October 31st 2020

Chapter 305
Their Hope to Win

"Do you remember when you'd have a match, with the Basket Cases? You'd text me, first thing in the morning," Lucas smirked, one hand keeping his head propped up while the other walked his fingers along Maya's arm. She laughed.

"Quiz me! Come on, hit me with a question!" she intoned. "You always had good ones, too."

"Truth time? May have hit the internet for those," he confessed. Maya replied by giving an exaggerated sort of 'I am shocked' sound. "I really wish I could be out there with you today, cheering on the girls… in my non-shirt," Lucas went on, then off her giggling, "You know what I mean."

"I do, I do," she promised, flopping over on to her back. "I wish you could be there, too. It's okay though, it's totally informal."

"Do you think I haven't known you long enough to see your nerves working in there?" Lucas asked, prodding lightly at her brow and making her scrunch up her nose.

"It's not for me though, it's them, the girls," she sighed. "Teacher feelings…"

"Mom feelings?" he teased.

"You know I would bring them all home in a heartbeat," she teased right back.

"We're going to need a bigger house."

She must have checked four or five times that she had all the shirts, everything she'd need for today, especially the addresses to the four girls' homes. She was set to pick them up now, meeting Cory with them up at the school of their opponents. After one more check, she was off for her first pick-up, Ariel Su. Pulling up to the house, she could see her from further up the street. The girl sat outside, bent over a stack of flash cards. Even after the minivan came to a stop at the curb, there was no breaking her concentration. Maya finally had to hit her horn, and Ariel's head bolted up at once. She spotted her teacher and jogged over. Climbing into the back, she was presented with her shirt. The thrilled sort of gasp she gave on seeing the yellow and turquoise was kind of priceless.

"Just wait until we get there to put it on, yeah?" Maya laughed.

"I could get it on under my jacket…"

"Kind of responsible for you right now, so how about you buckle up and hold on to that shirt for later, yeah?"

"Okay, that's fair."

Next up was Helena's house. Ariel had texted her when they were coming up to her street, and so she came right out as they approached. She joined Ariel in the back and one more shirt was passed to its owner. As much as the first had been admired for its colors, this one… Maya could see in the rear-view mirror how she was shown her name on the back. She saw it, and it made her smile, so much that she might have cried.

"I got the idea because of you," Maya admitted, and Helena looked at her, her smile trembling with appreciation. She was back on a team.

Getting to Stella's house after this, Maya knew the sophomore did not want to have any big deal made of who her mother was, so she had a feeling she might have been outside the house already by the time she got the 'we're almost there' message. Ariel and Helena both went leaning out the open window, calling their teammate over like she might have been coming on to the basketball court. Maya chuckled, seeing how Stella appeared startled at first, before finally speeding over as Helena opened the door for her. She climbed in, greeting everyone in turn before receiving her shirt. Like their senior member, being part of a team meant something to her, not for having lost one but for never having been part of one at all.

Last of all was Rochelle, and when the minivan came up to her building, she was waiting outside, headphones over her ears. She pulled them down when she spotted her teammates and teacher giving her a four-strong cheer. She was as surprised as Stella had been, though not for shyness so much as… inclusion. Joining her teammates in the back, she received her shirt, and Maya was happy to see she had aimed correctly as far as the colors.

"What are you listening to?" she asked, and Rochelle looked to her headphones, remembering to hit pause.

"I record myself reading my notes so I can listen to them while I'm doing other things," she explained. Maya had assumed it to be music, but… Yeah, this might have made more sense.

"Alright, next stop, final stop."

They had gotten this friendly match through Morgan Stewart. The music teacher's sister, Natasha, was also a teacher, in science, at another high school. The two had always been competitive, playfully so, and when Morgan had mentioned the team, Natasha had pointed out that her school had one, too, and from there, well… here they were.

"You guys look like a bunch of winners, let's go," Morgan laughed. Of course, she had to be here today, like her sister, and they met up with her after having gone into the bathroom to change. "Where's my shirt?" she demanded of her friend while the girls stopped for a team selfie, showing their shirts.

"I'll get you one next time," Maya promised, breathing deep.

"You okay?" Morgan asked.

"Yeah, I've got just… sympathy nerves," Maya explained, stealing a look to the quartet and smiling. Turning back to her colleague though, it felt like she did not believe her. "Come on, you're worse than my husband. You just don't want to lose to your sister."

"You're not wrong," Morgan was forced to admit, and Maya gave a weighted nod. "But seriously, you look… I don't know, did you have breakfast? I've got…" she reached into her bag. She was diabetic, more often than not had something to eat with her wherever she went.

"I did, I'm good," Maya stalled her, though at the same time she was starting to wonder if Morgan was a little right. She did feel off, but that was the nerves, she was sure… mostly sure. When she expressed this sentiment, Morgan gave her a new look. "What?"

"I don't know, but do you think maybe…" she whispered, her gaze pointing down and up again. Maya did not follow at first, but once she got there, she blinked.

"No, no… no… No, it's too soon, we've only been…" she insisted.

"Oh, so you were Captain Celibate before that?" Morgan challenged. Maya looked back to the girls for a moment, confirming they were still talking amongst themselves.

"First off, that's a solid nickname," she whispered back to her friend. "Second, I see your point but… I don't know, I…" she sighed. "It's not my first time thinking I was pregnant, and I was wrong both times. I'm not seeing how this is any different." Morgan gave her a 'ha ha!' smile. "Okay, fine, it did cross my mind, how can it not? But this is so not the time, and if you keep poking at this, I won't be able to think about anything else. I need to focus on those girls. This is their day."

"Alright, I get it. But I'm watching you," Morgan pointed at her.

"By all means," Maya thanked her, just as the girls moved toward them.

"Where do we go? We can't be late," Rochelle informed them.

"Mr. Matthews is back there already, with Nat and the other team and their advisor," Morgan informed the group. "Follow me."

Maya led her girls along the hallway, looking at each one to spot any who might have been in need of a pep talk, anything to dash away some nerves. So far they seemed to be doing okay, a whole lot better than her, actually, which bordered on frustrating. Maybe that's because there's nothing to worry about, and this thing you're feeling is not about nerves.

She really wished Morgan hadn't brought this up. The thought had first come to her when she'd been driving off to the Su house, and it had been dismissed at what felt like lightning speed, for the very reasons she had given to Morgan. This was not the time, and it was probably another false alarm. There were a couple other times where the thought tried to get to her, where it nudged at her like 'but what if it's for real this time?' or 'if this is real now, what happens to Ree's tour?' The worst was 'imagine the look on Lucas' face,' because if she gave that thought any sort of traction then she really wouldn't be able to put it aside, not until she knew for sure, and when that happened…

Oh, now, see? She was playing herself. She was thinking about it, and she wasn't supposed to, not now. Today was about Rochelle, and Stella, and Ariel, and Helena. Born Curious. Born like babies? Like the one you might have in you now? This was going to be a nightmare.

"That's the other team?" Stella was the first to speak up, noticing the other teens in the classroom. The girls looked and discovered that their opponents were an all-boy team.

"I am liking this more and more," Rochelle declared, with a new fire in her eyes at the thought of taking down some boys, her and the other girls. It definitely managed to rattle a couple of those guys upon seeing it.

"Helena?" one of the boys asked, spotting her. He looked to be a senior like her, and by the way she moved to greet him with a hug, she was very happy to see him, too. "You're back in school?"

"Yeah, senior year," she nodded.

"And the team?" the boy asked, in a way that easily read as referring to the basketball team.

"No, my parents wouldn't let me," she confided, and the boy's sympathetic disappointment placed him as a player on this school's boys team before Helena revealed it to her own teammates, along with introducing him as Eric Wilshire.

"Oh, yeah, I've seen you play," Maya commented. The boy looked back at her, and for once she was recognized not for her music but for her days as a player on their girls' team.

"I think you played against my sister when she was on the team. Amanda Wilshire? Number eighteen?"

"Was she the one with the braid?" Maya gestured.

"Yeah, that's her," Eric nodded.

"She was a beast out there," she laughed, memories seeming to step over one another to get to the top first. The younger brother looked pleased to hear this.

"Still is."

They could not have hoped for a better way to break the ice and, in Maya's case, to help nudge the thought of 'nerves or baby?' out of the way, for now at least. She did feel a little better now, so maybe it really was just nerves?

"You need to go change," she tossed Cory his shirt. He caught it and looked upon the logo with a smile before heading to do just that.

While the teams introduced themselves to one another, the process facilitated by unofficial team captains Helena and Eric, Maya did the same with the other advisor and with Morgan's sister. She looked to be only a few years older, but the family resemblance was unmistakable.

Cory soon returned, now sporting the team shirt identical to Maya's. They looked to each other and, even after a year of being colleagues, and after having worked on the team together for a few weeks, they found there could still be instances where they would be reminded of how they used to be teacher and student to one another. It had not lost its ability to amuse them both.

"Don't worry, they'll do great," he whispered to her.

"I know they will," Maya assured him, clearing her throat as she looked to the two teams taking their places on either side of the room. Did he see it, too?

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners