September 11th 2020

Chapter 255
Their Help to Watch

"Hey, you," Maya laughed, picking up her little sister when she came dashing up and held out her arms. Lifted up at last, Haley Hunter hugged her big sister with great energy. "Did you have a good day?" She nodded repeatedly. "Tell me all about it, spare no details," Maya requested as she started them on their way from the preschool to the elementary school up the street.

Neither she nor Lucas had been there in the morning, as Katy and Shawn had dropped off the kids at their respective schools, but from the text she'd gotten from her mother, confirming they were on the plane about to take off for LA, it had been about as tricky as they'd expected it would be. When they'd told the four of them about Katy's getting the role that would get her on television, they'd all been ecstatic, whether because they understood what this meant or because the rest of their siblings were cheering so maybe that was what they were all supposed to be doing.

Now, when they learned that this meant their mother and father being gone for two whole weeks, the mood had started to waver. As quickly as they could go and wedge in the fact that they would be spending those weeks with Maya and Lucas and Sam, it didn't stop MJ and Haley from expressing immediate distress at the thought of their parents going away. MJ had spent the rest of the dinner like a small ball of a boy perched on his chair, while Haley had gone and burrowed herself in her father's arms and remained there right up until he'd taken her up to her room and she'd fallen asleep.

She had cheered up some, by the look of her now. Haley cheerfully retold her day to her sister, and while she did not discount a bit of a tantrum later in the evening, Maya did nothing to disturb the littlest Hunter's current state of mind. Dropping her off at preschool that morning had given way to such high pitched wailing that Katy had come within a hair's breadth of dropping the whole thing, no LA, no television, and while he hadn't found it any easier, Shawn had been left to convince her to leave their daughter in the care of her very capable teacher.

"That's all," Haley raised her hands as she finished her story, right on time for their arrival at the elementary school.

"Well thank you for telling me all that!" Maya laughed. With any luck, your big brother will have had a good day, too. "Let's go find the others, yeah?" she set the three-year-old down and took her hand as they walked into the school to find the twins and MJ.

"Hey, Friar!" a voice called up the hallway. Maya smirked, turning to find Zay jogging up toward them. "What are you doing here, trying to poach some of my kids for your school?" he teased.

"Yeah, three of them, familiar looking?" Maya informed him, gesturing to herself and Haley, who had her best smile on. She loved her Uncle Zay, as he had come to be called. After a moment, Maya came to stand behind her sister, the better to put her hands over her ears, which Haley thought was a fun game. "They're staying with Lucas and me while our parents are in LA," Maya quietly explained.

"Oh, right, yeah," Zay nodded. Maya still felt that reflex of asking if there were any news in the baby department, but she held it down. If they had gotten a call, if it was finally happening, they would have told her and Lucas. "I can hold on to this one while you go look for them," Zay offered.

"That would be good, actually. Wanna go with Uncle Zay?" Maya looked down to her sister, who responded to this question by stepping up to the man and holding up her arms.

"Alright, let's go, lil' Hunter, I'm going to give you a crash course on numbers, you'll be the star of the pre-school set," Zay told the three-year-old as he carried her off to his classroom.

After watching them go, catching Haley's insistence that she could already count to twenty and Zay's request for a demonstration, Maya went to find the rest of her siblings. They were all in the gym today, all those who hadn't been picked up or hadn't gone on the school bus. The twins were soon spotted tossing a ball around with a few of their classmates, while MJ… MJ…

"Where are you, Sneaky?" Maya muttered to herself before she finally spotted the six-year-old sitting on one of the benches lining the wall, holding his star-speckled backpack in his lap. Alright, so maybe he would need a bit more time to adjust without their parents. "Hey, bud," she went and sat with him. He looked up at the sound of her voice and almost instantly reached over to hug her. "You know these two weeks will be over in no time," she assured him, brushing at his hair.

"I know that," he declared. "Mom said she would bring me back all the starry things she could find, and… and there would be a lot because she was going where there's a lot of stars."

"Yeah, she is," Maya nodded. "So, you're not upset about that anymore?" she had to ask. He was clearly upset about something, so if this wasn't it… "Did something happen today?" she asked him. He was quiet for a few seconds. "Hey, MJ, it's okay," she spoke in a soft voice, seeking his line of sight. "What happened?"

"Mikey, he said something bad," MJ finally revealed. Maya could see the boy, far across the gym, with the remaining first grade boys. Some of them were looking back, and she did not like the looks on their faces, young as they were.

"To you?" she asked MJ. He nodded. "What did he say?"

"He… He called me something. I don't know what it means, but Ms. Sara heard him say it and she got really mad and made him sit in the corner." MJ's teacher was also in the gym, keeping an eye on the boys. She looked like she was readying herself to talk to Mikey's parents and she did not look forward to it, something Maya sympathized with.

"Okay, come with me," she stood, taking her brother's hand and walking the length of the gym until she reached the teacher. Thankfully, this journey also got Nellie and Gracie to spot their sister and brother. They came running over, and Maya asked them to go get their things and go wait for her in Zay's classroom with Haley.

When the kids had gone, she turned to the teacher, who explained what had happened with MJ and Mikey earlier that day in as calm a tone as she could do, even though she was clearly very upset underneath the surface. She wouldn't be alone in this once she told Maya what word Mikey had called her brother. She couldn't even bear to repeat it, could barely stand to have it in her head.

"I don't think he even knew what he was saying, and MJ didn't understand it either. When I talked to Mikey, he said his older brother is the one who said it, and he was just repeating it," Ms. Sara shook her head. Maya knew Mikey's brother, of course, from anytime she'd picked up MJ from his friend's house. He was a year above the twins, which meant he might be in Zay's class…

"You'll be speaking with the parents?" Maya asked, and the other teacher nodded. "Let me know how that goes tomorrow?"

"Of course," Ms. Sara promised.

The short walk from the gym to Mr. Babineaux' classroom felt like the most abrupt redirection of emotions. She had to process the incident here and now, couldn't let her siblings see. MJ… Sweet star-loving MJ… He didn't know what the word meant, but he was clever enough to see how it had been handled that it had been something bad, told to him by the boy who was meant to be his best friend. Sooner or later, he'd want to know what it meant, and that would be a whole other conversation, wouldn't it? He was only six… Whatever he did or didn't know about himself, up until today it would all have felt normal. It was normal. But now, today, he would start to learn that not everyone thought the same way.

Walking into Zay's class, Maya found her littlest Hunter sister sat on the teacher's desk, legs dangling about, as she recited numbers to her captive audience of four, sat at four front row desks. When she reached the end of the numbers she knew, Haley gave her usual 'that's all!' the way she did whenever she finished doing or saying anything, and her siblings clapped along with Zay, who lead them in this celebration and made them laugh.

"She'll be counting to a hundred in no time, and then watch out," he told Maya, setting Haley back on the ground, where she ran over to her big sister. Maya thanked him for looking after them.

"I'll be writing you later tonight," she nodded to him as the kids grabbed their bags. To his credit, he knew this was more temporary parent-to-teacher than friend-to-friend.

By the time Lucas arrived at the house that evening, he found Sam at the kitchen table, helping Nellie, Gracie, and MJ with their homework, while Haley did her very best to help clean the dinner dishes with her big sister.

"Sorry we couldn't wait for you," Maya told him as he came up and kissed her. He just shook his head, showing he understood she couldn't make the little kids wait the way the rest of them usually did. "Your plate's ready, just needs warming up."

The seven of them had fairly relaxed evening, with homework, and bath time, and eventually bed time. The twins and MJ were settled in the room across from Maya and Lucas' room. They'd brought over the bulk of what they'd need for the next two weeks the previous afternoon, as Maya had gone to grab it from her parents' house in her afternoon break. It was enough of their most favored belongings that they could feel at home while they weren't at their house. Nellie and Gracie insisted they could share one bed, and so they did, with MJ across the room from them. They took it upon themselves to read him a story. Gracie would do the narration, while Nellie would alter her voice and do all the characters. It was quite the show. They promised they'd go right to bed when they were done. While this went down, Maya and Lucas were across the hall, getting Haley to sleep, a tiny girl at the heart of their own bed.

"Been a while since we've had a visitor like this," Lucas smirked.

"Little porcelain doll, look at her," Maya hummed, brushing at her sister's hair of spun gold.

It wasn't until after they were back downstairs and they were sure that all four kids were asleep that Maya told Lucas about what had happened at school with MJ and Mikey. He was as instantly upset as she'd been. This was his little brother, too, by marriage if not by blood, and he couldn't bear to see him in pain of any kind. But now that this first shot had been fired, he needed to know, needed to be ready, for whatever came next while MJ was in their care and beyond.

"I really don't want to have to call Mom or Dad about this, especially on the first day. We can handle this until they get back, right?" Maya asked. Lucas took her hand in his, their rings just clicking together in passing.

"We can, we will."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners