August 17th 2021

Chapter 229
Our Loss of Peace

Maya made a detour to Ma Maggie's on the way back to school. She couldn't say for sure if it would have the effect of clearing their minds, or whether she even wanted that to happen, as though they could brush aside the news after those few hours since they'd heard about it, but... It couldn't hurt to try anyway.

She saw Paul as she waited for her order, and she realized he didn't know about Lambert when he asked her why she looked the way she did. He started at the restaurant early enough that he had been gone by the time Morgan would have gotten the call. That she wouldn't have called him afterward was not a surprise to him or Maya. She'd needed to deal with the information, needed to get to work and just get through the day, holding back everything else until she could be home that night, back with her husband.

Maya and Paul continued to talk as she waited and, by the end of it, he had committed himself to getting another order out, this one to the Munroe house. He might have sent one to the Days as well, but whatever they were dealing with today, it might not have been the right way to go. Taylor though... It would be a small thing, a bit of courage. Maya thanked Paul and took a hug she promised to pass on to Morgan when she'd see her.

Driving Lea to the house, stopping for lunch, Maya had not understood how it was very much like an escape for herself, taking her away from the school and the heaviness of the mood. As she drove back into the lot and took the bags of food along with her toward the building, it felt like her breath was catching again. She had returned, and Lambert was still...

As soon as she made it back to her class, she set the bags down and took out her phone. Whatever Lucas had on his slate today at the hospital, she couldn't say for sure whether he answered her call as fast as he did because she'd caught him at a good time or because he'd literally dropped whatever he was doing to talk to her. She could have asked him which one it was, but right then she was just so happy to hear his voice that she just barely kept from crying.

"How bad is it out there?" he asked, his voice as sympathetic as though he were hugging her. If she closed her eyes, she could almost feel his arms around her.

"I just came back from taking Lea to the house, left her with Gran and the girls. She couldn't stay here, but she didn't want to be alone. Your uncles and the kids will be coming over for dinner, then we can go see the Days," Maya told him, sniffing. Tonight, when all was said and done, she could weep until her heart was lighter than it was now, but until then, she needed to keep it together.

"Good, okay," Lucas replied. "Might be a big dinner," he went on, and she asked what he meant. "My mother called a half hour ago. She heard about Lambert from your mother calling her, after she got a call of her own from Elizabeth."

"Right..." Maya sighed. She'd be willing to bet that decision had been made after she'd dropped Lea off, when she wouldn't go inside. "I don't know, it might not be a good idea, having all of them over like that. We need to go and..."

"Yeah," Lucas agreed. "I'll call my father, see if he can get the wheels to stop turning on the Melinda Express."

"If anyone can," Maya smiled despite herself. Just then, the bell rang, releasing everyone to lunch. "I should go, the others will be here soon. I just really needed to hear your voice."

"Still got my songs somewhere in your computer?" he offered, and this brought her smile up to a laugh, shaky as it was under errant tears.

"I might be able to dig those out somewhere," she slowly nodded. "Thanks."

"Always," Lucas promised, his voice embrace growing tighter around her. If she could hold on to that feeling until she saw him again, she might be alright.

Almost as soon as she hung up, there was a light tap at her door and Dylan came along. Normally, he'd joke how he'd smelled the food and floated all the way over from the gym. Today, he saw the bags and looked relieved. Then he saw his friend and walked over to her, folded her into a hug she instantly reciprocated. There was no need for words, so they spoke none. They stepped apart when Miranda and Morgan arrived together, arms locked in a way to suggest they'd come like this from back at their neighboring classrooms.

"Did you see..." Morgan asked as soon as she saw the bags.

"Yeah," Maya breathed, dabbed at the corners of her eyes. "He sent an order out to Taylor, too," she revealed, looking from the music teacher to the gym teacher. Dylan gave a thankful nod.

They broke into the bags, settling around one of the stations as they always did when they shared their meals. They might have launched into immediate conversation, but today they only had the ambient sounds of a lunch for four. Maya was particularly distracted by how quiet it was, not just between them but beyond. Even when most everyone would be in the cafeteria, or the teachers' lounge by now, there would usually still be some noise coming from beyond the art room as they sat here, but today... it was almost pin drop silent, echoing.

"How did your classes go?" Miranda finally asked, nearly startling the other three with how focused they'd been on their food. They looked up at her and she repeated her question. They would be better off talking to one another. "My morning group came in looking so down, I put them in front of a documentary and let them be. If they paid attention, good. If they didn't... good."

"Did my best to get my groups moving," Dylan nodded. "As good of a way as any to clear your head, right?" He let out a breath. "A few of them asked to call their parents and go home. Your new BC freshman, Rosemary, had to send her home," he told Maya. She sat up, meaning to ask what had happened, but then she remembered.

Before the holiday break, when the decorations had gone up around the school, the quiz team had held one of their bake sales. It was one of their biggest traditions, always a guaranteed hit. It was to be Rosemary's first as part of the team, and it had led to discussions of baking experience, and families, and plans for the coming holidays, in whatever way each of them celebrated.

When the question had been turned to her, Rosemary had somewhat awkwardly revealed that her big sister was born on Christmas Eve. They'd found this interesting, imagined the family would have further cause to celebrate, not unlike the Friars and their Halloween pumpkin. Except Rosemary's big sister had passed away, six years ago, after a valiant battle against the cancer that claimed her in the end.

"I'm the same age now that she was then," she'd revealed, and her teammates had needed no more reason to immediately rally around her.

So, today, to hear about Lambert Day's passing had just been too much for her, and no one would ever fault her. Maya had a feeling that the rest of the quiz team was way ahead of her on the matter. They would look after their teammate.

"I've been doing something like open mic," Morgan shared. "If anyone wants to play something, sing something... If they didn't, then I did something for them." By her tone, the others could guess it had all been a middling success and Morgan had expected no more and no less.

Maya shared what they had done in her two classes so far, mentioning all the letters she'd collected so far, to be brought to the family later that day. She also mentioned her bringing Lea home, which had led to her grabbing lunch from Ma Maggie's. Now that they had all been eating their way through their servings of pancakes and waffles, she was glad to see that it had done them all at least what little good they could expect.

"I am not looking forward to this afternoon," Morgan sighed as they all sat there, collecting their empty containers. None of them said it, but they could all have said that they were feeling the same way. Even unspoken, it was felt. Facing more stunned and heartbroken kids was not something any of them would ever look forward to, but here they were, and they were just going to have to do it, weren't they? Their students needed them to be a steady post in this stormy day.

As the others cleared out, Maya was left to look around her classroom and consider the rest of the day. The freshmen would be coming along soon. None of them were likely to have really known Lambert much if at all. They might possibly have known him by sight in the halls, might have fallen along the line of many others - girls and boys alike - who had gone a bit swoony over him. Possibly they might have known the name the year before, back in middle school, if they were familiar with current eighth grader Anton Day, the fourth and youngest of Barton and Michelle's boys.

Anton... She wasn't his teacher yet, but she was getting to know him pretty well, through the dinners and other visits between the Friars and Days. The fourteen-year-old had those same looks as his older brothers, all of them so like their father with splashes of their mother, but he was without a doubt the most… quiet, and composed, shy and a little anxious... He reminded her of Stella Buckley in many ways for that reason.

What must he be going through at this moment? He'd lost one of his brothers, this brother… Seeing them together, Anton and Lambert, it was easy to see that they had been closest to one another out of the four. Being around Lambert, Anton would open up, be less turned in on himself. What would he be like without him?

"Mrs. Friar?"

She was pulled out of her thoughts at the sound of her name, and she was made to realize that she'd started to cry again despite herself. She dabbed at her face and found she needed a tissue.

"Just a second," she mumbled before moving to the box and pulling a tissue, bringing it to her face. "I'm sorry, I was just..." she shook her head and looked again, finally discovering that it was Cade Foster who'd come into her class. "Hey..."

"It's about that boy, right? The one who..." he stopped himself from saying the word.

"Yes," Maya could only nod as she kept drying her face. The way he looked at her, she could just see how he didn't know what to say or do in this situation, but he really wanted to.

It made Maya see how much he had come to rely on her over the past few months, how she'd started to matter to him, and that could easily have been enough. Seeing that, it reminded her of the work she had done and would continue to do. Roman had a few difficult months ahead of him before his graduation. She would be there. And Anton would have a strange entry into this place in the fall. She would be there, too.

"Here," Cade approached her as he dug into his bag's front pocket. He extracted a cellophane wrapped cookie. "I was saving it for a snack later. You need it more than me."

If she didn't think it would be strange for him, she might have hugged him. Instead, she took his offering, knowing she'd do worse by refusing him.

"Thank you, Cade. I really appreciate it."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners