February 5th 2023

Chapter 36
We Greet the Return

The first day back to school in the fall would always feel so monumental. They'd been gone for weeks, months, and they were returning to the same school, yes, most of the time, and the same for their classmates, but everything else would be different. The grade, the classes, the schedule, some of the teachers... The first day back from the holiday break, now, that was different. They were returning to what they had left behind for a couple of weeks, no more. From there, the moods would vary, same as in the fall. Some would be glad to be back, others less so, but on the whole, there would be this feeling of being refreshed. Maya definitely felt it, on her side of the classroom. She was excited to go back, every year.

"Well, you look a lot like how I feel right now," she grinned when she came to walk through the parking lot and encountered Stella Buckley. The new French teacher was about to start the second half of her first year, and she was very much ready to go.

"I had so many ideas of things I wanted to do with my classes over the break," she revealed.

"So that's what you were scribbling about at the Christmas party," Maya guessed, and Stella's smile was telling. "Do I get to hear about these ideas?" she innocently asked.

"Of course," Stella beamed, which made Maya laugh. There would be moments, like this one, where she would know for sure that Stella was remembering days when she had been her teacher, and she would remember with such fondness that she would seem to return to her adolescent self, if only for a moment. "But not now," she said, recalling plans in her head. "I need to get going, loads to do before first bell."

"Oh, now I want to know even more," Maya smirked. Stella smiled back, they shared a quick side hug and a kiss on the cheek, and she hurried along into the building.

"Maya, wait up!" She stopped, hand halfway out to pull at the door, and turned to spot Dylan jogging toward her. He waved her over and she walked back, away from the parking lot entrance.

"Hey, what's up?" she laughed. Not unlike Stella, he had a way of giving off flashbacks to his high school days, but here maybe it had something to do with how his lookalike younger brother and her future son-in-law had been such a presence in her household over the holidays, before his last return to Indiana.

"Got some questions here from some very curious kids," he revealed, holding up a piece of paper. Even at a brief glimpse, she could recognize the writing on it as having been made by a child, actually more than one. She could identify the messy letters that would have to be the work of seven-year-old Nicky, but also the notably neater ones of his six-year-old sister Emily, even a few scribbles from four-year-old Megan and a small patch of blue she assigned as nine-month-old Aimee's contribution.

"I see..." Maya slowly nodded, intrigued.

"Well, of course, it's right there on the calendar that their Aunt Maya's birthday is coming up, and they love their Aunt Maya..." Dylan began, making her smile.

"And she loves them, too."

"Right, so, they want to get her the perfect present," he went on, with an air of how serious this was for the kids. She nodded and matched his tone.

"Alright, then, hit me."

As they walked into the school together, he asked the questions, and she answered them. It soon became clear that the kids actually had an idea already, and they wanted to make sure she would like it. She could just about guess what they had in mind, and she would react as though she'd had no idea, but regardless she would be thrilled at whatever they gave her if it came from them.

"What about Riley? What's she got going?" Maya had to ask. The two of them had been best friends for nearly thirty years, and there had been little chance of any of her birthdays going by without Riley making A Big Deal about it in some way.

"See, if I tell you..." he trailed off with a smile, and Maya held up her hands in a 'say no more' gesture.

Even on this first day back, Maya would fully expect to find the quiz teams gathered in the art room before class, and so they were, catching up even as they tried to schedule a first friendly between their two teams to kick off the new year. But there was one more person there who may not have been part of either team but was notably early for his first period art class.

"Morning, Bobby," she smiled at him, and he smiled back, returning the greeting before asking if they might talk alone. "Sure, uh..." She pointed him toward the supply closet. They left the door open, but that was all the privacy they'd need. "Is everything alright?"

"I don't know if I ever told you how I've got a cousin who went to the last school where Principal Davenport was?" he responded to her question with one of his own.

"No, you didn't," Maya replied, standing up a bit straighter.

"I didn't even know until last October. It came up that she was our principal now, when my aunt and uncle and their kids were over at the house, and when my cousin heard, she was stunned. She's older than me, she's in college now, but I had heard her tell stories about her principal, years ago, and that was Davenport."

She still hadn't lost the feeling like she couldn't trust the woman, and for as much as she tried to give her a chance to prove that feeling wrong... she hadn't. And now to hear Bobby's story, the feeling only grew more substantial. She would be no friend to this school. But it was so much worse than that, as Bobby went on to share some of what he'd heard. The biggest one was something that Maya had suspected deep down for a while, and it was that Sandra Davenport was no lover of the arts.

At Carol Anne Davis' school, she had been responsible for their funding dwindling down so much when it came to any form of artistic classes or clubs that most of them had eventually bowed out and disappeared. Those that remained might as well have been invisible for all the support and exposure that they got.

"I see," Maya quietly replied.

"I was here, over the weekend, with the rest of the student government," Bobby went on. "And when she spoke to us... I don't know... She didn't say anything outright, but to me, knowing what she's done before... I think she's going to try and do the same here."

"Figured as much..." Maya let out a breath. She didn't have to search deep to feel the protective instincts rising in her. It would be a cold day in hell before she let Sandra Davenport wreck their school.

Luckily for her, she was never alone. They'd been so focused on their conversation that they hadn't realized how, back in the classroom proper, the quiz teams had gotten curious and come to stand around the doorway, where they had heard the most crucial parts of the conversation. Rolly, Maia, Lydia, Agnes, Sandy, Marie, Miley, and Kip. They all stood there, art students or not, all grades combined, and their faces said the same thing: they wouldn't let this happen either.

"We have to stop her, she can't do that," Lydia proclaimed.

"Oh, she can. That doesn't mean I'm going to let her," Maya told her and the others.

"We're with you," Sandy Abbott declared, confidently looking at her teammates and their counterparts from Born Curious. All of them nodded.

"I appreciate that, from all of you, but I don't want you guys to do anything to put things in jeopardy for yourselves, do you understand?" They did. "Don't do anything for now, just... keep an eye out, that's all." They promised this as well.

By the time the non senior art students took off, it was already time to get set for first period and the arrival of the rest of her gold stars. It did not give her much time or any at all to stop and sit with the new information. She had to stow it away for now and put her teacher face back on. If any of them noticed, they didn't say anything. Her sisters certainly picked up on something, but they didn't ask her about any of it either. She was certain they would know soon enough anyway, thanks to Bobby and Rolly.

In her break between the seniors and the sophomores, she shut the door, pulled down the curtain in the window, and called Lucas as she paced back and forth in her classroom. She was very fortunate to have several people she could call at any time and immediately unburden herself, and she always acknowledged it. She told Lucas what Bobby had told her, and how the quiz teams had jumped in to help, all before launching straight on into her ongoing mistrust of and frustrations with Principal Davenport, how this turn did not surprise her in the slightest but infuriated her beyond the telling of it. She didn't have to say it and he'd know right away: she wouldn't sit still, it wasn't her style, but on this especially, oh...

Talking to him had helped so far as getting everything off her chest. Of course, now she had to go on with her day and her classes. After her class with the sophomores, MJ came and asked if she was okay. By the way Lydia hung nearby, watching them, Maya guessed that she'd told him what she'd found out earlier already.

"That's a... complicated question right now," Maya admitted, giving her brother a quick tap on the arm. "Getting through the day, you know?"

"Well, for what it's worth, today was even better than usual," MJ told her, and she smiled.

"Thanks. It's the rage," she gestured at her face, and he nodded approvingly. "Alright, go on, don't be late for class," she chuckled, nudging him out the door along with his friends.

Lunch in the art room, as it was to be expected, became something of a somber affair. Maya couldn't just keep it to herself, especially when two of her lunchmates were as directly affected as she was.

"So, it's open season on the Muses, huh? Not surprised," Morgan sat back, looking at her lunch like she'd lost all of her appetite. "I knew there was a reason I didn't like the woman. The second I saw her face I knew what she was about and what she was against. Well, good luck to her. I can make it work. Music's everywhere, so what do I need?"

"Actually, a lot of thing, so let's not have her take it away, alright?" Miranda told her before sitting up and looking between her and Maya. "We have all the connections we need, and let's not go around like we won't use them at a time like this." Morgan approved of that, as did Maya.

"We can't act too quickly, can we?" Stella pointed out. "But we need to keep an eye on her and what she's up to, so we can fight back the right way."

"That's just what I told Bobby and the quiz kids," Maya nodded, turning a smile to her former student. If she needed any proof that her influence had touched her kids and stayed with them, it was right there. "We'll figure something out. This is our school. She's not one of us... but I know someone who could be. We need Alastair Song."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners