May 2nd 2023

Chapter 122
We Feast On School Spirit

The year always ended up feeling this way. They would have the first day, then it'd be two weeks later before they knew it, then they'd just be moving along through fall at what felt like a steady pace, and yet once they'd reach December and feel the holiday break looming, they'd wonder how they'd gotten there that fast. It also went along the back half of the year in a similar fashion although, seeing as that 'half' was longer, they would inevitably reach a snail's pace of a period before they'd get to the end, and then they'd be relieved for the end as much as they'd be stunned that they'd already made it through another year. They'd have summer, which would never last long enough, and then it would start all over again. Depending on how they felt about school, this was either the best news or the worst.

They weren't there yet. For now, they were firmly on the countdown to the holidays, in some cases literally. Maya and some of her colleagues had been discussing how they had spied some of the students crossing off the days on their calendars, like some reverse advent calendar. Whether they were just waiting to be done already or not, the one thing that could be agreed on was that classes were one thing, and their activities were another. The teams, the clubs… they were in a category apart.

Many of them would be turning their attention toward the coming holidays at this time of year, a lot of it coming down to bake sales, and while Maya was not opposed to that… really not opposed… she was really getting to appreciate the anticipation for whatever the knitting club would go and do for their holiday project. The Friars remained very big fans of their hat/scarf/mitten sets. Now, this year, as they had seen the rise of crochet alongside their knitting, Maya had felt like it would be appropriate to make that be the thing they did for their project. She was very well placed to figure out which way they were leaning, as their meetings would take place in her classroom, and she got to see how they not only decided to lean into the crocheting but very quickly came up with the thing that they'd be making.

"Mrs. Friar, check out what I made for Mary," Meadow Bailey-Ryan approached her at the end of class one early December day. She reached into her bag and pulled out a small figure that was for sure the work of her skill with the crochet hook. The little doll with its floppy limbs, dangling hair and dress, rosy cheeks, and kind smile, was as sweet as it was just what it would have been made to be: it was a great thing for a small girl like Mary Bailey-Ryan to fall in love with at once.

"Oh, wow!" Maya responded as genuinely as she ever could. She held the doll and imagined Mary with her, but just as easily… Aubrey, Mackenzie, just about any of her young girls, her friends' children, her nieces, her nephews… "This is wonderful."

"It is, right?" Maia Bennett asked, joining her classmate and fellow member of the knitting club. "So, we got to talking and we want to suggest it to Mrs. Day for our holiday project."

"Well, you've got a backer already, as far as I'm concerned," Maya told her students, both of them grinning like they'd expected no less and were already way ahead of her.

Within a week, every member of the club she saw in the halls, the cafeteria, outside the school, on any kind of free time, was working away to conjure up the dolls as commissioned. Her favorite memory of that whole period might very easily end up being whenever the crocheting coincided with musical rehearsals. The club members knew they were more than welcome to work at their things whenever they were not required on stage, and so they'd be there, materials around them, with cast and crewmates often stood around to watch them work or lend assistance, whether they needed it or not. They would generally be indulged or amusingly corrected.

The musical was coming together as well as the dolls. They had several months ahead of them still before premiere night, but to see how dedicated the production was this year, they could be ready to go much sooner. The credit might have been given to the fact that they were doing the MSC, and some of it did go to that, yes, but that wasn't all of it. No, alongside the thrill of the musical, there was also the conviction of the fight. They all knew by now that a target had been painted on to this part of their school, and none of them were left indifferent. They had already lost Miranda and the theater class, and they didn't intend on letting it go further.

"Maya! Wait up!" a voice called out, and she stopped, smirked. Even if his voice hadn't rung clear, she could have only caught a muffled sound and still recognized her brother for his intonation. She turned, and there was MJ, cutting through the crowded hall, Ash on his heels.

"You only call me Mrs. Friar to tease me, huh?" she asked him.

"Oh, always," MJ breathed. Ash rolled their eyes and laughed. "We need to talk to you about something." She motioned for him to go on. "Nope, not here, the walls have ears."

"You sound like Mom," Maya snorted before directing them to her class. "You've got two minutes and then you have to head to class. What's up?" she asked, going about her pre-class set up for the sophomores.

"We had an idea. It's about this year's Chubbie's series," Ash began. "We want to do more of them, more than what we usually do."

"Go on," Maya slowly nodded, inviting.

"It's always enough for what we need and then some," MJ picked up the thread. "And it's always a lot of fun and not long enough for us, so we figured… why not make it longer? We get to do more shows, and we earn more…"

"And we know just what we'd like to do with the money," Ash continued. "We want to donate it to this fund, for arts in schools around Texas." Maya smiled, felt a good thump-thump of pride for her students in her heart.

"That's a very good idea," she nodded.

"And," MJ raised a finger, with a grin that felt as much like an echo of Katy and of Shawn, "It'll show up You-Know-Who."

"You are such a weirdo," Maya shook her head at him with a tone like 'I'm so happy that you're my brother.' MJ's smile was just the kind they might have seen on him, receiving a standing ovation for a big solo.

Maya was very aware that it wasn't just the clubs and teams most directly affected by Sandra Davenport's campaign that were determined to take a stand against her, one way or another. It was almost too easy for those like the musical cast and crew, and certainly the news coming out in the following days about the extended run of shows up at Chubbie's, starting before the turn of the year even, as well as the reveal of their added beneficiary, made a big splash. Beyond that though, there were plenty of others, ready and willing to take up the cause.

The pipeline into the basketball teams was as much an effort of those, like MJ Hunter, who were also involved in the musical and other clubs and teams of the kind, as it was those who happened to hold a seat on the student government and wielded some of that power to quietly foil their principal's actions. Rafa Cruz was coming up in that respect, but the head of this 'movement' was easily seen by trusted allies to be none other than Freddie Jacek. He had seen this mindset flow into the boys' team, and by that line his best friend and former foster sister Noor Kaur had done as well for the girls. To hear it from Freddie, she had made her team into nothing short of a secret force in their school, ready to act at a moment's notice.

Maya could almost see it now, and she was... kind of impressed, but also not surprised. She had always seen their school teams as something special, both while and after she'd been part of them. Not unlike the quiz teams, they had been a uniting force among the student body, and not just for the sport they played. Just now, thinking of what the future with Davenport might bring, they gave her hope. Them and their whole graduating class may have done that, to be frank. They had come along just as the new principal had done, and they had met her arrival with immediate distrust and separation. She was pushing in, but they were planting their feet in the ground.

The same could be said of the cheerleaders, and on this Maya couldn't help but be particularly proud... and just plain amused. Knowing that this squad had been meant to return and be some beacon of Sandra Davenport's presence in this school, only to fail until it was more or less accidentally put in the hands of the teacher with which she had a most pronounced quiet rivalry, there to start and rise up into success and all the while seek to undermine her... It made Maya smile at least once, every time she went to do anything with her girls and boys.

Coming back around for their second year, already lifted by their change in coaching, Maya felt strongly that the introduction of new members, of their new freshmen, had and would make all the difference. They hadn't been there the previous year, hadn't experienced those struggles with the others, and that could have been a bad thing to some, but it had really been good to the squad. Having people like Max Farrell, like Kinsey, gave them a sense of a turned page, of a new chapter, and they loved it. The feeling went both ways.

The new kids, the freshmen, may not have been there last year, but they'd been hearing all about 'the struggles.' They had also been hearing about the upswing they'd started to take at the end of last year, and more than anything, they were looking forward to following them on that rise, on being the fuel that got them soaring even higher in this year and the ones to follow.

As directly involved as she was with the squad as a whole, obviously, she got to hear even more of the freshmen's perspectives where they crossed paths with her beyond the gym. Of those occasions, it was hard not to look right to morning and lunch. Before classes began, she'd have the quiz teams in her art room, and then later on, while most people would be in the cafeteria, she'd be visited by Kinsey and the Maxes. The lifelong friends would intersect, one of them with Born Curious, the other with the squad, with Critically Bookish cheerleader Kinsey.

The last lunch they shared, the last day of class before the break, Maya had felt it only right to honor the occasion, as these kids had been her companions all year long up to that point, by getting an order in from Ma Maggie's for them all. There was just the right amount of holiday cheer in the room, it was everything they needed. And still there was the awareness, the thoughts of what – who – held so many of them back at school. They might have let themselves worry over what the principal could get up to in the new year, but they weren't going to do that. They had Max and Max, with tales of Christmases growing up together. They had Kinsey, looking almost comically festive with her dark style topped with a Santa hat. ("What, I love Christmas," she'd told her teacher with a shrug.). And maybe most important of all… they had pancakes… and pancakes, the Ma Maggie's kind maybe most of all, were magical that way.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners