April 16th 2022
Chapter 106
Our Spirit of Support
It might have been, with how the first day back at school had gone down, that Maya would have woken up on the second morning with some of that weight on her heart. But there was none of that. No, she felt light as she woke up, so light, because of how the evening had wrapped up. She and Lucas were expecting again... It still felt like so much of a surprise, which was natural since they hadn't been trying to get pregnant at all. At this rate, it would be a miracle if her urge to smile didn't give her away by the end of the day.
"Good morning," she had one of those smiles now, mostly for how she felt Lucas moving. He was waking up, and he was remembering, too, if his hand landing over her stomach was any indication. She heard him laugh quietly into her neck and it was hard not to join him.
"Everyone's still sleeping?" he whispered. They both listened for a moment.
"I think so," she whispered back, and before she could ask him why, he was moving from her side, and she laughed as he came around until he could nudge up the bottom of her shirt enough that he could press a kiss somewhere about her belly button. He followed this single greeting by stretching up so he might kiss her, and she looped her arms around him as she reciprocated. When he pulled back to look at her, he had that all too goofy dad smile on him, and they were both grinning.
"Good morning," he finally returned her words with a nod. Maya scrunched her face at him like he'd just loaded her up for the day with an unbreakable smile.
"We are better at keeping secrets than this, come on," she laughed.
"There's no one to keep secrets from in here," he shrugged. "Just the three of us." Oh, how she loved this version of him... She was really glad to have it back.
They didn't get to stay in their bubble of no secrets for nearly as long as they might have liked, but then the trade off was pretty good, too. The triplets had pulled another crib escape, though only to climb over from one into another so that they were found all sitting up in the same crib and babbling at each other. Everyone was taken through to breakfast, then to get dressed, and after the Clutterbuckets came to pick up their great granddaughters, Lucas took off for the ranch while Maya took Marianne to preschool before heading to the high school.
"Hey!" Dylan appeared just as Maya was getting her bag from the back of the minivan and she jumped.
"You stop that right now, Orlando," she whispered at him in 'reprimand.' "You keep this up and I'm putting a bell on you." He chuckled, but he apologized. "Now, come to my class, got a couple things to talk about."
She was tempted to keep the good part for last, as a way to balance things again, but they were at school, and she'd be dealing with it anyway. Here the good news felt better as a start, to get them lifted. So, she told him about the baby. His reaction was about what she'd expected it to be, which was to say that while he did manage to 'hit mute' and keep from being loud about it, his body language said it all. He was thrilled for his friends.
Now, they had to deal with the other part, the altercation before last period the day before, between Ronnie and Nika and Ava. He hadn't been around, but he had heard of it, yes. He was never one to speak ill of any student, but even without using any inappropriate words, it was easy to see he had some thoughts on the suspended sophomore even before the incident in the hall. Unlike Maya, he had been the boy's teacher. In gym class, he had been just the kind of kid to make others miserable, from the girls to the more... frail and isolated boys. Dylan usually had an inexhaustible patience, and in this case, it translated into him always being ready to deal with Ronnie rather than to play into his hand by losing his calm.
For all he'd done before though, what had happened with Nika and Ava was on another level for Dylan, and if Ronnie came back from his suspension to attend their school again, he would have plenty to say. Right now, Dylan and Maya were on the same page: They had to be there for the girls, and they would be.
Dylan helped with the first period set up as they discussed all this, the door once again opened. As they were finishing up, Cade Foster arrived. He greeted the exiting gym teacher before turning to his art teacher.
"What's going on?" he asked with a concerned look. Maya sighed. There was no point brushing it off, was there? The school was what it was, which meant that people would talk, and everyone would know anyway. So, she gave the boy a quick rundown of what had happened.
Cade looked stricken by what he heard in a way that Maya recognized. One would be forgiven for not seeing it if they had only known him 'post growth spurt,' if they had never known him when he had been the school bullies' preferred target. Even those who had known him before would tend to forget it now, setting it as something of the past. Cade had not forgotten though, and now that he found himself on the other side, those who did know him then and hadn't forgotten either could see how important it had become for him to use his more imposing stature for the better, especially to deter the bullies and protect the bullied.
He had been aware of Ronnie. Not only that, but he'd also been aware of his previous actions toward Nika, when he'd revealed to the entire school that she was hiding her pregnancy. Maya remembered when they'd run into each other, when he'd told her he would try and deal with Ronnie. She didn't know what he had or hadn't done or what effect it had had on him, but clearly it had not done so much that the boy had changed his tune. But Cade was still doing his best, and Maya had seen some of that in play, seen how he'd tried to put himself out there and made it clear that he would look out for students who might need some looking after, like a big brother to anyone who might have needed him. The sophomores and juniors were thankful for him, and Maya expected the freshmen would soon feel the same. She was proud of all of her students… some in their own way, admittedly… but she'd be lying if she said that there weren't some in particular who'd captivate her, some she felt so truly privileged to have watched grow for the space of four years. He may have only been starting off his final year, but she already counted Cade Foster among one of those. To think of how his story in her class had started… three little words, dismissively given to identify him.
After first period, with a break until she had the sophomores, Maya tried to just keep busy, do what she needed to do like she always did, but… well, it was still only the second day of the new year and there wasn't much for her to do. And even though she wasn't about to act like she was breakable now that she knew she was pregnant, it was enough to make her dismiss a fleeting thought to pull out the ladder and rearrange some of the art on display on the class walls. Maybe she'd see about recruiting a couple of students to help her with that over lunch, or at the end of the day…
She ended up taking refuge in her own sketchbook, the one she would carry with her just about every day… until it was full, and she needed to get a new one. Sometimes she would just start doing something very random, letting her mind wander and find its way. She wouldn't even be thinking too much, and then she'd pause and look at what she'd done like she hadn't even been conscious. Today, she pulled back to see she'd drawn birds, and it made her smile. Now she wondered what the bird for April was…
The period with the sophomores turned out to be an unnaturally quiet one. Nika was there, but Maya didn't want to single her out and ask how she was doing in any way that would get her classmates looking at her. Once class started, the station she shared with Lara and Maggie was deeply concentrated on its work, not much taken to conversation, and that seemed to spread across the other stations, so much so that Maya ended up turning music on, for once to fill in the quiet. And when the bell rang, Nika left before Maya could get to her, with her best friends on either side of her. That would have to be something of a reassurance, yeah? She wasn't alone…
Maya spent the next period outside, on her bench, again with her sketchbook. More birds manifested. She had lunch with Morgan, Miranda, and Dylan, where it seemed as though everyone had it in mind to ignore the incident or how much it weighed on all of them. That was just what they needed for today and no one would fault them.
The afternoon started like the first glimmer of light after darkness. Some of that might just have been Maya stopping and reminding herself that she would have her sisters there with her… like she'd wanted for so long. She could set aside everything else, if only for the space of a class, right? No thinking of Ronnie, definitely no divulging the well of brightness that was the tiny babe growing inside her… She would just be her more usual 'teacher mode' self. Her sisters had barely gotten to see that! It'd be fun, especially if she got to mess with them a little…
That first glimmer grew significantly over her long afternoon break, as her grandmother and grandfather brought the triplets out to see her. They met up at the bench, and she got to hold her girls, watch them walk a bit… For the first time, she was made to realize that they would soon be big sisters… Her little butts would have a baby brother or sister, and that just felt so impossible… and amazing.
Last period pulled her swiftly back to the thing she'd been trying not to think about. Ava walked into class, and she either couldn't or wouldn't cover up what Ronnie's fist had done to her face, unlike what had happened with her father. As she learned, it was the latter. She hadn't tried to cover it at all. She wanted everyone to see it, wanted everyone to understand what had happened. She was the picture of owning it, and though she still had to go and talk to her, see how she was doing, Maya couldn't help but be a little proud of her. Would she have done it for anyone? It was impossible to say. But Nika was her teammate in Born Curious, and aside from Kelsey and Olivia, they were the people she was closest to in and out of her year. The queen of eyerolls had not entirely retired, no, but when it came to the people she cared about, she was something else. She would stand up for them They'd been doing the same for her, even when she'd given them so little reason to in the past.
"Are you okay?" Ava asked, absently prodding at her bandaged nose, and regretting the impulse at once.
"Sure, why do you ask?" Maya wondered. Ava shrugged.
"I know how you get when someone's having a bad time, that's all." Well, she had a point… Maya chuckled.
"I'll be alright," she promised. "Fastest way to make that happen is for you all to get better, so leave your nose alone, yeah?"
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
