Brylee was walking in the hallway at school, stopping when she heard her sister call out to her. "Hi, sis!" She looks around the hallway with confusion when she didn't see Maya. "Down here!" She looked to her right where she heard the familiar voice and looked down, smiling upon seeing Maya and Riley. She noticed they were still in the hole her friends and Thor had told her sister and her friends to go to. She wasn't surprised about that though.

"Hey, girls." Brylee greets. She kneels beside them, furrowing her eyebrows when she realized Riley looked sad. "Riley, what's wrong?"

"I suggested we shouldn't think about our friends and then she started rambling on about them with that face." Maya replies, pointing at Riley's sad face. "She started with Farkle first-"

"And is going to do one for each of her friends?" Brylee interrupted Maya, nodding in realization.

"Yep." Maya sighs, gesturing her hand out. "Give me a couple bucks for a brownie." She glances at her sister. "You want anything?"

Smiling slightly, thinking it was sweet she offered to get her something, she shakes her head. "No thanks, I'm good."

"Okay, Maya," Riley hands Maya a couple of buck still with a frown on her face. "I want juice."

Brylee sat down on the floor, not wanting to leave her sister and Riley by themselves. Plus she didn't have to get to class yet so she had time to hang out with them. "I hope Smackle looks up from her books every once in a while so that she doesn't miss life." Riley continued as Maya walked to where the vending machine was.

"Apple?" Maya called out.

"Grape." Riley responds. "I hope Zay stops using comedy to cover up his inner turmoil."

"Uh, they're out of grape." Maya noticed.

"Surprise me." Riley said sadly and Brylee smiled sympathetically at her.

Maya walks back over to her best friend with a grin on her face. "They're not really out of grape!"

Riley gasps, grinning as she takes the juice. "What a nice surprise." Brylee chuckled and shook her head.

"Sis, I know you said you didn't want anything, but I know you and you're just saying you don't want something to be polite. I got you one too."  Maya smiled at her sister, throwing her a grape juice.

Looking at her with surprise, a smile made its way to Brylee's face as she caught the juice. "Thanks, M." 

"Who is Riley talking about now?" Maya asked her.

"I think Lucas is the only one left." Brylee answered, getting the straw off the box and poking it in the top where it's supposed to go. 

Riley nods in agreement. "I hope Lucas...I hope Lucas..." An angered look forms on her face and she speaks in a gravely tone. "I hope Lucas has a very bad day." As she took a drink from her juice, Brylee looked at her with surprise.

Maya's eyes widen with surprise. She then smiles nervously. "Gosh, you're cute." Riley smiles. "You know what? I'd rather be a fool with you than to be anything without you." Maya admits. Brylee quietly said 'awe' as she set her juice box on the floor beside her. "So...What can we learn from down here?"

"Hm," Riley and the other two girls look at the girl walking by. "Here comes purple combat boots. I like her. She walks with confidence." A girl wearing cheetah printed boots walk by. "And here comes jungle girl. She's waiting for motorcycle boots."

"Speaking of motorcycle boots." Brylee spoke, gesturing with a nod of her head to the boy walking over to greet the girl with the cheetah print boots.

"Vroom vroom." Maya commented.

Brylee chuckled lightly at seeing the surprised looks on Maya's and Riley's faces as the couple made out in the hallway. "Vroom, vroom, baby!" Riley exclaimed.

"Riles?"

"Peaches?"

"They're way more advanced in high school." Maya observed.

"We're middle school hand-holders." Riley added.

"What if those seniors sent us down here because we think we're so ready for this place and we're so not?" Maya questioned and Brylee smiled because it seemed like her sister might be realizing why her friends put Maya and her friends down there.

"Well, then I'd  be right." Riley replies with a smile. "And I hope that I'm right."

Meanwhile, Lucas and Zay were at the other end of the hallway, talking about how Riley was wrong about this and that they had a right to walk in the halls. Bennett was walking by when he overheard the boys talking about joining the football team. 

"Uh, did I hear you guys are trying out for the football team?" Bennett raised his eyebrows, glancing at Lucas and Zay with disbelief.

"Yeah." Lucas smiled.

Bennett laughs, shaking his head as he holds onto the straps of his backpack. "Good luck." He commented before he continued walking down the hallway. 

Lucas and Zay glance at each other with confusion. "Why'd he sat it like that?" Lucas asks. "He made it sound like joining the football team is a stupid idea. Why can't we be on the football team if we want to be on the football team?" 

"Yeah." Zay agrees. "I'll tell you right now what we got that they don't got," He smiles. "Enthusiasm, confidence, and we're strong!" 

"Yeah!" Lucas grinned, slapping him on the back.

Zay glares at him. "Will you please stop hurting me?"

****

"You need to stop thinking about 'em, kid. They're gone. They're donzo. Kaput." Maya spoke and Brylee laughed because of the odd voice she was using. 

"Everything's changing." Riley frowns. "I lost my friends and you're a mobster."

"Hey, we still got Brylee and Bennett." Maya reminded her.

"Yeah." Riley smiled.

"Did you stop thinking about 'em?" Maya asked Riley with raised eyebrows.

"Yes." Riley replies. Maya smiles and nods. "I wonder how everybody else is doing expect for them." Riley voiced.

"Well," Brylee smiles a bit. "That's progress." 

****

Brylee was currently in the library even though she wasn't supposed to be. Her last class of the day was English. Most times she enjoyed English class, but today was very boring and she just wanted to get out of there. So she asked the teacher if she could get a new book from the library since everyone was either working on homework or the ones who were finished were reading. She happened to be one of the ones who were finished with homework. She planned on just hiding out in the library for the remaining of class.

She was walking down one of the aisles, aimlessly looking through the books on the shelves when she suddenly bumped into someone. "Sorry." She apologizes. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

"I'm sorry too. I wasn't watching where I was going either." She looked in front of her with wide eyes when she recognized the voice.

"Bennett?" She asks, furrowing her eyebrows. "What are you doing here?'

He crosses his arms, looking at her suspiciously. "I could ask you the same thing."

A sheepish expression forms on Brylee's face. "I'm hiding out in the library to for the remaining of my English class."

"Oh, that's right." Bennett nods in realization, looking at her with amusement. "You hate English class."

"Yep." Brylee sighed heavily.

"I'm here 'cause I hate my science class." Bennett admitted, beginning to walk down the aisle and looked at the books on the shelves.

Brylee follows him, tilting her head to the side. "So you're hiding out here until school is over in a few minutes?"

Bennett nods. "Yeah. Rather be in a library than in science class."

"I thought you'd like science. I think science is kinda fun." Brylee smiled.

"What we were doing was not fun." Bennett rolls his eyes. "We were making some kind of project and I lied saying I got done with mine so I could come here." 

Brylee pretends to look shocked. "Wow, Bennett Matthews lying to a teacher?" She smiles teasingly at him. "Who would've thought." Bennett rolled his eyes, looking down to hide a small smile that was making its way to his lips. 

For the remaining minutes of class, Brylee and Bennett hung out in the library and talked. Brylee was surprised she actually didn't want to hit him during that time and that she actually enjoyed talking with him. When the bell rang for the end of the day, the two teens left the library after saying goodbye to the librarian. Brylee laughed at some joke Bennett said as the two of them walked down the hallway. 

"Hey, Bryls!" 

Brylee froze in her spot when she heard that familiar voice call out her name. She was surprised she could hear his voice over the chattering of students in the hallway, but sadly enough she heard it. Bennett stops by her, looking at her with confusion at seeing the sudden look of annoyance on her face. "What's wrong?" 

Brylee glances at him, realizing he must've not heard the voice calling out to her. Bennett smiles teasingly at her. "Am I annoying you again?"

"Not this time." Brylee mutters. She dares to glance behind her, spotting her ex beginning to catch up with them. She shakes her head and turns around, continuing to walk towards the front doors of the school. "I gotta go."

"Wait," Bennett frowns slightly, somewhat feeling bad if he was the reason she was now upset. "Brylee-" He huffed with annoyance and quickly followed her when he realized he was beginning to lose her in the crowd of students that were in the hallway. 

"Hey," Bennett catches up to her, standing in front of her and puts his hands on her shoulders. He grows concern upon seeing the slight fear in her eyes. "Brylee, what's wrong?" 

"Brylee! There you are." A relieved voice said and Brylee hated the fact that he sounded like he was close. Bennett took his hands off Brylee's shoulders, narrowing his eyes at the boy who walked over to them and threw his arm around Brylee's shoulders. Brylee stiffened at the sudden touch from him and didn't make eye contact with her ex. 

"I've been trying to get your attention all day." Rhys explains. He smiles at the blonde, not seeming to notice her being uncomfortable by him. "I was going to ask, do you wanna hang out?"

"No, thanks," Brylee replies, shrugging his arm off her shoulders. "I'm good." 

Rhys frowns. "You've been ignoring me basically this whole week. We should hang out. I miss you." 

Rolling her eyes, Brylee puts a hand on her hip. "Maybe I'm ignoring you because you cheated on me and I broke up with you. And I told you to leave me alone which you clearly aren't doing that." 

Bennett's eyes widen in realization. Brylee had mentioned her toxic ex a couple of times when they were getting to know each other, but it seemed like her ex was a tough subject to talk about so he didn't bother to ask more about it. But now he could connect the dots, finding out that Rhys was her toxic ex. His jaw tightened as his gaze turned to Rhys, taking a step forward a bit, ready to jump in to get Brylee away from him if he needed to.

"You're still mad about that?" Rhys scoffs. He smiles softly at her, moving so he was standing right in front of her. "Come on, you know you're the only girl for me." Before at the beginning stage when they were dating, that smile used to make Brylee's knees feel weak and it made her heart flutter, but now it disgusted her and made her uncomfortable. 

"Dude," Bennett stands by Brylee, slapping Rhys' hand away that was going to cup the side of Brylee's face. He looks at Rhys with an intimating stare, crossing his arms. "It's obvious she wants you to leave her alone, so leave her alone."

Rhys pulls his hand away, wincing slightly at the hard slap. He narrows his eyes at Bennett and then glances at Brylee, who avoid his eye contact and wraps her arms around herself as she kept her gaze on the floor. "Fine, whatever." Rhys scoffs, shaking his head. He glances at Brylee. "Your loss." He walked down the hallway, roughly bumping his shoulder with Bennett, who looked back at him with a harsh glare.

Bennett's gaze softens when he looked back at Brylee. "Are you okay?" He asks, his voice laced with concern. He mentally scolds himself for asking that. "Of course you're not okay 'cause of that jerk." 

Brylee takes a deep breath to help calm herself down more and smiles slightly as she looks at him. "I'm better now that he's gone. I just wanna leave now more than ever." 

Bennett nods, looking a bit relieved she was okay. "Okay. Let's go."  

****

"Thank you for tonight. I really appreciate it." Brylee admitted, glancing at Bennett with a small smile. After school Bennett had suggested for them to go to the arcade, figuring that Brylee needed to do something to take her mind off the interaction she had with her ex. Now they were standing at the front door of Brylee's house. 

"Yeah, no problem." Bennett smiles, putting his hands in the pocket of his denim jacket. He chuckles, shaking his head. "I can't believe I'm saying this but I had fun."

"Me too." Brylee comments. She grimaces. "Okay, what's happening to us?" She chuckles, pointing over her shoulder at the door. "I'm gonna go inside before we decide to become friends." She opens the door and as she began to walk inside, she glances over her shoulder at him wtih a small smile. "See ya, loser." 

"Bye, blondie." Bennett smiled slightly and after Brylee closed the door he left.

Inside Brylee's house, Brylee leaned against the door, beyond confused at why she actually had a good time with Bennett. "Honey, you're home!" Her mom notices and walks over to her with a smile. She furrows her eyebrows when she noticed the confused look. "What's wrong?"

"I had a great time hanging out with Bennett tonight." Brylee confessed.

Katy smiles. "What's wrong with that?"

"We're supposed to hate each other, remember? Now everything is changing! I blame my stupid ex." Brylee grumbled.

Katy's eyes widen with surprise and then she looks at her with concern. "You ran into Rhys?" She knew about her oldest daughter's cheating ex. She liked him at the beginning, but after she found out Rhys cheated on her daughter she immediately hated him. She was glad that Brylee broke up with him and she felt so bad her daughter still had to deal with him. 

"Well, more like he ran over to me." Brylee rolls her eyes. "But don't worry, Bennett helped with making him go away."

"That's sweet of him." Katy smiles softly. She then wiggles her eyebrows suggestively and smiles teasingly at her. "I think you might be starting to like him."

Brylee points at her with a stern expression. "Don't put that out in the universe!" She demanded and began to walk to her room.

****

Brylee was at Topanga's the next night, finishing up her story she had to write for class. Bennett was working tonight and he was cleaning the counters when he noticed his cousin and Maya were talking with their friends. 

"Well, it looks like Riley and Maya are handling things with their friends well." Bennett observed.

Brylee stops typing when he said that and glances behind her curiously. She chuckles as she listened to the conversation they were having. "We found out we're stupid," Smackle admits, referring to herself and Farkle. She looks at Lucas and Zay. "And they got beat up like pipsqueaks."

"I knew that would happen." Bennett nodded. 

Brylee brings her attention away from her sister and her friends, looking at Bennett with furrowed eyebrows. "If you knew they were gonna get beat up why didn't you stop them from joining the football team?" 

"They had to learn their lesson." Bennett shrugged.

Brylee raises her eyebrows. "Which was?"

Bennett opens his mouth to reply, but closes it when he realized he didn't know what to say. He points at her. "I don't know what it was, but I know they probably learned a lesson about what they went through." Brylee giggled a bit and rolled her eyes. She glanced back at her sister and her friends, listening in to their conversation again.

Maya grabs the collar of Lucas' shirt, pulling him up from the chair and glares at him. "I'll look at you whenever I want to look at you, Huckleberry."

Bennett's eyes widen with surprise. "Did you know she was that strong?"

"Yeah." Brylee nodded.

Lucas pouts and sits back down after Maya let go of his shirt. "Everybody's stronger than me."

"None of this matters." Riley chimed in.

"Guys, the only way we're gonna get through our one year of high school is together like we always have." Maya explained.

Bennett glances at Brylee with raised eyebrows. "You didn't tell her high school was four years?"

"If I told her that she would have already dropped out." Brylee chuckled.

"Maya, there's four years of high school." Riley told the blonde.

Maya heads for the door. "I'm out."

Brylee nods, pointing at her sister. "See?" She said to Bennett since Maya just proved her point. Bennett chuckled and nodded.

Riley stops Maya from leaving as Farkle asks, "Could somebody please explain to me what's going on here? Because I guess I really don't know anything anymore."

"I think they're forgiving us for behaving badly." Smackle responded.

"Smackle, you didn't behave badly." Riley reassured her.

"When you left, we should have gone with you." Maya added.

"No, when you stayed, we should have stayed with you." Lucas argues. He frowns. "I don't know what's the matter with me."

"Lucas, you left because you don't think that you can protect us here." Riley informs him. "We all need to protect each other here. Okay? No matter what happens at high school, we're the cause worth fighting for. Us. Nobody leaves."

"Even if we get massacred?" Lucas inquired.

"We're gonna get massacred no matter what we do." Maya answered.

"That's a fact." Bennett speaks up, gaining the attention of his cousin and her friends. "High school sucks." After seeing the pointed look they sent him, he shrugs. "What? Just telling you the truth." His cousin and her friends turned back to each other and continued their conversation while Brylee went back to working on her story, tuning out her sister's and friend's conversation and Bennett went to put away the towel he had since he finished cleaning the counter. 

"So, are you finished with your story yet?" Bennett asked Brylee when he walked back over to her. He leaned his elbows on the counter, glancing at her with raised eyebrows.

"Almost." Brylee smiles. "Which is good 'cause it feels like I've been working on this story for forever."

Bennett tilts his head to the side and smiles a bit. "Can I read it after you're done with it?" 

"I'll think about it." Brylee answers and he pouts. She chuckles and nods. "Yeah, you can read it after I'm done with it."

****

(brylee's outfit for this part of the chapter)

(bennett's outfit for this part of the chapter)

The next day at school Brylee and Bennett stood in the hallway with Thor, Francesca and Nikki, waiting for Riley, Maya and their friends to be ready to leave the hole that they were sent to. 

"Ready?" Maya asked.

"Ready." Riley smiles. Then she and her friend group walked up the steps. She glances at Thor, Francesca and Nikki with a smile. "I'm glad you guys picked me and my friends." 

"We wish someone would've done it for us." Nikki admitted.

"You really put us through it." Lucas told Thor.

Thor smiles. "I know."

"You messed with our heads." Lucas added.

Thor nods. "I did."

"We'll be better friends because of it." Lucas smiled.

"You will." Thor agreed.

"Thank you." 

"You're welcome. We'll be here for you guys anytime." Thor reassured the friend group.

"So will we." Brylee chimes in, pointing at herself and Bennett. She smiles at her sister and her friends, who smile back at her and Bennett. "But you guys already knew that."

Thor glances at Lucas and Zay. "You trying out for the football team?"

Lucas and Zay look at each other nervously and ultimately decided on saying no. But then Thor asks the question again and Lucas and Zay smile widely and looks excited. "Yeah!" They both exclaimed.

"Good." Thor chuckled.

"Now that we're seniors and we've learned so much in this place..." Nikki's voice trailed off as Francesca finishes her sentence.

"We wanted to leave somebody a-"

"Legacy?" Riley cut in with a smile on her face.

"Yeah." Thor agrees. "A legacy. Pass it on somebody." He shared a smile with Bennett and they fist bumped each other before he walked away. Brylee shared a smile with Nikki and Francesca, waving at them when they walked away with Thor. 

"We will." Riley said, smiling at her friends.

"When we're kings." Maya smiled.

Brylee turns to face her sister and her friends with a smile. "We're proud of you guys. You already faced a few tough days of high school and it's only going to get more difficult."

"The good thing is you managed to stay together and that's all that matters." Bennett adds. "Because in high school it's really important to have a few good friends to have by your side through all the ups and downs high school is gonna throw at you." 

"Thank you." Riley smiles at him and Brylee. "We really appreciate you guys." 

Then the bell rang and the hallway was swarmed with students. The friend group huddled up, wrapping their arms around each other to stay close. Riley had grabbed Bennett's arm to pull him in for him to stay with the group and Bennett did the same with Brylee. With their arms wrapped around each other, Bennett and Brylee shared a smile.

A/N bennett & brylee >>>>