September 12th 2020

Chapter 256
Their Help to School

"Hey, how is it out there?" Lucas asked Katy when he answered Maya's phone. The call had come in while she was in the shower, their first morning after Katy and Shawn had flown to LA and left the kids to their big sister and brother-in-law.

"It is… hectic," was the best Katy could think of, description wise, and Lucas could hear a small chuckle in her voice, showing how she did not mind this at all. She was in Los Angeles, and even he knew – thanks to Maya – how much this had been a sort of over the fence kind of dream for her. Now she was out there, even if she hadn't expected it to come at the age of forty-four, with five kids, and a relatively short amount of time away from being someone's grandma. "We settled into the hotel, barely, and I had to get to the studio for fittings, it didn't stop all day, didn't get a chance to check in with you guys last night. I'm on my way back in now, so how are you all doing?"

How were they doing? Lucas knew they weren't supposed to mention the MJ/Mikey incident, that it would only disrupt Katy's mindset and make the next two weeks a nightmare for her and anyone else over at the show she was working for. He and Maya had made up their minds last night. They wouldn't bring it up before she and Shawn came back to Texas, not unless things moved so far out of line that they had no choice. For now, they were still far from hitting red alert.

"Well, everyone's up, the kids are getting dressed for school… most of them," he turned back to the bed, where Haley sat, still in her PJs, hair in need of a brush, staring at him with eyes like she knew he was talking to her mommy. "I think someone wants to say hi," Lucas went and crouched in front of the bed, offering out the phone. Haley instantly reached out her small hands and took the object, bringing it to her ear.

"Hi!" The way her face lit up when she heard her mother's voice… It pulled at Lucas' heart, and he knew he'd have plenty of those instances over the next two weeks. Just last night, when they had gone to bed, Maya and him on either side of her, the littlest Hunter had wasted no time sticking to him in her sleep, and there she'd remained until this morning when she woke, shortly after him. Maya had already teased him, sidestepping the 'future dad feels' and instead mock complaining how her sister had chosen him over her.

By the time Maya came out of the shower, toweled up, she found hers and Lucas' room currently occupied by all four of her Hunter siblings, as they had found their way here, taking the phone in turn to speak to their parents and tell them about their previous day and their morning so far. MJ was on the line when Maya came, and from what she caught of his side of the conversation, he hadn't gone into too much detail about his situation, only saying that he and Mikey were maybe not friends anymore. She wondered if their mother, on the other end of the line, could catch any part of the sad look she saw on her brother's face in the sound of his voice.

Eventually, everyone was dressed, and breakfast was had. Sam was working overtime in his usual breakfast-making duties, now cooking for seven instead of three, but he was completely up to the task. Lucas was soon on his way off to school, and while Sam caught a ride from a friend to get to his university, Maya then had to get her siblings into the minivan and off to their schools as soon as possible, so she would not be late for first period and her students. Haley was dropped off at pre-school, with one hundred percent less tantrum than the day before, and then it was off to the elementary school. Maya barely had time to stop for more than a minute, but she sent off each of her siblings with a well wishes and a big hug. When she had Gracie in her arms, she whispered at her ear.

"Look after MJ today, okay?" Her quiet little sister, coming up on nine years old in just a few months, gave her a nod, no need for explanations. When she then hugged MJ, she also whispered at his ear. She told him how much she loved him. As she watched the three of them head off into the school yard, the twins on either side of their brother and holding one of his hands, she knew that, no matter what she did, she'd be thinking about getting back here this afternoon to pick them up, to hear whether or not the situation had evolved in any way, for better or for worse.

It was some small mercy that her day went by about as smoothly as one could hope. No spills, no drama, just four classes, and some grading, and research… She'd notified the principal that she'd be leaving as soon as last bell was heard, for the next two weeks, and so as she saw her juniors depart, she was also gathering her things, locking up the room after they were all out and heading to the parking lot to drive to the pre-school for Haley. This meant another short walk to the elementary school, another tale from her little sister, and oh how Maya was happy to hear it, like a balm to her nerves.

Though it had hardly been intended to turn into this, it became routine that day, as it would be for as long as Maya and Lucas had the kids, that Zay would be around when she came into the school, and he would take Haley off to his class while she got the others. He was determined, evidently, to get the three-year-old to boost her numbers.

Today, MJ was found tossing the ball with his sisters and their friends, rather than sitting on the bench, and he looked all the better for it. Scanning the gym for the other first grade boys, she found them, though with the noted absence of Mikey. Maya went in search of Ms. Sara, who spotted her and signalled that she'd come to her, the better for them to step in the hallway.

"Hey, is everything alright? Did you speak to Mikey's parents yesterday?" Maya asked.

"I did, and they were very apologetic about the whole thing, said they would speak to Mikey, and they swore they had no idea he even knew that word, or that their other son had told him it, or where he'd picked it up, because they would never use language like that in their home…" Ms. Sara recounted the talking points from the conversation. "Mrs. Winger came to pick up the boys already, wanted to speak to your mother or father if they came around while she was there, but I told them how they were out of town and you had them. She would like you to call her," the teacher pulled out a small piece of paper with a phone number on it. Maya took it, taking a breath.

"Right, thanks, I'll… I'll do that. How was it today? With MJ and the others, did anyone…"

"No one said anything, but then that might just be that no one knew what to say after what happened yesterday. MJ had lunch with the girls," Ms. Sara pointed off to where the twins played with their brother. She had been their teacher a couple years back. "I can't say that this means the entire situation is handled and done with, that there won't be another incident, but for now the storm is calmed, and I'm just doing everything I can to keep it that way."

After expressing her gratitude, Maya went and collected her siblings, picked up Haley from her mini lesson with Mr. Babineaux, and they were on their way home. Impulsively, they stopped on the way and picked up pizza for dinner, which was swiftly endorsed by the other passengers in the minivan. Lucas would be home earlier today, and including this small stop, they would be driving up the lane at roughly the same time. In the end, they pulled up to the house, one behind the other, at which point Nellie just about bolted out on to the lawn so she might tell her big brother that they were having pizza.

Dinner was had, with Cecilia joining the seven of them that night. She also stuck around through homework time. Haley aided Lucas with the dishes that night, which left Maya able to climb up to the attic, shutting the trap before pulling out her phone and the paper with Mikey's mother's number. She had to pace the length of the floor a couple of times before she got around to dialling the number.

"Hello?" the familiar voice answered.

"Hey, Mrs. Winger, this is Maya Friar, MJ Hunter's sister?"

"Yes, of course, I… just a moment…" By the muffled sound of her voice, Maya guessed she'd pressed the phone to her chest before speaking to someone else. The tone suggested she'd just told her boys to go do something, taking them out of the room. A few seconds later, she could be heard clearly once again. "Sorry about that, I just needed to…"

"No, it's alright, I get it."

"Maya, I just… I don't know what to say," Mrs. Winger started now, "When Mikey's teacher told me what happened with him and MJ yesterday, it knocked the air out of me, I had absolutely no idea my son had even heard anything like…"

Maya wanted to yell, so much, wanted to ask her how it was possible that she wouldn't know something like this, that she'd just let it happen, and that it would fall on her little brother to feel the effects. Once upon a time, she might have unloaded on her, but this wasn't that time, was it? She'd seen too much, experienced too much, both as teacher and student, and she knew how easy it was for something, almost especially something like that, to slip by. She was not interested in discovering the chain of discovery, of how Mikey's brother had come upon the word, in his case knowing at least some of what it meant, enough to tie it to MJ and pass it into his little brother's vocabulary.

"I know," she told Mrs. Winger. "All I want is to make sure that it won't happen again. I would hate for MJ to lose his best friend because he wouldn't feel safe around Mikey, or Reed."

"And we don't want that either," Mrs. Winger promised, pausing for a moment. "It might be best if we let things settle for a few days, see how it goes. My husband and I are seeing to the boys, making them understand that what they did was wrong. Is MJ alright?"

"He… Yeah… He's confused still. No matter what happened, he misses his best friend." Also, he still didn't know what was the problem with the word Mikey had used, and both Maya and Lucas were waiting for the moment when he would either figure it out on his own or ask them about it. Part of them felt like they should be the ones to speak to him, to explain it correctly, so he wouldn't misunderstand anything or be made to feel bad in any way, but at the same time they hoped to spare him from feeling any worse than he did now. Sooner or later, they'd have to make a choice.

"Mikey misses him, too. I think he's starting to understand why it was wrong now, but… it's a lot. He's still so young…" Mrs. Winger sounded like she was about to cry. Maya closed her eyes, breathing deep. They both are…

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners