14-year-old Maya-Hummel Anderson hurriedly sat down at her desk in German class and took out her binder, pencils, planner and English-German dictionary (not required but she saw it at the used bookstore and it was calling her name.)
Maya was a freshman at an all-girls private school in New York. It ran grades K-12 and from 5th-8th grade, the girls were required to take Latin classes. Once they reached the upper school, they could choose from Spanish, French, German or Italian.
One of Maya's dads, Kurt Hummel, was German, so of course she had to sign up for German. Her other dad, Blaine Anderson, had jokingly pouted about there not being Norwegian classes available. He was thrilled however when Maya heard about Norwegian classes being offered at the community center and asked him to take them with her.
Maya was also glad to take German and feel more connected to "Dad K" because they technically weren't biologically related - her dads' friend Rachel had been artificially inseminated with Dad B's sperm, and recently Dad K had expressed some insecurity about that. Maya had reassured him that she loved him just as much as Dad B and she loved the Hummel side of the family just as much as the Anderson side.
Maya's biological mother Rachel also had two dads and had been conceived with the egg donation and surrogacy of Maya's "Grandma Shelby," who Rachel had met with the help of her now husband Jesse St. James back in high school. Rachel and Jesse had two daughters - 13-year-old Olive, born just 11 months after Maya, and Clementine, who was three months old.
Maya and Olive had spent a good portion of their childhood fighting, but shortly before Maya (and then eventually Olive) learned that they were half-sisters, they'd bonded when Maya spent some time with the St. James family. Now, they not only proudly called themselves sisters, but also friends.
Speaking of Olive, she was in her last year of Latin classes and jealous that Maya no longer had to take Latin. Olive was eagerly awaiting next year when she could take French class. She was constantly greeting Maya with "bonjour!" And as cute as Olive thought she was, Maya was over it along time ago.
She loved Olive, but Olive was still her little sister after all.
Maya chuckled. Oh Olive.
Maya looked around to see if her friend Cassie had arrived yet - they always loved to talk before Frau Schneider started class. But today, Cassie arrived at the last minute so they didn't have time.
"Guten Morgen, everybody!" Frau Schneider greeted the students.
"Guten Morgen!" The girls greeted back.
"Today, I have your first big assignment of the year! As you know, we've been learning the German words for family members and so I want you to make a family tree - you can design it however you want - you just need to name the family member and provide the German word for their relationship to you. Three generations are preferred but if it just contains two - that is fine.
This caught Maya's attention. Her family dynamic wasn't exactly what you usually saw in a family tree.
During her second year of Latin class, Maya had also had to make a family tree. Her teacher, Mrs. Land was very flexible about the design of Maya's tree and Maya was able to include both of her dads, Rachel, Olive, and Jesse, as well as all of her grandparents. It had been a lot of work, but Maya would never forget the look on her dads' faces or Rachel's when they saw everybody's names had been there.
She was going to have to ask Frau Schneider about it, because she wanted to have everybody on this family tree as well.
After the day's lesson, Frau Schneider gave the girls the chance to start working on their family trees. Now was Maya's chance to talk to her.
Maya approached Frau's desk.
Frau Schneider looked up at Maya and smiled.
"Yes, Maya?" She asked.
"I have a question about the assignment. I…I have two dads and I know who my biological mother is - and I want to include all three of them, as well as my half-sisters, their dad, and all my grandparents - including my biological mother's dads and bio mom. Is that okay?" Maya asked.
Frau Schneider's facial expression changed.
"Do you know which of your dads is your biological father?" She asked.
Maya froze. Why did that matter?
"Well, yes," Maya said.
"What you are suggesting sounds very…ambitious but also complicated. To keep it simple, let's stick to biological family members," Frau Schneider smiled.
Maya did not.
"I don't care about simplicity," Maya tried not to raise her voice but it was hard. "This is my family we're talking about! And even if I went by that rule, I could include my half-sisters, but not their dad which sounds like it could make it even more complicated. Not to mention, this also isn't fair to kids who were adopted or have a stepparent who is the only mother or father figure they've ever known. This is discrimination - plain and simple."
Frau Schneider frowned. She removed a pad of paper from her desk drawer, wrote something on it, and handed it to Maya.
"Maya Hummel-Anderson - go to the office," Frau Schneider said.
Maya didn't even protest. She knew she didn't deserve to be punished, but she needed to get out of there.
When Maya arrived at the office, she handed the secretary the note and she skimmed it and headed for the upper school headmistress' office.
Soon, Maya was called into Dr. Daniels' office. The middle-aged woman had always seemed friendly enough, but Maya had never gotten in trouble before.
And every time Maya had tried to explain, Dr. Daniels stressed the importance of not being disrespectful and following directions.
But Maya didn't relent. So finally, Dr. Daniels said she was going to call Maya's father.
At this point, Maya was on the verge of tears, but all she said was.
"Do it."
Dr. Daniels seemed shocked, but Maya knew whichever dad she called, he'd be on her side.
"Which one should I call?" Dr. Daniels asked, looking over the guardian contact form. Maya almost rolled her eyes. She was supposed to be in charge around here.
"Who's on there first?" Maya asked.
"Umm…" Dr. Daniels looked over the top of her glasses. "Blaine Anderson."
"Call him," Maya said. It truly didn't matter - it wouldn't be hard for either of them to get there. She just wanted this over with.
Dr. Daniels dialed the number.
"Yes? Mr. Anderson? This is your daughter's school principal, Elaine Daniels. I'm sorry but I have Maya in my office - she's having trouble respecting school staff and following directions. Are you able to come down and meet with us? Great, thank you."
Blaine arrived about ten minutes later. He already knew something was up because Maya had never been called into the principal's office before.
And it wasn't like he didn't think Maya could do no wrong. As Maya, Kurt, and even Blaine himself would admit, he was the more firm of the two of them. When Maya was a toddler, Kurt had had a harder time putting her in timeout. When she got a little older - Blaine was the one who enacted limitations on technology and was more than willing to take it away or even ground Maya when necessary.
He didn't have to do this often - he could count the number of times it had happened on one hand. Maya was a good kid - Kurt was just a little more of a pushover - but he had gotten better.
But Blaine also knew that kids could act differently at school than they did at home. Every parent-teacher conference he and Kurt had had with Maya's teachers consisted of teachers talking about what a good student she was and how well behaved she was.
Something didn't add up here. And the tears on Maya's face were not her "I did something wrong and don't want to face consequences for it" tears (he knew those tears). They were her "I'm frustrated" tears.
Blaine sat down next to Maya and reached for her hand.
"Hello, Dr. Daniels. You said something about Maya being disrespectful?" Blaine asked.
"Yes. According to this note from Mrs. Schneider, the German teacher, Maya was disrespectful in class and wouldn't follow directions. And I've been trying to talk to her about it but she keeps interrupting me," Dr. Daniels said.
"I see," Blaine furrowed his brow. "Did Mrs. Schneider provide any details?"
Dr. Daniels shifted in her seat.
"No."
"Okay. Did you ask Maya what happened?"
Dr. Daniels said nothing.
Blaine turned to Maya.
"Maya, what happened, honey?"
Maya took a shaky breath.
"Mrs. Schneider told us about our upcoming assignment to make a family tree. I told her about how I wanted to include both you and Dad K and Rachel and Olive and Clementine and Jesse and all the grandparents. But she said it sounded too complicated so I should just stick to biological family members. And I said that I didn't want to because this is my family and it's not fair to kids who are adopted or have stepparents, either," Maya said.
"I see," Blaine turned to Dr. Daniels and didn't say anything. He didn't have to - her face was redder than the middle stripe on the German flag.
Finally, she spoke.
"Mr. Anderson, I am so sorry to trouble you this afternoon. And Maya, I am sorry I didn't listen to you. I will talk to Mrs. Schneider and ensure you can do the family tree assignment the way you want."
And that she did. Blaine (and Kurt after he heard the story) were so proud of Maya for standing up for herself that they put the family tree up on the fridge - with everybody on it: Maya, Rachel, Jesse, Olive, Clementine, Cooper (Blaine's brother), every last grandparent and of course, Papa B *and* Papa K.