Nathan Meets World | Lucas Friar

Riley Meets Gravity pt.1

"Riley Matthews from Greenwich Village, New York City, the United States of America, The continent of North America, western hemisphere, the earth, the solar system, the universe, the mind of God. And in the middle of all of it, is John Quincy Adams Middle School, me, my brother, and our friends, because we are the center of the universe. At least, that's what I thought."

-

Summer's finally over and with it comes the beginning of the new school year.

Eighth grade.

The royalty of middle school.

At least that's what his mom has been trying to feed into his and Riley's head all summer. It was almost as annoying as Riley's weird behavior.

But that's only part of what Nathan is focused on at the moment.

Instead of leaving for school like he'd wanted, he got dragged into Riley's room and was forced to hide under the covers with her.

Ever since Nathan's first date Riley has been forcing him to hang out with her.

A lot.

He didn't actually hate it as much as he let on though. It was nice spending the summer with his little sister.

Nathan was only slightly bitter that Auggie kept ditching him for Ava.

All things considered the summer was pretty great. There was more family time than Nathan could stomach, one on one time with Riley, and he and Lucas had a day set aside every week for dates(and only some of them had to have a chaperone).

The only thing Nathan could have done without was being forced to hang out with Maya. It's not that he still doesn't like Maya. Quite the contrary. After the dressing down that Nathan gave her on her birthday her attitude towards her mother drastically improved. So Nathan rewarded her by being less of a jerk.

It was the atmosphere that surrounded Riley and Maya that Nathan disliked. It was like one of them had something to say that they wouldn't say with him there. And thanks to Riley, he was always there.

It made him very uncomfortable.

And actually now that he thinks about it Farkle was the same way whenever the entire group hung out. So whatever this big secret was Farkle was in on it.

Which was kind of insulting considering Nathan told Farkle and Riley everything.

The only saving grace from the awkwardness was Lucas, who thankfully didn't seem to be apart of the secret.

The sound of their mother's voice breaks Nathan out of his thoughts, "Who's ready for a brand new year? Why are you still in bed?"

"Is he going to be our teacher this year," Riley says yanking the blanket down.

"That's why you dragged me out of my room?"

"It's a serious problem," Riley insists. "Well, Mom?"

"No. That was crazy. New year, new teacher, get excited, because you and your friends are the kings of middle school."

"First day of the new year," their dad says coming in. "Nathan why are you in your sisters bed?"

Nathan shrugs in response while Riley once again questions if their dad is going to be their teacher this year.

"No," he denies. "Your mother and I went through that with Mr.Feeny."