September 20th 2020

Chapter 264
Their Step to Ride

Tuesday morning – 10th grade field trip

The group's departure from school was a smoother affair on the second day, with no delays or surprises. The sophomore's allotted trip time had made it so that, like with the seniors in a couple of days, Lucas simply accompanied Maya as she left the house that morning and headed to school with her. He'd have some time to kill until they left, but that would hardly be a problem. As first period had kicked off, he'd remained out on the old bench outside. The memories came fast, one after the other, enough so that the time really felt like it went by in the blink of an eye. Suddenly, he was getting a text from Maya, telling him they were headed for the parking lot and to meet her at the bus.

Once he'd gotten there and found the driver waiting outside, he was reminded of the previous day's trip, the delay and the chaos, and how the poor guy had come close to quitting on them. Lucas gave him as much of a cheerful greeting and attitude as he could, hoping it would encourage his perspective to turn toward optimism for this second round. He remembered Maya saying something earlier about today possibly going much better than yesterday. He hadn't known what she meant by this, and he didn't find out, not until he and the driver spotted Maya and the tenth graders coming and someone poked their head to the side and waved. Lucas barely had the chance to realize this had been Ariel Su when the driver gave a chuckle and waved back. He turned to the puzzled Lucas and gestured in her direction.

"My niece," he revealed.

When they reached the bus, Maya counted off the kids, ensuring she hadn't lost any of them on the way, and sent them boarding the bus at the same time. Once she'd been counted, Ariel had detoured to go and greet her uncle with a quick hug before marching her way on to the vehicle. Jim the driver, Uncle Jim, was a different man indeed, and he no longer looked about to quit on them, which was a relief. He told Lucas how Ariel was his sister's daughter, and in a few short words it became clear that he thought very highly of the girl, that she was possibly one of the most precious things in his life.

There was no doubt Ariel thought the world of her uncle, too. Both Maya and Lucas remembered enough of being in high school to know what the presence of a family member on school premises usually looked like for the student in question. More often than not, they tried to make themselves very small and pretend as though there was absolutely no familial connection between them. Some of them had no choice, of course, like Riley and August with their father, or Daphne Brett with hers, as they worked here, taught here, but then they hardly made a big deal of it, just went around like 'yeah, that's my dad, so what'd you get on your quiz?'

While the rest of the tenth graders dispersed through the middle and back rows of the bus, Ariel Su dropped herself in the front seat, the better to chat with her uncle the whole way to the museum. Bringing up the rear, Maya and Lucas had climbed on to find her there and she'd looked to her teacher like she wanted to ensure that this was okay. Maya nodded with a smile, tapping her shoulder as she moved to sit behind her. Lucas dropped in at his wife's side and soon they were headed out of the lot. They couldn't say that the bus was that much quieter today, but to look at him, Driver Jim did not seem to give a mind, talking to his niece the whole time while keeping his eyes on the road.

"Can we take her with us all week?" Lucas whispered and Maya chuckled.

"Don't think I didn't consider it," she whispered back, though between them it could be accepted that the previous day had been a fluke and that, on the whole, the guy was just as they saw him now. A bad day happened to everyone. "So, what are you going to be up to this afternoon once we get back here? You're not going to just sit outside the whole time, are you?"

"I don't know, might not be the worst thing. It was very peaceful," he commented, which made her smile in a very 'you are such a nerd, also I love you' kind of way. "I might just stay at the museum, because clearly I still come off like a guide in there. Maybe I walk a different way?" he suggested, his smile increasing for how the mere memory of the 'incident' could still trigger a solid bit of giggling out of her. She tried so hard to contain it, especially around other people, doubly so around her students. It had been hard enough when they'd been at the museum yesterday, and now on the bus she did absolutely get a few looks from some of her students, who'd wondered where the sound came from.

"What's so funny?" Ariel Su turned around in her seat, curious for the nearby giggles coming from her art teacher. Maya waved this off, shaking her head, though she wasn't convincing much of anyone when her cheeks were flushing up from the laughter.

"Long story," Lucas responded, figuring it would be some time before Maya could do so without having some bit of laughter making a run for it. "But she's definitely keeping me next to her the whole time today."

He could have explained it fairly easily, but then he didn't know where Maya would consider the line to be between the things she would or wouldn't share with her students. Their storied years with that museum, with his old job as a guide, with the infamous blazer… It all became necessary background before they arrived to that moment, while the kids had been left to roam freely, the better to find the subjects of their final project, when an old woman had approached Lucas under the impression that he worked as a museum guide.

Maya had been nearby, just not near enough as to appear to be with him, thus making him appear unoccupied and free to assist. The old woman had been so sweet and bordering on frail, and it so happened that Lucas knew exactly what she was looking for and what she wanted to know. So, rather than to disappoint her, and after passing a look to his wife, he had taken the woman off to find the painting she was looking for. He offered his arm for support and everything.

While he'd been gone, Maya had continued to keep an eye on her group, who had been dispatched in trios, the better to reduce their spread. As the minutes had gone on though, she'd started to wonder where her husband had gone off to… only to spot him walking with the old woman and now a half dozen other old men and women, who she'd later learn were here on an unaccompanied tour of their own. To look at him, it was clear he was in full guide mode, as though it was seven or eight years ago all over again. By the time he'd been able to return to her, she was still working to contain her laughter, which finally gained full freedom on the drive home from dropping off Helena Zimmerman.

"You good now?" Lucas asked when the bus had pulled to a stop in front of the museum and Maya moved to stand and face the kids.

"Stop that," she whispered at him, feeling her giggles still very much threatening to be heard. "Hey, guys, okay, eyes on me please?" she called out louder now, clapping for attention and getting it within seconds. "Thank you. Uh, Ariel, can you go and sit where I can see you?" she turned back after a moment. "Here, why don't you hand these out while you're up?" Maya passed her the stack of project instructions, and Ariel gladly did as she'd been asked. "I need you all to get in groups of three, not for the final, just for inside the museum. Mr. Friar and I will be leading the way for a while, but then you'll be allowed to wander around the exhibition. When that happens, you have to stay in your trios, alright? If I catch any of you missing any of your buddies, that's an extra page on your final. That's one page per buddy, got it? It's extra work for all of us, so just stick together, please? There are nineteen of you, so you have a choice, either we have a group of four or one of you gets to join Team Friar. Don't see it as a punishment, we know a lot of things that might come in handy for your papers. We'll be waiting outside, step off once you have your groups."

"Do you know, I never get tired of seeing you in teacher mode?" Lucas told Maya as they stepped out on to the sidewalk and waited. Through the windows, they could see the kids figuring out their groups.

"Not gonna lie, might be half the reason I chose you to step in this week," Maya laughed.

In no time, the trios started to emerge. Most of them were pretty much what Maya had expected, knowing her groups enough by now to guess. There was one she'd had to wonder about though, and when she got her answer, it left her just a bit disappointed, if not for herself. She had known that Ariel would be teamed up with Dakota Day, as the two of them tended to travel together, long-time friends as they were. As to the third member though, she had sort of had her vote down for Daphne Brett, knowing how she and Dakota were taking that turtle race of a journey toward… something… since the days of the green paint incident.

Instead, Ariel and Dakota were accompanied by Candace, she of the errant foot who had caused the incident. Maya didn't hate any of her students, but if she had to be honest, there were a few who challenged her patience more than she could say. Candace was absolutely one of them, and Maya had a feeling she had weaseled her way into Dakota and Ariel's trio in whatever way she needed to in order to make them say yes. Maybe she knew, just as Maya guessed after seeing those three come together, that once this happened, Daphne would not even know how to introduce herself as a potential fourth.

"Hey, you with us today?" Maya asked the girl as she emerged last of all from the bus, looking uncomfortable.

"Yeah, I guess," Daphne quietly replied, shrugging. Seeing the self-satisfied look over on Candace's face, Maya resisted the urge to add her three whole pages just for kicks.

"Don't worry about it," she turned back to Daphne and patted her around the shoulders. "He used to be a guide here. You're on the gold team today, Brett," she quietly told her, grinning when the girl finally couldn't keep from smiling.

About halfway through the roaming period, Candace was spotted having wandered off from Dakota and Ariel's side, having decided she didn't need them after all. Lucas could just see the barely restrained pleasure Maya got in telling her she would have to write two extra pages for the two buddies she was missing. When Candace tried to pin this on Dakota and Ariel and get extra pages added on them, Maya nodded for her to see the others were now a trio once more, as Daphne had now joined them. They were a trio again, the loophole accepted by the art teacher, who had a feeling those three might have been gathering in this way even after they left the museum that day.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners