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❛ ᴏᴄᴇᴀɴ ᴇʏᴇꜱ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐓𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴇᴀᴄᴇ ( ᴀ.ᴋ.ᴀ
ᴇɪɢʜᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴀʀᴅ ᴡᴀʏ ) ꒱


❝ LOSE ONE FRIEND. LOSE ALL
FRIENDS. LOSE YOURSELF ❞

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"And so, my precious little jackals, here's the bottom line: no one leaves this room until you have healed every relationship in this group, no matter how long it takes," Mr. Feeny addressed them.

They were seated sporadically throughout the classroom to keep an obvious distance from each other as they refused to meet their friends' eyes. Only Eric was confident enough to do so as he stood behind their teacher and echoed his words. "No matter how long!"

"Shut up."

"Shut up," Eric agreed loudly.

"How can you possibly keep us here against our will?" Topanga asked.

"A minus."

"Well played, old man," the blonde allowed as she slowly sat back down.

"I know this group as well as anyone living and I will not have it falling apart. Not now!"

"So what if we can't fix things?" Cory wondered.

"Well, then you will go through life without each other."

"Come on, guys. We can do this. We're all adults here," Eric encouraged them.

Cory pointed to Rachel. "She started it!"

The redhead copied the gesture but aimed it at Shawn. "He parked in my spot!"

"She overreacted," he defended himself.

"They took apart my car!"

"She glued my pants!" the curly-haired boy shouted.

"This isn't about any of that," Jack told them.

"What is it about?" Mr. Feeny prompted him.

"It's about they're jerks," Angela replied.

"It's about that these friendships aren't what we thought they were."

Juliet silently watched the group argue as she sat apart from them in her traditional corner chair. It wasn't in her usual corner, though, and she sat as far away from her friends as she could. She was still furious that Shawn would think that their 'prank' had been a good idea and thought that it was better to stay quiet than fan the flames.

"Because I care about you," Mr. Feeny answer Cory's previous question.

"He cares about us, okay? And I care about us, too," Eric told them. "We've been friends all our lives."

"No. No, we haven't. That's the point," Jack said.

"Some of us have been friends all their lives," Angela added.

"And some of us haven't," Rachel agreed. "It's an exclusive club and we're not in it."

"No it's not," Juliet spoke up for the first time. "Not everyone that you think is in it actually is."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shawn asked as he turned to face her.

"Oh, like you don't know."

"I don't!"

"I don't know why you guys are making such a big deal about this," Cory cut in.

"Because it is a big deal!" the brunette insisted as her irritation drove her to her feet.

"Alright, you know what? Look. We're not talking about that, alright?" Jack told the curly-haired boy as he stood up. "Rachel and Angela and I, we feel like we're outsiders here."

"You're not the only ones," the redhead commented quietly, but not enough that it went unheard.

"Okay, first of all," Shawn began as he rose from his chair. "You're my brother and I'm forced to like you. We dated Angela, so you know I like you at least a little. Julie, you're my best friend and I love you. I don't know where this is coming from—"

"So what am I?" Rachel asked.

"What are you?"

"Yeah. I mean, you've made it really clear who everybody else is. Brother, ex-girlfriend, current girlfriend, husband and wife. You all have these really strong bonds between you. I mean, what's the strong bond between us?"

"You think husband and wife is a strong bond?" Topanga asked her. "I wasn't even a part of their stupid team."

"Yeah," Juliet agreed. "And being life long friends doesn't necessarily mean anything, either. If you're not in the group, you're not in the group. Y'know?"

"Girls, will you pipe down with your own problems, please?" Cory asked.

"Oh, tell it to your boyfriend," the blonde replied.

Shawn placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Remember what I told you. Stand up to her."

"Unbelievable," Juliet scoffed. "It really is like you're cheating on me."

"Everybody is coming apart and they get closer?" Topanga added. Her voice rose as she addressed her husband: "I'm your wife, you nimrod!"

"I wasn't talking about them, Topanga, and I wasn't talking about you, either. For once, in all the time that we've known each other, I was talking about me. I was talking about how I feel," Rachel cut her off.

"How do you feel, Rachel?" Mr. Feeny spoke up.

The redhead walked to the front of the class. "I feel like I don't fit in with these people and I don't think I ever have."

As she made to leave the room, Eric held an arm out in front of her to prevent her departure. "No, no, no. Rachel, no. Look, there's some bad feelings here but we're gonna work them out right now."

"I agree, and what we're going to do is what they do is Miss Templeton's kindergarten class. We're going to take a piece of ruled paper and we're going to write down what we like about each other. That's what we're going to do, children," Mr. Feeny announced.

"'I'm you wife, nimrod!' Do you know what it's like to have that voice inside your head all day long?" Cory asked his wife. "It's no wonder I turn to him."

"Come on, guys. Rachel's leaving," Eric protested. "Just write down about how we feel about each other."

Juliet stood. "Yeah, no. I don't acknowledge my feelings. If you knew me, you'd know that. I'll go after Rachel."

As she made her way to the door, the older boy tried to stop her. "Hey, Juliet, c'mon—"

She ignored him and hurried after the other redhead to catch the girl's arm after several steps. "Rach, wait. I know exactly how you feel."

"How could you?" the older girl asked softly as she turned to her. "You've been friends with them all your life."

"Yes," she agreed. "That's true. But in the months after I broke up with Shawn and things were awkward between us— especially when he tried dating Angela— it felt like they didn't really care about me. It felt like all those years we spent together meant nothing if I wasn't directly interacting with them. It was almost as if nothing would be different if I didn't exist."

Rachel's eyes widened slightly. "That's exactly how I feel."

Juliet offered her a faint smile. "See? I know what it's like. I'd never want anyone to feel like that. Cory and Shawn can be jerks and even if they're told off they don't always listen. I really am sorry for that dumb— worse than dumb— prank they pulled on you."

"Thank you," the redhead said. "I can tell you mean that." Her eyes flicked to the door. "What's the likelihood of any of them following us?"

"Not high," she replied. "It's one of the reasons why I was alone so much last year."

"Julie—" Shawn started loudly as he called after her. He sighed in relief when he saw the two redheads not far from the classroom door. "Oh, good. You're still here. Look, maybe we should just talk—"

"I have nothing to say to you," she told him stiffly. "If you can't understand why that prank was a bad idea then I think you should take some time to think about it."

"It was a great prank, Julie. It's only the people who are being sore about it that—"

"Here's a fun joke," she cut across him. "I never want to see you again. How do you like that?"

His eyes widened. "Come on, Julie. That's an overreaction—"

"I'm siding with Rachel on this one. Either you figure out why what you did was wrong or the joke's gonna become a reality. Let's go, Rach."

With that, the two redheads turned and continued down the hallway. . . alone.

🌎🌎🌎
[Six years later]

Juliet stood outside of the Student Union as she tried to work up the confidence to open the doors. It had been many years since she'd stepped foot inside the college and being here brought back memories, both good and bad. Inside, she could see the party goers milling about as they talked to each other and she recognized her ex-teacher's gray hair as he stood with his back to her. The sight of him reminded her why she was there and she made an effort to push back her nerves.

Stepping through the entrance, she paused to take in the low noise of the celebration from people's murmured conversations. She could recognize Jack easily from the times he'd been in the newspaper and Angela wasn't hard to spot, either. Her gaze continued to move over the students, though, as she both dreaded and hoped to see him.

"Julie?"

The redhead jumped and turned to face her once-best friend. "Shawn?"

He gave her an almost sheepish smile. "I haven't seen you since. . . well, the last time you said that you never wanted to see me again."

"I guess I did pretty well with that, huh?" she asked. "Um, how are you? I, uh, like the beard."

"Thanks," he said, sounding surprised. "I've been good. Er, what about you?"

"Pretty good. I've been playing a lot of Violin with the orchestra that I joined."

I know, he wanted to say. He'd been sent to England with one of his writing pieces (against his will, though he wouldn't say no to being paid) and had spontaneously decided to attend an orchestra concert that was being advertised at one of the local restaurants. It had come as quite a shock to see Juliet on stage as she took on the solo part. He wanted more than anything to be able to tell her that she'd played beautifully and that he'd stayed for the whole performance.

Instead, they stood in awkward silence after that as Juliet fought the urge to leave the party early. She wanted to tell him that she'd read every article that he'd ever written and (in a move that could have been described as "stalker-like") kept a map that indicated the places he'd been. It wasn't that she wanted too seem like a stalker but she did it so that someone could keep an eye on him (god knew that he needed it.) The quiet stretched out between them in a mirror of the miles they'd travelled away from each other.

Thankfully, Topanga came along to save them from their discomfort. "Juliet? Is that really you?"

The two girls smiled and gave superficial hugs as Juliet greeted her in turn. "It's great to see you. You too, Angela. What have you guys been doing?"

They began to talk about what they'd been up to, but Shawn remained quiet. His gaze remained trained on the redhead as he'd done throughout the years they'd known each other. He jumped slightly when he heard Cory's voice from behind him. "What's it like, seeing her again?"

"She's just as beautiful as the last time I saw her," Shawn admitted softly. "I think I'll always believe that."

"Well, why don't you tell her?"

"She told me that she never wanted to see me again," he replied. "I'm sure that she won't take kindly to knowing that I still have feelings for her."

"It seemed like you guys were the next me and Topanga. I was sure that you two would get married," Cory said.

"Yeah, well, so was I. I guess it just wasn't in the cards for us."

A loud shout interrupted their conversation: "Feeny! Fe-he—" The call was broken off by hoarse coughing. "I can't do that anymore."

They turned to see a man with a long beard and unkempt robes. Mr. Feeny's eyes widened. "Mr. Matthews?"

"Mr. Squirrels," Eric corrected him.

"Eric?" Cory asked in disbelief.

"Plays with."

"Okay, the party's over. I'll see you at my funeral."

"Where's Rachel?" the older Matthews asked.

"Does anyone know whatever happened to her?" Shawn wondered.

"Oh, yeah. She's here," Juliet informed them. "We've kept in touch. She moved—"

"To Texas," Rachel's voice finished her sentence and they turned to see the redhead approach, dressed in a cowgirl outfit. The two girls exchanged (genuine) smiles as she continued: "I wanted to see if there was anything left between me and my old boyfriend."

"The one you broke up with when you moved here?" Jack questioned her.

"Yep, that's the one."

"Well, was there anything left?"

"A little," she responded. "I married him."

"Congratulations," Cory said. "Do you have any kids?"

"Two little ones."

"I'm the godmother," Juliet informed them proudly. "I never thought I'd like kids but here I am."

"I always thought you'd be great with them," Shawn offered. His words quickly brought an uncomfortable air to their conversation.

"Married life is great, isn't it?" the curly-haired man prompted her hastily. No one wanted to get into that discussion.

"We're divorced."

"What happened?"

"He parked in my spot," Rachel answered. "Yeah, well, I've been watching you all and I just can't believe that none of you are friends anymore. I mean, I thought you guys would be together forever."

"Yeah, but ever since that little argument we had in the classroom. . ."

"What do you mean, over me?" the redhead asked. "You guys aren't friends anymore because of me?"

"I guess it had something to do with that," Jack allowed.

"Wait a second. You didn't all make up after Jules and I left and live happily ever after?"

"Our marriage counselor says we're doing fine," Cory stated, only to earn a scolding hiss from his wife.

"Wow. I thought nothing could keep you guys apart."

"Neither did we," Shawn agreed, "but I guess something did." As always, his eyes fell on the redhead.

"I guess we just weren't as strong as we thought we were," Cory said.

"I married a moose," Eric announced obliviously. He took out a small picture and showed it to their old teacher. "We don't need counseling."

"So, Mr. Squirrels, you've written something there, have you?" Mr. Feeny asked him.

"Yes. I've been by myself for the last seven years. I've put together a compendium of all my knowledge. Everything I know is in me manifesto. Read it, Jack."

"Eric, that this is, like, three thousand pages long," his brother protested.

"Nope. Three thousand blank pages. Only the first one has writing on it."

"What does it say?"

He looked down at the page. "'Lose one friend. Lose all friends. Lose yourself.'"

🌎🌎🌎

"You guys, Rachel just left. Why didn't anybody write anything down?" Eric asked. He walked out and returned with a loudly-protesting Rachel over his shoulder. He placed her on the ground. "Look, if there's bad feelings here then we have to work them out because that's what friends should do! Now, look, I wrote something. Rachel, please read it before you go anywhere."

"'Lose one friend. Lose all friends. Lose yourself,'" she read.

"We're not gonna lose our friends," Cory said as he looked around. "Are we?"

"We might," Eric answered. "What if Mr. Feeny's right? What if we don't fix this? What if this is the last time that we're all together? Is that a chance you're all willing to take?"

Angela stood and walked over to the redhead to meet her eyes. "Rachel, you're my roommate and I care about you."

As she lay down next to her friend on the floor, Jack went next as he took the brunette's place. "Rachel, just because we're not in love anymore doesn't mean I want to lose you as my friend. I don't want to lose any of you guys."

Juliet rose from her chair and joined them as Jack added himself to the pile. "Rach, you know you're one of my best friends. We can't be Eric's Terror Twins if there aren't two of us," she said, before she found a space on the floor next the other redhead.

Then it was Topanga's turn. "Oh, Rachel, I just wanted so bad to be a part of that team but I guess I never will be. It's always gonna be Cory, Shawn and Juliet. I give up."

"Topanga don't give up," Shawn said as he came to stand next to them. "You're his wife. Julie and I are just his best friends. You should be with him all the time."

"All the time?" the blonde asked worriedly. "Like, so, if you weren't around, I'd be with Cory all the time?"

"Well, yeah. 'Till death do you part, right? That's what you wanted, isn't it?"

She reached forward and grabbed his legs, causing him to fall on top of them. "You are very important in my life, Shawn."

Cory was the last to join them. "You guys got room for me?"

"Yep," she agreed. "We have the perfect spot."

"Right between me and the wife," the dark-haired boy finished.

The warm feeling of being united again spilled out into chuckles as the group laughed together in their pile. Juliet smiled happily as the bitter feelings dissipated, relieved that they were able to work past this and thankful that she had such amazing friends.

Their attention turned to the remaining person in the room who hadn't joined their embrace and they quickly started encouraging him to join. The older man tried to excuse himself by saying, "class dismissed!"

That only prompted them all to stand and trap him on his desk in their group hug. 

[written jan. 2022]
[edited jun. 2022]