November 19th 2020

Chapter 324
Their Possibility to Discover

As school years went, this one had really felt as though it flashed by so fast even back in October and November. Now all of a sudden it was March, and it felt like more of a flash, more like they wouldn't have been surprised to hear someone had been playing an elaborate trick on them, and it was still only halfway through at the most. But then plenty had happened, and they'd lived it all, hadn't they? And time and the days had been passing along, some more straightforward than others, and some easily distinguishable from the rest.

For example, the Monday when Maya had gone back to work after the week she'd taken off with the band. It had already become more of a thing that the art teacher was also, on the side, a singer and songwriter, working with some big names, giving shows… There had been those interviews regarding Ree's album and the tour, and now they might have seen her on television a week ago, or heard her on the radio, or they might have been to one or the other of her Austin shows… Some of her kids had definitely been to the second one, which had left her wondering what that first day back would be like.

"Mrs. Friar!" she'd heard the call, just coming up to the school, and there was no need to ask who this would be or whether she would have been there. Phoebe was hurrying over now, with Stella trailing to keep up with her. When they reached her, it was just too comical to see the one barely managing to express herself coherently, while the other looked on and tried to keep up with this as well, startling at each outburst. Maya was having much of the same issue, though on the whole she could surmise that Phoebe had been there and it had been nothing short of the best night of her life thus far. What was surprising was the realization that Stella had been there, too.

"Wait, you went in there? With all those people?" Maya asked her, and Stella nodded with a smile.

"Like on the side, close to the walls, not in the middle," she explained. "Helena brought all of us," she went on, which confirmed Maya's assumption that she might have seen the senior girl, along with Rochelle and Ariel, in that line outside. She hadn't seen Stella and frankly hadn't expected to see her, but she was glad now to hear that she had been there, not so much for herself but for what it meant for her student. "It was fun," Stella beamed, and it made Maya laugh, glad to hear it.

As the morning had gone by, she'd seen others who had either seen or heard the interviews, or to one of the shows… The other teachers had mostly just caught the interviews, except for Morgan, who had been to the first show and was now in awe of seeing her friend in this guise. And then the students… It felt sort of like the first day, last year, when she'd been new, like even for those who had known her for nearly two years already she had gone and taken their initial awareness and perception and tweaked it, adding a new facet which forced intrigue and fascination into the mix. She wasn't going to suddenly ditch her lesson plans for a Q&A and a song, but it was definitely harder on that first day to get everyone to focus.

"I'd never been to a concert before," Rochelle revealed, when the freshmen started to arrive after lunch. Somehow, that didn't surprise Maya, and she smirked as she took the returned book and the paper she was handed before moving to the bookcase with her to replace the book and select another.

"Was it a good experience?" she asked, handing this one over. Rochelle briefly looked at the cover before looking up again.

"It was kind of loud at first, like really loud," Rochelle declared.

"Yeah, it is," Maya agreed.

"And I'm not big on music," Rochelle went on, eternally truthful, to which Maya nodded. "But it wasn't… I mean… A lot of it I just find kind of weird, like it doesn't do anything to me, it just… rolls off." Again, Maya nodded, knowing what she meant. "I wasn't sure if it was being in the middle of all those people all excited like that, but I did sort of get into it after a while."

"Well, coming from you, that means a lot," Maya promised.

It hadn't been long that this speedy little year got to feel like The Year of Born Curious, and it continued to be, though before the team's first foray into an official match, the girls, like much of the school, was soon taken along into that potentially strange adventure known as the Valentines' Dance.

As had been predicted, three quarters of the team came to hold down the drinks table. Only Ariel had come with a date, and while Think Tank Neil was a good guy and the two of them were having a good enough time, the 'real' party seemed to be going on at the drinks table, enough so that, by the end, Ariel and Neil had just gone to join Helena, Stella, and Rochelle, foregoing the dancing part of this dance.

"I should get them to go out there, shouldn't I?" Maya asked Lucas, looking on from where the two of them were dancing, the better to act as the chaperones they were, keeping an eye on things.

"Why? They're fine," Lucas pointed out.

"They're going to turn this into a quiz match soon if I leave them there," Maya frowned.

"We'll break it up if it gets real rowdy," he promised, and she squinted up at him.

"Funny," she 'accused.'

"Just call me Chuckleberry," he grinned, then off the immediate spark of giggles it caused in her, "Actually maybe forget I just said that."

"No chance," she breathed through the laughter, which she tried to bury as some of the kids around them would look her way. "It'll be perfect for you to dress up like a clown at kids' birthday parties," she suggested, basking in his look of sheer self-inflicted embarrassment.

Future clown opportunities aside, the night had been a good one, no troubles, which went a long way in making this less of a work thing and more of a fun evening as husband and wife. Maya had to notice the couples either forming or growing, knowing full well the power of teenage love drama. Here were Missy and Kai, eternally hard to classify but nevertheless together at this dance where the dates felt like something a bit more involved than bringing someone to dance with. There were Daphne Brett and Dakota Day, looking entirely more decisive in looking like they had met Cupid's arrow. Here was Phoebe, with another sophomore from Maya's classes, and a member of the boys' basketball team as Phoebe was with the girls, though possibly they had just wanted to dance, by the looks of it. There was Leon Morales, accompanied by a fellow senior who did not take art and Maya only knew from having seen her and Leon in the hallways, this year and the last. Here was Khalil Russell, and he also came with a classmate Maya knew by sight alone, though she'd heard Khalil mention now and then how he had been hanging out with a girl from his year whose parents also served, and evidently it had been good for him to find someone here he could talk to, who would understand some of what he'd experienced, being on this side of things.

And there was Derek Boggs, accompanied tonight by none other than the Think Tank's Eric Wilshire.

From what she came to learn upon stopping at the drinks table later on, from Helena, Eric had been at the heart of what had brought her and Derek to be best friends. All three of them being on their respective basketball teams, back in middle school, her and Derek at one school and Eric at another, the boys had played opposite one another many times, and there had been an instant attraction between them, but Derek resisted it, wasn't ready to accept or understand any of it. Helena had caught on to this quick though, and she'd helped him come to terms with it, until he could get to a point where he could assume his bisexuality. He was attracted to girls, yes, but also and maybe a tiny bit more to boys, too. That initial stretch of refusal had put some distance between him and Eric for a long time, but after Helena and Born Curious had come to have their friendly rivalry with the Think Tank, well… a new bridge had started to form between them. This dance was the first time Derek was ever seen by his classmates with another boy, and if any of them had any issues, he sure as hell didn't look like he cared.

Derek and Eric were both at another event not long after this, in the audience gathered to watch Born Curious take on a brand-new opponent for the first time. Maya found she was so thankful for having them there, and the rest of the Think Tank boys as well. It sort of calmed her to see them and remind herself that, while this match would count in moving them forward or not, when it came down to it the status did not make it something so different than what they'd been doing, all this time, against the Think Tank. The girls had more than earned her confidence, and so her nerves didn't afflict her the way they'd done back in November.

"Did it start yet?" a whisper startled her, and Maya turned and smiled upon finding Lucas, sitting one row behind her in the auditorium.

"About to," she told him. "Aren't you supposed to be at work?"

"Maeve owed me one," he explained. "Anyway, had to be here for this one, you know, to make sure you'd keep it together."

"Yeah, we'll see how that goes," Maya breathed, looking around again to the stage, where the teams now sat on either side of the lectern. Just seeing the four of her girls come along, having gone fully into team mode with the addition of matching ties, shirts, skirts, socks, and shoes to go along with their jackets… They could present an impressive front all on their own, but this way? They said 'you might not know us yet, but that won't stop us coming out on top.' The other team had looked just a bit more experienced and sure of themselves at first, but it hadn't stopped a couple of them from looking suddenly uncertain, much as half the Think Tank had once crumbled under Rochelle McNeil's gaze.

Maya and Cory had watched intently, and after a while there was reason for just a bit of breath holding… because their team was coming up ahead, and staying there, and seeing the gap grow and shrink, shrink and grow, but hold, and hold… And by the end, Born Curious were declared the winners, much to their supporting friends and family's cheers. It would be impossible to top this memory, right here, when this year would be over. This would forever be the first thing that came to mind about the 2028-2029 school year, just those four girls on stage, so happy with this victory and most of all with one another's part in it.

The year had been going so fast, and the way it was going Maya knew it wouldn't be long that she'd find herself saying goodbye to her seniors, packing up and heading off with Lucas for the summer and the tour. It was all happening…

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners