His Texas Girl// Lucas Friar

Girl meets STEM Part 2

Ari POV:
"Oh boy!" Mr.Matthews says once he entered the classroom to see all the girls on one side of the room and all the empty desks for the boys on the other side. I had went to go find Lucas when Riley and Maya grabbed me and tied me to my chair so now I can't move. Otherwise, I'd probably be with the boys too.
"Where are the boys?" Mr.Matthews asks. "Boys!" He exclaims when they walk in. "I'm very glad to see you, because I thought there was a distinct possibility you could be... What's the word I'm looking for? Dead." He says.
"We didn't do anything, and we don't deserve to be dead. And where's Ari she said she'd meet up with Me and Zay earlier" Lucas says.
"Bubs help me" I yell wiggling in my chair.
"Not understanding the current climate of the room, Zay chooses to sit here. Men. Am I right?" Zay says and takes a seat at the girls side.
"Ari?!" Lucas yells running over.
"It hurts" I say motioning to the rope.
"You guys tied her up?!" Zay yells.
"She was going against the cause" Maya replies.
"Zay help" Lucas says and they start to untie me. "Do you have your cream?" Lucas asks once I'm untied and I'm his arms.
"Yea it's in my backpack" I say and Zay goes to grab it before passing it to Lucas. You see I have a skin condition known as eczema so my skin is really sensitive and the rope irritated my neck wrists.
"Here baby give me your wrist" Lucas says after carrying me to the boys side and starts to apply the cream on my wrists carefully and Mr.Matthews continues class.
"All right, does someone want to explain to me how we got here?"
"We were in science class..." Farkle starts to say.
"She will talk." Maya says.
"I will listen." Farkle responds.

Lucas POV:
"Okay, guys, calm down. Now, today's lesson is about the battle of Panipat. There were three battles of Panipat. The first was called, the First Battle of Panipat." Mr.Matthews starts the lesson.
"You don't respect us." Riley starts.
"How can you possibly think that?" I say still inspecting Ari's wrists to make sure they were okay before pressing small kisses to them.
"I call Farkle Minkus to the stand." She says.
"You can't put him on trial, Riley." I say standing up.
"Why not? Didn't he make a judgment about me?" Riley says.
"We are really unprepared." Zay says.
"Yeah. See ya, buddy." I say going back over to Ari.
"This isn't just about Farkle. This is about all of you." Riley says.
"Yeah, Zay. Didn't you tell me to drop the marble?" Maya asks.
"Yeah, I wanted us to do well on the midterm." Zay responds.
"Because you have no faith in my scientific abilities." Maya says.
"Because you fall asleep in my hand." Zay counters.
"Yogi made me drop the marble, too." Darby says.
"I can't reach the beaker." Yogi defends.
"I could have lifted you." She counters.
"I don't like that as much as you think." Yogi confesses.
"I'll tell ya who didn't like something. Vikramajit, the ruler of Gwalior in the First Battle of Panipat. He died. Didn't like it." Mr.Matthews says.
"By relegating me to a second-class marble dropper, you are stopping me from realizing my full potential." Riley says angrily to Farkle.
"Riley, I'm just better than you at this." Farkle says.
"Farkle, if you were my friend, you would want me to get better. I like science. Why don't you want me to get better?"
"I do. There's no situation where I wouldn't want that for you. Riley, I've always been your friend."
"I know."
"I'm sorry." Farkle says.
"Okay." Riley responds.
"I thought some of you just didn't want anything to do with science. Sarah, you just told Aaron you weren't interested." Zay says.
"It's because I don't stand up for myself!" She says.
"Well, I'm gonna hate to see it when you do." Zay says and goes to sit down.
"I wanna carry you around like a doll whenever I want." Darby says.
"Do it." Yogi responds.
"A real friend doesn't let another friend fail. Our failure isn't your fault, Riley. Our failure is on me. I should have had more faith in you." Farkle says.
"Speaking of failure, there will be a quiz tomorrow on the First Battle of Panipat. It's not gonna be a good day." Me.Matthews says.
"Wait, What about you Lucas? You told Ari to drop the marble and she's not even standing up against you. Your just gonna act like nothing's wrong?" Riley asks.
"Stop!" Ari exclaims.
"Why? They're sexist" Maya asks.
"I don't know about the rest but I know these are your friends. Maya you fall asleep in science everyday so of course Zay would say he would do it. Riley science is Farkle's favorite time of the day so even if he wants you to get better he still wants to do it himself. And for Lucas he wanted to drop it and I told him no, I told him I would do it" Ari say defending her friends and me.
"Why? Why would you let him just degrade your ability like that?" Riley asks.
"I'm not, he..." Ari trials off looking at me.
"We should just tell them" I say.
"Are you sure bubs?" Ari asks.
"Yeah." I say.
"Tell us what?"Maya asks.
"Lucas has ADHD"Ari says.
"What's that?" Riley asks.
"attention deficit hyperactivity disorder" i answer.
"He's interested in school and he works really hard on focusing but sometimes he needs the push" Ari says.
"I wanted to drop the marble cause that way I wouldn't cost Ari and I  the midterm, but she wouldn't let me" I say.
"I told him I'd help him stay focused and if he didn't understand all he had to do was ask me" Ari says wrapping her arms around my waist.
"That's why Ari dropped it. So I could actually try to do something and practice staying on track" I say putting my arm around her shoulder as the class looks at me in shock.
"Lucas can we talk after class" Mr.Matthews asks and I nod. Then the bell rings.
"Ari can you stay?" I ask her.
"Of course Luke" she says and we walk up to Mr.Matthews as everyone else leaves.
"How come you didn't tell me? I could have helped in the classroom." He asked.
"I didn't want you to keep anything else from Riley when she learned why I had to leave Texas it was bad enough" I say coming up with an excuse.
"Bubs you know that's not why?" Ari says.
"Why Lucas?" He asks again.
"Cause it makes me feel less independent. Like I can't do this on my own. Ari helps tutor me when I'm struggling and I deal with it. I just didn't want to be looked at differently. You remember what happened when Farkle thought he had Aspergers. Everyone was weird about it, I didn't want that" I rant while looking down.
"It's okay Lucas. We can work on this and if you ever have trouble know you can ask me. Not just Ari" he says and I smile.
"Thank you sir" I say.
"Thank you Mr.Matthews" Ari says.
"Anytime. Now get out of here. Here's a pass to your next class" he says giving us a note before we leave to science. We walk into science to see the guys at one table, the girls at another, and Farkle and Riley at one in the middle.
"Hey" we say as we enter and Ari goes to give the note to Mr.Norton.
"Can I work with you boys?" Ari asks walking up to the boy table.
"'Course baby" I say and we start working.
"Mud-like consistency, copper color, no clear separation of elements at boiling point." I say looking at it.
"Good job bubs" Ari says kissing my cheek making me smile.
"No living organisms. Huh. Well, my official conclusion after thorough research and analysis, and try to stay with me now, 'cause this is very technical..." Zay rambles.
"Yeah, how long you gonna keep talking?" Ari asks.
"Till the bell rings, 'cause I don't know what this stuff is." He answers.
"Let me see" Ari says.
"Yeah, uh, you know what that is?" I ask.
"How'd she get her sludge to do that?" Ari asks.
"Her sludge is mad at us. Her sludge is a girl" Zay says.
"Wait. Give me a new marble. So I can look at it" Ari says and I go grab one and give it to her and she looks surprised.
"What is it baby?" I ask.
"It's a dirt ball." She says.
"What?!" Zay exclaims and the boys come over.
"It's a dirt ball. The sludge is sludge. It's mud guys. There's no way to get this back to clear" she says.
"Then what's going on" Zay asks before we hear chanting.
"Adooba hoo hoo! Adooba hoo hoo! Adooba hoo hoo! Adooba hoo hoo! Hoo!" The girls start chanting as they take Yogi. Pretty soon the girls sludge explodes and the boys and Ari go to talk over a new theory, this wasn't about sludge at all.

Ari POV:
"Still working on that?" Farkle asks our group when he sees our sludge on the table.
"Hey you might have failed but we think we figured this out. Right Ari?" Lucas asks.
"I'm not gonna fail. My partners got this" Farkle says and walks away.
"Hi guys" Riley says coming in.
"You're talking to us?" Zay asks confused.
"She is, I go where she goes" Maya responds.
"You tell them yet" Riley asks.
"No this is your marble to drop" Farkle says and I go to talk to Mr.Norton about the group's new hypothesis.
"Riley, Farkle, I believe just before things exploded, you were about to present some findings? And Ari you may present yours as well." Mr.Norton says and I step up to represent the boy group.
"In middle school, girls tend to drift away from science. Isn't that right, Mr. Norton?" I  ask.
"It's been happening so many years, I started to keep a record. Not many figure out my experiment, but those that do have always benefited from the lesson." Mr.Norton explains.
"We let what happened in here come between us. It's sludge, and it muddies up what we think about each other. All of us have unlimited potential. Farkle and me, well... our beaker is clear." Riley says.
"Because Riley didn't drop the marble." Farkle says.
"Why not, Riley?" Me.Norton asks.
"I felt like if I did, I would lose a part of me that was valuable. I like science, and I like figuring stuff out." Riley answers.
"While Lucas and I's beaker isn't clear. I did what I did to help him. We figured it out after looking closely. Comparing it to dirt and mud helped us see the bigger picture. Our beakers might not be clear but that doesn't mean we can't take an interest in  science and other stem subjects now."
"For 35 years, I've been running this experiment. Every year, the vast majority of girls agree to drop the marble without even thinking about it. The boys do the science. Unfortunate, but true. This is the age the girls begin to lose interest and that is a bad result." Mr.Norton says.
"So the real experiment is us." Maya says.
"It is, Maya. Don't lose interest." He says.
"Wide awake, sir." She responds.
"All right. Everyone lift up your beakers. Now look through them."
"I can't see you." Zay says.
"Yeah. All this stuff is in the way." Maya responds.
"It is beneficial for young men and women to realize right now the value of working together as equals in all things, because when you do, the results are... Clear." Mr.Norton says.
"Good job baby" Lucas says.
"You too babe. You did great." I responds smiling at him.
"Does that mean we can have a movie night" he asks.
"Yeah we can" I say smiling.