January 25th 2018

Chapter 25
Her Induction Into Assistance

The next day at lunch, the four of them had gotten together to eat as a team, the better for them to develop their bond, to make their team spirit grow stronger. For the three girls it was easy enough. They were already great friends, Maya and Nadine especially, and even though she didn't spend as much time with them as the others did, Rebecca fell into that category, too. Even so, it could be said that they needed to strengthen their existence as a unit, so that was what they intended to do.

And then there was Scott, of course. Over the last year they had sort of seen him around every once in a while, over the previous year. He'd be at his siblings' games most of the time, and then if they went to the Shelby house they could run into him, same every so often around the neighborhood. Maya had served him a few times at the diner. But despite all this, he was still for the most part 'Nathan and Julianne's kid brother', not his own person exactly. He was… well, Scott Shelby, and he needed to become just Scott to them, same as Riley… sort of same as Riley, except without the whole crush thing.

The crush thing… It was stronger than her, ever since the previous afternoon, when Riley had confessed her secret feelings for the boy, it was as though her best friend mode had ramped up to 500%. Scott was a good guy, from all she knew of him, about as good as she would ever hope for someone for Riley, probably even more, from what Maya had seen of him, and she considered herself a pretty good judge of character. Riley didn't want her to interfere, and she wouldn't, not the way her friend was concerned she might, but she could still do this part, right? Just talking, just getting to know her new teammate. She just had to wait her turn, as they all spoke together.

"We should do this once a week or something," Nadine declared, as Rebecca reached over and snatched up the bits of mushroom she had dismissed from her pizza, knowing she wouldn't touch them with a ten-foot pole. It was a system their group was very much used to, so much so that when Rebecca wasn't there with them for mushroom relief but was further off in the cafeteria, either one of the two girls would move to either give or take them away, and when she was nowhere near, the poor little pile would have to find another taker, Nadine would insist on it, would not see it wasted, even if she couldn't bring herself to eat them. Scott was the only one of them not privy to this habit, and Maya could see the curiosity on his face, not confusion, just the sort of look that said 'what's that about, I wonder.' So she explained it to him, and he nodded in understanding.

"Does anyone want these?" he held up a small container showing green grapes from the bagged lunch he'd brought. "My mother put them in there, she knows I don't eat them." Maya volunteered herself for those at once. He was not shy to introduce himself into their routine, which she liked to see. When Nadine asked why he didn't like them, he had a brief awkward look on his face before explaining with a smirk. It seemed that, when he was little, his brother Julian had told him they were eyeballs, had spooked him good, and ever since then, even if he knew it had just been a joke, he couldn't eat them without thinking about that. The girls had laughed, and Maya promised him he wouldn't have to eat those for as long as he was with them.

"I haven't met that Shelby," she thought aloud. There were eight of them, she'd known since the start of the previous year. Getting to know her teammates on the girls' team, getting to know Julianne, she'd first been introduced to the whole 'Shelby legacy.' Three of them had already come and gone through these halls, Matt, and Kate, and Julian, and now Nathan, too. Julianne still had two years to go, and Scott was just starting, while they had Grace who'd just started 7th grade, and Olivia who was in 4th. Maya and her friends were very familiar with the youngest five, and as for the eldest three, well they were for the most part at the heart of stories they heard, all of them having played basketball at this school.

That train of thought had inevitably reminded her – and, she soon saw, Scott, too – about how that line had been brought to a screeching halt because of this whole situation, and she had to realize their quiz bowl teammate had yet to recover from this, no matter how much he tried to conceal it and act normal.

She wasn't going to interfere, no. This wasn't interfering, not at all. She was doing this entirely for Scott. If Riley should happen to benefit from this, well that was just bonus…

"You should come over this afternoon, after school, come play with us," she invited him, and Nadine backed up this request with a resounding yes. "Totally informal, right up until someone makes a shot, and then it gets competitive like crazy," she told him, and he couldn't help but laugh, so he accepted the invitation.

The lunch carried on with conversation, and by the end of it, Maya was certain of two things. The first was that their little team would get along just fine, and the second was that she'd had Scott pegged exactly right, and she was glad on both accounts. Of course now the question remained… Sure, Riley liked him, but what would happen if it didn't go the other way? She hadn't seen him around her friend enough to know, and trying to bring her up now, well that would feel like interfering. She'd just have to wait until that afternoon and see, wouldn't she?

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners