January 11th 2020

Chapter 11
Their Year to Drive

"Are you holding on to me like that in case I do anything to mark your first day, Dockleberry? I'm not complaining, don't get me wrong. If that's what it takes, I can have surprises lined up every day…"

Lucas smiled, pressing one and two and three kisses to Maya's shoulder before she turned about to face him and she returned the favor in bringing some kisses of her own to his lips. The house was so much more quiet in the morning than anywhere else they'd lived, it seemed. To Maya especially, he knew, compared to her mornings back in New York… It wasn't just about sound, it was… a spirit of stillness in the air… Waking up to that, and to one another, always got to feel like they'd found a private island all to themselves… plus one brother and two dogs, but still.

"If we keep this up… I'm going to be late… on my first day…" he pointed out.

"I'll write you a note," she smiled with mischief in her eyes. "Dear Principal…"

"Don't have a principal…"

"Please excuse Lucas Friar's tardiness this morning, for reasons of…"

"Pretty sure that'll get me expelled…"

After relinquishing any possibility of getting him 'in trouble' with his new school, they had gone downstairs. Once again, Sam was proving himself a challenger to Maya's Early Bird trophy. There he was, in the kitchen, making their breakfast, passing bits of this and that to the thankful dogs…

"It's going to make it so much harder for me to surprise you at school, but don't think I won't find a way," Maya told Lucas as she saw him off to the car, stopping on the porch.

"Don't doubt it one second," Lucas laughed.

"Yeah, well, you come right home when you're done," she 'pleaded.'

"Or you'll come and get me?" he teased, as though to suggest maybe he'd do just that.

"Go on, try me, Friar," she pointed at him, then smiled, holding up her hand in a genuine send off. I love you, have a great day…

They were looking into getting a second car. Especially now, with him taking the one they had to get to school, it left Maya and Sam both to the mercy of a bus with few passages and spotty ones at that. He'd considered leaving the car to them, leaving him to the public transport option, but then Maya had shut this down, rightly pointing out that he had the most distance to travel and needed the reliability of something that wasn't a poorly followed schedule.

As he drove up and out of their lane, he thought about his fiancée. He wasn't blind, to her feelings and her moods more than anyone's. He knew how her job search was stressing her out. It had always been one of those things with her. As strong as she was, as driven and smart as she was, there was a threshold in her head, and if any situation should come along and cross it, then she would find herself in that sort of dark pit, struggling and struggling to get out. It had happened before, he'd seen it. Years ago, when she'd been preparing to take that advance placement test at school… She may have been a singer, a great headliner, stage and all, but situations like this made her feel seen in a whole other way, and she couldn't sing her way out of those.

Just as he knew to recognize these turns in her, he also had come to know what he could or should do. And unfortunately what it boiled down to was that he couldn't exactly help her, not entirely, sometimes not at all. She was going to do that on her own, and all he could really do was stand by her, be the supportive one he had been and would always be. Still, the last couple days, with him working, and now going to school, he'd hated to leave her behind, to return and see the added weight of another day of no developments.

He had to make himself stop going down that road in his mind, for the hours to come… as much as possible. If he kept going, he was likely to miss the turn on the road and keep on going right off back to Houston, the way he so often had in recent years.

Arriving at the university, maybe for having seen Sam through his worries over his first day, Lucas wondered how many of his old classmates he would meet out here. It wasn't as though they all carried over here, that wasn't exactly what it had been shaped to be, but there would definitely be some of them, there had to be, and if not, then he would be starting from zero, much like his young roommate. Well, actually he'd be starting at one.

"There he is!" the familiar voice of Bishop Nicholas greeted him as he walked into the building. And there he was, still so very tall and impressive to behold, looking like a mix between Hagrid from Harry Potter and the Rock. Though he'd been born out here, he'd spent most of his life in France, and it still showed in his voice. On the whole, Lucas couldn't have been happier to see him.

"Hey," he grinned, meeting his friend's hand in something between a shake and a bump. "Been here long?"

"Walked in not two minutes ago," Bishop revealed. He still lived out in Houston, with his girlfriend and Maya's former co-worker, Leona, which left the two of them to come from two opposite directions or else they would have carpooled.

"See anyone we know?"

"I think I spotted Simon Shin back in the parking lot, but I lost track of him."

"Got him," Lucas tapped his arm before nodding across the hall to a guy now walking to meet them.

"Hey, guys, good to see you," he shook both their hands, as usual. That was always his way, and it was strangely endearing. They'd known him all the last four years as someone so meticulous, precise, but without any kind of detachment. He was a kind soul, likely to be found spending hours calmly coaxing a scared animal out of hiding. "How was your summer?"

"Leona and I went to visit my family, travelled a couple of weeks, came home," Bishop declared, sounding to Lucas like he was just trying to finish giving out his answer and be done with it. This was shown true enough when he then turned to him like 'now you.'

"Well," he laughed. "My girlfriend and I got engaged," he revealed, to Simon's immediate delight.

"Congratulations, Lucas! When is the wedding?" Before he could answer, a new voice asked…

"You're getting married?" The boys turned to find two girls from their previous school.

The one who'd spoken was Josie Brandt, tagged by her friend Zelda Carter. For the first year or so where they'd known her, she and her group of friends had been 'affectionately' nicknamed Voldemort and the Death Eaters, and she had been noted for making a very unsubtle play for Lucas, who had tried and tried to let her down easy to no avail. This had led to a slightly awkward encounter. It turned out she was a huge TXNY fan. When she'd realized this oft mentioned girlfriend of his was their singer… Well, she'd changed her tune just a bit.

In the last three years, Lucas would say that Josie had gotten a bit easier to endure. He didn't see himself hanging out with her outside of school, but if she approached him to chat he wouldn't get that 'oh, here we go' dread. She had detached herself from some of that old group, and now that it was just her and Zelda as a tag team, they were what Bishop call 'clumsily friendly.'

"Uh, yeah," Lucas nodded to the girls. "We haven't set a date yet," he told them, answering Simon's question at the same time.

"That's great!" Zelda smiled. She was just, on the whole, of average height. But standing next to Josie, who had a head on most of the other girls in their class and some of the guys, too, she looked properly tiny. She was also the architect of Josie's 'reform,' as far as the others were concerned. They used to think that Josie didn't deserve her, but maybe it was that she'd needed her and earned the rest later.

"Do we all get to go?" Josie asked with a flash of that toothy smile of hers. Zelda gave her a look. "What, we're like his people," Josie shrugged, gesturing toward Lucas.

"You know what," he cleared his throat. "When we do get around to setting down a date, I… I'll let you guys know, and we'll go from there."

"Works for me," Josie nodded, looping arms with Zelda. "See you boys in class," she told the three of them before walking off with her friend.

"We're for sure on the invites list, right?" Bishop tipped his head forward once the girls were gone. Lucas laughed.

"Yeah," he promised, to him and Simon both.

Walking into class, as he followed the guys to find a seat, Lucas started to feel something. It was like… all this time, he'd known where he wanted to be, what he wanted to do, and it meant coming here. There had been a time in his life, after his suspension from school, where he'd been made to feel that he didn't have the… temperament, the ability, the… the right… to become what he wanted to become. And here I am… He hadn't known how much a part of him had kept clinging to that old feeling, not until now, when it went away. He couldn't see what his face looked like in that moment, but he had a feeling that Maya would take one look at him and ask if he was crying.

He took out his phone, snapped a picture of himself, and he sent it off to Maya. It took half a minute for her to reply.

Maya: What's got you crying, Doc?
Lucas: I'm here.
Maya: Damn right you are!

This was followed by a picture of her, giving that outpouring of confidence the visual to go with the words. It made him chuckle. He responded with a simple 366, three digits and still for them it meant much more. I love you, seven days a week, 365 days a year, 366 on leap years… Always, past, present, and future.

Maya: Hug a puppy?

She'd made the same request from him four years before, on his other first day, and the call back went and bound that smile to his face for the rest of the day.

Lucas: I'm starting to get requests for wedding invites.
Maya: Who?
Lucas: Bishop, Simon Shin.
Maya: Of course.
Lucas: Josie and Zelda…
Maya: You know what, why not?
Lucas: They'll be so pleased ;)
Maya: Five bucks I make her cry before the bouquet toss.
Lucas: Dedicate a song to her and she'll pass out.
Maya: Oh, tempting!

"Hey, show time," Bishop tapped his arm, and Lucas looked up to find a woman had walked in and gone to set her bag on the front desk.

Lucas: Prof's here, gotta go.
Maya: You're not related to this one, are you?
Lucas: Pretty sure I'm fresh out of secret relatives. Putting my phone away now.
Maya: Oh, shoot, you forgot your apple! 366!

The phone was put away, laptop taken out, opened up. Lucas took a breath. Day one… He couldn't wait to get home that night, to have stories to tell.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners