February 7th 2022

Chapter 38
Our Sparks For Diaries

Maya could probably have gone and collected the boxes herself by now. Whatever restrictions she'd had to put on herself after the triplets were born, that was now in the past, and it was great, yes. She got to be as active in her daughters' lives as she would have liked to, which was just as well, because tending to a four-year-old and three infants was absolutely an 'all hands on deck' sort of life. Oh, Marianne was on the whole the closest thing to low maintenance that you could get, sure, but she was still a little kid who needed caring and looking after, and when she wasn't at home, off at school or her grandparents' or anywhere else, then there were her baby sisters, and that often felt like a juggling act. If you didn't keep your eye on them, you could fumble and drop everything, and that could happen so easily when the 'balls' were a trio of infants. The skill was improving, but if there was an expert level, they had not reached it yet.

She could have gone, physically, but she wasn't ready to leave the triplets, and the alternative would be to bring them along… That would have taken longer to get ready for than the actual drive to and from school. So, the diary deliveries carried on. This week, the last one before the Christmas break, they were brought out by Cory Matthews. When she opened the door for him, with Remy held in one arm as she'd been trying to get her and her sisters back in the bassinet to stop crying, he blinked, quickly moved the boxes inside, and went over to pick up one of the girls. He ended up with Lucy, though he tried to soothe Kacey at the same time. Maya wasn't about to refuse the extra hands, and she thanked him with a quiet tip of the head.

"By yourself today?" Cory asked.

"My mom was here this morning, but she had to go," Maya nodded. It was a lot easier to be alone with the babies now than it had been when they'd just been brought home, even if situations like this one, where there were three of them and only two arms on the one of her, made things sort of chaotic. By now, she'd made it clear to her usual helpers that they didn't have to sweat it if she ended up by herself with the girls for half a day or a whole day. Sure, she'd be deeply relieved by the time someone else came along, but she'd also feel a different kind of relief every time, like 'there, see, we made it.'

"Hey, listen, while I'm here," Cory spoke up after a minute. The girls were starting to quiet down again. "I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Okay…" Maya hesitated, taking from his tone that it had to do with school and that it was serious.

"I don't know if you've been getting any impression yourself, from her work, or when you've seen her, but it feels like there's something going on with Nika Petrelis, and whatever it is, I'm not…" he shook his head.

Maya afforded herself a few seconds' respite by looking to Remy in her arms. He didn't know, the school didn't know. Nika was six months pregnant, but even as her shape changed along with her unborn child, it wasn't so much that she couldn't hide it still. With the right clothes, she was not showing so much that they couldn't chalk any changes up to insecurities or a slight weight gain. Maya wasn't at the school, so she couldn't speak for how the girl behaved out there, but clearly it was in such a way that none of the teachers or the students had picked up on what was really going on. And if that was so, then she couldn't sell her out, not even to Cory Matthews.

"She's had a very complicated year," she told him. Stick to the truth you can speak. "Everything with her and her brother leaving home, coming out here on their own… She just needs time."

Whether or not Cory believed her, he didn't try and push further. She'd said what she had to say, and that was that. So, he let it go. The babies had gone to sleep, and so he finally settled Lucy back with her sister and went on his way with Maya's thanks for the box delivery. When he was gone, she let out a breath and looked to Remy, her little hand gripped tight at her shirt collar. She kissed her sleeping daughter's head, taking comfort from her nearness as much as she gave it in return.

She could think of plenty of reasons why Nika would be drawing attention even when her teachers wouldn't know why. She might have been about twice her age by now, but that didn't mean she couldn't stop and imagine what it would be like, going to high school, sixteen years old, hiding the fact that she was about to have a baby, never wanting anyone to know that she'd ever been pregnant to begin with… And there was one more reason now, likely the thing that had been weighing enough on her mind as to raise Cory's notice. She was one of those few in the know, and so she was aware not only of the pregnancy but also of the fact that, after much soul searching, Nika Petrelis had decided to give her baby up for adoption.

She and Lucas had been the first to know, because they'd been the ones she'd gone to when she'd finally made up her mind. For a brief second, they both believed she was about to ask them to take her child, which would have felt as impossible as it would have been hard to refuse. Instead, she'd come to them, and she'd asked them for their help. She wanted to be sure that her baby went to the best family they could go to, and she didn't see herself as able to decide on her own. They were the only grown up couple she knew, and they were parents themselves, so they would know, wouldn't they? She wanted them to help her go through the adoption process, help her decide. That, at least, they could do, and they were doing it. Everything had been set in motion, and soon they'd be hearing from prospective families.

Far from throwing away some quiet time, while the girls slept, Maya went and got started on her diary boxes. She'd always found that the last week or two leading up to the holiday break was some of the best time at the school. Whatever her kids celebrated, whether or not they celebrated anything, two weeks off from school was still two weeks off from school, and in the winter especially, even if they couldn't always hope for snow enough for it to count… Yeah, everyone was a bit wired. They may have had tests and projects to think about, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the end of the school year, finals before summer… Either way, it was a good time to be at school, and she kind of missed it, which made looking through the diaries, both this week before and eventually the week after the holidays, something to look forward to.

She got to see plenty of examples of kids looking forward to the break, because of the holidays, or because of a vacation, or just because they would be out of school, and those were amusing. She also got to see how some of them were not looking forward to the holidays or the break, for any number of reasons. One of her sophomores, who'd spoken with her about his being gay the year before, had already told her how much he dreaded family gatherings, and she saw more of it here. He wasn't the only one. She wished she could do more for them than send a few encouraging words, but just now it was all she could really do. At the same time, it made her think of her own little brother, who'd never had to worry a day in his life about not being accepted for who he was or who he loved, and of Ray, who'd been kicked out of his home… She'd run across a lot of stories like these, at one end of the spectrum or the other, in her years at the school, and she expected she'd run into many more in years to come. Her class was and would always be a safe place for any and all who needed it to be.

Ava's diary was bulging. It wasn't as though all the sketchbooks remained perfectly flat the whole year, especially as they started to be filled, but this was not pages warped by paint or any other medium. There was something stuck inside the book. Maya noticed it as soon as she opened the sophomore box, and much as she felt drawn to pick it out first, she waited, and she made her way through every other book in the box before finally getting her hands on this last one. When she opened it, she found the cause of the bulge right at the page of her latest assignment. Ava had done the assignment, drawing what appeared to be her uncle's living room, in all its Christmas glory. Evidently, Owen Nash was big on holidays, and however Ava did or didn't feel about the time, it seemed – going from her drawing – that it was hard for anyone not to be swept away in the spirit. It was the most relaxed sensation Maya ever got, looking through this diary or its freshman twin.

The object inside the diary had the rough dimensions of a loaded envelope, but that wasn't what caught Maya by surprise. It was wrapped, with colorful paper she recognized from one of the boxes under the tree in Ava's drawing. There was a ribbon around it and, if not for it having to be stuck inside a book, there would probably have been a bow, too.

Maya picked up the little parcel, feeling just a bit of a rumble of emotion in her chest. She'd received presents from her students before, that wasn't new, but this was Ava, and… yeah, she almost teared up. This had been done with care, showing the girl had great skill in wrapping. It made Maya unwrap it slowly, like she might preserve every part, the paper and ribbon together, as a memory. Inside, there was an envelope, the flap tucked inside rather than sealed. The contents were several pieces of paper, in different sizes and colors… All she had to do was see the text, the format, the scribbles… These were more of her attempts at song writing. There was no explanation anywhere, just these, but Maya understood. One year in class, and a few months of diary communication and the occasional in-person encounter, gave her the means of cracking the Ava code just enough. She never spoke or wrote about the fact that she was writing any of these. They just appeared, and however Maya had been responding was clearly working for her student. She'd told her to keep going, and so she had.

Going from one paper to another, one song to another, Maya felt as though she'd been given a password, VIP entry into her mindset, like few if any others had been granted. She didn't lay out everything she was feeling or thinking about her current home situation, with her father and her uncle, but having been someone who expressed herself with colors and words for the better part of her life, Maya understood. Ava was telling her that she was okay, better than she would have ever imagined, living with her uncle. There was still so much she had to work through and deal with, and she was doing her best, even though part of her was scared. Her writing had come as an unexpected outlet and, because it worked for her, she was clinging to it. She kept going, kept trying. And what she produced had her teacher smiling through proud tears.

She had to get through the other boxes… as soon as she could. Monday morning, Barton Day would come and collect them and, when he did, Maya wanted there to be a new offering of music, wrapped and on its way to Miss Ava Nash.

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners