And Then She Stopped

chapter seven

Mornings with the Matthews were a lot better with Shawn around, he really understood Maya. She thought that maybe since he understood her he could help her, without her having to ask for help. That's the thing about feeling worthless, you know you should get help but you don't think you're worth asking anyone to help you. It was now leading into the cold season, the time of year where lights get strung up and people usually seem a lot happier about themselves and their lives – and this was true for even Maya. Because Shawn came back for the holidays. She shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans, biting her lip to remind her that the cold she was feeling wasn't the worst pain imaginable – although in the moment it felt like it was. Maya turned back and smiled at Riley who was all bundled up with a heavy winter coat and mittens on her hands, her cheeks were a little pink though because her face was uncovered.

"Hurry up Riles we're almost to school." Maya started to sprint, the wind slapping her in the face and making her fingers sting, she was running like her feet might just lift off the ground and she could float away – drift off with the wind, off to a better place.

In the building the hallways stood quiet and still, more calm than most winter mornings because of early activities. Maya helped Mr. Matthews carry his books and new lesson plans to his classroom and then took her seat in the front of the room. He started to walk through the rows placing papers on all the empty desks. Maya picked up the sheet and started reading it.

"What is this Mr. Matthews? The wander assignment?" She flipped the paper over and began to doodle a sky line on the bottom of the sheet, school hadn't even started yet and already she was letting her mind drift.

The skyline she drew was not like most, with skyscrapers and lit up windows, she drew one of a city falling to ashes, with broken rooves and cracked windows – because this was the skyline she knew and was familiar with.

At 8:10 everyone was in their seats and ready to start the day, it was spirit week and Riley and Farkle had gone all out. They were both in horrendous holiday sweaters with flashing lights and enough sequins to make you vomit rainbows.

"Good morning class so today I have a new assignment for you." Matthews said from the front of the classroom.

"Aw BOO!" Maya hollered.

"You all live in New York, it's an American Dream to come here and you all take it for granted, so I'm assigning you the Wander Project – as you'll see on the paper in front of you. Each of you will be partnered up with the person sitting behind you, and for those of you in the back row the person in front of you, you're all 16 or about to be so you can drive or call a cab, and I want you all to travel around New York and see the sights that often get over looked in comparison to places like the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty. You and your partner must go to at least 5 different places together and document your journey in a creative way, this will be due in May, replacing your final."

"Mr. Matthews?"

"Yes Farkle?"

"Can we still take a final?" Maya turned around and glared at him. "Never mind sir, I'm very interested in this project."

"Good, now everyone meet with your partner and discuss."

Maya swung herself around so she was sitting in her chair backwards, Lucas was smiling at her but when she looked at him he looked down at his notebook, and as always she pretended not to notice.

"So I was thinking-"

"Here's what's going to happen Huckleberry, we're going to go to 10 places in New York – we're each going to pick 5 – we go where the road takes us and we stop at unexpected places. Mr. Matthews wants us to wander New York, so let's do it right. No phones, paper maps purchased at gas stations only, if we see something strange, beautiful, or unbelievably ordinary, we pull over and embrace the moment. And under no conditions can we question a location, we're wandering remember. I want our locations to cover it all – the big, the small, the unexplainable, all of it. Got it Ranger Rick?"