April 20th 2020

Chapter 111
Their Road to School

Friday mornings had a way of starting off with an extra bit of energy. Yes, there was still a day of school ahead of them, but then it would be the weekend. Even if that still meant a couple of days at the bookstore, Lucas could still appreciate the shift in routine.

This morning however, his 'Friday extra' was found along with an empty space at his side. It took him a moment to remember that Maya was headed out of town today. She had told him she would be gone before he got up, but now here they were, or here he was, on his own, and he just wished she was there. When he sat up and looked at his phone, he found a message waiting for him.

Maya: I may or may not have taken a picture of you while you slept. Missing your face today, see you tonight! 366 and then some!

Lucas let out a breath, smiling to himself before getting out of bed and starting along on his new morning. He went and had breakfast with Sam before he could head out to the Sanderson farm for a little while. The mornings where it would be just the two of them were so few and far in between that they became something just a bit special. On this one in particular, Lucas quickly got the sense that there was a whole lot happening in his brother's head.

"Big test today?" he asked. Sam looked up.

"Huh?"

"You keep scooping milk and no cereal," Lucas pointed out, nodding to the bowl sitting in front of Sam. "Do you have a test today?" he repeated his original question.

"Oh… no, I was just thinking about stuff…" Sam shrugged, digging into his cereal in earnest now.

By the time Lucas had gone and returned from the farm, Sam was already gone off to school, so whatever had him distracted would have to remain a mystery a while longer. He tried not to go for 'the obvious' of wondering if this had anything to do with either Cecilia or Dora… or both… but as Maya would have said 'who are we kidding?'

He would have to put all this out of his head for the time being, as he got in his car and started on his way to university. By some chance, he pulled to a red light just as he had passed by the high school and looked to the side just in time to discover a familiar face in the next lane. In her new car, Ramona had spotted him, too, and the two of them waved to one another with a smile. Shortly after the light had turned green and they had started driving again, his phone rang, and he answered the call.

"Feels kind of wasteful, doesn't it?" Ramona's voice sounded over the speakers.

"Just a bit," Lucas agreed with a nod.

"Next week we can start sharing and switching again."

"Good," he smiled. He missed having company. He wished it could all be as it was before, with him and her and Robbie, to, but that was in the past now. "Car's alright then?"

"Oh, you mean Olive?" Ramona asked. He laughed.

"Finally picked a name then?"

"I wasn't going to, but then I kept thinking about it, and yesterday I climbed in to head back home and… it was Olive. And yes, she's great, we're getting along very well."

They could have stayed on the line the whole way, but eventually they had decided it might be best to hang up and return their whole focus to the road. At some point she had ended up pulling in front of him, so they spent the rest of the ride to school like they were sitting in class, one desk behind the other. That mostly made him think about Maya, middle school, high school…

The return to the apartment and the addition of the newly named Olive seemed to have given Ramona the balance she had lost in the weeks following her split from Robbie. It had taken a few days for it to really become evident, but then just the day before Lucas had seen the two of them sitting together, talking together, for the first time in a long while. As far as he'd been able to gather, Ramona had been asking after Robbie's newfound brothers, about the little one especially. The contact did Robbie a whole lot of good, too, that much was clear. To not have her there at his side while this shift was happening in his life, it had been genuinely difficult, and now she was there…

Much as he'd been talking about it all with Lucas and the rest of their small group, when he got to talk to Ramona it felt like there was a whole deluge of things he had been keeping to himself. He could tell her, no one else. This was not going to end up in a reunion, and they both looked like they knew it, but they had wanted to save the friendship, and this was the first step.

When they had pulled into the university lot, one car after the other, they barely had time to park and climb out of their cars that there was Robbie running toward them. He had recently had his blue hair dyed again, which made him look like a beacon speeding after them.

"What's he shouting?" Lucas tapped Ramona's arm when he spotted him coming.

"… atch!"

"I don't know, but he looks…" Ramona blinked, right as Robbie rounded toward them enough that they made out what he was saying: there was a match, for Scott. "Oh!" Ramona bolted at once, and it was a draw as to who had reached to hug the other first, a small celebration Lucas let them have for themselves before stepping up to join in. Robbie looked like he hadn't stopped smiling or crying since he'd found out. For having known him for so little time, right here it became clear how much he had gotten to care for his little half-brother.

As he drove home that night, Lucas was still turning the day's developments over in his head. From the moment he had arrived at the university until he left it again, it was all about Robbie, and Scott… and Josie.

There had been little time for them to talk about this match as they headed into the school and toward their first class of the day, except that it had been found, and that the surgery would be happening the following morning. After that, they would get bits and pieces as they'd be between classes, at lunch… It took some time before any of them noticed something was different, took most of the day really, before Lucas picked up on how little of Josie they were seeing today. She was there, she was in class, those classes that they had together, but outside of that she was kind of scarce. It was hard to explain, but the impression he was left with was that she didn't want to be around this discussion over Robbie and his brother's surgery.

It was sort of by chance that he ran into her and got to talk. He'd needed to go to the university bookstore before starting back for Austin, and he'd run into her, almost literally.

"Sorry!"

"Sorry! Hey…" Lucas realized it was her. "I didn't see you."

"Don't worry about it," Josie nodded, moving around him. It still baffled him how different she was now than how she had been when he'd known her through those four years in Houston. Ever since they'd all started coming here the year before, it was like she was a whole other person. He didn't want to qualify this as being a 'better' person, as though he was in any place to judge her character, but it was still very startling, for anyone who had known her as she'd been.

"We barely saw you today," he remarked, as he was left to head in the same direction as her, in need of much the same thing she was looking for.

"I just had a lot to do," she shrugged. "People to see." After a moment, she paused and turned toward him. "You take the best notes out of all of us," she stated. Lucas blinked.

"Thanks… Do you need to borrow any?"

"Not yet, but I will after today, so do you think you can e-mail them to me, like once a week until the end of the semester?"

"Uh, sure, but aren't you going to…"

"I'm going to be out of class until January, but I talked to all the professors, we figured things out. I just need notes, and you never miss a class, and you have…"

"The best notes, yeah, but… What's going on?"

"Can you do it or not?" Josie asked, sounding like her old self for a moment. When she heard herself, she almost looked like she wanted to apologize, but then the found the middle ground and looked at him, waiting for an answer.

"Sure, I'll… I'll send next week's on Friday night?"

"Great," Josie nodded, letting out a breath. She found what she was looking for and looked at him again. "Happy Halloween… and Thanksgiving… Christmas… and a Happy New Year. See you in January." And she was off. Lucas felt like he'd gotten whiplash.

He didn't find her again, and all the others were gone already. As he was walking back to his car, the first idea he had was to call the one person he felt most at ease asking: do you know what's up with Josie?

"Hey!" Willow smiled, as her face appeared on his phone screen. Lucas could vaguely hear what sounded like Zola and Sekani laughing or possibly singing in the background. There was baby William held in the arms of the former member of TXNY. The third Obi child was already five months old, which didn't seem possible.

They talked for a couple minutes, the usual catching up, before Lucas got around to explain the reason of his call. He relayed the conversation he'd had with Josie at the bookstore, filling in of the day and how she hadn't been around.

"Did she say anything to you?" he asked, realizing he wasn't sure just how much contact the two of them would be having, but then there was a look on her face, barely visible, like she did know but wasn't sure whether to say or not. What she chose to say took him by surprise.

"Did Josie ever tell you about her brother?"

"I… No, I didn't even know she had one," Lucas shook his head.

"Yeah, he died when they were nine. He was sick, they couldn't save him in time. After he was gone, it was like… she didn't know how to be anymore, didn't know who to be, if she didn't have someone who was like her." A thudding noise in the background was followed by a childish screech, and Willow looked aside for a moment before turning back to the phone. "Lucas, I have to go, take care!" And she was gone.

As Lucas had gotten into his car, Willow's words kept turning around in his head, and Josie's words, too… All the pieces were there, he just…

He had no way to know for sure, not unless he asked outright, and he wasn't sure if she'd say it either way, but in his mind it was just about certain now. Scott had his match, and Josie… Josie was going to be out of commission for weeks to come. He had no idea how it had all come to be, and he was just about certain that even Robbie had no idea, but now he understood. Josie was the match for Scott. Even after five years, they really barely knew who she was.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners