February 1st 2020

Chapter 32
Their Support of a Project

The morning after he'd told Maya about running into the coach and wanting to do something for him before he retired, Lucas woke up in the dark and soon left for the Sanderson farm. He'd left Maya asleep, and most times when he'd return to freshen up before heading in to school or work she would still be around, usually just on the verge of leaving. Some mornings, she'd actually be standing outside, next to Sparkles the minivan, waiting just long enough to kiss him good morning before she had to go off to work.

The minivan was gone by the time he'd come back around this time, and when he got up to their room he found a note waiting on the dresser. Sorry, had to go. Owe you doubles tonight. 366! Maya. (PS: Left something in the top drawer…) And when he'd opened said drawer, he'd found a small notebook, surrounded with ribbon he was sure came from the same stock they'd gotten in anticipation of MJ's birthday, and topped with a post-it. What's a project without a journal? He'd chuckled. Of course, she would know, wouldn't she?

The blank journal was stuck into his bag almost in the same motion as he'd grabbed it on his way down to the car and off toward the university. All through that drive, it was like he couldn't stop thinking about it, which made that he couldn't stop thinking about the coach and what he might do for him either. Maybe that was the whole intent of the journal, wasn't it? A physical reminder that there was something he needed to do… After he'd picked up Robbie and Ramona, he'd spent much of the drive letting them talk amongst themselves because his mind was off thinking about what he might do, what he could need, and who…

"Lucas? Hey…" He looked briefly into the rear-view mirror to find that his friends were both looking his way. "You're not sleeping up there, are you?" Ramona joked.

"What? Oh, no, sorry, I was just thinking about… a few things… Hey, do you remember Coach Wiley?" he asked her. Robbie wouldn't know him, he hadn't grown up in Austin with them, but Ramona…

"Sure, I do," she laughed, and as ever the routine was the same. The mention of the man would make the other happy, and the news of his retirement would take them by surprise, and then there would be memories flooding in. Ramona's memories brought her back into a bad time, but softened thanks to the man in question. "He found me having lunch under the bleachers, every day after I came back to school, after my sister died… He'd sit up there and have his lunch, wouldn't say a word, just ate with me. After a while I started sitting on the benches instead of under them, and we'd talk…"

Lucas remembered that time, although he hadn't known about the gym side lunches. They'd been fourteen, both of them, early in the summer after Lucas had been suspended and in the middle of the whole debate as to whether or not they'd end up moving to New York. It had been in the papers, on the news, a twelve-year-old girl had drowned at a local pool. He'd heard his parents talking about it a lot, how it shouldn't have happened, but he hadn't known until he'd finally gotten to go back to school in the fall, restarting the 7th grade, that the girl in question had been one of his (now former) classmates' sister. He had no trouble imagining Coach Wiley stepping in with Ramona though, not even a little bit. That was who he was, and that was one of the many reasons he had this project ahead of him.

He told as much to Ramona, sharing his own memories, and all she needed to know was that he wanted to do something for the coach and she was on board.

"Can you look in my bag, there's a small green notebook, looks brand new? Yeah, that one…" And for the rest of the ride, as he drove, Ramona would take notes for the both of them. Robbie would jump in with his own ideas, too, which his wife would add to the journal.

They were still talking about it all as they arrived at the university, though it was as much a mix between coming up with ideas for Project Wiley and just sharing memories of those old middle school days, with some of the elementary mixed in. It was dawning on Lucas how much, if some things had gone differently for all of them, if he hadn't been suspended and dropped one year under her and the rest of their old classmates, Ramona might have been more of a factor in his life in the past decade. She'd been his friend, maybe mostly within the confines of school walls, but there had been a few times where he'd been at her house and she'd been at his. And in those last weeks leading up to his suspension, he could look back now and realize he might have had the tiniest bit of a crush on her, even if he'd been too young to call it that. Of course, things had gone the way they'd gone, and he didn't see any of them regretting where they had ended up instead.

"Morning," Zelda greeted them as the trio walked into their first class of the day. Lucas and the others waved and said hello.

"Oh, here, that's yours," Ramona returned the green journal to Lucas, who took it and flipped through to the first pages, now covered in Ramona's scratchy handwriting. It was peculiar enough to be recognizable to others who'd seen it before, which was the case with Josie, as she walked by.

"Exchanging messages or something?" she asked, curious.

"Extracurricular activities," Lucas called it, catching a smirk from Ramona. "Tell you about it at lunch."

As promised, they all gathered a few hours later, their appointed Tuesday lunch time with the usual crew. Lucas, Bishop, Simon, Robbie, Ramona, Josie, and Zelda… Four guys, three girls, just like the old days, except everyone's new… None of them would have known Coach Wiley like he and Ramona did, but even so, as they started telling the others about the man and what they hoped to do, they didn't have to know him to get why they'd want to do all this. Or maybe it went that, because they knew him as a person, they could expect it from him.

"Our gym teacher was horrible…" Josie started, with a laugh and a shake of the head. "Well, maybe not horrible, but…" she amended after a beat, looked around the table and seeming for a moment to step back, to remember where she was, and who was with her. She cleared her throat. "I hated gym class," she finally said, closing the matter by taking a bite of her salad, like she was finally starting to learn where the blame had truly belonged through all those years where she'd placed it at the feet of a perfectly reasonable teacher. She'd been doing that more and more lately.

"Are you doing this thing now or at the end of the year?" Simon asked.

"He'll expect it if you wait, won't he?" Zelda pointed out. "The faculty will throw him a party or something."

"You guys get to surprise him," Josie chimed in again off-hand.

This time around though, she might have contributed something useful without knowing it. It wasn't the whole of an idea, but it was something, a small seed waiting to bloom. It was enough to get Lucas to scribble something into the journal and put it away before continuing with his meal.

"You haven't told them why it matters to you," Ramona pointed out, later, as the Austin-bound trio got back in Lucas' car to head home. He turned in his seat to look at her and Robbie, buckling up in the backseat. "Your suspension and all," Ramona went on. He hadn't outright explained it to her, and he doubted Robbie even knew that much, though he trusted that he would keep confidence for his wife's old friend.

"How do you know…"

"I mean…" she shrugged, bowing her head for a beat. "That fall, when you restarted seventh grade, I was coming back in after Cami died. I spent a lot time around the admin office, they all wanted to make sure I was okay, you know? Anyway, you hear things when people tiptoe around you so much they sort of forget you're there. I put a few things together from all that."

"Right…" Lucas nodded.

She was right, he hadn't told most of the others about his suspension. Bishop knew, and the two of them here, but other than that… It wasn't even that he was hiding or anything. It had been so long ago, and it didn't feel like he had to go around like 'Hey, I'm Lucas, I got suspended from school when I was in the seventh grade and I had to repeat it.' Except here they were now, and where it would have made sense to bring it up, to give context to why this all mattered to him the way it did, he was keeping tight lipped about it with the people who were meant to be his friends. Did he really carry those old feelings even now, at twenty-four years old, well on track to becoming a veterinarian, living in a house he'd helped renovate with the woman who was to be his wife?

After dropping off Robbie and Ramona at their place, he'd continued on toward home. A lack of Sparkles told him that Maya wasn't home yet, but sounds from around the back of the house directed him to find Sam was back, and Cecilia would be joining them for dinner once again. Presently, they were making use of the basketball hoop, a gift from Shawn and Katy upon their leaving the Hunter Hart house after their summer sojourn there. Sam was chasing after the ball, which Cecilia had just thrown, and returned it to her once it had been retrieved. The way she angled the shot and tossed it, Lucas could tell she wasn't new at it. But then at the same time there was Sam, holding her crutch again while she shot the ball and standing behind her a bit, like there was a chance she might lose her balance and fall. She did appear a bit on the wobbly side, too, and he could see how it frustrated her, especially as the ball swished through the net.

"Hey," he called to them, getting their attention. Sam went and got the ball before it rolled too far away, while Cecilia walked to meet Lucas. "So… pasta sound good?" he asked her, which brought the smile back to her face.

"Yeah," she nodded.

"One of our roommates back in Houston showed us how to do those from scratch. Ever done that?"

"I haven't," Cecilia replied, though she sounded like she'd be very interested in trying.

When Maya returned from her second school session day, dinner was well on its way to being set and it all gave her a powerful flashback to nights in Houston, which she was very happy to find.

"Thanks for the gift," Lucas told her when he came over to welcome her back.

"Did it come in handy?" she asked, grinning.

"Little bit, yeah," he nodded.

"Any big ideas to share?"

"No 'eureka' yet," he shook his head. "But it might be close. You'll be the first to know when it does," he assured her.

"Counting on it."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners