(Song ~ Ride - Twenty One Pilots)

"Why do we need to sneak out of the house if we're not doing anything wrong until we sneak onto the subway?" Riley asked my friend Maya Hart, and I. Riley wasn't allowed to go on the subway. So we decided to sneak her out. In my defense, it was Maya's idea.

"You think you're ready to just walk by your parents?" Maya asked as we both raised an eyebrow.

"I don't think you're ready..." I added. Riley wasn't a liar.

But, to my surprise, she nodded and simply said, "I think I'm ready!"

We just kept our eyebrows raised. "Let us see your face as you walk by your parents." Riley's face twisted into a look of pure terror. I snorted. This wasn't going to end well.

"Why are you making that face at us, Riley?" Maya asked in a tone that was supposed to be like Mr. and Mrs. Matthews.

"You're not doing anything suspicious are you?" I added, playing along.

"I'm sneaking out to the subway!" She exclaimed. We all stared at each other before nodding and saying. "Out the window."

We all started to crawl out the bay window but were stopped when Mr. Matthews crawled through.

"Daddy! What are you doing out here!" Riley asked, in an 'innocent' tone.

"He was probably listening at the door," I said, shrugging.

"Being smarter than us. " Maya said, backing out of the window.

"As always." I pouted, as I sat on the bed.

"How come you're always smarter than us?" Maya asked, frowning. Mr. Matthews climbed into the room.

"Here's what I'm thinking," He said as Maya and Riley sat on the bed next to me, "It's not your world yet. It's still my world. Because if it was your world, Maya and Kenzie would have you on the subway already, thinking you put something over on me. But you didn't. Know how I know? Look at you. You're right here."

"How long do I have to live in my father's world?" Riles asked. Mr. Matthews smiled at her.

"Until you make it yours. Riley, do you know what I want more than anything? Go ahead. Make it yours."

Riley grinned, "I will. And when I do, will you still be there for me?" Topanga walked through the doorway.

"Right here. We'll be right here."

We smiled and crawled out the window. Little did we know, this was only the beginning...

-<3-

We walked into the subway station, dancing as Dweezil played the drums. "Dweezil!!" Maya said as we waved. Dweezil usually played in the subway. Sometimes I would play my ukulele and he would do the beat for me.

He waved back, "Maya! Kenzie! Who's the new chick?" He asked.

Riley grinned. "Chick! Down here I'm a chick! No wonder my parents don't want me on the Subway." I just shook my head smiling. I love this goofball.

"You're slouching Maya! You too, Kenz, straighten those shoulders!" Gretchen said as she walked past us.

"Thanks, Gretchen!" We said back in the same tone, posing and walking towards the subway.

We entered the train, and Riley took out lip gloss and put it on. "Woah, Riley you don't do lip gloss... " Maya said as I snatched it away from her.

"Yeah Riles, calm down a bit," I said, stuffing it in my pocket.

"Oh! What I forgot to mention is that I'm completely reinventing myself. I ride the Subway now, I have kiwi lips now, and I'm just as cool as you now! " Riley said proudly. I mean I guess Maya was cool... but me... no way.

I glanced over, and who I saw made my jaw drop. I instantly recognized the boy. Lucas Friar, from Austin, Texas. What the heck was he doing in New York though? I turned around quickly. What if he was still angry at me? What if he was the same way he was in Texas?

"Yeah, let's see how cool you can be when you look at him," Maya said, pointing to him.

Riley turned around, and Lucas smiled at her. She turned back and giggled strangely. Maya and I cringed.

"Yeah, you're gonna need some lessons," I said, turning to Maya. Maya gave me the same look, and I knew we were thinking the same thing.

"Let Kenz and I show you everything you need to know about boys and girls," Maya said, and we walked over to Lucas, who looked up at us. He looked like he was about to talk to me, but Maya cut him off.

(Maya bold, Kenzie italics)

"Hi, I'm Maya." Maya started.

"And I'm Kenzie."

"You're really cute."

"We should hang out sometime."

"You make me happy."

"You don't pay enough attention to me," I said in a mock offended voice.

"This isn't working out."

"It's you, not me."

"We can still be friends... "

"Not really."

Then we walked away. I turned around, and he raised an eyebrow at me, causing me to look away quickly.

"Are you okay? Do we need to talk about it?" Riley asked slowly. I put on a sad face.

"Longest relationship of my life." I fake-sobbed.

Maya smirked. "You still wanna be like us?" Riley nodded. You don't Riles, you don't.

"I want to be exactly like you. I think too much and you two don't think at all." I nodded, that was true.

"See? You get us..." I started.

"So let's not think..." Maya finished as we unlatched Riley's hands from the pole.

Riley fell into Lucas' lap. "Hi. We were just talking about you." She started awkwardly. "You used to go out with my friends, Maya and Makenzie."

"I'm Lucas."

Riley giggled. "I love it."

A lady came up to the two of them, saying. "Perhaps someone would like to give their seat to someone older." Lucas went to stand up. "Not you, sweet potato pie."

Riley frowned. "Please don't make me move. I just wanna see where this goes."

The lady gave her a look and said. "I've just worked a 12-hour shift and I just wanna see where this," she pointed to her behind. "goes. Okay?"

Riley sighed. "'Kay." She walked back over to Maya and I. "That was great!" She sighed.

Maya and I looked at each other and said, "You're welcome." At the same time.

Riley stared at us in confusion for a moment before frowning. "What if that was the best moment of my life? What if nothing ever happens to me again?"

Maya and I smiled, looked at each other, and unlatched her hand again. She fell into the lap of the lady, who looked at Riley, then at Lucas, then put Riley in Lucas's lap, saying. "It's for you."

Maya and I smiled looking at each other. Little did we know that this was the start of a love story worthy of a Disney movie.

~~~~~

"In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility." Eleanor Roosevelt once said this. I know what you're thinking. 'What's going wrong?' 'You said something was going to happen.' Just wait. While Riley took a leap, Maya and I were about to do something different. Make a choice. And THAT'S when it's gonna go wrong.

~~~~~

We were standing by our lockers, waiting for the bell to ring. "Did you have trouble with the homework?" Riley asked, casually trying to make conversations.

"Piece of cake," Maya said. "Easy as pie!" I added. Riley stared at us.

"You didn't do it, did you?" Yeah, I didn't do my homework. Everyone thinks Maya and I are just lazy... but that's not true. At least, for me, it's not. But I can't tell people that I can't do it. I don't want them to think I'm dumb. I try to ask my dad for help, but that doesn't work. So I just don't do it.

"I don't even know where my books are," Maya said, and I shrugged.

"Me either," I said, looking through my bag, Riley opened her messenger bag, and handed us our books.

"Here. And they're heavy." The bell rang, and we all walked into History class. Riley turned to us. "You guys have to do the homework. This teacher's insane, a total nut job. I think there's something wrong with him."

Cory waved. "Hi, honey."

"Hi, Daddy," Riley said innocently.

I turned to Maya. "Hi, Peaches."

"Hi, Kenzie." We said, mocking the two.

"You're late for your father's class." Maya and I grinned pulling a piece of paper from my pocket.

"Oh, don't worry, Mr. Matthews, you wrote her a note," Maya said, and I handed him the paper, before sitting down in my desk. I sat in the front row, between Riley and Maya.

Mr. Matthews unfolded the note and read it. "Riley's late. Deal with it. Oh, you got my signature down pretty good this time."

"Oh it was easy," Maya started.

"You write like a girl." I finished. Yeah, we do that a lot.

Cory cleared his throat. "Okay, let me get back to jamming some learning in your heads, The Civil War."

Maya and I smiled. "The Civil Bore." We said together. Riley stared at us, mouthing 'How?'

"Thank you, future Mini-Mart employees of the month."

"Would we be making more than you?" Maya shot back. He paused awkwardly.

"I think we would Maya..." I said smirking. He quickly changed the subject.

"The Civil War! Anybody?" Riley slowly looked up.

"A war we fought against ourselves." She said, sighing.

Cory looked surprised. "What, you actually studied it?" Riley shook her head.

" No, I'm actually living it." She smacked her head on her desk.

Then, Farkle spoke up. "People, people, are we here to learn or not?" He said excitedly.

Cory stared at him. "What do you mean, Farkle?"

"I've been in love with Riley since the first grade. But I'm also equally in love with Maya and Makenzie. Some might say the great mystery of the universe is who's gonna be the first Mrs. Farkle."

Maya and I both turned around and Maya menacingly said. "You don't want this."

"We a lotta trouble," I added.

Farkle just smiled. "Bring it on." I shuddered.

Riley turned towards us. "I always thought that he'd wind up with back-of-the-class Brenda." Everyone turned around to see the girl waving at us.

Farkle made a disgusted face. "Yuck!"

"Actually, the great mystery of the universe is how you can love three women the same who couldn't possibly be more different," Cory said. That was the surprising thing??

Farkle raised his hand. "May I overstep my bounds, sir?"

Cory shrugged and switched places with him. "You always do." That's true.

Farkle flipped the name tag on Cory's desk so it said 'Farkle' instead of 'Mr. Matthews', and said, "Riley, is the sun. Warm and bright and lights up my whole day. Maya is the night. Dark and mysterious. And the night has always been a mystery to me. Because I go to bed at 7:30. Makenzie is twilight. A mix of both, where the dark and the light meet. Both bright and mysterious. How can I love these three different women? How can I not?" He bowed. "Thank you, I am Farkle!"

"So, we were indeed trying to find out who we were, as a people. Who am I? What should I be? History shows that bad things happen when you don't know who you are." Cory told the class. 'Who am I?' I thought when all of a sudden the door opened and in walked the devil himself. Lucas Friar.

"Who are you? I don't know who you are." Cory said quickly. Riley turned to us and whispered "Subway boy!"

I dropped my pencil as he turned to Cory. "I'm Lucas Friar, from Austin, Texas."

Friar! Out of all the people who had to be in my class. I still didn't even know what he was doing here! Everyone looked at me for a second, before looking back at Lucas.

Lucas handed Cory his transfer slip. Cory looked at it before saying. "Oh. New student, Mr. Friar?"

"Yes, sir."

"Great. You're just in time for today's assignment. Have a seat behind Miss Huxton." Please don't say anything. Please don't acknowledge me.

He looked at me. Then he walked to his seat. Good thing was, he and Riley were so intent on staring at each other and smiling that he didn't think about me much after that. I wondered if he was still mad at me. I mean I would be.

"Okay, so we..." Cory walked to Riley and turned her head forward. "So, I'd like you guys to open your books to page 48. Now, I'd like you to turn to page 1. Now, I'd like you to read from page 1 to 48." We all groaned. "Oh, too bad on you. Okay, so for tonight's assignment, I'd like you to write me a three-page essay on anything. Anything at all, that you guys believe in so strongly, you fight for."

"That," Maya said, nudging me.

"Maya are you sure..." I whispered.

"Would you rather explain ourselves?" She whispered back. I sighed, knowing I was backed into a corner. But, there was no turning back now. "We'd fight for no homework," I added.

Then we went too far. "We come here every day; why can't you teach us everything we need to know while we're here." Then maybe we could have some help.

"Woo!" Riley said, then, looking at her dad, changed it to, "Not woo!"

"He gets our days, let's take back our nights. No homework, more freedom!" I started chanting, and we both stood up.

"Who's with us?" Maya yelled, and we all chanted. "No homework, more freedom! No homework, more freedom! No homework, more freedom!"

"This is it, kid. You wanna be like us? Stand up." Maya whispered before we started chanting again. "No homework, more freedom! No homework, more freedom! No homework, more freedom!"

"What are you doing?" Cory asked Riley slowly.

"I'm making a choice about who I want to be, about whose world I want it to be," Riley said confidently, standing up.

"Riley, I know you. You know exactly who you are."

" Then who am I, Dad? "

"You're just like me."

"Oh, yeah? Would you do this? No homework, more freedom! No homework, more freedom! Farkle, are you with us or not? No homework, more freedom! No homework, more freedom!"

Farkle looked back and forth wildly. "My education? Or my women? My education? Or my women? My education? Or my women? Oh, it's happening again, sir." He says, fainting.

The bell rang. I walked up to Lucas, sighing. "We need to talk, Friar."