February 21st 2023

Chapter 52
We Begin Stepping In

At least once a day since she'd returned to work after Melinda's passing, Maya had been made to feel so truly thankful for her students and what they brought to her life. She grieved for her mother-in-law, and she knew she would still grieve for her, to some degree or another, for as long as she lived with the memory of her. She'd been all of thirteen years old when she'd met the woman, never knowing the place she would come to hold, as her children's grandmother, naturally, but also as a maternal figure in her own life.

And then she'd been lost in that accident, and it had made Maya realize just how much she'd come to love her and rely on her. It pained her that she would never get to tell her that, but she would tell herself in turn that she would have had to know anyway. It was something very Melinda like, wasn't it?

Once she'd been back at work, there had been no delusion that all the kids had no idea why she'd been absent. True to how she had 'raised' them in class, they had collaborated and sent cards, one from each class, sharing their condolences for her and the Friar family at large. And right on her first day back, they'd greeted her return with several of them giving concerned 'would you like a hug?' faces. She hadn't taken them up on it, not unless they were related to her in some way, but the sentiment had been appreciated, nonetheless.

Her Hunter siblings had known Melinda all their lives, and she had always been so very good to them. She'd felt like family to them, too, to some degree. When she'd see the twins and their friends in first period, there would be this air to them, in this setting maybe more than anywhere else, like the suddenness of the death had brought them face to face with their imminent graduation, and their first steps out into the world. They all felt very small all over again, like they could not possibly have been old enough to be trusted to make their own decisions.

The echo of the loss trickled down to the sophomores, with MJ and with Lydia. The former, like his sisters, had loved Melinda very much. When he'd been little and first exploring his stylistic expression, Melinda Friar had always been one he could count on. She would let him raid her nail polish, maybe try his hand at makeup... He got to do this with his own mother, too, sure, but it always felt different to him when it came to someone not connected to him so directly. She had been dear to him, and he missed her.

And Lydia, oh... Melinda had been her aunt, her most favorite of all. She had always made it a point to be there for her brother's children and to connect with them as each of them would most benefit. She'd be the first one Lea would run to when she'd learned a new song. She'd be right there at Lara's soccer games, as often as she could. Lydia, until her little brother had come along, had always been the baby, and while nowadays she had been able to count on her aunt to show up at her quiz team matches, or the games where she'd cheer, her dearest memories were of when she'd been little. She'd loved tea parties, and if she needed someone to encourage this, she needed to go no further than Auntie Mel. She wouldn't do things halfway, naturally, and over time, this had evolved into some very proper tea times between the two of them. Melinda had given her a beautiful teapot and cups for her fifteenth birthday, and they were some of her most cherished possessions.

She'd drawn the set in her diary, her most recent entry, and Maya knew that she wouldn't have had the heart to touch any part of it since her aunt's passing. That had been their thing, and it wouldn't have felt right.

"I think… if she could make a suggestion," Maya had told her, the day she'd returned her diary, "She would probably want you to find a way to keep the tradition going. You just need to find yourself an initiate." This had made Lydia smile, especially as the thought wasn't simply spot on… it gave her ideas. The two of them hadn't done anything yet – Lydia still needed time – but she had already made an invitation to young Tori Friar. The way she saw it, whether through Lucas and Maya or through Lea, the girl was family, and she wanted to get to spend more time with her.

Oh, Melinda would have loved that…

At lunch, as agreed, Maya looked on as the knitting club gathered in her classroom. They were guided by Ash Bell, who stood in for Michelle Day and did very well, all things considered. The sophomore had really taken on the skills they'd picked up over the last two and a half years and expanded on those on their own time, which showed in what they produced nowadays. They loved most of all to produce things for their little sister, Kennedy, anything from clothes to accessories to very random items beyond. They had also found more than a few clients through their teammates on the LGBTeam.

Between the bonds that united this team and the school's two teams, there were also ties to the fledgling cheer squad, and to Maya's surprise and delight, they were the ones who had first taken steps toward trying to set the embattled group in the right direction after their less than stellar beginnings.

Maya had been ready to go ahead and do her very best to make sure that those kids' hopes were not dashed, regardless of whether or not this could lead to a win on the side of Sandra Davenport. Her in-laws' accident and its aftermath had understandably set her back in this goal, but that day, maybe for the jolt of it having been a month since The Day, she set out to act. As last period was letting out and she watched the juniors collect their things after a quick clean up, she had one thing in mind, and it was to track down the cheer captain to discuss some sort of plan.

She had a lot more trouble tracking down a single cheerleader, captain or not. For several minutes, she looked along the walls of lockers, in classrooms, even the girls' bathroom, but they had all disappeared. Maya frowned and was about to call it a day, deciding to try again in the morning, when she spotted MJ, Ash, and a couple other basketball players, of their school or its contingent of LGBTeam members. They were all headed to the gym together, and she didn't know what it was about them, but she was compelled to follow.

When she reached the gym doors, the others had already gone inside, so she peered through, and there she found the previously impossible to find squad, along with some of their basketball playing classmates. The way they were all standing around there, she couldn't tell at first what they were up to. The teams and the squad were talking, and there was nothing of angst, but there was definitely a bit of apprehension about whatever they were there to do or discuss, all of it from the cheerleaders.

After a minute or so, the teams stepped back while the squad came together, still apprehensive but over all with a sense of 'alright, let's just try it' to them. Maya remained baffled until she saw the cheerleaders launch into one of their routines. As much as they continued to struggle in their performances, she could at least recognize it, music, or no music. To her, this actually worked in their favor. It allowed her to focus on them as she looked on from her spot in the hallway, to really look at them as they performed for the group of basketball players.

They wanted to be doing well, all of them together. They were giving it their all, but somehow it wasn't gelling, wasn't harmonizing into something that was… well, good. To look at them on their own though… They all had that talent in them. The potential was right there, waiting to be accessed.

Maya watched the cheerleaders but also those who were watching them, and she realized that beyond the LGBTeam looking on, there were several more of the players from the school's two teams than she'd first noticed. All of them were watching, and she could feel that they all had a genuine desire to help their classmates. It made her smile, enough that she forgot herself right up until she was spotted, discovered by Meadow Bailey, there with the rest of her squad. She stopped and pointed her out, which made the others stop and look, too.

She could have seized up and decided to run away, but that would have been silly… and so, so pointless, so she pushed the door open and let herself in.

"Hey… Hello…" she waved at the kids standing around the gym. Most of them were in one of her classes and those who weren't, because they were part of this team or that squad, were as familiar to her as she was to them. Her arrival was hardly cause for concern, the way it might have been if she were, say, the principal. Instead, they all moved very quickly from startled to relaxed. It was giving good 'big sister showed up' vibes, and she liked it.

She could easily see how this whole thing had come together. MJ, Ash, Lydia, great and tightknit best friends, one each of them on the school's teams, the LGBTeam, and the cheerleading squad. Maya knew they would all have been discussing the cheer problem extensively and, from there, would have decided that something had to be done… and they should be the ones to do it. The cheer coach, well-intentioned as she was, just wasn't getting them anywhere, but the trio of sophomores was certain that, if the rest of them pooled their talents together, surely, they could get this sorted out. They were so confident about this fact that they invited Maya to sit in the stands and observe as they had this first session together, so she went and did that, gladly so.

She watched, and she was very happy that she did. It wasn't a sudden and complete reversal, not even close, but she could see how this project, if given the space to do so, might actually work. Everything that had happened up to now had brought down the new cheerleaders' joy in being part of the squad, which was understandable. But already in working with the players they had shown themselves just… reconnecting with the excitement and the interest that had brought them to try out in the first place. They would keep at this, and they would clear away the layers of disappointment, and from there… From there, they might well create something really great.

"You were coming to do this, weren't you?" MJ came to ask his sister when the gathering started to disperse. Maya got up from her spot in the stands and climbed down smiling.

"Something like that, I guess. But if you ask me, this is so much better."

"Well, it's like you told us, isn't it? The teams always sticking by each other and everything?" MJ reminded her, smiling that very Shawn Hunter smile he'd gotten from their father.

"I did mention that… couple of times…" she smirked. Reaching her little brother, she threw her arm around his shoulders, so they might leave the gym together. "I'm not going to sit in all the time, you guys do your own thing, just… if you feel you need the assistance of a very willing teacher, you know where to find me. Otherwise, I wouldn't say no to some updates." MJ nodded. She'd get her updates, and they would take her up on her offer, anytime.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners