Riley didn't know when it started, she hadn't realized anything was happening at all because she had always been a clumsy, klutzy, girl. Except after all of that time with Coach Kelly in middle school she had found balance in her body. Yet in the last few weeks she had found herself on the floor more often, or small accidents happening like a few days ago she somehow found her favorite pair of jeans covered in red paint. More and more often she was getting phone calls from unknown numbers, of blocked numbers. She hadn't understood what was happening until the first set of messages began to pop up.
Each message was as bad as the others, they told her that she didn't deserve her friends, they told her that she was stupid, that she didn't look pretty, and that Lucas would finally leave her for someone better. Riley didn't want to bother her friends with this because she needed to fight this battle by herself. So she deactivated her account on the school social network, she stopped posting on Instagram and reported the messages, but the accounts were fake and new accounts came back so she deactivated that account as well.
She wanted to be strong enough to handle it all but as the days went by more and more messages found their way towards her. Through her school email, through notes slipped into her locker, until they started showing up on her phone. Text message after text message, she blocked the number but new ones came and they began to break through her self-confidence. It was worse than when she was in middle school but she didn't know why, she was nice to everyone and most of the school liked her so she couldn't understand who would do this.
Instead of asking for help she just ignored it all, she tried to rise above it not showing her friends that someone was hurting her because they all had to study for the regents exams at the end of January and failing them meant you had to retake a class entirely. She decided that after the exams she would talk to them about it and ask for help. Except she couldn't sleep anymore, as the thoughts of these people were in her mind muddling her thoughts.
She was sitting in class when she fell asleep and knocked her head against her desk.
"Riley are you okay?" her teacher asked looking at her worried.
Riley gave her a smile before yawning. "Sorry I was up late studying so I didn't get enough sleep," she said trying to concentrate but it wasn't working. "Can I be excused, maybe if I splash some cold water on my face it will wake me up."
The teacher agreed but told her to take her stuff with her since the bell would ring soon. Riley nodded before walking away to the bathroom, instead of washing her face she went into a stall and cried. She hadn't slept in the last two days, only little naps here and there, her body felt heavy but she had to get through the rest of the day. As she wiped her face a group of girls came into the bathroom, she decided to wait until they were gone so that they wouldn't see her face.
"Can you believe that girl?" one of them said. "She gets away with everything just because her father is a teacher here."
"I know I remember in middle school that she did so many things and never got in trouble," another said. Riley tried to listen to the voice to see if it was familiar but middle school felt like an eternity. "I just wish that she wasn't so uppity about herself, she's so klutzy and stupid half the time."
"Why does she even have friends?" the third girl said. "They always have to deal with her random moods, it's so stupid. I wouldn't be surprised if they all leave her one day."
"Oh what about her boyfriend?" the first girl said. "He's so hot but he's stuck with her, I would look better with him. Hell that girl Maya would look better with him."
"They almost got together in middle school and of course Riley got in their way, those two make a much better couple too," the second girl said. "I remember that time, she had been so quiet it was nice."
Riley didn't want to hear them anymore, they were talking about everything she had thought she had put behind herself years before. That's when she realized what was happening was worse than when she had been bullied in middle school. She thought about the paint on her jeans, the notes in her locker, and everything in between. She thought how even after dating Lucas for a year, people still thought that Maya was the better person for him. She thought about almost losing her friends the first day of high school all because she wanted to believe in others. Everything in her mind was mixed up and jumbled together, she didn't want to think anymore, she just wanted some time alone to sleep.
Instead she got up when the girls had left and washed her face before making her way to her father's class. Her friends sat in their seats, talking and laughing about something. Had they noticed that she wasn't in the room, she thought to herself. She watched as Maya grabbed Lucas by the shirt and sneered at him, as Zay laughed at their interaction, as Farkle tried to pull them apart. Her head was spinning.
"Riley, take your seat," her father said but for some reason it felt distant as her ears roared with the rush of her blood. Everything was falling apart in Rileytown.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket, with another message from her tormentors, but she ignored it she stopped listening to everyone. All she wanted was quiet. That's when she felt the world tilt in front of her, as her body finally gave out. The last thing she heard was Lucas calling out for her as she fell to the floor.
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Lucas couldn't believe what was happening, Maya had gone up to him making fun of him and he didn't want to deal with her. He was worried about Riley, he knew something was wrong by how tired she looked. She had fallen asleep in class which was not something she normally did. She looked tired, but he knew they were all tired. The regents exams were coming up and they were the most difficult set of test out of the whole year because they determined whether you moved forward in school. Riley took them seriously, like everything else when it came to her grades, because she wanted to get into a good college with a scholarship, but he wondered if she had gone too far.
"Maya let go," he said giving up he didn't want to deal with the blonde in front of him. He wanted to talk to Riley about not stressing out about a test but instead of letting him go Maya just pulled him closer.
"No, because you threw something at me," she said, but he wasn't the one who did it. Zay was trying to get the blonde's attention and threw the paper but when she turned around she just looked at Lucas like he was the one who did it.
In the distance her heard Mr. Matthews telling Riley to take a seat, and Lucas automatically turned to see his girlfriend in the door looking more tired than she did earlier. Lucas tried to pry Maya's fingers off of him to go to Riley. He needed to talk to her more than anything, but then he saw her eyes get all glassy before she started to crumble to the ground.
"Riley," he called out to her pushing Maya aside and rushing to the front of the room. Kneeling down next to Riley he tried to wake her but she didn't wake up. Her face looked sunken in, like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. He was afraid that it was all because of a stupid test. Maya kneeled next to him looking at Riley then back at Lucas with a look on her face saying why was this happening. Farkle looked at the three of them on the floor and noticed that Riley's phone had slid out of her pocket. It buzzed in the genius' hand and Lucas looked up to see the horrified look on his friend's face.
"Mr. Friar, can you take her to the nurse's office," Mr. Matthews said, Lucas looked up and saw the worried look on his girlfriend's face and nodded.
Lucas picked Riley up gently not wanting to wake her up, and held her close as he walked out of the room. The murmurs of his classmates behind him, he knew they were talking about what was happening, and he didn't care he just wanted Riley to be taken care of. He wanted to make sure that she was taken care of. He could hear his friends in the distance but he just kept walking to the nurse's office without looking back.
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Farkle couldn't believe it, the minute he picked up Riley's phone and saw the messages that were popping up he was afraid. Not only for Riley, but also for Lucas. Riley who would do anything for her friends, who would make sure that they were okay. Lucas who had a darker side that no one outside of their group knew about, a side that is only at bay because Riley centered him, loved him. As he watched the couple walk away he pulled Maya, to the side and shoved Riley's phone in her face. He watched as her face became horrified at the message, unlocking Riley's phone before pulling up message after message. She looked up at him with sadness in her eyes.
"It's happening again," she said after a moment had passed. "Why didn't she tell us?"
Farkle knew the answer, "The test, they're all we can think about so of course she left this hanging, until we went through them."
"But Farkle they're just stupid test," Maya said slowly noticing that Riley's social media accounts were all deactivated as she clicked on them one by one. "She has posted anything in a while and I was wondering why, but I guess now I know."
"I'll open them up and see what was happening," he said as Zay and Smackle joined them. Farkle knew that he had to do something about Lucas, he didn't want the older teen to freak out and go after anyone because it would only hurt Riley in the end. "Zay, you need to keep Lucas away from Riley."
"Yeah good luck with that," Zay said with sadness in his eyes. "The minute Riley went down his mind probably thought about nothing but making sure that she was alright."
"I know," Farkle sighed.
"You guys need to get back into class," Mr. Matthews said from the door. Farkle could see the worry in the man's face, Mr. Matthews loved his students like they were his own, but when it came to his children he would do anything for them. "I'm going to ask for a sub, before I leave."
Farkle wanted to tell him, but he wanted to make sure that Lucas was taken care of first so he just nodded. "Alright," he said ushering his friends back inside the room. "Don't say anything until we have everything sorted out, I really don't want Lucas going all Texas while Riley's like this."
They all nodded at him and followed him back into the room, they decided to go to Topanga's after school to talk. Farkle wanted to have his computer with him, he wanted to go through Riley's accounts and see the extent of what was happening. He wanted them to be prepare for what was coming because the moment Lucas knew, the moment her parents knew, everything would be in utter chaos. He wanted to keep Riley safe because he was a part of the Riley Committee and because she was one of his best friends.
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Maya sat in her classes feeling as if her whole world was tilting on its side, her best friend had fallen apart in front of her and she hadn't noticed. How is it she can help Riley with something one minute and be utterly clueless about what was happening with her the next. She felt like she was always failing her best friend everyday but she also knew that Farkle would help figure everything out, that they would all get together and protect Riley. She didn't want her best friend to lose her smiles over something like this.
Everything felt like it was moving in slow motion throughout the day, when she saw Lucas again towards the end of the day he looked like he had been thrown through the ringer, his hair was a mess his eyes full of worry. He slammed his locker and punched it several times before she saw Zay talking to him. Without Riley around to center him, the boy was falling apart. Maya hadn't noticed it before, the reason why Riley and Lucas worked so well together, they were each other's center. Without one the other would fall apart, it had happened with Riley during the time she had set her feelings aside so that Lucas could be with her best friend. Maya hadn't realized what it had done to Riley until Farkle revealed the truth about Riley's feelings, and the look of sadness that Riley had been trying to hide for so long had taken up permanent residence on her face.
Farkle walked up next to her and put his arm around her, "Don't worry we'll figure this out," he said and she knew he was right but she couldn't figure out the why.
"Why would they do this Farkle?" she asked knowing he didn't have the answer.
"We're going to find out," was all he said a look of determination on his face. "Let's go."
They dragged Lucas to the café even though he had wanted to go to Riley, Zay tied him to a radiator with rope and made sure the knots were tight enough as they slowly explained to Lucas what was happening. Maya watched as the boy in front of her slowly lost his composure, as he strained against the ropes but he was trapped. Farkle and Smackle were working on Riley's phone, opening up all of her accounts, Zay comforted Lucas who would just snarl at the him.
Maya just stared at them all wondering what she could have done differently, until her mother walked over wondering what they were doing. They all looked at one another before Lucas' in his angry state spoke up.
"Someone's bullying Riley again," he said straining against the ropes. Her mother understood, remembering the last time it had happened and how Lucas had been tied to the counter. He had to pay for the repairs by working it off doing small tasks in the café. This time they had been prepared, making sure he wouldn't get far.
"Tell me if you kids need anything," her mother said. "And don't forget to tell her parents."
"We will," Farkle said. "The minute we have all of the evidence we need."
So they sat there working, Maya had gotten the small printer the geniuses brought with them plugged in and filled with paper. She read through everything they printed horrified at the things they said. The account names changed constantly, almost as if Riley would block one and another would pop up. Lucas gave up fighting the ropes after he had heard enough of the messages. His eyes filled with sadness, the same sadness that had filled all of their hearts. They needed her parents to deal with this, because it was bigger than it had been during middle school and at the rate it was going it would eventually break their sunshine apart.
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A/N: If you have been paying attention in the last few chapters you would have seen the small things, Riley being pushed down at the party wasn't an accident, her tripping during her birthday, the phone ringing with an unknown caller. I slipped these things into the chapters, they were small and you wouldn't have noticed them otherwise.
Also the Regents Exams, as stupid as they are and they put too much pressure on the student body, are real. They're the NY State exams for High School students and they have to be taken after you complete each section in a class. I hated those test so badly.