Riley

She was walking on West End Avenue towards 65th Street, and although she was wearing jeans and a coat over her black leotard and tights, the chilly wind still bit right to her bone. It was cold for April, and she thought it might rain, which made her sigh when she realized her umbrella was back at her apartment, next to the door.

Her earphones were in her ears and she walked to the beat of the music she was going to be dancing to later that day, going over the routine in her mind. Her practice bag swung back and forth over her shoulder in every move. Her hair was spun tightly in her bun, and one strand was pulling too tight, but she would have to fix it later.

She stepped off the curb and crossed the street toward The Metropolitan Opera House. Around her, cars honked, people shouted, birds chirped, but Riley was secluded in her world.

Until her phone ringing cut abruptly into the music and Riley startled, stopping on the sidewalk right outside the doors to open her phone and see a familiar blonde smiling back at her. She clicked the answer button and held the phone to her ear, looking up to the billboard across the street, which happened to be featuring the very same blonde.

"Hello?"

"Riley," the voice on the other line sighed in relief, "I'm so happy you picked up. I need to talk to you."

"I have rehearsal in ten minutes," Riley started, but the girl cut her off.

"No, I mean in-person, Riles. I'm in the city."

Riley took her phone from her ear and stared down at it, stunned. "You're in the city? Like New York?"

"What other city would I be talking about?" She sounded irritated now.

"LA," Riley stated bluntly. "That's where you live."

"Not anymore," the girl sighed, which left Riley with more questions than explanations, "I'll meet you at Topanga's at 9pm, our booth. Ring power. You'll be there?"

She hung up before Riley had a chance to answer, because they both already knew the answer.

She had changed in the dressing room, redone her bun three times before the pulling stopped, and tied on her pointe shoes, before she finally made it out onto the stage where the company was still stretching.

"You're late," Helena teased with a smile, as Riley sat down silently on the floor next to her where Helena made room.

"I had a phone call," she explained as she slid into the chinese splits and laid down on her stomach, pressing her cheek to the cool wood.

"A friend?" Helena asked, and Riley closed her eyes.

"A very old one, but yes. My best friend."

Helena clicked her tongue. "And to think, I thought that was me."

"No," Riley sighed, pulling herself up to change positions, "you're my best friend here. Now. She was my best friend before."

Helena frowned, twisting her arms behind her. "Before what?"

Riley pursed her lips. "Before everything."

There were no friends like Riley and Maya. There never would be any friends like Riley and Maya, and that was that, end of conversation, so there.

They met when they were seven years old, for the first time. They played together for a day, the kind of friends that kids can make with strangers, and then they parted ways when their mothers took them home for dinner; Riley to her comfy home in The Village and Maya to the room she was temporarily sharing with her mother at her grandmother's small apartment in Washington Heights.

It was three years later that Riley and Maya met again, this time in sixth grade, and, as the odds would have it, they sat next to each other in history class.

That was it. There was no pulling them apart after that.

They were complete opposites, that was for sure. But Riley knew how to hold Maya back, and Maya knew how to push Riley forward, and together, they were two halves of a whole person.

They only grew more and more different as they grew up, but they continued on together, braving their world together.

Middle school flew by, and Maya came to Riley with a pamphlet for Idyllwild Arts Academy in California, excitement gleaming behind the fear of failure.

Maya Hart was a star in the making. As they grew up, Riley knew it, all their friends knew it, all their teachers knew it, and both of their parents' knew it. In school they took art and music, and Maya excelled while Riley fell into the shadows.

She was okay with that.

She threw herself into ballet, which she had been doing for years but had never really been serious about until then. It wasn't until then that she and everyone else discovered her talent for it, and Riley felt pride that she had a talent like Maya.

She wasn't just 'the artist's best friend'.

She was 'the star ballerina'.

They applied to Idyllwild, and sent in their audition videos after months of preparation. They waited for months, both pretending not to be terrified.

They both got auditions. Riley's mother flew them out to California.

"Mine came, Riley, it came," Maya burst into Riley's apartment one morning in late April, breathless, and Riley nearly dropped her bowl of cereal.

"Well open it!" She shrieked, feeling like she would throw up as she darted over to her best friend, and Maya ripped it open.

They read the first line at the same time and were screaming, jumping up and down, and crying together, elated.

Riley's letter came two days later, and they had the same reaction over again, screaming until they couldn't talk.

Riley's rehearsal ran late, and she ended up heading straight to Topanga's from the theater. It was even colder running through the city at night, in the dark, and as soon as she got to the cafe she cranked up the heat. It was not technically open at this time, but she had a key, since her mother owned the place.

She had just decided it was getting too warm and was stripping off her outer layers when she heard the soft voice behind her.

"Riley?"

She turned to see the face she had seen every day for the past two years, but at the same time, not for the past four.

"Maya."

Her best friend had taken off her coat too, letting her stomach show, where Riley was almost certain a baby was growing.

They stood breathless, six feet apart, for a few moments, time holding them apart.

It was the first time Riley had seen Maya so timid, so hesitant, so scared. It was startling, really, because it was the opposite of the Maya she knew.

But here was her best friend.

Riley stepped forward to embrace Maya, their arms curling around each other in a grip that might weld metal.

There was no time between them.

It was Riley and Maya.

"How far along are you?" Riley was speaking softly, although there was no one else in the cafe. She grabbed Maya's hand, her other one going to rest hesitantly over her belly.

Maya's eyes were filled with tears. "Four months, I think. That would make the most sense."

"You know who the father is." Riley said it as a statement of fact, because she could read Maya. She knew Maya like her own mind, and there was no amount of time or distance that could change that.

Maya went silent and looked down.

"But you don't want to tell me." Riley felt her heart sink, beginning to believe that maybe, enough time could work itself between them.

"I can't, Riles, not yet," Maya begged her to understand. "I'm not ready. And he doesn't know that she exists."

"She?" Riley breathed.

"I need a place to live," Maya changed the subject, looking away. "And I know that I don't have any right to ask you to help me, after all this time, but I need help."

Riley shook her head. "Of course I'll help you, Maya. But couldn't you just stay in a hotel? Or buy a place here? You've got the money."

Maya frowned. "But if Maya Hart buys an apartment in New York, people will know she's there." She turned away and went to sit in the booth. "I can't have people knowing I'm pregnant, Riley, I just can't."

"You think it will ruin your career," Riley realized.

"I've been a model for almost four years. Yeah, I was still recording, but modeling was my main thing recently," Maya agreed. "A model can't get pregnant. Pregnant ruins the body."

"That's a matter of opinion," Riley pointed out indignantly.

"Western beauty, Riley, society, pressure," Maya threw out words she knew Riley would understand.

Riley went to sit on the other seat in the booth, reaching a hand over the table to grab Maya's again. "You don't need to explain yourself to me. I'm here for whatever you need." She met Maya's eyes. "I always will be."

"Hi, I'm Danielle," the girl with the flattened platinum blonde hair introduced herself, holding out a hand to shake.

"Riley," Riley replied, and her hand met her roommate's for one pump, before they parted to continue unpacking.

Riley moved into her dorm in about an hour, and went to find Maya's. She knew that being here was going to change things, but she didn't want anything to change between her and her best friend. However, they weren't roommates.

The first time that Riley met Isadora Smackle was when she came to get Maya to go to orientation. The girl had thick, pitch black hair and olive shaded skin, and her lips were glossed. She looked to be Indian, and the photos of her family on her vanity further pointed to that conclusion. She was wearing heels, which made her seem taller and her dress seem shorter than it probably actually was.

She didn't notice Riley come in, at first, because she was screaming bloody murder at the boy on the other end of her cell phone.

"Jess posted you guys on her story!" Isadora had a hand on her hip and she was turned away from the door, posture straight as a line and body tense. "Oh, don't you dare give me that bs!" She swiveled around and met eyes with Riley just before yelling, "Don't you dare tell me that I'm overreacting!"

Riley shrank back, expecting to be the next victim of the girl's yelling when she clicked the button to hang up and threw it on her bed with a groan. She came towards Riley radiating energy, and Riley braced herself.

Isadora put her hands on her hips, accusingly. "Who are you?"

"I'm," Riley swallowed, "I'm Riley Matthews."

Her eyebrows slanted down. "And?"

Lucky for Riley, Maya entered the room at that moment, carrying a box, which she dropped at the foot of her bed to throw her arms around her best friend. "Riley! God, where have you been? Today has been crazy, my parents just left but my mom wanted to find yours before they left to go back to New York." She noticed Isadora and smiled. "Isadora, this is my best friend, Riley. Riley, this is Isadora Smackle, she's my roommate."

Isadora smirked. "I'm an actress, and you are?"

"She dances," Maya answered for her when Riley appeared to take too long. "We're going for orientation, we'll meet you there?"

Isadora nodded and turned back to her bed. "I've just gotta call my boyfriend back and let him apologize first."

"So… who have you talked to, recently?" Maya asked, and Riley glanced back at her face.

She had brought Maya back to her apartment, and was now pulling out the couch bed for her.

"I think that's a question I should be asking you, right?" She asked with a little laugh. "You were the heart of our group."

Maya was sitting on the floor against the wall, looking through the messages on her phone. "I know where people are, I just haven't talked to them."

"So, update me?" Having finished, Riley sat down on the floor in front of Maya, knees to knees.

"Lucas is a doctor, here in New York," Maya informed her, and Riley's eyebrows shot up.

"He's a doctor? Lucas? Songwriter-guitar-player Lucas?"

"Songwriter-guitar-player-doctor Lucas," Maya agreed, smiling. "And Farkle is somewhere in Europe?"

"Really?" Riley held back a smile, her eyebrows raising. "Do you know what he's doing there?"

"Some finding-your-vision enlightening trek. I heard he was doing small movies somewhere over there," Maya explained, her voice not wavering for a second. "But we don't talk much anymore."

"And Isadora?" Riley asked.

"Isadora's a scientist," Maya informed her. "Pathology. We talk occasionally."

"Actress Isadora?"

"Actress Isadora," Maya confirmed, smiling.

Riley did not like being alone with Isadora Smackle, but she seemed to find herself alone with her a lot anyways. Their personalities just seemed to clash; Isadora was loud and dramatic and snarky and Riley was pretty much the opposite. She always felt like Isadora was attacking her, although logically she knew that Isadora didn't not like her, it was just who she was.

She was sitting on Maya's bed, waiting for Maya to come out of the bathroom where she was applying her makeup, so they could leave for breakfast. She had tried to have Maya just meet her outside, but her best friend had insisted she was almost ready.

And so Riley found herself alone with Isadora, and although she sat silently with her hands folded in her lap, Isadora still addressed her.

"How did you and Maya meet?" She asked, crossing her arms in interest.

"Um, we grew up together," Riley admitted meekly, twisting the skirt of her dress between her fingers. Isadora had always seemed larger than life, an equal to Maya's personality, and she had always known how to be herself around Maya, but Isadora…

"Damn," Isadora laughed, turning around to her vanity. Her eyes kept Riley's in the mirror as she picked up her brush and raised it to her head, beginning to pull it through her long, dark, silky hair. "That explains how you guys are friends, I guess. You're just so… different."

Different, Riley knew the meaning of. That was their description, from anyone who ever met them.

Maya was confident, rebellious, beautiful. She was the one who knew everyone, who everyone greeted in the halls. She walked like she knew everyone was watching her, which they were. She never appeared unsure, and always acted like things would go her way. She was everything everyone wanted to be.

Next to her, Riley was the back-of-the-class don't-notice-me quiet girl. But,

"She's my best friend," Riley offered in response, shrugging. "We went to middle school together and then we applied to Idyllwild together. If one of us hadn't gotten in, neither of us would have gone."

"That's stupid," Isadora scoffed, her black eyes narrowing, "you'd really stop her from achieving everything she's capable of just because you didn't get into the school she got into?"

Riley paused, then opened her mouth to answer, but Maya exited the bathroom at that very moment.

"Let's get outta here, Riles," Maya said, throwing an arm around Riley. Her smile brightened as she looked at Riley, and Riley smiled back on instinct.

"Yeah," she replied, relieved, following Maya and leaving the dorm, and Isadora and the conversations she didn't want to have.

Maya was a night-owl-late-sleeper, but Riley had early rehearsal. She left Maya in the living room around 10 and headed to sleep.

Somewhere in the middle of the night she awoke, hearing Maya throwing up in her bathroom down the hall.

She did not get up, pretending she had not heard her.

She went back to sleep.

A/N: So obviously there are some things that differ in this fic than in the tv show. First of all, they all attend a performance arts academy in California, and while Riley and Maya are still from New York, Lucas is from Texas, Smackle and Farkle are from different states. (Also, Smackle will be called by her first name for the majority of this fic).

There will still be some of the original pairings, but I'm going to let you figure them out as they happen. A lot of their characters are changed/exaggerated a bit, especially Smackle.

I know this chapter is kind of short, but a bunch of them will be around this length. This first chapter is a lot of groundwork - the first few will be a lot of groundwork - but the plot will definitely pick up soon. Obviously Maya's pregnancy will be a huge plotline but there is a death later in the story and another emergency, and I'm also going to focus on the backstories of each specific character and how they got where they are now and their perspective of everything that happens.

Leave reviews, if you want! I appreciate any feedback :)

Kisses,

C