Chapter 126
Welcome to the Club

Maya was working until two that day, and by some chance it was five minutes from her finishing her shift that she received an unexpected client to end her day at the store on a high note. By the look on her face, it was just as unexpected on the reverse.

"Oh, you work here?" Phoebe Munroe asked, her face almost like that of a kid spotting Santa in a toy store. Maya had known her for about a week now, and she had not seen her once without feeling as though she exuded happiness without ever really needing to try. Right on day one it had given her a Dylan vibe, and she stood by that, especially after having spent a few more days in that class with her.

"I do, hi!" Maya grinned as the girl approached, trailed by a man who had to be her father. This was confirmed in no time.

"Dad, she's the one I was telling you about, in our art class," Phoebe turned to him before looking to Maya again. Mr. Munroe's expression suggested he had indeed been hearing a lot about her over this week. He revealed here that each day his daughter had returned home from school and the first story she'd have to share would be from art class.

It was no wonder that she would have stories, she supposed. She wouldn't say that the other groups, the second of the 7th graders and both of the 8th, were uneventful. But every day when it would be time for that group of 7th graders, it would feel as though they needed to brace themselves, for another crossing of Maya, and Sue Cartwright, and the class which included Missy, Phoebe, and Bodhi. Maya and the art teacher continued to hold their silent face-off with regards to Bodhi and who he was, and she started to wonder now if the students weren't coming into that class just waiting to see how it would turn out that day. She didn't want it to be that way, and she'd worried at first that Bodhi could be made to feel as though he'd been indirectly thrust in the spotlight, but then… she was almost sure that he was okay with all of it.

She had seen him do the work in class all week, as it was assigned for all the kids to do, and she could see exactly what his classmates had been saying, how he was really good. Unfortunately, she could also sort of see what Mrs. Cartwright was saying, as far as him not applying himself, at least not nearly as much as she felt he had it in him to do. After a few days, it had become her personal belief that the thing that held him back was his teacher, that for however much he loved drawing, the moment he walked into that room that should have been like a haven to him, his heart stopped being in control, and instead his brain had the wheel, and it was swarmed with thoughts of the teacher who antagonized him. As soon as she'd seen that, she'd tried to direct herself to clearing away some of that clutter for him, to see what would happen. And already those small nudges had produced results. He'd done something he was really proud of, she could tell, and oh she did not leave Sue alone for a second as she went and observed it. She was not going to take that away from him. And she didn't. A bit grudgingly, but it was something, and Bodhi left class that day with a smile.

"Are you looking for something?" Maya asked Phoebe and her father.

"Well, I wanted to try and draw some more, not just in class, you know? So I thought I could get a sketchbook, and some pencils…" Phoebe explained even as she looked around the store. Maya was very familiar with that look, sort of thrived on it. So many people would come in here, herself included, and they would see all the different materials available, and then it would be like their brains expanded, filled with new ideas and possibilities. For someone like Phoebe, it looked downright overwhelming.

"Alright, I got you, follow me," Maya smirked before guiding the duo down into the right section. If she didn't have someone there to tell her exactly what she'd need and why, she'd be bound to come out of there with way more than she'd planned to get.

She ended up going a good twenty minutes over her time to clock out, discussing pencils and how one size and type could produce one effect over another while Phoebe listened to every word. The way she would respond now and again, Maya would be pleased to see that she was understanding and taking it all in. Her father looked so amused the whole time, never intervening, just letting her carry the show. By the time she left – with a reasonable starter, Phoebe practically had stars in her eyes. She vowed that she'd have something to show by Monday's class.

"I wish you were our teacher for real," she added in parting, and it left Maya with a warm little feeling she would hold on to for the rest of the day.

"Oh, hello, sir, can I help you find a paintbrush?" she walked up to Lucas when she found him coming into the store. She must have looked so happy and at ease that any concerns would be brushed away at once if he had them. As it was, she realized that he'd also finished at the bookstore and as he hadn't seen or heard from her when she was also supposed to have finished…

"What's got you in a good mood like that?" he smiled.

"Besides you?" she hummed. She told him about Phoebe having been here, and why she'd been so delayed. While he was here, Lucas took the time to go and – discreetly – congratulate Judd on the baby, which reminded Maya that she'd wanted to go and do the same with Tilly, but it would have to be tomorrow. Right now, they needed to get home before the junior bakers started to arrive.

"You know, if this keeps up, we're going to need a bigger kitchen," Lucas teased as they arrived home and he set about helping her get out all the things she'd need. Was he being especially helpful ever since they'd found out about this new baby? Considering how helpful he was when she wasn't pregnant with his children, it was sort of difficult to tell the difference. Either way, she wasn't about to go and stop him.

"Why? Because I invited Stella to join us?" Maya asked.

"First it was one of your sisters, then two, and then Ariel came along, and she brought Daphne, and now…" he gestured. He was only messing with her, she could tell, and he would happily welcome any number of additional bakers to the 'squad,' but he also had a point, didn't he? Wasn't she thinking at the back of her mind that the twins might like to join in, too, or that Stevie Brett could join her sister, too, or any of the boys, for that matter? Wasn't she thinking of asking Missy if she wanted in? Hadn't she looked at Phoebe today and thought 'I bet she likes cakes, but would she burn down the kitchen by accident?'

"This is partially your fault, you know," she squinted. Lucas laughed.

"Oh, is it?"

"Yes, yes, it is. You'll notice I said partially. We are both to blame, all these babies over the last few years, maybe I'm just feeling… an excess of maternity," she intoned, which only made him laugh harder.

"Well, call it what you like. I see the girls when they're here helping you, and if you can make that happen for others, then I don't see why not. You know, when you do start teaching, you might consider asking the school if you can do a sort of… baking club or something," Lucas suggested off-handedly. He had to hear himself say the words to know they hadn't merely flown away after being spoken, no. They'd just been sucked right into his wife's brain, and there they took root. It was right there in her eyes.

It would have to stay this way for now, as the girls were soon arriving. Most of them arrived in one go, as Daphne had spent the night at Ariel's house and Abigail had picked them both up on the way to drop off Cara and Eliza.

"You know, I kind of figured Stella would be here first," Maya whispered to Lucas as the girls took a detour to say hello to the boys and the various pets roaming about.

"Why?" Lucas wondered.

"Well, at the store, she's usually there before it even opens, so I thought she'd try and do the same thing, so she'd have a bit of time before anyone else came," Maya explained. "Now I'm just wondering if maybe she got spooked and she won't come."

Ten minutes later, Maya's phone rang and put her in touch with a semi distraught Stella. She'd missed her bus stop… actually, she'd missed several of them. Now she was in a part of town that she didn't know, and the bus going the other way wouldn't pass for another half hour.

"I'll go get her," Lucas offered, keys already in hand. Like it or not, the other girls wouldn't get to stay forever, and they needed to get started on the cake. So, Maya told Stella to go into the nearby coffee shop she'd indicated as a reference point until Lucas arrived for her.

Later, he would tell Maya how, when he walked into the coffee shop and looked around, he didn't spot her at first, not until he looked back around. She was sitting at a table in the corner, so deeply hunched over a sketchbook that he had missed her the first time around. He hadn't interacted with her much in the time since she'd come into Maya's life, but he knew enough to think better of just calling out to her from across the room, so he approached the table and spoke her name. When this still didn't raise her, he tapped the table and she sat up.

"I think I understand how you missed that stop," he smiled.

"There were a few… kind of a lot," she admitted as she gathered her things and stood to follow. She was so quiet that he looked back a couple times, thinking she might have wandered off. The impression he got was that, if not for the fact that he was Maya's husband and this earned him some level of trust, she would have struggled to speak just those few words. Strangers came with a process, but he had been allowed to skip a few steps ahead.

"You're not allergic to cats, are you?" Lucas asked her after they'd been in the car for almost five minutes, enjoying little more than the tune of the car rolling along.

"No," Stella replied.

"Dogs?"

"Nothing," she promised.

"Good, good. You haven't met the boys yet, have you?"

"I haven't," Stella replied. "I've seen pictures, videos…"

"Got a lot of those," Lucas slowly nodded. It made her smile. "Well, they'll all be there. The cats, the dogs, the boys… and my grandfather. Pappy Joe. He enjoys meeting new people, so he might talk to you a lot when we get there, hope that's okay."

"Why wouldn't it be?" Stella asked. He wasn't sure how to answer that, now that she asked it. He'd just sort of assumed, hadn't he? Everything he'd heard from Maya… He didn't want Stella to take it the wrong way. The silence had suggested enough. "It's not that I don't like talking to people, just… sometimes, it's hard… Actually, a lot of the time," she admitted.

"That's alright," Lucas assured her, understanding. "I'm sure there's people out there who don't get that. And they make fun of you sometimes?" She gave a very small nod. "Well, you won't get any of that at our house. I promise."

"I know," Stella smiled.

Driving up the road to the house, Lucas could tell his passenger liked what she saw. The landscape ahead of them… Maya had once called it artist bait. Who wouldn't want to paint that? He might mention this to Maya, if she wanted to use this for one of their future lessons. For now, they continued on toward the house, where they came to find many of the house's residents out on the lawn. Pappy Joe was looking on as Elliott and Noah ran around with Trix and Lou.

"What, no cats?" Lucas called to Pappy Joe as they got out of the car.

"Oh, those two are not outdoorsy types and you know it," Pappy Joe chuckled. "Well, now, you must be Stella," he tipped his head to the girl as she approached. She nodded.

"Hi, Mr… uh…" she hesitated, turning to Lucas for a name.

"You go ahead and call me Pappy Joe if you'd like, or just Joe if you don't. No misters necessary around here," he insisted with a chuckle. Whether by the Maya connection, or Lucas' words in the car, or his own temperament, he earned his way on to Stella's acquaintances.

The others out on the lawn came even easier. Trix and Lou saw the girl and came sniffing at once. Stella crouched and submitted her hands for sniffing, turned them to give scratches when they looked to have been accepted. They could have left her here like this for hours and she would have been good, all the while, there in her little bubble. The curiosity was right there for Elliott and Noah, so they came up to meet the stranger, too, and Stella went from crouching to kneeling, and she spoke soft words to the toddlers as though she'd known them all her life. By the time she remembered about the cake and moved to head into the house, the boys were less interested in playing and more so in following their new friend. The dogs seemed to be of a similar mind, which made Pappy Joe laugh.

"Found your missing baker," Lucas called to Maya as they walked through the door. There was a shuffling of chairs, feet, and voices, as Maya came from the kitchen, the other girls on her heel.

They had all been anxious to meet Stella… or see her again in Ariel and Daphne's case. They remembered when they'd met her at the pizza place the one time, and Maya had told them a bit more now, how Stella was home schooled and how she was going out there to be her art teacher. She'd also told them about how she'd drawn a design for the cake, and they were all eager to see it. They'd started mixing up the batter and the cakes were now baking, the better for them to be able to get things moving. Really, it was an ideal time to take a break and make introductions.

Maya did her best not to look like she was checking to make sure Stella would be alright. She was, and she would be. By the way they trailed behind her, she could guess that she'd had a very good meeting with Elliott, Noah, Trix, and Lou, which left her in good spirits. Knowing him, she couldn't think Lucas had sat with her in a car for what time it took to get here without trying in some way to put her further at ease. Between this and the 'welcome wagon of cuteness,' they were as close to Stella at her most open as they were going to get.

"Maya said you drew the cake," Eliza asked. Stella reached into the bag hanging from her shoulder and pulled out her sketchbook. After she'd found the page, she turned it around to show them. The girls were impressed, intrigued. They wanted to get started.

"Alright, well, first batch of cakes should be done soon, let's get in there, yeah?" Maya addressed her young bakers, five of them now. Cara looked to Stella with a smile so like her sister's. That was her, too. All of them together they were going to do that design justice, and it would be excellent.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners