June 2nd 2023

Chapter 153
We Have Secrets to Keep

It was hard not to cycle back through the same line of thought sometimes, when they would be out and about as a family, the thought being that there were a lot of them and they took up space. A lot of the time they wouldn't actually give it much thought, and why should they? That was just their family, and that was who they were, that was who they always wanted to be. The thing that would take them to the outside perspective all of a sudden would be when they'd notice people noticing them, whether that started and ended with their number or if it went through anyone recognizing Maya for her music career.

Today wasn't one of those days. Possibly some people would notice them, but if they did, the Friars would not stop and see them. Instead, they would carry on what they had set out to do that day. They were minus one little sister that morning, as Mackenzie had been 'requested' by her eldest sister, to help her on a very important task. It really worked out for all of them, even if one of them did not know what was really happening that day: Mackenzie didn't know that her parents and five of her sisters were shopping for her upcoming fourth birthday.

Oh, were they ever excited... Each of them had been handed some money which they could spend in whatever way they liked in order to celebrate their sister's birthday. It was way too funny - to Lucas and Maya especially - to see the way each one of them reacted to this sudden 'power' and how they went on to use it. Their favorite part was easily the moment when, having finished their own shopping and also seeing how their littlest sister had run into a bit of a budget overshot, Marianne, Kacey, Remy, and Lucy all passed their remaining few bills and coins into Aubrey's little purse.

"Alright, I think that's..." Lucas started to tell the young shoppers, and if Maya was already amused to see the look on his face, like he was aiming to do his innocent routine that always ended up with ice cream or some other treat, then seeing his disappointment when it was interrupted was possibly too hilarious for her to keep from laughing. Of course when she saw what had distracted their daughters...

"Hey, guys..." she blinked as her group converged with her little sister and her newly reinstated best friend.

"Hey!" Haley greeted them, while Madelyn simply waved. The mystery carried on as to what was going on with those two, and neither one was helping their case by acting the way they did, like their whole brains were flashing 'be cool' and they were not pulling it off as smoothly as they believed. "We're meeting Hunter, he already texted twice, but it was great to see you all, yeah? You're shopping for Mack's birthday, huh? That's fun. I already got her something the other day, she's going to love it. Anyway, see you later."

And they were off. Everyone was puzzled about the rushed exit, some for different reasons than others, though they could all agree that the two eighth graders were being strange. Most of the group was soon made to forget thanks to the intervention of a trip to the ice cream place, where they looked back through the things they had gotten for Mackenzie. This in turn made the girls feel bad that they had all gotten ice cream and she hadn't, which in turn left them perplexed as they ended up stuck, knowing they couldn't make up for it without her maybe figuring out the reason they had been there to get ice cream in the first place. The whole scene managed to distract their parents for a while, too, but of course once they'd made it home and ended up on their own, hiding away the gifts while the girls went to play...

"She has to come and tell me sooner or later, right?" Maya paused to ask Lucas and he turned to her. "They always used to come to me when they had something they needed help with, and they didn't want to talk to Mom and Dad... Am I too old for that now? I'm still her big sister... Do you think she told MJ? The twins?"

"First of all, you're not too anything," Lucas pointed at her, walking up to her, and it made her smile. "And whatever is going on, it might not be about Haley, and if it's not, then it's Madelyn, and she couldn't just go and spill her friend's secrets to you, you know?" he told her, and one way or the other, she knew he had a point. "And if it is about her, then maybe she just needs time."

Of course, not five minutes later, Maya got a call from her little sister. Haley claimed that she had something she needed to show Marianne, something for the musical, and she asked if she might come over. This was only ever a courtesy, unless they were really busy elsewhere, so Maya told her she could, whenever she wanted. Haley informed her that she would be there in a few minutes, which could only mean that she was already in the vicinity. When she told Lucas about this, he came to the same conclusion, even as he gave her a look to say 'see, what did I tell you.'

Sensing some potentially complicated conversation, Maya called up the road to the Sandersons, asking if they might take the girls for a little while, and they agreed, so Lucas went about gathering them and bringing them out to the farm. While they went off, Maya watched them from the window, even as she kept her eyes out in search of her sister coming along. Lucas and the girls had barely made it out of sight when Maya finally spotted one... no, TWO girls walking up the road, past the Sandersons' and on their way to the house. Haley, and Madelyn was with her.

They were walking slow, talking, and they likely couldn't tell that she was seeing them already. Even from a distance, the dynamic was clear. Madelyn looked like half of her was resisting the urge to turn on her heel and not just walk but run away, while Haley looked like she knew exactly that this was what her friend was thinking, and she was doing her best to keep her on the path. It reassured Maya to some degree, trusting in this that the problem was not with her sister, but at the same time she did not wish the opposite on to Madelyn Carter.

Lucas caught up with them before they made it to the house, though it didn't look as though any of the trio said much of anything as they made it up to the house. As they approached the porch, Maya stepped out to meet them and, trusting her own instincts in what would make things easier to the girl, she greeted Madelyn with as warm and reassuring of a hug as she had in her to give. It worked, causing her future student to release some if not all of what she had been holding on to as she hugged back and let herself be held. She was scared, about sharing the subject as much as the subject itself.

"It's okay, I've got you," Maya quietly told her, and Madelyn nodded into her shoulder.

Behind them, Lucas was looking to Haley, who seemed as relieved as she was concerned, and quietly asking if he should leave. Haley shook her head. He could stay, and after a minute more they sat, just there on the porch benches. Madelyn looked to Haley and if there was any doubt that their friendship had been fully mended, it was behind them. As the story would unfold, what would be even clearer was why it had happened: when it came right down to it, Haley was the one and only she had been able to turn to and, even without knowing the full of it, she'd only needed to look to her best friend, to see her distress, and she'd been there for her.

The more tiptoeing they did around the thing, the big secret, the pieces just went and fell into place on their own for Maya. It was not the first time she'd come across this look in a student's eyes, this change in their behavior, and she knew better than to assume it would not happen again. Madelyn Carter, months away from the start of high school, had gone and gotten pregnant. She could barely say the words and she started to cry. Haley was right next to her, and she hugged her.

"One of her new friends, she took her to a party," she went ahead and shared the next part, figuring that Madelyn wouldn't mind; she could barely talk about it with her as it was. "It was a mess, it would never have happened..." The logical end to the sentence was probably 'if Madelyn had been in her right, sober mind,' but some edge of guilt was visible in Haley's eyes, an alternate ending that went 'if I had been with her instead.'

"Not my friends anymore..." Madelyn's garbled voice came through, and Haley quietly agreed with her.

Looking at them, Maya and Lucas were both reasonably horrorstruck to learn of what had happened with Madelyn. Looking at the two girls, it was hard not to remember the days when they had been children together. Right here and now, they weren't so far from that still, and yet...

"She needs to tell her family, but she's scared, so I thought... maybe you could come with us, to sort of... help make it easier for everyone, I guess. I know it's a lot, but I figured..." Haley told her big sister, and Maya wondered how she could have ever thought that she had outlived her use as big sister supreme of the Hunter girls.

"You figured right. We'll go with you, Madelyn, okay?" Maya told the girl, no need to consult with Lucas to know where he stood.

It was already one thing that unplanned teenage pregnancies had touched some of her students, or even her own mother, making her the product of this life changing event. It had also touched their daughter, their eldest, and even though those difficult days were far behind their Ella now, even though her life was so much better now, there was no forgetting where it had all started. It was what had brought her to them. They weren't saying they would go and take in every single teenage mother they came across, but they would for sure feel compelled to make sure she found safe landing... wherever and however that may be.

They drove to the Carter house, the four of them together in a very quiet car. Everything that Maya and Lucas knew of Madelyn's family told them that she would be fine, but then this would be a big shock, and it had to be cushioned as best it could.

In the end, with everyone there to tell Madelyn's tale along with her, the shock came, and it was massive, but by the time they left the family, Madelyn had the people she needed on her side, there to back her up in whatever came next. As they walked back to the car, Haley stopped her big sister, hugged her close for a few seconds and thanked her before moving over to do the same with Lucas. She didn't want to feel guilty for what had happened with Madelyn, but she did. She was supposed to be her best friend, supposed to protect her and keep her safe, and she felt that she had failed.

"You were there for her, okay?" Maya told her sister. "You were there when you could be, and she won't forget that."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners