April 2nd 2021

Chapter 92
Our Turn to Diaries

The sketchbooks were purchased on her own dime, the sketchbooks, and the gold markers, too, the spares, the pencils for those who needed them… The whole thing had been intended to be a one-off thing, or at least just for the year where she would be absent from her class. It would never have been covered by what funds she would have gotten through the school for supplies. She wouldn't have wanted it to be anyway. It was going to be this one thing she did, all the better to keep in touch with her students from afar. They did count toward their grades, but more like extra credit than anything else at that point.

As the year had progressed however, Maya had come to realize how valuable these diaries could be, as tools in her teaching. So, maybe it wouldn't be a one-off thing anymore. By the end of the school year, she'd made up her mind to keep it going this upcoming year. She would see how it went this time, and maybe she'd keep going, the year after this one, and the one after that, and so on.

There was still something about stopping to think how she was able to put down the money for the sketchbooks alone and be okay. It used to be that just buying a single one for herself, one good one, would feel like an extravagance. Then today… It wasn't as though they were rich, no, but the fact was that they were actually well-off, or just on the border of it. Neither she nor Lucas were in the habit of just splurging on unnecessary things just because they could, and for that they were able to do things like… well, this, for instance. And it was infinitely more in line with who they were at heart.

The new school year was coming up in a matter of less than three weeks now, which meant it was time to get things moving for her 2030-2031 diaries. She had put in an order through the store at the mall, and now it was time to go and pick them all up. She had her student lists, so she could begin to identify the spines with their names. It reminded her of how happy Sophie would get about labelling and protecting everyone's textbooks in college. Preparing the diaries was definitely giving Maya that same feeling.

"Would it be too much of a hassle to bring the cart?" Maya asked Lucas as they walked back from the Sanderson farm, where they'd just dropped off Marianne. Cara and Granny Lizzie were still in Tucson. "You know, just to get everything back to the car. How'd you do it last year?" she went on now, realizing she didn't actually remember.

"Sam and Cara and I just brought them," Lucas mimed carrying a load in his arms. "We'll be fine, we can make two trips if we need to."

"Yeah, okay," Maya nodded, and she heard him laugh. "What?" she turned to him. "Something funny there, Doc? Do I amuse you?" she smirked.

"Always," he turned a smile back to her and she nodded again. Good. "You're giddy, and I like seeing you that way," he went on.

"I can't help it," she sighed, leaning to his arm as their hands held fast together, her left and his right, birds joined in the middle. "You know how much I missed being on stage, but that's almost nothing compared to how much I missed being in class, with my kids," she admitted.

"I know you have," Lucas promised, his words as good as saying how much his knowledge presented itself in happiness for her. "When we get back, you go ahead and settle in to prepare the new diaries and I'll go get Marianne back, let you focus on all that," he told her, now presenting an air of calm, like this would almost be meditation to her. She laughed, but then he wasn't so far off, was he?

So, off they went to the mall, with the back of the minivan occupied by five empty boxes, each one marked. Freshman. Sophomore. Junior. Senior. Supplies. The last one would be for those spare sketchbooks and for the gold markers and the pencils. The others were topped with a post-it note to remind her how many books to add to each. She still had a handful of spares from the previous year, and those would be added into the last box, though Maya was never above grabbing one of those for herself if she needed it.

Maya and Lucas walked into the mall, carrying two and three boxes respectively and heading for the art store. When they arrived, it almost went without saying that they were here to pick up the big order, and they were seen to at once. Maya was very aware of her husband's barely contained chuckles, so she had a good idea that her own face must have been a bit like that of a child on Christmas morning when she spotted those neat stacks of blank sketchbooks, topped with a bag full of gold marker packs and pencil boxes.

"Just help me fill the boxes," she gave him a squint seriously undercut by her smile. They counted off the sketchbooks and added as many as required in each of the class boxes, counted the rest and added it to the last box with the bag. Everything was there, good and paid for, and they were set to go.

"Hi, Mrs. Friar!" They turned to find Stella Buckley standing there, a basket on her arm suggesting she might have been in the middle of a supply raid of her own. She kind of had that same look in her eyes as Maya did just now, and her teacher was happy to see it as always.

"Hey, Stella, big haul day?" Maya asked, nodding to the basket.

"I was running out of a lot of things," Stella nodded, pushing her hair from her face as she looked to her selection. "I usually put off coming here until I really need it."

"You don't like being here?" Lucas asked.

"Oh, I do… a lot… which is kind of the problem," Stella explained, and that sheepish look on her face said it all. If she came every time that she did need something, she would leave the store with much more than what she actually needed. Better that she came just the one time, minimizing the impulse buys.

"Is that all of it?" Maya asked, and Stella nodded. "Headed home now? We can give you a ride," Maya told her, stealing a look to Lucas who showed his agreement at once. She counted it as another sign of Stella's evolution over the past three years that she didn't immediately start shaking her head, out of concerns that she'd be imposing. She still tacked on a 'if it's not too much trouble,' and upon being promised that it wouldn't be, she bargained by offering to help carry the boxes back to the minivan.

"We're doing diaries again?" she asked, with rising excitement. She only realized what the boxes were after returning from the registers to pay for her own items. They'd all been transferred into her backpack now.

"Yeah," Maya beamed. She would always respond to enthusiasm like that in kind. "It worked really well last time, no reason to stop just because I'm back, right?"

"Right," Stella agreed. For a moment, it felt like she was considering a return through the aisles to grab a few more things in anticipation, then thought against it. They grabbed the boxes – one for Stella and two each for Maya and Lucas – and headed out to the parking lot. Just as they were reaching the minivan, Stella made a suggestion: If she was going to keep doing it, then maybe she could decorate the boxes.

"You know, I have been thinking about it," Maya confessed, her head turning almost on instinct toward Lucas. She knew his face would try and hide a smirk, so not to reveal to the girl exactly how much she had both thought about it and expressed her interest out loud. Maybe to counter this, a thought came to her and she looked to her student again with a new smile. "You want to do it?"

"Can I?" Stella asked at once, her artistic drive taking precedence over every inch of her shyness.

"Admit it, you've already got ideas," Maya pointed a wiggling finger in the direction of her forehead, and Stella smiled. Of course, she did.

Just like that, the ride home became delayed for a few hours and redirected from 'mall to home' to 'teacher's house to home.' Stella called home to let her father know, and then they were off. When they arrived, Lucas helped carry the boxes into the kitchen before heading out toward the Sanderson farm to get Marianne, as they had planned. Factoring in the addition of Stella, he would end up taking the baby over to his parents' house, leaving teacher and student to their activity.

Maya gave Stella free pick of her materials up in the attic while she set up everything, stacked the sketchbooks to give over the empty boxes. Stella returned with a box top she'd used to carry everything and an anxious smile on her face. It left Maya with this idea of one day seeing any one of her children share her love for art in this way. It was a wonderful image and a better feeling. For now, she watched as Stella got to work on her first box for a minute, and then she got to work on the sketchbooks.

She had her lists, and she worked through them one stack at a time. She would take each book and open the cover to write a note inside, as she'd done before. Each one was specific to the student it would go to, except for the freshmen of course, which took the most time of the whole process. When the note was done, she would take out the gold marker and trace the name on the spine, before setting the book down to give it the chance to properly set. She did this again, and again, and again, until the stack would be complete, and then she could move to the next one. Stella would take care to do the boxes in the order she did the stacks, and by the time Maya would be through with one stack, she'd find a beautifully decorated box waiting to receive the diaries.

"It's a good thing we ran into each other today, because I don't see how they could have looked any better than this," Maya told her student, and Stella beamed humbly.

"Rochelle would be jealous if she knew I saw the freshman list," she commented. Maya laughed. "I won't tell her," Stella added. "Summer's almost over anyway. She'll find out when the year starts."

"Day one, if she's not stalking my classroom when lunch is about to end, I'll be very surprised," Maya joked… half-joked… as she pulled another blank book from the pile and turned her eyes back to the list. She was doing the freshmen now, and maybe for not having the alphabetical order as stamped into her mind as the other classes', she didn't realize who was next until she saw his name appear from under her ruler. Munroe, Taylor.

The unguarded flicker of thought it created was equally unguarded from her face, and she saw Stella's eyes move down to the page. She definitely recognized the name, even from further away, and she looked back to her teacher. What was that reaction about, her eyes would ask? She'd already picked up on something regarding Maya and Phoebe, but now to see the same thing happening with her best friend's little brother…

"Mrs. Friar?" she slowly asked, and for all the time they'd spent together over the last three years, it was hard for a moment to keep seeing the divide between teacher and student. She had to, though… Right now, no matter what, she had to.

"My wrist is starting to hurt," Maya told her, which was close enough to the truth that she didn't feel nearly as horrible as she could about having to hide things from her or anyone else. Stella accepted this, as she would, but Maya seriously started to wonder exactly how much longer that would work. "While I take a break, any idea what you'll do to your cover this time?"

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners