THE DOORBELL RANG for the millionth time that night. Maya could hear Riley and Farkle answer the front door downstairs and another group of excited little kids shouted those three magic words that give you handfuls of delicious and definitely not nutritious candy from strangers. Smackle had followed Maya up the staircase and into Riley's bedroom where they could take a quick break from the enthusiastic children.

     Smackle's first instinct was to head straight towards the bed, dramatically falling onto it face first out of pure exhaustion. "You're going o mess up your makeup!" Maya squeals, rushing to the vanity to obtain her makeup bag.

"Shit! I almost forgot!" Smackle laughed and sat up quickly, just in time for her to come face to face with Maya who already had a black eyeliner pencil in her hand. She sat on the bed beside her and began to touch up the skeleton features of her face. "So... you and Lucas?"

Maya rolled her eyes, "What about him?"

"We could barely talk about him with Riley in the room last weekend. It was too much of an uncomfortable conversation." Smackle had a point. The weekend before Halloween, the girls decided to meet up and sleep over at Riley's for the first time since Summer vacation. High school has been preventing them from doing basically anything outside of school, thanks to homework and assignments. Thankfully, they managed to get together after the argument that went down in their private messages.

While the three best friends painted their toenails and gossiped about school, Smackle attempted to bring up Lucas, but Riley quickly avoided the topic. They discovered a different side of Riley that night. Before the whole Lucas situation surfaced, Riley was all for hyping up her girls with their relationships, even though Maya has never had one before. She would always cheer them on and encourage them to talk to their crushes, but with Lucas, it has been an entire different story.

"You're right," Maya stayed focused on fixing Smackle's skeleton teeth, "She's just been acting so differently lately, and I can't figure out why."

Smackle raised an eyebrow and sucked her teeth, "You've got to be kidding me, Maya! She obviously likes him." Maya didn't want to admit it, but she knew Smackle was right and she was angry at Riley for doing so. She's only seen pictures of Lucas, she hasn't even really spoken to him, how could she possibly be jealous? And the fact that Maya knows she's trying to cover for Riley is the worst part.

"I realize that, Smackle, but she's never acted this way before." Maya shook her head as she spook, gently moving Smackle's head upwards with her left hand, "She locked her window the other day."

The brunette's eyes widen largely, "No way. What the hell?" She crossed her eyes and sucked her teeth again.

Maya shrugged her shoulders and returned the eyeliner back into her makeup bag, "I know! Why is she so jealous about all of this?"

"Because Maya, have you seen how cute he is?" She giggled throwing a pillow in her direction.

Maya threw a pillow back, "I know! Can you believe it?"

"I can't, to be honest. And he just- randomly stumbled across your account one day?" Smackle questioned, leaning over towards the wall to plug in her phone to charge.

     The blonde bit her lip and smiled, her cheeks flushing with different shades of red, "Yeah, he just appeared one day and started calling me beautiful. I immediately thought he was a creep and the sirens went off, I was going to block him, but I gave him a chance. We continued talking and we ended up FaceTiming too-"

     "-You FaceTimed him?" The expression in her face was enough to make Maya grin from ear to ear.

     "Yeah-yeah we did." She ran a hand through her hair and began explaining everything that has happened throughout the past couple of weeks.

     Smackle's heart was filled with content and joy for Maya. She supports Maya with every last fibre of her being because of her dramatic attempt to make her feel welcomed at John Quincy Adams. Smackle didn't know very many people, but Maya mad Riley instantly made her feel confident again. "Maya," she started, "I'm so happy for you!"

"I'm still weary about the whole thing, so I'm still going to keep my distance, but I'll continue talking to him. Maybe he's not so bad." Maya smiled while running her finger over the fabric of the Hogwarts crest on her Halloween costume.

"Not so bad? He's great! Better than anybody you'll find in our school." Smackle teased, hopping off of Riley's bed and heading in the direction of the door. "Now c'mon, they're probably in desperate need of our assistance downstairs."