July 10th 2023

Chapter 191
We Cultivate To Find Our Place

"Alright, guys, here we go, one at a time, yeah?" Maya called down the line as her half of the sophomores approached the bus. Lucas was at the back of the line, moving closer as the students passed in front of her once she'd climbed up the steps, the better to see how they all behaved once they got on the bus. Some of them were already familiar enough with her that she didn't have to think about it too much, but with those she didn't know much more than at a glance or the odd disconnected story from one of her colleagues, it was best to keep an eye out.

Once the last of the students had climbed aboard and taken a seat, the Friars were reunited and able to do the same before the bus pulled out of the school lot and began another trip on its way to the museum. They hadn't even done that yet that the volume had gone up in voices climbing over one another, conversations sprouting everywhere. There was plenty of talk about basketball today, too, but seeing as the lists had finally gone up, this was less about speculation and much more reaction.

Another topic they overheard talk of, by virtue of their position near some of the speakers, was the student election that was once again underway. Opinions on the matter varied greatly depending on whether the people in question intended on running, or on reclaiming seats, or if they thought the whole thing was pointless. Looking at each other, Maya and Lucas knew that, if nothing else, they could count on that being a constant.

Even so, where they were concerned, it was hard not to look at the student government for being much more than what the disinterested and even some of the interested would even suspect. Since the arrival of Sandra Davenport and all the changes she'd sought to make to their school, several branches of the student-elected group had been an indispensable line that was as connected to the principal as it was aware of the rights and wrongs and doing what they could to help turn the wrongs into rights. If she was aware of any of this – and at this point, Maya highly doubted that she was – then she was hiding it well.

One of those returning for another year among the student government would for sure be Rafael Cruz, and as secret allies in plain sight went, this one continued to be one that felt so, so special. It had been long enough now since the big discovery of who he'd nearly been to the Sullivan-Reyes family that this small fact could have become insignificant. But then one way or another, especially with his living at Sullivan Stables with his mother, he just was family to all of them, family that could well have never been found again, and for that… For that they cherished him that much more.

Now he was with them, at school, and in the single year he'd been among them, he'd already taken up a place they couldn't have done without, and even though it hadn't all happened yet, Maya could just bet, she knew, that when the day came that Sandra Davenport would become a closed chapter for their school, an undeniable kernel of the reason why would be the work that the likes of Rafa and of Freddie Jacek had done, right under her nose.

"Hey, you two," Maya stuck her arm out and blocked their path as, last of all, Jake Bennett and Amy Dixon came along to step off the bus. They stopped short, still laughing between themselves about whatever they'd been talking about, still holding hands as they'd done, without much thought, through what was likely the entire ride from school to the museum.

"Yes, Mrs. Friar?" Jake asked, which made Amy snort into his sleeve before mouthing a 'sorry' to her neighbor/teacher.

"When you go and pull off your… escapade… at least try and take in some of the exhibit, please? For me?" Maya asked them.

"Escapade?" Amy asked back, and Lucas got his laugh out before Maya ever got there, drawing the Dixon girl to look back at him and then her again.

"Yeah, the part where you're with the rest of the group and then, oops, you've just disappeared. Trust me, you won't be the first or the last. So, I'll tell you what I tell the others. I know how to reach you, and when I tell you to come back, you come back. Deal?"

"Yes, Mrs. Friar," Amy quietly replied, smiling.

"Good. At least try and be discreet, yeah? It's embarrassing if I can see you go," she pointed out as they headed out of the bus. "It's kind of obnoxious how good-looking of a couple they make, isn't it?" she whispered to Lucas once the distance between them was big enough. He gave her a look. "Speaking as one ourselves, of course," she added with a confident rise of her chin that might have gotten her a kiss if they weren't surrounded by students who would forget their need to remain composed in present location.

There were still nearly three years ahead for them to see whether or not Amy and Jake would stay the course, all through prom and graduation and beyond but, for their sake, of course, Maya and Lucas wished for them to get that far. They were good for each other, and it wasn't often they got to see something like that… or maybe most people didn't… With how much Maya's life and Lucas' as well by extension revolved around high school students, and had done so for over a decade now, they had seen a number of young love stories that had made it through, which couldn't help but give them hope that it could happen again for a pair like them.

"So, they went?" Maya asked Kinsey, twenty minutes later. The girl was right there behind Lucas and her as they looked at once painting and had been looking at it for a couple of minutes already.

"Uh huh," Kinsey replied, as unsurprised as her teacher.

"Finally," Lucas sighed, him and Maya turning together.

"Told them it would be embarrassing," she shook her head.

"So, if you knew they'd just go, what was all that in the beginning about staying where you could see us?" Kinsey asked, pointing between the two of them. They looked at each other and shrugged.

"Plausible deniability?" Maya suggested, and Lucas nodded in agreement.

"Can I go out on my own then?" Kinsey asked.

"I mean, it's no fun if you already told us you'd do it," Maya whispered.

"I don't even need to look at the exhibit. I came on my own, last Saturday, so I wouldn't have to keep up with all of them. I did my paper for Mr. Matthews, see?" she pulled open the folder she'd kept tucked under her arm the entire time they'd been in the museum, showing that it was just as she told it.

"In that case," Maya tried not to look impressed. "You already wandered off. Stick around for the experience. With them," she nodded over to Max and Max.

He was watching his best friend like she could well pop at any moment. She wasn't due for another couple of months, and he knew that, but now that it was known about the twins, it wasn't just about the optic of her belly being larger than it might have been if there'd only been the one baby. He had been doing his research, and he knew that the second baby could make it so that she'd go and give birth sooner than with a singleton.

He was not these babies' father, no, not biologically, and he had no more romantic interest in their mother than she did him, but these two couldn't help but feel like their babies, for them to look after together. Their actual father said that he'd be involved, too, and maybe he would be, but whether or not he was, those two could count on their having their Uncle Max be right there for them, no matter what they needed, and to look at her, that knowledge made a world of difference for Max and her approach toward motherhood.

The closer she was getting to her due date, the closer they were all three of them getting to theirs, Maya was very much their point of guidance, of assistance in whatever they needed. There was no definite answer, as far as she was aware, as to whether or not Marie or Madelyn would keep their babies once they were born, but Max had made her choice a while ago already, and the nearer she got to the end, she would turn to her art teacher with no fewer than three questions every day.

She'd have questions regarding the pregnancy itself, and the delivery, and then infant care… She could have asked them to either one of her mothers, who had alternately carried all of her siblings and her through birth, and some questions she did turn to them. But then there would be those other questions, many of them, evidently, that she simply didn't feel comfortable asking her mothers, and so she'd turn them to her teacher. Maya would never turn her away, though she would occasionally ask her to wait until a better time would present itself. A lot of those were over lunch, or over the gym classes she now sat out.

The trip tired her out before it was over. Rather than force Max away – though he would have gone – they sent Kinsey and her completed paper to sit with the mother-to-be near the exit. By the time the group came back around, she was asleep, her head resting against her friend's shoulder. Lucas saw to gently waking her up and helping her toward the bus, where he inadvertently found himself playing shoulder pillow to her for the ride back to school. Maya sat across the aisle from them and looked on with a smile.

"How long do you think she can stay out of school after she has the babies?" Lucas quietly asked. She wasn't one of his girls, no, but he was a girl dad through and through, and recent grandfather to boot, and he couldn't help but wonder as he looked at the sleeping girl, her hands both at her belly, each thumb lightly stroking in her sleep like each one was tasked to soothing one twin.

"I don't know… As long as she can get, I'd hope, but…" she started, then stopped, sighed.

"Right," he replied, understanding. If Sandra Davenport didn't care for the arts and made it known, she had as many ways to share her opinions regarding their teenaged mothers. She wouldn't do any of them any favor. She might well have found a way to expel them if she could.

"They'll get as much as we can get them," Maya promised. "And I'll do what I can to make sure they don't fall behind. We all will, huh?" she asked, turning her head to peek over the bench, where Max McAllister's everlasting guard of Max Farrell and Kinsey Miranda stared back at the art teacher.

"We will," Max nodded.

"We will," Kinsey echoed him. When she smiled, her thought was as plain as Maya's had been before, considering their principal-shaped obstacle. They were all of them becoming so very skilled at riding the line between not breaking any legitimate rule and doing their part to send the woman sulking away in her office. And whatever she was hoping for, the nearer those three girls were coming to going into labor, she was not going to get it, not for a second.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners