April 13th 2022
Chapter 103
Our Introduction to Hours
"Hey, what are you up to here?"
The voice startled her, and Maya yelped as her hand jerked, sending a box of pencils tumbling aside. Her reflexes demanded for her to reach and attempt to catch the thing, already imagining the cardboard splitting and sending the many pencils within skittering in all directions. Thankfully, the one who'd startled her, Dylan, got to it first, slapping both hands on either side of the box and bringing its fall to a sudden stop. Maya breathed out and took it from him.
"Not cool, Coach," she gave him a look that held no menace before resuming her work in the supply closet.
For the near two full periods she'd had to herself since seeing her freshmen off, Maya had been giving the small space a complete overhaul. She'd emptied all the shelves on to the nearest station… and the stools… and the floor, and slowly but surely replaced everything in what felt to her like a much better set up. She'd already been here before the start of the year, culling what needed culling, adding new materials, and still in the midst of her afternoon, she'd located several things to discard and thought of other things they could use.
If this day didn't end already, she would lose her mind. She needed to know already…
"Sorry," Dylan told her, and she wasn't sure what he reminded her of the most, his teenaged self or his little brother now off in college in Indiana. "I just had some time, so I figured I'd…"
"Come check up on me?" Maya guessed. She couldn't even hold that against him, could she? He was that kind of person, that kind of friend. "Fine, be a dear and get these boxes on the top shelf?" she asked, slipping on her long practiced drawl. Dylan grinned and got to work at once. Had it been anyone else who had discovered her secret/potential news, she might have suspected that they'd come at Lucas' behest, but that was just Dylan, and anyway Lucas didn't know that he knew, did he?
While she had him there, she could at the very least catch up with him and his side of the day, primarily on two fronts. For one, just after lunch, the principal had gotten on the P.A. system and informed the entire school that Dylan was now the boys' basketball team coach. Shifting from teacher to friend for the space of those two minutes, Maya had had her phone out, recording as soon as the announcement started, the better to later share it with Lucas and the others, if no one else had thought to do it. This was a good thing, as she doubted even the best of storytellers could have better captured the rumble this caused. The art classroom might have been spared, as it had been filled with freshmen, except for the fact that several of them in the room already knew the gym teacher, and so they had cheered. From beyond the room though, they could hear so many cheers, feet stomping on the floors, fists striking on desks… Mr. Orlando was well loved in this school, and the students were thrilled for him.
"Yeah…" Dylan chuckled when Maya showed him the video. He was humbly proud to see the response. In the gym, with his class of the moment, he'd been met with some of that reaction, though he'd mostly heard his group, as their voices rang out with the slight echo of the space. "I can't wait for tryouts, can't wait to begin," he confided, and Maya smiled. She had no doubt of that. For a moment, they looked at each other, both knowing they were thinking of the same thing. They thought of when they'd learned that their teams were being disbanded, how hopeless they'd been that their favored sport would ever be given back to them. Sixteen years ago, already… It had been fourteen years now since the teams had been allowed to form again, and still, students would come along, maybe not knowing the story at first but sooner or later… Those two 'dark years' were something of a legacy, passed on to anyone who called this school theirs. Now with Dylan as their coach, oh… They would never forget.
The other thing she had to ask him about were her sisters. He would have had them in the gym by now, and while she would exercise some amount of restraint in asking some of her colleagues about how they were doing, Dylan was another story. Then again… Oh, she was really curious about how their trip into Mr. Matthews' history class would have gone. As if having your sister, and two of your sister's best friends as your teachers wasn't enough – they were also in Morgan's music class – they also had one class taught by their father's lifelong best friend.
"It was great, I mean… First day, you know," Dylan shrugged, and Maya nodded. His policy on the first day was generally for all of them to play a couple of games, low stakes… It allowed him to get to know his students, as people and also as 'people-in-a-gym-class.' He got to spot the ones who'd struggle more, for whatever reason. "Gracie's hip is still giving her trouble, isn't it?"
"Sometimes," Maya slowly nodded. It had been three and a half years since the accident, but just like her own accident, many more years before that, it would take very little… only a mention… and she'd be back there. In this case, she'd be back to discovering that her sister had been badly hurt after being struck by a car. In this moment, with all the baby thoughts, it seemed to hit her that much more. "Not a lot of the time, but some days. Was it bad?"
"Oh, no," Dylan quickly shook his head. "She wasn't hurting, but, watching her, it felt like she was thinking about it, guarding it, you know?"
"Yeah," Maya confirmed. She had moments like that, too, though very rarely by now, with her arm. "She'll be alright."
"She'll have to be, if she plans to try out for the girls' team," Dylan nodded, then paused and looked to his friend like he'd said something he wasn't supposed to say. Maya chuckled. There hadn't been any kind of 'big announcement,' but she had it on good authority that both her sisters planned to try out… Desi, too… and the Davis twins on the boys' side.
"I can't wait to see them all in the stands, cheering each other on," she told her friend, and Dylan grinned, recalling those days, too, him and the other turtles cheering her and Nadine on, then her and Sophie…
The chatter had sort of slowed down her progress, but Maya still managed to finish putting everything back in time for the arrival of the juniors. Dylan's presence had helped take her mind off the wait – for the class but more than anything for what would get to happen after the class. Now, she greeted her students as they arrived, feeling that familiar twinge as she thought of how they were entering the second half of their time at the school.
"Hey!" Maya smiled when she saw Anton Day come along with his roomie for the year. Johnny Talbot was barely in the room that a layer of whispers passed across the room, a few quiet laughs, too… giggles? Most of the girls and a couple of the boys were looking at him – whether they succeeded in being covert or failed miserably – like they were very happy that he had landed in their halls. For his part, Johnny was doing his best not to act like he was aware, displaying a shyness Maya had not known in him from the brief interactions they'd had since his arrival. "How's your day going so far?" she asked both boys, drawing them away from their ogling classmates.
"Pretty good," Anton shrugged, though that little smile betrayed him.
He was happy, and she'd be willing to bet it had to do with the fact that his girlfriend was now on the premises. Maya couldn't even tease him about it. At this point, regardless of what had happened, he would have been on his own, as Lambert would have graduated in the spring. Now, the past two years, though he hadn't had his older brother, he had had his brother's friends. Taylor, Ella, and Lea had all done their best to be there for him, as they knew Lambert would have done. This fall they were all gone, and it wasn't as though he didn't have friends in his year, but for having seen him go by freshman and sophomore year, Maya knew he didn't really have anyone he was particularly close to. Maybe this notion had not been lost on his parents. Maybe it had played into their decision to apply to host exchange camper Johnny.
Before long, class was about to start, and Maya couldn't help but catch a glaring absence. The station to her right, the first in front, by the windows, was unoccupied. She asked the others if they had seen Olivia, Kelsey, or Ava. Everyone either shook their heads or said no, but there was definitely a vibe like they knew something. No one looked willing to volunteer an answer as she kept looking at them until Anton finally got up and walked over to her so he could whisper. As he told it, before they even heard about the news of the exchange camper's presence, there was already something going around, and it revolved around a couple of those missing juniors. Even as he said this, she knew what he would tell her next. The band… We Are Sisters… Everyone knew about them now, either for having heard of them on their own or having been told by a classmate or friend.
Maya had already had plenty of flashbacks thanks to the first day back to school, but this one was about the last one she needed. She was reminded of the backlash turned on her, and Riley, and Nadine, as TXNY had started to get attention.
She barely had time to wonder where the three of them might have been at the moment when a message over the P.A. summoned her to the nurse's office. If she felt a bit nauseated right then, it had nothing to do with any potential pregnancy. Leaving Anton in charge of the room, she hurried off. When she neared her destination, she heard voices from within, sounding like complaints, several girls' voices one over another.
The scene she came upon stalled her where she stood as she took it in. Vice-Principal Ríos was on the receiving end of those voices, with Cory at her side. Before them were Olivia and Kelsey and a couple other junior girls she didn't know by name. Behind them, sitting almost in a ball and very quiet was Nika, just across from Ava, who sat with her head tipped back as the nurse stood before her, tending to her. When Cory saw her, he motioned for her to come forward, which made the girls pause in their ranting so they could see her.
"What's going on?" Maya had to ask, her eyes darting between the confrontation and the two girls on the bed. "What happened?"
"Roddie…" Ava's muffled, impaired voice answered her, before being asked to keep quiet by the nurse so she could help her. Maya felt her fury, and she wasn't far behind from her now. Ronnie the jerk… He of the picture that had 'outed' Nika's hidden pregnancy.
"He hit you?" Maya was stunned.
"He almost hit her," Olivia declared with outrage, indicating Nika. "He…" she started again, but then very suddenly paused, adjusting her tone down. "He and his friends thought they were being really funny, coming at her about the band. She wouldn't have it, and then he… he grabbed her," she lowered her voice even further, and Maya's head turned back to Nika where she sat and made herself small still. "She pulled away and then he said… things…" Olivia went on, not going so far as to repeat. "And then he wound up…" she showed this with her own arm. "We were right there, we were coming to help, and when we saw that… Ava got there first. She put herself in between, and then…" Olivia indicated the songwriter.
"I saw the whole thing," Cory explained, showing the reason for his presence. There would be no excuses out of Ronnie. He was in the principal's office now, waiting for his parents. "No one else hit anyone or did anything."
"I wood hab, bu… she stob be…" Ava informed them, waving in the general direction of Kelsey.
"I'll pretend I didn't hear that," the vice-principal sighed before turning to her two teachers. "I'll let you settle everything here," she told them, establishing that none of the girls were in trouble. "Get them back to class when they can. If anyone's going home, send them my way."
"Hey… Are you okay to stay?" Maya softly asked Nika as she approached her. The sophomore girl nodded without a word. Maya didn't know whether to believe that or not, but for now she'd follow her lead.
"I'll get her back to class," Cory offered, and Maya watched them go, trusting he'd have something to say to help her as they went. The other juniors went off to their own class, leaving Maya with the three she'd been seeking a few minutes ago.
Ava would be a little while more before she could go back – and she wanted to go back, not just head home early. Olivia and Kelsey wanted to stay with her, so Maya let them, on the promise that they'd all make it back to class before period's end. As an end to this day, it was not what she'd expected, but then for how 'unexpected' seemed to be the theme… It would be some story once she got to talk to Lucas again.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
