Considering the amount of schools Isadora Smackle applied to, there wasn't a whole lot of surprise when she basically got her pick of the lottery.

What surprises Riley is the sheer amount of scholarship offers they're throwing in her face. Every time Smackle makes a point of deciding, one of the competing schools will come back with an even larger financial aid offer and even more promises of success. M.I.T. is practically breaking down her door, and Princeton is throwing money her way like it's going out of style. Harvard is promising her prestige, Yale's promising her brand recognition.

"Aren't all of these schools going to give you brand recognition?" Zay asks as they're sitting in Topanga's, sorting through all of the letters. "There's not one school in here that I don't recognize. I feel like I'm looking at the Buzzfeed list of the hardest schools to get into."

"Buzzfeed?" Farkle's face is skeptical. "You're trusting Buzzfeed over Forbes? Or any other possible source?"

"Hey, you get your information how you do, and I'll get mine."

"This is amazing, Smackle," Riley says enthusiastically, reaching over the table to lightly pat her hand in congratulations. "How on Earth are you going to decide?"

After nearly six years of friendship, Smackle has acclimated to Riley's friendly touches, even if she's not particularly enthused by them. She tentatively pats Riley's hand in return, before slipping from her grasp to pick up a couple of the letters. "It'll come down to logistics. Which choice will ultimately maximize educational opportunities and future career possibilities whilst simultaneously requiring the lowest amount of funding."

Maya blinks, exchanging an amused look with Lucas before shaking her head. "I still don't understand a word she says. Guess that's why all these letters are for her and not for me."

"But you must have some inkling," Riley urges. "Not one of these schools speaks to you more than anything else? There's not a little voice in your head screaming at you to pick a certain one?"

Smackle shakes her head adamantly as she flips through them, although Riley catches her linger on one and cranes her neck slightly to see. John Hopkins University. Glancing back up and noticing the excited gleam in Smackle's eyes, Riley's smile widens. It seems she's not so undecided after all.

"Well, it'll have to be whichever school has the best program for aeronautical or aerospace engineering," Farkle says quickly, also catching her linger on the letter. "If you want to end up at NASA, you'll have to think about that."

"That's correct," she admits, looking up to meet his eyes. "Impressive how you know my ambitions so well, dearest one."

He smiles and puts his arm around her shoulders, hugging her closer and looking over the letters proudly. But something about the interaction seems off to Riley. There was an unusual hesitancy that neither of them had ever displayed with one another before, a hesitancy between Farkle and Smackle that seemed so unnatural Riley didn't see how anyone could miss it.

No one else seems to notice.

Maya picks up the offer from Harvard, holding it gingerly by the corner as if it's dangerous or unpleasant. "If you end up at one of these super prestigious schools, will you get me a jacket and send it to me? I want to wear it around my college for us normals and freak everyone out. They'll be all psyched because I can be like 'oh, yeah, I got in to Harvard, but I figured, eh, pass.' How hilarious will that be?"

One of Riley's favorite moments of senior year is when Zay tells her he wants to be a dancer.

It's still somewhat rare to find a time where the two of them are without Lucas or Maya, and that time was barely an exception. It was the annual Matthews New Year's Eve party, and the two of them were having a lively discussion about the last semester of their high school careers. Maya was across the roof picking on Josh for lamely attempting to grow a goatee, and Lucas had just left them to grab a drink for Riley. So, really, the moment happened rather coincidentally.

Zay gazes out over the skyline of Manhattan, glittering with even more light than usual thanks to the New Year. The din of the crowd in Time Square almost sounds like a pre-recorded track considering how often they've heard it every year.

"You know, I remember when I came here from Texas I was worried I wasn't gonna like it," Zay says softly.

Riley feigns offense, gasping loudly. "Not like New York? Not possible!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he laughs, grinning at her antics. She smiles back. "But all I knew about it was the reputation, and that my best friend was here. Which was worth the chance, but compared to Texas this place is noisy and crazy and a little intimidating. City that never sleeps, and all that stuff."

Riley tilts her head curiously. "And now?"

"Well, I'm glad I'm here," he sighs. He hesitates, before locking eyes with her. "Can I tell you something?"

She nods encouragingly. "I'm the person you go to if you want to tell someone something. Kind of my reputation for the last six years. We could even go to the bay window, if you'd be so inclined."

"I'm fine here," he assures her. After a moment of silence, he takes a deep breath. "I applied to be a dance major."

"Really? Ballet?"

He nods slowly, avoiding her eyes and staring at the skyline again. "It seemed so stupid at the time. I mean, for the last six years I never really… I never actually thought it was something I should actually do. But then when I was applying and stuff, all I could think was what would actually make me happy? What could I see myself enjoying for the rest of my life? No harm in trying, right?" He glances at her. "It was almost like I had your peppy little voice in my head."

"Aw, how sweet."

"It was a little annoying." Riley shoves him lightly. "But don't say anything yet, okay? I haven't even told Lucas yet. I don't know why I'm telling you now."

"Reputation," she reminds him. "And Lucas will support you no matter what. You know that."

"Yeah, I know, I know."

"We all will." She rubs his shoulder affectionately. "I guess my question is, if you get accepted, are you going to go?"

His expression becomes distant. It's evident he hasn't even really considered that possibility to himself yet.

Lucas rejoins them, effectively ending the conversation. Riley never hears a definitive answer.

Acceptance letters arrive for Zay Babineaux, including admission to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. When he tells the group about majoring in dance, all of them are predictably supportive, especially Lucas. Just like Riley knew they would be.

Farkle's very own hoard of acceptance letters doesn't shock any of them.

The moment he hears back from Princeton University offering scholarship, Stuart Minkus practically loses it. He's so proud, almost unbearably so. For weeks leading up to decision day, he jokes with Farkle about how he'll need to stock up on spirit wear and maybe the whole family should just move to New Jersey. His mom is equally proud, albeit less openly enthusiastic.

The only one who doesn't seem downright set on Farkle Minkus going to Princeton is Farkle Minkus.

Riley and Maya try to get him to talk about it, but he always shrugs them off. Both of them know this is a big indicator that something isn't right, as Farkle tends to close himself off when he's dealing with something emotional rather than logical. Still, neither of them get very far with him.

Smackle reports that she also had trouble getting him to admit what the issue is. He'd be perfectly fine, both of them playfully arguing about the probability of some quantum theory that none of the others would begin to pick apart, but the moment Smackle brought up college and deciding where to go, he'd noticeably freeze up and stop talking. One hundred to zero, thanks to one topic change.

Lucas attempts a similar approach, bringing it up while expressing his own anxiety about acceptances. It doesn't go as well as he hopes, Farkle just getting defensive and throwing around some comment about how Lucas's face is going to get him anywhere as it usually does and shutting down the conversation before it even starts.

Long story short, Farkle spends a lot of time snapping at them at the beginning of second semester.

His world is rocked completely when his grandfather passes away.

Riley didn't realize they were so close, but the loss totally breaks Farkle in a way none of them have seen before. After getting him to stop pushing them all away, one late night at Topanga's finally knocks the walls down and he opens up to them about everything. Why he'd been so distant, why he wasn't excited for college, how he felt trapped by his dad's excitement that he himself didn't share. How while being accepted to all the ivy leagues is a nice ego boost, he doesn't feel like he'd belong at any of them.

Once the others comfort Farkle as best as they can and head home, Riley and Maya take him back to the bay window to help him piece through his emotions together. He hands them one of the his acceptance letters, where he's been admitted with a full ride to Washington University in St. Louis.

"My grandpa went there," he explains in a murmur, watching Maya and Riley read over the letter. "Sure, he never went on to win an award or make some big discovery, but he was still a man of science. And he was happy."

"You want to go here," Riley says, locking eyes with him. "Don't you?"

"My dad is so excited about me going to Princeton. I can't do that to him."

"This isn't about him," Maya snaps, getting heated as she always does when it comes to Farkle. That's one of Riley's favorite things about her, how fiercely protective she is of her friends. Especially when they won't protect themselves. "This is about you. You're the one who has to survive wherever for four years. At least."

"She's right, Farkle," Riley chimes in, patting his shoulder. "If you want to go to St. Louis, you should follow your heart there. It's telling you that for a reason. The universe is trying to tell you something—listen to it."

He glances away from both of them, nodding in defeat. Maya and Riley exchange a look, before Maya reaches forward to pat his knee. "Farkle?"

"What?"

Maya nods to Riley, who speaks for both of them. "Your grandfather would be so proud of you."

When Farkle does tell his father how he feels, he's amazed by how sympathetic and supportive his parents are. Stuart apologizes profusely for pressuring him into feeling like he had to go one place or another, and immediately launches into an equally enthusiastic rant about how much Washington U gear he's going to need to stock up on.

His mother reminds him how proud his grandfather would be of him. At that point, Farkle finally feels like he would be.

Lucas spends most of junior year and senior year working hard to get into UC Davis.

It's the undisputed top veterinary school in the nation, and Riley can see the hope in his eyes when he talks about it. How his whole face lights up when he is working on the application and how easily he can go off on a tangent about all the different opportunities they have and accolades they've received. Sometimes, she asks him a question about it for no other reason than to see his eyes light up and listen to him ramble on and on.

Despite how excited he is, the process of polishing his college application isn't all fun and games. Although he's the definition of a scholar-athlete, he pushes himself to take some classes that the others aren't sure he can handle and drives himself into the ground studying. Certain college-level courses like advanced biology and anatomy really stress him out, and Riley finds herself spending more time helping him study than focusing on her own course work.

Both Maya and Zay suggest dropping a couple of classes during first semester senior year, seeing how exhausted he is, but he won't hear anything like that. He waves them both off, throwing himself harder into the work. He even quits the baseball team in junior year, unable to effectively balance all of his work with his interests.

Maya comments many times about how there's no way vet school can possibly be worth all the strain. And in some ways, she's right.

Because despite all the hard work and sweat and tears invested into it, Lucas is ultimately denied acceptance to UC Davis.

He's practically inconsolable for the first couple days after he finds out, and most of the group doesn't even see him. It's only Riley and Zay who actually interact with him during those rough couple of days, trying to encourage him and remind him that one college acceptance doesn't define who he is. And they have evidence to prove it, as all of his other applications returned acceptances.

The second night after finding out, a quiet Saturday night while everyone is stressfully preparing for midterms, it's Riley's turn to cheer up Lucas. She helps get Auggie out to the movies with his friends, and makes sure Cory and Topanga make it out the door for their date. Then, she waits patiently in her room for him to knock at the bay window, letting him in the moment he appears.

They do what they usually do, starting by watching a movie they haven't seen before only to end up pausing it halfway through because they got reminded of some topic that sends them spiraling into a conversation that they never quite return from. That's what Riley loves about them—once they start talking, they just can't stop. Even if they jump topics a hundred times, they never run out of things to say.

As the night gets later their voices get softer. Sometimes they're quiet for long periods of time, not because they don't have something to say, but simply because they enjoy the quiet. As crucial as conversation is to their relationship, as they've gotten older they've found solace in the peacefulness each of them brings out in the other, too.

They're sprawled on the floor in front of the bay window, a habit they've fallen into since a particularly nasty fight in sophomore year where Maya declared that sitting in the bay window to talk was "hers and Riley's thing." A fight over how much time Riley spends between the two of them was unpleasant but sort of unavoidable, and for all intents and purposes it cleared up relatively painlessly. She's glad they got it out of the way—the dynamic between the three of them is much better now.

Riley's laying on the floor with her feet propped up against the window, Lucas leaning against the window seat so they can face each other. After a bout of silence, Lucas speaks first.

"What if Farkle is right?"

Riley shrugs. "It wouldn't be surprising. He's a genius, he's right about a lot of things. What would Farkle be right about, in your case?"

There's a long pause. He swallows before he speaks again. "About me."

Riley diverts her gaze from the ceiling to look at him. She's alarmed by how solemn his expression is, and the blueish glow cast over them from moonlight doesn't really help the effect. "What about you?"

He shrugs wordlessly, opening his mouth and closing it when he can't find the words. He props his elbows on his knees and presses his thumbs together in a fidgety way, focusing on them rather than her. "Maybe I am just a face. Maybe that's all I'm good for."

"What?" Riley says, shock laced through her words. She sits up immediately. "No. That's not true."

"Clearly, Davis thinks so," he murmurs, pressing his thumbs more firmly together. He starts to speak again but nothing comes out, just a shaky exhale. His lower lip trembles and he turns his head away, clearing his throat.

"Lucas, you're not just a face," Riley states, scooting closer to him and kneeling in front of the window, touching his knee gently. He still won't look her in the eyes, but she can see how glossy his are.

Even though she can cry at the drop of a hat without shame, none of her friends have ever been that way. She's seen all of them cry over the past six years, sure, but never often and sometimes only once or twice. Smackle's only cried once in front of her, and Riley's not sure she'll ever witness it again. Lucas is almost equally as rare, once or twice in all the time they've known each other.

This would mark the third time.

She leans forward and wraps her arms around him, embracing him tightly and tucking her head against his shoulder. To her relief he allows it, hugging her back and taking the opportunity to be vulnerable. They're quiet again for a while as she holds him close and he gets all the tears out, something he would never do in front of Zay despite how close they are. It's been bottled up for a while, and Riley allows him all the time he needs to let it out.

Once he's calmed down, Riley talks him through all of his options, reminding him how UC Davis is in no way, shape, or form the end of the world.

"It's the best school—," he argues.

"Yeah, I know, so everyone keeps saying," she talks over him, pressing a finger to his lips playfully to get him to shut up. "But who cares? The really brilliant people don't all come from the same place. It's about the person, not the place. Like, my mom would have succeeded no matter where she went because that's who she is. You're the same way. You're going to be an amazing vet no matter where you get your start, Lucas. You have to know that."

"Topanga is a whole other tier of human being."

Riley rolls her eyes, taking his face in her hands and making him look at her. "Will you listen to me, please? You're going to be a veterinarian, UC Davis or not. And if it's that important, you can always apply to transfer. But you can't just give up on it now. Go somewhere, keep on the track, and see where you end up. Isn't that one of the best parts about all of this growing up stuff? Seeing where the journey takes us."

He can't help but smile, shaking his head slightly. "I don't know how you do it."

"Do what?"

"Make everything better. Clear my head without even trying."

She melts a little bit at the earnest tone of his words, smiling shyly as he leans forward to kiss her. She accepts it happily, before settling down against the bay window next to him. "You know, you got into all those other schools. One of them has to have a good veterinary program."

"They do," he admits. "A&M isn't bad."

She rests her head softly against his shoulder. "Maybe you'll end up back in Texas after all."

"As long as I've still got you, I don't really care where I end up."

"Well, then you'll be fine," she says confidently, taking his hand in both of hers. "Because you've always got me."

Maya does a very good job of outwardly treating the college acceptance process like a big joke.

She teases them for stressing so hard over their applications, but only Riley knows how much effort she puts into her portfolio. She spends entire weekends upstate with Shawn to avoid distraction, or holed up in the bay window sketching away, trying to display as much of her talent as she can. Riley finds the effort a little futile—Maya can never truly capture how much talent she has in one silly portfolio.

She submits other applications, of course, to schools she doesn't care about and majors she's only mildly interested in. Much like Lucas with veterinary school and Zay with ballet, Maya is hoarding up all of her hope into a very specific plan for the future. And the first step is getting into a school that offers that major, to the strongest possible degree.

"CalArts and Rhode Island School of Design are the best options, I mean, after Royal College," Maya tells Riley one afternoon while she's in one of those moods, crafting sketch after sketch after sketch. Riley picks at her own work and watches from her bed, fond of how engrossed Maya gets in her art. Her whole face softens, although her eyes are fierce with concentration. "But that's in the UK, and there's no way I'm going that far away."

"CalArts?"

"Yes, honey, keep up with me here," she says without looking up. "California Institute of the Arts. It's actually like the fifth on the list or something, but I put it higher up because of its location. How cool would it be to go to school in Los Angeles?"

Riley grins, giving her best friend a nod. "But wouldn't that be just as far as London? Only the other way?"

"Well, the water in the way of Britain kind of mentally adds way more space."

"If you got into one of those, would you go that far away? Like, would you take the chance?"

Maya lifts her eyes from the sketchbook, gazing blankly at the wall in front of her. Then, she shakes herself out of it, continuing to sketch. "Los Angeles would be amazing. But it doesn't even matter. I'm not going to get in anyway."

"You don't know that. You haven't even submitted an application yet!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." She waves Riley off.

When acceptance letters do arrive, however, CalArts is welcoming Maya with eagerly open arms.

Her whole family is thrilled. Her mom is in tears, and Riley and Maya aren't much better as they're discussing their college choices in the bay window that night. Although none of her friends are really criers, Riley has a special talent of bringing out the tears from Maya.

She wipes her face, inhaling shakily. "It's three thousand miles away."

"I know," Riley cries.

"You're going to be here, and I'm going to be all the way out there."

Riley wants to reply but she's crying too hard. She can't tell if it's predominantly due to how happy she is for her best friend, how thrilled she is that her talent is finally being recognized, or how terrified she is at the prospect of being so far away from her thunder.

Maya takes a deep breath, wiping the tears from her cheeks again before turning to face Riley head on, giving her a serious look. "Tell me to stay."

"What?"

"If you think I should stay, just tell me." Maya's eyes are deadly serious. "If you don't want me to go, I won't go."

There's a small part of Riley, the icky, selfish part, that wants to tell her to stay. While it's been a long time since she was truly scared of change, everything that's going to happen within the next year is going to be so much of it, all at once. It would be nice to have one of the most important things in her life stay consistent.

But as she looks into Maya's eyes, she remembers that same expression of concentration staring down at a sketchbook. Soft but determined. Working and working towards doing something she loves. Maya loves Riley, but art is her passion. An opportunity like this could never be let go, especially since nothing is going to change how important they are to one another—three thousand miles apart or not.

In her heart, Riley doesn't regret it one bit. Nothing would make her happier than seeing Maya do what she was brought into this world to do. The distance will hurt, but it will be so, so worth it.

She reaches forward and takes Maya's hand, lifting it between them. "Go to California."

Maya's mouth drops open slightly. Riley squeezes her hand.

"You really think… you think I should go?"

She nods. After a moment, Maya grins and breaks into teary giggles, keeping their fingers locked together.

"I'm going to go to Los Angeles."

"Peaches in Los Angeles!"

Both of them burst into laughter, before Riley hiccups, which makes them laugh even harder.

Maya Hart is going to the California Institute of the Arts.

Time passes too quickly. Before she knows it, Riley is face-to-face with the impending reality that within the next week, all of her friends will head off to their respective universities, as will she. A whole new chapter of their lives is about to begin, and she's not sure she's ready to move on yet.

She lies awake in her room, staring at the ceiling late into the night. She can't help but think about how this is the room she's lived in her whole entire life, and she's never known anything different. How Auggie is going to start and finish high school without her always around. Sure, NYU isn't so far away, but she won't be living here anymore. She'll be starting an entirely new life.

Everything has just zoomed by. Her parents always warned her it would, but now that she's stuck there with the future in front of her, all of this is hitting her in hindsight. How quickly she flitted through senior year, and Prom, and Graduation. How summer has just flown away from her.

Restless, she climbs out of bed and walks over to her desk. She glances at the photo pinned to her bulletin board, all of her friends together in their graduation robes.

She looks at Zay grinning in the photo with one arm around Lucas, the other one lifting his gown to show off the ballet slipper he's wearing underneath as a prank for himself. Lucas is laughing and grinning with that smile Riley likes so much, genuine and warm and thrilled to be free from his advanced placement classes forever.

Maya is just finishing a hair flip, raising her eyebrow with her typical dramatic flair. Farkle is reeling from getting hit in the face with her hair, Smackle leaning up to brush the remaining blonde strands from his face.

And in the center of it all, there she is. Standing between Maya and Lucas, beaming like an idiot at how much she loves these people she is lucky enough to call her friends. There's a whole world out there, it's true, and she's days away from starting to explore it—but these people, this little orbit, that's truly her entire universe.

It's almost funny how things have already started to change, but how they mostly stay the same too. Everyone was surprised when Smackle and Farkle informed the group that they had mutually agreed to break up. The way they talked about it, it seemed like the obvious thing to do. "Long distance relationships never last" was thrown around in such a scientific manner, it nearly gave Riley a heart attack.

She's grateful Lucas isn't one to blindly believe in science. They don't plan on breaking up any time soon, and she's thankful for that.

Besides, while Farkle and Smackle both seem convinced that they're making the smart decision, neither of them seem very happy about it.

Riley digs in her bottom desk drawer and pulls out her senior yearbook, plopping it on the desk and settling into the rolling chair. She opens it and flips through a couple of pages, finding Zay's senior photo. She continues searching to find Lucas's, then Maya's, then hers and Farkle's almost right next to one another. A page or so later and there's Smackle.

She's shaking her head, marveling at how they've all grown, when a knock at her window scares her out of her skin. She yelps and turns to look over her shoulder, where Maya is pressing up against the glass of the window.

Riley scrambles to her feet and climbs onto the bay window, opening it to let Maya poke her head in. "What is it? Are you alright?"

"Please, come on." She rolls her eyes. "Of course I'm fine. Do I look like I'm not okay?"

"Well, when you're climbing in the bay window at one in the morning."

"No, no, you're mistaken," she says with a slight shake of the head. "I'm not climbing in. You're coming out."

"Maya, I'm not going outside. It's late!"

She makes a face, mimicking Riley's complaints softly. "Riley, we're graduates now. We're eighteen. We're adults. We make the rules now. It's our world. How many more clichés do I have to include? Just come on. And hurry up."

The next moment, she's gone, the only evidence she was ever there the open window and the echo of her moving just out of view.

Although the prospect makes her nervous, she can't help but want to go. Not only because she's curious, but because the fact that this is her last week with Maya's antics is making her unfairly emotional. Rather than cry, she figures she should just go along with it. For one last time.

"Fine," Riley relents.

Maya reappears, smiling triumphantly. "Atta girl. Bring anything you can't live without."

A strange request, but Riley takes it seriously as she quickly changes her clothes and put some shoes on. She grabs her phone and charger, stuffing them into a NYU drawstring bag along with her wallet and keys. Instinctively, she pulls the photo of them at graduation off her bulletin board and puts it in there as well. She slings the bag over her shoulder, crawling out the window.

She hesitates to touch the chain around her neck, making sure her jellybean ring is still attached and secured, before shutting the window and continuing after Maya.

"Where are you?" Riley whispers into the night, scaling around the house to get to the front.

After a moment, Maya's voice calls to her from the front of the building. "Round the corner. You can do it, keep going."

Riley rounds the corner and scales down the side carefully, getting to the stoop and running down the front steps. Maya's waiting for her by the street where an old mini-van is parked, headlights on and engine running. It takes Riley a couple of moments to realize they're not alone—Lucas comes around the front of the car to join them, the driver's side door open. In the next moment, the back door slides open and Zay beams at her.

"What is going on?" she asks hesitantly. "Zay? Lucas?"

"We're here too!" Farkle calls, craning his head around Zay's seat to wave at her from the back. Smackle's head pops up next to his, smiling.

"Good morning, Riley. You look as though you didn't get much sleep."

"Why are you all here?" Riley fixes her gaze on Maya, narrowing her eyes expectantly. "What did you do?"

"It's not what I did, it's what we're going to do." She leans back and pats the car affectionately. "This is Cory. Cory, meet Riley."

"Is that supposed to be a joke?"

"Cory is going to take us on a little adventure," she informs Riley, walking back to stand in front of her and taking her arms. "So hop in."

Lucas smirks at her. Zay wiggles his eyebrows. It takes Riley an admittedly long time to get it.

"Are you guys crazy?" she nearly shouts, her jaw dropping. "We can't just take off right before we have to go to college. Smackle, don't you have to be at Hopkins in two days for early orientation?"

"I do, Riley. You're right."

Maya raises her eyebrow inquisitively, sharp as always. "Where do you think we're going?"

"We've all got to get to our schools at some point in the next week. Almost perfectly in order," Farkle explains.

"So, we figured, why not make a trip of it?" Zay adds.

Lucas nods at them, before looking back at Riley. "One last adventure."

"And you know how I love adventure," Maya says with a devious smirk, shrugging her shoulders with faux bashfulness.

Riley can't believe her eyes. She can't believe she's not accidentally asleep and dreaming this insanity. "We cannot do this. Do your parents know?"

All of them except for Maya give some sort of indication of agreement.

"Most of them are going to meet us there."

"This trip is mostly funded by Minkus International," Farkle says proudly. "My dad thinks doing something adventurous will help me before I go off on my own. Better to do it with friends, and with relative safety."

Riley widens her eyes at Maya. "Does your mom know? Shawn?"

"Well, they'll know soon enough. Once they see ol' Cory here is gone. Don't give me that look," she says exasperatedly. "Cory is coming with me to California anyway. He's going to be my ride. So we have to get it all the way out there anyway. I'd rather spend fifty hours with you guys on the road than my parents."

Riley's curiosity is beginning to morph into excitement, despite her mortification. "No. No way, we can't do this. We'll get into so much trouble. Is it really worth that?"

"Riles," Maya says patiently, clutching her fist in her other hand and sighing. "Don't make me do this."

Riley glances down at her hands, narrowing her eyes. "You wouldn't."

"Don't make me."

"You wouldn't dare."

"What nonsense are they doing now?" Smackle asks from behind Zay.

Maya shakes her head disdainfully, raising her fist in the air and inhaling deeply. "Ring power," she declares, locking eyes with Riley, all determination and no softness.

"Oh, she really did that," Zay murmurs.

Riley opens her mouth to argue, but can't find the power. Ring power is law. It always has been. "We can't," she repeats.

"You can't break ring power," Maya states flatly.

"I don't even have a bag! I'm not even packed!"

"As if I didn't think about that? I already packed for you. Suitcase is in the back," Maya fires back.

Riley struggles to think of other possible ways this could go wrong. "Do we know where we're going?"

"Fully scheduled days, driving shifts, and marked map."

"What about money? Food? Hotels?"

"Minkus International!" Farkle repeats.

"We've got all of it covered," Lucas assures her.

It feels crazy. There's no way they can actually do this. "This kind of stuff just doesn't happen."

"Most people don't have their dad teach them all through middle and high school either," Maya proclaims. She's high on adventure tonight, and it shows in her confidence. "Most people don't get to watch their mother find love again with their best friend's dad's best friend. A lot of stuff that happens to us isn't necessarily realistic. I've kind of learned to just go with it. Are you in, or are you in?"

Riley glances at all of them, and in that moment it hits her how much they've all grown. Sure, a picture can show the physical change, but the atmosphere of their dynamic has grown and shifted with them. They're a group of energy, boundless energy, and Maya's determined to make it kinetic before they're separated. For some reason, a lesson from years ago echoes through her head.

"We need to circle the ones we love for as long as they're here. We need to hold them close, because no matter how far we travel, they are the ones who hold us in place. It's gravity, and without it, we would just all float away from each other."

She's not ready to float away just yet. After a deep breath, she nods consent. "Let's go before I change my mind."

All of them cheer, both Lucas and Maya reaching forward to take her hands and lead her to the car. She hops in the passenger seat and closes the door, glancing up at the brownstone in front of her. The place she's called home for eighteen years.

"I'll be back soon," she promises her family, and herself, as the car doors shut and Lucas pulls away from the sidewalk.