Chapter Text
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, except some OCs and added scenes. The storylines and characters belong to Michael Jacobs and April Kelly, Disney, and the people who worked on Girl Meets World.
***
The subway was dirty, loud and overcrowded, filled with masses of people rushing to work in the morning. When he stepped inside the car, Lucas was instantly hit by the smell of sweat, mixed with some strange odor he couldn’t identify. The people already inside stood only inches away from one another, packed in like sardines. Then, the car jerked forward, knocking him off his feet and sending him crashing into a tall, unfriendly-looking man in a grey suit, who glared at him disapprovingly until he managed to stand back up again, grabbing a pole and holding on for dear life. He was eternally grateful when an old woman stood up at the next stop, leaving her empty seat behind. He threw himself down into the seat and sighed.
His mom had to go to a job interview that morning, but she was worried about letting him go on the subway alone on the first day of school. It had taken about twenty minutes of trying to convince her that everything would be fine, promising that he’d message her when he got there, and swearing on Pappy Joe’s beard to call her if anything happened to him, but eventually she gave in, pressed some money into his hand for lunch and kissed him goodbye, ignoring his loud protests, then hurried out the door. He decided not to tell her that he almost got lost twice and nearly missed his train.
If he remembered the directions his new teacher, Mr. Matthews, had given his mom correctly, he would still be sitting there for a while. He might as well spend his time doing something useful. He took out his geography book from his bag; it would keep his mind occupied, but he wouldn’t get so lost in it as to miss the announcement of his stop. He had only read the first three sentences of the chapter when he suddenly had the feeling he was being watched. He glanced up to see a short, blonde girl, wearing a studded leather vest and an AC/DC T-shirt and looking at him appraisingly.
Next to her stood a slightly taller, brown-haired girl, staring at him with a bit of a goofy smile. It was the first time anyone had smiled at him since he and his mom had arrived in New York three days ago. It helped to lessen his anxiety a little about his new situation, and he found himself smiling back at her honestly. He peered over at the blonde, who held his gaze, a small smile playing on her lips and a mischievous glint in her eyes. For some reason, the look in her eyes made him feel self-conscious so he quickly looked away and turned back to his book.
Just after he finished reading the fourth sentence, Lucas heard a girl’s voice. Her voice was high, but just enough to sound sweet, not annoying.
“Hi, I’m Maya.” He glanced up to see the blonde girl standing in front of him. Before he could open his mouth to say something, she continued, without a moment’s pause. “You’re really cute. We should hang out sometime.” She sat down next to him. “You make me happy. You don’t pay enough attention to me. This isn’t working out.” She stood back up again. “It’s you, not me. We can still be friends – not really.”
With that, she walked back over to her friend, leaving him to wonder what just happened. This was definitely the strangest thing that’s ever happened to him, even stranger than the time Zay showed up at his doorstep one Halloween dressed as a hamster, with a huge fake belly and pieces of string glued to his face as his whiskers – the girl he was crushing on at the time, Norma Jean, was obsessed with hamsters, and Zay thought this would make her fall madly in love with him. Needless to say, it didn’t work out.
Lucas’ eyebrows furrowed as he contemplated what the girl had just said to him. Her name was Maya – it was a cute name, and it fit the tiny girl perfectly, with her heart-shaped face, sparkling blue eyes and curly blonde hair. She had called him cute – which was good, but… He didn’t really know what to do with everything else she was saying. She seemed to be acting out a whole relationship with him, in about ten seconds – but why?
Well, whatever she was doing, she had intrigued him. Lucas put his book away; he couldn’t possibly get his brain to think about geography after that. He felt a burning need to find out more about this girl – Maya. He looked towards where she had gone, just in time to see the brown-haired girl, screaming and about to crash into him. He reached out and grabbed her before her head could hit the wall, securing her in his lap.
She looked at him with an awkward smile, which made him smile back at her in return.
“Hi. We were just talking about you. You used to go out with my friend Maya.”
She glanced in the direction of the blonde and he followed her gaze. The girl was looking at the two of them with raised eyebrows and an amused expression on her face. She gave her friend an encouraging smile. When she noticed him looking at her, she nodded towards the brunette. So that’s what she was doing: she was trying to set him up with her friend.
Grinning at the realization, he turned back to the girl sitting on his lap. She wasn’t really his type, she looked too much like a perfect, goody two-shoes kind of girl. But, he supposed, maybe she should have been his type. After all, his not-so-perfect behavior was the main reason his mom had decided to upend their life in Texas and move closer to her sister in New York.
He offered her his hand.
“I’m Lucas.”
“I love it,” she said, still smiling. Her voice was slightly higher than her friend’s. She climbed off of his lap to sit in the space between him and the wall, just as a tall lady approached.
“Perhaps someone would like to give their seat to someone older?” He immediately made to stand up – his mama had raised him to be a gentleman, even if he didn’t always act like it. “Oh, not you, sweet potato pie,” she said, and looked at the girl sitting next to him. The brunette stood up and leaned in close, talking to the woman in a quiet voice. He didn’t catch what she said, but heard the woman’s answer.
“I just worked a twelve-hour shift and I just wanna see where this goes. Mmm-kay?”
“Mmm-kay,” the brunette answered in a disappointed tone. She had probably wanted to stay there with him, but she drooped her head down and walked back to her friend, allowing the woman to sit down.
Before Lucas had time to take his book out of his bag, the brown-haired girl was falling towards them again, screaming, and landed on the woman’s lap. Without missing a beat, the woman lifted her and put her on his thighs.
“It’s for you.”
The girl gave him a shy, awkward smile. For the third time today, he found himself smiling back at her. He couldn’t help it. She was like a big ball of sunshine and rainbows, always filled with happiness and energy, as if all the bad things in the world had just passed her by, or never even existed in the first place. Even when she was embarrassed, she had a warm, friendly, happy aura around her.
He decided he definitely wanted to get to know her better; she seemed like just the type of person he needed in his life right now. Her being friends with the blonde girl, Maya, was an added bonus.
“Hi,” he said to her, trying to break the awkward silence that had settled down around them.
“Hi.”
After that, they had ended up having a pretty good conversation. He found out that her name was Riley, she was thirteen years old, she lived in an apartment near Central Park with her parents and her younger brother, Auggie, she loved Red Planet Diaries and has seen every episode so far, and Maya was her best friend.
He barely managed to get a word in while she talked, but he didn’t mind. It was nice to just listen to her explain things to him, in that slightly overdramatic way he figured she did everything, with animated hand gestures and all her emotions showing clearly on her face. He didn’t know how long they had been talking before Maya came over and smiled at him in a way that made his heart beat a little faster, like he had just singlehandedly saved the world, while rescuing kids from a burning orphanage at the same time.
That smile gave him an inexplicable sense of pride and accomplishment, and in that moment, he felt like he would give or do anything just to have her smile at him like that again. His brain felt fuzzy and for a second he couldn’t breathe. He was barely aware of the blonde waving at him before nudging the brunette with her elbow. Riley, who seemed to have reverted back to the shy embarrassment that had radiated off of her before, when she had fallen into his lap, muttered a quick goodbye, then Maya had grabbed her wrist and pulled her outside through the opening door.
He sat there for a few moments, looking after the two girls dumbly. Only after the doors closed, and he heard the voice of the lady from the speakers, did he realize that he had missed his stop. He was going to have to run if he didn’t want to be late.
***
Mr. Matthews’ directions only included that one route from the subway to the school, so after he finally managed to get off the train and find his way out of the subway, he realized, standing in the middle of a busy street, that he didn’t know which way to go. That led to him desperately trying to find a person nice enough – or at least, not busy enough – that they would actually stop walking when he spoke to them, asking for directions.
In Texas, he was sure he wouldn’t have needed to talk to more than three people (at most) for one of them to tell him where to go. In New York, apparently, everyone was in a hurry. But, after about ten minutes, he finally succeeded.
His savior was an old lady, shuffling along the street with three shopping bags in her hand. He asked her if she needed help and he’d ended up walking next to her, carrying her bags, until she pointed at a small house on the side of the street, took out her keys and opened the door. Lucas stepped inside and carefully placed the bags on the floor. She smiled at him gratefully.
“Thank you, young man. You don’t realize how old you’ve gotten until you have trouble walking to the grocery stop at the end of the street and carrying your bags home.”
“It was no trouble, ma’am.”
“Ah, you’re too polite! What’s your name?”
“Lucas, ma’am.”
“Well, Lucas, would you like to come in? I could make you some tea, I still have…” She glanced at her watch. “…half an hour before I have to go pick up my granddaughter.” She glanced at her watch again. “Aren’t you going to be late for school? It’s almost 8 o’clock.”
After Lucas explained what had happened, she grabbed a pen from the kitchen table.
“Well, why didn’t you say anything?” she asked, then quickly scribbled down the directions to John Quincy Adams Middle School on a napkin, handing it over.
“There you go, young man. And don’t worry, I’ve gotten lost plenty of times in the first few weeks after I’ve moved here with my late husband, Brian, but after a while, you get used to it,” she said, with a wistful smile. “Now, make sure you get to school on time, you don’t want to be late on your first day! We’ll have tea another time.”
“Definitely, ma’am. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. And good luck, Lucas. I’m sure you’ll make friends easily.”
“I hope so, ma’am.”
“Ah, stop calling me that, it makes me feel like I’m eighty years old, and I’ll only be seventy-five in December. Just call me Sally.”
“Alright, ma… Sally.” Lucas smiled at her. She laughed and shook her head.
“Well, don’t just stand there, hurry up. I’m sure we’ll meet again. Goodbye, Lucas.”
“Goodbye, Sally. And thank you again.” She just gave a wave of her hand.
“Yeah, yeah, you’re welcome. Go away.”
Lucas was grinning all the way to school, following the directions on the napkin. First Maya and Riley, and now, Sally – maybe New York wouldn’t be as bad as he thought it would be.