June 18th 2021

Chapter 169
Our Beginnings Into Distance

The closer they were getting to the day they knew they'd need to make a decision. The quiz team would soon head out of state for their biggest match yet, thanks to their defeat of the Champions, they of the golden jackets. Naturally, they wanted Maya to accompany them as well as Cory, and she wanted to go with them, too. But they would be gone for three nights, and there was Marianne to think about.

Of course, she would be perfectly safe whether she stayed home with Lucas or went away with Maya, that wasn't the issue. The part they were struggling with was the one where one of them would have her and the other would be without spouse or child for those days and nights. Lucas couldn't go with the group; it just wasn't possible for him to get away. So, they had to decide. The part that complicated matters was that, in both cases, they would argue in favor of letting the other hold on to Marianne, even as they clearly wished not to be away from her. In the end, much as she didn't want to, Maya had convinced Lucas that Marianne should stay with him. Yes, she could have gotten someone to come along and watch her when she couldn't be with her, but in the end, she'd be in a place she didn't know for three days, and it would be hard to devote much time to her while they were there. It was better that she should be home.

That was one thing handled, but now that the choice was made, there was the rest. Maya would spend the days leading up to the departure feeling like there was something misplaced in her chest, trying to get at her heart. She never liked being away from her daughter, sure, but this was really the most away she would have ever been. She could already imagine herself stressing at the thought of her baby girl, so far away and distressed because she wasn't with her. Deep down, she could believe that once she got there, she would be better, wouldn't be so anxious about it, that she would get to see her and talk to her over her phone, that Lucas and the rest of the family would be diligent in their pouring out of updates until her return. Until she was actually on the other side, experiencing this, there was no way to know that it would really happen, was there?

On departure morning, Maya felt like she was two different people. She was herself, nervous to go, excited for the team, too, naturally, but mostly dreading the part where she had to leave. It was all over her face, with anyone who saw her that morning, anyone except Marianne. When she was with her, she was the other person, she was happy Maya, she was Mama. She didn't want to leave her for three days and look like a wreck, whether she felt like one or not.

"Okay, tell me not to cry," she breathed as she walked out of the nursery and found Lucas waiting for her.

"Are you going to listen to me if I do?" he smiled.

"No," she admitted with half a pout. Right then, Lucas presented her with his pocket watch. It righted her smile at once and she took the watch, but after a moment's consideration… "Would it be irresponsible to give this to her?" she wondered, tipping her head back to the nursery.

"Possibly," Lucas had to agree. They both knew what she was like when she got her hands on a new object that intrigued her. "Anyway, I think it's safe to say you'll need it more than she will. I added a thing in there," he pointed. Maya looked down, popped the watch cover open… He'd cut and inserted a photo of the three of them into the cover.

"I do love this picture so much," she breathed as she closed it again. It was recent, too, so Marianne looked as much like herself as ever. "It's staying with me everywhere I go, alright?"

"What if you go swimming?"

"I'll watch everyone's belongings poolside. It's responsible."

One more kiss, and then she had to go. The sooner she left, the sooner she'd be back. Lucas made her promise not to be so focused on coming back that she missed the reason why she went at all. Maya swore, and she would carry that vow with her over the coming weekend.

The last time she'd been on a plane for a quiz team competition, she'd been part of the team, not the advisors. They'd done pretty well for themselves, though Maya would say she'd come away with an even better prize. That was when she'd first met Sam, when they'd started their journey to being a family again, her father, Abigail, the kids… She reminded all this to Cory as they settled into their seats on the plane. He recalled how he'd been her advisor at the time, which only helped to make the years in between feel extra tangible for a few beats.

They travelled on Friday. There would be two rounds of competition, on Saturday and Sunday, and they would fly home on Monday morning. That mostly meant that they had Friday as something like a vacation among friends. Maya would watch them walking in a pack, Stella, Rochelle, Bodhi, Lea… The Born Curious family was as strong as ever. Rochelle and Bodhi would go along hand in hand just about everywhere, so Lea quickly took it in stride by hooking her arm with Stella's as they'd follow them. Stella happily welcomed the gesture and went with it. The four of them would stop several times and ask their teachers to take a picture of them in front of one landmark or another whether it had any genuine significance, or they just thought it was pretty… or funny.

They had two rooms, one for Cory and Bodhi, and one for Maya and the three girls. Friday night turned into movie night, all of them piled in the second room with what movie-appropriate snacks they'd allowed themselves from the mini-bar. While the team was in there with Cory, Maya slipped out into the other team room with her laptop and his key card so she could call home. She had definitely made it to the other side now, where she was coping much better than anticipated, though she wouldn't say it was a complete crossing. She hadn't expected it to be that way though, had she? But she had the watch, which never left her, and she had her promise. So, after talking with Lucas for a bit, and doing a long-distance performance of the nightly lullaby to a sleepy pumpkin, she returned across the hall and sat with her students. Lea dropped all pretence and treated her as the cousin she was by leaning her head to her shoulder for most of the movie. Maya would not disturb her away from this for a second.

The next morning started early, partly because most of them were early birds by nature, and partly because none of them wanted to have come all this way only to lose. Breakfast was eaten, all six of them with room service, and the whole thing turned into a mock-up match, where the grand prize took the form of the 'potato pot.' Whenever one side would get a question right, the opposing side would have to sacrifice one of their little cubes. Whoever would come out on top would get to share the pot. They were all nervous about the first match but fighting for those potatoes was a pretty solid way for them to go into the day without so much weight on their shoulders.

It was just as well that they would have reminded themselves not only of how good they were but also of just how much being on the team together meant to them. Some of those other teams, like the Champions, would only see themselves as a team, would only care about winning, but if there was one thing the members of Born Curious held to, it was the most important one of all: Born Curious was family.

Saturday's round went about as well as they could want it to go. They hadn't come out top of the list, but they didn't need to. They were at a comfortable third, and they all agreed that they had space to grow and take the whole thing on the next day. They finished Saturday off as sagely as anyone would when they had a big competition that they'd travelled all this way to be in the next day. The next night would be another story. It would be their last night here before flying home, the competition would be behind them… They'd think of something to make the time special.

"Hey, there you are. Coming to bed?" Maya asked as she poked her head out the balcony door. Stella sat on one of the chairs there, legs pulled under herself, with a notebook open in her lap where she was drawing with a lead pencil. When she responded by sitting up and closing the book all at once, Maya wondered what she'd been drawing that needed hiding. Off the timid surge, she could be reassured that it was nothing bad, and she did her best to pretend like she hadn't seen the half-made portrait at all. "Bed?" she hooked her thumb back toward the room. "If we oversleep, Rochelle might actually lock us out in the hall," she whispered.

"I heard that!" Rochelle was heard calling from inside the room, startling Maya and in turn making Stella laugh.

"You are scary, you know that?" Maya looked back into the room.

"Thank you," Rochelle replied, and Maya turned big eyes to Stella. See, you gotta come, she's intense.

"I'll be right there," Stella promised, sounding like she was pleading for five more minutes.

"Okay, but just so we're clear, you are defying my request and I had nothing to do with it," Maya pointed at her like she was working overtime to ensure that Rochelle would hear her. Stella smiled and nodded. "Alright, then, at your own peril," Maya winked at her before moving to head back into the room.

"Mrs. Friar?" Stella called her back before she could go.

"Yeah?" Maya swung back out like she'd only had to double back. The girl had a look about her now like she'd been wanting to say whatever she had to say for a while, and right now there was a definite feeling of 'this seems like a good time.' Maya went ahead and shut the balcony door, isolating them from the others and giving them the extra privacy Stella might need.

"I… I'm not good with change? You know…" she looked down for a beat before meeting her eye again. Maya lightly nodded. Of course, she knew. "I've gotten better, I think. But now, it's just… with graduation coming, and college in the fall…"

"It feels like a lot in the beginning, but then after a while it's just another kind of school," Maya assured her. She went and sat across from her, and Stella pulled her legs down as they faced each other.

"That's what my parents tell me, and my sisters, and Phoebe…" she sighed, tracing her finger along the lines on her notebook's cover.

"But it doesn't make you feel any better, does it?" Maya guessed. Stella didn't reply, didn't move too much. "You know, just because they're going to put that diploma in your hand, it doesn't mean you and I can't talk anymore. I might not be your teacher anymore after that, but I don't think I'm going to be surprising you if I say that I care a lot about you, and I want to know that you're okay out there, yeah?" Stella looked up at her, and the smile on her face said it all. She'd needed to hear it, and it reassured her a great deal. "I think your five minutes are up," Maya pointed out in a whisper. "Don't want to get you-know-who on our case," she gave a mock shiver.

"Okay, yes," Stella moved to rise, keeping her notebook and pencil close. Maya actually had a notion of who it was that she'd been drawing until she'd been interrupted, but she didn't bring it up. If Stella wanted to share what it was all about, she'd know she could come to her anytime.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners