January 26th 2023

Chapter 26
We Jump at Chances

School field trips had always been something to look forward to, whether as student or as teacher later on. For Maya, to have them 'resume' when she'd started teaching and to very often have Lucas come along as a co-chaperone was like an unexpected bonus. Both of them would laugh when their friends would become 'jealous' at what they called their school-sponsored dates. It could not be denied that they always looked forward to those days, especially the art class specific trips, which naturally tended to bring them to some museum or gallery or another.

The first field trip that came along that year was not an art class trip but a general one, and it felt like they had completely missed one of the… consequences… of their new administration. This trip was wholly instigated by Principal Davenport, and while the woman had looked very proud of herself when she'd announced it… to Maya's knowledge, she hadn't seen a single person appear genuinely excited. Some of them might pull off looking as though they were intrigued, but anyone who bothered to really listen to what they said and how they said it – which the principal did not – would know they were more closely aligned to the other side, the one that was generally dreading the trip and plotting to find a way to skip it.

"You can't skip it," Maya told her brother, the night before, when she was at the Hunter Hart house for dinner along with Lucas and the girls and overheard him talking with their guest XC, Mila. She and MJ had been bonding since she'd come to live with the Hunters for the year, and one of their favorite activities as budding friends involved doing one another's nails and talking either about the things they didn't like at school – the principal was a recurring subject – or the ongoing cheer squad mystery – which only grew more intriguing to them and others the harder it seemed to get for anyone to find an answer.

"Skip what?" MJ asked, the picture of innocence as he inspected Mila's work on his hands while making sure not to damage it. Mila pressed her lips together to keep from laughing as she considered colors for her own nails.

"You know, that worked when you were like four years old because you were cute and all…" Maya started, receiving a very 'affronted' look from her brother at the suggestion that he was no longer cute. "Just look at it this way: you can find something to keep you awake if you look hard enough… Plus, if you let me and the twins go through that on our own, we will bury you," she pointed at him.

Knowing better than to challenge sisterly retaliation, MJ was on one of the busses the following morning, and off they went with the knowledge that the ride to the trip and back would probably be the most entertaining part of their day. For what Maya and Lucas saw of it on the ride out from school, the students were all more than aware of this, so they were making the most of this time. The bus might have been propelled on nothing more than the press of all their voices on top of one another's.

"Mrs. Friar, can I talk to you for a minute?" Ash appeared, standing in the aisle and, without missing a beat, Lucas relinquished his seat.

"I'll go make the rounds," he told Maya, who gave him a nod in thanks.

"What's up?" she asked, turning to her new seat neighbor. They looked nervous as they quietly played at a small tear in their pant leg. "You okay?" Maya asked.

"I mean, I'd take being in class all day over going out there today…" Ash started, to which Maya gave a nod of ponderous agreement that made her student smile just enough to get on to the real subject of their 'visit.' "But Maia and I were talking about what you told me the other day, this morning, while we were getting ready, and she made me promise to talk to you about it and to be honest." There was another smile on their face here, that could only come from the love they bore for the only one who could give them that kind of nudge.

"Honest about what?" Maya asked, smiling back.

"Have you ever been so convicted about something, like it's so much of a fact to your life that it almost becomes part of your personality, but then you're confronted about it one day and you realize you don't really think about it the way you used to anymore? I… I'm not sure I'm explaining it right, I…"

"No, I think you're explaining it very well, at least, if it's what I think you're talking about. But to answer your question, yes, I know just how that goes," Maya promised. She could have gotten into the whole subject of her relationship with her father with them, but this was neither the time nor the place.

"I think part of me has always been looking for a way back… to music… and I haven't let myself go there because…"

"Your mother," Maya guessed, when silence threatened to set. Ash nodded. "So, you would like to sub for Rosa in the band?" she asked, and Ash nodded again. "Then, welcome to the ranks of TXNY, Ash Bell," she grinned. It was too early to bring up the… secret tunnel from the sub position to the permanent spot on to their sister band, but this was a start at least.

As much as they had all known this would not be a memorable field trip in any other way except that it was boring and horrible, once they were in it, they could only come to one conclusion... It was even worse than they had imagined.

"I feel like my brain is actually melting," Maya signed as discreetly as she could. Lucas was being such a trooper, like he was genuinely trying to give this thing a shot, but there was only so much he could do, and he was losing the battle. The fact that he responded to her claim by tilting his head to check her ears for any leaking said as much.

"What if we get all the kids back on the busses and get out of here?" he signed back, bringing maybe her first smile since they'd arrived. "Take them for ice cream," Lucas added, and now she nearly snorted. It was clearly enough to get several of the students standing nearby to look at the two of them. Maya gave them her best teacher 'please focus' look, for what good it managed to do. They knew her too well not to smile, too. Maybe it was a good thing. One smile had the power to travel, to multiply, and they could all use one of those right there.

Thankfully, all bad things, like good things, came to an end. Maya and Lucas had never seen the busses filled so promptly and in such an orderly fashion. Their principal may have seen this as discipline well applied, but even their vice-principal knew better: they just wanted to get out of there. When Maya had seen MJ, he'd given her a look like he would have rather taken the triple sister pile up over this. He had a fair point.

They couldn't exactly take the whole school for comfort ice cream, but after they had made it back to school and everyone started to disperse, Maya and Lucas managed to pool together a few of the students. All they had to say was 'dinner at Nando's, our treat.'

"It was so bad," Nellie droned, her head resting on her arms, crossed on the tabletop before her. By her side, Bobby gave his girlfriend his most supportive pat to the back. "Even she couldn't fake it," Nellie pointed to Gracie, herself leaning to her boyfriend. Ethan looked like he'd slept on the bus back and no one had told him how his hair had suffered for it.

"I tried," Gracie declared, not even trying to deny her twin's claim.

"Our trip is going to be so much better than this. So much better... It has to be..." Nellie muttered.

It was a reminder, one of many these days, that they were drawing ever nearer to graduation. Oh, they still had just over half the year to go, but then time never slowed down, and they knew too well that the moment would be upon them before they knew it. Graduation, and the senior trip...

With her sisters part of the planning committee, Maya had known this thing would be a rousing success, and it was shaping up exactly this way. To hear them talk about it, they were going to have the very best trip that had ever been. Both Maya and Lucas were personally partial to their own senior trip, but then to each their own, right?

"We're already planning for ours," MJ told his sisters, stealing a look to Ash, Lydia, and Mila, piled in around him. Lamar had been scarce among the friends since the breakup, which was unfortunate, but they couldn't well force anything, could they? If some friendship would be salvaged, it would be for the boys to dig it out.

"Wait your turn, sophomores," Nellie scrunched her face at her brother and his friends, which only made them laugh, especially when MJ imitated her and made her and the other seniors laugh, too.

"Our trip will be great," MJ doubled down. "You are very invited," he told Mila, who nodded happily at the prospect of joining them. "Unless your school back home does something, I understand. I'll still think that ours is better, but, you know..."

"I kind of think yours will be better, too," Mila told him and the others. "My school is boring, why do you think Misha and I came here?" she asked, in enough of a joking tone that they'd know she and her brother had of course come for the ranch and the horses... but it was fun to pretend that it had been to escape a terrible school year.

"Good, maybe you guys can transfer, stay with us until you graduate. I'm sure your parents won't mind, or ours..." MJ continued in this way. Mila smiled, while the twins showed full support at the idea of keeping their guest beyond this year.

"I think my brain is coming back together," Maya told Lucas, smiling her best 'happy big sister/teacher' smile.

"Well, that's good," Lucas smirked. "We're going to have more of these, aren't we?" he realized, but she quickly pressed her hand at his mouth like it might keep the truth from becoming that. He just kissed her fingers, and they fell away. "We'll find a way to compensate," he offered, and she smiled.

She could work with that... and so could the others, as they had heard him and thought the same. Before long, as they all sat around the joined tables with their dinner, they went about discussing several ways to combat boring, Davenport-mandated field trips. As was bound to happen in these kinds of brainstorming sessions, the ideas traveled anywhere from doable to very, very silly. They wouldn't reasonably use any of those but, after the day they'd had, it felt very good to explore the schemes and imagine what they could accomplish. It made for a very good bit of laughing.

On the way home at last, after picking up some treats for the girls, Maya told Lucas about her conversation with Ash, allowing herself to express how excited she was at the prospect. Some of that went to having some new blood among them but, more than anything, it went to the knowledge that it would bring something back to Ash that they never should have lost.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners