October 23rd 2020

Chapter 297
Their Spooking of Students

It used to be that Maya hated when Halloween landed in the middle of the week. Mostly that was because she was a student herself, and middle of the week meant shorter activities in the evening, to factor in bedtimes and next day classes. But now she was the teacher, and Halloween meant springing her ideas on her students, with decorations, and costumes, and candy. Last year's October 31st had actually been on a Sunday, but it hadn't stopped the Friday before from being one of her favorite working days, and this year, with a Tuesday Halloween, she intended to keep the tradition going, full steam ahead.

The first step had been to decide what she would dress as for the in-school part of the day. Last year had been easy, the school and the party had been on different days, so there hadn't been so much of a rush for transition. Now, she would have to go to school, come home, and hurry up and get changed before the trick or treaters started to descend upon the house on the lane. So, it really felt like a gamble when she came up with the idea of carrying on what she had sort of started the year before. She had been Serafina the vampire, a previous costume of hers, which gave her the idea of dressing as her previous year's party costume for the school part.

"Are you sure you're going to be able to pull that off?" Lucas asked as he watched her transform once again into the sun, all glitter and gold.

"As soon as I get home, I will hop in the shower, and I'll be all set before you know it," Maya assured him with a golden smile. "It won't be near as great without my moon by my side anyway," she added coyly, earning herself a chuckle out of him.

And so she was off. She didn't know that she had ever appreciated how good it felt to walk into the school all decorated for Halloween when she had been a student. Now, she walked through the halls and she couldn't stop smiling.

"Hey, I remember this," she heard Morgan's laughing voice and spun around. Her friend and fellow teacher was dressed up as what felt like a very Jane Austen era situation, especially for how she'd once told her she'd read each of her books at least twice a year since she was sixteen.

"Finally went through with it, huh?" Maya smiled, recalling how she'd wanted to dress like this at last Halloween but, it being her first teaching year, too, she'd eventually decided not to. She didn't want to 'come on too strong.'

"Yeah, well, you know, gotta live your truth," Morgan nodded, and Maya pressed her hands together in a gentle clap. "I guess yours is that you're the sun?"

"I do like to light up a room," Maya turned about.

She explained her costume turnover plan to her colleague as Morgan joined her in the art room, the better to transform it as before into a more day-appropriate look. She hadn't been sure at first whether it would work or not, seeing as she was a star instead of a vampire this time around, but by the end she was of a mind that everything was exactly as it should be. Now, she was ready to welcome her students for the day. She was very curious to see who would come in costume this year, and what those would be.

"See, I knew I could count on you," Maya beamed as among the first of her seniors that day came Derek and Helena. Last year, he had come as Black Panther, and to see how happy that made him… It had been something like a revelation. This year, with his best friend and partner in crime in tow, he had returned with a new costume, while Helena had hers. Maya had a feeling they had spent a lot of time working on these together. She'd go so far as to imagine Derek keeping his ailing friend company the year before, as he'd assembled his panther suit, and it made her happy.

"Yours is amazing, too," Helena blinked, a reaction which Maya would find many times over the day, especially from the new students, who had no concept of the art teacher 'going all out' just yet.

"Thanks," Maya bowed her sun crowned head. "If you guys are free tonight, you should come around by my place. We have games, and a maze…" She wasn't sure if they'd be up for it, maybe they would have been too old, but she had a feeling they had just the right spirit for something like this, and going by their intrigued looks, maybe she had it right. She gave them directions, which prompted Helena to grin all at once.

"Oh, that's your house? My cousins went last year, they couldn't shut up about it," she revealed, making her teacher laugh.

The seniors had given way to the sophomores, and as with the previous year, Missy and Kai came along in a very tame get up, compared to their zombie turn in the evening. Clearly, they were getting to enjoy the fact that they carried this mystery over their teacher, and Maya was happy to indulge them, appearing on the whole very intrigued. Truth be told, she had been finding herself trying to figure out the solution ahead of time. She tried to think about what she had seen and heard of them in recent months, figuring it might play into 'this year's zombies.' So far, she had many contenders, though none that stood out. And so the mystery continued.

She saw most of her juniors ahead of the end of the day as she'd walked out of her class on her way to find Morgan for lunch and spotted them coming out of Mrs. Anderson's algebra class. Ariel Su continued to honor her mermaid namesake, this time having fashioned herself into a futuristic version of the character, and she was rightly proud of her achievement. Meanwhile, Daphne Brett was all smiles, waving to her art teacher as she went along, hand in hand with Dakota Day. Daphne might have been paired up with Ariel instead, for the costume she'd chosen, coming along as an alien of her own creation. She had actually consulted with Maya, for the look of it and then for makeup tricks. Now she had accomplished it all and received a proud look from her teacher. As for Dakota, he had come dressed as what Maya was almost sure was a video game character, though she couldn't place him.

In no time however, she was given confirmation as well as information, as Roman came along with the freshmen after lunch. He was also dressed as a character, from the same game as his brother. As she was informed – in excess of details – these were their respective preferred characters, so they had dressed as them today, the better to bring the competition to real life.

"I was wondering if you would match your sister today," Maya chuckled when Khalil came along. She had heard, via her sisters, that Desi Russell was going to be dressed as the heroine of her favorite movie, a warrior sorceress. The sorceress in question never travelled far without her trusted associate, and just now Khalil arrived for art class dressed up as him.

"It was the only way I'd talk her into going, that and getting her to go with her friends," he went on, here acknowledging the fact that 'her friends' were also 'his teacher's little sisters.' As polite and humble as he always was, here he was also just so thankful. Much as they had their grandparents looking after them, Khalil had clearly felt himself pulled into a more paternal than brotherly role where Desi was concerned, ever since their father had gone away and they'd come to Texas.

"She's not claustrophobic, is she? If she's not, then she'll definitely like the maze," Maya grinned. Of course, part of the night for the little Hunters would be to visit their big sister and brother-in-law to enjoy the games, and the maze, and extra candy 'because we're family' as Nellie would say.

"I'll go with her, she'll be fine," Khalil nodded.

As with the previous year, there were a number of students in each group for which she had no idea what to expect, costume wise. In the freshman group, high above all others, was Rochelle. The immediate instinct was that she would show up in her everyday clothes, no costume. But then was that just because of her attitude toward the class? For all she knew, she loved Halloween as much as her… right? Maybe… Truly, Maya didn't think she would even think of costumes, not when all her brain power seemed centered on studying, getting good grades. It was never going to be about opening herself up, being social or…

Or…

Oh… Oh, she had a thought now… Maybe a crazy idea, maybe too much for her to undertake now, on top of everything, but… Maybe if she didn't do it alone…

"Good afternoon, Rochelle," Maya tipped her golden rayed head to the girl when she walked into the room. No costume in sight, just a fuzzy turtleneck and jeans.

"Good afternoon," she mumbled, like she only said it because she had to, if she didn't want to be reprimanded in any way.

"Candy?" Maya offered, indicating the bowl.

"My mom's a dentist," Rochelle replied, without missing a beat, as she went on toward her seat.

"She must be so proud," Maya sighed, pulling herself back on track to start the period as the bell rang.

As soon as the period was over and the kids were gone, she stopped off to discover where Rochelle would be headed next period, and then she stalked off in search of one Cory Matthews. He became aware of her presence when a good portion of his class, just started, looked to the door at the golden woman standing there.

"One minute," Cory told them before stepping out into the hall. Maya took in his costume and had to resist laughing.

"Didn't you dress like this one year when I was here?" she asked.

"I've got four costumes, I rotate, no one's supposed to be here long enough to see them again," he shrugged, tipping a look to her.

"Uh-huh, okay," she squinted before getting back on track. "I have a proposition for you."

With her answer secured, the sun went seeking Rochelle McNeil, finding her in Mr. Brett's science class. She asked to borrow her, and when she stood and walked out to the tune of the widely recognized 'someone's in trouble' hush from the rest of her group, she only appeared increasingly annoyed. By the time she came to stand with Maya in the hall, she looked like she was fighting the urge to speak her mind with every inch of her patience.

"Here's the deal. You listen to what I have to say to you, and if you still feel the need to unleash whatever that is," Maya indicated the girl's face, "Then you can go right ahead. Total honesty, choice of vocabulary, all yours. Deal?" Rochelle stared back at her, observed her like she was trying to spot the trap. When she couldn't find it, she nodded. "Good. Walk with me."

They wandered away from the history class, passing a couple of students off to their classes with tardy slips in hand.

"I came to Texas when I was thirteen, and I was not a good student, not by a long shot. But I was on my own, and I wanted so much to make a good impression that I actually started to apply myself more, and I became a better student. I went from mostly failing to qualifying for advanced placement. I never believed I could ever be someone who not only did well in school but also enjoyed being in school, so much that being here, as a teacher everyday, actually sounded like a good thing. One of the things that helped make that happen was a quiz team some friends and I put together. We called ourselves the Basket Cases."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners