April 18th 2022

Chapter 108
Our Spirit of Creation

Kelsey Farrell was absent throughout the whole of the second week. Her mother was still in the hospital, where her condition remained under observation. Her brother had gone back to school on the third day. He couldn't bear to sit around the hospital, so being back in class with his best friend - who was called Max as well though she was a girl - helped to keep his mind off things. Kelsey was the opposite. She needed to be with her mother, would have been useless in class. Her father didn't try and force her to go. He had things to look after, which kept him from being by his wife's side, so his daughter was able to keep him updated.

Ava and Olivia had been looking bummed out all week, sitting at their station without the last of their trio. They had been collecting her homework and bringing it to her at the hospital every afternoon, spending some time with Kelsey where they could both support her and give her some peace of mind... as much as they could.

On Friday, Maya had made two advances in order to help her students. The first was to vow to Rosemary, Ava, and Nika that she would have their freshman for them in the coming week. It was her mission over the weekend. By now, she could count on her colleagues to keep an eye out for anyone, whether they were in her class or not, who could be Born Curious material. On her side, she considered her students. By now she'd had two whole weeks with them, and she was able to get some idea of who they were if she didn't know them already. The easiest way to explore her options was to open the box and look at their diaries. There was only the covers and one page inside to go on, but it already said a lot.

Oh, she had been beyond curious to find out what her sisters' diaries would look like, and they did not disappoint. Maya had predicted horses for Nellie, and that was what she got... from her and from Bobby Davis, too. In both cases, they did two different images, one on the front and one on the back. Both had drawn their own horses on the front, both of them posed in a run. On the back cover, Nellie... no, Gracie had drawn, as Maya recognized her style. Gracie had drawn her twin standing before Hopper, forehead to forehead, Nellie holding the horse's head in her hands and smiling.

Once she'd seen this, Maya had found just what she'd expected to find on Gracie's cover. She had done the front, showing a reproduction of their garden, their little greenhouse... and a small mouse sitting cozy in the corner, as a nod to her nickname. Nellie had done the back. She had painstakingly recreated Gracie's favorite print from their bedroom wall, showing her favorite flowers. She couldn't have picked better.

Ethan Davis had been developing an interest in architecture in the last year or so, though according to his parents it had been there since he was little, in some shape or form. For that, Maya was not surprised to see that interest manifest itself on his diary cover. The same could be said of Tre Whitley. He had made it clear from day one that he had his eye on the basketball team. He was also a dancer. So, that was what Maya found, on his front and back covers, with the dance on the front, suggesting maybe that it was the thing he was more passionate about.

Desi Russell had been keeping diary sketchbooks for a few years already, since after her mother's passing. And whenever she got the chance, she would show them to Maya, and they would look at what she'd done. The last time they'd met to do this before the start of this school year, she had gone on about how excited she was to finally have her first 'official' diary, and Maya had smiled, letting her know that the feeling was mutual. Whether it had been her intent or not, after all this time, she had developed into a very skilled sketch artist. She loved drawing scenes of life especially, and that was what she'd done on her covers. They were one scene the whole way across. The back cover showed children playing in the park, near the street, which met the spine on both sides before opening to people walking along the street.

Maya was amused to recognize the corner of Nando's diner. Desi and the Hunter twins had all worked there over the summer, which had made for a mix of amusement and nostalgia, thinking how their big sister/teacher had worked there, too, when she was their age.

Rolly McNeil's cover seemed to show two worlds, his two worlds, with his mother and stepfather on one side and his father and stepmother on the other. He belonged to both, even as he occasionally struggled for being caught in the middle. His big sister had been caught up that way, too, and like Rochelle, Rolly was honest about it. He was honest about a lot of things, and straightforward like his sister, enough so that, as Maya had perused the diaries that weekend, she'd found a message on the boy's communications page... practically a letter, stating the many reasons why he wanted to be on the quiz team and why they would benefit from picking him.

Having interacted with him as she'd done... Maya smiled, and she agreed. He might just have been what they needed. He would be only the second boy among the many members they'd had over the years, but more importantly he was legacy, and he had something of his sister's spirit in him. She could think of many reasons for him to be selected, too, not all of them listed in his message. She would speak with him on Monday after lunch.

The other thing she'd done on Friday was that she'd mentioned to the forlorn Olivia and Ava that the knitting club would be starting up again on Monday at lunch, in the art room. Ava had been part of it the year before, Kelsey, too, and Nika. Olivia hadn't done it, insisting that she would be terrible at it, that she wouldn't have the patience for it if she struggled at all. This time around, maybe for the fact that the four of them were a team now, and everything that had already happened since school had started... and then Kelsey's mother... Olivia had sighed, but she'd agreed to give it a shot. They would be there, the three of them, on Monday.

Had he been between postings, Barton Day would have gone on accompanying his wife as she hosted the knitting club, but he'd snatched up a potentially year long spot subbing at another high school, so Michelle Day would be leading the group on her own for the foreseeable future. She was more than up to the task. The club had been a sort of unexpected treasure, the way she talked of it, and Maya still had to laugh at times, recalling how the whole thing had started as part of her means to tell her students that she was expecting the triplets.

When Michelle had called her to make sure that she was still okay with the club using the art room, Maya had been momentarily struck with a realization. There was a very good chance that Barton would be at this posting of his all year… and here she was, pregnant once more, an as yet undetermined number of months away from needing the services of a substitute teacher. He'd taken up the task twice before, so it almost felt like simple logic that he'd do so again the next time she needed him, but… maybe not this time? It wouldn't be selfish to hope that he became available again in time for her to go on leave, would it? They already had such a great working relationship, and it would be so weird to hand over her students to a new person for that long. She supposed she'd have to wait and find out.

"Maya? Hello?"

She blinked and looked up. There stood Michelle Day, with those eyes she'd passed on to all her boys and a smile all her own… How long had she been there before Maya realized that she'd arrived and had been trying to get her attention?

"Sorry," Maya chuckled and got up, the better to greet the woman with a hug.

"Something on your mind?" Michelle smiled.

"Maybe more than I've got fingers to count on," Maya sighed, and Michelle gave a sympathetic laugh as the notion was waved off. Oh, but it wasn't that simple, was it? "Look, before the kids get here, there's a few things I should mention."

"Right, go ahead," Michelle nodded, pulling up a chair for her to sit with Maya at her desk.

She caught her up on some of what had been happening over the last two weeks, starting with what had happened that first afternoon between Nika and Ava and Ronnie. Michelle had spent many a lunch hour with the two girls the previous year, so they were already familiar to her, dear to her, and she received the tale about as well as if she'd been their very own mother. She'd particularly helped Nika with a blanket she could gift on to her baby as he went off with his new mother, a keepsake from her. Like Lucas, her first question – after inquiring about how the girls were doing – was about what would become of Ronnie.

"He came back today," Maya revealed with a sigh. "Desperately hoping that those two weeks will have put some things back on track, but…"

"Doubtful?" Michelle guessed, and Maya had to nod. She'd told both Ava and Nika about the return as soon as she'd heard that it was for sure happening, and their reactions had been as she'd guessed. Fury and dread…

Maya also let Michelle know about the situation with Kelsey's mother, and she was understandably upset to hear it. She'd been growing close to the Farrell girl, too, her enthusiasm toward knitting club… She could only imagine what she must have been going through, all those days up at that hospital, worrying, wondering… When the club would all be gathered that Monday, bringing together returning members and new ones, too, she would start with introductions, finding out what the new members had as far as existing skill, and already she'd be working at something, showing what she could do, and Maya had no doubt that, whatever this new creation would turn into, it would be destined for Kelsey and her mother.

"Your sophomores were this morning, yes?" Michelle asked Maya when the club was dismissed, as she started pulling her things together to leave.

"Yes, why?" Maya asked back, already gathering what she'd need for the freshmen.

"Was Cody Marshall absent?" Michelle inquired, and Maya paused. She'd almost forgotten… He was part of the knitting club, he was. But he hadn't been here today.

"Uh, no, he's here, at least he was this morning."

"That's weird. I was looking forward to seeing him today," Michelle told her. So, it wasn't as though he had quit. He was still signed up, but… he hadn't shown up. It could have been anything, but Maya had to wonder if it was in part because of her, because of what had happened that day at the mall… She'd been respectfully keeping her distance all this time, leaving him open to come and see her if he wanted to, but he'd been quiet all this time, barely speaking up in class, doing the work just as he'd done it the year before…

"Maybe he forgot," Maya tried to shrug it off. Michelle seemed to accept the suggestion, which was good. Maya couldn't see herself catching her up on this one, though she really wished she could.

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners