A/N: A short little chapter for the beginning of my new story. Mainly focuses on the relationship and similarities between Shawn Hunter and Maya Hart while exploring a genre that has been tested by a few others on this website. I've always loved the relationship between Shawn and Turner although it practically disappeared after the third season and I've always wondered what it would be like to have Shawn and Maya's relationship parallel that of Jon and Shawn. So, without further ado, I give you Landscapes.

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It was 3:27 in the morning. Exactly six minutes until her birthday and she had no idea where her mother was.

As the night progressed, Maya grew more and more worried, resulting in her insomnia. Her mom was a waitress at the Nighthawk diner, an all-night, truck-stop themed diner placed strategically by an almost abandoned neighborhood in a not-so-great part of town. She had to take two separate buses plus the subway just to get within walking distance of the place. So she didn't go there a lot. Her mother came home every few hours to eat and sleep, but most of the time Maya would be at Riley's place.

Riley Matthews was her best friend. She had been since the first day of first grade when the class had gone out for snack and Maya was the only one without a snack. Riley had come up to her, her soft brown hair in two perfectly pleated braids and pink and blue dress on. She had offered the blonde one of her chocolate chip cookies but Maya had greedily taken both. After she had devoured Riley's snack. The small girl sat down next to her on the asphalt and they talked for the rest of recess. Maya figured that both girls knew right then that they would be best friends forever. Now, she was minutes away from turning 14 and that promise was still intact.

Last year. Maya's birthday was a bit of a disaster. Her mother was working, (once again) and even though the Matthews family had tried to help cheer up Maya with a cake and some presents, as much as she appreciated it she just wanted her mom. Riley, however, took things to the extreme. Her uncle Shawn was visiting that weekend and for some reason, Riley automatically figured that just because Shawn was single and her mother single, they should hook up.

Maya had met the infamous Shawn Hunter a few weeks before her thirteenth birthday when he came over for Christmas dinner. She was unimpressed to sum it up, she hated the ay he treated Riley and totally ignored her so she and Riley had pushed Shawn to tell them the real reason why he didn't like her. But, of course, Riley had to pull her even further into the whole mess by making her tell Shawn about her family problems and vice versa. It accomplished exactly nothing and Maya didn't even understand what she was trying to do until her birthday a few weeks later. Being the lifelong best friend of Cory Matthews, Riley's father and teacher, Maya saw Shawn quite a bit and was compared to him more times than she would care to admit. He visited about once every two months, sooner when he could. He had a job writing and taking pictures for a popular travel website she had admired long before meeting the elusive Shawn Hunter. She would try and copy the scenes onto paper in her own way, but the barren deserts and grassy moors never turned out the same.

A sudden and sharp rapping on her bedroom window surprised her and she nearly fell out of bed. Without hesitating, Maya jumped up and grabbed the steel baseball bat that her mother had given her in case of break-ins. As she tentatively reached to open the window, expecting find a masked serial killer waiting to rip her throat out, she almost screamed when she saw the smooth top of Farkle Minkus' bowl cut.

"Farkle." She growled, fear quickly malting to anger as she pushed the window open. "What are you doing here?"

"Maya." He greeted flirtatiously as he shifted on the fire escape right below her window. The sounds of East Harlem at three in the morning greeted her and she was pleased to find everything as it had been earlier that night. Maya could never sleep without the comforting sounds of the city and bright lights of the open-24-hours-a-day liquor store adjacent to her apartment building. "I was in the neighborhood and I wanted to drop by and say Happy Birthday." She stifled a scoff knowing very well that the wealthy Minkus's lived in a big apartment closer to suburbs than any all-night liquor store.

Farkle had turned 14 in December and had grown exactly an inch and a half since his thirteenth birthday. His haircut, however, hadn't changed since the second grade and didn't look like it was going to anytime soon. Riley had also turned 14 before her, and in doing so discovered makeup. Even though her parents forbid it until she was 16, Maya often snuck some mascara and eyeliner from her rarely used makeup collection for her best friend, who, no matter how many times Maya told her that she didn't need makeup to look good, simply ignored her.

She had started to straighten her hair more often than usual too and Maya wondered if Riley thought it made her look older, the reason she had started to do a lot of things. She remembered last year how Riley wanted to be exactly like her, luckily growing out of that pretty quick when the classroom almost caught on fire from a certain someone's great 'homework rebellion' idea.

"That's sweet." Maya started with a smile, Farkle perked up and she quickly turned off the fake niceness. "Now get out." Her tone changed quickly and Farkle tried harder to edge his way inside.

"Don't be like that, Maya. What's wrong? Talk to me, open your soul to the one who cares deeply for you." He tried to sound poetic but failed and Maya suppressed a laugh. "You know you wanna."

That was another weird thing about turning 14. Everyone's voice seemed to change. Riley, although still keeping her always excitable demeanor, had a much breathier and lighter voice. Farkle's hadn't totally deepened, but there was a noticeable change from last year when he still sounded like a ten-year-old.

"You wish. Now get out of here before my mom hears you." She threatened and Farkle seemed to back off after her lie.

"Happy Birthday, anyway." He finished he made his way back down the fire escape, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets to block out the cold, January wind.

"Thanks!" Maya called back, already feeling her spirits lifted. Farkle was a good friend, he just needed to learn how to tone the 'flirting' down once in a while.

Maya glance over to her dimly lit alarm clock on her bedside table that she had painted herself. 3:35 AM. She was officially 14 years old and yet felt no different than she did seconds ago talking to Farkle. She sighed and yawned as she climbed into back under her purple duvet, relaxing as the sounds of New York washed over her mind.

'She's probably still working or just locking up or something.' Maya assured herself as she closed her eyes and flipped over on her side into a more comfortable position. 'She'll be here. She'll be here in twenty minutes and she'll wake me up and we'll spend the day together.'

She couldn't even believe herself.