Chapter 130
Holding the Door Open

As deeply as she had come to care for these kids and what would come of them, Maya would say she never realized how much they had enjoyed her presence at their school and how sad they were to see her go, too. But then she'd gone out there, for her final day in their classroom, and there was no mistaking it. Sure, it wasn't all of them. Every class had its percentage of kids who only took art because it felt like an easy grade, but then the rest… Was the collective grievance toward Sue Cartwright so strong that they preferred any alternative, or did they just really like what she'd brought to these periods together?

Whatever it was, she could easily spot the ones who would miss her. They saw her arrive that day and there would be this look in their eyes, like they'd just remembered this was the last day, and now they were bummed out.

The only one who didn't look overly broken up at the thought of Maya's time at the school coming to an end was the art teacher, who appeared to be wising up to the fact that the young woman who'd been aggravating her by disagreeing with her was better liked. It wasn't even a competition. And now that Maya had instilled this spirit in all those students, Sue would have to deal with so much more backtalk and resistance. The rest of the school year would be bad enough without the seventh graders 'keeping up the nonsense' in the coming fall.

Maya had sensed part of this on the surface, but the 'full breakdown' had come courtesy of Mrs. Brown, who'd been all too pleased to share the conversation she'd overheard.

"She threatened to resign if the principal didn't step in. She doesn't feel appreciated," the science teacher gave a broad imitation. Maya bit back a laugh.

"She didn't though, did she? Resign, I mean."

"No, no, she didn't. It's a lot of talk right now, and I'm afraid next year will be difficult on those kids with Sue Storm on the prowl," Mrs. Brown whispered. When Maya showed she understood the reference, the older woman laughed appreciatively. "Don't worry though, it'll be my pleasure and privilege to make sure she doesn't get in over her head… not just yet," she added in a low, conspiratorial tone. Maya gave her a look. What does that mean? Mrs. Brown waved this off. "You just take this summer easy, take care of that little one, don't even worry about any other thing."

"And then…" Maya held her gaze, waiting for her to say what she was up to.

"Who knows, maybe you and I might get to enjoy these lunches again, in a year and some months," Felicia Brown beamed, holding up her can of soda. Maya didn't know whether to be touched, amused, or concerned. The science teacher waved this off. Don't worry. "To the baking club," she toasted, and Maya raised her glass of milk.

"To the baking club."

The day ended, as it had to. Maya's farewells to Sue Cartwright were brief enough as to be non-existent. As she walked out of the building and went down to sit on the steps, she contemplated an evening at home with Lucas, and their sons, and Pappy Joe the budding groom. As much as she loathed having to set this brief time aside into 'the past,' she knew that her little family would help her move forward. The future had so much to offer, didn't it?

"Hi," a voice pulled her away from her knitting and she looked up to find Bodhi Thompson, standing just one step above and to her right.

"Hi!" she smiled at once and indicated the space next to her as an invitation for him to sit, which he did. "Is your grandmother picking you up?"

Of the things she'd learned about Mr. Thompson, she knew he was very close to the woman. She was near to his only ally in his family, and most of his victories both big and small he had earned through her involvement. This included his hair, which had finally been given just the style he'd been dreaming up in his head. When he'd shown up with it on Monday morning, she'd seen him arrive and oh how happy he'd looked. No one could touch him for how tall it made him stand. Maya had just known that it would cause a reaction out of Sue, and oh did she ever pour everything she had to ensure that the teacher would not stomp that feeling out.

"Yeah, she should be here soon. She doesn't drive very fast. My mom says her doctor doesn't believe she should do it much longer, but she says she'll know when it's time to stop, and so long as she still feels okay about driving me around then she can drive. She loves her old car. She's been teaching me how to fix it, says so long as it's taken care of, it'll get you where you need to go. She used to be a mechanic, in the navy."

"She sounds like a great lady," Maya smiled, and Bodhi smiled back.

"I have something for you," he reached into his bag. "I wanted to give it to you before, at the end of class, but I kind of…"

"Wanted to get out of there as soon as possible?" Maya guessed. He gave a small nod. "Yeah, I can imagine that," she sighed. "If you need someone to talk to, you might go see Mrs. Brown. I think she's just looking for a chance to… intervene," she quietly informed him, and Bodhi looked like he knew exactly what she was talking about, much to his amusement.

"I will," he promised. "But I think I'll be okay. I've been hanging out with Phoebe a lot lately, she's been really nice. And we've been doing homework together a lot, studying and all that. She helped me review for a test we had yesterday, and I think I might have passed it this time."

"Bodhi, that's great," Maya breathed with a happy surge.

"I don't know if it'll be enough, I… I haven't been doing well this year, things were just complicated, but… I don't know, maybe I can squeeze by," he shrugged.

"Speaking from experience, sometimes all you need is one thing to come along and motivate you in the right direction, and after that, if you stick to it… a lot of things can change for the better." The boy listened, and he nodded. He believed it, too.

"Oh, I almost forgot again," he reached into his bag, pulled out his history textbook, and opened the cover, and held it out to her. He pointed to the tag, where past owners of the book had written their names. "This was you, wasn't it?" he pointed to the line, several ahead of him, marked Maya Hart. She went by Friar now, of course, but her handwriting hadn't changed so much as to be unrecognizable, and that was how he'd figured it out, as he explained it.

"Ha!" she exclaimed with a laugh. "That was me, yes," she tapped the name. "Book's kind of old by now," she reflected. "I think I heard they were changing them next year… Good thing you had it this year then, huh?"

"Yeah," Bodhi nodded before reaching over to turn the pages until he could find where he'd left a loose sheet of paper. When he found it, Maya discovered it was a drawing of his. "That's what I wanted to give you. I just wanted to say… It was fun when you were here and… I'm going to miss you." Maya breathed as best she could in order to hold her emotions together, but it was easier said than done here.

"You know, if my husband were here, he'd start and tease me about how I can't control my feelings together these days, so let's just keep this between us before he gets here to pick me up?" she smiled before attempting to pick off the tears as they came, especially so they wouldn't fall on Bodhi's work. "Thank you for this," she touched the drawing. "I'm going to miss you, too. But as for you, if you need to reach out, you just talk to Missy Sanderson, alright? She's my neighbor, she knows how to contact me." Bodhi nodded. "Do you have anyone else you can talk to, someone that's trans, too?" she asked as the thought occurred to her.

"Mostly online," Bodhi shrugged. "There aren't any other kids out here who are, at least that I know of, and besides that, it's kind of complicated."

"I might know a guy," Maya smiled. "Friend of a friend, does great cosplays… He's closer to my age, but he would be glad to talk to you, I'm sure. If you need to. He lives in Houston, but he comes out here a lot."

Lucas and Bodhi's grandmother arrived almost one right behind the other, so the waiting pair split off and joined their respective drivers. Maya got a look at the woman, and especially the old car… She could see what Bodhi meant about her taking care of it. That was a beauty of a vehicle.

"Did you cry?" Lucas asked with a smile.

"Why are you being mean to me?" Maya 'complained' as she hugged him.

"We've got honey cake at home," he replied while he hugged her back.

"From Isabel's?" she gasped. "How?"

"Visitors." Maya pulled back to look at him.

"Are they still there?"

"Why do I have a feeling that if I say yes you'll say something along the lines of 'Sir, I am your wife, your for-the-third-time pregnant wife, and I will have this entire cake consumed by only myself and your Huckleberry self, now make them leave my – our cake alone, please?'" Maya listened to this entire litany, nodding and nodding as though ticking the various points off a list as he went.

"About sums it up," she finally replied with an impressed tip of the head. Lucas smirked before leaning to her ear.

"They're gone, the cake is secure."

"Yes," she whispered as he pulled back to look at her. "You know me so well," she stretched up to kiss him.

"Years of admiration," he explained.

"Checks out. Okay, enough of this, if we keep standing here talking about cake where I can't have cake, well, you know…"

"I do, yes," he moved to open the car door for her.

"Also, missing our boys something fierce…" She didn't even need to look at him to know that his face would show he was thinking the same thing.

On the ride home, Lucas caught her up with regards to these cake-bringing visitors. Sophie had been over, with her colleague the part-time contractor. And because she knew that this was Maya's last day at the school, she'd decided to a treat waiting for her friends. As she'd told Pappy Joe – who had been at the house to receive her – they had been so good to her over the past week, and this was really the least she could do. As far as Maya and Lucas were concerned, they really had done the very least, too. Much as the instinct would be for them to be by both Sophie and Chiara's side through all this, it just wasn't possible, not with their lives as they were at the moment. The bare minimum they had at their disposal was about making phone calls, or it took place over text messages. It was just one of those times where that two-hour gap between them felt huge.

"Does that mean… did they bring the plans?" Maya asked, with barely contained giddiness.

"I think so, yes," Lucas smiled. "It's still just to get an idea though. They still need to work on it some more before they can actually start building."

"No, yes, of course," Maya replied, though still wearing that little grin. She'd been so eager to see what the house would look like, as was understandable. Lucas was pretty excited about it, too. And no one was more excited than Pappy Joe, whether he'd show it the same way or not, and of course his future lady wife…

They arrived home to find Pappy Joe – in his infinite good mood of recent days – working away at preparing dinner, all under the supervision of his two great grandsons, one each planted on short step stool on either side of him, holding to the counter with their hands so they could watch him as he worked and listen to what he told them all the while. Neither Maya nor Lucas wanted to disrupt the scene for anything, but they kind of had to. After getting a picture – they had to – they came up behind the boys, who whirled around when they realized someone was there and then reached out for the parent in front of them to pick them up.

"Mind if we borrow your helpers for a bit?" Lucas asked as he hoisted up Elliott. Maya already had Noah in a good embrace, pressing kisses into his golden curls.

"The whole dinner-making enterprise will fall apart, but sure, go ahead," Pappy Joe told his grandson.

"You're really way too jolly right now, it's only March," Maya gave him a look that made him laugh and almost cut himself. "The guy really needs supervision, doesn't he?" Maya whispered to Noah, who giggled as he was carried over and sat in her lap as she sat at the table. "Did you see Auntie Sophie today?" she asked him, and he nodded at once.

"She put… box… in there," Noah informed her, pointing to the refrigerator.

"She did, huh?" Maya cranked up the surprise and wonder, turned it to Lucas, who showed the same toward Elliott. He seemed to have at least a slight idea of what was actually happening, going by how he had his arms crossed over his face. That was his way of expressing 'I know a thing, but they always seem to know when I know a thing, so maybe if I hide my face, they will have no idea.' As far as his parents were concerned, he could keep using that method for as long as he wanted to.

"Wonder what it is," Lucas played along. "What do you think, Sprout?" he asked, poking his elder son's belly, which startled him into pulling his arms down.

"I don't know," he shrugged way too much.

"Well, that's too bad," Lucas squinted at him. That look on his face, that spark of mischief, oh, he looked so like his mother that way.

Dinner was soon ready and consumed and despite earlier claims, the cake was not hidden away for only Maya and Lucas to share. Everyone got to have some, and it was the first time either of the boys tried Isabel's famous honey cake. If there was such a thing as a cake gene, those two definitely had it. They ate up their pieces with overwhelming excitement.

"I need to come up with a recipe of my own," Maya decided, later, after they'd put the boys to bed and returned to the kitchen. Her eyes kept travelling to the refrigerator like she was debating grabbing another piece from the box. She'd been doing better with the morning sickness and the nausea, she could indulge a bit, right? "Something that will be my honey cake, you know?"

"As in 'I picked up Maya's famous so-and-so cake for tonight, special treat,'" Lucas guessed.

"Yeah, exactly," she smiled.

"Well, you're about to have several months on leave, so that's as good a time as any to experiment," Lucas reflected. Maya gave him a look. He had a point.

They wouldn't get to see the house plans, not just yet. Pappy Joe was going up to Houston on Monday – along with Shawn, who would be driving, and the three little boys – to see Patty and look it all over with her. Once they'd done that, then he would show them. All he could say for now was that they planned to start building in a few weeks, in April, and that the outlook was for the house to be completed in October. The wedding and Patty's relocation to Austin were set for June, after she finished teaching her final full semester out in Houston. She'd be staying in 'the main house' with the rest of them until 'the annex' was ready to welcome its residents, which was more than fine by everyone involved. They couldn't wait to count her as part of the family.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners