July 23rd 2021

Chapter 204
Our Party For October

When they would be at school, Summer would usually go off doing her own thing, hardly acknowledging Maya beyond what would be normally expected. Maya would both understand and respect this, and she would treat her like any other student. Were there questions, among the staff, about why the girl was staying at her house? Definitely. She'd been keeping it as quiet as possible, not hiding it, just not revealing it, but sooner or later it had to come out, and so it did, thankfully only among the staff. Maya employed a 'tell no lie' policy in explaining herself. She told them that Summer's home situation had been problematic, for personal reasons, and that she'd offered herself in hosting her for the foreseeable future.

This could only work with most people, but then there would be others who had no choice but to be read in. Morgan was a regular of the house, what with band practices, and while those had been put on hold for the first few weeks of the new school year, as was the way, as soon as they'd come back into play, it meant bringing her into the fold, same as Rosa, and Nadine. Riley already knew, of course, after Dylan had told her. And then Miranda had found out, only because Summer had come to the art room one day at lunch to hand in her diary. She'd missed the morning's classes to take Tori to her appointment with the pediatrician. She hadn't seen the drama teacher, and there it was.

Miranda had been a regular of the art room at lunch time for about as long as she'd been at the school, of course, and now that the musical was starting on its way, well, they had so much to do, the three muses together, that the extra time became essential.

In a way, it felt strange to be starting all over again from the bottom, with some returning faces, and some new ones, too… All of them who'd been part of the previous year's production, they'd been pulled together with everything they'd done to get to premiere night. It wasn't just the rehearsals, and the various crafting components, it was those lunch sessions, and the Chubbie's shows… It had made everything feel like an even grander experience.

But this was great, too, or it had the potential for it. They were starting fresh, and there was plenty of power in that, too, in starting with nothing again and building their way up. There was already interest toward resuming the activities as they'd done them the year before, though they would likely wait until after Christmas break to do anything on that front. Maya looked forward to a time when they would have been doing musicals or plays for enough years in a row that it would become part of the foundation of their school years, from the first day, the first weeks, tryouts, and events, and games, all the way to the end of year staples.

The basketball teams had found new players to fill in the spots vacated by seniors and other former players who could not keep playing this year for one reason or another. Among those new players, Maya was happy to find both Stevie Brett for the girls and Henry Hillard for the boys. As to Stevie, it was hardly a surprise, not when her big sister Daphne had been one of their top players back in her day. Maybe it wasn't entirely sound to expect triumph from one because of the other's success, but there'd been a good feeling about her the moment she showed up at the tryouts, and it hadn't been proven wrong.

"I thought you were going to try out for cheerleading," Maya had asked her when she'd come jogging up to the stands.

"I did, too, but then I thought about it and, I don't know, I wanted this more."

The whole reason why she'd been in the gym that day, much as she would have probably ended up here anyway because of her own days as a player, was so that she might record Henry's tryout for his cousin. Lucas would have found a way to be there that day if it was at all possible, but there just hadn't been a way, so a video would do.

Having Henry in her class had reminded Maya of her first year, with August Matthews. Here was this boy she'd known since he was a kid, and she was excited to have him as one of her students, but then suddenly she was getting to see him in this new light, one that allowed her to see he had some troubles he might never have shown in front of her otherwise. With August, it was different, there had been circumstances he'd kept hidden, while Henry…

Well, he'd been saying for a while how he had no friends, that no one liked him, and he was a loser. Maya didn't believe this last part, and she'd be hard pressed to believe that every single student would think so little of him. She had seen plenty of him since September though, and he was on his own, all the time. When she saw him interacting with others, it was usually because he had to, like a group project. There was Stevie, of course, but whatever he felt for her, he hadn't acted on it as of yet, and Maya had been keeping herself from intervening, but sooner or later…

Him making the basketball team would be good though, for so many reasons. If he was not clicking with his own class, that didn't have to be the end of it. He could make friends with his teammates. Despite his assumption that he was a 'loser,' she happened to know he was one cool kid if you actually got to know him. Someone was going to figure that out in time, and if he just had the one friend to see him through high school, it could be enough.

Lucas was for sure looking forward to sitting in those stands at every game, flying a banner for his cousin. Every year, Maya had recruited students from her classes to make new signs for the players, just as she used to make them back in high school, and middle school… She'd made Henry's one herself, and when she'd come home with glitter still on her hands Marianne had decided that her mother was a magic fairy. Maya being Maya, she'd spent the rest of that day until their daughter's bedtime doing 'spells.' It wasn't hard to accomplish with ingenuity, helpers, and the belief of a child just shy of two years old.

"It has to stay our little secret, yeah?" Lucas had heard her whisper as she sat on the edge of the little canopied bed in the corner of their room.

"Okay, Mommy," Marianne had whispered back, sealing the pact.

"Hold on, think I've got just a bit left…" Maya had picked a bit of glitter from her finger and put it in the palm of Marianne's hand. "Don't eat it, okay?" The girl had gone to sleep with her fist squeezed around the 'magic.' By now, they could see very well that she'd adjusted to the transfer out of her crib, so they could have put her back in the nursery, with Summer and Tori, but… No, she was fine here. Maybe they'd regret it later, when the Levesque girls were gone, and Marianne would really get her room back, but they'd deal with it when the time came.

In the meantime, Lucas had plenty to attend to, whether it related to his daughter or not. With her, of course, there was the fact that she was just a few weeks away from having her second birthday, and that would be an event if there ever was one. Hallowannie would be upon them, their favorite holiday. It hadn't arrived yet though, and until then there was the hospital keeping him very busy, and then the ranch. He hadn't been there as much since he'd started his residency, but in the last few weeks he'd definitely been there the most that he'd been since that period had started. Registration had begun for the competition, which meant that they were starting to have information, numbers… It was going to be a very busy event, crowded and potentially chaotic. But they would be ready for it, they'd make absolutely certain.

"You're going too slow! Bobby! Bobby, you need to go faster!"

As he went to find his young sister-in-law that day, Lucas found her stood on the lowest rail of the gate around the training area. Off on the other side, Bobby Davis was going along on his horse with his trainer watching him.

"I know!" Bobby shouted back.

"So do it!" Nellie stretched up on her toes.

"I am!" he insisted. Nellie just huffed, crossing her arms over the top rail.

"How's it looking out there?" Lucas asked, and she turned her head to find him standing next to her.

"He's not listening to me, I'm just trying to help," she gestured off to her fellow rider.

"Does he try to help when you're riding, too?"

"He tries," Nellie snorted.

"So, you don't listen either, huh?" Lucas challenged. She made like she didn't hear that and returned to observing Bobby and Jewel. Lucas whistled and signalled for him to come over. Bobby got off the horse and jogged over to the gate.

"Hey, slowpoke," Nellie greeted him.

"Alright, let's not get that started," Lucas cut in at once before Bobby had time to respond. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out two envelopes. "One for you, and one for you. Give them to your parents when you get home, will you?"

Both kids received these and clearly knew exactly what they were. They'd put in for their registrations a few days ago, and now here was everything they needed, confirming them as participants for the Spring Grand. It was plain to see that both of them were looking forward to the event, more than anything in their lives at the moment. With any luck, they would get to be excited together and they would finally start to tone down the attitude that had gotten them in this mess in the first place.

This weekend, the Friars would be heading up to Dallas to visit the newly installed Minkus family, along with their other friends. Farkle and Isadora would host their first group dinner, or group lunch nowadays. With the length of the drive back, it didn't make sense to do dinners unless they really couldn't do lunch, and in those cases the new Texans would be spending the night at one of the others' houses, whoever was hosting that week.

It had already felt like they were here, thanks to their having Ada and Bertie staying with Zay, Nadine, and Mia. They would all go and check in on them, take them out to one place or another… Zay, in his 'infinite teacherness,' had gone about starting Ada in on a few things she'd be missing until she started school out in Dallas. She was definitely her parents' child, the stuff of Einstein Academy. It felt right to have her and her little brother here with them, to see those two running around with Marianne, and Mia, and Giulia and Connor, and Nicky, or holding little Emily… They belonged in this little extension of their group, like friends: the next generation. Even as they were very excited to show everyone the house, and their respective rooms, the thing they seemed most eager to talk about was the upcoming Halloween. They knew all about the games and the maze at the Friar house on the lane, or at least Ada did, and this year she would get to experience it for herself for the first time.

"We need to send them one of our pumpkins," Lucas suggested as they drove home in mid-afternoon. Maya gave him a look he read as much like 'way ahead of you' and 'you better not mean the one in that car seat there.'

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners