A/N: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available!
February 25th 2022
Chapter 56
Our Return to the World
It had been a constant of their lives for as long as they could remember. Even if it had evolved over the years as they climbed up through one school, and another, and another, until they were both on the other side, either as a teacher or as the husband of a teacher whose life also followed that structure of time… It just went the same way. They would be counting down the days, waiting for the big 'back to school' day, and it would seem to take forever. And the next thing they'd know, the first week would be over.
It was Monday again. The first week was over and done with, and a new one was beginning, of all places, at a museum. No, not just a museum but, as far as Maya and Lucas would consider it, the museum. The location of a failed first date, in itself the location of a very memorable field trip. That was what they were here for today, both of them, as teacher and additional chaperone. Was his presence entirely necessary? Debatable. But she was here, and he was here with her, and what already had the potential to be a great, few hours, as far as Maya was concerned, was made that much better.
"We can't wander off this time, can we?" Lucas whispered at her ear, and she snorted.
"Don't give me ideas, Friar, we're supposed to lead by example." He gave her a look. "Hey, they're the ones who got it into their heads that we were responsible adults who totally won't turn into a couple of middle schoolers in here."
"Shows what they know," he joked, further challenging her ability to keep from laughing. Yeah, the day was off to a good start.
The fact that they were starting this new week seemed to cement how they had transitioned into this new phase of their family's lives. They didn't have to wonder how things were going to be anymore. The two of them would be working, Marianne would be at school, and the babies would be seen to by any combination of their grandparents as they'd made themselves available. They'd have mornings at home – generally just a bit on the side of chaos but no less manageable – where they'd make the most of breakfast all together, and Maya would drive Marianne to school. Lucas would pick her up at the end of the day and either take her home or back to the ranch, depending on whether it was a green group day or not. And then they'd be together again, catching up, with dinner, and the regular evening schedule for the little Friar sisters, winding down the evening just the two of them and the Hart-Lane sisters if they were around once the children were asleep.
Now that they were both back at work, they had their first weekend, and it was errands, and chores, and visiting or being visited by friends and family… The biggest highlight of those days where both Maya and Lucas were concerned was that they got to be with their girls. For all that they'd imagined of their future lives, even as the idea of their being married, with a family, had been conjured up in their minds, they doubted that they could have understood how much it would mean to them just to spend a quiet afternoon, at home, sat on the living room floor for a bit of play time/motor skill development with Kacey, Lucy, and Remy, as assisted by the great Sheriff Annie.
She continued never to go far without her green bandana. It had become as essential to her as her star, even on days when she wasn't headed to the ranch with her father. Now, the game became about trying out different ways for her to wear it every day. Over her head, around her neck, tied in her hair, wrapped around her arm like a bracelet… She'd had two more days with the program, and she would have another one just this afternoon. While her father's attitude about it all was generally more on the restrained side, they were easily of a single mind as to the fact that those few hours they got to spend out there, on alternating afternoons, with all the kids, and Dylan, and Zay, and the rest of the monitors… They were hours they looked forward to, every time they neared.
"Have we gotten to that age now that we're just… too far away to remember what it was like to be their age?" Maya sighed, after having had to reprimand a trio of juniors. "Like, yeah, sure, I have spent the better part of the last seven years as a teacher in a high school, I'm around them a lot, but sometimes, I just look at them and think 'why are you like this?'" she whispered. Lucas laughed.
"To be fair, you spent your high school days with me and the rest of our people," he pointed out.
"I did do that, yeah," she agreed. "Are you suggesting I should have… diversified my experience? Hung out with more of their type?"
"Yeah, maybe not."
"I'm at least taking some small comfort that they're none of mine," she went on, with an exaggerated raised chin.
"Of course, your kids would never, is that it?" he laughed again.
"I don't know about never, I mean…" She paused, scanned around. It wasn't one of those trips where she'd go with each group, one day at a time, it was a school-wide trip, with groups split out in various areas of the museum, so she couldn't see everyone, but she could still see them if they happened to be passing by. As for her group of juniors… "Hold on, think we're missing some."
They both did the headcount, and they were both missing two. It turned out to be a lot easier to figure out which two than they might have assumed. It was always the potentially fatal flaw, wasn't it? When you became so associated with one or several of your classmates that being absent from them was that noticeable, leaving anyone behind just defeated the purpose of sneaking off, didn't it? For instance, here was Cade Foster, doing his best impression of a casual guy who was definitely where he was supposed to be, doing what he was supposed to do, and not at all keeping watch for his friends who were nowhere to be seen. Henry and Stevie had wandered off.
"Rookie move," Maya shook her head, and Lucas wasn't sure if she was disappointed that they'd done it or that they had managed to get caught.
"Want me to go looking for them?" he offered. She looked over at him. Without having to say it, he'd know what she was thinking… He'd be thinking it, too, wouldn't he? They'd both be recalling a time when they had done the very same thing… more or less. One of these days, they'd have to ask their mothers/chaperones if they had actually realized they'd been missing that day and pretended not to.
"I kind of have one foot on either side of that question, don't I? On the one hand, there's Mrs. Friar, the teacher, who is not looking forward to explaining why she didn't pull them back if I don't and they end up getting in trouble. But then there's Maya, the hunter of 'weird stuff,'" she intoned, the better to make him smirk. "And she just thinks… They're good kids, who should get to have a little fun."
"Yeah…" Lucas nodded, showing that he was with her on both viewpoints. Ultimately, it would just have to be her choice, wouldn't it? He did however offer her a suggestion.
Wherever they were in the museum, Henry Hillard would soon receive a text from his cousin Lucas. It would contain a picture, showing 'casual Cade' standing among his classmates all by himself, along with two words: Ten minutes. If he and Stevie Brett didn't get the message, then they'd just have to move to the next level, and whatever trouble they got in then, it would be on their heads. A reply soon came with a thumbs-up emoji.
"See, that only works because he's your cousin, and she's practically family," Maya had to point out. With her playing Katy's daughter on her show, it had been an easy joke for her to start referring to Stevie as her little sister. It would make the girl laugh, though at the same time, Maya guessed that she enjoyed the idea of another big sister, especially one so nearby. "If it was someone else, I'd have to go out there, it'd be a whole thing, and I'd do it, but I wouldn't like it…"
"That's why they like you so much," Lucas easily boasted, giving his best proud smile, and receiving a snorting laugh for it. "They do though. The way they talk about you sometimes when I get to talk to them… You're their safe space," he declared, smiling even more at the way the statement had her on the verge of tears. That was kind of the whole reason she'd wanted to become a teacher, wasn't it? If he'd wanted to finish her off, he could have told her she was and had always been his, too. But she already knew this, didn't she?
As they kept on making their way through the exhibit with the juniors, his words were still in her head, the words, and the kids, and the past week being back at school… The first day, everyone had not been expecting her to even be there. The second day, Tuesday… It was like half of them had been waiting to talk to her about something, things they just wanted to discuss in person for whatever reason, and all through that day, they came to collect on that conversation. It was enough that she'd gotten some of them to come and sit with her at her desk as class was happening, talking quietly together while everyone worked.
It had been her favorite day of the week, hands down. She got to catch up with so many of her students… There were others who didn't need to come calling, or just wouldn't have been the type to do it, and there were a few who'd just trickle in for their own chat along the following days. Some of them needed advice, others needed to get things off their chests… And as wide a range of conversations as they brought, the one thing they had in common was that whether they did or didn't have someone else to turn to, they'd wanted to come to her.
"Oh, look who it is," Maya had to smirk when she turned and spotted Henry and Stevie doing their very best to reintegrate the group as though no one knew they'd been gone. Lucas had just spotted them at the same moment, and he bowed his head to stop himself chuckling. "Mr. Hillard, Miss Brett, hang back a minute?" Maya asked the pair, sending a buzz over their classmates of the 'busted' variety. "Hey, hey, eyes focused, ears open," Maya told them, and the buzz turned into variations on 'yes, Mrs. Friar.'
"Do you ever get so caught up looking at a painting?" Stevie asked.
"Look who you're talking to," Maya raised her arms, indicating herself.
"I can vouch for that," Lucas raised a hand, getting a pointed smile from his wife that read like 'I know exactly what you're thinking about, and I was thinking about it, too, but this is not the time.'
"Trust me, I get the appeal…" Maya told the pair.
"He told me once how you guys used to do that," Henry told her, turning a look to his cousin. "That's sort of how this started today," he went on, turning to his girlfriend and co-best friend. Lucas tried very hard not to look like his young cousin had just gotten him in trouble with his wife.
"All I'm saying is, you've earned some trust, so use it. I'm not asking for a full written report, just sort of… catch my eye, give me a signal, so I don't get stuck on a headcount where I'm missing heads. Something could have gone wrong, and I would have had no idea of where you two were. I get that it's more thrilling to just get away unseen, but just… compromise, yeah?" Maya told her students. They nodded, apologized, and thanked her. Once they were allowed to return to the group and rejoin Cade, Maya let out a breath and soon felt Lucas' arm link with hers. She leaned to his shoulder as casually as she could, present location and company in mind.
"I think that was very fair," he stated.
"Well, coming from you, I appreciate it," she told him.
When they were nearing the time to get back to the buses and return to school, it came to Maya and Lucas to escort a mix of students from all grades over for a trip through the gift shop. Unlike the pace of the actual tour, they were definitely more on the clock this time around, and as far as they were concerned, the Friars were ideally positioned to make sure everyone got what they wanted and made it back to the buses on time.
"All set?" Lucas asked Ava, who ended up being the last one done at the register. They made their way out of the museum together, the three of them not quite running but definitely hurrying after there'd been a problem with the register and the sophomore nearly had to leave her items behind.
"Yeah," Ava nodded, gripping her bag as they went.
"What'd you get?" Maya smiled.
"Couple of prints, bookmarks, and a notebook," Ava replied.
"Good haul. All for you?" Maya wondered, and for how this question would have gotten her little more than an eye roll a year ago, today there was something looking vaguely like an awkward consideration before she spoke again.
"The bookmarks are for Kelsey, she kind of collects them. Got a print for my uncle… one for my father, too," she added, quietly. "The notebook's for me," she finally added.
"How's your dad doing?" Lucas kindly asked. Again, Ava hesitated.
"He… He checked himself into a rehab a couple weeks ago," she revealed. "I haven't really heard from him since, but he said it'd be that way. When he gets back, maybe… Maybe I'll get to go back and live with him. He's been talking about selling the house, getting a new place. Our house, it just reminds us of before… when everyone was still there. I hope he does it." She wasn't saying it, not that they expected her to say it, but her eyes did plenty to express her thoughts. As much as she liked living with her uncle, her heart still needed to be back with her father.
"I hope so, too," Maya told her. Ava nodded, her smile small, guarded, but present.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
