October 18th 2022
Chapter 291
Our Peace in Activities
"Hey there, Macadamia," Maya smiled brightly as her daughter's little face appeared on her laptop screen. "You're looking so much better, aren't you?" she asked, to which the girl could do little more than smile and reach out hands that might be hoping to get a hold of her, right through the screen, but alas…
"Mama…" she called.
"I miss you, too, but we're going to see each other very soon, okay? I promise," Maya told her, stealing a look to Melinda Friar, who was holding her little granddaughter in her lap for the benefit of the call. The woman didn't tear her eyes away from the wriggling girl, but she nodded in confirmation. "Did you guys eat yet?"
"Aubrey's had her bottle, and now this sweetheart and I are about to have our own lunch, about as soon as it's ready," Melinda reported. "With an extra portion for the dogs so you-know-who still has her fill," she added with a smirk that made Maya chuckle. There was never a more generous under-the-table dog feeder in their family than Mackenzie, who might have shared out little fistfuls of her entire plate down to any one of their pups if they didn't remind her to actually eat any of it herself.
"Well, then, I'll leave you to it. See you in a bit, okay, Mack Attack?" Maya asked with a smile. Sometimes they wondered if she understood that all these names referred to her, especially with how quickly they could switch from one to the other, but then she'd smile or laugh when she heard any of them, so they were not overly concerned.
After they hung up – which came only after Mackenzie kept the 'blow kisses to the screen' bit going like a heated tennis match for a while – Maya collected her laptop and stood from the stepladder where she'd sat. She stepped out of the supply closet and into the quiet activity of the knitting club in full session. There was a mix of everyone either eating or handling their current knitted projects as they talked quietly with the people sharing their stations. For that, Maya had isolated herself in that small, closed corner of her classroom, though she suspected that even with a closed door some of Mackenzie's… volume… would have escaped out to them. Going by the way a few heads raised at her return, she was even more certain. She smiled back and motioned for them to carry on.
She liked to think about the knitting club as something like the triplets' legacy. The entire idea for the activity had come out of the story she'd used to reveal to her students that she was expecting Lucy, Kacey, and Remy. It had started out as a joke but then, for how well it had been received, it had become a genuine activity, led by the most skilled knitter that Maya knew, Michelle Day. She had lost count of how many of her daughters' favorite things had been crafted from the woman's hands. And now, for the last couple of years, the interested students at this school had had the pleasure of learning from her.
It all made her think of the quiz team for some reason. Well… 'for some reason…' She knew exactly what it was, or she'd figured it out in time. She always said that Born Curious was family, but also that she tended to go out of her way to select new members for the quiz team as much for what they could bring to the team as for what the team could bring to them. Sometimes it really just came down to these kids needing companionship, in a smaller setting, and every year, she knew, her rotating quartet had gotten that. But then what about everybody else? There were only ever four members to the quiz team, one from each grade, recruited as freshmen. Well, some of the others, she suspected, had now found their way to the knitting club. It had grown in popularity enough so that they had to bring in extra chairs. If they got any more crowded, they wouldn't be able to use the art class anymore; they'd need someplace bigger. Michelle had also explored the possibility of seeing if the students might split days, so that there could be two groups and, thus, they could continue to call this room home. It was certainly the most logical place for them, and Maya had allotted them storage space in the closet where she'd just been calling with her daughter.
As she sat watching them all work while she ate, Maya's thoughts lingered back on the quiz team. The three of them had been patient with her, giving her time to figure things out about their new freshman, seeing as she was away on leave until today. Now that she was back, it would only be a matter of time before they wanted to know if she'd talked to any potential members yet. She hadn't even seen the freshmen since her return, would only do so when lunch ended, so all she had to go on for the time being was those few weeks' worth of diary assignments and chatter with her colleagues.
Not that this hadn't been informative enough to give her a list of interesting candidates. There was always a part of her that wanted to try and bring in someone that wasn't in her class. She didn't want it all to feel as though she reserved this privilege only to this one select group, even though it was inevitably convenient and easier for her to go and see someone and think 'yes, they could be perfect' when she saw them every day. This year she had done most if not all of that 'seeing' through the pages of their sketchbooks, yes, but still…
There was definitely a part of her that had thought about having MJ on the team, that it would be great to share this thing with her little brother for the next four years. But then MJ was already in the musical, and he would be going out for the basketball team, too… It would have been too much to ask of him to pile on the quiz team, too, although he had enough of that busy streak in him – famously one she had herself – to think he would have wanted to do it anyway if she asked.
In the interest of legacies, she had also considered the likes of Lamar Whitley and Lydia Sullivan-Reyes. They both had merit, that couldn't be denied, and maybe they could work, but… they didn't give her that feeling she'd get when it came to the BC family. Each one of them before, there had been a moment where she'd just known… yes… they needed to be part of this team. She didn't get that here, so for now all she could really think was that she'd hold to these two in an alternate capacity. If she really couldn't find anyone else – which she doubted – then she would reconsider them.
She would have loved nothing more than to be able to recruit Ash Bell, but she knew it wouldn't have made any sense. It would only have been to give them a chance to do this thing with their girlfriend, but she would not have been doing them any favors by bombarding them with the work that actually went into the quiz team. So, after considering them and everyone else in her own class, she had to consider what she'd been hearing from outside of this group. Who did her colleagues see as having that potential in them, that need?
She'd heard some names get tossed around for a while. This teacher would let her know about this kid, and that teacher about that kid… Sometimes one teacher's glowing praise would be countered by another's concern. Sometimes they would start out optimistic but then grow doubtful as they got to know their candidates more. She would not be getting any closer if they kept up that way, but by this morning, as her return was anticipated, she had what felt like 'final reports.' That was promising, and she'd have to look it over, maybe that afternoon, in her long break, if Melinda's bringing the girls over didn't completely eat up her time… That could also happen. But it was her first day back, her first day away from her youngest, so what could she do?
"Maya, check it out," MJ wandered over from his seat to show her what he was working on. Immediately, by the size of it, she had to guess that he'd been working at this piece for a little while already, possibly since the club had opened for the year.
He already knew how to knit, had picked it up on curiosity after hearing about the club and been taught by Grangie up to now, so he was not an expert yet, but he was definitely not a beginner either. Whatever he was working on now gave her some kind of cape vibe once she got a good enough look and could establish that it wasn't a blanket, as first presumed. It helped that her brother went and draped it over his shoulders for a pose. Naturally, because it was him, he'd found a way to incorporate a spray of stars pattern, which was easily her favorite detail about it.
"Nice," she laughed.
Looking at her little brother, coming on fifteen years old that December, she could see he was as amused and intrigued as she was at the prospect of her becoming his teacher, officially. Sure, she could say that she'd already been his teacher for a month now, but then she'd only been in class on the first day, for introductions, and after that, the only contact they'd had in this capacity was his diary. Even if it sat there along with the rest of the freshman diaries in their box and she looked at it and treated it the same as the others, it was hard for the time being not to just look at it as her corresponding with her brother. Today, it would be different. Today, she would actually get to stand there and lead a class with him in it. Of all the people she'd taught who knew her outside of school, she could already tell he'd be the one to struggle the most with figuring when to call her Maya or Mrs. Friar. Would she roast him about it? Well… maybe a little… maybe a lot…
"I want to try and add a hood to it," he told her.
"I know how you feel about a hooded cape," Maya confirmed with a nod, and the spark in his eye made her chuckle.
It was in moments like these that she couldn't help but appreciate how her little brother had a style all his own. He had cultivated it over the past few years, and now the idea of him draping on a knitted hooded cape did not feel out of place in the slightest. Some might say he stood out like it was a bad thing, but to him it was a badge of honor. He wouldn't want to fit in if he couldn't be himself, and he exuded that feeling everywhere he went.
"What… Oh…" Maya laughed, near the end of the day's lunch/knitting session, as those students who didn't have art class next were departing, when Michelle Day approached and presented her with what she'd been working on today. It was for Aubrey, and by far not the first gift bestowed on to her. "Thank you," Maya told her, knowing better than to claim she had already been more than generous. "You know, it's only a matter of time now before one of my girls decides she wants to learn how to do this. Marianne's definitely curious." Michelle beamed and nodded.
"Then by all means, send her over. I'd be happy to teach her."
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
