A/N: Again, until the problem with the site is fixed no one will see this unless they're on the app, but here we are :) Also, I updated my profile with LP info so... yeah :)

November 3rd 2020

Chapter 308
Their Hope to Evolve

As easy as it would have been to say that she'd take the girls over to Ma Maggie's, which felt like the perfect place to go in the event of a disappointment, the better to have one's feelings raised back up by the power of waffles, or pancakes, or any number of other plates, Maya and the quiz team ended up at Nando's diner.

There'd been no telling how the team felt in the moments right after their defeat. They had all been the picture of courtesy with the other team, the teachers, everyone. They had accepted Maya's lunch invitation at once, and with many thanks. But then they had climbed back into the minivan, headed for the diner, and as Maya drove on, all she could notice was the silence which reigned in the seats behind her. She would steal the occasional glance, whenever the car came to a stop, to try and see how they were doing. She wasn't actually sure whether this silence was brought on by any personal disappointments. Alright, sure, some of it was bound to be for that, but all the same, Maya was left with the impression that part of this silence was actually fueled by feelings of regret, for their teammates, and an uncertainty about what to say about it. And then the longer that lasted, well, they'd have to start wondering if any of the others were upset with them, or with themselves, in which case they would need space, and so it was given to them.

Once they ended up at the diner, the five of them around one of the corner booths, Maya took it upon herself to give those girls their voices back.

"I used to work here, when I was in high school," she revealed, pointing around the diner. The girls looked at her. "When my band started doing albums, Nando would insist on having some of them to sell at the register. He still does," she chuckled, and the girls were heard at last, joining in.

"I think I have one of those at home somewhere," Helena nodded. "I remember one time being in here when I was… I think nine or ten… and I saw CDs on the counter, like the picture, so I took one back to my mom and my aunt so they'd buy it for me."

"He only ever sold ours here, so yeah, that'd be one of them," Maya confirmed with a nod, trying not to think about how her students would have been small children in the early days of TXNY. The ice had been broken, so that was working in their favor. Maya wasn't going to allow it to seize up again. "You were all so good back there today. I think you really showed those boys they had competition out there now."

The girls looked to one another at this, and it really felt like they were most concerned with one another, more so than with themselves.

"Now that we did one match, we'll know what we need to work on," Ariel affirmed with full assurance.

"I recorded the whole thing," Rochelle added, following up on her teammate and growing friend's statement. "I can review it and make some notes."

"I liked the part where you answered your first question," Helena turned a smile to Stella, who had been sitting almost like a little ball, between the wall and her teacher, quietly sorting out the sugar packets. She looked up again now, meeting the senior's confidence with what little of her own she had. She nodded in thanks and then her eyes turned to Maya, who tipped her head at her. Of the four of them, there was no surprise at the discovery that she'd be the most shaken by the loss. It would have mattered to her maybe most of all that the rest of the team not be let down. She could easily decide to drop out, so not to get in the way where she felt she had done so, when it could not be further from the truth. The rest of the team must have known this, too, as they soon echoed Helena's praise.

"That little guy, Gilbert, you got him shook up by the end, did you see that?" Rochelle asked, and Maya hid her smile in taking a sip from her glass, to see her former grumpy one actually showing her attention and letting it benefit her teammate, her friend. Stella looked momentarily bolder for it, only to be just as quickly startled at Ariel's follow up.

"Pretty sure he's crushing on you now," she nodded, and Stella had no words, only a short shake of the head to deny it, and a hoodie-sleeved hand laid innocently in place to hide any trace of pinkness in her cheeks. Unfortunately for her, it also travelled to her ears, though no one pointed this out.

"I think we need to get jackets next, for when we have real competitions. It'll make us look a lot more… imposing, won't it?" Rochelle suggested, changing the subject much to Stella's appreciation.

"We can earn up for them, like a bake sale or something," Ariel suggested.

"I can't bake," Rochelle chimed in at once.

"I can," Stella lifted her hand away from her face now, just barely. Helena added her own capability to this, before offering for the others to come to her house so they could make cookies and cupcakes, once they had a go to hold the sale.

"We can make them for Christmas!" Ariel shared the thought even as it came to her. "And Hannukah, too," she added in the next breath, looking to Helena and Rochelle, who had not even had the time to point out they didn't do Christmas.

"If you show me what to do, I can probably decorate stuff," Rochelle finally agreed to help with the baking. "Just don't let me do anything that might mean I make anyone sick."

"I get the impression that you have a precise hand," Helena stated. "We'll have you icing cookies in no time."

"You guys aren't in art class with me, I can't draw, ask her," Rochelle pointed back to Maya, who bit back a laugh at being called on in this way.

"My personal – and professional – opinion is that you have your strengths, and your own style," she stated. "Here, try this," she pulled a pen from her bag and flipped her paper placemat over. There, she drew a fairly simple outline of cartoon dog before sliding paper and pen over to Rochelle. "Now do it again," she instructed. The girl hesitated when put on the spot, but finally she cleared her throat and picked up the pen. Carefully, she drew the dog again before setting the pen down as one might when they'd finished a test in school. Maya and the other girls leaned in to observe.

"See? I told you," Helena tapped Rochelle on the arm. The freshman looked somewhere between humbled and proud at this, and from the looks of her she had no idea how to respond to it.

The rest of the lunch went by with the very opposite to what the ride over to the diner had been. To see the girls interacting in this way, Maya found it harder and harder not to just sit there with a huge smile on her face. Oh, far be it for her to take credit for anything, she was just so happy to see how they all were becoming genuine friends, a little cluster of their own. The fact that they were all in different grades would keep them from sharing any class time with one another, but Maya was about certain this would not in fact be a problem for them.

No one would possibly guess that they'd just lost their first match, not from how they animatedly talked amongst themselves. If anything every minute that went by made them more and more ready for their next try, possibly one that wasn't simply informal.

After lunch, it was back into the minivan, now to drop off the girls back home. By virtue of the errand she needed to make on the way home, Maya ended up seeing the girls off in the same order she'd picked them up rather than the reverse. Ariel was first out, with many thanks until they'd see each other the next day at school. Then it was Helena at her house, where she thanked Maya again for the shirt. Rochelle asked if she could be dropped off at her father's instead of her mother's, so she ended up going next, leaving Stella to be the last. Maya had her come and sit in the front for the home stretch.

"You had fun today, right?" she asked as they neared her house.

"Oh, yeah, definitely," Stella nodded, smiling. As shy as she could be, she wouldn't have been one to lie in this situation, and Maya was glad for the response.

"So what are you up to now?"

"I was thinking I wanted to check out my dad's encyclopedias. He's got this whole big set in his office," Stella explained, stretching out her arms to encompass this set of books.

"Well, I'll… I'll leave you to that," Maya nodded, smiling, and her student did as much in return. "See you tomorrow."

"You, too," Stella climbed out, jogging off to her house but pausing to turn and wave. Maya waved back before pulling back on to the street and driving off.

As she went along, tapping her hands on the steering wheel to the beat of the music from the radio, she felt good. She felt so much better than she'd done earlier, which now left her wondering if she even needed to stop at the store. She'd been so sure that it was only nerves, hadn't even let herself think it could be anything else until Morgan had said something, so… What was the point of feeding hope when it would in all likelihood be for nothing?

Because you won't stop wondering until you know for sure. She sighed. There was no way she was going to let it go, was there? Not now. Earlier, maybe, but now? Maybe what she was feeling now wasn't so much the release of nerves but rather these good feelings brought on by her lunch with the quiz team just sort of… masking whatever was going on underneath. Either way, that would be what her brain would hold on to, so what choice did she have?

"Fine, fine…" she breathed, driving off toward the store. This was not her first time down that aisle, was it? It would not be the last, especially if she came off with a negative today.

Lucas would not be home for a few hours still. By the time she got there, she was going to have to pull all her focus on to some task or another, all to ensure that she wouldn't open that box right away. Then again, maybe she should open it, get it over with. She was about ninety-nine percent sure that it would be negative, so what was even the point, right? But that one percent could mean… Yes, she knew what that percent could mean, and that was the thing. She had to do something, had to make the time go by. The Hex… She'd go into the Hex, and she'd call her Aunt Charlie, maybe they could have themselves a long-distance jam session… Or Ree, she could call her for one of those, too. Yeah, that might do it…

Today had been so good, loss or no… Whatever would happen once Lucas got home, well… She'd do her best to let it go along in the way the match's result had gone with the girls, just a bump in the road, not anything capable of bringing them to a full stop.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners