A/N: Two days behind...
September 1st 2023
Chapter 244
We Look For Knowledge
Even though the entire complement of Hart-Lanes did get together as often as they could, great chunks of it, too, if they couldn't get the whole set, it was far likelier for those of the extended family that lived in the two neighboring homes across the lane from one another to get together for several meals throughout the week. It worked out great for everyone involved, because spending time together was something they all loved, but on top of it all, it just put them in touch with all the things and the ways in which they had space and desire for making up for lost time, not unlike Maya did with her Hunter siblings as they took their turns living in the Friar house just as the Hart-Lanes had been doing.
Maya got to see so much of this in her relationship with Maisie. Even though the two of them shared not a drop of blood in common between the two of them, as she was the product of her stepmother's second marriage, she was and always had been her baby sister. And though for the first several years of her life the two of them had lived further than what would allow for regular visits, she had been barely ten years old when she'd moved to Austin, moved across the road from her big sister and her family. She would be thirteen in a matter of weeks, and over the past nearly three years, she and Maya both had gotten to be sisters to one another in ways that maybe neither would have hoped for until it actually happened. The bonus now, naturally, was that she would be starting middle school in the fall, and so she would only have two more years to wait to get to sit in her class. She might have been counting down the days.
The Friars were staring down a busy day even as it started, and so not long after their breakfast guests departed, it was time to see about getting everyone ready to be picked up for their activities. They were rotating those duties now, and this week the girls were being picked up by their friends and their families to get them where they needed to go. Marianne was collected by Lee Beaumont as he would see granddaughter Harper and her friends off to soccer. Kacey, Remy, and Lucy were all picked up, too. Kacey was off to figure skating, Remy to karate, and Lucy to swimming, and it had to be said, while they all still preferred to be together, they did a lot better with heading off in different directions than they used to do when they'd started in their respective activities. The same might not be said for the little sisters. It wasn't all the time, but there would be days where even the prospect of going off to gymnastics and ballet would not make it easy for them to go off on their own.
Lucas had taken it upon himself to do 'surprise visits' at each of their girls' activities, and so he was soon gone, while Maya tried not to tease him too much for his girl dad ways. For her part, she was expecting some visitors of her own, herself and Ezra together in fact, and she was forward to their arrival enough that she ended up waiting out on the porch, sitting on the steps with her son in her lap. He loved being outside, and he was as jolly as any four-month-old babe could be. They could not have been a better pair of hosts for the many members of their extended quiz teams as they arrived. The first to come were Critically Bookish advisor Stella Buckley along with her daughter. Maya could barely handle the fact that miss Mattie Lejeune was already coming up on sixteen months, but then there she was, teetering along and looking so much like a mini version of her mother as she hurried excitedly toward her…
"Hello, Mattie girl," Maya reached out a hand, which drew Ezra's gaze away from the trees nearby, and he had his own bit of a smile going when he spotted Stella. Soon, the two women had swapped children, and they were content in this, even as the students started to arrive.
Haley, Kinsey, and Susan arrived as one, as they'd run into each other on the way, Kip rode up on his bike, while Agnes was dropped off by her father, who'd also offered a ride to Lydia. This made for a mash of voices piling on as they greeted the teachers, of course, but also fell in to say hello to the small ones in their arms. If any of them were disappointed not to get some one on one time with either of them, they didn't have to worry. They had three more babies inbound.
Maya and Stella had been very good about not revealing that there would be others joining them that day. It had been a while since they'd all met at the Friar house, as it had been felt that it wouldn't be fair, not without Max or Marie. They had convinced the teams in the end, but then at the very same time, they were secretly on their way, along with their children.
"They slept the whole way here," Marie hummed as she walked around with her baby girl in her arms, trying to help her stop crying. Astrid Nilsson was in good company there, as her cries rang in harmony with those of Daisy and Callum McAllister, Ezra Friar, and Mattie Lejeune.
The newly arrived trio had barely been pulled out of the car that they'd started wailing, which had taken next to no time to get the boy and girl on the porch joining in. Now, here they all were, Marie with her daughter, Max with her own, while Agnes had her son… Kinsey had asked to take Mattie, and Stella had agreed, while Haley had taken up her nephew.
"I knew this was going to happen," Max hummed as she brushed at Daisy's hair. "I didn't want to stop, but we couldn't just keep driving forever, you know?"
"That's okay, they're alright now, yeah?" Agnes declared, smiling peacefully as she held four-month-old Callum. He was still crying, but she was good with him, and to look at him, he might not be so far off from calming down, which in turn would maybe do the same for his twin sister. "You're alright."
Once they had gotten all the children to stop crying, they were able to head into the kitchen and settle in for their meeting. Everyone was understandably curious at having Max and Marie among them, about what it would mean for the rest of their school year and beyond. Max wouldn't be back with them at school or in competition for the rest of the year, but she still wanted to be involved as much as she could, to get back into the swing of things ahead of the fall, and that was why she had wanted to be here.
For Marie, much as she hated to acknowledge it, her time on the quiz team was essentially over. She was a senior, already working with her teachers to finish out her year and get her diploma, with so little time left that it wouldn't be worth her returning. Anyway, she had her daughter, and the three-month-old was enough of a handful on top of trying to do her schoolwork that actually having to leave her behind and go out there would only really be detrimental to her, to both of them.
College was still a bit of a question mark at this point. She'd been accepted into the program she'd been after, at the school she was after, and by all means, by fall time, she should have been able to get back to school. The problem was that it was a bit… well, across the country. Going to school and looking after her daughter was one thing, but doing so in a brand new city, on her own, that was something else. She hadn't made up her mind yet, one way or the other, but she was going to have to, sooner or later.
It felt good to be back like this, with a full compliment of eight players and two advisors… plus several napping babies before long. They all felt kind of energized, didn't they? They didn't have separate stations to take over, so they sat, one team at either end of the long table, and they worked on their own thing at times before converging at others. Whenever her own quartet would get caught up in one subject or another, leaving her to sit by in silence, Maya would find herself spying the other team and how they were getting along, the four of them and Stella.
They weren't so different from one another, but at the same time they definitely had their own ways, their own styles, and it made Maya very glad that she had decided to seek out the formation of the second team. They were their own family, too, like Born Curious was together, almost like… cousins… Right now, it could be seen in how Kip, Kinsey, and Susan closed in around their captain now that they had her back – sort of – and closed in around her daughter, too. This girl would have more three great aunts and uncle to dote over her all her life.
The same could be said of the McAllister twins. They spent most of the time of the teams' session being passed around from their mother to one of her teammates or another, Daisy here, Callum there, sometimes rotated with Ezra, too. Max would smile when she'd get to hold him, noting the fact that he and the twins were all going to grow up as December babies together. He eventually ended up in Agnes' arms where, as he'd fallen asleep again, she insisted she didn't mind keeping hold of him, the better not to disturb him. Meanwhile, Maya got to hold both Max's son and daughter together once, which took her right back to days when she would go and hold two or all three of her triplets at once. It was no trouble at all.
"She's going to be one of us one day, you'll see," Haley declared proudly as she looked to Mattie. As little as she was, she liked to stand up whenever she could, so she'd gone to stand there, holding on to Haley's leg for support as she looked around.
"No way, no way, she's one of us, obviously," Kinsey sat up, pointing to Stella as the only proof needed to know that Mattie Lejeune would be Critically Bookish.
"That's not the win you think it is," Maya snorted apologetically. "That one's artistic down to her bones. I'm sure they're sprayed with drops of paint like the rest of her was, back in the day."
"She's got a point," Stella had to admit, looking to Kinsey, who had a frown that said 'yeah, we'll see about that in fourteen years.'
"You are coming with me, aren't you, ladybug?" Maya asked Mattie, later on, after the teams had departed and it was just the two of them and Stella and Ezra again. Mattie nodded with a great big smile on her face, and Maya gave in to the pull this created, gathering the small girl into her arms for a good hug that got her giggling. "Good, it's a deal then," Maya beamed before pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "Hope you don't mind me poaching your firstborn there," she looked to Stella, who just smiled and shook her head.
"Please, I wouldn't want her to end up anywhere else. As long as she wants to do it, of course."
"Of course," Maya nodded, looking back to Mattie, who just kept nodding along with her. Maya laughed. "Looks like a yes to me."
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
