June 6th 2020

Chapter 158
Their Progress Toward Calm

Siobhan had been absent from the theater the next morning, and by the time Maya left the theater for her interview on Monday, she would still not have gotten the chance to talk to her. So for all her intentions to at least discuss things with her ahead of time, Lucas was still the only one who was aware of her being up for the job outside of the few people at the school who were expecting her that day.

It had been nearly five days since her conversation with the principal, when he had made the offer, and no matter what else she did, Maya just could not stop thinking about Monday afternoon, and the interview, and the possibility of her getting that job.

Getting through the days did not end up being nearly as difficult as she had assumed it would be. When she was at work, she had work to concentrate on. If she wasn't mindful about things, she would run the risk of getting caught in that spiral of 'what if these are my last couple of months here?' or 'what if Siobhan just fires me, what happens to Stage Ready?' So, all she could do was what she always did. She did her job.

That wasn't so bad, was it? She was pretty good at it, and the proof was in the ever expanding success of the program. Plus, they were coming around to the start of a new season for the Stage Ready Summer Camp, which had been a rousing success the year before, and that demanded a lot of work, especially in how new camps were popping up this summer, at their other Stage Ready locations, and she was getting a lot of calls and e-mails from the other coordinators.

All of this would only open up the way for more thoughts though, again making her wonder what might happen if she had to leave the theater. And then there was her mother, just a few doors down from her. Oh how much she had been dying to tell her about the interview… But she had to resist, had to, and so she did, promising herself that soon she would get to give her some excellent news.

If work was filled with any number of potential slip-ups, home was a whole other type of mine field. On the one hand, there was Sam, who had no idea and was supposed to keep having no idea, until… She hadn't decided what she'd do if she didn't get the job, if she'd just keep it to herself or not. Either way, she had to keep Sam in the dark for now, and this was easier said than done. When she was at home, it was supposed to be the place where she could get her guard done, wasn't it? So if the notion that she was interviewing for this job in four, three, two, one day was keeping her emotions on a seesaw, it was bound to flare up in one way or another.

It all soon got to feel something like restlessness, and that usually resolved itself in her grabbing one of her sketchbooks and some pencils, and just putting to paper any and all thing her mind felt eager to show, whenever her hands weren't otherwise occupied. On those days, it got to the point where she had to take breaks, or else her hand would cramp too much, and when that happened, well… she had to do something else.

On Thursday and Friday, it had meant being down in the kitchen before anyone else, getting a start on breakfast. Sam was so used to being the first one there, the one to make breakfast for the three of them, that he looked confused. And in the evening, she would be on her laptop, being a tiny bit secretive, not letting her brother see what she was doing. What she was doing was prep work – to the best of her abilities – for the interview. What Sam thought she was doing, well… She'd tell him that she was doing 'wedding stuff,' but the secrecy made it so that her brother didn't buy a word of it, and she could imagine so many things he might have believed she was doing instead.

On some levels, when it came to Lucas and his being the one person who knew about the interview, it was just as hard if not harder than with Sam. The fact that he knew gave her freedom to express any and all things she was feeling about Monday… and that was kind of dangerous. What she felt about Monday was just so many things all at once. She was excited, beyond excited, but also apprehensive, worried, scared to fail, scared of how it would feel if she failed.

"Am I going to be losing my shirt again?" Lucas asked her when she pulled him into their room and asked for his help in picking her interview outfit.

"As fun as that sounds, not this time, no," Maya breathed, looking through the closet.

"So going on stage with one of your idols in front of hundreds of people was less scary than a job interview?" Lucas asked, not even to joke around, more to know where her head was at.

"Much less," Maya agreed.

"Right," he breathed, looking over her shoulder and into the closet. "Here, can I?" he pointed, and she stepped back. "This one?" he pointed to a dress.

"No," she responded at once, shaking her head, even as he reached and pulled out a shirt and pants. She didn't speak, but she made a noise that sounded a lot like 'that might work, actually.' After a moment, she turned to look at him. "You showed me the dress first because you knew I'd say no, didn't you?"

"Does that mean option two works?" he answered with a question of his own, and a smile, too.

"I hate waiting…" Maya frowned, taking the clothes and hanging them aside, for the next morning.

"That makes two of us," he assured her.

They had gotten the weekend to go by just a little faster, the two of them together in the Hex, as Maya had continued her guitar lessons. Lucas was in every way a good student, motivated. Maya couldn't say what percentage of that motivation came out of his interest toward the subject at hand, and what came out of his wanting to give his fiancée something else to think about than whether or not she'd get the job.

"You know, pretty soon I'll be able to stand down here, under the attic window…" Lucas suggested, bringing their lesson to a halt due to the instructor's fits of giggles. When he'd wake up the next morning, Lucas would find her sketchbook open in the empty space next to him, depicting this very scene, with him standing there, guitar in hand, hat on head, and – because it amused her to no end – shirt nowhere to be found. Cartoon-like, he played and appeared to be singing, up to his lady in the attic, leaning on the open window frame and dreamily looking back down at him, with little hearts floating about her head.

After all those days of distractions, and nerves, and preparation, she was finally here, at the high school, walking through the door on her way to her interview. For the first time since she'd been given the offer, Maya started to realize it might genuinely happen. It sounded weird to say, but up to now she'd just been riding the high of even getting the chance. And now… now, in a few short months, she could be working here, she could be… a teacher here… It hadn't dawned on her up to now just how strange that might be. She was twenty-five, sure, but she still got carded a lot, still had people assuming she was much younger than she really was. If put in the presence of actual teenagers, sure, the difference might become more evident, but even so… The short gap between her and her potential students would be something curious to navigate. She could handle it… she hoped…

"Maya?"

She stopped, something about his voice combined with these halls making her feel once again like she was a student all over again, even though he had been a part of her life long before here and long after, too, up to this day.

"Hey," she turned to face Mr. Matthews as he stood nearby, a stack of papers in hand.

"Are you here for the prom decorations again?" he asked, pointing off in the general direction of the gym.

"Uh, no, not today," she told him. It would have been a rough lie to make stick anyway, and surely he'd end up hearing. Come to think of it, she was surprised he hadn't said anything to her before, but then again this would just be the kind of thing to slip him by, too. She wasn't sure where to go from here, what to tell him about the real reason she was here, but then she just looked at him and something in her demanded that she tell the truth. He of all people… "I'm actually interviewing, to be the new art teacher," she revealed, feeling a new thrill at saying it out loud, the second time ever.

Cory blinked, looking confused for a moment, and Maya could just about work out his thought process. It went from 'what about Margaret?' to 'come to think of it, where is Margaret?' to 'oh there was that sub…' to 'oh of course, Maya…' to 'my former student, part of the faculty… wow…'

"Hey, Matthews, how are we doing, I don't want to be late?" Maya whispered at him. He blinked again, and now he was smiling at her, smiling with a pride like none other.

"Look at you now," he let out a breath, and Maya had to be careful not to laugh.

"You're not going to cry, are you? You can't get me started, I'm trying to make a good impression here!"

"Well, I'm sorry, you know? One second there's this kid crawling through your daughter's window, and the next thing you know you're sharing the faculty lounge," he whispered back, and now she was grinning, loving his nostalgia parade way too much. Hey, don't actually have the job yet.

"Please don't jinx me, I really want this," she begged.

"I fully believe you will get this, and no jinx would even dream of getting in the way of that," he returned in the same tone. After a beat, he smiled.

"What now?" she asked.

"I get to work with my best friend's kid, that's what."

"You don't breathe a word, Matthews," she pointed a finger at him. "He doesn't know yet, no one does except Lucas, not even Riley." This had all the necessary power to establish the degree of importance she'd placed on this secret.

"Not a word," he vowed. Another moment and, after taking a look around the empty hall, he leaned forward to hug her. "If he knew, he'd want me to give you this."

"I'll allow it," she smiled.

"Even when I was teaching you, you never exactly behaved like a student, more of an equal," he pointed out as he pulled back. "I guess we were always headed to this."

"Maybe," Maya nodded, liking the idea. "And now I have to go, I…" She took a breath, let it out. She'd been really nervous, walking in here, but talking with him, she'd taken control of her nerves, hadn't she? They were gone now, and she wasn't letting them back in. She'd sworn to walk in that room and make them want to hire her, and that was what she'd do.

"Knock 'em dead," Cory called after her.

"Dig the graves, Matthews!"

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners