August 27th 2020

Chapter 240
Their Question for Spring

When Lucas had come home from a very challenging day at university – for someone who had not slept a wink at least – on Valentine's Day, he had gotten immediately on task. The first thing had been to send Sam packing without telegraphing too loudly his intent on romancing his big sister, even if it would have gone without saying. He would be spending the night at one of his friends from school's apartment. Once this was handled, he'd gone around, in a speed round of cleaning up anything potentially out of place, before dashing up to shower, shave, dress up, and then return down to get started on dinner. It was to his benefit and Maya's that – because of their sleepless night – she had rescheduled her meeting with Lily until after the end of the school day instead of over lunch. This gave him more time to prepare.

He was just checking on the dish in the oven when the barking of the dogs had just barely preceded the sound of the door in announcing Maya's arrival. Eager to make his plans known, he had walked gone out to find her, only to find she was not there at all… Had he imagined it? He hadn't slept in over a day at this point, it wouldn't have been surprising. But, no, there was her bag, and… He heard the distinctive sound of the basketball hitting the back board outside.

Walking out of the house, there he'd found her, dribbling in what could only be said to be a decisive manner. Not just decisive… Pissed off. It showed in the way she threw the ball, too, how it missed the mark, which only annoyed her more. Lucas was left unsure of what to do, of whether he should step in or let her flush whatever this was out of her system. But then Maya's latest toss had rebounded in his direction, just nearly reaching his head until he managed to catch the ball and stop its journey. He looked back up and found his wife now staring back at him, breathing, blinking.

"So who's this supposed to be?" Lucas asked, holding up the ball before tossing it back to her as he moved to join her. She caught it, tossing and catching it a couple times before just holding it in her arms and looking at him again.

"A couple of guys I thankfully never had to teach, because I don't think I could have impartially looked at them for a second if I had them in my class or the school at all," Maya replied. She didn't have to tell him who she meant now; he knew very well. He'd thought maybe they had pushed those boys who'd tormented August out of their lives for good, but now…

"What happened?" As she searched her words, it seemed like she finally saw him more than looked at him, and she caught on to how he had dressed up, thereby reminding her of what day it was.

"I don't have to go into it now," she shook her head, tossing the ball back on the ground. "I'll go change, we can…"

"It's fine, hey, really," he stopped her after she'd taken all of one step toward the house. "I like teacher chic Maya, let's keep her around, please?" he smiled, more so when his words managed to tug a small one out of her, too. "You hungry?"

"I can eat," she confirmed.

"Made your favorite," he revealed, walking her back to the house now.

"Of course, you did," she breathed, catching his hand in hers as they went.

Sitting at the kitchen table shortly after, Maya relayed her conversation with Milena Janacek that morning. Lucas looked near as devastated as she had done. As bad as it had been, trying to find a way to acknowledge what August had done, despite his reasons, when they were so far after the fact and he didn't deserve to suffer much more than he'd already done, they had dealt with it. He was still suffering the consequences, but those were dictated by his parents, and he humbly assumed them all. It was all supposed to be – for all intents and purposes – done and over with.

But now… Milena…

She could have carried on without saying a word, graduated in a few months and moved on with her life. It was certainly what August had wanted, in keeping her part in all this a relative secret. She could have… but she couldn't. It just wasn't in her to let August take all the responsibility. They had both been protecting the other's secret all this time, and now… Now he wanted to take it all for himself, to protect her doubly so. And she couldn't let him.

So what were they supposed to do? Like with August, Maya saw no point in tanking the end of Milena's high school days when the true guilty parties had gotten away with what they had done. This then left the punishments to be given sort of… privately. Maya had known the Matthews family enough to have a general idea of how they would respond, and she hadn't been wrong. When it came to Mr. Janacek however, she really couldn't say how he would take the news of his daughter's misdeeds. What she then feared the most was whether he would receive the information and go to the principal, tearing down all their neatly made plans to acknowledge and move on. Milena needed to feel her actions had been met with consequences, and now it would come down to her art teacher.

X

Three weeks later

"Never thought I would be a gardener…" Maya declared as she and Lucas stood back to look upon their pumpkin patch.

Alright, it wasn't so much a pumpkin patch yet, more of a patch… of earth, where they had planted the seeds of what would in time hold – if they tended everything as they should – pumpkins. Come fall, come Halloween… Well, they would see.

"The city mouse joke feels too easy here," Lucas declared, turning to his wife.

"Oh, it does, doesn't it?" Maya turned to meet his gaze. "Here I thought I'd put in enough hours to be upgraded to full on country mouse."

"I'm going to need to have a look at that paperwork, ma'am," he tipped his 'hat' to her.

"You are lucky I don't tax you for that ma'am bit," she squinted at him even as she stretched up to kiss him. He laughed against her lips, holding her close until she teetered on her toes and would have tripped up if not for his hold.

"Mrs. Friar?"

Maya turned to find Milena stood just outside the kitchen door, pencil still in hand.

"I finished the questions," Milena pointed back with the pencil.

"Be right there," Maya nodded at her, and the girl went back inside, shutting the door. "Right, time to switch hats again," she sighed, turning back to her husband. "Maybe I should have given her more to do?"

"I think she's just very prepared," Lucas shrugged. "Go on, I'll finish up here."

The solution Maya and her student had come to in the end had not been reached on Valentine's Day. By the time evening had rolled around, having been awake now for nearly two days, sleep was the only thing that could happen, and so she'd left it to the next morning. Even then, it hadn't been an immediate solution. All she could really do was take away from Milena's free time, what she had of it. She couldn't put her in detention, not without reason, and even if she could, what would it have done? Milena had already done plenty of thinking, already regretted her actions… so much…

So, she gave her assignments, made her research extensively and then presented her with essay questions. If she was going to take free time from Milena, then she'd rather have her use that time to learn something. Once a week, she would come over, and she would sit there at the kitchen table. Maya would give her the questions, and Milena would get writing. When she was done, Maya would read through her work, and then they would talk it over together. In the end, Milena would receive her new research topic, setting her up for the next week. They would continue this way for the remainder of the school year.

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather make me… I don't know, do chores or something?" Milena asked today, when Maya came back in from the 'starter patch.' Off her teacher's curious look, Milena sat up straighter. "It's just that… Yes, it's a lot of work, but I don't mind it. I actually kind of love this. Shouldn't I be… I don't know…"

"Miserable, hating every minute, wishing you could be somewhere else?" Maya offered. Milena nodded. "If I hadn't given you this assignment, what would you be doing right now?"

"I don't know… Playing with my cat?" she shrugged. "Doing laps at the pool? I usually take it easy on weekends."

"Right, so there's… not really a point to me finishing what I was about to say," Maya told herself. "Look, I could make you do manual work, sure, but it really wouldn't feel right, especially with how no one else even knows about this… arrangement of ours. "Instead you're here, and I'm 'keeping you out of trouble,'" she air-quoted, "Away from the bad influence of… Muffin," she squinted, which made Milena snicker, thinking of her cat, a wimp if there ever was one. "I could make you research… toilets… but then I'd have to read about them, and I really don't want to, okay?"

"Okay," Milena finally relented.

"Good," Maya smiled, pulling the papers to herself so she could start reading. "Cookie?" she offered, nodding to the counter. "Courtesy of my mother-in-law."

"Punishment," Milena insisted, shaking her head.

"Right, sorry, of course," Maya shook her head, trying not to laugh.

When they were done, Milena headed off with her new topic. As she watched her disappear up the lane, Maya turned to find Lucas coming around the house.

"She's probably off to the library right now," she told him, pointing vaguely to the road. "Do you think I should be harsher with this punishment thing?"

"Not at all," he shook his head.

"Oh, look who I'm asking," she had to smile.

"Did you see what Isadora sent?" Lucas asked, nodding at her. Maya reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone.

"No? What is it?"

Tapping the notification, she was soon treated with a short video, where Ada Minkus – to the best of her two-year-old ability – sang to her baby brother as he was held by their mother. Bertie, at three weeks, already felt just a bit more like his own person, beyond the newborn, the baby of the family. His features had settled in a direction that felt wholly as though he would grow to be very much like his father. For now, that little face was finding its attention divided between his mother, gently rocking him about, and his big sister, following his movements in how she swayed about on her feet, singing along.

"Oh, wow…" Maya laughed. Every last video, every last photo she had received in the last three weeks felt like another nudge for them to book that trip to go and see their friends and their growing family out in New York. How she would juggle this along with her weekly appointments with Milena, she could not say, but she'd just have to find a way, wouldn't she? "Hey, Dylan just wrote," Maya turned to Lucas after her phone chimed.

"Yeah?" Lucas climbed up the steps.

"He wants to know if he can come over right now," Maya told him as she read, turning a shrug to her husband. He shrugged back.

"Sure, yeah."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners