twenty three - Let's Try This Again
"Riles?"
"Peaches?"
"Mamacita?"
"Chica?"
"Twin?"
Maya bops her head. "How are we feeling today?"
"Well, I didn't cry all night."
Ryan rolls her eyes. It was officially the second day of school and the trio were down in their hole, looking between railings at those that were passing by in the hallways.
Maya nods. "That's good."
"Because I stopped when I passed out from crying," Riley harshly and quickly adds afterwards.
Maya contradicts her by commenting, "Well, you seem better now."
"That's where you're wrong."
Maya shrugs, not willing to give into much of a fight this morning. "Okay."
"But," The brunette perks up. "The seniors wanted us to stand here, watch what goes on and learn from it. They have their reasons."
Maya slants her lips to the side. "To make fools out of us? Mission accomplished. We're fools- we're fools without friends."
Ryan pulls away from between the railings and slaps her arms against her sides. "You know they'll come around. It just may take a little time."
"They made their choice," Riley argues. "They have started their high school careers without us and I wish them well."
"Yeah," Maya mumbles. "Maybe we shouldn't think about them today."
Ryan looks up from the ground after dusting herself off when she hears a faint sob erupt.
Maya turns back to Ryan with furrowed brows. Ryan points a finger at her and whispers, "Is she crying?"
"I hope that Farkle remembers that science can't explain people and he keeps himself open to love."
Ryan let's out a deep sigh just as when Maya asks, "You gonna do one for each?"
"I gotta pee," Ryan announced and made her way up the stairs. She dashed for the girl's room just when Riley confirmed her course of actions. However, when she ran into a lock door, I was clear that the bathrooms were locked within the last ten minutes of the day.
She moderately walked back to their hole to find Maya jogging back up their stairs with a small blue container concealing a brownie in one hand while the other held a grape flavored juice box.
"They're not really out of grape!"
Riley turns with a wide grin. "What a nice surprise!"
"How was your pee?" Maya asks as Ryan suited herself in the same position as the other two.
"More like how was the exercise I had to get to the bathroom only to find out that it's locked-" She turns to the girls with wide eyes. "Which was not at all a nice surprise, by the way."
Maya nods. "Glad we got that covered. Now where were we?"
Riley opens her mouth to speak until the blonde blurts out. "Oh wait! Lucas."
"I hope Lucas.. I hope Lucas..." Ryan was fiddling with her nails when Riley's features contorted with anger and she drawls out in this sort of demonic voice, "I hope Lucas has a very bad day."
"Atta girl, let it out," Ryan nonchalantly encourages.
"Gosh, you're cute," Maya chuckles softly. "You know what? I'd rather be a fool with my two favorite people than to be anything without you guys."
"Awe," Ryan pursed out her bottom lip.
"So," Maya breathes out. "What can we learn from down here?"
Riley lets out a small, "Hmph," Before turning to find a girl walking pass. "Here comes purple combat boots." As she passes by, Riley comments, "I like her. She walks with confidence."
Another girl began to pass with a mix match sort of sense of fashion that caused Ryan to furrow her brows.
"And here comes jungle girl. She's waiting for motorcycle boots."
On cue, a upperclassman wearing exactly as Riley described, motorcycle boots walked in the direction of jungle girl. Ryan and Maya's eyes blew wide at the sight of him.
"Hunka hunka," Ryan mumbles, her jaw hanging a little low.
Maya adds along by commenting, "Vroom vroom."
Ryan giggles, "Who is this fine dude?"
Not a moment later, jungle girl and motorcycle boots were lip locking.
Ryan waves them off. "Nevermind-" She then inhales a dramatic gasp. "Wait, do you think that's Destiny, the girl I told you about that's home wrecking Crystal's relationship?"
Maya and Riley eye the two, alarmed. "Ryan-"
"Hey," Motorcycle boots call out to her. "How do you know about us?"
Ryan tilts her head to the side. "Honey, everybody knows. There's a whole thread of you two in the girl's bathroom stall."
"Which one?" Destiny chimes in.
"Last one, the really big one."
She groans. "No wonder she's not talking to me." Destiny turns to Brandon and rushed out, "I gotta go."
Brandon slaps his arms against his sides. "The girls bathroom. It's always the girls bathroom."
"Riles?"
"Peaches?"
"Mamacita?"
"Chica?"
"Twin?"
Maya shakes her head in a small subtle motion. "They're way more advanced in high school."
"We're middle school hand holders."
Ryan scoffs. "Speak for yourself, I've never even been taken out on a date."
"What if those seniors sent us down here because we think we're so ready for this place and we're so not?" Maya wonders aloud.
Riley cocks her head to the side. "Well, then I'd be right. And I hope that I'm right. Which means I can prove to the others that I'm right."
Maya sighs. "You need to stop thinking about them, kid. They're gone, donzo, kaput."
"No, they're not," Ryan shoots Maya a pointed look. "We're all taking me time. Happens a blue moon, helps prevent the mean nasty things being said when stuff goes down. It's very helpful, like a cleanse."
"Everything's changing," Riley frowns. "I lost my friends, Ryan isn't cursing anymore and you're a mobster."
"Would you like me to curse to make you a little sane?"
She shakes her head vigorously. "No."
"Shit, that's not happening."
"Did you stop thinking about them?" Maya asks.
Ryan pursed her lips. "Well if she wasn't a second ago, she is now."
"Yes," She forced out a clearly and obvious lie. "I wonder how everybody else is doing except for them."
× × ×
"Why massacre? Why you got massacre up there? Why can't you just teach us names and dates?"
"Hey," Ryan called out to Marley that next day in Matthews class. "Molly Ringwald, take it easy. It's a Tuesday, and I still haven't recovered from my weekend sleep schedule."
"Drink a red bull," She snares at her, but it was all lighthearted.
Cory points a finger at her and exclaims, "Marly Evans and what she learns today! That's the name and date I care about. All of you and right now, are you listening to me?"
Marly hums.
"Good," He nods. "it was patriots who founded our new land and it was patriots who fought for it. Why do we remember the Alamo?" He points at two particular students. "Farle, Smackle, a duet. Go."
Farkle shoots up from his seat, practically bursting with energy that Ryan giggling as he explains, "The Alamo was a small isolated fortress with a handful of patriots inside who felt it was important to stick together and fight for what they believed." He turns to Smackle and signals to her that the floor was hers before taking a seat.
Smackle then stood. "They were surrounded by a much larger number of people, coming at them from all directions, who believed this place belonged to them." She repeats Farkle's hand signals to Cory, sitting back down in her seat.
"The patriots desperately wanted reinforcements, but reinforcements never came."
Ryan could more than just a pair of eyes on her but she couldn't look back. She knows it shouldn't bother her, but it bothers her how quickly the group divided only on the first day. It bothers her even more when Lucas doesn't answer any of her texts or text her at all.
She was trying to help both sides, but maybe she was really at a crossfire.
"What happened to them?"
"They stayed in their fortress and gave everybody a friendly smile, and eventually, they walked upstairs," Riley answers, throwing a shady smile Farkle's way.
"They were massacred," Cory says.
"Then they walked upstairs?"
He shakes his head. "No. But that battle gave birth to a slogan. What was the slogan?"
"Remember the Alamo," Ryan and Lucas called out in unison.
She pursed her lips into a thin line as Corey repeats, "Remember the Alamo! And why do we remember the Alamo? Lucas, Ryan, another duet?"
Ryan folds her arms against her chest, sinking into her seat as she frowns. "No."
He raised a brow at her, but she only shakes her head.
"Uh, how about you, Zay?"
Zay and Lucas stood side by side. Lucas starts with, "Because the patriots gave their lives for a greater good." He turns to Zay for him to finish it off. "That battle had only just begun, and some years later, that land became ours, and the name of that land was-"
Lucas pats his back while exclaiming, "Texas!"
"Stop it," Zay hissed at him.
"Right. Texas, your home. So, guys, that's why we remember the Alamo and why we remember all the battles that we fight in an effort to make a new place our home. Now you can stay massacred or you can realize the battle has just begun."
"We were kings, Matthews," Maya chimes.
Cory cocks his head to the side. "Kingdoms fall. Everyone who believes they're gonna rule the world falls. Everyone who believes they're strong eventually comes up against someone that's stronger. And every patriot that fighting for a cause, they're only as strong as the cause they're fighting for."
"Because all good things come to an end," Ryan's voice was heard. Small, merely audible, but it was heard.
"Exactly," He smiles softly.
"Even I know, next thing he says, real important," Marly pipes up.
"What's the cause you're fighting for?"
× × ×
"Everybody look at us and look at us now!" Ryan yells later that day in Topanga's.
She looks around the establishment once she's heard how quiet it got. "Oh, I'm not talking to you guys, carry on."
"We're sorry," Riley apologizes.
Zay furrows his brows. "To the people or-"
"To you guys, duh," Ryan smiled softly.
"You're sorry?" Lucas raised a brow at them.
Farkle furrows his brows. "What are you sorry for?"
"We're the ones who left," Zay prompts.
"We should've realized something happened to you."
Zay sits up, pulling off a wide but fake grin. "But nothing happened to us."
"I heard what happened in the boy's locker room," Ryan mentions. "Brandon's got a big mouth."
Farkle shakes his head, his brows still furrowed. "Brandon?"
"He's the bad boy all parents worn us about," Riley briefly informs.
"Don't look at me," Lucas mumbles under his breath. Maya grabs him by the shirt and lifts him up so she can meet his gaze. "I'll look at you whenever I wanna look at you, Huckleberry."
"Everybody's stronger than me."
Maya groans softly as she tossed him back into his seat.
"None of this matters," Riley assures.
"Guys, the only way we're gonna get through our one year of high school is together like we always have."
Ryan tilts her head to the side. "Uh, Maya-"
"There's four years of high school."
"I'm out."
As the blonde attempts to walk out of the establishment, Ryan pulls a hand up to her chest and turns her right back around.
"Could somebody please explain to me what's going on here? Because I guess I really don't know anything anymore," Farkle practically begs.
"I think they're forgiving us for behaving badly," Smackle assumes.
"Smackle, you didn't behave badly," Riley assured.
"When you guys left, we should have gone with you," Maya counters.
"No, when you stayed, we should have stayed with you," Lucas shakes his head vigorously. "I don't know what's the matter with me."
"We should've agreed out a plan together," Ryan stops the bickering. "Went with something that works for the both of us. So there's nothing wrong with you for wanting to explore more of this new world. And Farkle, you will always be the smartest guy I know. The only way to feel superior again is to become it. Okay, our new battle has just begun."
"Yeah," Riley smiles. "We're the cause we're fighting for. Us. Nobody leaves."
"Even if we get massacred?"
Ryan plops down next to Lucas and smiles as well. "Especially if we get massacred."
Maya shrugs her shoulders. "We're gonna get massacred no matter what we do."
"I'd like to say that we've never gotten hurt when we're together and it was my fault that we weren't," Lucas acknowledged. "I'm truly sorry about that and I hope it never happens again."
"Listen," Ryan smirks as she slowly lurched her finger into his arm, poking him. "Dad, you're forgiven. You all are. We're just sorry that we divided instead of conquering one step at a time."
× × ×
Riley looks around at her group of friends that next day in school that stood in the hole and asked aloud, "Ready?"
With a simple nod, they came out of the hole and the trio of seniors followed them.
"We're glad you guys picked me and my friends," Riley appreciates them.
"We wish someone would've done it for us," The brunette spoke.
Lucas heaves a deep breath as he stuffs his hands in his pockets. "You really put us through it."
"I know."
"You messed with our heads," Lucas went on.
"I did."
"We'll be better friends because of it-" Ryan smacks a hand against his chest and spoke, "We get it. Very traumatizing."
The senior boy of the trio chuckles softly. "You will."
"Thank you," Lucas smiles.
"You're welcome. We'll be here for you guys anytime." Though the boy didn't seem to let another moment fade before he let the sweet moment that was once cherish vanish by asking Zay and Lucas, "You trying out for the football team?"
While Lucas hesitated on a "Uh," Zay confirmed his answer with a flat out, "Nah."
"Are you trying out for the football team?" He repeats, but with more assertive. As if he wants them to actually try to join the team.
The two turn to each other and yell out, "Yeah!"
He nods. "Good."
"Now that we're seniors and we've learned so much in this place-" The brunette was cut off by her blonde friend. "We wanted to leave somebody a.."
Riley's eyes widen as she finishes for them, "Legacy?"
"Yeah, a legacy. Pass it on someday." As the trio walks away, Riley assures the group softly, "We will. When we're kings."
The sound of the bell ringing blared throughout the building, alarming anybody and everybody in the hallway. Just as a pieces of a puzzle, Ryan grabbed a hold of Lucas while Farkle grabbed a hold of Ryan, so on and so forth until the transition had passed.
When the halls cleared out, the gang were still standing as one. And as they look at each other with these small smiles conquering their features, a spark hope was created that one day, they will own this new world.
Ryan's Outfit For Day 1
Ryan's Outfit For Day 2
Ryan's Outfit For Day 3