Chapter 111
School Days

As November advanced, Maya and Lucas experienced for the first time what it felt like to wait on a plus sign. It was the first baby they were actively attempting to conceive after their two very lovely but unashamedly accidental baby boys. And for the first time this meant waiting and wondering if they'd succeeded yet. They weren't going to do that thing where they jumped and got a bunch of tests just on the chance that maybe it had happened already. It hadn't been that long yet and past experiences told them that the signs would be right there for them to catch on to if they only let them come. Until then… Well, until that very important day came, all they could do was continue to do what they'd been doing. Maya was doing everything she could to put chance on their side, and Lucas was doing everything he could to help her achieve it. They hadn't gone and bought any tests yet, and they'd give it a few more weeks, but oh the temptation was there, the need to know. She'd never taken one of those and had it come up negative, and she knew it was likely to happen before they got their positive so she did her best to prepare herself for that possibility even if she knew the feeling would be a strange one for her.

In the meantime, at least there were plenty of things to keep both the prospective parents busy, not the least of which being the two children they already had. Halloween being over meant that the decorations went away, and neither Elliott nor Noah looked extremely happy about that fact. As happy as their parents were to find that they shared in their love for the spooky season, there was nothing to be done for it. There was a brief consideration of carrying on their holiday train and splashing on some Thanksgiving décor, but then that would mean following straight into Christmas, and there was some concern of the precedent they'd be setting, until the next thing they knew they were rotating through one holiday after another, and their house never existed without an assortment of garlands and string lights and amusing figures posted in and outside their home. They would lose the feeling that came and made each one special. So, the decorations went away, and though the boys resisted this for a time, it only lasted a couple of days and then they moved on.

After the boys – and the attempt to get them a baby brother or sister – the biggest thing they had to deal with had to be school. They had work, too, but at this point it was the simplest and most straightforward part of their lives. In Maya's case, school meant a number of things at the moment. There were her classes, and those had been going very well. She'd wondered for so long if the time she'd spent out of university after Elliott and Noah came along would mean that she'd lost what edge she'd gained, but those worries were long gone now. She was right where she wanted to be. That included looking forward to doing field work, to being in an actual classroom, with kids. She'd be doing that early on in the winter semester, her last one before she graduated, and it was kind of hard to believe that she was already there. She didn't know where she'd be going yet, but she couldn't help thinking how she'd love to go to her old middle school, especially knowing some of the students out there already.

One student who wouldn't be there would be Stella Buckley, and this fell under the umbrella of 'school' for Maya, too, even if in this case she wasn't the student… wasn't even technically the teacher either. It certainly didn't feel like that was the relationship they had, as their sessions carried on. Without a doubt, the girl looked up to her, but beyond her doing what assignments Maya left her, what the two of them really came off like was friends, something near sisterly. The more time they spent together, it really seemed like she was getting to see the Stella who existed when she was in her own world, at home. When she was out beyond that house, it would feel as though her heart was constantly drumming harder, too aware of the things that made her uncomfortable and anxious. It wasn't that she never went out or that she was scared when she was, but her head was just so much quieter when she was at home, and without the clutter of that extra noise she was able to think, and to breathe.

Today, Maya hoped, she would get that feeling, too, even as they went somewhere else. Today would be their very first field trip. Maya would take her young friend to the museum, and the reaction she'd had as soon as she'd been told was enough to suggest she'd be just fine.

"Hey, are you ready to go?" Maya asked as she poked her head through Stella's bedroom doorway. There was no sight of the girl, but there were sounds, coming from the closet studio. "Stella?"

"In here!" she called back, her voice sounding almost echoed, which made more sense once Maya walked over and found the back half of her sticking out of an open cabinet at floor level.

"Looking for something?" Maya guessed.

"Yeah…" Stella sighed, emerging as she sat back on her legs and pulled her long hair into a less disheveled order.

"Guessing you didn't find…" Maya started to ask, before her young friend gasped with sudden inspiration and scooted around to the cabinets on the other side. She pulled the door open in a great flourish and dove in again. After more rummaging sounds – and a small yelp when she bumped her head – she let out another noise that sounded like 'eureka!' before sitting back up once more. "You okay?" Maya laughed sympathetically.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Stella rubbed at the spot on her head where she'd hit the inside of the cabinet.

"What were you looking for?" Maya came up and knelt next to her. There was a box between them and when Stella opened it Maya discovered it was full of thin books… Notebooks, possibly sketchbooks. "Wow, so you have a lot of these," Maya chuckled.

"I've got more," Stella confessed. "Whenever we'd go to museums, here, and in California, and wherever we were when my mom was on a project somewhere, I would get a new one. Some of them are filled now, but just some. I really need to organize them better, I never remember where they are when I decide which one I want to use next."

Her hands perused the spines, and Maya could see she'd gone to the trouble of really scrubbing out any paint splatter from her fingers before they could go to the museum today. She pulled one out, looked at the cover like she could remember exactly where and when she'd gotten it and it made her happy. The box was returned to the cabinet and Stella moved out of the walk-in and over to a cloth bag sitting on her bed. She slipped the book inside, then joined to it a thin metal box. It gave the telltale noise of pencils rattling as it went into the bag. She slipped the handles at her shoulder and turned to Maya. She was ready to go.

"Museum-going bag," Maya guessed as she pointed to it. The design indicated that it had been purchased at a museum in Quebec City. She had a feeling, without ever being told, that this was her habitual museum kit, and the smile she got now confirmed it.

So, off they went. It was the first time Maya rode with Stella anywhere, and she couldn't help having some maternal concern take hold just for a moment, but it soon passed. She had considered bringing the boys along, but it would have been the first time they went in a while, and the last time Noah wasn't walking yet. This was not the time to discover how he would handle being out there when he also had the means to escape. Besides, it would be better for Stella's sake if they could just have this day's outing to themselves. On the ride to the museum, Stella told her about the time she had gotten the bag. She'd been eight years old, and after travelling across several locations in a row for the past year, her parents had taken her and her sisters out on this vacation which had nothing to do with her mother's work and everything to do with them as a family. It had been some of the best days of her young life.

At the museum, she was exactly as Maya imagined she would be. She was quietly fascinated, entirely respectful of where they were and what was exhibited in this building. Every so often, she would stop and write in her notebook, sometimes adding a small sketch. A few times she stopped longer, sat if there was a seat available, and she made a vague sketch that filled a whole page. It looked to Maya like she was putting down the broad strokes, the better to go in with more detail later on, instead of staying stuck there for too long.

"You can take your time," Maya assured her with a smile.

"It's okay," Stella shook her head. "I want to see what else there is," she explained. It was a reasonable response, so they carried on.

"If you want to take longer though, you can, okay?"

"Okay," she kept on sketching.

When they reached the end of their tour, it was almost dinner time. When they'd set up the field trip, Maya had predicted they would need this long, and Stella's parents had confirmed it from experience. So, they had agreed for Maya to take Stella to dinner before she brought her home again. Before they could leave the museum, Stella asked if she could go to the gift shop. She would have said yes either way but knowing the story about her tradition with the notebooks she also knew what she was after in particular. Off she went, and Maya followed, catching up to her already inspecting the various options. She would scrutinize them, not just the covers but the pages inside, the binding, everything, to ensure that the quality was good. Finally, she found one she was satisfied with. She grabbed two copies and made her way to the register. After she paid, she slipped one of the books into her bag and carried the second over to Maya with a smile.

"For me?" Maya beamed back as Stella nodded. "Great choice, thank you," Maya told her. She knew better than to say she didn't have to or that she would pay for it. Stella wanted to give her this gift and refusing it would have been wrong in so many ways. "I can use it for our classes," she suggested aloud, and Stella approved. "Hungry?" Maya asked and got a great nod. "Okay, let's go," she laughed and led her out to the parking lot.

After debating on their options and leaving the choice up to Stella, they ended up going to the pizza place near the mall. It was Stella's favorite, and Maya had to concur that it was about as good as it got for pizza in the area. To look at her as they walked in and sat at a booth, Maya had to wonder if Stella had ever actually eaten at the restaurant itself or only had it delivered to her house.

"Okay, so, toppings. What do you think? Are you pro or anti anchovies? Pineapple? Any other controversial options?" Maya asked. Stella laughed.

"Anything works. Just not all at once."

"Yeah, no, that'd just be a nightmare," Maya made a face. "Not a picky eater then, huh?" Stella shook her head. "There's nothing you don't like?"

"No," Stella promised. "My mom says she was so ready to have to talk me into broccoli, or Brussels sprouts, or fish, anything. But I just ate it all up and asked for more. For a while, my whole family would try and test me. Stinky cheeses, weird fruits, they couldn't finish theirs so I'd have mine and theirs, too."

"I'm going to have to talk to your parents about how they pulled that off," Maya gave an impressed laugh as she considered her kids. Noah was showing his inner New York Maya whenever they put peas in front of him, and there were some foods they just didn't bother buying anymore, hoping maybe to launch a revival after they'd been forgotten a while. They made up their minds on their pizza – nothing too outlandish but nothing overly common either – and put in the order. "So, want to talk about the museum?" Maya asked, nodding to the bag next to Stella.

"Okay," she nodded before pulling out her notebook and placing it on the table in between them.

Maya had never known Stella to be shy about showing her work, though she guessed it all depended on the perspective, on the context. If some random person found her drawing and tried to see what she was doing, she might try and keep it hidden to herself, might feel too self-conscious about it. But Maya wasn't a stranger to her, and they had known each other to some degree before she'd seen any of what the girl had done. She had no way of knowing whether that would have been the case if she'd had an opportunity to see her art from day one.

There was also the fact that she was for all intents and purposes her teacher in this moment. Stella had been taught by tutors all her life, so she navigated easily the line between focused, material-oriented time and more casual, informal time. Right here, they may have been in a restaurant, about to have dinner, but they were also just coming from the museum, and she was expected to show what she'd taken away from the visit. So she opened her notebook and turned it sideways to show Maya what she'd done. She would explain what she'd written and why, along with the small sketches to accompany, and the larger ones, too. She intended to have those completed by the time they'd see each other again the next time.

Their timing could not have been more perfect. They were just finishing up when the pizza arrived. Stella quickly put away her book for protection, tucking the bag behind herself in case any sauce or bit of pizza flew off and landed there. This discovery of Stella's 'all foods welcome' mentality was right up there with the gifted notebook as one of Maya's favorite things about the day. When the pizza was put between them, the girl's eyes went just a bit round, like she couldn't wait to dig in, so she did, pulling one slice over to her plate. She looked up before doing anything more, like she wanted to make sure how she was to proceed with Maya as her dinner buddy.

"If your parents were here, how would you do it?" Maya asked. Stella considered this for a second before picking up the slice with her hands and taking a big bite. "There it is," Maya laughed before doing the same. They were still working through those first slices when they heard someone call her name and looked over at once. Even as they did this, the caller was making a beeline toward their booth, with best friend in tow. Maya smiled at once when she saw Ariel Su and Daphne Brett approach.

"We weren't sure it was you, hi!" Ariel greeted her, Daphne chiming in with a wave.

"Hey, are you here with your parents?" Maya asked them, scanning the dining room for familiar faces. She could have found Mr. and Mrs. Su, Mr. Brett and Stevie… maybe even her stepmother and half-siblings, now that Abigail and Stephen Brett were officially dating.

"No, just us," Ariel replied.

"I'm staying at her house tonight, we're picking up a pizza," Daphne indicated the counter with the bill in her hand before double-checking the number they had and the one on display on the small screen over the counter.

The girls turned from their friend and baking leader to the girl sitting across from her. She'd be a year below them, wouldn't she? If she went to school like them. They could have known her, but they didn't. She didn't go to their school, and they knew all of Maya's sisters. This wasn't one of them. Cousin maybe? The curiosity was there in their eyes, paired to a friendly smile. Stella, meanwhile, looked like she'd retreated into her shell all over again. She wasn't shut down, didn't ignore them, but Maya could see she was unsure how to handle herself all of a sudden when confronted with these girls not much older than her. She had her slice in her hands, but she might not have known what she was supposed to do with it anymore.

"Sounds like a great plan," Maya told the duo before nodding across the table. "This is my friend, Stella Buckley," she spoke, gaining an upturn of Stella's eyes toward her. "Fellow artist, daring diner," she smirked. It seemed to give the girl just enough of a boost to turn her head and nod hello. The other two smiled and returned the gesture. "Ariel Su, Daphne Brett," Maya provided the names. "Friends as well, devourers of books and bakers of cake."

"I can do it the other way around, too," Daphne raised her hand, making her best friend laugh. "Oh, forty-six, that's us!" Daphne hurried off to the counter with her bill in the air.

"I gotta…" Ariel pointed after her with a step back. "See you around," she nodded to Maya and smiled. "Bye, Stella, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you," Stella replied quietly as Ariel went to rejoin Daphne and the two of them left the restaurant.

Now that it was just the two of them again, Stella looked back to her pizza for a moment, remembered she was hungry, and took a bite. Maya did the same, let a few more bites go before she spoke again. The encounter had sort of derailed things a bit, but at the same time it had opened up a few doors, too, hadn't it? A little?

Maya told Stella a bit about Ariel and Daphne, what parts she could. Saying that she and Ariel had met in their therapist's office felt like a conversation she couldn't have now that Ariel was gone, so she stayed vague on that end. But she mentioned how the two of them helped her with her cakes, which Stella knew about, and how Daphne's father was now dating her stepmother. This had required a brief detour into the fact that her parents had split up when she was small, and her father had remarried and was now deceased. Stella's face had instantly become awash with sympathy.

"You know, palate like yours, I might need to consult you at some point. Think of the cakes we could conjure up," Maya suggested with a flash of wide eyes. Stella smiled, showing interest.

"I can think of a few things," she nodded.

"The weirder, the better," Maya stated at once. "So long as it's not inedible, of course." Stella had to laugh, though she promised it'd all be fine. After they'd finished one slice and picked out another, Maya allowed herself to ask the question she'd had on her mind for a while. "Do you ever think about going to school? Not at home with a tutor but in a class, with a teacher, other students?" It was not asked in any tone meant to make her feel bad, make her feel like she should go to a school or that she'd be weird if she didn't. Stella received the question that way, and she gave it some genuine thought.

"My dad says I should, that it'll be good for me. I get it, I just… I'm good the way I am, I don't see why I should change it now." She took a bite, chewed a while, spoke again once she'd swallowed it down. "My mom says maybe I can think about doing it after middle school, in ninth grade? That way, if I make up my mind now, I'll have time to prepare, and I won't just go and have to start over again in another year."

"Not a bad idea," Maya slowly nodded. "What do you think about it?" Stella considered her response over more pizza. She finished her second slice before responding.

"I think… I've got time to think about it, so I will. I don't have to decide now. I'm thinking about it, and that's something. Right now, I'm good with what I have." That included Maya's art sessions, and in what words she did and didn't speak, Stella made it clear just how happy she was to have her there with her. Maya would stay with her as long as she was needed, that much she could promise.

"So, let's talk weird cakes."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners