February 19th 2018

Chapter 50
Her Cheer For Holidays

Today was one was one of those days that started, it seemed, as most of the world – at least the world in her immediate vicinity – went on sleeping. They had to wake and rise, all of them, very early… They had a plane to catch, and as her mother continued to point out, with Christmas just days away, it would be chaos out there, so they'd better get a move on.

November had gone by, as had the start of December up to this point, like a lot of their lives did. School was school, which sort of made it sound like they didn't have to work at it, and that would have been so wrong. For all of them, sophomore year was another turn on the wheel of difficulty, but then they would work at it just as they always did, and where they struggled, they had others around them to help them along. For Nadine, and Maya, for Asher and Rebecca, all of them with advanced placements, it was even more of that, but, for what part of it Maya could speak for, it was no more the end of the world as anything else. Yes, it was more work, yes, it required a lot of discipline, but then she had prepared herself for this, and to no one's surprise more than her own, she was thriving just fine.

Then they had the quiz team, and this was progressing along as well. They'd had a couple of meet ups now, with other teams from other schools in the area. The first had been… well, a bit of a disaster, honestly. But the second one had only been a hair disappointing, so that was good, wasn't it? They'd gone in the first time, not really knowing how it would go, how they would respond to how it all went, once the introduction of another team, strangers, came into play. Now they knew, and now they could start finding their rhythm. They could work toward a win, somewhere in the future.

By now, much as they had adjusted to the situation as a whole, the absence of basketball was really getting to make itself felt among them. They should have been at it by now, and they weren't. But maybe in a small, small way, it was just as well. With all their jobs, for their own benefits but at heart for their trip's even more, there would have been no way they could swing doing both. For now, things were moving along on that front, and it did feel like they'd climbed past the base of their earnings, had reached the level of it feeling substantial, real.

Among her friends, all was well, everyone being just as they'd always been 'just getting taller,' as Zay would put it. And with her and Lucas, things were so good, just as they'd been, that even if other things hadn't been going so well, she would still have felt like optimism was a thing she could cling to. And now something wonderful was approaching.

Much as the thought of not getting to spend Christmas with all of her friends had not been one Maya really looked forward to, she had been very happy when her parents had received the informal invitation Farkle and Smackle had passed on to her, to come and spend Christmas in New York, and decided it was a very good idea. And then Riley's family had thought the same, and Maya had figured that would be it, and she would get to spend the holidays with her best friend from New York… in New York… and with more friends she missed constantly, too.

And then she discovered the two of them had not been the only ones summoned to Farkle and Smackle's side in those last wintery days of December. Lucas and his parents would be making the trip as well. So it would be ten of them making for New York on this early, so early morning.

And much as being up at this hour felt like an assault on all that was normal in the world when sleeping seemed much, much more reasonable of a thing to do, there was something to say for the power of excitement as a way of getting someone moving. She was dragging her feet just a bit, but she was moving, so that was something.

Waking up, getting up, and not hearing the telltale sounds that revealed the presence of Ghost, and Queen, and Tuck, it was the strangest thing. They had been left in the care of the Orlando family just the night before. Dylan had welcomed the growing dogs with so much giddiness, they might have thought the boy was just one more among the dogs. They certainly clambered about him like a brother, much to Maya's amusement and reassurance. Dash, Lucas' dog, for her part, had been left with Zay, who had received her like she was now his ward, and he would make it his life's mission – for the next few days at least – to ensure she was safe and sound. They expected no less.

Her parents were up now, too. Maya watched from her room, the two of them standing in the kitchen. Her mother was walking around much the same as she did, longing for more sleep but powering through, with maybe just a hint less enthusiasm for that, still siding with more sleep. Her father saw her there, and he just wrapped his arms around her, beaming, and her mother leaned easily to him, like who needed pillows and blankets when you had a Shawn Hunter there. Maya could only smile, seeing them. Her little family was still so new in a lot of ways, but to her now it felt like she could hardly remember a time when it didn't exist. That time was and would remain forevermore in the past.

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners