August 29th 2020

Chapter 242
Their Question For Friendship

"Woah! What happened here?"

Maya looked up from where she'd been meticulously scrubbing at the floor of her classroom since the end of third period and wondered how much time must have passed already if Riley was here for their lunch together.

"A small incident with the tenth graders," she reported, as her friend came along to help her when she started to rise. Her hands were splattered with so much green paint as to make her consider busting out into something out of Wicked. Song or no, she couldn't put either of her hands anywhere just now. "I think we might have to grab something on the way and go eat at my house so I can change for the afternoon," she looked down at her clothes. They had not been spared the wicked witch treatment.

"Yeah, okay," Riley agreed. "I'll drive."

One stop for food later, they were bound for the house on the lane. As Riley drove, Maya told her about how she'd ended up so verdant.

It had started with Daphne Brett and her depiction of the land she could see from out her bedroom window, which had required more paint than she had and a trip to the supplies cabinet for restocking. It had continued with Dakota Day stopping her as she went, asking if she might bring him some paint, too, while she was on her way. Maya had just managed to get a glimpse of that exchange, catching the spark in Dakota's eye, and the blush in Daphne's cheeks, and doing her best to pretend as though she hadn't seen.

Not giving them that same courtesy however was another of the girls in the class named Candace. Maya had not seen the look on her face when Daphne and Dakota had this small moment, but for what happened next, she would guess it had been one of disdain and attitude of the kind the young teacher was getting to be familiar with. So, when Daphne had returned from the cabinet, paints in hand, and soon found herself flopping to the ground, there was little to no need for Maya to accept the claims given. Candace had tripped her, despite her best efforts at pretending like she had no idea what anyone was talking about. She had been sent off to the principal's along with a VIP summons to detention, even as Dakota, Ariel, and their teacher were looking after the fallen Daphne and anyone who had been caught in the crossfire of the green splatter.

"Hey, you okay?" Maya had asked the blonde as she rose to her feet. Daphne nodded, but it was plain to see that she did so out of an inability to open her mouth and speak, too certain that she might start to cry or that her voice would tremble. If it had been Candace's intention to humiliate Daphne in order to get Dakota to turn his attention away from her, it could not have been a bigger backfire. Seeing how affected the Brett girl was, Dakota had been left with an instant desire to look after her, to ensure that she would be okay.

There had been enough of the group in need of going to the bathrooms to wash up – and possibly change into their gym clothes – that the period had been brought to an early end. Those who had not been hit were told to go ahead and pull out any work they might have had for other classes, while Maya escorted the others out. By the time they'd come back, she'd started at her floor scrubbing… and table and stool leg scrubbing… Some of the kids wanted to help, or at least to call in the janitor, but Maya felt she needed to attend to this herself, and so she did. Once the students had left and it was just her, crouching and kneeling on the floor, she had one sole focus and it was to return her classroom to its previously pristine state. She was so attached to this room, her space within the school, and it mattered a great deal to her that she maintained it.

"Here, I'll go and keep the dogs off you while you go change," Riley hurried ahead of her when they reached the house.

"You just want to play with them, don't you?" Maya laughed.

"Didn't hear you!" Riley called back, already accosted by the happy pair of Archer and Crowley.

Making speedy work of her outfit change, Maya returned downstairs to find Riley was in the midst of setting up their lunch at the table. In what was a remarkably swift maneuver, Maya spotted and carried away Lucas' laptop, which had been left there. It wasn't as though she expected Riley to ever even open it, much less find the notes he had taken when Dylan had been over two days past, but she wouldn't take chances. She told her best friend that he had forgotten it today – which was true – and that she would go and put it upstairs to make sure he didn't forget it again the next day.

Maya had been certain that she would be distracted over this lunch with Riley, that she would just look at her and remember how her long awaited proposal was just days away and then her face would go and spoil the surprise for her. And it wasn't as though she didn't feel a bit of that right now, but then maybe it was the disruption of the paint incident that kept her from swaying too far down the road of telling smiles and accidental spoilers.

The part of her that was still knee deep in repressed giddiness though… That one felt a lot like it had the shape of a thirteen-year-old girl, no longer separated from her best friend but rather cheering for her. So much time had passed since then, half her lifetime… She had known and been friends with Riley Matthews for just about twenty years now, give or take a few months, and that was just… It was one of the most important facts of her life, right up there with how long Shawn Hunter had been her father, how long she had loved Lucas Friar…

Riley had preceded them both, preceded them all in the category of people who had come into her life over the years. Without her, Maya couldn't say just who she might have been. There were all these little things in who she was, she knew, that were just sneakily threaded into her very soul, and Riley Matthews had been their source. She couldn't remember anymore how it had been, the one year when they had been separated, one in New York, the other in Texas. She remembered being sad, remembered being… just torn apart for being away from her best friend, but the actual feelings had no more hold on her. They had been taken from her with each year that followed, building upon one another until they were here, today, with their futures ahead of them and one of them unaware of the moment coming, just days from now.

To know that she would get to be there, to witness it, oh… It was a privilege.

"We need to figure out when we can go to New York and see Farkle and Isadora and the kids," Riley stated, pulling Maya out of her momentary distraction. Even as she nodded, agreeing with this statement, Maya couldn't help but need a moment, to reflect on this fact, that their friends now had kids, plural. It was like a constant ring of a bell at their ears, whenever they remembered it.

"Well, I've got spring break coming up," Maya offered, picking up a few bits from her plate and leaning to offer one to whichever dog would claim it first. At this point, she was so used to them being underfoot that it was practically reflex. Much as she'd washed them, her hands still had just a bit of green tinge, but it didn't appear to bother Trix, Lou, Archer, or Crowley. "Lucas will be off at the same time, so I think he'd be good to go, but I'll check. That would leave you and Dylan to see if you're free."

"Yeah, I'll ask him," Riley nodded and smiled.

Maya could see that small flicker in her, the one she'd get, once in a while, whenever she'd end up thinking about her and Dylan, about this still pending marriage proposal. It was easily the part of their lunch together where Maya found it the hardest to hold her tongue. She knew that it was coming, literally days away, but as far as Riley knew… Her boyfriend of several years had done nothing to change the status of their relationship, even as they now lived together in a house that they owned together. They were the last of their group as yet unmarried. And all of that didn't change the way she felt about him, or the way she trusted he felt about her… But then could she be blamed for being left to wonder? Hold on, Riley, just a little longer…

"Maybe we can do some shows out there," Riley suggested, the new thought bringing an equally new smile to her face. "You, me, Isadora… Wonder if any of the others would be up for coming along, too, then we could have more of us."

"You had me at 'shows,'" Maya tipped her head, which made Riley laugh. The next thing they knew, Riley was composing a message into the band thread as Maya looked on, putting out the call to the rest of the girls to see if any of them would be available and up for joining in on this trip before they could then see about booking some performances out in New York.

"You know what this reminds me of?" Riley asked after setting her phone down.

"That time I went up there with the Basket Cases and we did a show at our old school and I met Sam?" Maya asked. "That's kind of what I'm thinking about," she admitted.

"Yeah," Riley smiled. "Are they still around? I mean, is there still a quiz team?"

"I… I don't know, actually," Maya paused, the thought hitting her like 'huh…' "I should look into that," she followed. She could see exactly where this might end up going if she followed down that route, but it was a sort of inevitable truth that it was already too late. Her mind had already taken the leap, and it would land where it needed to land. Whether this meant her getting involved or not, it would remain to be seen.

"It's still kind of weird, isn't it? Being a teacher at our old school?" Riley inquired.

"It is," Maya agreed. "Especially with things like this, I think, when I still kind of have to stop and tell myself 'oh, yeah, I'm on this side now,'" she mimed. "I think a part of me is always going to be on the first side."

"That might not be the worst thing," Riley pointed out. "Everything you did for my brother…" she shook her head, eyes full of recognition. Maya smiled. "You've always been so important to me, but you know it's the rest of them, too. My parents, August… Even Hunter, he just thinks the world of you, do you know that?"

"I think he's one cool little dude, too," Maya beamed, feeling like she couldn't wait to hug that kid. After a beat, she had to sit back in her chair, chuckling. "When did lunch go and get all emotional all of a sudden?"

"I don't know," Riley laughed, picking up on it, too. "Maybe it's the paint," she nodded to Maya's hands. I think it might be my fault, for thinking about Dylan and his proposal coming up.

"Yeah, that must be it."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners