It was April and the year had gone by so fast, that Riley couldn't understand why so much had happened during one school year. She was tired, of the drama in her life, of the constant push and pull. Most of all she was just tired, all she did was study and write papers. It was Thursday night and she was in her room looking over her notes for Science, while Lucas read his book for English. Her parents were in the living room working, her father grading all of the papers that they had handed in the day before, her mother working on a case. Both of them were so busy that they hadn't realize that Lucas had been in her room all afternoon and she didn't care because he would run his fingers through her hair while she laid on his lap.
She was wearing her favorite sweats and her old John Quincy Adams gym shirt and it felt so comfortable. They were on the floor on top of her carpet, their notes spread out around them, while Sleeping at Last played in the background. The two of them hadn't noticed when they had both nodded off and fell asleep. For some reason Riley had felt so comfortable just sleeping on the floor. During the night Lucas had wrapped his arms around her and Riley had laid her head on his chest. The music and the sound of his heart had been the best lullaby for her.
Her parents had been too tired to check on her like they normally did so they had gone to sleep without thinking to see if Lucas was still there. So when the morning light began to shine through Riley's window at six in the morning she turned to grab her pillow only to be greeted by Lucas' chest. She had to bite back a scream and nudged her boyfriend, but he had only pulled her closer and nuzzled his neck into her hair, making her giggle.
"Oh god," she said trying not to giggle from the way he was trying to burrow his face into her neck like it was a pillow. "Lucas," she whisper yelled at him. "Lucas wake up."
"Five more minutes," he mumbled before taking a deep breath.
"No, my parents can't find you here," she said shaking him. "Come on please wake up."
He slowly opened his eyes and looked into hers before pulling away and looking around the room. "Oh man, did this really happen?"
"You slept over, and I don't think my parents will like the fact that you're here when they come to wake me up."
"Crap," he said standing up. The two of them gathered all of his stuff and shoved it into his bag, before he slowly walked towards the bay window. He gave her a quick kiss before rushing down the stairs. She watched as he ran home, knowing that he has to change into something else, she was also worried that his parents were going to yell at him.
"Riley," her father screamed pounding at the door. "Open up."
"Cory why are you yelling so early in the morning," her mother's voice said from the other side of her door.
Riley stood there afraid of her father for a minute, afraid that he had seen Lucas, had he seen Lucas? Was all she could think.
"Aren't you supposed to be headed to school for a meeting?" her mother asked but her father continued to pound on the door.
"Riley, I swear open the door," he said and Riley knew she was in trouble.
She opened the door as slowly as she could but he pushed his way into the room making her fall backwards on the floor. Her mother rushed over to pick her up.
"Why was Lucas climbing out of your window at six in the morning?" her father said making her mother turn to her.
"It's not what you think, we didn't do anything," Riley said automatically defending herself. "We were studying last night and we fell asleep and that's all that happened I swear."
"Lies," her father screeched out.
Her mother was looking around the room noting the scattered notes on the floor, and the fact that Riley's bed was still made.
"Daddy it's the truth I swear, and usually you come to tell him to go home too," she said pleading with him to understand.
"Cory," her mother said taking her father's hand. "Go to the meeting I'll handle this, I don't have to be at court until ten."
"But Topanga," he whined.
"Go now, you're still a new teacher there so go."
"Fine," he said storming off only to come back. "I'll deal with you later missy."
Once he was gone her mother looked at her and smiled. "I believe you Riley," she said before sitting down. "I think I was so wrapped up in work last night that I forgot to check in on you, but I know that Lucas is a good kid, and that you two wouldn't do anything wrong."
"I'm sorry we fell asleep," Riley said as she sat at the bay window. "A lot has happened in the last few days, and I guess we've been a little over worked."
"Do you want to hear a story?"
"Sure, why not."
"When your father and I were freshmen in high school, Mr. Turner assigned us a project about the modern day views of sex and love, and so your father and I started working on a documentary. Except we fell asleep at school and ended up staying there overnight," her mother laughed at the memory. "Of course everyone thought we did something we didn't but we didn't do anything at all. Of course your father was now considered a god, which made me angry and I yelled at him and told him we wouldn't be friends anymore. Your grandfather Alan made him realize that friendship was more important than popularity. So to apologize to me he told the truth in the documentary and we became friends again."
"But we didn't fall asleep at school," Riley said when her mother finished.
"No but I don't think your father would like to be reminded of that incident," her mother smiled at her. "He likes to let you think that he never did anything that you are doing now, so maybe you should remind him."
Riley couldn't help but smile at what her mother was saying, she had given her a gem of a story, and a lesson for her father wrapped up all in one.
"Thanks mom," she said smiling. "And I promise from now on I'll put an alarm on my phone for when Lucas has to leave so this won't happen again."
"Good, now get ready for school while I start on breakfast."
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Lucas rushed home only to find the place empty, he couldn't figure out why until he got to the kitchen and saw a note from his parents reminding him that they had gone away on an extended weekend for their anniversary. He realized that he wasn't in trouble, but he knew that he had to do the right thing regardless, Riley had taught him that.
He got ready for school as quickly as possible before rushing off to school, he didn't want to be late on top of doing something so incredibly stupid. When he walked up the stairs he was pulled aside by Farkle and Zay and pushed into the nearest bathroom. Farkle and Zay made sure that they were the only ones inside before locking the door and looking at him. Farkle looked mad at him, while Zay looked at him like he had done something amazing.
"What is going on?" Lucas said looking at his two friends.
"There's a rumor going around school," Zay said smiling. "That you and Riley did something."
"They're saying you two had sex," Farkle said without the innuendos that Zay had been throwing around. "Is it true?"
"Of course not, where did you hear that from?" Lucas asked but looked over at Zay after the words came out of his mouth.
"Your mother called me to make sure that my parents kept an eye on you this weekend," Zay smiled. "And of course I picked up the phone, and they asked if you were staying the night at my house because you hadn't gotten home."
"But you weren't at his house," Farkle said looking at him. "So when Mr. Matthews came in this morning he apparently was mumbling something about locking all of the windows and banning someone from the house."
"Crap," Lucas said running his hand through his hair. "Nothing happened, we were just studying and fell asleep... That's it I swear."
"I believe you," Farkle said but Zay just looked at him.
"I believe you but, plus I doubt Riley would do anything like that," Zay said after a minute. "What are we going to do about her father?"
"He's going to hate me isn't he?" Lucas said sliding down the wall. "What should I do?"
"Talk to Riley," Farkle said pulling him up. "And don't sit on the floor in here it's gross."
"Okay," Lucas said. "I'm going to find Riley. I'll see you guys in class."
"Later," Zay said walking away.
"I'll try to deflect Mr. Matthews for a while," Farkle said walking out of the bathroom.
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Riley got to school just before the first bell rang, only to have everyone staring at her as she walked through the halls towards her locker. People whispering around her, until Maya pulled her towards the corner of the hallway near her locker.
"Is it true?" Maya asked looking at her. "That you and Ranger Rick did the nasty."
"Maya," Riley yelled at her friend. "Where did you hear about this?"
"It's all over the school, apparently someone heard your dad mumbling something this morning, about his daughter's virtue and how boys were evil."
"Where's Lucas?"
"The guys grabbed him and dragged him away," Maya said looking her up and down.
"We didn't do anything," Riley said to her before yelling it out again loud enough for everyone to hear her.
"So what's the story then?"
"Nothing we fell asleep studying, that's it... nothing else except for the fact that we woke up the next day surrounded by our notes and the rising sun."
"Seriously," Maya said. "I was hoping to the patented Matthews freak out."
"He's still going to have it, knowing him he's probably trying to rearrange his lesson plan, but since we had to read for this class he can't really change anything."
"What did your mom say?"
"Well nothing really, she actually looked at my room and noticed that I hadn't slept in my bed."
"This is why she's a lawyer," Maya said smiling. "And she didn't want to make the same mistake as before."
Lucas came rushing down the hallway towards them. "I didn't say anything," he said the moment he reached them.
"I know," she said smiling at him. "But what are we going to do about everyone else?"
"Tell the truth until we're blue in the face," he said taking her hand.
The bell rang, leaving them in the hallway scrambling towards their classes. Riley got stares from everyone before she started telling them that nothing had happened, and that if they knew here they would know that she was telling the truth. By the time they reached her father's class she wanted to pull out her hair.
"You," he said to her and she rolled her eyes at him.
When Lucas walked in he scoffed and crumbled up a piece of paper, the entire class staring them all down as if they had done something.
"The Red Scare, during the late 1940's brought up the question of loyalty towards the country of the United States," her father started. "Starting with an Executive Order by President Truman, the people who worked within the Federal level were required to be screened for loyalty towards their country. To look for those who are disloyal to their country, who sympathized with the communist regime and would sell this country's secrets to Communist countries during the Cold War."
He walked around the room while he gave his lecture but wouldn't look either Riley or Lucas in the face.
"From this the term McCarthyism was created, after United States Senator Joseph McCarthy, in which the practice of making accusations against people who were thought to be traitors towards their country. Many of these people were brought in front of investigators and the government without evidence in which they were guilty of their crime."
"Wow this sounds familiar," Riley said out loud without thinking.
"Miss Matthews don't interrupt my lesson again," he said looking at her for the first time since she had walked into class.
"No," she said standing up. "I'm being accused of something without proper evidence, the entire school talking about me as if I have a scarlet letter on my chest."
"Here we go," Maya said smiling.
"My reputation is on the line because I have been accused of something that I didn't even do, without regard to the truth."
"Sit down Miss Matthews," he said.
"No," Lucas said standing up. "We did nothing wrong, and we deserve to be allowed our chance to stand up to the rumor of a few all because we were studying and just fell asleep."
"This isn't about you Mr. Friar," her father said. "Class dismissed," he said making everyone leave, but holding Lucas and Riley back. "Don't interrupt my class unless it's about the lesson."
"That's the thing dad you're always teaching about my life, and of course when the lesson you're teaching is about being accused of something that can ruin someone's life, I'm allowed to speak up. That's how you've always taught me."
"I also taught you to be a good girl, and not let boys stay in your room overnight."
"It was an accident, because usually some crazy dictator comes into my room and scares off the said boy, but like me that dictator is also extremely busy because he has work. So he slips up and when something as innocent as sleeping happens and he mumbles it around school the rumors begin."
"Mr. Matthews, nothing happened, we were studying and we fell asleep, it was completely innocent and would never happen again," Lucas said pleading towards her father.
"Plus we didn't do anything that you haven't already done," Riley said nailing the last nail on the coffin of her social life.
"What are you talking about Riley?" her father said looking at her.
"Mom told me, how you were found in the same position when you were in high school, and of course nothing happened, well except mom being angry at you, and the entire student body thinking you were the man, but other than that nothing had really happened in that room so many years ago."
He looked at her like she had grown a third head before speaking again, "Nothing happened you swear?"
"Well if you had taken the time to look at my room before you freaked out you would have noticed that nothing happened," she said sighing. "My notes were all over the floor dad, it was innocent."
Her father sat down, she knew he was thinking about last night, she knew he was going through everything in his mind. It was easy to tell when he was thinking about something, it wasn't until the door burst open with Zay, Maya, Farkle, and Smackle that he looked up at her again.
"Fine you win, but we need to set some ground rules," he said looking at her. "And I'm sorry, it was my fault that the rumors started."
"Don't worry about that Mr. Matthews," Farkle said smiling. "We took care of that."
"How?" her father said.
"Well we bugged the room and made sure it played over the PA system," Smackle said smiling at them. "We know Riley, and we know Lucas, they wouldn't do anything that would cause you to distrust them."
"I'm going to have to have a talk with you two about doing things like that," he said looking at Farkle and Smackle. "Okay, the bell is going to ring in a few minutes so get to your next class."
"Bye Daddy," Riley said walking out of the room smiling.
The rest of the day everyone talked about what they had heard, Riley realized how fast rumors can get started all because of something someone overheard. Thanks to the two geniuses everything had been cleared up, making her breathe a sigh of relief. Her parents took the blame for not checking on Riley before bed the night before, making sure to set a time for Lucas to leave, and an alarm on her father's watch to chase him out. Lucas and Riley both set their alarms for ten minutes before so that Lucas would be able to keep his shoes, but she still smiled watching him being chased down the fire escape that night just because he had come over.
"Some things never change," she said as she closed her window and got ready for bed.