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


October 14th 2022

Chapter 287
Our Advance Toward Weeks

The first week was behind them. On Friday afternoon, Lucas picked up his daughters from the preschool and the elementary school and was happy to see how they had all settled into their new realities. He hardly worried about Marianne and the first grade. She had always loved to learn, and here she was getting to do that. It also made it so that she was slightly ahead of some of her class in some respects, but she was humble about it. She now had homework, though it was very mild at this stage, and she enjoyed doing it. The funniest part would be to see the triplets hovering near when she did it, like their big sister had stepped into this very curious world all of a sudden and they wanted to know what it was. This would lead Marianne to try and share this knowledge, the one she was being granted now and the one she already had. She was showing them letters, and numbers. Of the three of them, Lucy was showing the most affinity for it, to the point where both Lucas and Maya were thinking of how they might nurture this interest in their bunny girl.

They'd shared this thought with Miss Alma at the preschool, who had been more than happy to have this to latch on with the girl. After a week, the triplets were definitely doing better out there, interacting with the children some more even if they still always came as a unit. They would not be forced apart, but they would definitely be encouraged to discover their individuality, each one of them. The important part now was that they'd find their place, in any way, among the other preschoolers. They still rushed at Lucas when he came to pick them up, but by now it felt a lot more like 'we're so happy to see you!' and less like 'we were so scared when you left us here, thank goodness you're back!' There were no more tears or worried faces in the mornings when they'd be dropped off, just big hugs and goodbyes before they ran off into the room.

Today, on their way to blue group and Donna's studio, they had an errand to run, a third school to visit. Lucas had offered to pick up the diary boxes from Barton Day rather than have him or any of the other teachers do it. This week especially the substitute was glad for this, as he wouldn't have had time to make the stop at the end of the day. So, the boxes were collected, and they went on to the ranch.

It had only been a few days since Juliet had told Lucas about her plans, and they remained private so far as the ranch at large was concerned. She would make her announcement in a little while, wasn't sure when just yet, but in the meantime, Lucas wondered if others wouldn't start picking up on it. For one, she was absent more often – looking for her future home – and for another, she was clearly handing off more and more responsibilities onto future boss and sole proprietor Lucas. He was up to it though, every day showing it more and more. He would never be able to express how truly grateful he was to Juliet for the way she had mentored him. If he'd been told that this was where he was headed on the first day he'd started working here, he would have felt overwhelmed, honestly. But now… Now he was as up to the task as he could ever hope to be.

"Where do you want these?" Lucas asked Maya when he arrived home with four of their girls plus one friend only to find his wife and two more of their girls, out on the porch. He had the loaded cart at the bottom of the steps.

"Our room, by the desk," Maya nodded even as she got up and carefully wove her way through the pack of girls in the midst of reuniting. "I'll just grab this one first though, thank you," she smiled, kissing him after lifting the senior box from the stack. No sense in putting off getting started, now more than ever. It was one thing when she only had one girl to look after over the weekend as she made her way through the four boxes, but now she had six, and even though they weren't constantly there while she worked, she had to make the most of the time she had. Plus, she didn't want to be holed up in a corner on the two days of the week where most of them weren't at work or school. She wanted to be able to spend time with all of them.

Her first week at home with only Mackenzie and Aubrey had been wonderful. It wasn't as though she never got to have any one on one time with either of them that hadn't involved feeding or changing them, but this was different, and it had given her the chance to get to see more facets of what her youngest two were like, by themselves. With Mackenzie, it felt like she'd always known her for what a funny little thing she was, which was still true, but there was more to her, and Maya was getting to see it for herself for once. Whether it was born of her connection to her big sister and roommate or not, she was curious, maybe even more than Marianne was, or at least in a different way from her. Of all their girls, she was easily the most likely to inspect something to the smallest detail she could attain, whether that was holding an object in her hands and turning it every which way, peering close, or having to be left with someone so she wouldn't follow her parents, aunts, or sisters into the bathroom.

As for Aubrey, well… her baby girl was still that, in her fourth month of living, so who she was and would be remained something for her mother and the rest of her family to discover, but… she was sweet and, overall, not so prone to crying fits… Over this week, as she'd gotten to have far more alone time with her than she'd had up to this point, Maya had been unable to look at her and not feel just… thankful. Would it ever feel differently? Would she ever get to the point where she didn't feel the lance of fear at the thought of how close this little one had come to growing up never knowing her mother? She still thought about it every now and then, how could she not, but she found she thought about it most while holding on to the baby. She remembered growing up, carrying the weight of her father's departure, remembered looking to become a parent and telling herself that her children would never have to fear for either of their parents to leave them. She couldn't imagine herself doing that to them, nor could she see Lucas doing it either. Was it a bit foolish, as though her own father had gone into parenthood imagining he'd ever do that to her? Absolutely, but she'd still had that thought.

Now, after what had happened when she had Aubrey, she'd been forced to consider she'd been contemplating only one way her children could be 'left,' and even if she'd had no control over it…

It hadn't happened, not in the end. She was here, they all were here, and they were happy together. And may we be for many years more.

Now she had boxes of diaries to look through over the weekend, and this she had been looking forward to all week long. She was and would remain concentrated on her daughters, naturally, on enjoying these last few weeks on leave with them, but there was very much an air of 'you can take the teacher out of the school…' to her. She was looking forward to seeing how her students were doing, those she'd already been teaching for one to three years and those who were brand new to her class, whether temporarily or arriving in the second year and above. Pulling the lid from the first box she'd taken while Lucas had brought the others inside, she found a few pages with notes from Barton Day, keeping her appraised of this week and any events regarding this class she might have needed to know about. So far, all she'd have to see where the diaries were concerned would be the covers, though these of course were always one of her favorite things about the project in the first place.

There had been a lot of talk among the seniors about their post graduation trip project, which had been kickstarted the previous year by Jenny, Nika, Maggie, and Lara. Now that senior year was underway, they were intent on kicking things up, becoming more active in their preparations, in the fundraising and everything that needed to be done so that they could make it work. Barton had been hearing a lot of talk happening in the class, like the students had taken up art class, when they were assigned some project or another to do at their stations, like an open forum to discuss everything. So far, he had been letting them carry on as they pleased, always with the understanding that they could do all their talking over… so long as they still did the work. That was what they were doing, so that was how things worked. Maya was glad to hear it and she fully supported it.

She fully expected that her gold star group, now that they were juniors would not take long to get it in their heads to plan a similar trip for themselves. She knew for sure that her sisters would have something like that in mind. They had grown up hearing the occasional story about Maya and Lucas and their friends and their trip, and then hearing of their sister's students doing the same thing… It would be nearly two years from now, but 'senior year' was a year away, so that would mean that it would be time to start talking it over. Maya still couldn't believe they were all on to the latter half of their time with her already. Sure, it didn't help that she had missed a chunk of their freshman and sophomore years, and now she was missing the start of their junior year, but still… Everything was happening so fast, always.

Getting to the sophomore box, she could have gotten a good idea of how things were going there from the covers alone, almost, without Barton's notes. Right from her visit on day one she had sensed a sort of awkwardness, or… discomfort in the air. She'd felt it from Angel, now that his guest/new best friend had gone back home, and from Maia Bennett, finding herself without Ash at her side… Then there were the new stepsiblings, Mr. Ryan and Miss Bailey. Whether their parents' marriage had brought forth any talk of name changes, those weren't reflected here, and maybe that had been the kids' choice.

Going off of what she'd seen in class and now on his diary, she'd say for sure young Luke had zero interest in taking his stepfather's name and adding it to his own. His freshman cover had been one of her favorites last year, where he'd drawn the same scene from two perspectives, the front and the back drawn on the corresponding sides of his cover. It had felt personal, like he'd taken the time. His work always felt like that because that was what he did. But this year's cover felt almost rushed, like he'd forgotten until that very morning that he had to do it and hand it in, so he'd worked on it throughout the day and handed it to Barton with the gold paint barely dried. He was preoccupied, and she could see why, with the move, the new family, the baby coming…

Meanwhile, his new stepsister had been a complete stranger when Maya had met her, and she'd looked overall happy and content, a peaceful soul true to her name. And on the whole, maybe Meadow Bailey was that. But for what she'd drawn on her cover, it had felt to Maya just a bit like she could read some unease there, too, a feeling of being caught in a whirlwind and being unable to escape it before it got hold of her and carried her off. All Maya could think now was that if the new siblings could just confide in each other, truly and openly, then they might have a chance at feeling better, both of them, as they moved forward. Maybe they could become friends.

It was Sunday evening by the time Maya opened the freshman box and let out a breath. If she didn't manage to finish it in time for it to be picked up or dropped off along with the others the next morning, then she'd just have to find a way to get it out to the school by lunch time, wouldn't she? These had been kept for last so she could take her time with them if she was able. These kids were all brand new, or… mostly brand new. There was Ash, who appeared to have looked at this, their second freshman sketchbook, and decided to lean into the fact that they were meant to repeat the year. They had done the very same design here as they'd done the year before, though it was clear that they carried frustration in them, and Maya only had to see it before she decided to prepare a brand new diary again and ask Barton to give it to them, to ask them to start over. This wasn't the way to head into this year. They were better off leaving it blank for now and filling it in later than to force themselves to stare at this shaky reminder every week.

With the others, as they did their first covers, Maya was once again considering the eternal question of who they might recruit for the quiz team. They had several potential legacies right there in that room, whether it was Lydia following in Lea's footsteps, or Lamar in Rochelle and Rolly's, or even her own kid brother following in hers. Was she particularly intrigued at the prospect of having him on the team? She'd be lying if she said no, but then that would be up to him, wouldn't it? All she could do this time around, with him potentially in the running, was to consult her colleagues and the rest of the team, from Captain Nika to Rolly and Maia. And if they so happened to pick MJ then she would welcome him with open arms… and some endearing big sister jabs. With her being out of class at the moment, they might have to be a bit more patient if they expected her to make the call this time around. Or she could leave it up to Cory, and Barton, and the other teachers. Maybe they'd find their perfect candidate in her class or outside of it. Either way, she trusted their judgment, always. Oh, how she couldn't wait to get back there…

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners