December 21st 2022

Chapter 355
Our Future to Begin

With this year being the first in three years where Maya had not come to the wrap-up while on maternity leave, it had also been the first time where she and Lucas were able to attend and chaperone at prom. They had looked forward to it, as they had missed this 'working Date night' of theirs, but they had also been highly aware that, in this time where they hadn't gone, a new tradition had taken hold at their house. The girls loved their home prom and there was no way that Lucas and Maya could take it away from them. So, on the eve of the actual senior prom, they'd had their home prom. Everyone had their fancy clothes on, hair done to match, flowers, balloons and other decorations, special snacks…

Everyone had danced the night away, from the parents/chaperones through the Friar girls, all the way down to the littlest ones. At two years old, Mackenzie had already joined her older sisters in the ranks of Donna Devereaux' dance students, though it had been said already that Mack Attack was 'a great big tiny challenge.' She was all over the place, as she would be, but in a very Mackenzie way. Home prom had been no different. Meanwhile, a year below her, Aubrey was now perfectly in line with the use of her feet, and she had used them that night to stand there and observe her sisters and her parents and attempt to imitate them. This had compelled many of them to just turn their attention on her, to do something and see if she would do it, too. She'd try, and all in all she'd do very well. Donna called her a prodigy in waiting… Time would tell.

The next night, Maya and Lucas had donned their formal wear once again and made their way to the high school to look after the soon to be graduates. It had felt as though they'd never left, like they'd been coming here every year without missing a beat. That night, amid all the regular prom staples, one of the big topics had been anticipation for their graduation. And when the day came for that ceremony, the subject had shifted to their big trip that they'd been fundraising for over the last couple of years. They were leaving in just a couple of days and if they'd looked forward to this day back at the prom, they were looking forward to that day even more. As Lucas and Maya would make their way along, talking with one family and another while guiding their daughters forward, they would hear about who was already all packed and who still needed to finish packing, and who hadn't started at all.

True to their daughters, the Friars came upon both the Hillard and Sullivan-Reyes families in the same place, the two graduates standing shoulder to shoulder as their parents took pictures of them in their caps and gowns, standing in front of the school. Maggie and Lara were giving the very best in the way of being as silly as they wanted to be, no matter how much they were asked to give their mother and fathers at least one shot where they weren't sticking out their tongues or making weird faces. The best they could do in that scenario was to get shots of them when they were just laughing. It would be true to their feelings on the day.

The not quite cousins – as they both had the same cousin in Lucas but were from either side of his family tree and thus were not technically cousins to each other – had finished out their senior year in style, especially at the prom. They'd had this whole plan, them and their other two best friends, to get the very best dresses they could save up for and make that night one that they would remember. For Maggie and Lara, that had meant taking on an extra job and any other small but profitable errand they could perform so they might raise their 'prom fund' aside from what they were saving up as much for their trip as for the part that would come after, when they headed off for college. They'd come very close to it in the end, but they'd gotten there just the way they'd wanted it, and the real prize was not even that their respective dates looked like they'd been struck upside the head when they saw them, not so much as the fact that they both thought they looked spectacular and were going to have a great time, which they did.

"Mrs. Friar!"

Maya looked up, noticed for a moment, and smiled when she saw that most of the girls had looked up, too, at the sound of their name, and spotted Jenny Marshall sprinting toward her, heels clicking madly even as she held to the cap on her head so it wouldn't fly away. Her parents were coming along – walking – so they'd catch up in time but, in the meantime, Jenny gave the briefest of gestures to ask if she could hug her now former teacher. Maya smiled and nodded, already reaching out to return the gesture. Jenny squeezed her good with one arm before stepping back. The other arm was holding on to a small bouquet of flowers, paper around them. For a moment, Maya wondered if these had been a gift from Jack, Jenny's boyfriend.

It had not stopped being the sweetest thing, whenever she brought him up, whenever she got to say the word, to call him her boyfriend, like some part of her still couldn't quite believe it. But it was real. They'd been seeing each other since the party he and his sibling had given for the LGBTeam, around the holidays. Maya had gotten to meet him in this time, especially at We Are Sisters performances, and if there had been some doubt or another as to whether this boy was genuine or trapping Jenny before doing her harm, Maya had none of it. To see the way that he looked at Jenny… Some people could have looked at her and been unable to separate Jenny from her having been born a boy. Jack only saw Jenny, only saw the girl he liked. And he'd taken her to prom. They had been on the dance floor, far more than any other couple that night, to the point where it was a wonder that they still had strength in their feet to stand. But they had the best night, so maybe that was all that they needed. They'd had a repeat of it, too, when Jenny had accompanied Jack to his prom.

"These are for you, from me," Jenny extended the flowers to her former art teacher, and Maya blinked in surprise, taking the flowers. "I just wanted to have this little thing that I could give you, to say thank you, for… for seeing me, I guess. For everything you did for me the last couple of years and before that. Plus, I know that this was your tenth year teaching, so…" Jenny finished by gesturing to the flowers with a smile.

"Thank you, Jenny," Maya echoed her gratitude, very close right here to tearing up but managing in the end to just hug the girl one more time. They would not be gone from one another, not with the bands, and her connection to others in Maya's life, but like others before her, it would still do something to no longer have her there in her class every day, and she needed to acknowledge that.

The same went for Nika Petrelis. Maya still remembered the first time she had seen that name on her freshman list, when Ella had seen it and made her mother to understand who this girl was in connection to her. Whatever she might have imagined at the time, it was nothing by comparison to what these four years with her had been. That had become very clear from the night of Halloween, when she'd found out that Tori's young aunt was going to have a baby. Now, out in the world, Anthony Nicholas Miller had his third birthday back in March. Every once in a while, though they themselves were about seven months older than him, Maya and Lucas would see Nika staring at the triplets, and they'd know. She was thinking about her son… Madeline Miller's son now, but her baby boy. She'd look at the triplets and know that he'd be about the same size they were, doing the things that they were doing. Walking, running, talking, laughing… Every once in a while, in her diary, she would draw a small boy, often with a dog her teacher would know as Pepper. There would be no need to draw attention to who the boy was. Maya was one of those few who'd been very close to the situation. She'd know that this was Nika's way of allowing herself to feel whatever she needed to feel, because she'd know that with Maya this process would be safe, and it was.

Of the four friends, after Lara, and Maggie, and Jenny, Nika's prom night had been the most sedate by far. Her aversion to school dances had been unwavering all through the past four years, and senior prom seemed to be her boss fight, like she had this nightmare brewing in her head that something would happen, and she'd get with a guy and have the same thing happen to her again. Her whole demeanor had plainly said that she didn't want to ruin this night for her friends, and she'd come because it had been better than wallowing at home… and possibly they'd talked her into it. And because they were those friends, the other three had made sure to get her out on the dance floor whenever they could, even if it meant that it would be the four of them and the three dates all together. It could all have been better if Nika had allowed herself the chance that it could all go well, but it didn't mean that she'd had a bad night, not at all.

"Hey… Everything alright?" Maya asked, as she ran into Nika in the bathroom, carrying Aubrey in one arm and leading Mackenzie with the other. The two-year-old was giving her best 'I gotta pee' dance.

"Yeah, fine. I can take care of her," she pointed to Aubrey, and Maya didn't argue, passing her the one-year-old and the diaper bag before taking Mackenzie into one of the stalls. It was a close call, but they'd made it. Both girls were seen to. Maya thanked the graduate, but also held her gaze. Was she really 'fine?' Nika bowed her head, still holding Aubrey, who was fascinated by her tassel. "Madeline sent me a picture, for graduation, and to congratulate me for England."

Maya's eyes showed her curiosity, so Nika opened up her graduation program, where she'd slipped the print. Not unlike her drawings, there was the three-year-old, sitting alongside Pepper the dog. Try as she might, she couldn't hide the smile that came to her, seeing little Anthony. The Petrelis blood was strong in him, making him look so much like his mother, his uncle, his cousin…

"That was very nice of her," she commented, and Nika slowly nodded, eyes back on the picture. Always, they knew that she didn't regret her choice, but they also knew that she loved that boy, and some part of her would always wish that she'd gotten to be his mother in more than DNA. At least he was with her, if only in a photo.

And now she was about to move a whole ocean away from him, from her brother, her friends, and everything she knew, to go to art school. That was what she'd wanted, too, and she was very happy. She just needed to get there, needed to get the leaving part over and done with. Until then, it kept her heart drumming with questions, uncertainty…

"Come on, let's not keep them waiting, yeah?" Maya suggested, looking as much to Nika as to her daughters. Mackenzie hurried over to the door and managed to pull it open. "Good job, Macaroni, thank you!"

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners