March 13th 2022

Chapter 72
Our Bonds With Students

In the course of her years as a teacher, Maya had gotten to see so much out of her students, the work they did in class and out of it, like their diaries. Some students weren't giving the same effort as others, some certainly had less skill than others but still gave what they had, and over time, they would either grow and evolve or they wouldn't. That was all up to them, and she could only guide, not force. Those who came into her classroom either with great skill already or a passion for art they tried to express, she would connect with them, and their work… Some of it would stay with her and she would still think about it, years later. What she loved most of all though was when she got to share some of that work with others. They'd have the occasional exhibit, and she'd especially make sure to put together displays on parent nights… And now, as of this year, they would have their end-of-year auction.

Since she'd started with the student diaries, she'd been acquiring them all out of pocket, gladly so. Barton and Michelle Day had taken over the purchase the year after Lambert's passing, a show of gratitude for their own freely given kindness, and it was after this that the idea had started to float, for them to hold the art auction, a yearly event to collect the means for the next fall's load to be purchased. It had been decided that, if they earned up more than needed, they would donate the excess. And if they didn't get enough, then the remainder would be provided in equal parts by the Friars and the Days.

The event was announced through the classes at the start of the month, allowing everyone who wished to submit a piece – or more than one if inspiration struck – to sign up. They would be allowed to work on these projects in class, provided they were actually working on those once Maya set the class to start on the day's assignment. Some needed a few days for inspiration to strike, and they could always consult their teacher for a bit of brainstorming. By now, everyone was hard at work, and it was good to see them so focused. They wanted to make something that people would be eager to bid on. From what she'd overheard out of some of them, Maya suspected that there was a bit of a bidding battle going on in some of the groups, to see who would sell the most lucrative piece. She tried to discourage this, but there was only so much she could do, so long as it was all about bragging rights.

"How's it going out here?" Maya sidled up to the station occupied by Ella, Lea, and Taylor. They were all signed up for the auction, as she would have expected them to be. Actually, the senior class had all signed up, across the board, a spirit fostered in them to help students from the classes below theirs, and the ones starting as freshmen in the fall. While everyone in the room was working along, with the regular buzz of quiet discussion, the trio here seemed to be having a particularly focused talk, enough so that they hadn't really been touching their respective pieces for the last several minutes. When their teacher came along, they all looked just a bit startled. Busted.

"Kind of had to think about things for a bit," Ella told her mother with a sufficiently apologetic look. Maya nodded slowly. Right.

"And has… inspiration struck again?" she asked.

"Yes, Mrs. Friar," Taylor vowed, and brushes and pencils were once more grasped and put to work. They went on talking, but so long as they kept going, it was well within their right.

After class was done, Maya slipped her way out of the art room and alongside Ella, to accompany her to her next period. From the look on her face, it seemed that she'd expected this move. It was, as ever, entirely up to her whether or not she'd end up sharing with her mother, but as Maya had figured she would, Ella chose to open up. She'd mentioned before how she was not only very aware of how she had parents who she could be honest with, parents she could turn to without fear of judgment, and that meant so much to her after she'd grown up around parents who made her feel the complete opposite a lot of the time. It was a mark of love and gratitude, of respect and trust, that she would turn to them in this way.

"I… I'm not sure that the trip is going to happen anymore," she admitted.

"What? Why not?" Maya asked, surprised.

"I don't know…" Ella sighed, eyes turning up to the hallway's ceiling, following the lights for a moment as they went on walking. "We were talking about how we needed to start thinking about our itinerary, and no matter what we did, it was like… we couldn't make up our minds… and then it would feel like we didn't even want to go anymore, and we'd end up arguing, so we just…" she shook her head, drifting off.

"Right…" Maya bowed her head. "Do you want me to make suggestions, or should I hold back for now, let you figure things out on your own?"

"Maybe give us a few more days?" Ella suggested with a small smile.

"Fine, I'll give you until the auction," Maya smiled back.

There was plenty of intriguing conversation happening among the sophomores, too, though whatever it was, she was never privy to it. Whenever she came close to the Zhu-Farrell-Nash station, the girls grew immediately silent and focused on their auction pieces. Maya would give them near comical 'suspicious looks,' but Olivia and Kelsey would just match these with the most innocent faces, while Ava would give her most blank expression, bordering on a flash back to her early days interactions except for the way her teacher could see through it. This facial power was being used for good. So, she let the trio be.

After lunch, it was the freshmen's turn. Theirs was definitely the one with the lowest participation percentage as far as the auction went, but Maya had expected as much. They had some, like Cody Marshall, who preferred to just do whatever they'd been set to do that day, and that was fine. A little more than half of the group, including Nika Petrelis, Maggie Hillard, and Lara Sullivan-Reyes, were bent over their auction projects. Maggie and Lara were definitely set somewhere in the middle as far as class was concerned. They put in great effort, using what skill they had, and their growth was starting to show, especially in these pieces they were now working on. They had never put quite this much focus into a single project, and they were proud of what they had accomplished so far.

As might have been expected, Nika was far and away the best artist in the class, and if she were to put herself in one of these betting pools, she could easily be declared the winner before a single bid was made. From its cover alone, her diary had been filling up like a masterclass, showing her natural talent in all its glory, and knowing what she'd been going through this year, Maya could imagine that the sketchbook had been something good for the sixteen-year-old to have. Her auction piece was that as well, something she could continue working at, little by little, every day. Once she'd sit down and set up her materials, she would be silently hunched over her station, enough so that, when the period would be nearing its end, one or the other of her friends would have to carefully let her know, so she could start looking into clearing up.

Last of all were the Juniors. The mood here, as Maya came to qualify it, was one she'd seen several classes reach, year after year. It was the realization that they were nearly to summer and that, in the fall, they would be Seniors. Every time, it would happen. It wouldn't matter that, of course, they were aware that the coming year was their last in high school. All at once, the actual result of it would hit them, and it would have many of them considering what this would mean for them, no longer as a distant eventuality but something they had to genuinely work on, not just 'later' anymore.

Over at their usual station, while Cade was working away at his own piece for the auction, Maya could see Henry and Stevie's heads bent low so as to be near enough to one another that they could do more than speak quietly and whisper to one another instead. They weren't holding hands but, the way they looked as they spoke, they might as well have been. Stevie looked upset, or conflicted, it was hard to tell. Whatever it was, Henry was giving off the impression of trying everything he could in order to comfort his girlfriend. It was enough to make her look back to Cade and reassess his silence. They were both his best friends, but clearly this was something that Stevie wanted to discuss with Henry alone, so he was letting them be.

When class ended, freeing everyone to head on home or to any after school activities they may have had, Maya asked for the trio to stick around. As much as he wanted to stay, Cade had to hurry off, so she let him go on. He knew what this was about, same as his friends did, but he really couldn't stay. After turning a nod to the others, he left and closed the door, as requested.

"Are you alright?" Maya asked Stevie.

For the last stretch of the period, she had to admit to herself that she'd been entertaining any number of reasons why she might have been upset. It couldn't have been a breakup, not the way Henry was being prime supportive boyfriend. Was she being written out of the show? Surely not, she would have heard, or she would have guessed it from being with her mother… Oh, she and Henry couldn't be… It wasn't as though Nika's case had been the first she'd run into in her years as a teacher, but if these two…

"It's nothing, really," Stevie insisted with a shake of the head. "It's stupid."

"It's not," Henry quietly replied. Maya agreed with this, even without knowing just what 'it' was.

"If there's anything I can do, you know I will," she told her student. The day was done, and if she could speak to her not just as her teacher but as her 'sort of sister on account of how my mother plays your mother on television,' then she would. Stevie looked back at her like she might have been picking up on that, too. She took a breath.

"I've been thinking about next year, and then after next year…"

"Right," Maya nodded.

"I've always had this idea of going to the same university my parents went to, where they met, and fell in love, and got engaged… but now I have the show, and that's another dream, and it's happening right now, and I can't do both, so I have to decide."

"I see," Maya nodded again. Stevie's face spoke volumes, and right now it looked as though it was claiming stupidity again. To a lot of people, maybe that would be what it looked like. Poor thing, so many wonderful choices, as though they meant nothing to her. If they knew her at all, they would see that wasn't so. "Have you talked to anyone from the show about it? My mother?" The flash of panic in her eyes said no. "You should talk to her," Maya met her eye. "Trust me. She'll help you figure it out, okay?"

"Yeah. Okay," Stevie finally nodded. "Thanks."

"Anytime," Maya gave her arm a light tap. Henry looked equally thankful for the brief intervention. He guided his friend and girlfriend out of the art room, and they walked off, hand in hand with a plan.

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners