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❛ ʟᴇᴀᴛʜᴇʀ & ʟᴀᴄᴇ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐒𝐈𝐗 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴛʜᴇ ɢʀᴇᴀᴛ
ᴅᴇᴛᴇɴᴛɪᴏɴ ᴅᴇʙᴀᴄʟᴇ ꒱


❝ YOU'RE THE BEST PARTS
OF BOTH OF THEM ❞

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Although Miya was a little sad about her mom going back to England for the foreseeable future, she didn't dwell on it for long as there was always something exciting going on with Farkle and their friends. She didn't have to wait long for the 'next big thing' that would affect the group. On Wednesday morning, the students sat in their usual seats as they waited for class to begin. Many were fidgeting with their pens, pencils or fingers while others had their eyes glued to the clock as it ticked closer to first period.

When eight a.m. arrived, every single head turned to watch the door as they anticipated their teacher's arrival. Two seconds passed. No one came. For the first time all year, Cory Matthews was late. This, of course, prompted immediate chaos. Lucas leaned towards Riley to ask, "alright. Where's your father?"

Farkle was the first to spiral, his voice rushed as he wondered, "are we getting a sub? I don't want a sub. You never know where they've been."

Miya reached forward and patted him reassuringly on the shoulder. "It's okay, Farkle. He's just a little late; once he's half an hour late, then you can start panicking."

He turned to look at her, his eyes widening in alarm. "You think that's possible? What if he never shows up? What if I never learn anything else?"

The brunette sighed, realizing that she'd just made things worse. "Farkle—"

"Nope, too late! Brain lagging now. I'm going down, 'Nacci!" His eyes fluttered uncontrollably before his body tilted sideways.

Miya let out a yelp and launched out of her seat, her arms sliding under his to keep him from hitting the floor. She grunted a bit as she took on all of his weight as he sagged against her. As she struggled to maneuver him into a comfortable position, Riley scrambled to her feet and looked at him in alarm. "We lost Farkle!"

"A little help, guys?" Miya complained, trying to move the now-boneless boy into a realistic sitting position.

Maya ignored her request and skipped up to the front of the classroom. "Matthews is out, Farkle is down, it's Maya time."

Riley hurried over to help her on Farkle's other side, the two of them propping him up. She gave her best friend a smug look. "Farkle's fixed. No Maya time." But, the second the girls let go of him, he began to slide off his chair again. As Miya readjusted him, the brunette relented. "You may proceed."

"You're giving up that easily?" Miya exclaimed. "What about Lucas? He's responsible!"

Maya placed her hands on Mr. Matthews' desk and smirked at him. "You got anything smart to say, Huckleberry?"

He glanced at Miya in apparent betrayal, then grimaced at the blonde's taunting expression. ". . . No."

"Good answer, Ranger Rick," she declared, then addressed the rest of the class: "during Maya time, we open the confiscation drawer and take back all the stuff from the land of unfairly taken toys."

Riley looked around at the class nervously. " Maya! I don't think anybody really wants. . ."

Everybody except Lucas, Miya (whose hands were still occupied by holding up her best friend) and Farkle cheered. Maya held up the first item, which was a neon frisbee. "Alright, whose is this?"

Just as a kid in the back raised his hand, Farkle came around. He stood shakily from his desk and sent the Asian girl a weak smile. "Thanks for the save, 'Nacci. I'm good now. What'd I miss?"

As he finished speaking, Maya sent the frisbee flying to its owner. Unfortunately, the genius was standing right in its path and it knocked him out again. This time, he fell against the unsuspecting brunette, sending both of them to the floor. Miya strained to at least be able to sit up, but even as skinny as Farkle was, he was simply deadweight unconscious. She gave up and decided to lie on the floor and stare at the fluorescent lights while the classroom devolved into further disorder.

Riley slammed her hands down on her desk as she scolded the blonde, "Maya! He is going to walk in and catch you and you're going to be in trouble and I am here to keep you out of trouble, and I will have failed. Do you want me to fail?"

In return, Maya countered, "do you want me to show you how to have fun?

"Behaving is fun," the Matthews girl argued.

"Come here!"

"I really don't want to."

The blonde held up her left hand. "You come here right now. Ring power!"

Riley winced and stood up reluctantly, explaining to the other students, "when we say 'ring power' you have to. It's a rule."

"Tell me this isn't fun."

Miya didn't know what Maya was doing until she saw a few Ping-Pong balls fly over her head. Her antics earned laughs from their peers as the other teens ducked to avoid the onslaught. The brunette's attention was quickly diverted when she heard Farkle groan as he recovered. He shifted on top of her and seemed to suddenly realize it wasn't the floor he was lying on. He sat up hastily and gave her an apologetic look. "Did I take you out this time too, 'Nacci? Sorry."

"No, I just love lying on the floor with a human weighted blanket," she responded dryly.

"Oh, well, we can go back to doing that, I guess," Farkle said as he helped her to her feet.

She shook her head and gave him a wry grin. "Sarcasm, Minkus."

Just as understanding dawned on his expression, multiple Ping-Pong balls from the second toy gun that Riley was using hit him. This time, Miya stepped out of the way as he collapsed on the ground once more. "Sorry, Farkle; three times is too much, even for me."

It was then that the students decided to forgo order entirely and began to join Riley and Maya in their free-for-all— everyone except Lucas, that was. Miya clambered back to the safety of her seat and shrank down just as a notebook narrowly missed her head. Of course, it was also at this moment that Mr. Matthews walked through the door.

He stopped and stared at his class with both disappointment and disbelief. They quieted almost immediately, though not before a stray Ping-Pong ball hit him in the chest. "When did you guys decide there are no rules in here? When did my generosity in allowing you to express yourselves make you think you could turn my class into a zoo?"

"I'm sorry," the two girls muttered, returning to their seats with their heads bowed.

Farkle once again regained awareness and spit out a Ping-Pong ball that had somehow ended up in his mouth. Then, he added, "I'm sorry."

The class chimed in with their own, "I'm sorry."

"Lucas, Miya. Why are you the only one here that didn't say I'm sorry?" Cory asked them.

The Texan looked up from his phone. "Because I never do anything."

"And I'm too scared to do anything to get in trouble," Miya answered.

"No. Because you respect the rules," their teacher countered. "Because you know without them, civilization becomes chaos. The rest of you are gonna spend the afternoon thinking about that, with the exception of Lucas the good and Miya the honorable."

He groaned at the nickname. "Oh, boy! Is that gonna stick?"

Maya smirked at him. "I'm already making t-shirts."

"I'm actually okay with it," Miya commented. "Can you make me a coffee cup with that on it?"

The blonde sent her a wink. "Sure thing, name-twin. To replace your Doraemon one?"

"It will not be equal in my heart, but yes."

Lucas, however, was already trying to amend the damage Cory had done. He went up to the curly-haired man and told him quietly, "you put me in a real bad position here, sir. I gotta do something."

"You can fight this, Lucas," Mr. Matthews insisted.

He shook his head urgently. "No, I can't, sir. Everyone's looking."

Cory sighed. "Okay. Do what you gotta do." The teen whipped out his phone again and, after a moment of thought, tapped out a message and sent it to his teacher. The older man gave it a considering look and nodded. "Detention."

He let out a breath of relief. "Oh, thank you, sir."

"Feel better, Huckleberry?" Maya asked as he sat down again.

"I'm just like you now."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, we're exactly the same."

"Yeah, you're all the same," their teacher stated. "Detention, all of you, except for Miya the honorable."

At that, Farkle twisted in his seat to give her a pleading look. "Pleeeaaaseee?" he hissed out. "I've never had detention! Detention is for the bad kids! I won't do well in detention by myself! What if I fail? I've never failed at anything. I need my emotional support best friend there. What I pass out again? You can't leave me alone with all of these—"

"Oh, fine," she grumbled, cutting him off as she figured he was about to insult their classmates. After all, her entire friend group would be occupied after school, anyway. She picked up a Ping-Pong ball from the floor and half-heartedly tossed it at Mr. Matthews.

She sent him a pleading look of her own, and he conceded. "Detention, Miss Capelwood."

Miya gave the genius a peeved look. "You better really appreciate this."

Riley raised her hand, drawing her father's attention to her. "What do you want?"

"I'm going to be home late today, daddy."

"I know, honey."

🌎🌎🌎

The history students filed into their classroom promptly at three o'clock. Cory watched as they entered one by one, frowning as he said, "I've always allowed you to bend the rules. But the best of students know just how far they can push before those rules are broken. Today you are not the best of students."

Riley— never one to enjoy being in trouble— insisted, "but, you know we're good people most of the time, don't you, daddy? Daddy? You're my daddy."

Miya grimaced at the brunette's obvious sucking-up. Thankfully, Maya's question came with far less second-hand embarrassment. "Why do we need rules at all?"

Cory arched a brow at her skeptically. "You think you could make it in a world without rules?"

She crossed her arms confidently. "I think I could do fine in any world."

"The rest of you believe that?" he asked the class. When he received mostly nods in response, he continued, "okay. Well, guess what, guys. School's out. You've got the whole place to yourselves. No rules. One hour to behave however you want. Let's see what becomes of you."

His daughter smiled and folded her hands on her desk. "Well, I think we'll be perfectly behaved ladies and gentlemen."

"And I think within one minute you'll be eating each other," Cory countered flatly. He walked over to his desk and picked up his keyring.

Riley's face took on an alarmed expression. "Where are you going?"

"I'm locking you in," he stated. "The best punishment I can give is to force you to spend some time with yourselves. I'll see you in an hour." Before he fully closed the door, he added cryptically, "whoever's left."

"I can't believe it. He locked us in!" the brunette exclaimed.

Farkle gripped the sides of his desk as his breathing became shorter. "That's fine. I don't have a problem with that. I'm not claustrophobic or anything. We're trapped." He gasped frantically, on the verge of passing out again. "I can't breathe. There's more carbon dioxide than oxygen! The ratio is all wrong!"

Miya acted quickly and pulled out her mom's Walkman from her backpack. She placed the headphones over the boy's ears and pressed play so that classical music filtered through the speakers. He immediately slumped in his chair and let out a sigh of relief. "That's the stuff."

"Another win for my name-twin," Maya declared with a mischievous grin, her eyes sparkling with the same trouble-making look. "Otherwise Farkle was first on the chopping block."

Luckily the genius couldn't hear her, or he would've freaked out again. Riley slammed her hands down on her desk and stood up sharply. "Stop. This is exactly what my father wants. He wants us to panic and fall apart. We have to show him that we can get through this without turning into a pack of wild animals."

"I'm hungry," Lucas said suddenly, his gaze locking on Farkle's blissed-out, oblivious expression.

Behind him, Miya tensed as she looked over at Lucas. "What do you mean by that?"

He shook his head dismissively. "Nothing. I'm just really hungry." He stood and moved closer to the other boy. Farkle must've sensed something was going sideways since he cracked one eye open to glance around. Lucas pretended to be interested in a different student. When he saw nothing was amiss, he relaxed again. Then, the Texan returned his attention to Farkle and moved even closer. "I don't think I've ever been this hungry."

"I feel ya, Ranger Rick," Maya agreed, standing up from her seat to join him. "I'm kinda hungry, too."

"And it's not like a regular kind of hungry, right?"

She stared intensely at Farkle. "No. No. This one's deep. It must be attended to."

Once again, the genius felt a disturbance to his peace and opened his eyes. Upon seeing Maya's almost feral look aimed at him, he slid one side of his headphones off his ear to ask nervously, "why are you guys looking at me like that?"

"No reason," Miya interjected hastily, also rising from her seat to plant herself between Farkle and Miya. In a voice that one would normally use to address a frightened wild animal, she reassured him: "put your headphones back on, Farkle." Then, once she was sure he had, she faced the blonde. "You can't eat him."

"Says who?" Maya challenged her, taking a step forward.

She held up a badge with the logo of Minkus International engraved on it. "Farkle Protection Services."

"Well, at least one of you has her head on straight!" Riley exclaimed, grateful that Miya was trying to keep some semblance of order. "Can we just show a little discipline?"

"Oh, no," the Asian girl went to correct her as she shoved the badge back into her jean pocket. "The rest of the class is fair game; I'm just here to make sure Farkle survives detention."

Maya's and Lucas' eyes sparked with excitement and they let their gazes travel over the other students, who began to shift in their seats nervously. Riley called their attention back to her. "Alright, come on! Let's prove my father wrong. Let's form our own perfect society. Rileytown is a land of goodness and rainbows where everybody folds their hands nicely like so. Who wants to live in Rileytown?"

Maya's focus was finally diverted from her 'hunter-prey' mindset and she scoffed at the description. "Nobody wants Rileytown! It's too lollipop!"

Offended, the brunette retorted, "you're lollipop!"

Her best friend let out a dry laugh. "Sister, I'm a lot of things, but I ain't lollipop."

"Rileytown has order, structure and our hands folded like so!" she declared, refolding her hands in front of her. "What do you got?"

"I got Mayaville!" the blonde used an empty chair to step on top of a desk. "No rules, no laws, no hand folding and nobody says no!"

Riley pointed at her defiantly. "You got chaos is what you got! I got order, you got chaos!"

"You got lollipop, I got whoo!" Maya waved her arms in the air.

"Okay, detention may be bringing out the worst in us, but at least we're making the time pass." They all looked up at the clock. To their dismay, it ticked only a minute forward. Fifty-eight minutes left. Riley turned to Miya. "What've you got? Maybe if you tell us what you have, we'll at least get to fifty-seven minutes before we all go crazy."

Miya startled at being put on the spot and scrambled to come up with something. "Uh. . . I guess I have. . . Miyaburg? It's a place where people can do what they want— within reason— but we still have rules to keep people from, you know, eating each other. And. . . everyone contributes to the community in their own way."

Maya rolled her eyes but smirked. "Alright, Miyaburg. You're doing better than Rileytown so far. But what about the fun? Where's the danger? The whoo?"

"The whoo," Miya said patiently, "is in not starving to death because our community didn't collapse into chaos. You can have fun without losing control."

The blonde considered her suggestion for a moment before she scoffed. "Yeah, sounds fake." She pointed at her best friend. "How about we go with 'eat Riley!'"

She conceded defeat and stuck out her arm, covering her eyes with her other hand. "Okay. But no biting."

🌎🌎🌎

Maya kicked Farkle's chair, startling him out of his meditative state. It took him a minute to look around and get his bearings. Once he had, he took his headphones off and asked, "what happened to the chairs?"

He allowed himself to be manhandled by the blonde into a standing position. When his seat became vacant, she snapped her fingers towards two students and pointed at his desk. They promptly picked up both and piled them against the wall with the others. Meanwhile, Miya filled him in on 'Rileytown' and 'Mayaville.'

"Don't forget Miyaburg!" Riley piped up. "The best of both worlds!"

The Asian girl shook her head. "This is between you guys. I don't have a horse in this race."

Maya smirked as an opportunity presented itself. "Speaking of horses. . ." She turned to Lucas, who was leaning casually against the teacher's desk, arms crossed. "You ever bet on a winning pony, Huckleberry?"

Lucas rolled his eyes, already anticipating where this was headed. "Maya, not every Texan stereotype applies to me." She arched a brow and stared him down. He threw up his hands in exasperation. "I didn't bet," he exclaimed defensively. "And it was just a family outing, okay? Everyone does those."

Riley looked at her best friend in surprise. "You knew he'd been to a horse race?"

"Eh, it would've been any cowboy activity I picked," she replied with a careless shrug.

"Well, we have horse games in Rileytown," the brunette stated, returning to the original subject. "And actually, they're unicorn games. Doesn't that make you guys want to come from over there to over here? Let's just be one, happy society that runs the way I think it should."

"Because you want us all to be you!" Maya told her.

Farkle shook his head. "We're not all you, Riley. I mean, you know the reason I've never been able to choose between you? Because if it was you all the time, life would be like. . ." He leaned against her desk and began to sing, "la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. . ."

He stopped as Riley started to join him. He crossed the room to where Maya was standing, passing by Miya who remained between the two girls. "And if it was you all the time, it would be like—" He broke off to growl nonsensically. "Descensus in cuniculi cavum!"

Maya responded with a growl of her own, which proved his point. "I need to be both of you guys."

"But who are you going to be with right now, Farkle?" Riley wanted to know.

"Before you answer that," Maya said as she walked over to the back door, "you may want to consider a little thing I call. . . this." She turned the knob and it swung open easily.

"He forgot to lock the back door?" Lucas wondered in disbelief.

"I don't think forgot is necessarily the right word," Miya replied, thinking about Cory's usual style of teaching.

Riley frowned at her best friend. "Maya, we're in detention. You can't leave."

The blonde wasn't' about to let that stop her. "Hey. School's out. He said we got the place to ourselves. He said to make our own rules. Rule number one: See you around, suckers."

"Farkle?"

"Hey. What part of 'descensus in cuniculi cavum' do you not understand?"

She blinked at him in confusion. "All of it."

His voice took on a 'hippie' tone as he explained, "it means we drop down into the rabbit hole, man."

Riley turned to the Texan. "Lucas?"

He gave her an apologetic look. "I never do anything, Riley." Then, he charged out the door after Farkle, cheering, "yeah!"

The brunette met Miya's gaze hopefully. "Miya?"

Although she was relieved that the Asian girl didn't immediately run out the door like her other friends had, she didn't take a seat on the 'Rileytown' side. Instead, she chewed on her bottom lip and glanced at the door. "I. . . don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" Riley repeated, bewildered. "It's either me or Maya. That's it, if you're not putting Miyaburg up as a choice."

After a moment of consideration, Miya decided, "I might go out to sit in the hall and do nothing."

"Where's the fun in that?" the Matthews girl questioned aloud, but Miya only shrugged, having no actual reasoning for her selection. Riley watched as her friend left the room to do exactly as she'd said.

🌎🌎🌎

Outside in the hallway, Miya found a spot directly in the middle of the history and art classrooms. She sat cross-legged as she leaned back against the cool metal lockers. The brunette closed her eyes and put the headphones on of the Walkman Farkle had given back, pressing play once more.

Sometime later, the art room door swung open with a loud clunk and Farkle burst into the hallway like a whirlwind. His face was streaked with aqua paint and he was wearing football shoulder pad. He held a painted trashcan lid in one hand, which he held out in front of him as he ran down the corridor. He spotted Miya almost immediately.

"Miya!" he called, voice full of excitement. He paused when he noticed her sitting on the ground with her eyes closed. "Uh. . . what are you doing out here? Aren't you supposed to be choosing a side?"

She opened her eyes to look at him and placed her headphones around her neck. "I didn't like either side. So, I made a third one: Miyaburg, like Riley said. It's peaceful. Calm. But I can still break the rules and leave the classroom." She smiled wryly. "Not that anyone's joining me."

Farkle's enthusiasm dimmed slightly as he processed this. Then, with a decisive nod, he sat down beside her, his trashcan lid shield clanging noisily against the floor. "Well, you're not sitting out here by yourself. That's no fun."

Miya blinked at him, caught off guard by his easy loyalty. "You're leaving Mayaville for Miyaburg?"

He shrugged, adjusting his shoulder pads. "Hey, I can be wild and civil. Plus. . . " He gestured vaguely towards the art room, then leaned in conspiratorially. "I need a break from all the yelling."

Miya laughed softly, tilting her head to study him. "I have to say, the look suits you. War paint, shoulder pads and all." Her tone was teasing but genuine.

Farkle's chest puffed up a little. "You really think so?"

"Definitely." She nodded, her smile growing. "Very warrior chic."

"Warrior chic," he repeated thoughtfully. "I could get used to that."

Miya shook her head at the fact that he was actually considering it. "It's not an everyday look, but you pull it off. You've got the confidence for it."

He grinned, leaning back against the lockers beside her. "That's what makes Miyaburg special, huh? Confidence without chaos. Structure without. . . stifling."

Miya hummed in agreement. "It's the quiet in-between. Where you can just. . . be."

Farkle turned his head to study her, his excitable energy giving way to a more contemplative expression. For as long as he'd known her, Miya had always had this grounding presence— a natural calm that made everything seem manageable. That was why he'd called her late at night when his parents' fighting had become too much to handle. That was why he relied on her to make sure he got out of detention alive. Sitting here with her, away from the clash of Riley's order and Maya's chaos, it hit him just how much he appreciated her balance.

She noticed his thoughtful gaze and raised an eyebrow. "What? Did you leave Mayaville so fast you forgot something in there?"

He blinked, startled, then quickly shook his head. "No, no. I was just. . . thinking."

"Oh, about what?" she asked curiously.

"You've always been good at finding the middle ground, you know?" he remarked. "Between Riley and Maya, between everything, really. It's like. . . you're the best parts of both of them."

Miya's expression softened even as her lips curled up in amusement. "Well, thanks for the compliment, but if this is your way of telling me I'm your third option after Riley and Maya, you can keep it."

He laughed, though it came out a little more strained than usual. "Third option? Come on, Miya. That's not—" He cut himself off, shaking his head. "That's not at all what I was alluding to."

"Good," she said breezily. "Because I don't do second— or third— fiddle."

As her words sank in, something about them stuck with Farkle and a small, unfamiliar seed of realization began to take root. He'd spent so much time chasing after Riley and Maya's extremes that he'd somehow overlooked the person who'd always been steadfastly in his corner.

Miya adjusted her headphones back over her ears and closed her eyes again, the moment slipping back into companionable silence. Farkle glanced at her one more time, a flicker of something unspoken crossing his face before he leaned back against the lockers. Farkle wasn't sure what it all meant yet, but he had never been one to turn down a journey of discovery.

🌎🌎🌎

When the kids returned to class at the end of the hour, Maya came back chanting with the group that had previously been deemed 'the good kids.' Riley took her seat with the other side of the class that had gone wild, but became 'civilized' by her, their faces clean of paint. Miya and Farkle were the only ones who remained unchanged and sat down at their usual desks quietly.

The brunette turned in her chair to face her best friend. "You have fun?"

Maya leaned on her desk and crossed her legs. "I did. It was quite enjoyable. And you?"

"Someone had the idea to put me in a bag," Riley informed her. "Did you hear about that?"

She feigned obliviousness. "Really? Well, you know, there's some bad kids out there."

"Okay, guys. Detention over," Cory announced as he entered the room.

"Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Remember how you told us that people change people?" Riley asked.

He nodded. "Secret of life."

Maya played with her fingers, avoiding his gaze. "Well, when you're not with those people, how do you keep from changing back?"

The curly-haired man gave her an amused smile as he noted the paint on her face. "You went a little wild, did you?"

She shrugged. "Whatever I got is strong in me, Matthews."

"Yeah, me, too, but the other way," her best friend added, her hands folded neatly atop her desk.

"Harley!"

The janitor— Cory's old school bully— stepped into the classroom at the sound of his name. "Right here."

"You watched them?"

His steely gaze travelled over the students, causing a few of them to shift uncomfortably or drop their eyes to their desks. "Like a hawk."

That stunned the two girls and Riley exclaimed, "wait!"

"You're with him?" Maya questioned him, squinting at the older man in disbelief.

Harley crossed his arms and rested against Cory's desk. "Yeah. He's my good kid."

"What do you got?" Mr. Matthews wanted to know.

He pointed at Riley and Miya. "Everyone went nuts, except for zippy and the quiet one. Why didn't you go nuts, zippy and the quiet one?"

Riley replied first. "I was without Maya. Without Maya, I don't think I'd ever unfold my hands."

"You'll get to answer his question in a minute, Miya," Cory told her. "I want to hear what Maya did first."

"Maya was the ringleader," Harley stated. "She was the first one out the door."

"I was without Riley. Without Riley, I may never come back," she admitted.

Cory gestured to the Asian girl. "Alright, Miya. Why didn't you go nuts or fold your hands?"

Miya looked at the two girls warmly. "Riley and Maya are such opposing, magnetic forces that people often forget there's a third one: making your own path. I did leave the classroom, but I didn't put on warpaint. Between their extremes, there are all kinds of middle options."

The curly-haired man gave her an approving nod. "Okay. Well, detention over, guys. Everyone out. Except Maya."

Riley's head snapped up in alarm. "Dad. . ."

"Everyone out," he insisted.

As they left the room, Miya caught up with her friends. "So, what now?"

The brunette glanced at the door. "I'm gonna stay here with Maya."

Miya gave her a fond smile. "Alright. Catch up with us later, okay?"

Lucas grinned. "Call us if you need backup, okay?"

"I will," Riley promised.

As they started walking away, Miya turned to the boys. "What's the plan?"

Lucas glanced at his phone. "It's still early. Wanna catch a movie?"

"Yeah, great idea," Farkle chimed in. "I'll get to guess the ending correctly within the first twenty minutes!"

The Texan sighed. "You always guess the ending, Farkle."

"Yeah, and you always complain about it," the genius shot back. He glanced at Miya as if just realizing something for the first time. "But you almost never do. Isn't it annoying for you, too?"

Miya shook her head with a soft laugh. "Not really. That's just who you are. It's kind of your thing."

Farkle's grin softened, his expression shifting to something gentler. "Thanks, Miya."

Lucas chuckled, clapping the other boy on the back. "Come on, genius, let's see what you can impress— or annoy— us this time."

The trio strolled out of the school and into the fading sunlight, determined to make the most of the remaining free hours of their day.

A/n: a bit shorter of a chapter this time but I wanted to get one more out before I left for vacation. That being said, I'll be gone for a few weeks so there will be another 'break'— but I'll try not to make it three months again. (Anyone notice the pattern, though? Three updates then I disappear for three months. At least I'm consistent.🤣)