignoring us.
"Or are those types of relationships so new to us, we simply don't understand them yet?" Smackle asks while I point the straw towards Lucas to give him some milkshake.
"Well maybe that's why we take so much of high school to figure them out" Zay speaks up before they look towards Lucas and I.
"What are you guys on about we just celebrated our six year anniversary" I say jokingly holding up the milkshake.
"Yeah and we're practically married" Lucas jokes holding his wrist up.
"But seriously bubs I love you and I'm not letting you go, you're mine" I say leaning in.
"And I'm not letting you leave me, you babygirl are mine" he responds closing the gap between us kissing my lips passionately. We stay like that for a few seconds enjoying our kiss before we pull apart. "I love you" he whispers.
"I love you too" I whisper back.
"What is that?" Smackle asks after Lucas and I pull apart from our kiss as Lucas places small kisses all over my face causing me to giggle.
"They know there's vulnerability in that kind of relationship,and yet that happened." Farkle says looking over at us.
"What is that? What just happened there?" Smackle asks again.
"Feelings." Farkle tells her.
"How are we supposed to measure feelings? How are we supposed to know what we're gonna feel when we're juniors? What kind of dumb-head assignment is this?" Smackle asks angrily as she stands up.
"Get out the way. She gonna explode." Zay says as he stretches his arms out in front of Lucas and I.
"I'm gonna fail this assignment! I'm gonna fail this assignment. Click." Smackle says getting upset before she shrugs her shoulders and freezes her movements.
"Wh what happened?" Zay asks confused.
"She crashed." Farkle says.
"What, like a computer?" I ask confused.
"Yeah, it's like the little rainbow wheel is spinning. She'll be back." Farkle tells us as Zay and I look at each other confused. "Lucas, can I talk to you for a second?"
"Sure." Lucas responds before standing up and kissing my forehead. "I'll be back love you" he says before walking outside.
"Love you too" I yell back as he walks out causing him to chuckle before Zay and I share a look and stand up heading towards Smackle.
He grabs Smackles arms dragging he along the room doing random motions as Riley and Maya talk about college.
"Sweet sixteen isn't sweet at all" Riley says as he brings Smackle back me laughing at him moving her around.
"They lied to us" Maya says as Riley hugs her.
"Okay you two are" Zay starts before I interrupt him.
"The strangest people alive" I finish before Smackle speaks up.
"Press any key to continue" Smackle says before we both mutter never mind and I grab her glasses passing them to Zay who puts them on as I press on Smackle's nose. "What I miss?" She asks after fixing her posture.
"Well, Riley and Maya are more important than Ari and Lucas." Zay says causing me to sigh.
"Lucas and I are going to be fine" I say annoyed.
"I don't think anybody missed that." Smackle says. "I like your glasses."
"Oh. I just got 'em. Oh, uh, and we probably won't be together after high school anymore." Zay tells her.
"Oh. Click." Smackle says crashing again.
"All right, will you stop that?" Zay says.
"Who does that?" I ask.
"Click." Riley and Maya says before the crash too as Zay and I just shake our heads before breaking down laughing.