December 4th 2022

Chapter 338
Our Family in Detention

They hadn't made it home until Sunday night due to a delay with their return flight. It was late enough that everyone had to be loaded into the minivan sleeping, save for a very cranky and dissatisfied Marianne being coaxed awake long enough to walk there. They'd made it home, gotten everyone into bed, and immediately followed suit as, late return or not, they all had work and school in the morning. For that, they had no chance to maybe check in with the Oswalds upon their return on Sunday or even on Monday morning, as they went through the usual steps there, getting everyone ready and dropped off where they needed to be that day before they ended up at the ranch or the high school.

Maya still had that lengthy and exhausting return in her, for what good that night's sleep had done, so her students had mostly free choice periods all through the day. It was hardly an easy out for her. If anything, it allowed her to watch them and see what they had on their minds today, and that was always something interesting for her to observe.

For all that, she was kind of looking forward to heading home at the end of the day. By the time her mother came along with Mackenzie and Aubrey in the afternoon, she wished she could just leave with them instead of getting back to class. Mackenzie kept poking at the bandage on her forehead, even if she knew it would sting, and if she poked it too hard, she would go and rest her head either in her mother's lap or her grandmother's, and they would remind her to resist, for what good that did. Meanwhile, Aubrey was tempting fate and her own need for bandages as she tried her hand at taking steps. She could stand on her feet now, so they'd do their best to give her opportunities to do it and to do something about this new ability of hers. She was not there just yet though, and she would start to cry after too many failed attempts, which happened today and landed her in her tired mother's arms.

"Listen, I have nowhere to go, if you want to keep one or both of them for the rest of the day, I can stick around or leave them with you…" Katy offered, brushing at Mackenzie's hair after she'd taken refuge with her again.

"Oh, that is tempting…" Maya chuckled, looking to her Lucky Aubrey, who'd gone and stuck her face against her neck. She could feel her breath, and her quiet babbling, and it was peaceful to the point of putting her at risk of dozing off. She did have the juniors next, which would include, among the rest of her golden group, her little sisters, which was already a guarantee for a good time. Adding these two little ones and possibly their mother… She smirked, a thought coming to her. "Actually, I think I might take you up on that. I have a job for you." Katy's intrigued smile made it better. Mackenzie sneezed, which made her reach up to her head and accidentally poke her cut again and start to cry, so her grandmother picked her up. "Yeah, you're not going anywhere," Maya sighed sympathetically, looking at the toddler.

It was the gift that kept on giving, bringing them in. Not only did it give Maya a bit of an energy boost, but they were treated to Katy Hunter, dramatic life model extraordinaire. She posed for the juniors while they sketched, giving them everything she had and making Nellie and Gracie laugh all the while. On top of that, it cheered Mackenzie up again, and it brought Aubrey on to a new field for practicing her steps, guided along by her mother's hands. Wobbly though she went, she managed to take a few aided steps, and if she was happy about it, getting cheered on by the students only made her smile and try some more.

As an end to classes for the day, it was perfect, and Maya thanked her mother. Now, for the last part of her day though, having them there wouldn't help, so they left. They went to pick up the triplets, and Maya waited on the arrival of her two afterschool buddies. It was time for detention with Lamar and Lydia.

This was the first time in three years that Maya would get to be at school through to the end of the year, even if she hadn't been there from the very beginning, and as run-ups to summer went, she wished it could have been different from this.

They had gotten far enough now into this detention routine where the two freshmen were really feeling the weight of having to stick around, every single day after classes were over. It only made it worse to think that they still had weeks and weeks of this ahead of them. They knew why it was happening, and there was no space for them to complain in any way, not with what they'd done. They could have had it so much worse. Of the two, Lamar was definitely the one who struggled with not complaining aloud. Maya would see it in his eyes most days when he showed up, but then he'd try and rein it in when he'd see her. She couldn't say if this had more to do with her being his teacher or his boyfriend's sister. Either way, he would come along and either sit down or set himself to whatever task she might have for him that day.

For Lydia, it felt like she'd just submitted herself to the situation. She would look to her teacher, her cousin's wife, with apologies in her eyes. She had previously expressed how sorry she was, realizing that her having to be there every day meant that Maya had to do it, too, which could be valuable time she might have used elsewhere. Technically she wasn't wrong there, but Maya did her best to maximize what she had to do, always, so her being at school with them would often translate in her getting things done she would otherwise have had to do at home that evening, so it was a good trade-off to then be able to spend that time with her daughters, or her husband, or her sisters instead.

Today, when the freshman pair came along, they both had a sort of bummed out look to them, which got Maya wondering. She'd seen a bit of this earlier, from Lydia, when she'd seen the freshmen, but she hadn't brought it up at the time. She asked them what it was about now.

"My dads and Lara keep talking about next year, and her going to college," Lydia started to explain, and Maya nodded. Of course, she'd heard all about it. Michael and Keith were always so proud of their children's big achievements. "But then that got me thinking about a few years from now, when it'll be my turn, and…"

She drifted off here, gestured around them, and Maya was able to fill in the gaps. She was wondering how the cheating thing was going to reflect on her applications, if schools would immediately discount her the moment that they saw it. Looking at Lamar, she guessed that Lydia had been telling him about it, and now it was worrying him, too.

"Right," she sighed. "Look, there's no way around it. Like it or not, it's going to be on your record wherever you go. But it doesn't have to be the end of the world. The… I don't know if I would call it the good thing, but the thing you have working in your favor right now is that you are still freshmen. That means that you have three years ahead of you to build up a different narrative about yourselves. It won't take away what you did, but it might give people plenty of reasons to either look past what you did or to decide that they want to vouch for you, to help raise you up. Might as well use those years the best way that you can."

It wasn't a fix, but it was something to strive for, and they could work with that. If they needed anyone to be in their corner, they could start right here. And it wasn't just their art teacher who would support them. They had their friends, and in recent weeks Lydia and Lamar had been teaming up with MJ and Ash, the four of them studying together, to help one another where they most needed it. Of all of them, Ash absolutely needed the most help, and they had been saying how everything that had changed lately was so helpful. Their grades had been improving, enough so that their teachers felt fairly confident that they would be good to go into sophomore year in the fall. They just had to keep going, and their friends were helping so much. The group had the quiz team to back them up, too. It wasn't just about their teammate, or one's stepbrother, or one's enbyfriend. Born Curious had long come to stand like a network across the school, seeing to all of their schoolmates when they could, and this was one such occasion. Maya was never so proud of them as when she found them all in her classroom in the morning.

"Are you looking forward to the Olympics next month?" Maya asked Lydia when it was nearly time for them to head out. Going off the look she got in response, she guessed that the answer was complicated.

"I guess, yeah," she replied with a frown. "I remember the last ones, when Lea was there. There were a lot of people cheering. I keep thinking they're not going to do that when they see me. They'll probably boo me away." She carried so much regret in her over the entire incident. Maya couldn't tell her it was unwarranted, but she still couldn't bear to see Lydia beat herself up over the whole thing time and time again or being afraid that her mere presence would ruin things for other people.

"They're not going to do that," Maya tried to tell her. Lydia's face said she didn't believe her and… well, she wasn't promising it, was she? "I'll deal with them if they do, alright? You do this, you show them who you really are." Lydia 'Hypnoteyes' could only try and follow her teacher's advice, so she would.

When they walked out of the classroom, they found someone waiting. MJ looked over and moved to rise from where he'd been sitting on the floor. He tipped his head in greeting to his sister, and his friend, before extending a hand to Lamar. The boy smiled, easily for the first time that Maya had seen all day, and he took the offered hand. He wished his teacher a good evening, and then the trio went off together. Though their relationship had been challenged by the scandal, MJ and Lamar were standing strong. As much as it had brought down the Whitley boy's spirits, she knew that they could have been much lower without his boyfriend's support.

It was just the sort of happy tag to the day that Maya needed. Oh, was she ever looking forward to being home, with Lucas, and their girls, and their wild bunch of pups… Did her exhaustion campaign for quality time with either the bed or the couch more than anything else? Probably. But if there was one thing that she had come to know, it was that there was nothing so invigorating to her as quality time with those she loved the most. They had lifted her up through her afternoon break and her final class of the day, and there would be all of them now, waiting for her at home. She couldn't get there fast enough.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners