"misha, sparkle is here!" miles yelled. misha scoffed. she didn't expect farkle to come over; in fact, she actually was expecting lucas. he was supposed to be coming over to work on their project.
she walked to the door, looking through the peephole. it was lucas. misha pulled the door open. "miles, just because someone knocks on the door doesn't mean it's farkle," she scolded her younger brother.
"well he's the only one that knocks. who's this one?" he asked her. misha ignored the small boy, turning to lucas. "hi, lucas. this is my younger brother miles."
the blond boy looked down and waved. miles waved back before turning around, running, and jumping onto the couch in a swift movement. he stood on the arm rest so he was taller than lucas. "alright boy! i must swear you in," miles shouted.
lucas was dumbfounded at what was going on. "just go along with it. he does this every time a boy comes over," misha whispered. he nodded.
"misha, fetch me my mr. googly book!"
she scurried to a bookshelf and grabbed it with no question. miles held the book up before reciting a question. "do you, lucas..." miles paused, questioning his last name."
"guy, promise to never participate in any funny business underneath my roof?"
lucas placed his hand on the book, holding in laughter, "i do."
miles smiled, pulling the book down. "alrighty, you may not touch my sister!"misha laughed aloud. "thank you miles," she picked him up and put him back onto the floor.
lucas followed misha into her room. she threw her stuff onto her bed.
"sorry about that funny business stuff. he's been like that since farkle came over here." misha apologized. lucas laughed it off. "no, you've got a great brother there. i've never really had someone as protective of me as he is of you. it's neat."
misha smiled. there was a moment of silence that crept among the two. things hadn't necessarily been resolved between riley, lucas, and maya. misha was thrown in the middle, even though she had her own problems with isadora and farkle. misha wished to be in zay's position. he was probably just enjoying the show.
"why didn't you tell maya you liked her? things would be a lot easier if you would have told her. i get that you like riley too, but you've got to like someone a bit more," misha blurted. lucas's eyes widened. she slowly regretted what she said, but couldn't take it back.
"why didn't you tell farkle you liked him?" he snapped back. misha blink. "maybe i don't like him! you don't know me, lucas, not as well as everyone else does." misha felt her cheeks getting red as she yelled. whenever she was angry, she looked like a strawberry.
"all i know is that you should understand more than anyone else how hard this is for me," lucas mumbled. awkward silence followed again.
misha took her bag and got everything she needed out. "so, about roanoke! i've got a theory that i think we could discuss in our presentation..."she trailed.
--
the next day was thursday. misha was tired. she did most of the work for her project after lucas left. he wasn't focussed on the project whatsoever, so she decided to finish it on her own so she didn't have to worry about it later.
misha pulled sweatpants on over her shorts and walked out of her house. her large hoodie hugged her loosely. she held a coffee mug in one hand, a hair brush in the other.
after the tangles were no longer in her hair, she tied it up into a ponytail. she was very skillful at multitasking-- tying her hair all while avoiding the groups of people on the sidewalk.
misha threw the mug unto her bag, with the hairbrush, once she finished her coffee. she inhaled and looked around herself. her thoughts were scrambled, incomprehensible. taking the longer route to school helped, somewhat. it was comforting knowing that nobody misha walked past knew who she was.
her mind drifted back to her problems. the only thing she did understand was that high school was hard, even with friends by her side. she knew her friends were the ones making everything harder for her, though. was it supposed to be like this? she didn't really have friend groups to compare this one to.
"misha!" a voice yelled from behind her. she turned around, spotting farkle at the bottom of some steps. her stomach dropped. it took everything in her not to sprint away, but she had to face everything sooner or later.
she waited for farkle as he caught up to her. he didn't initiate any conversation, so she did.
"how are you doing?" she hadn't seen farkle since the night him and isadora split up. the breakup was definitely taking a toll on the boy. his hair wasn't styled like it had been lately, and dark circles lived underneath his eyes.
"better," he lied. "chocolate has played its part on my healing."
"you're gonna make it through today. riley always puts a smile on your face, let's find her," misha suggested. they walked together to her usual morning hangout spot.
the two found lucas and smackle, but no riley or maya. farkle's jaw clenched tightly at the sight of smackle. misha hated the tension, and didn't know what to do. she snaked her arm around farkle's, linking them together. she knew she couldn't make this less awkward, but could make farkle less uncomfortable. he shot her a reassuring smile.
"riley and maya aren't at school today," lucas told them.
misha nodded, turning to take farkle to elsewhere. "okay, it's harder to see her than I expected," he said. a small tear fell down his cheek.
misha immediately reached up and wiped it away with her sweatshirt. "hey, don't worry. let's just get to class before we're late." she pressed her hand onto his shoulder for reassurance. he nodded.
classes went by swiftly, even mr. matthews' class. it was almost quiet without riley and maya, but zay and misha filled in for them. they were loud, asked questions, did what they wanted.
at the end of class misha and lucas presented their project. "and we know mr. matthews incorporates something valuable into his lessons, so we did that with out theory." lucas started their finishing statement flawlessly.
misha picked up where he left off. "roanoke colony split themselves up for no particular reasons. if, with conflicts in our lives, we work things out together," she took a deep breath. "no one will end up lost."
after class misha met with farkle. "so did you figure out where maya and riley are?" she leaned up against his neighbouring locker as she talked with him. farkle nodded. "they went to see shawn, get their minds off of lucas's crap."
misha laughed. "if i had the chance, i'd do the same." farkle nodded. "yeah. so, what do ya wanna do?" misha shrugged to him.
"i need to talk to misha." a voice piped up from behind them. she turned around, noticing smackle. farkle towered above her. misha looked from isadora to farkle.
he nodded, waving her off. "it's fine, i'll just start heading to your house. your dad promised a game of chess to me." misha smiled. after that, farkle walked off.
she exhaled loudly, not ready to face what smackle had coming for her. smackle sighed too.
"I'm just gonna say it. is farkle okay? i care about the boy, more than i have with anyone. regardless of how things "
misha blinked, staring at smackle deeply. "i would be lying if i said he's okay. his friends will get him through it, though. they always do."
"you're referring to yourself?" smackle asked. misha laughed. "not just me, riley, zay, lucas, maya on a good day, and hopefully you. you may not want him romantically, but you can't go back to being arch enemies."
"goodbye, misha. i'm going to reconsider my time at school here. i like an einstein boy, and i only came here to see farkle anyway," smackle lied through her teeth.
misha frowned. "stay," she whispered. for a moment, isadora reconsidered, but turned on her heels, walking out of the school.