Chapter 164
Here You Begin

Against all expectations, the day had come. It really felt that way, didn't it? After all the twists and turns, today was going to be a shift for their family. Elliott was off to preschool once more, only this time with the added bonus of his younger brother along for the ride. Noah looked so happy at the thought of starting, but it didn't take much for them to understand that it had a lot less to do with going there than it did with going there with his big brother. Oh, how he'd hated being left behind last year. Sure, he'd adjusted in time, in great part for how it meant that he'd be home with his mother and his baby brother, but now that he got to follow Elliott, he was all over the place with excitement.

"What's going to happen next year when they're split up again?" Lucas wondered as he worked to dress Jamie. Days shy of a year old, the youngest Friar may have been the only one who got to stay home today, with Pappy Joe and Patty, but his energy was all over the place, like he knew that everyone was excited, and he would follow suit… even if it meant that his father had to struggle to get him to sit still while he was dressed.

"I don't know, ask me in a year," Maya breathed, focused on getting her dress in order now that she'd pulled it on. "Not even going to go anywhere near the idea of Elliott and kindergarten…" Lucas smirked to himself though he understood just what she was saying. They were all growing, those boys of theirs.

"Hey, in like… nine years…" he quietly suggested, coming up behind her with Jamie.

"Could you not… Hey, Tadpole!" Maya turned, ready to rain agony at the thought of their firstborn in her classroom any time soon, only to find her expression flipped the other way when presented with their youngest. Jamie approved this, too, reaching his arms out and kicking his legs about.

"Mama!" he called, halfway through being handed over already.

"Yes, sir," she beamed, kissed his cheek over and over while he locked his arms around her. "I could bring you with me today, couldn't I?" she smiled. "No one would know, you're tiny. And even if they can, just flash them those baby blues, they'll be toast," she whispered, letting out the barest hint of a sad moan. It wasn't as though she hadn't been back to work since he was born, but this was going to be different, this was going to be full time, Monday to Friday… She was going to miss that little face.

They hadn't really figured out how they were going to do this, who would drop off, who would pick up. That didn't matter today; they were both going to drop Elliott and Noah off together. Maya hadn't managed to be there for Elliott's first day, so now she'd get to make up for that even as she went to see Noah on his first.

"Well, you two look… similar…" was Pappy Joe's greeting as he came upon his two elder great grandsons as he and Patty came along to look after the youngest. Elliott and Noah may not have been wearing the exact same outfit, but they had the same color pants, same color shirt, similar patterned shoes, identical bags… The boys gave firm nods, suggesting already that this had been their doing and no one else's. As his grandson came along, he explained that, whatever one had chosen for himself, the other had picked to match at once. They had been so insistent on it that Lucas couldn't do anything but play along. Now, here they were, ready to go.

"Mommy, how come Nana and Grandpa… they're not here?" Elliott asked as their quartet left the house on their way to split off and drive to preschool where they were to reunite. Maya and Lucas both turned to their son, taken by surprise.

"What do you mean, Sprout?" Maya asked.

"First day of school," Elliott simply explained. He pointed at her, and now she understood. It was as much her first day as it was his and Noah's, wasn't it?

"You are absolutely right, bud," Lucas presented a hand for a high five and Elliott responded at once, grinning from ear to ear. "Well, they're not going… but I am," Lucas revealed, turning a look to his wife. This hadn't been planned, but the idea felt right, so it would be done as far as he was concerned… Maya received this with a smile. Yes, she liked that, too.

It was a good thing that Elliott asked his question when he did, allowing for the four of them to get in the same car and take off for the preschool together. This would mean that they'd get to do it all in reverse that afternoon, too, with Lucas picking up Maya and then the two of them collecting the boys, but that sounded like a good thing far more than a complicated one. Maybe it would establish their pattern from here on out. Leave as a family, return as a family.

The whole drive over, Elliott told Noah about what would now be their school, about their teacher, and some of the other kids would be there, Max and Max to begin with. Noah listened to every word, as he usually did when they came from his big brother, and right about now, their parents were more than happy to let it go on. As eager as Noah was to follow his big brother, the more excited he'd be for the actual school and the time he'd spend there, the better.

"Alright, fellas, you're here," Maya smiled as Lucas helped one and the other of their boys out of their seats to join her outside. "Ready?"

"Yeah!" they spoke as one.

"You just look out for each other out there, yeah?" Lucas asked them, and they promised.

"I'm trying to figure out how this would have gone if he'd been on his own today," Maya breathed when she and Lucas had completed their drop off and were now on their way back to the car for their next stop. "I'm sure he would have been… eventually, but he hates to be left behind…" That was it, and they both knew it. They looked at each other again, and they knew what the other was thinking. Next year's problem…

"Alright, now your turn," Lucas clasped her hand. "Let's go, Mrs. Friar."

"You know, this kind of works out for the best," she admitted with a shy smile. He did know, yes. If he could help rid her of a few butterflies in her stomach ahead of her first day as a teacher, he would happily provide.

She'd been coming back here for a while now, between field work and the baking club, but this time was different. This time she was walking in as a teacher, art teacher, and it felt like walking in for the first time in a long, long time, even though she'd been here just days ago.

The last big project they'd had, before the Olsens went home, was the classroom overhaul. It had been left up to that point, and it was really not a minute too soon. There was something like the ghost of teacher's past going on in there, like the spirit of Sue Cartwright continued to exist and needed to be cleansed out. With the help of Lucas, Charlie, and David, Maya had cleared everything out, cleaned everything, and then prepared the space to be her own, hers and her students' place for creation. They had salvaged what materials they could from the existing stock, and there…

When Sue had left, she had taken out some of her feelings on the room and on the supplies. They'd finished the previous school year as best they could, but it had been complicated. After the class clean up was over, the supply cabinets looked severely understocked and in need of replenishing. There was a budget, and Maya had been preparing for this, making lists, looking at prices… She'd have to work with what she could to begin with. They'd gone shopping, finished putting everything where it belonged, and then they'd looked around… One could almost believe this was an entirely different room, like Sue Cartwright had never been there.

"Once your students start making things, you can put it on the walls… It'll be like your old room when you were in middle school," Lucas suggested after they walked in today.

"That could work. I can put each group on… What are you doing?" she stopped, arm still in the air from pointing, after turning to look at him. He'd gone to her board and had picked up a stick of chalk. She could hear the sound of it, but his back obscured whatever he…

"For you," Lucas shrugged as he stepped back. "I didn't get an actual one, but…" An apple. He'd drawn her an apple.

"I am never washing that off," she grinned.

"Going to cordon it off? Protect it from… Mr. Herbert still janitor?" he asked, and it made her smile, a dream in her head…

"He is. We'll do our best, me and him… No idea how long it'll actually hold out, but you never know. Nine years from now, might still be here. Little faded, like dirty…"

"Or you could paint it," Lucas suggested.

"Or I could paint it," Maya nodded. After a beat, she stepped up to join him, touched just beyond where the apple ended on the board. "So very Huckleberry, this," she decided, and he tipped his head. He'd been counting on that.

"Have a good day at school."

It would be a good day, if she had any say in the matter. She had four groups, two to each grade, Her seventh graders would be coming through consecutively, in second and third period, the same with her eighth graders, in the final two periods of the afternoon. She liked this. Both halves of each grade back to back, together and in order. It also meant some leeway with her mornings, arriving, settling in for the day… Today, it also meant that she could go and find her little sister, see how she was faring.

"Maya!" Eliza gasped when she saw her. She'd been struggling in her attempts to open her locker, which made it all too easy for her sister/teacher to find her once she heard her.

"You know, I think this used to be Asher's locker… He used to have issues with it, too, so goes to show how long that's been there," Maya tipped her head. "Used to know the combination…"

"You did?" Eliza blinked.

"I knew all of them, it was good for surprises," Maya brushed this off, trying to recall. "There, and… up…" The door swung open. "Wow, for a second there I started to wonder if I had the right locker. This is much better."

"Thank you!" Eliza breathed before reaching to open her bag and empty some of her things out into her locker.

"So, what do you think, how do we do this? You're not going to be embarrassed if people know you're related to one of your teachers?" Maya quietly asked.

"No, why would I be?"

"I don't know, I just remember it was odd sometimes, for Riley, her dad being her teacher…"

"Yeah, but Mr. Matthews is… Mr. Matthews," Eliza said, with just enough of a smirk in her that it lit up all those features they shared. In that moment more than ever, there could be no doubt that they were sisters.

"Just don't tell him that, he is going to be your teacher in a couple of years."

"Right," Eliza laughed.

"Tell you what, I'm really glad that you're going to be there, in my first ever class. Earlier, Lucas and I were talking about how Noah's really glad to have Elliott with him at preschool, how he might do without him… I don't know how I would have done, without you there."

She'd been thinking about this moment for a long time, a very long time. Her first class, the first time she'd stand in front of a group of kids as their teacher. What did she have to offer them? It was one thing for her to have had this thought, of coming here, of doing this job… for all the reasons she'd had, but they weren't going to see all that? All they'd see would be her, a brand-new teacher… Some of the eighth graders would know her as the baking club woman, nothing more, and the seventh graders, all of them, most of them wouldn't know her except Eliza and the Shelby twins. Ruby and Abby would be part of her second group, but Eliza… Eliza would be right there, her first class of the day, every day, for the first year at least. If she needed anything to ground her, to help her get all this started, she'd take a little sister, front and center… or there to the side, by the window, which was where she chose to take a seat.

You got this. Just tell them who you are. Tell them why you're here.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners