June 16th 2022

Chapter 167
Our Steps Toward Art

"There she is, there's my girl Mac 'n Cheese!" Dylan intoned as he came to meet his friend and colleague, all his attention turned to the baby girl in her stroller. Maya didn't know how she kept from laughing with the way he came at them, like some less shambling version of his zombie walk. As soon as he could, he stopped and went about lifting the youngest Friar girl into his arms.

"I should have known, sooner or later, I'd become invisible…" Maya sighed 'dramatically.'

"It's a great superpower," Dylan assured her, though he still moved up to greet her with a careful hug, keeping Mackenzie secure all the while. "Thanks for pitching in," he told her as they continued down the hall toward the gym with him carrying the baby and her pushing the empty stroller.

"Are you kidding? Where else would I be?" she smiled. "So, how's the birthday boy doing?"

"Oh, he…" Dylan started, chuckling to himself at a memory. "He started his day very early."

"How's that?" Maya had to ask, sensing a Story with a capital S.

As he told it – and shared a few pictures for both proof and context – Nicholas Orlando, from the height of his brand new age of five, had gotten up out of his bed that morning before his parents or sisters were awake, gone down the stairs, into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator door, dragged a chair over, stood on it, and then proceeded to start sampling his birthday cake. Finding it very much to his liking, he'd then gone on to eat his way deep into it, all before his mother had finally come down the stairs and caught him in the act, bits of cake and frosting over his face, hands, PJs, his bare feet, the chair, the floor, and the interior of the refrigerator… Apparently, he'd managed to get some of it to hit the ceiling, and they still had no idea how that happened.

Maya had to stop walking and lean on the stroller as she tried to stop laughing.

"I got him cleaned up and off to preschool, but we're still trying to figure out what to do about it. On the one hand, he did something and he shouldn't have, and we can't just let him get away with it, but on the other… It's his birthday, what are we supposed to do, pretend like we're not so happy that he's in our lives, cake digging and all?"

"Maybe, on account of his age, you can be lenient for today, punish tomorrow?" Maya offered.

"Kind of what we figured," Dylan slowly nodded. "Riley's just flipping out over what we're supposed to do now about his cake. There's no way we can use it anymore, and there's no time to make another, she's swamped today and I…"

"I'll take care of it," Maya decided. "My treat, you'll have a cake by tonight, worthy of your cake fiend." Dylan seemed unsure about putting that on her, but she insisted, so that was that. "So, does today's leniency rule also apply to Lucas and their thing?"

"Oh, absolutely," Dylan promised. They wouldn't dream of breaking that streak. "How is the birthday man?" he asked, flipping her previous question on to her.

"He was a bit buried there for a while earlier," Maya replied with her own reminiscing grin before letting Dylan in on the tale of his old friend being held pinned down by the power of five daughters, right down to the baby, who'd sat – as Dylan soon put it – like Thor's hammer on the chest of one unworthy. He spent a minute attempting to mash up Mjolnir and Mackenzie, to hilariously ridiculous results.

She had jumped at the chance of helping out with the gym set-up for the art auction. Unlike last year, it hadn't been possible to get it all done before the day itself, so it all had to be done now, at the latest by lunchtime, preferably earlier. As Maya would come to discover, Stella had been there, bright and early, with François on hand to assist her. And now, after she'd left the triplets at their grandparents' house, Maya was there to help, too. She didn't worry for Mackenzie's being at the school all day. There would be plenty of people there, from faculty to students, who would be very happy to take the small blonde off her mother's hands for a little while.

As much as she'd heard about the progress leading up to this day, Maya had not had the opportunity to get a look at her students' pieces for the auction, not until now, as she helped to set them up on tables around the gym. It was enough that she had difficulty focusing on getting the job done without stopping to look at this painting, or that drawing… Stella had to pull her back on track more than once, all the better to earn herself some lighthearted teasing from her former teacher like they'd gone and switched positions.

They got everything set by the time second period was over, which would give students the opportunity to visit the exhibit, whether of their own accord or brought along by a teacher as part of class time. Stella had been off holding class with the seniors for a while, so Maya had worked with 'The Young Frank' in that time until she could return. When they did finish, the substitute was off to stand for the sophomores, and her boyfriend had to head out, so it left Maya to finally get to take it all in. She walked at her usual museum pace, with her baby girl in her arms all the while.

Her own piece hung up at one of the tables, marked 'anonymous,' because it had seemed fair to her. She figured anyone who knew her, or her style, enough would be able to guess she was the artist when they saw it, but that wasn't what mattered here. Yes, she'd decided to participate, but it was the kids' day, not hers. And how they ever stood out, all of them in their own way…

She'd only been gone about three months now, she'd been there for the better part of the current year, and once she'd been gone, she'd still had the diaries, yet for all that, seeing her students' work made her feel how much she missed being in class with them. The auction in the past had already been grounds for her students digging deeper, trying new things, and she saw it here, too, but now on top of that, with her leave… It was a wonder she didn't burst into tears somewhere along the way. The best way she could combat that urge was to channel her husband and tell Mackenzie about the art and the artists.

"We heard you guys were here!" Nellie came speeding into the gym, Gracie not far behind, barely a minute after classes had let out for lunch. The two aunties brightened to see their little niece, and Nellie won out and got to hold her first. She was just barely awake enough now that she accepted the transfer and calmly settled in this new pair of arms with ease.

"Yeah, just to help out before this evening," Maya told her sisters. "I may have promised the triplets that we'd go to the ranch for a bit after I go pick them back up from Mom and Dad's, on account of me not bringing them here. They didn't like that…" she shared, recalling her girls' second big cry that morning. She might have gotten away with bringing them, but more likely than not, she could just imagine them running around and needing constant supervision so that they didn't run into anything and either hurt themselves or break something. They were better off at their grandparents', whether they could see it or not, but the compromise certainly got those tears to cool off.

"You know, I'm starting to think that they got us figured out," Shawn told his daughter when she showed up to collect Kacey, Lucy, and Remy. He had the look of someone who'd submitted his head of hair to the styling and pulling of three small girls who may have had the general idea on hair styling but little to none of the skill. By the end, the biggest impact had been to make a mess of their grandfather's hair, with no complaint whatsoever out of him.

"How's that?" Maya asked with a smile as the trio came hurrying over, crowding at her legs and at the car seat in her hand where the baby slept.

"They definitely figured out that one kid crying is one thing, you know, let them come down on their own, but if they all go at once…"

"Yeah, I can see that," Maya laughed.

"Your sisters were the same, and there were only the two of them."

As promised, after they left the Hunter Hart house, they made their way to Sullivan Stables. It helped that they were as known as they were to the staff there. As soon as they pulled up the road and on their way to the parking lot, if anyone was there to notice them go by, they would either hang back and wait or head straight to the lot, to greet her and potentially assist in getting the girls around, making sure no one managed to wander out of sight. Today, that someone was Donna Devereaux, which might have been the best option in guaranteeing that no one split off, only tied because of John Carson being just as beloved to the triplets as the dance teacher.

"Dada!" the three of them called out, one over the other, when they finally spotted him off ahead of them, and they quickly turned their heads to look at their mother. Can we go now?

"Hold on, look, see? He's coming," Maya told them, and they looked back to see their father was indeed jogging over. They awaited his approach with giddy calls and bouncy feet, and the closer he got, they would have their arms out at the ready, so any one of them could get picked up. They settled for closing in for a hug as he arrived and came down in a crouch before them.

"Now what are you girls all doing here, huh?" he asked them.

"Dada!" Remy pointed at him.

"You're here for me?" Lucas guessed, and they all nodded. "Well, I'm so glad you are! You want to see the horses?" Oh, always.

As they went along, Maya caught him up on her morning at the school, the set-up for the auction… She could have told him all about Nicky's cake adventures, but it felt a lot better to let him find out about it later, when he'd go and collect his young birthday buddy. She had already been on the case of acquiring a brand new and not at all destroyed cake for the boy, making calls while in the gym, setting labels by the auction pieces. The cake would be ready for her to pick up in mid-afternoon.

"Word on the street is you got your hands on some preschool birthday cake," Maya whispered at Lucas' ear as he stood holding Mackenzie while the triplets got some quality time with their horse pals.

"Not ashamed to say, it didn't even survive the trip out here," Lucas admitted with a grin. Maya let out a sigh, shook her head to herself.

"Man, what is it today with you birthday guys and your cakes…"

"What's that?" he asked, and she passed him an innocent smile.

"Oh, nothing."

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners