A/N: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available!

March 25th 2021

Chapter 84
Our Farewell to a Class

"This is my third group to graduate," Maya reflected. She had barely woken up, Lucas as well. They remained spooned together still, his arms around her, and sometimes his forehead, sometimes his lips, pressed to the flowers tattooed at her shoulder. "I've only got one left that's been there with me from the start after this."

"That's not such a bad thing, is it?" Lucas asked. "That just means you've been a teacher all that time. Remember when you hadn't even started, how much you wanted it? You're here now, and you're doing amazing things." She laughed lightly, the sort of laugh that said, 'you're trying to build me up because you're my husband.' "I would have loved it if you'd been my teacher back then," he added, and now her laughter said something else. She turned in his arms, the better to gaze into his eyes.

"Are we still you and me in that scenario? Because that sounds borderline dangerous and a little illegal," she whispered.

"Alright, a teacher like you then," he adjusted, and her face said he wasn't completely out of the woods yet. "The point I'm trying to get to…"

"And committing hypothetical felonies to reach," Maya squinted at him.

"Every group you see through to the end should be like… another gold star in your book," he told her. "The more you have, it'll be like…" he shook his head, searching for the right word.

"A sky full of stars," she offered.

"Better than a blank sky because you're holding all the stars in your hands and won't let go."

"Sounds painful… Also, I'm pretty sure they're not actually that small from up close." He sighed. "But I get what you're saying," she smiled, leaning to kiss him. "And you're right, I know. I have a feeling you're going to have to deal with this whole dramatic flare up every spring," she informed him, mouthing a sheepish 'sorry.'

"You could put them somewhere," he suggested. "Not actual stars," he added before she could make another joke. "Could be stars though, the smaller kind, like, this big," he pinched his fingers together, with about three inches in between. "One for each class. Or it can be something else. Make it so you look forward to adding another every year."

"I like that plan," Maya decided, then, "But not today, because we need to get ready to go."

They'd debated whether to bring Marianne. On the one hand, they never liked to exclude her unless they absolutely had to, but at the same time, all it would take would be one thing that got her to start crying, and then it would get in the way of the graduates' moment. So, in the end, they elected to leave her with Elizabeth. They went about getting dressed, and eating a simple breakfast, and after spending what time they had left with their daughter before they really needed to go, they got in the car and made their way to the high school.

"You know, I guess it's because this is the first one of these we've gone to since she was born, but now I can't stop thinking how it'll be Marianne up there one day," Lucas reflected as he drove.

"One day, in about seventeen years," Maya pointed out. She really was not ready to start thinking about their baby girl as a high school graduate. She wasn't even walking yet, was not even crawling yet, or talking… That was way too far away, and she kind of preferred it that way.

"No, I know," Lucas shook his head, showing he wasn't rushing to get there either. "But it's like all of a sudden I don't see that moment the same way anymore." Maya considered this.

"Alright, I guess I kind of see what you're saying," she admitted. If it could make them in any way emotional when they were on this side of it, with a still fairly new baby girl, the road ahead still a blank canvas unfurling miles and miles ahead of them… What would it be like when they stood right at the other side, and they could look back to see that canvas filled with miles, years of her life, all the way back to when she had been that baby girl fitting so snug in their arms? "No rush, right?"

"Very, very slow and steady," Lucas agreed.

"We can work with that."

Arriving at the school, they parked and got out. On the way into the building, they ran into any number of students with their parents. Not all of them took art, so naturally not all of them felt in any way compelled to look up and wave when they saw her go by. Then again, those who weren't in her class would sometimes see her go by and say something to their families they could tell had to do with her music, with Ree, the awards… That's her!

"Hey, Mrs. Friar! Hey Mr. Friar!" They turned to find Roman Day waving at them, surrounded by his brothers, parents, and a few more relatives who were easily identified for being from either Barton or Michelle's side of the family. The Days all had a very distinctive look to them.

"Good morning," Maya smiled, nodding across the group as she and Lucas approached. Barton made the introductions between the two of them and the unknown guests who'd come to support Dakota today. Maya turned to him now… For all the talk between her and Lucas that morning, the adding of 'former' to 'student' always felt like a pill going down rough, but here they were. Dakota Day was now her former student. "The robe looks good on you," Maya nodded, focusing on the good things instead of the overly emotional ones.

"It's too short, I think," he looked down at himself.

"I'm afraid that's as long as they ever get, you're just tall," Maya promised, as she had to look up to meet his eye. At this point, he was just taller than Lucas, and she was… really not.

"Just walk like this," twelve-year-old Anton told him, starting at a crouch, and walking around. Showing their adherence to the logic of 'it's funnier if there's more of us,' this soon had Lambert and Roman doing the same, the better to tease their more reserved big brother in mass.

"Boys," Michelle Day cleared her throat, and her younger sons stood back up to height, fixing their suit jackets as they did.

"Better that than coming in with a dress and having the whole thing hidden so it looks like it's just the robe and your shoes, and then boys finding it funny to ask if that's all you're wearing," Maya told Lucas as they were moving away from the substitute teacher and his family.

"Who did that?" Lucas asked her, frowning.

"Idiots whose names I've forgotten by now… Oh, Calvin," she absently snapped her fingers as the name came back to her.

"Horton?" Lucas blinked. She nodded.

"Down, Huckleberry," she tapped his arm. "Trust me, I came out of that face-off a winner." He chuckled. He could believe that.

"Mrs. Friar!" they heard. Lucas never got tired of hearing that, not because of how it signified their union – even though it did – but because he would catch that smile on her face. Getting called on by one of her students was one of those small but powerful pleasures of her work.

In this case, the voice had belonged to Ariel Su, and they ended up joining her and her family for a few moments, as they'd done with the Days, and as they would do with just about all of her students graduating this morning at some point or another. John and Nadia Su greeted their daughter's art teacher with an air about them that Maya and Lucas would also see a lot of today, in that even though they had barely gotten to spend more than the span of a parent-teacher night session with her, over a couple of nights in the two years before this one, they had heard her mentioned so many times in the time in between that it only increased her presence in their consciousness.

With Ariel's parents, it felt inevitable that they would have heard even more, what with Ariel being part of the quiz team, and the basketball team. And now… now Maya had helped provide something that would be as beneficial to the daughter as it would be reassuring to the parents. She'd provided the Matthews of Philadelphia. Now they were sending their daughter out in the world, off to college so far away, yes, but they would know that she was not entirely on her own. She'd have people to turn to, an anchor to keep her a bit more grounded.

"Nervous about your speech?" Maya asked Ariel as they got to step aside for a moment while Lucas chatted with her parents.

"No…" Ariel shook her head, though her face didn't look as sure as that. "I don't know, I just don't like going up on my own like that, you know? I'm more of a team girl," she added with a smile.

"Yeah, me, too," Maya confessed. "Alright, want me to give you my best stage fright busters?"

"Is it the picturing naked thing?" Ariel frowned.

"No, no, please," Maya laughed. "No, you go up there, and the whole time just imagine me standing up there with you, hyping you up." Now Ariel laughed. "That's it," Maya smiled. "And if you need a boost, imagine more of us there, too. We've got you, okay?"

"Okay," Ariel nodded quickly.

"Good, now I'm just going to go or else I might start crying and that really won't help," Maya gave the girl's shoulders a light squeeze and moved to rejoin Lucas and carry on. As they walked, she took a few deep breaths.

"All good?" Lucas asked.

"I've got an appointment with a sketchbook when we get home," she informed him.

"And a pumpkin?"

"Don't even, I'll start aching," she tipped her head up and he smiled, putting his arm around her shoulders until she leaned to his.

It was nearly time for everyone to take their places in the auditorium when Lucas spotted a girl sprinting toward them, gown flapping after her and holding her cap so it wouldn't fall off her head. He alerted Maya and she turned just in time to receive the embrace of soon-to-be graduate Daphne Brett.

"Hey!" Maya laughed, more than happy to reciprocate the gesture. "Happy to see you, too!"

"I didn't want to end up not getting to say thank you!" Daphne explained, pulling back with her own bright smile. "I was going through my diary this morning, and I found your drawing in the back," she went on. "I should have looked before, and… Anyway, it was just… Thank you," she repeated, when she couldn't think of how else to explain it.

Each drawing, for each student, had demanded some amount of consideration, yes. Daphne's though… It had been the first one she'd thought of, the first one she'd done. Maybe for how imaginative the girl was, and for the overarching narrative she'd upheld over the last three years, it had been easier for Maya to get the idea. She'd drawn Daphne herself, as something almost like a cosmic being, floating free of gravity among the stars. Evidently, it had been exactly the thing to represent Daphne, and she thought so, too.

"I'm really glad you liked it," Maya told her.

"I love it," Daphne promised. "I want to put on my wall, but I don't want to rip it out either. Is it okay if I make a copy or something?"

"It's all yours to do with as you please, alright?"

"I will, I… Oh, I gotta go!" Daphne turned when they heard her father call out to her.

"Get out there, get that diploma," Maya laughed as she watched her run off.

It was high time that the ceremony started because she really needed the emotions train to stop barrelling along the way it did. Not that she expected the next part to be devoid of emotions, but it would be less than seeing all those smiling faces right in front of her and then having to think about how they wouldn't be in her class when she went back in September… right?

"Alright, pumpkin, your services are needed," Lucas would address Marianne, later on, as he walked into the master bedroom and collected her. She was awake and very happy to see him, which was precisely what they needed. He carried her downstairs, where Maya was telling her grandmother and sister about the ceremony, and how this person had gone across the stage, and how that one dropped their diploma… When she heard Marianne, she turned and gasped before moving to get her when she was handed over.

"Oh, this is what I've been waiting for," she intoned dramatically. "Hi… Hi…" she cooed, kissing the seven-month-old's little face.

Suddenly, they were looking to their first summer with their baby girl. They were also left to realize it had been a year since they'd been off on the tour with Ree, which might have been the most impossible thing, if it weren't for how Marianne was right here with them. She was growing faster every day, when she'd been only this little thing in Maya's belly a year before. As much as the tour had been an experience they would never forget and one they would cherish just as fervently, both Maya and Lucas could say that they were looking forward to a much calmer summer, right here in Austin. There would still be music, sure, but at the end of the day they'd be in their own home, among their people.

"What's going on up here?" Lucas asked, some time later, when his search for his wife brought him to the attic. He'd stopped on the stairs upon finding her standing in the middle of the room, staring at one of the walls.

"Considering stars…" she informed him.

"Right, okay," he nodded, then, "More words now?" She laughed before looking down at him.

"Like you said, remember?"

"Oh!" he did remember. The morning seemed so long ago. The stars for her classes, or whatever shape she chose. "And how's that going?"

"I'm staring at a wall; how do you think it's going?" she sighed before crouching and sitting on the floor. Lucas climbed up the rest of the way and came to sit with her. "I guess I'm trying to be a bit sort of… forward thinking, you know? We have no intention of going anywhere, but what if we move someday? I don't want to do anything that would mean leaving them behind." The sentence gave him a thought, which she must have caught on his face. "What?" she asked.

"I mean, it's up to you…"

A few minutes later, with a borrowed pocketknife, Maya was standing at the side of her desk as, along top left corner of the flat ledge, she carefully carved out three stars. She made them large enough that, inside the stars, she could go on to carve a number. '28. '29. '30. Her three graduating classes.

"How many do you think I can fit on there?" she asked Lucas as he took in the result. He scanned the length and width of the ledge.

"I'd say you've got a good fifty in there."

"Good… That's a start."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners