August 25th 2022
Chapter 237
Our Hearts in School
When the day of the school's dance arrived, even before Marianne Friar could attempt to make a pitch for how she should be allowed to go with her parents and help them chaperone the evening, Eliza swooped in and mentioned how Ben would be coming over that evening. She told her niece that she would be showing him a couple of her favorite musicals because he had never really gotten into them, and she wanted to try and convince him that he should give it a shot. It was not so big of a statement, it really wasn't, but where the six-year-old was concerned, it was magic. She had the power to help dear, awesome Ben learn about the amazingness that were musicals? How could she say no? Could she get dressed up specially for that occasion? No one saw a reason why not, so she was good to go.
A situation at the ranch had kept Lucas late so that Maya had to go ahead and head back to the school on her own, leaving him to get home, get changed, and head back out again to join her. He didn't know if it was the location, but when he came along down the hall and into the gym and spotted her out there, helping set up the beverage table, it felt like a blast to the past. Oh, she was hardly a high school student anymore, never mind that she was coming on six months pregnant, but then she could be eighty years old, and he knew he would still see that spark in her eyes, her smile, that he had loved in her for as long as he'd known her, and it would make his heart skip a beat… especially with semi-formal wear involved.
"Oh, well, hello, Mr. Chaperone, fancy meeting you here," she grinned when she saw him come her way. He embraced her, they kissed, and he briefly greeted their Lucky Aubrey. "How was it back home when you left?" she had to ask.
"Ben was on his way, so the girls were helping Eliza and Emma get some snacks ready," Lucas reported. "We might be looking at a sugar crash later, but if that's as bad as it gets…"
"Here's hoping," Maya chuckled.
"Marianne went for her most sparkled dress," he added.
"Of course," she nodded with a smile.
"Apparently the triplets didn't have anything that was sparkly enough for their taste, but they improvised." He wouldn't specify what he meant by that, so the best she could do was wait until later, when they got home again.
They weren't going to be doing too much dancing that night, of course, mostly watching, but that in itself had its merits. They got to see so much of what they would inevitably refer to as 'the good, the bad, and the ugly.' On the whole, dances were what they always had been, and there would be plenty of the things they came to expect, whether it was kids casually dancing – some well, some less so – or standing and sitting idly by on the sidelines… and then the rest. They had yet to see one dance go by without some element of teenage drama, and this dance most of all felt like a hot spot for it. Arguments would easily fly over one person dancing with another instead of someone else, some couples would get together, others would break up… Lucas had stated once that they were less chaperones and more damage control, and Maya couldn't disagree. With all the pairs she'd seen form up in her classes as they geared up for this dance to happen, she would get this feeling of apprehension for their sake. She just wanted them all to have a great night.
On the whole, it did all go pretty well. She got to see Maia and Ash come along and be, as ever, the gold standard for special event fashion. She got to see Ava and Kelsey out there, dancing, showing that they had indeed been practicing their skills as a pair that was half on feet and half on wheels, and they were both so carefree and happy out there that they made it hard not to keep watching, whenever they'd be on the dance floor.
She got to see Gracie and Ethan out there, and it was still a marvel to think how, at sixteen, the two of them had been together for nearly four years already. It had been one thing when they'd been twelve, somewhere on the line between 'aww this is cute' and 'oh we need to be careful,' but now it was something else. There was still that feeling of caution, thinking of what could happen with the two of them. Yes, Maya had given her little sister The Talk when she'd asked for it, but all the care and protection in the world was never going to be exempt from the slim margin where accidents could happen. As of yet, as far as she knew, nothing had happened between them more than a lot of kissing and some 'over-the-shirt' touching, but they were both giving her the impression like that leap might be right around the corner. Trusting as they were, it was impossible not to be just a bit concerned.
Coming along with this 'long timer' couple, they also had the opposite, as Tre Whitley and Desi Russell had what may become their debut, if they stuck the landing, and for seeing them throughout the evening, both Maya and Lucas believed that they had a shot. That was all good and fine… but then there was the other of Rochelle's brothers, Rolly, coming along with Nellie… Of their group, that was all, six out of seven. Much as they'd tried to talk him into coming, Bobby Davis had decided not to show. He would be home, right about now, likely having a very complicated evening trying not to think about the dance.
Maya didn't know that this was a proper 'eureka moment' where her sister was concerned, but she could see that it didn't sit well with Nellie that he hadn't come. He should have been there, with them, and he wasn't. This translated as annoyance, like fine, be that way, but if she was honest with herself, she'd know she wasn't angry at him, not one bit. That was just the way it had always been for them, hadn't it? So maybe it was mutual, and this wasn't so much the narrative of the little boy pulling the little girl's hair because he liked her, and more like the boy and girl feeding into a rivalry because it was the easiest and the only way that they knew how to release the feelings in them that they couldn't interpret, as they had done for about five years already.
It wasn't all good times for all of Maya's students, and she and Lucas felt in particular for Angel and Raj, who had both worked up the nerve to ask a couple of the other freshmen girls to the dance, and actually managed to show up with them, and dance with them very briefly… only to be 'thanked for their services' very early on in the evening. As it turned out, the girls had had their eyes on two other boys, all along having this plan in mind to try and get them to become their partners as soon as possible. They had succeeded in this, even if it had meant dislodging the girls that those boys had brought. It hadn't been so bad in the end though… Being the good guys that they were, not even thinking of themselves, Angel and Raj had gone to talk to the dumped girls and see if they were alright. As the evening had progressed, the four of them had stuck together, talking on the sidelines for a while and eventually getting out to dance. They all had a much better time in this way than what they'd set out for in the beginning.
As much as Maya would have hoped for some kind of miracle, a reversal of expectations for Jenny Marshall, where some boy went up to her and, with no other intentions than to lead her into a dance, asked her on to the floor… it didn't come. But it wasn't necessary. Jenny came into the gym that evening – looking like her most glorious self – along with best friends Nika, Lara, and Maggie in equal form, and while none of them had dates to accompany them, they weren't needed. The girls had set out with a single mission, and that was to have a great time with their friends. They danced the night away without a care in the world, and it felt as though their actions, united together, created some sort of force field, shielding them away from anyone who might have tried to make fun of them or hurt them, either because they had no dates or because of who they were. It might have helped also that Maya and Lucas had positioned themselves with an unimpeded line of sight on the quartet the whole time, but that wasn't important here, not nearly as much as those four girls having such a wonderful time together.
"Well, Mr. Chaperone, another successful evening," Maya hummed. They could not end this night without a dance, could they? That wouldn't have been right…
"Very successful, Mrs. Chaperone," Lucas tipped his head to her, and she laughed as she leaned to rest her head at his shoulder. "Have I mentioned how much I love dancing with you like this?"
"You mean, with a baby belly in between us?" she guessed, turning her smile back up to him so that their eyes could meet. He nodded, smiling back. "Yeah, it's kind of special, isn't it… Maybe we need to put that into our routine, these next few months, just in case…" She didn't say it, but he understood: just in case this was the last time she would be pregnant, their last baby.
"Yeah… just in case… Morning conference, evening dance…" he suggested, kissing the top of her head, and when she snorted, he kissed her once more.
When they arrived back home, the musical party had ended. Eliza and Ben were still on the couch, just talking, Emma was upstairs, studying, and the kids were in bed… all of them plus one more.
"Hey, how was the…" Maya started to ask as her sister stood up.
"Tori's upstairs, bunking with Marianne," Eliza reported. Maya and Lucas both paused. It wasn't uncommon for that to happen, but there had been no call ahead, and Eliza's face came off as surprised and a little confused. "Ella dropped her off maybe ten minutes after you left," she pointed to her brother-in-law. "She asked if we could watch her for a couple of days while she's out of town."
"A couple… What?" Maya was as baffled as Lucas was. "Where did she go?"
"She didn't say, just that there was something she had to do, and it all kind of happened fast, but it had to be now, so… yeah…"
They went upstairs, even if they knew that she would be fine, to check on Tori. She was asleep, by her aunt's side, and all was well. Whatever was going on, neither Eliza nor Ben – who had arrived all of three minutes before the drop-off had occurred – were under the impression that Ella was in trouble. If anything, she looked hopeful, nervous but hopeful… and determined. She had something very important to do, and whatever it was, she'd entrusted her daughter to her parents, banking on the trust they would have in her, to reach out sooner or later and tell them what this was about.
They called Theo, to see if he had heard from her. He had. He'd not only heard from her but knew that they had Tori and where Ella had gone. At this moment, she was either in the air on her way to or recently landed in the state of Indiana.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
