Ryan had begun sneaking out of the house. Not that he hadn’t done it before, but after the blowout that was last week, he had decided to skip the front door altogether. 

Ryan was using Riley’s fire escape to avoid their parents. It was quick, it was easy, and it kept him from having to confront the consequences of his actions, which he especially loved. 

It was much harder to avoid his dad during school, however. Unfortunately enough. 

"Ryan, can we talk?" his father came up to his desk before class started. Ryan crossed his arms and leaned back. 

"What's there to talk about? Class is starting, and I'd really like to learn something today, so, " he leaned his elbows against the desk and shooed his father away as the bell rang, a false smile on his face. 

Cory shook his head and moved toward his own desk. 

Ryan shut his eyes tightly and squeezed his fist shut for three seconds before letting go, breathing out as he did so. Why couldn't his parents let it go? Why did they always have to fight? 

Why do they hate him? 

As Ryan was having his own crisis in his own head, Riley was having her’s out loud. 

“I don’t like change, change fills my pockets with pennies of uncertainty,” Riley complained, sitting down at her desk. 

Ryan raised an eyebrow at her. “Wow, Riley, that was surprisingly poetic.”

She smiled. “Thanks, I got it from a magazine article about coins.”

Ryan shut his eyes, trying not to laugh as class continued on. 

“Alright,” Cory began the class, “Shall we actually, finally learn what happened in Belgium 1831?”

“No,” Farkle pouted, “You always get my hopes up and every time something new happens that keeps us from actually getting to it. So, no.”

Cory laughed. “In Belgium-”

“No! Just wait for the thing to happen!” Farkle yelled. As he did so, someone opened the door. 

“What? Y’all started without me?” A boy with dark skin and green flannel walked into the classroom. 

“Look! I’m always right! And I’ll never know what happened in Belgium,” Farkle cried into his desk. Ryan laughed, patting him on the arm. 

“You can just read about it.”

“It’s not the same.”

“Somebody in this room is gonna be very surprised to see me,” the new kid bragged. 

Riley looked up. “Is it me?”

“Don’t know sugar, but could you be any cuter?” He replied sweetly. Ryan rolled his eyes. 

“Well I can’t answer that,” Riley laughed. 

“You got a transcript, kid?” Cory asked him. The kid handed over the papers he was carrying in his hand. 

“I do. Check out them grades, here, let me sing it to you, De,de de, de de, de f.”

Maya nodded along happily. “Hey, I know that song.”

“Is it because you don’t have a backpack?” Ryan asked him. “Teachers are real big on those.”

The kid nodded. “Hey, maybe. Do you have one?” He asked Maya. She shook her head. “Nope, just a bag full of loose papers and,” she picked up her bag to rifle through it for a second, “ritz crackers.”

“Isaiah Babineaux, from Austin, Texas.” Cory read out from his transcript. 

“Who else do we know from Austin, Texas?” Maya laughed. Ryan looked at her. “Who?”

She looked at him with flat disappointment. It took a second to click for him. 

“Oh! Lucas, you're from Texas, right?” he turned in his seat and looked at the boy in question. 

Lucas stared at him the same way Maya did. 

“What? Oh, my god I can't be expected to remember everything about you, man.” Ryan complained. 

“The entire reason you know me is because I transferred in from Texas.” Lucas said. 

“I forgot, ok? For me I thought it was either that or Tennessee, the country jokes Maya makes kept me in the right direction, at least.” Ryan turned back around to the front of the room in time to miss the look of exasperation on Lucas's face. 

“What're you doing here, Zay?” Lucas asked his old friend tiredly. Ryan wondered why he wasn't a little happier about seeing him if they knew each other already. 

“Well the first thing I'm doing is waiting for a better reaction from you,” Zay said, seemingly also disappointed. 

“Maya, something's changing,” Riley commented. Ryan shushed her. 

“Hold on, we'll get to you later, it's about the Texas people right now.” 

Riley pouted at him but listened. 

“Okay, Mr. Teach,” Zay leaned against the teacher desk and Cory copied him. “Where do I sit? Usually I'm more of a back row kind of guy,” he gestured vaguely to the back of the room. 

“Why don't you take a seat next to your friend, Mr. Babineaux,” Cory pointed out the empty seats around Lucas. Ryan felt sorry for the kids getting displaced because they wanted to skip this class instead of witnessing their daily drama. 

Actually, he envied those kids most days, but today he definitely felt sorry for them. 

“Lucas, do you know him?” Riley asked. 

“Yeah, tell em, you know me good,” Zay said, sitting on the desk instead of the chair. 

“Why don't we talk later, okay?” Lucas said forcefully. Ryan and Zay made the same face of ‘okay, jeez’ and turned away from him. 

“Well, Mr. Babineaux, if you work out as well as last year's new student, we're happy to have you.” Cory said, trying to move class along. 

Ryan scoffed. “Sure, compare the new kid to Mr. 4.0 over here, that's encouraging.”

Cory looked at him flatly. Ryan looked away. 

“Lucas, you're doing ok here?” Zay asked. Lucas looked at his desk. Ryan tried to understand what was going on. What was he so upset about? 

“Why wouldn't he be doing ok here?” Riley asked. 

“Not currently on probation? Not on any disciplinary action, they just let you wander free?” Zay added, also confused. 

“Probation?” Ryan asked, startled. “Excuse me?”

“Sit down,” Farkle growled. Ok, he was definitely still upset about the Belgium thing. 

“Ok, so we have a new kid, great. That was the thing that happened, just teach us about Belgium already!” Farkle cried, white knuckling the desk. 

“In 1831,” Cory turned to the blackboard, “Belgium declared—”

“What is the secret of life?” came a voice from the back. 

The class turned to see Yogi asked the question. “I'm sorry Mr. Farkle,” the young boy apologized before standing up. “I know I'm not your daughter, but I too have value in this world. What is the secret of life?”

Ryan scowled at his dad. “Do you see what your favoritism does to people? Answer his question! He has value!“

Cory pursed his lips at him. “Ok.” He turned and scrubbed Belgium off the board while Farkle threw himself off his chair. 

Ryan hissed through his teeth. Woops. He picked the boy up. 

“Yogi has asked the primary riddle of the universe,” Cory said, walking back to the front of his desk. “What is the secret of life?”

Ryan turned out most of what he was saying, bored by his dads old stories. 

“What d'ya got, Mr. moral compass? “ Maya asked Lucas. 

Zay laughed. “Did you just call Lucas Friar your moral compass? “

“Moral compass, impulse control, only brain cell, he's got a lot of names based off his behavior, man.” Ryan laughed, ticking off his fingers. 

“Okay,” Zay nodded. 

Ryan raised an eyebrow at him. What was Lucas like in Texas? 

“Something bad is happening, Maya,” Riley frowned. 

“Yeah, it occurs to me youre trying to tell us Ranger Rick was a little different back in Texas,” Maya said, turning around to face them. 

Ryan rolled his eyes. Why can't they talk after class? 

“A little?" Zay exclaimed. Ok, now Ryan's concerned. “What do they know, exactly? Cause I don't wanna say anything wrong. They know you're a year older, right?”

“He's how old?” Ryan asked, bewildered. 

“They do now!” Lucas exclaimed. 

“Oh, yeah, it's my fault. Look at you!”

“I thought he went into puberty early or something,” Ryan laughed. Lucas rolled his eyes at him as Cory tried to get their attention back. 

“That's enough, Mr. Babineaux.”

“Oh, so you know about him?” he asked. 

Cory paused, looking at Riley

“I know all about Mr. Friar.”

“Excuse me?” Riley asked, betrayed. 

Ryan sighed. “Riley, leave it alone.”

She whipped her head around. “Lucas isn't to you what he is to me, I should know these things!”

Ryan raised his hands in defeat. Jeez. 

“Dad. Do you know something?”

“Back in Texas,” Lucas started. 

“Lucas.” Cory stopped him. “Are you sure? “

What could possibly be so bad that Cory was so worried about him? 

“Back in Texas I did something. I had to leave.”

What? Who made him leave and what did he do? 

“It was great!” Zay continued, oblivious to his friend's somber mood. “I mean they threw him out of the whole school and everything! “

“Why are you so happy about that? “ Ryan asked, a little upset for Lucas that this new kid was just dancing all over his feelings. 

“I came here to get a new start,” Lucas talked over anything Zay was going to say. “Nobody knew me here.”

“I know him,” Zay said smiling. 

Ryan rolled his eyes. This kid could not read a room. 

“Do I know you?” Riley asked. 

Lucas didn't answer. 

Well, then. No answer is still an answer. 

--

He and Farkle skipped lunch with their group to study in the library. They didn't want to be around the drama that came with today's revelations. 

“So, what do you think he did?” Ryan asked, doodling on his paper. 

Farkle shook his head. “I don't wanna gossip about our friends.”

Ryan rolled his eyes and smiled. “C'mon. Farkle. It's not gossip, it's… speculation. It's theorizing. We're coming up with scientific theories about what possible thing Lucas could've done to get kicked out of school. “

Farkle shook his head. “We don't need to speculate or theorize when we could just go to the source.” He pointed out the window. Ryan followed his gaze to see Zay wandering around the grounds outside. Ryan smiled at Farkle. 

“I like the way you think.”

--

“I can't tell you if Lucas hasn't already told you,” Zay said, shooting them down as they approached him at the front of the school. 

Ryan groaned. Farkle just shook his head. “But this isn't about Lucas, it's about you. What did you do to get put here?”

“Same as Lucas,” he shrugged. 

“No, cause if you did the same thing as him then you'd have been here with him last year.” Ryan rebutted.  

Zay sighed. He sat down on the front steps of the building. “Our dads are in the military together, and mine just got transferred here. Not as dramatic as Lucas, sorry. “

Ryan walked down the steps to face him. “But what did Lucas do that was so dramatic? The only thing we can think of is that he hurt someone, you can't let us walk around thinking that.”

Zay shook his head and wouldn't meet their eyes. Ryan and Farkle shared a look of disbelief. 

“He hurt someone? “ Farkle exclaimed. 

Zay shot to his feet, shaking his head, “No, no no it was a misunderstanding! He was just defending me but the other guy,” Zay sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “The other guy took it way too far. And you know Lucas, always gotta be honorable, so he just took the blame for me and didn't say anything when the other guy made it out to be all his fault.”

Ryan looked to the ground, confused. “But, why would he let that happen? Did he know he was gonna be expelled?”

Zay sat back down. “Lucas ain't a snitch. The principal was taking suspension but his dad said if he didn't confess what really happened he was gonna convince the principal to be more harsh. He wouldn't, so his dad got him kicked out. “

“No way,” Farkle said, sitting on the steps next to him. 

Hm. Lucas had a shitty dad. He could definitely relate. 

a/n 👍