Emily's POV

"This is it!" Riley exclaims as she and Maya burst through the doors to our new school, Abigail Adams High School. I follow the two inside.

"High School." I say.

"We're gonna own this place." Maya says. I laugh.

"You know, I'm glad we're here together, Isadora." I hear Austin tell Smackle. "It gives me a feeling which I can only describe as-"

"Stuck?" Smackle asks him.

"Isadora, Austin finding the one and only Smackle lets me know the universe has order and our existence is not just random coincidence."

"Hello, random coincidence ladies!" Farkle says to three other girls. I hit his shoulder causing him to look at me.

"I thought they were you!" He exclaims. I give him a look. He kisses my cheek. I smile at him. He grabs my hand in his, smiling as he lightly rubbed his thumb on the white bandages on my wrists. I give him a small, weak smile.

"Riles, Em?" Maya asks. I look at her. "What if we don't own this place?"

"Maya, life wouldn't do that." Riley says, "We're us." She adds.

"Unless we get thrown to the side by Seniors who rule the school." I say. Riley looks at me.

"That's not gonna happen." Riley tells me.

"Until it does." I say. She gives me another look. I shrug my shoulders.

"Us are in Jurassic Park." Zay says.

"They're just people in high school, like us." I say to them.

Some tall guy walks into the hall, looking at Lucas and Zay. I give the two a confused look.

"You know who goes to out high school? Thor." Lucas says to us. I sigh.

"I heard that even the best of friendships can come apart in high school. But that couldn't happen to us, right?" Riley asks us. "Promise me that no matter what happens, we will always stick together." Maya and I went to go answer but are cut off by the bell. The hallway gets crowded, separating us all from each other as students pushed their way through to class. "Maya! Emily!" Riley yells.

"We're gonna own this place!" Farkle says. I give him a look.

"Look!" Riley exclaims as she gets off the ground. "A patriot. We're Abigail Adams Patriots. We're just as much a part of this place as anybody else."

"Get in the hole." A brunette girl says from the top of the stairs, she stood with two girls.

"Of course get in the hole." Riley says.

"What are you?" The blonde asks Riley.

"I'm Riley."

"What are you?" The blonde asks.

"She's our best friend," Maya says about Riley, gesturing to herself and I. "and we can do without the attitude, madam."

"What'd you call us?" The strawberry blonde asks.

"I'm gonna probably need help now." Maya says, moving back slightly.

"You're spunky." The blonde says.

"You know what I'm gonna call you? Spunky."

"And what are you, Spunky?" The brunette asks. I went to go say something but get cut off by Lucas.

"Her name is Maya. And you can call me Lucas." Lucas says and looks at the taller guy. "You wanna know what I am? I'm as strong as a horse. I don't know how. I just am."

"Yeah, he's not even with us."

"When my friends tell you to do something, you do what they say." The guy says. "This hallway here is for people who have earned it."

"Why are you doing this?" I ask them.

"You wanna hear your freshman song?" The brunette asks.

"Oh, we have a freshman song." Riley says, happily. I sigh. "I want to hear our freshman song."

"I think you don't." I say to her.

"♪ Oh, we have come to Abigail ♪ ♪ With innocence of soul ♪ ♪ And what we are is freshmen ♪ ♪ So, we go into the... ♪ ♪ Hole ♪ ♪ Hole ♪" The four sing, pointing down to the 'hole'. I roll my eyes.

"It's beautiful." Riley says.

Riley!" I exclaim along with Maya.

"You know, it's not so bad down here." Zay says and we all look and see Zay and Austin already down there.

"You're already down there?"

"Oh, we saw how this was going." They both say. I sigh.

♪ Oh, we have come to Abigail ♪" Riley continues singing.

"We were kings." Maya says to the older students.

"And now we're not." I tell her.

"Yeah, you're friends right, that's over." The strawberry blonde says.

"Do it."

They all go down into the hole, except me.

The strawberry blonde gives me a look. "What are you waiting for?" She asks me.

"An actual reason." I say to her.

She looks me up and down. "I know you. I was you. Go down the hole." She says to me.

"You know nothing about me." I say, a bit angry. I send her a glare before walking down into the hole and grabbing Farkle's hand, leaning my head on his shoulder.

"You know we're not gonna stay down here, right? You guys know as soon you leave, we're just gonna go to class." Lucas tells them.

"Oh, we want you to go to class. But spend your free time down here because of what Spunky said."

"What, "We were kings"?" Maya asks.

"Yeah. In middle school, you were. We all were. Right now, you're not. We are. We walk anywhere we want and you don't."

"Why? Because you say so?" Lucas asks.

"Yeah. Now get down there, little buddy." The guy tells Lucas. "You'll know when to come out. This is a service we perform. You don't have to thank us."

"Yeah, trust me, we won't." Lucas says.

"Trust me, you will." The guys says.

"If there's nothing else, we wish you good day." "Good luck in high school." The other blonde says.

"I'm sorry we're in here, guys." Lucas says to us.

"It's not your fault, Lucas. You can't protect us." I say to him.

"I used to." He says sadly.

-------

Farkle and I were standing at my locker.

"You doing okay?" He asks me.

I shrug. "I haven't had a panic attack in 3 days." I say, not looking at him. He gives me a small frown. "Let's just go to class." I tell him. "We'll talk at lunch." He nods and kisses my forehead. The two of us walk off to class.

We sat down in the first row. Me sitting in the first seat, next to Maya, Farkle behind me, next to Riley who is behind Maya, Lucas and Zay sitting behind the two girls and Smackle and Austin behind Farkle.

"Good morning and welcome to world history." Cory says to us. "Who's ready to learn?" He asks.

A girl from the other side of the room speaks up. "What's on the board?" She ask.

"We were Kings, now we're patriots." Matthews answers.

"Why does it say that? It's cryptic. You cant teach us cryptic. What are you trying to get away with?" She asks him.

Matthews looks at her, "I'll be right back." He quickly walks over to us. "What's her name?" Matthews asks us. I shrug, not knowing. He looks at Riley.

"What's your name?" Riley asks the girl.

"Marley." She answers.

"Marley." Riley tells her father.

"Marley sees right through me." He tells us.

"Just keep teaching about our lives, and she'll come around." Riley says to him.

Matthews begins talking. "Abigail Adams was the wife of John Adams and the mama of Johnny Q. They were quite the historical triangle." He says.

I look at Maya, Riley and Lucas. "Oh definitely."

"Ha." Riley says.

"Triangle." Maya says.

"Ha." Lucas says.

"And I'll tell you that the one thing they understood about this brand-new nation was to stick together because every direction they turned was brand-new, undiscovered country." Mr. Matthews explains.

"I am an Abigail Adams Patriot." Riley tells us.

"How? We don't even get to walk in the hallways." Lucas tells her.

"Lucas, these seniors are older and more experienced than us, and I think they're trying to help." Riley explains to them.

"Riley, they're making fun of us and we're letting them."

"But most of all, these patriots knew to remain loyal to each other because their survival depended on it in a dangerous new land." Matthews tells us.

"Riles, we don't even know our way around the school yet." I tell her.

"Why would we just park ourselves in a hole?" Lucas adds, asking her.

"Okay, so you guys just want to throw un into whatever goes on in this place and just see what happens?" Riley asks us.

I sigh. "Yes." I tell her.

"You know what I call that?" He asks her. "Normal." He adds.

"Let me see if I get how you teach." Marley says to Matthews. "My boyfriend, best friend and I get into a fight." She says. I share a look with Maya and Farkle.

"Aww." Riley says.

"I was talking about you three." Marley says to her.

"Uh, us? why? Are we fighting?" Riley asks me and Lucas. I sigh.

"I don't know. Let's go to the weird, undefined area between the two floors and talk about it." He says to her.

"We are fighting." Riley says then turns to Maya. "You have to fight with him exactly as much."

"But I don't know what he-" Riley cuts off Maya.

"Do it!" She exclaims.

"Riles come on." I say to her. She ignores me. I sigh and roll my eyes.

Okay!" Maya exclaims and stands and looks at Lucas. "Huh-hurr! Huh-hurr! Huh-hurr!"

"Huh-hurr?"

"Huh-hurr huh-hurr! Huh-hurr!" She finishes.

"Who else misses middle school?" Mr. Matthews asks. We all raise our hands.

-----------

We were now standing down in the hole. I was standing next to Farkle, leaning my head on his shoulder.

"Okay, schools over. Can we go home now?" Austin asks us. I nod.

"Who wants a hug?" Smackle asks, holding out her arms.

I sigh as Zay responds to her. "Stop that!"

"This is not how I'm living my high school life." Lucas tells us.

"What if there's a good reason the seniors want us down here? What if its to teach us something?" Riley asks us.

Farkle and I share a look before he starts talking. "What if you just have too much faith in people?"

"What if I have exactly the right amount of faith in people?" Riley asks us.

I point to the sky and say, "Bird." She looks away to find a random made up bird. 

"How am I a triangle with that?"  

"Okay, you know what?

"That's it. I'm going to look around. Come on, Zay."

"They left?" Riley asks.

"Maybe they have the right idea." I tell Riley. 

"Yeah, I don't know what we're supposed to be learning down here." Farkle says. 

"Okay, everybody! Follow me!" Riley says to us. 

I sigh as we follow her. "Undiscovered country in every direction." Zay says.

"I just want to go home." I mutter to myself. 

"Riles! Em!" Maya says and drags us over to a small bay window. 

"I think this may just turn out fine."

I heard footsteps approaching as the three girls from earlier walk up. "You're in our spot." The brunette says. 

"This is where we sit." The strawberry blonde girl says.

"In the window? And you guys talk about life?" Riley asks. 

"No. We sit in the window... And go like this." The three sit, crossing their legs and flipping their hair.

"I want to go home." I mutter to myself, once again. 

"Hi." A cheerleader says to Zay and Lucas. "What's your name?" She asks Lucas. 

"Lucas. And these are my..." He trails off, looking at Riley and Maya. "How would you like to be called?" He asks Maya. "Uh, girlfriend." She replies. 

"And how would you like to be called?" He asks Riley. 

"Girlfriend equally as much." Riley tells him.

"Lucaya." I whisper. 

"Hi, my name is Zay. I'm completely available." Zay says to the other cheerleader but doesn't get a reply. 

"Girlfriend-eses?" She asks the three. 

"It's complicated." I tell her. 

"You know what's not complicated? Zay. Available." Zay says. 

"Well, I'm sure you're all adorable together." The brunette says. 

"And thanks for being a distraction until the football team finished practice." The blonde says.

"I'm trying out for football." Zay says.

"Yeah? Good luck to you." The strawberry blonde says. 

All of the football players came downstairs and in front of us. "You're the football players in high school?" Lucas asks and they nod. "Hey, that's great."

"You're the cheerleaders in high school?" Riley asks the cheerleaders. They nod. "Hey, that's great."

"The scientists here are gigantic." Austin says as he and Smackle walk back towards us. 

"So you guys decided to come upstairs, huh? You think you're ready for the big time?" The brunette girl asks us. 

"Maybe not just yet." Lucas says.

------

"This is your fault!" Riley says to her father as we walked into the history class room.

He sighs. "What is?" Mr. Matthews asks her.

"Things are going bad, man." Zay says.

"And we need someone to blame." Maya says.

Smackle speaks next. "I am also feeling these emotions!"

"We're falling on hard times Matthews." I say to him.

"Fix it, sir." Lucas says.

"Bravo. Wonderful performance. Shall we begin again?" He asks us.

I shrug. "Go ahead." I say.

"Lovely. What shall we do differently?" Riley asks.

"Well, this time. I'd like to go first." Matthews says.

"Go ahead." I say again.

Matthews nods and yells. "You did this!"

"Yikes." Riley says.

"I was fine in middle school! I could've gone on there forever, talking about whatever I wanted, and you suckers believed everything I said! But you had to bring me here. I gotta teach stuff now! This is not why I got into this!"

"Did you prepare us?" I ask him, playing with the hem of my sleeve, looking at my bandages before looking back at him.

"What?" He asks me, slightly thrown off from my question.

"Did you prepare us for this? For high school?" I ask again.

Maya begins talking before he could. "We're not important, Matthews."

"You made us feel important." Lucas says.

"You never prepared us to be unimportant, and now we don't know what to do." Smackle says causing me to give her a confused look.

"You didn't even go to our school!" Matthews says.

She nods. "But I'm here now and I catch on fast. I wanna be in the triangle!" Smackle says.

"Smackle!" Austin says.

"What'd I say?" She asks as she turns and faces Austin.

"We're not kings anymore." Maya says.

Lucas nods and says. "The seniors are kings."

"Are they good kings?" Mr. Matthews asks.

"No!" Lucas says.

"We don't know that yet." Riley says causing me to roll my eyes. "We don't know their reasoning."

"They don't have a reason, Riley. They're just putting us in a hole." I say to her.

Matthews intervenes. "Riley's looking for the best in people, right?"

"Yes, would you tell her to stop?" Lucas asks.

"What's the matter Lucas?" Matthews asks. "It's not so easy to protect 'em anymore, right?"

"Don't look at me." Lucas says and turns around.

"All right, lets see what we got." Matthews says.

I groan as we leave the classroom. "I just want to go home."

Farkle frowns at me, grabbing my hand in his, pulling me out of the class room with the others.

--------

"They want you to stay down here?" Matthews asks us.

I nod. "Until we think we're ready to leave."

"Well, why would they just pick you guys out?" He asks.

I shrug as Lucas answers. "Because we're freshman and they think we're easy targets."

"Yeah, but there's a whole class of freshman. Why do you think they picked out just you?" He asks us all.

"They said we'd thank them for this." Riley says.

"We'd never thanking them." Lucas says.

I smirk. "I finally agree with Ranger Rick on this one." I smile and look at Farkle, who was already smiling at me.

"Dad, would you tell them that there's a purpose here?" Riley asks her father.

"Mr. Matthews, will you tell her they were just messing with us." Lucas says.

"This is on me." Matthews says.

I sigh. "How?"

"You were kids. I told you to always look for the lessons that life is trying to teach you. Now you're not kids. It's day one is a bigger world. You've asked me if I've prepared you for it. We'll see." Matthews explained before walking away.

"It's not just a hole." Riley tells us.

"What is it then?" Lucas asks, angrily.

You don't have to get angry." She tells him.

I sigh as he says. "I am angry, Riley. This isn't how I want to start high school. I want to walk anywhere I want. I want to try out for the football team."

"And I want to be able to take journalism and yearbook and the science club. But I can't because of these seniors." I say to her.

"Lucas, Em. You get killed on the football team and crushed by the journalism class and the science club." She tells us.

I look at her, my eyes widen. "Wow." I mutter as Zay says. "Whoa."

"Really? That's what you think? So, you'll put your faith in some random seniors you just met, but you don't have faith in me? Or Emily, your best friend?" Lucas asks her.

I run a hand through my hair, sighing. "I have always had faith in you Riley, but you can't have faith in me for this?" I ask her.

"I don't think that their random. I don't think that anything that whatever happens to us is random." Riley tells us.

"Guys, can we just calm down?" Maya asks us. "This isn't who we are."

"Yeah? The who are we?" Lucas asks, still mad before leaving.

I sigh as Zay says. "I better... you know.... this is when he does something." Zay says and follows Lucas.

"You guys are the geniuses. You got this all figured out?" Maya asks Farkle and Smackle. 

"Your dad's right. You do always look for the good in people, Riley." Smackle says. 

"You were a great leader in middle school, Riley." Farkle says. "You always made us believe the world loved us. This just isn't the same world." 

"What if this one just doesn't love us as much?" Riley asks. I sigh.

"No matter how optimistic you are, Riley, I think this time, you just led us down a hole." Austin says before he and Smackle walk away.

I look at Riley and Maya. "I'm not gonna be pushes around by some seniors, and I'm not gonna be pushed around by you. Not anymore." I tell her before leaving the hole.

-------

"I'm staying out here." I tell Farkle, causing him to sigh. "Farkle, she doesn't believe in me. Why am I gonna let myself be pushed around by her and some stupid seniors?" 

He nods at me. "I'll be right back." I nod and he goes inside the cafe, as the seniors walked outside. I roll my eyes and go sit down.

"Emily." The red haired senior says to me. She looks at her friends. "I'll catch up." The three others leave and she comes and sits next to me. "Hey." She says to me.

"Hi." I answer back.

She looks down at my wrist. "What'd you do?" She asks, noticing the bandages. 

"None of your business." I tell her.

She sighs and moves her arms, showing me her wrist, there was burns all on her arm. I look at her confused. "I heard about what happened to your family, your dad and mom."

I sigh. "Everybody know about that?" I ask her.

"No, not everybody." She answers. "I just want you to know, you're not alone. I may be a few years older, but I'm still here for you."

"How would you even know what I'm going through?" I ask.

She sighs. "My dad left when my mom found out she was pregnant. Um, after my mom had me she turned down a bad path; drugs alcohol. Stupid crap like that. She died about a year or so ago. She chose drugs over her own kid."

"I didn't know that. I'm sorry." I tell her.

"No one but my friends do." She says. "So, why are you out here while your boyfriend and two friends are inside?" She asks me.

I sigh. "They don't believe in me. I mean Farkle does, he always has but my friends, they don't." I explain.

"One day you'll show them you're better than they ever thought." She says to me. "I should go." She says and stands. "I'll see you around Emily."

"See ya around Sierra." I say as she leaves. I sigh and look down at my phone, looking at the lock screen. It's a picture of Farkle and I. He's kissing my cheek as I took the photo.

----

Farkle's POV

"Hey. Look, I spoke to everybody. I know we were supposed to be here. Everyone is just a little upset. You know, you kind of ruined our first day of high school. So, we all just did our homework at home tonight." I explain to the two girls. 

"Farkle, I'm upset with you." Maya says to me.

"And I'm upset with you and Riley." I say to them.

"This is how a real fight begins." 

"No, I actually think we're in one right now." I say.

"Hey, we're not the ones who made high school harder than we thought it was gonna be." Maya says.

"And we're not the ones who trusted complete strangers." I say to her.

"I believe in people, Farkle, and you know that." Riley says to me. 

"Maybe this will teach you not to." 

"Okay. You tell them that it doesn't matter if you think standing in a hole is stupid. What matters is us, Farkle. We don't leave. And I'm gonna go back in that stupid hole tomorrow, and I don't know what I'm going to learn. Because I believe that I'm gonna come out knowing more than I do now. And I hope I'm making the right choice, Farkle. I hope my friends will be there right with me. You tell them that." Riley explains to me.

"Emily is outside." I say. Maya looks at me confused while Riley looks a bit hopeful. "But she doesn't want to see you guys." Now they both look confused. "She's upset because neither of you can believe she is able to do anything she puts her mind to. She wants to do journalism and science club. She believes she can and I know she will be able to because Emily is strong. If you don't believe in her, fine. But don't expect her to be happy with you guys after this." I say then walk away up to the counter, getting two hot chocolates before walking back outside to Emily. 

I walk up to her. "Hey." I say to her, causing her to look up from her phone. I hand her the hot chocolate and she smiles.

"Thanks." She says to me.

"Want me to walk you home?" I ask her.

She smiles and nods. "I would love that."

---------

No One's POV

Emily stood at her locker, which was near Smackle's. "Hey Smackle." The girl said to her small brunette friend.

"Hi Emily." Smackle says.

Farkle walks up to the two. "Ready for class?" He asks Emily.

"Yeah." She says smiling. She watches as Austin walks by, before him and Smackle walk away. She smiles to herself. She always thought those two would be perfect for each other.

She closes her locker and puts her bag over her shoulder. "Let's go." She says and Farkle smiles at her before the two walk off to class. 

--------

I feel like some of you may not like this due to the direction I went with, with Emily and her not being in the whole. Obviously much has kind of changed since the last book and that's what I kind of wanted to happen. But I like how this chapter came out and how I wrote it. I hope you guys do too. Please comment. Thanks for reading. Bye.

-Kelly.