November 7th 2020

Chapter 312
Their Welcoming of Cookies

"I think you have enough here that everyone will have one… or five…" Maya blinked when she saw the number of containers already had stacked to take into the school. There were also several empty cardboard boxes, small paper bags, and rolls of ribbon, all in one container free of baked goods. The supplies were promptly explained.

"Ariel had the idea that we could sell them individually but also in boxes," Stella explained, straining under the weight of the stacked containers in her arms. Maya quickly went to relieve her of half of it. "They make nice gifts, don't they?" Stella continued, undeterred.

"Yeah, I guess so," Maya smiled. It was hard not to follow along, seeing how happy it made her shy bird to be a part of this endeavor. "How much did you guys spend on supplies?"

"Really not that much. Rochelle says if we sell it all we will have more than earned back what we put in, and we'll have enough for six jackets, plus some extra for the next girl to join us… or boy, I guess. It is kind of fun the way it is now, just us girls…" she smiled, remembering the task at hand and moving to add her containers to the wheeled cart. Maya felt that swell of teacherly pride all over again, witnessing the scope of the girls' cooperation, and the benefits it returned on to them.

"So, how was it with the baking?" she went on to ask Rochelle, who was carrying another load to the cart, the last one out of Helena's uncle's truck, which had been borrowed for the occasion.

"It took the whole weekend," Rochelle declared, sounding as though the memory was both pleasing and exhausting.

"Wow," Maya laughed. "And did you come around to doing more than decorating?" she had to ask.

"No way. We were on a clock, there was no time for me to scrap anything. I think we made like a thousand cookies. As soon as one batch was out, another went in."

"A nice assembly line, huh?"

"Oh, yeah," Rochelle confirmed, sounding like she very much appreciated the efficiency. "Ariel and I did the decorating, and Helena and Stella did the baking. Ariel helped with that, too. I kept count and put everything ready to go once they were all finished. Everyone did their part." Maya gave her a look, letting her eyes do the asking. And did you have fun? "When we stopped, on Saturday night, Helena said she could show me how to do it on my own, when we're not making so many at once."

"Yeah? You should go," Maya encouraged. "I'm sure you can learn, and I speak as someone who used to be a disaster in the kitchen."

"I don't know. I don't have a lot of time, and I already lost two days from doing all these," Rochelle shrugged, looking up and down the stack of containers. Even as she did though, it felt like there was something at the back of her eyes, like echoes of memories, and Maya could see just the ghost of a smile.

"I wouldn't see it as a loss," she pointed out, discreetly, letting the thought settle into the freshman's mind. "You got to hang out with friends… develop new skills… and make a load of baked treats which will make you all in high demand in there, especially around lunch… or the teachers' lounge."

"I suggested we should hang around the gym, too, so when people get out of there they'll buy stuff from us," Rochelle added.

"That, too," Maya laughed before moving to help with the cart. As they pushed it along, Rochelle seemed to be contemplating things in her head.

"I guess it might be a good thing if I knew how to make some of these. I could make them for my brothers, and they'll probably be better than the ones from the grocery store."

"They usually are," Maya agreed. "How many brothers do you have again?"

"Five," Rochelle frowned, more from the effort than the boys. "I'm the only girl, and the oldest. Technically, I have one full brother, two steps, and two half, and they're not from the same half. It's kind of complicated."

"I've got no full siblings myself, but I have three half-sisters and a half-brother on my mom's side, two half-brothers and two half-sisters on my dad's side, plus a step-brother and two-stepsisters from my stepmother's second marriage, after my father passed. Two of those are from her husband, one is with her. But they're still my siblings," Maya counted off.

"Yeah," Rochelle replied, like she knew exactly what her teacher meant.

"If you don't mind me asking, when did your parents split?"

"When I was eight. My brother was two," Rochelle told her. In her voice, Maya could hear so much that wasn't actually spoken but felt like an old song she hadn't heard in a while, still remembering every word. She tried not to show the old hurt, tried to act like it wasn't there anymore, but it still was, would always be. "My dad remarried when I was eleven, and my stepmom already had two boys, from her first husband, but he died. They had a baby a year after that, he's three now. And my mom, she got married again just two years ago, had the baby less than a year after."

"Yeah… cookies might be helpful, all those boys…" Maya guessed, and that got a laugh out of her student. She could have dug a little deeper, to keep her talking, but at this point it would have felt too much like she was fishing for something, which she really wasn't. Still, it wasn't difficult to guess that Rochelle didn't often talk about herself, and it did feel like maybe she needed to.

As had been agreed, the girls could run their sale table at the start of the day before classes, then at lunch, then right after school. They were also free to use the time between classes to try and do more, but that was providing that they showed up on time to class. If they ended up late, they would not be excused for it. Maya and Cory both could have volunteered of their own time to pitch in, but they had decided together that this needed to be the girls' task alone, and so they let them go on without interfering.

They absolutely made a killing in the teachers' lounge, unloading a number of those boxes well before the lunch break, when they parked themselves just outside the cafeteria. They did have a small boost from putting the word out in history class, and art class, too. Maya's 'quiz mom' nerves – as nicknamed by Morgan – reared up again, thinking that the table might not do nearly well enough to reach its goal. It didn't take long for her to find however that she had been dead wrong. The clientele was a constant swarm, so much so that the four girls could hardly be seen unless you were standing in front of the table.

"Alright, alright, classes are about to start, off you go," Maya finally had to come up, clapping her hands to get people's attention. "They'll be back at the end of the day… right?" she turned to get a look at what was still available. There really wasn't that much left.

"Yes, we will," Ariel promised with a winning smile.

"There, see? Go, go, maybe share amongst yourselves. Make a friend," she teased, turning back to the team with an impressed smile. "You know if this whole quiz thing doesn't work out, you all might have a future in business together."

"We're four cute girls selling cookies and cupcakes to a bunch of hungry teenagers, one from each grade so most people know at least one of us from class… It's not a hard formula," Rochelle stated matter-of-factly, pulling the cash box from the stool between herself and Helena. The senior girl couldn't help but laugh at this, while Ariel grinned, and Stella went pink in the ears. "Well, we are," Rochelle shrugged.

"Hey, own it," Maya found herself once more on the precipice of giggles, courtesy of one of her students. "I guess this means we'll be putting in for those jackets soon, huh?"

"Will we have them in time for January?" Ariel asked. "I think we're ready for a rematch with the Think Tank," she nodded. "We'll look so good in those," she went on, straightening up an imaginary jacket. "Should we have ties, too?"

"I do like a tie on a girl…" Helena hummed for a moment before sitting up and then standing altogether. "We should get all this picked up and head to class."

"Here, we can handle it, yeah?" Maya nodded to Rochelle, who would be in art class in this next period. She accepted at once, and so the other three headed off to their lockers before moving to their respective classes. "Tell me you all managed to have lunch somewhere in there," Maya asked Rochelle, as the notion only hit her now. They had been so busy for the whole lunch period that, for all she knew, they hadn't gotten a single minute to themselves.

"Oh, we did, yeah. We planned ahead," Rochelle promised.

"Of course you did," Maya nodded to herself. Why did she even doubt it?

As was to be expected, with how little remained, the girls sold out the rest of their stock almost as soon as they popped up at their table after last period. They then presented both Maya and Cory with a box each, their own supply of cookies to take home 'on the house.'

"I have to say, these look pretty good," Lucas declared, when he came home to find the box of cookies on the kitchen counter.

"Right? And they taste kind of amazing, too," Maya informed him. He looked up. "What? I had to have one," she insisted, making him smile. "You know, I can't tell who decorated what, but I know Rochelle did some of them, and for a girl who struggled so hard in my class in the beginning, I really think she's starting to come into her own style."

"You should make this an annual thing," Lucas suggested, swiping one of the cookies. It was only fair, if she'd had one already.

"Trust me, I don't even have to consider it, they've got this thing down, the four of them. I barely have to do anything, and I never thought that'd be something that made me happy for these reasons."

"You know how I feel about seeing you be all proud teacher," Lucas stated, after he'd swallowed up the last bite of his cookie. "Damn, these are really good."

"Better than the GiGi cookies your lovely wife makes?" Maya intoned.

"Please, nothing can touch those," Lucas replied with deep assurance.

"With words like that, you can definitely touch something," Maya whispered, getting a pleasantly intrigued smirk from her husband.

"Are those from the bake sale?" Sam's voice broke in, and Maya and Lucas turned around as one, forcing whatever mood had been settling in to now evaporate.

"Yes, yeah, but dinner first," Maya told her brother. Sam only pointed to Lucas' face. Maya looked over and bit back a laugh, seeing the crumbs in his growing Santa beard. "Dude, come on," she reached up to wipe them away.

"I'm practicing," Lucas came in with a swift answer, lifting his chin. "Ho, ho, ho," he added for good measure. Maya gave him two thumbs up, even as she had to hide her face in his chest to contain her laughter.

"You guys are so weird," Sam shook his head, moving to the fridge. "What are we making?"

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners