A/N: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available!
October 21st 2022
Chapter 294
Our Peace in Family
"Guess who I saw earlier," Maya asked Desi when she came into class along with the rest of her group. She was pretty sure that Desi would already know about the visit, and she was correct. The girl just smiled as she was told that her sister-in-law and nephew had been there.
She had been extolling the virtue of baby Myles' cuteness since he'd been born, and pictures or no pictures, Maya really got to see it for herself this time around. She did not hide the fact that these visits were likely to become regular; it wasn't as though Desi would be able to do much about them when she'd be in class.
"They wanted to name him after Mom, if he'd been a girl," she told her teacher, and though she hadn't known this before, hearing it now, Maya could see them going through that thought process. Of course, Myles had been a boy, so they couldn't well name him after his late grandmother. Although… "They gave him her initials instead," Desi went on, and now Maya chuckled, looking to her sisters, who had the same thought. From Monica Joy to Myles Julius, it was another MJ, and even if that had not been the intention, they still appreciated the results.
"I'm so glad that you're back," Nellie permitted herself a quick hug with her big sister/teacher, and Maya did not prevent it in the slightest. That whole little group was thinking it, the whole class had that same thought stamped in their eyes, their smiles… They were eager to see what they would all do today, and though she put an effort into all her plans, she would have been lying if she said she wasn't especially excited about today's class with her juniors.
"Alright, everyone, hey!" Maya clapped her hands together to get everyone's attention right as the bell was ringing to call classes to session. "You've got your pads right there, choices for what you want to use to draw with in the middle of your stations. Pick your poison, then follow me." They were intrigued at once at the prospect of leaving the class. "You can leave your bags, I will lock the door, alright? No one's going to come for your things, let's go."
It was going to be a bit of a wild mess, and it gave her particular pleasure to see how giddy they all were. They were going to play a round of five-minute sketch around the school, something halfway between a still life and the weird stuff hunt at the museum. They were going to explore their school, the parts that were deeply familiar to them by now and those they'd either never focused on or perhaps never been admitted to. This classroom and that one, the teachers' lounge, the kitchens, the gym, the library, one random hallway, random stairwell… They would go so long as they had time remaining in their class, and after each five minutes ran out, it would be a mad dash – quiet as they could – to get to the next subject.
While they went around the school and the period that way, Maya kept an eye on everyone's progress, talked to them as much about the work they were doing at the moment as anything else they might have wanted to bring up. Almost like she'd seen him coming, Rolly made sure to mention that Captain Nika was curious about their new freshman member, so Maya was very glad to slip him the name of Lydia Sullivan-Reyes. As soon as he'd asked her, it had never felt more right. Yes, that was who they needed, and hopefully she would say yes. To her knowledge, Maya had never turned her sights on anyone who would actually be uninterested in the team. Alright, Ava had been a tough sell at first, but she'd always been sure deep down that she did want to say yes and would do so eventually, and she'd been right. She felt very good about Lydia's response. Rolly would know, even though they had not been in school at the same time and thus never on the team together, that Lydia's older sister was a former member, thanks to the great logbook. Maya might have told him that Lamar had been in the running as well, but she decided against it in the end. What would it have really accomplished?
She'd been uncertain about making them all run around the way she did at first, all because of one junior student… Bobby Davis. It had been six months – just about – since his accident. His recovery was still ongoing and even when the day would come that he was considered able to go on with his life, no more follow-up, no more anything unless the need arose… His basketball days were behind him. He hadn't started riding again, but they couldn't see him doing as well as he used to do. His mobility would likely continue to require support for a long time if not forever. To look at him, one would think he was taking it all in stride and doing fine, but Maya knew it wasn't so simple, had heard it from her sisters, from Ethan…
Knowing all this, she had done it anyway, trusting that his friends would have his back, and she was right. They made sure he got everywhere he needed to be, and it became an adventure. To see him and Nellie going around these days, it was a wonder that neither of them saw what the rest of them saw. But then a lot of 'the rest of them' had been seeing this possibility for the two of them since the day they'd gone rolling around and hitting at each other at Sullivan Stables.
Of course, that very day had also been the one where they'd become aware of something brewing between Gracie Hunter and Ethan Davis. Theirs had been a much more straightforward path, both of them so clearly swooning for one another and then eventually becoming boyfriend and girlfriend… And now lately…
Maya was not entirely sure what the two of them were getting up to these days, though she had made it abundantly clear to her little sister that, whatever did happen, she preferred not to be made to lie to their parents. Gracie fully understood that and respected it. She regretted having put her in that position in the first place, the morning of her seventeenth birthday, but there was no turning back now, was there? Her and Ethan were in that stage of their relationship where, having opened that one door, they would feel it calling to them again and again, to come and explore some more, and it would be up to them to make sure that they didn't get in over their heads, wouldn't it? Whatever they were doing, there hadn't been any unfortunate incidents or conversations where their parents were involved, so they couldn't have known. This left Maya caught between wanting to be the big sister Gracie needed her to be and being stuck in a maternal headspace that made her think that if she didn't like the thought of being kept in the dark like this, then her mother… Right now, she told herself that all was well and there was no reason to intervene, but… what if a reason did come along and…
Oh, she was getting so far ahead of herself again, wasn't she? She trusted those two about as well as one would ever trust a couple of seventeen-year-old kids, and it was hard to find anything to reproach them on, when she could think of so, so many ways in which she and Lucas, at that same age had… Well, the point was that those two had been given about as much advice and information as they could hope and need to have, and nothing that she or anyone else said or did was going to change much. They were both truly and deeply in love with one another, and anyone could see it if they looked at them for so much as a second.
They may not have had the years that those two had, but without a doubt Desi and Tre were giving similar vibes as what they had done, in early days, a sort of sweetness that felt bright, and awake, because they had found someone that made them feel like nobody else had up to that point. With Desi, Maya could guess that her brother's comings and goings had left her in need of a shoulder to lean on, one which Tre had soon embodied, but it wasn't as though she was using him. Tre understood what she was going through, in so many ways. His own father had been in the Navy, and he remembered what it was like when he'd been away. It had eventually cost him his marriage to Tre and Lamar's mother, leading her in time to marry Rochelle and Rolly's father and bringing their families together. Even if they had not had that connection, Desi and Tre would have fallen for one another, they were certain. It had been music that had first drawn them together, or specifically the musicals. Tre had never joined them, didn't see himself being able to split his time between school, his job, the basketball team, his personal life, and then the musical. But he was a dancer, and a great one at that. It had tapped into something with him and Desi, and it had taken them from new friends to good friends, and very good friends, and now this… boyfriend and girlfriend. He had her back, always.
Their last stop of the period for their sketches was the gym, and they were so close to the end at this point that the bell rang while they were still there. As they were making their way out to return to class and get their things, Dylan wanted to talk to his friend and colleague, so Maya tossed her keys to Gracie, who promised to bring them back as soon as possible.
"So, this weekend," Dylan told her with a loaded grin. Maya chuckled.
"Oh, so you're telling people already?" she guessed.
"Yeah, well, Riley and I were talking it over and we both thought 'why wait?'" he explained, and his shrug was almost too much. They just wanted to be able to bring their friends into their confidence, and for that, Maya had little she could say to argue. She knew how much it could feel like they couldn't keep it all in after a while. It had only been days for these two, but apparently that was already more than enough, so who was she to argue?
"With you so far," Maya told him with a hearty nod. "Is there a plan? Do you need help?" she asked, all the while pointing emphatically at herself.
"As a matter of fact…" Dylan smirked, and Maya's pointing fingers shifted to hands pressed together, ready to do as was required of her.
There was no time to discuss it now, as they were both due for some school pick-ups, but they would talk again that night, working out the best way to spring his and Riley's news on their unsuspecting friends. As far as Nicky, Emily, and Megan, they would learn of their future baby brother or sister at some point between that evening and when the turtle friends would be getting together, possibly around the time when the Matthews and Orlando families would be hearing of the baby as well. Maya smiled, thinking about Phoebe and then Taylor back in Indiana when they'd find out they would have a new niece or nephew. She mentioned to Dylan about his little sister's visit with her son, and she had a feeling that, in the future, he might find a way to come and join them at the bench when she dropped by again.
It felt like a lifetime ago since she'd dropped Marianne off at school that morning, but now even as Lucas would be off to collect her and bring her to the ranch, Maya would be on her way to the preschool, to pick herself up a little cub, a kitty cat, and a bunny girl.
As much as her students had had a month to settle into new classes or a whole new school in some cases, the same went for her daughters. Marianne had not lost any of that shine about being in first grade, which was a relief. If she did hit a roadblock, they knew… hoped… that she would know that she could tell them about it. This was new for her, they didn't know how she would deal, out there on her own. In the meantime, her little sisters weren't on their own, they had each other, but knowing how things had started for them and preschool, with them afraid to go anywhere out of arm's length from one another…
"Mama! Mama's here!" Kacey was the first to spot her, about a minute after she actually showed up.
For that minute, she'd been able to watch them, and she was really happy to have had that moment, spotting those little, beloved faces among the other children. Having been kept up to date on their progress by Miss Alma, she knew that they had finally started to diverge, to explore activities for themselves without sticking to their sisters' sides at every turn, which had been a slow but recent development for them. They still preferred to be together and needed to be able to see each other as much as possible, but they were comfortable now, it showed… It didn't mean that the moment they spotted their mother they didn't converge in the blink of an eye.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Maya laughed, bending to hug them together. When she stood back up, she was presented with Remy's finger, wrapped in a plain band-aid. "What happened here?" she asked.
"Got stuck, over there," she pointed to one of the tables. "With the chair."
"Oh, no," Maya gave her a sympathetic smile. When Remy held the finger up to her again, she got the message. Kiss it, make it better. "Give it over," she held out her hands, was given her daughter's little one and pressed a light kiss to the bandage. "Good?" Remy nodded. "How about you two, any ouchies?" Lucy and Kacey both looked themselves over, like they might find something wrong they hadn't been aware of. They had none. "Want me to kiss it anyway?" Maya offered and was presented with two more hands. "Yeah, that's what I thought," she smiled. Two kisses given, like reserves for whatever hurt they might need to heal from, and they were good to go and head home, to be reunited with their other sisters… and probably get more make-it-better kisses from their father.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
