November 19th 2022
Chapter 323
Our Production of Travel Bags
Dear Mrs. Friar,
I heard from MJ how your students will write to you sometimes, even years after they've graduated. When he told me, the first thing I thought was that it sounded like something you would do. The second thing I thought was… there's some things I've wanted to say to you, but every time I'd think of doing it, I'd get scared, I guess. I have a feeling that MJ realized that, too, and that's why he told me about you and your letters. I figured maybe this would be as good of a way as any to get my words out in a way where I wouldn't start feeling nervous or speechless.
I've always struggled in school, since the beginning, when we were learning our letters, learning to read, and count, all of that. All my teachers would say was that I didn't apply myself, and that wasn't true. I applied myself so hard, but it always felt like the results I got out of it didn't come anywhere close, and I'd get discouraged. I always only ever managed to barely pass into the next grades, always afraid that one of these days I wouldn't do enough, and I'd be held back. I would tell my mother all of this, but she'd just sort of brush it off. She'd tell me not to worry, because with a voice like mine, I didn't have to worry about school, that I'd be a big star and I could get by on what I had. I knew that wasn't true though, so I kept pushing, and I kept scraping by. Whenever I'd managed to do particularly well, not an A, and barely a B if I was lucky… I'd be so proud, and I'd go and show my mother… and she'd barely bat an eye, like I was holding on to this fantasy when she'd already told me not to worry my head over it and just keep singing. Just keep singing… That's why I stopped. I realized that was all I was good to her for, and I didn't want that. I used to love to sing, to be on stage, you know that, but eventually I couldn't feel anything for it anymore. She sapped it all out of me.
Then after last year, my nightmare came true. I failed, I had to repeat freshman year. I was sad to be split from Maia, but that was just one thing on top of everything else. Already, I was terrified that my mother had been right all along, that all I was good for was my voice. I think her biggest dream is that I'll finally give up, drop out, and focus on my singing again. I couldn't give her that satisfaction. That's why I almost went through with it when the cheating plan came together. All I could think was, if we got away with it, at least I'd get a break, a boost. Maybe it would motivate my brain to keep doing better. But MJ talked me out of it, and now that he did, I'm really glad. I know that I would only have felt okay so long as I hadn't done it, and once I had… I would have regretted it immediately. I just wish the others would have thought the same, but they had their own reasons.
For all that, I haven't been doing that much better this year so far. I'm scared now that I'll just fail again, and I'll be held back again, and then I'll have more friends moving ahead of me and getting further. No matter what I try, I'm always here, and I can feel the weight on my shoulders. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I need your help. Yours is my best class and you're the teacher I trust the most. I remember what you told me, how you turned yourself around once. I don't know if that can be possible for me, too, but if it is… Please help me, Mrs. Friar. I don't want to fail again. I don't want my mother to be right about me.
Ash B.
.
Dear Ash,
I have to say, your letter gave me a lot to think about before I could actually sit down to write a reply and know what I could tell you to start and help you. Of course, I will do everything I can for you. I believe you, and I am so sorry that I didn't do something sooner. As it is, I think we need to talk freely and openly, no sugar coating. If you ask me, if you are better suited to see to your own interests and your own future because your mother won't do it, then maybe you should be the one in charge and not her.
I will leave you the contact information for Topanga Matthews. She's Mr. Matthews' wife and she is a lawyer. You might also talk to Nika Petrelis, the captain of the quiz team. She and her brother were emancipated from their parents a few years ago. I don't know if that would be the way for you, but maybe it'd be worth looking into it. I'm not suggesting that you strike out on your own entirely, but if being out of that house and out from under that influence will help you forward, then that would be the first step, and after that we would make sure you landed somewhere safe for you.
You deserve far more than what your situation has given you, and I think if you found that something more, it could get you started. In a way, I think that my coming to Texas was my something more. Whatever yours is, I will help you find it. Your mother is very wrong about you, Ash. You have so much more to offer the world.
All my heart,
Mrs. Maya Friar
x
She could hear songs she had written on the radio, sometimes daily. She'd won awards, had seen her work certified for sales and plays. She rubbed shoulders with celebrities on occasion and had even toured the world with one of them. And now the thought that she was about to fly off to New York, to sit in on auditions for the musical that she and her siblings had written together, felt like a dream she would soon wake from. That was her life… and she'd be glad that it continued to make her feel that way.
There had been a discussion, brief as it had been in the end, about them leaving the girls at home. Four of them were in school, and they'd have to be out of there for a week, but then at the same time so would Maya, from her side of the classroom. And they would be in New York… Even if she had now lived substantially more of her life in Austin than out there, it was still a very important part of who she was, and it would also be important to who she would be, if this musical was successful. Their daughters needed to be included in this as much as Maya and Lucas themselves did. After that, there'd been no turning back on the choice, especially once they were told. Aubrey had no idea what was going on, Mackenzie was excited mostly because she understood they were going somewhere and everyone seemed to be excited. The triplets sort of got it mostly through Marianne and how she responded. She was, as expected, the most excited to go, especially now that she was herself a musical theater performer…
They would have wanted Ella to be with them, too, but it just wasn't possible for her to take a week off from classes, especially that week, so she would just have to be caught up on everything once they got back. She'd already told her little sisters that she counted on them to tell her all about it, and they would gladly answer the call. In the meantime, that meant Maya and Lucas had to prepare to fly off with those six. They were very happy with themselves and how they were not nervous in the slightest. The actual stress was less so the flight and more the preparations for the flight. One week, two adults and six children, one of them under two and one of them under one… Yeah, they could do this. They were nothing if not crafty about it at this point.
"Everyone ready to go?" Lucas asked as he came down the stairs. "Everyone's shoes present and on their feet?" he added, smirking to himself. The triplets had not entirely ceased their shoe-hiding tendencies.
All shoes were on the feet where they belonged. The girls they belonged to were all presently sat on the ground, in a mass hug with the dogs. Even Aubrey, who was still getting a handle on crawling, was out there, holding on to the littlest of those, Squeak, as the Yorkipoo rested over the eight-month-old's little legs. She was not bothered in the slightest. All of them were playing with the dogs, petting them… There were more girls than there were dogs, but no one was lacking. The two groups all loved one another very much, and they all knew they were about to be separated. It was an emotional time, so Lucas respectfully did not laugh in any way.
"I'm getting the bags out there, so we're leaving in a few minutes, alright?" he told them instead, carefully sidestepping around the mass of girls and dogs to get to the door and the suitcases and other luggage stacked in waiting. He had the last two in his hands now.
"Can they come, Daddy?" Lucy looked up, the unmatched queen of the pity blues. She had her arms around Crowley's neck and the dog was just pressing his face against hers. "Please, please?"
"I'm sorry, bun-bun, they have to stay here, with Emma and Eliza," Lucas told her, putting the bags down and looking at her.
"But they never got on a plane before, Daddy," Kacey informed him, like this was such an injustice for poor Honey Bee, who she and Remy were both playing with.
"Yeah, that's true, but being on a plane is not the same for dogs as it is for people," he crouched before her. "They'd be in a cage the whole time because they can't be allowed to just run around the plane. That wouldn't be very fun for them, would it?"
"They're nice dogs, they got manners," Remy insisted, sitting up. "Honey Bee, say hello," she asked, and the dog barked. Remy looked up to her father, and she may have had his face, but she had her mother's expression down, flawlessly telling him 'there, see?'
"I know they are, kit, but they still won't let them stay with us, I'm sorry," Lucas told her. Honey Bee moved up closer to him until he'd reach and scratch at her head. When she turned her eyes up to him, he snickered. "Did they all teach you that? Huh?" he asked, and the dog came up to lick his face. "Look, not this time, okay? It's too late now, and Mommy will be very busy. But I promise, we will try and make a vacation where we can bring all the dogs. Does that sound good?" he asked, looking around.
The girls looked at each other, even Aubrey, then at the dogs, and then back at each other. Finally, they decided that yes, this was a good plan. They would leave the dogs here for this time, but next time they would go, all of them together. He had promised.
"Good, Artie," Mackenzie hugged at the three-legged dog with all the strength in her twenty-one-month-old arms, and the dog halfway tackled her to the ground, sending her into happy giggles. She'd told him to be good while they were gone, and this was every bit the appropriate response.
"Not even one, Daddy?" Marianne asked, sitting with Jax. He was the eldest of their dogs at nine years old, and she had recently gone and read that his kind lived somewhere between ten to seventeen years, so she'd gotten it in her head that he could die soon, even though he was as spry as ever. Now she didn't want to leave him behind for a week, going across the country.
"I'm afraid not. Would you rather stay here with him?" Lucas asked, and it was a mark of her love for the dog that she struggled for a moment to decide. In the end, she chose New York, and to trust that all would be well. For now, she'd just keep on hugging him until the very last moment when she'd have to go out the door and get in the minivan with her family as they took off for the airport.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
