Their World | Rilaya

49: Give Me an F?

Riley turns around to Maya. "What did you get, Maya?"

"D-... I don't think he likes me."

Once the class is over, students begin to file out of the room, leaving behind the six friends.

Lucas gets up from his seat and approaches Mr. Murphy's desk.

"Excuse me, sir. May I ask why you gave us all such low grades on our essays?"

"All grades are final," the teacher spats. "Plus not all of you got bad grades, Babineaux got a 100%."

"Why'd you like his paper so much better than ours?"

"He wrote about baseball. I like baseball."

"I like baseball too, but I also like my friendship with all of them," Lucas says, gesturing to his five friends behind him. "We all wrote about our friendship. Do you not like friendship?"

"I do. I just don't like your friendship."

"Why not?" Lucas asks.

"Just let it go, Lucas," Maya interrupts. "He doesn't like Riley and me. That's why he gave the two of us the worst grades."

Maya stands up and joins Lucas. "I'm the one that wrote about my sexuality. If you don't like who I am then take it out on me, not my friends," Maya directs towards Mr. Murphy.

Riley jumps up from her seat, while Zay and Smackle tend to an unconscious Farkle.

"Maya, no!" Riley interrupts. "He needs to change our grades."

"All grades are final," Mr. Murphy restates.

"I read Maya's paper before she turned it. She put everything she had into it. She deserves a better grade than what you gave her," Riley defends her girlfriend

"Not happening," the teacher retorts.

"I know for a fact that her paper was better than mine... If you won't change her grade then change mine. Give me an F," Riley demands.

"Riley-" Maya interjects.

"No, Maya," Riley says, cutting the blonde's sentence of. "Your essay was better than mine. In fact, it was probably better than all of ours."

"Hey!" Smackle and a now conscious Farkle yell out offended.

"You worked really hard on that essay, you deserve a better grade than me. If that means that I get an F, then I'll take the F," Riley says.

"Riley is right. Give me an F too, Mr. Murphy," Lucas adds.

Riley and Lucas turn towards Zay, Farkle and Smackle.

Farkle and Smackle look at each other for a second to think about what they should do.

Farkle takes a deep breath. "Fine... Give us an-an-an... A what they said," he finally gets out, speaking for him and Smackle.

"Zay?" Riley asks.

"Come on, it's not everyday I get an A," he responds.

They all look at him with pleading eyes.

"Okay... Give me an F too," Zay gives in.

Everyone turns back around towards Mr. Murphy.

"Okay, okay. If you insist, I'll give you all F's," the teacher says.

"Hah!" Riley exclaims.

"Hah? The five if you just gave yourselves F's and your 'girlfriend' still has a D-," Mr. Murphy laughs, using air quotes when referring to Maya as Riley's girlfriend. "What do you possibly think you just achieved here?"

"Huh... I didn't think that one through entirely," Riley mutters.

"Why don't you like us?" Riley shouts, as she slams her hands down on the teacher's desk.

"It's not that I don't like you. I just think you two are a little confused. Trust me you'll thank me in the long run," Mr. Murphy says.

"Thank you?" Riley laughs.

"Yeah, this will all just be a lesson. You two will realize that you aren't really in love with each other and everything will return to the way it's meant to be."

"No, you'll be the one that thanks us," Riley spats, as she narrows her eyes."

"Why is that?"

"We will teach you to like us, just the way we are."

"And why do think that?"

"Because I believe that people change people, and I believe that we can change you."

"Good luck with that," Mr. Murphy smiles.

[After they finished talking to Mr. Murphy, the clique six went to Matthews' class to explain everything that happened.]

"Oh, boy," Cory exclaims. "I really need to stop teaching you guys stuff."

"What? No, Dad, you need to tell us how we can change Mr. Murphy's views. People change people. You said so yourself."

"I did say that," Matthews agrees, "but technically I said that people should learn from the people they care about."

"You don't think that Mr. Murphy cares about us?" Riley asks, somewhat hurt.

"If he did, he wouldn't have done this to you guys," Cory explains.

Cory pauses for a second. "You aren't going to let this go, are you?"

"She's Riley, of course she isn't going to let this go," Farkle states.

"So if I want him to change, I need him to start caring about us?" Riley asks.

"It would be a good start, but-" Cory starts, before getting interrupted.

"Then I'm going to make him care about us," Riley says, in her evil voice.

"Well if nothing else, that was adorable," Maya smiles.