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in case you forgot:
                      |zay|

"Why massacre? Why you got "massacre" up there? Why can't you just tech us names and dates?" Marly asks annoyed.

"Marly Evans and what she learns today! That's the name and date I care about. All of you and right now. Are you listening to me?" Mr M asks.

"Mhm." She sassily replies.

"Good. It was the patriots who founded our new land and it was the patriots who fought for it."

"Why do we remember the Alamo? Farkle, Smakle, a duet. Go."

"The Alamo was a small, isolated fortress with a handful of patriots inside who felt it was important to stick together and fight for what they believed." Farkle then gestured to Smakle, who stood up.

"They were surrounded by a much larger number of people, coming at them from all directions, who believed this place belonged to them." She continued and then gestured to Mr. M to finish, before sitting down.

"The patriots desperately wanted reinforcements, but they never came." He finished

"What happened to 'em?" Mr. M asked.

"They stayed in their fortress and gave everybody a friendly smile, and eventually, they walked upstairs."
Our little hopeful girl replied to her father.

"They were massacred." He tells her.

"Then they walked upstairs?" She asked.

"No, but that battle gave birth to a slogan. What was the slogan?"

"Remember the Alamo." Lucas replied.

"Remember the Alamo!" Mr. M repeated.

"And why do we remember the Alamo? Lucas and Zay, a duet." Both of them stood up. I turned around to look at them.

"Because the patriots gave their lives for the greater good." Lucas started.

"That battle had only just begun, and some years later, that land became ours, and the name of that land was..." Zay continued.

"Texas!" They both yelled in unison. Lucas slapped Zay on the back.

"Stop it!" He yelled.

"Right, Texas, your home." Mr. M said.

"So, guys, that's why we remember the Alamo and why we remember all the battles that we fight in an effort to make our new place a home. Now you can stay massacred or you can realize the battle has just begun."

"We were kings Matthews." Maya tells him

"Kingdoms fall."

"Everyone who believes they're going to rule the world falls." Mr. M says, directing it to Farkle.

"Everyone who thinks they're strong eventually comes up against someone that's stronger." Directing it towadrs Lucas and Zay

"And every patriot fighting for a cause, they're only as strong as the cause they're fighting for." Mr. M directs that one to the whole class.

"Even I know next thing he says, real important." Marly tells us from her spot in the corner of the room.

"What is the cause you're fighting for?" He asks. I turned to look at Lucas, only to see that he was already looking at me. He gives me a small smile, but he was thinking hard about what Mr. M just said. I do the same thing.

Everybody was at Topanga's except for Riley and Maya. We were all sitting in silence. Our group just isn't the same without them.

Then, out of nowhere, Maya md Riley then confidently stride in.

"Look at us." Riley says while tilting Smakles' head to face her.

"Look at us." Maya did the same with Lucas.

Riley does it with Farkle and Maya did it with Zay.

"Look at us." They both say while tilting my head up.

"We're sorry." Riley tells us.

"You're sorry?" Lucas asks suprised.

"What are you sorry for?" Farkle questions her.

Then Zay said, "We're the ones who left."

"We should have realized that something happened to you." Maya said.

"But nothing happened to us." Zays said while raising his voice an octave. He was so obviously lying.

"Why do you think something happened to us?" Farkle asks the girls.

"They found out they're stupid," I start out while pointing to Farkle and Smakle. "And they got beat up like pipsqueaks." I continue while pointing to Zay and Lucas. "I however have always been stupid and beat up the football players." When I finish, I realized that that probably wasn't the best thing I could have contributed.

"Don't look at me." Lucas says upset.

Maya picked him up by his shirt and said, "I'll look at you whenever I want to look at you, Huckleberry."

"Everybody's stronger than me." Lucas said sadly while sitting back down.

"None of this matters." Riley said.

"Guys, the only way we're gonna get through our one year of high school is together like we always have." Maya tells our group

"Maya, there's four years of high school." Riley said, enlightening our little rebel.

"I'm out." She said while walking out the door.

"Me too, sister." I say, agreeing and getting up, while Riley stops her from walking out. Lucas puts his arm around my waist and pulls me back down. Now our thighs were touching and he kept his arm around me. I blushed snd leaned into him a little.

"Could somebody please explain to me what's going on here? Because I guess I really don't know anything anymore." Farkle asks.

"I think they're forgiving us for behaving badly." Smakle tells her lover.

"Smackle, you didn't behave badly. When you left, we should have gone with you." Riley explains.

"No, when you stayed, we should have stayed with you. I don't know what's the matter with me. "Lucas says while looking down. I notice how visably upset he is, so I take the had thats not around my waist in mine to help him relax. He thanks me with a tiny smile.

"Lucas, you left because you don't think that you can protect us here." Riley tells him.

"We all need to protect each other here." Riley says sweetly.

"Okay? No matter what happens at high school, we're the cause worth fighting for. Us. Nobody leaves."

"Even if we get massacred?" Lucas asks.

"We're gonna get massacred no matter what we do." Maya said wisely.

"I'd like to say that we've never gotten hurt when we're together. And it was my fault that we weren't. I'm truly sorry about that and I hope it never happens again. You guys showed us what it means to be strong, and smart."

Riley takes a seat next to me and Lucas and Maya goes to sit by Smakle and Farkle. We sit in a comfortable silence for all of two seconds before Riley speaks up.

"Are we best friends still?" Riley turns to me with a frown on her face. I sigh. She was in the wrong, but I definitely should not have yelled at her. She's my best friend and it has been terrible without her and Maya.

"Of course we're best friends, we never stopped. I'm sorry for yelling at you, but I'm not sorry for what I said."Her frown turns into a smile and she gives me a big hug.

She then looks across me over to Lucas. " I'm sorry, Lucas. I never should have said those things to you. Nessa was right." Lucas gives her a big smile.

"Thanks, Riley." Lucas says while squeezing my hand.

"I'm so happy were friends again. I haven't been able to talk to you about anything! I got this new dress at Demolition. I has purple frills and..." I finally got my best friend back. It has felt like eternity, but its only been a day.

*1304 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒔*
𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒎𝒆 𝒔𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆! 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒂𝒃𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒏𝒐 𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒂 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒆 𝒂𝒕 𝑻𝒐𝒑𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒂'𝒔 𝒔𝒐 𝑰 𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌. 𝒀𝒆𝒂𝒉, 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅. 𝑩𝒖𝒕! 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓! 𝑰 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒕! 𝑴𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒗𝒐𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕! 𝑩𝒚𝒆! :)