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★ ☆ ✰ ✮ ✯
Neveah opens the door with Jake, a frown still on her face from earlier.
"Mom, dad! We're home!" Jake calls as they walk deeper into the house.
Carmen walks out of the kitchen with Shawn's arms glued around her. "Hey, my babies- Shawn get off me."
Carmen giggles and playfully pushes him off causing him to pout. "You'll be fine. Come here babies," She opens her arms for them to hug her, the two wraps their arms around her.
"How was school? What's with the gloomy face?" Shawn asks as he hugs them when they let go of Carmen.
"Riley and Maya are still fighting?" Carmen looks at her daughter.
Jake nods his head, "Yeah. Neveah also got into the crossfire and is now upset with Riley."
"I don't even know why she got mad at me!" Neveah throws her hands up with frustration, "All I said was that Maya had a point -which she did- and then Riley came after me and said that I was 'defending' her. Like- what?" Neveah makes a face, Carmen lightly laughs as she looks at her replica of her younger self.
Shawn purses his lips as he watches his kids walk to the couch and sit down. "Is this your first fight?"
Neveah shakes her head, "No...but it wasn't as big as this one."
Shawn and Carmen glance at each other. Carmen gives him a small smile and nods toward their kids.
Shawn walks over and sits in the solo sofa, "Okay, did Cory tell the time that our friend group almost ended in college?" He motions for Carmen to come and sit on his lap, she walks over and sat down as he wraps his arms on her while she got comfortable.
Neveah plays with the pillow on her lap. "I mean, he told us about it but he never went into detail..."
Shawn nods his head, "When we were in college we had this...prank war. It was girls against boys- well girls including your uncle Jack and occasionally Eric who wasn't on either teams." He rolls his eyes at the memory, Carmen giggles but stayed quiet as she listened to the story before she got close to them. "But anyways, at first, the wars were innocent in fun, yeah. Until it wasn't." The kids look at him.
"Cory and I did something stupid and it was on our part. We put our friend's embarrassing picture in our student union where everyone can see...a big arguement broke out. We said some things towards those friends and even Topanga. It was one of our biggest fights. It lasted for days." He looks at the kids, "We were all to stubborn and in our feelings to solve it ourselves. Even Mr. Feeny could get us to talk with each other and he forced us to sit in the classroom and talk it out."
"Then how did you fix it?" Jake asks him.
Shawn lightly chuckles, he plays with the promise ring on Carmen's finger. "Surprisingly Eric."
Neveah looks at him with a surprised expression, she knew the stories of how weird the man was and only encountered with him a couple of times when she was younger, and he didn't seem like the brightest one in the Matthews family.
"Yeah, and all he did was read what he wrote, 'Lose one friend, lose all friends, lose yourself.'" Shawn says. Jake and Neveah glances at each other before looking back at their father. "After that we all slowly resolved our differences. The point I'm trying to make here, is that...yes, friends may bump heads with each other and argue but don't let that argument end your friendship when it be resolved. Because you guys will regret it, and it could maybe affect you in the future." Shawn tells them with a small smile.
Neveah and Jake slowly nod their head, "Okay."
"Thanks, dad." Neveah adds with a smile, Shawn opens his arms for them while Carmen gets up.
Neveah and Jake hop off the couch to hug the man as he squeezes them tightly. "Aww, I love you kiddos."
"I love you, too." They respond in unison.
They pull away when Neveah's dings. She looks at the notification to see that her Godfather texted her.
Papa C
Ask your mom if you can come over.
"Who is it?" Jake asks her.
"Umm...papa C." She looks at her mom, "He's asking if I can come over real quick."
Carmen nods her head as she sits back down on Shawn's lap. "Yeah, that's fine, honey."
Neveah smiles, "Okay, thanks mom. I'll be right back." She slips on her slides by the door and leaves.
Jake turns to his parents and thrusts his thumb towards the hall. "I'm going to go call Lucas." He says and excuses himself from the room.
Carmen giggles and leans back against Shawn as he rubs her thigh. "That was good advice you gave them, Shawn."
"You think so?" Shawn looks up at her, he wasn't sure if he did since he wasn't that good in that apartment.
Carmen hums and leans down to peck his lips, "Yeah, good job, babe."
Shawn pulls her back into a kiss as he grins. "I missed you calling me that." Carmen playfully rolls her eyes and stands up from his lap.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna go start on dinner. Wanna help?" She walks backwards, waiting for an answer.
"Yeah, I'll help." Shawn smiles and follows after her.
★ ☆ ✰ ✮ ✯
Once Neveah arrived at the Matthews' house, she was surprised when she saw Eric in Riley's room.
She slowly walks toward the bay window and sat in between Riley and Maya with her arms and legs crossed.
"Now, that you're here." Cory smiles at the three girls. "I called in my brother to help because no one here wants to see your battle become a war."
"And Eric's really good at this, because you wanna believe that everybody has to be good at something." Topanga smiles at the said man, throwing shade.
Eric didn't catch it though and sent her an appreciative grin, "Thank you, tuba." He shoots a finger gun toward her way, Topanga shakes her head with a laugh.
"Eric's also good at this because he completely knows how to talk to people." Cory tells the girls.
"Right." Eric walks over and sits in between Maya and Neveah and looks back and forth. "Now...which one of you is Riley's friend, Moesha?" Neveah furrows her brows at him.
"It's Maya." The blonde corrects him.
"Oh, okay. So, what are you fighting about?"
"She didn't take my side like Neveah." Maya looks at the ground, Neveah sighs and leans against the window.
"I couldn't take her side based on what was said, which is the problem with this whole thing, because Maya is making too big of a deal of what was said." Riley tells her uncle.
Eric nods his head, "Uhuh, okay. Okay. Now, which one was she?" Maya and Neveah give him a furrowed brow while Riley stands up.
"She's the one who used to be my best friend, like the other one." Neveah snaps her head up at Riley in disbelief.
"Use to be? Oh, okay." Neveah mutters with a hurt expression and turns away from her to stare at the window. Topanga, Cory, and Auggie share a look.
"Oh, I'm sorry, but your best friends are supposed to be the people you stand up for in front of people." Maya glares at the brunette and stands up to get closer to her along with Neveah and Eric. Neveah realize she was next to Riley and moves over to Maya's right.
"Okay..." He starts speaking gibberish before grabbing his niece's arm and pulling away from the two. "Look...listen, Riley." He sighs, "Look, in Margie's and Nive's point of view..." Maya and Neveah roll their eyes as they sit back down on the bench. "Right and wrong don't matter. There's nothing more important than the friendship."
"I just can't side with them this time. This time we just can't go into candy cane world. We can't just go skipping over the rainbow bridge with our underwear on our head." Riley throws her hands up.
Eric lets out a laugh and scratches his head. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm not doing that again." Cory and Topanga make a face at the man. "When a real friend comes in your life, I mean...if one true friend comes through this window, then sometimes to protect the friendship, then right and wrong, they have to go out the window. Do you understand?" Topanga slides off the bed to stand next to her daughter.
Riley and Topanga shake their head, "No."
"Honey, I think Eric's employing a broad-based concept of value concept friendship taking priority-" Cory starts.
"I'm sorry, are you explaining something to me?" Topanga turns to him with crossed arms.
Cory fearfully shakes his head with a nervous laugh. "No." He looks down at his lap.
"Yo, bozo." Topanga turns back to Eric.
"Yessss?"
"A true friend always lets her friends know what she is really thinking. That is the definition of friendship. Is there anybody here who could possibly disagree with that?" Topanga says.
"Well, I think what Eric's trying..." Auggie quickly covers his father's mouth and gives him a look.
"Are you kidding me?"
"Yeah, okay. You know what no one can argue with there, tomato?" Eric starts as Topanga looks at him in amusement, waiting for him to give an example. "Um, when I finally hear what this argument is about, and I fix it all up in like one second." He sasses and motions for the two girls sitting down. "Yeah, okay, Malala, Nashmea, come here." Maya and Neveah share a look before reluctantly walking over to him. "Now, I need you to tell us what this fight is about, so I can fix it."
Maya looks at Neveah who nods her head, she sighs and looks at Topanga. "Lucas called me short."
Topanga glances over at her husband as he looks at his brother. "Fix it." He tells Eric.
"Yeah, I can't fix that." Eric shakes his head.
"Eric, I brought you in because you're the only one I know who can do the impossible." Cory gives him a smile, "You're my big brother. Fix it."
Eric went to open his mouth to protest but sighs. He walks behind Maya and grabs her head and tries to stretch her. Neveah looks at the man mortified, as he grunts in struggle.
Eric gives up and glares at the girl. "Okay, you know what? Fine. Stay a hobbit." He went to touch Neveah but she quickly stops him.
"Uhuh, I'm good." Eric huffs and walks to his neice to try and shrink her, a few seconds later he gives up and looks between the three girls.
"Okay, you know, I can't do anything if no one's gonna help." He walks away from them.
"Lucas called me a short little stack of pancakes, and unlike Neveah. Riley didn't say I wasn't." She looks at her girlfriend, "And I don't want to be a short little stack of pancakes." Neveah grabs Maya's hand and gives it a squeeze, understanding her pain.
"Oh, boy." Topanga glances at her husband.
"I don't think I'm gonna grow anymore." Maya sadly says and leans her head against Neveah's arm.
"I might be done, too." Eric walks behind Maya and sniffles.
He grabs her hair and wipes his tears. Neveah looks at him with a disgusted look and scoots Maya closer to her.