I had just laced up my red converse shoes when I got a text from Maya.
Hey. I'm heading to Riley's to wake her up, thought I'd call for reinforcements.
Ha, lol. Sure thing. Meet you there?
Yup. See ya.
Bye.
While I was closer to the boys, my relationship with Maya and Riley was slowly growing stronger. It was amazing. I've never really had girl friends before, so it's definitely a new experience.
~~~
When we met in Riley's yard, we climbed through the bay window to find Riley, wide-awake, her blanket pulled up to her chin. She looked up at us.
"Cough, Cough. Sniffle."
"That was real convincing, Riles." I told her.
"You can't be sick, I don't know how to do this life thing alone, and Skipper is too put together for my understanding." Maya added.
"I think I have the Foo-Foo Plague." I smiled and rolled my eyes.
"You do? And what do you take for that?"
"Foo-Foo medicine, and it makes you reeeeallly sleepy. Night, night. Bye." She hid her head under her blanket.
"Ok, so I'm looking up your fake disease on the fake internet." Maya said.
"Can I have a sick day, please?"
"It wants to know if you have a crushing weight on your chest." I said, sharing a look with Maya. "Do you have a crushing weight?"
"Yup. Crushing weight. Yup, yup." We climbed up, both of us sitting on top of her."Oh no! Oh no! Guys, I really do! I have the foo-foos! It's like there's an elephant on my chest!"
"Combined, we're at most, a labradoodle." Maya said, rolling off of her and pulling her blankets off of her head.
"You two have to get far far away from me. I don't want you to catch this."
"I know, that would be terrible." We both climbed into bed beside her and rubbed her face, rubbing it on our own. Maya rolled over her, laying on top of the both of us. Riley laughed."Ok, can we please go to school now and get out of Rileytown?" Riley's smile fell. "What? I just said, can we get out of Rileytow-" Riley shoved her hard off the bed.
"Riley!" I scolded.
"What is it with you? That's just a word I made up."
"I know what it means. It means that I'm goofy and silly and weird." She said, looking rather upset.
"It means you're unique." Maya told her.
"I don't want to be unique. I don't want anybody to notice me."
"But how boring is that? How many incredible people got where they were by being invisible?" I asked.
"Rileytown is where you live. We even made your own flag and national anthem, remember?" She pulled a flag with Riley's face on it out of the closet. "Rileytown, oh Rileytown. Whee. Yeah, that took us four days to write." Maya put the flag down."Is this serious, or are we having fun?"
"You are a bully."
"Ok, that's not fun." I stood, going over to her.
"Whoa, Riley, where did this come from?" I asked.
"I don't like being laughed at. Nobody likes being laughed at."
"Who's laughing? I'm not laughing, Maya's not laughing, who's laughing?" I asked.
"You never should have come up with it, and you're a bully. And Skipper, if you agree with her, then that makes you a bully too, ok?" She turned and left the room and Maya and I looked at each other.
"What the freaking crap?"
~~~
When I got to school, Farkle met me at my locker.
"Hello, Girlfriend." He greeted cheerfully.
"Hi, Farkle." He put a hand on my arm.
"Is everything ok?" I sighed.
"Something's wrong with Riley. I don't know what, but something is. She went on this whole rant about how Maya is a bully, and evidently so am I."
"What?" He asked.
"Believe me, I wish I knew." I shut my locker and we walked into Mr. Matthews' room. The bell rang and everyone sat down. He wrote "Conflict Resolution: Hamilton VS Burr" on the board.
"In what ways do human beings resolve conflict?" He asked.
"Bring in the mama." Zay said. Mr. Matthews furrowed his eyebrows.
"Or, in other word, bring in an outside party to get to the source of the problem." I explained. Farkle elaborated:
"They talk it out."
"They go to war." Lucas said.
"Why can't they talk it out?" Questioned Farkle.
"They go to war."
"Oh, ok. You and me against Farkle." Lucas and Zay shook hands.
"They talk it out."
"They go to war!"
"Let's get 'im!" Farkle took out a ping-pong ball gun and started shooting them.
"You shoulda talked it out." We said together, high-fiving briefly afterwards.
"Many Conflicts escalate and do not end well."
"The story of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr is a prime example. Anyone know what happened? Riley?"
"Please stop picking on me." Riley told him.
"What?"
"Skipper, you know this one?"
"It's my favorite. Rumor has it, Aaron Burr was jealous of Alexander Hamilton, and challenged him to a...a duel, I guess you could say. Hamilton shot into the air, and Burr, thinking he'd fired on him, killed Hamilton. Am I right? He's the dang fool that shot him." I asked.
"In 1791, Burr captured a senate seat from Hamilton's father-in-law which launched their rivalry."
"Phillip Schulyer?" I asked. Mr. Matthews nodded.
"Then Burr accused Hamilton of publicly insulting him. " Riley's phone beeped, and she looked at it. "Riley, no one should be texting you in class."
"I agree." She said. Oh...whatever is wrong with Riley, it's something to do with that text. "I don't want you to say 'Rileytown' anymore."
"I like Rileytown, and I like you, and I like to say whatever I want." Maya replied.
"Now, Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel to resolve their conflict."
"Maybe that's what we should do." Riley said.
"Look what happened to them."
"Hamilton believed the duel wasn't morally right. So, he fired his pistol in the air. Burr, as Skipper said, believing he had been shot at, fired at Hamilton, and killed him. So, why am I telling you guys this story?"
"To tell us that resolving conflicts the wrong way can lead to people getting hurt. "
"What do we learn?"
"I need to learn how to resolve a conflict." Riley said. The conflict isn't with Maya I have a feeling.
"What's going on?"
"She thinks I'm a bully because I keep saying something she doesn't like." Maya said.
"A bully isn't someone who says something you don't like. A bully is someone who uses power and intimidation to hurt others. There's a big difference between having a conflict with a friend and having a bully, so don't just throw that word around."
"There are other words you shouldn't throw around either."
"What? Like Rileytown, the place where you live because you're there right now?"
"I asked you not to, why do we have to keep on talking about this?"
"Because communications solves problems." I told her.
"The most powerful tool in the human arsenal is the ability to solve conflict with words." Added Mr. Matthews.
"You think I'm goofy, silly, and weird."
"That's what we love about you." I told her. Riley turned on me.
"I don't care!" She stood up, turning back to Maya. "I challenge you to a duel."
"Ok, you're not really understanding this at all. Maya, please help her understand." Maya stood up.
"I accept. Duel to the death."
"Skipper?" Mr. Matthews whined.
"Sorry. I got nothin'."