March 20th 2022
Chapter 79
Our Look Back on a Year
If she told anybody that she felt as though this school year had just flown by, Maya would be told that it was all due to the fact that she'd been home on maternity leave for the better part of it. She'd only been in class for the last few months, since the end of February, true, but it wasn't as though she'd been completely cut off from her school or her students, so as far as she was concerned, she had gone through this year just as they had, and it had truly gone in a flash. But then, don't they all?
Today was the last day of class for her and her students, most until summer was through, but the seniors… She was really so glad that she had been able to be here, in person, if only for those last few months, to see them to the end. She had always lamented missing the departure of the class of 2030, when she'd sat out the entire year after having Marianne… It was still wild to think that this was a whole four years ago. Nothing was the same now as it had been then…
Even if she had only been back in her class for the tail end of the year, she'd been able to partake in a lot of those big moments her years were anchored on. The end of the basketball seasons, for example, where the boys, led by captain Taylor Munroe had ended a perfect run of four years coming out on top. It was already known that Henry Hillard would be taking over the position in his coming senior year, and they already predicted he'd be feeling the pressure of maintaining that streak. Whatever happened, they would support him and the rest of the team.
Everything seemed to be coming up Taylor as this year ended. How he managed to pull off that great season on the court, all the while being present and active on the stage, for the musical… Maya had heard from the guys' coach how he would sometimes practice the songs or his lines before, during, and after practices and games. His team had been surprisingly supportive of all this, not one of them teasing him in any way for his involvement in the musical. Never mind that he was their strongest player and their captain. It still all went back to everyone remembering why he had started doing the musicals in the first place, for his lost friend.
When this class will be gone, you'll be gone, too, Lambert… He would have been among them now, one of the graduates, and no one was forgetting it. All through the year, the sketchbook Ella had insisted they have, with his name on the spine, had been in their classroom, in the box at the end of the week, yes, but otherwise on Maya's desk, for all to see. Barton Day had made it so, while he had been teaching her class. He'd told the students that, if they wanted to or needed to, they could come and take it back to their station and add to its pages, all with the understanding that this would not be private, that everyone would be able to look, especially the teachers. This had been to guard against anyone putting anything that shouldn't be in there, though on the whole they had been confident that no one would do that and they hadn't.
The pages had been filling up throughout the year, and Maya had watched it happen for those last months. Now and again, someone would come and take the diary from her desk without a word, returning it by the time they'd be let out. Sometimes they needed to take it for a few days in a row to finish what they'd wanted to do. It was mostly the seniors, though even some of the juniors saw it and started to contribute, and then the same for the sophomores, led by Lambert's younger brother, Anton. Now, the year was over, and there were only a few pages left. When they sat in that final period together, Maya and the seniors, she pointed this out, asked them if they wanted to add anything else. Most of those last pages were soon filled, looking like the end pages of a yearbook, with short messages filling up all those empty spaces.
All that remained when this was done was the thing Maya had been thinking about for weeks already. The back cover… All her seniors received their diaries back with a drawing from her, and here she was able to do as much for Lambert. She drew his portrait, as she remembered him, as she would always remember him… Soon, this diary would be given over to his parents. They'd allowed her to keep his unfinished sophomore diary, but this one absolutely belonged to them.
"You're not going to cry, are you?" Ella teased, as they waited out those last minutes before class would be dismissed. As ever, this last day was about as relaxed as they ever got, which made it easier for everyone to see this last class not as a waste of time but as a break.
"You know, I might take that as a challenge," Maya squinted at her daughter and her friends as they laughed. "Doesn't matter to you that I'm out here on this… emotional rollercoaster all by myself, no, it's fine…" she dramatically pressed her hand to her heart. "Okay, you know what, that's it. Last class singalong, let's go," she moved back to the front of the room, clapping her hands together to get the others' attention. "I know it's not Christmas, but I wasn't here back then and… well, it feels right, don't you think?"
Nothing she could do would keep them all here, in her class, forever. Soon, the bell would ring, and she would see them off. She would see them again, in the halls today, at graduation, too, but there was still a great sense of separation here. Ella and her friends didn't even go the way of pretending to take time to leave, as though they could, when they had nothing to put away. They just waited, making sure that they would be the last to go.
It wouldn't be long now that they would be flying off on their trip, and they had to be thinking about that a lot, but right now there was plenty for them to keep their minds turned to their lives right here, in Austin. They were going through this end run to graduation together, and the entire thing felt so important to them, not just for themselves but for Lambert. They had been those closest to him in this graduating class, for however much or little they'd gotten to have him in their lives.
It was as though they were taking him along for the ride for these last steps. The musical, the last day of class, soon graduation… They'd taken him to prom with them, if only in spirit. The night had been everything a prom needed to be, and it had been blessedly free of any drama. Both Maya and Lucas had done their best not to fall into the trap of wanting to keep an eye on their daughter too much, even though the whole preamble to prom back at the house had made them infinitely more curious. How would the night go for them? Would they be alright? What would it mean for Ella that Taylor had gone and stepped up like that? Would it make things better? Awkward? Bad?
From what they'd seen throughout the night, because naturally they could only help themselves so much, it wasn't so far from what it had been meant to be all along: friends enjoying prom together. The only difference they could really see happened when they'd go dancing. Back when it would have only been the three of them, only Ella, Taylor, and Lea, any dancing they would have done would have probably involved only some form of hopping around and bopping around all together, sitting out any slower songs that were clearly not in line with their whole set up. Now that Lea had paired up with George and Taylor had formally asked Ella to be his prom date… When the first slow song had come up, Lea had paired herself up with George at once, leaving the other two to hesitate for a moment. Maya and Lucas had been looking, couldn't help themselves, and they'd felt as though they were holding their breaths, waiting to see what would happen. Finally, Taylor had held out his hand, with a shy smile they could understand, even across the crowded gym. Ella had reciprocated it and offered her hand back. After that, it was all up to them.
At the end of the night, the quartet had gone on in the rented limousine, dropping off their passengers one by one, leaving Ella as the last, returned to her parents', where she'd spent the night. Maya and Lucas arrived back just a few minutes after she did, finding their daughter sitting on the couch, shoes kicked off, exhausted but also just so happy, freely so… The night had been everything she'd hoped for, and the fact that she had been there with her friends, with Taylor as her date… She'd never felt to them so much like the high school student she still was, if only for a very brief time.
"So, tonight was good?" Maya had asked, taking a seat next to her. Ella had met this gesture in stride, leaning her head to her mother's shoulder and holding on to her. Maya had laughed and closed her arms around her.
"Tonight, was amazing…" Ella had mumbled, sounding this close to falling asleep. "I won't forget it… Still can't believe he did all that for me…" Maya said nothing to this, though she could have said plenty. Either way, Ella probably wouldn't have remembered any of it. She'd finally dozed off, right there in her mother's hold. When Lucas had returned from checking on the little girls upstairs, Maya had asked him to carry her up to the guest room, which he did. Once there, she'd coaxed Ella somewhere half out of sleep to get her changed out of her dress. How she ended up tucked into bed, in her PJs, hair and makeup undone, probably felt like a dream to her.
Now, with one class headed out, done for the year, it was time to turn to the other classes, as they bowed out for the 2033-2034 school year and looked toward summer. Some of them were staying in town, others were travelling or just going to visit people. Some had jobs, or camps… Some were planning to do as little as possible until the next school year started.
The thing that struck Maya the most, after the seniors, was to sit with her current freshmen, those who for the most part had been known to her only through diaries until her return to class. She'd more than made up for that by now, at least she hoped she had, but now that they were going to be sophomores in the fall, it made her think about what she usually thought about right around this time. Soon, she would have a whole new batch of freshmen. That was always fun, yes, but this time, oh… This time was going to be the start of four very intriguing years. From this fall, her lists would include the likes of Hunter, Penelope, and Hunter, Grace, of Davis, Robert, and Davis, Ethan, and of course Russell, Desiree. And if that wasn't enough… she'd also have McNeil, Roland and Whitley, Tre, Rochelle's brother, and stepbrother, the first two in a string of five full, step, and half brothers from her former student. She'd never had a class so populated with 'connected' students… and she was ready for them.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
