A/N: Seventeen days behind...


September 11th 2023

Chapter 254
We Prepare For the Break

It somehow didn't matter how much it had become part of their day to day lives to expect Sandra Davenport's foot to stretch out in their path and trip them up. When it came in their midst, they could not help but get tripped up and be left picking themselves up. That was just what happened when the school learned that both the junior and senior proms had been postponed.

Maya had been in class with the seniors when the announcement had been made, citing some excuses that felt tissue paper thin. The cry of shock and outrage that came from her students was likely echoed across the school, wherever other affected students would be collected, but it still felt as though the announcement had been made with the express purpose of witnessing the effect it had on her seniors. Where she was concerned, it was yet another show of how little Sandra Davenport knew her and how she functioned. How did she not know that allowing Maya Friar to see her students' anguish was exactly the way to make her want to do all that she could to aid them?

It was a lot easier than the principal seemed to realize for Maya to whip up something worthy of the graduates and possibly grander than they were going to have in the first place, but she wasn't about to make that evident straight off, no. For the most part, the last weeks of the school year went on as they always would, never letting show too much if anything of what was happening behind the scenes of Prom 2.0. They knew the steps, and they followed them for show… for subterfuge.

Maya may not have been able to pull it off so well without having all the help she did. The end of the year was busy for everyone, but some of them had extra titles, extra obligations, and she had a full stack with her classes, the cheer squad, the quiz teams…

The basketball seasons ending had been something so particularly special for her back when she'd been a student, even on those years where they'd had no teams, in their own way, and it had been one of the benefits of teaching at the school that she'd gotten to be somewhat involved back in this world. It wasn't the same, she wasn't a student or a player anymore, but those days were behind her and, at this point in her life, that was fine.

Now, with the squad becoming more and more of a reestablished presence, and with her being this close to them and the basketball teams most of all… It made her wonder what it could have been like, when she had been on the other side, if they'd had cheerleaders, too. Mostly it might have made her laugh, picturing which of her friends would have been out there, part of the squad. She thought of Riley most of all, remembered how she'd lamented their lack of a squad back in high school. Would she have been good at it? Maya believed so… with a lot of practice.

She would have been well at home with Maya's kids. They had been working so hard, all year, keeping up the progress they'd made the year before and taking it to the next level, and they had achieved their goal many times over, as far as their coaches were concerned. Both Maya and Betsy had watched them put those efforts in, as much during practice, and at events, as they had done on those off times where they could have been doing just about anything else. It was important to them and, as the two women realized, it was important to all of them that they would make the two of them proud, too.

They had advanced in competition, too, and as they had reached the end of the year, those of them who would still be at the school in the coming year had already vowed that they had their eyes set on the very top spot for the end of it all. Knowing what they'd done this year, Maya tended to believe they'd reach their goal.

The end of any year for her quiz team would feel like the end of an era when they'd be seeing off yet another senior captain after four years among them. To the younger three, that graduating captain would have been there for as long as they'd been part of the team… and now they'd be gone.

This time around, they were seeing Lydia Sullivan-Reyes off at the end of her run, and as much as it felt impossible not to look back on the last four years and get their feet caught up in the scandal brought on by the cheating scandal, they would never be the ones to dwell on it longer than they had to. Yes, it was something that had happened, and it had been bad for several of them, but they'd come out on the other side of it much stronger, none more than Lydia.

It was so important for her not to let that one misstep throw her completely off path from her future. There was no getting away from it becoming known as she'd started her college applications. She hadn't run from it, she couldn't, so she'd run with it. This was who she was, this was what she'd done, and this was what she'd made of herself since. When fall would roll around, it would be Agnes Killian's turn in the captain's seat, and Maya could not think of anyone better to help lead them all into this year of… renewal. So much had been happening all through this year, even before that, too. People had gone away, people were returning… and soon they would have new blood joining their ranks.

"How long have you been awake?" Maya heard whispered at her ear, and she couldn't help but smile a moment before she made to answer, giving proper consideration to 'the question.'

"How long have you?" she countered, and a chuckle ruffled into her hair. She didn't doubt that he would have been aware of her not being asleep, just as she knew that it was likely her wakefulness who would have awakened him. She finally went and turned over to face him, and she had to hand it to him. If she hadn't been smiling yet, the sight of him would have gotten her there.

"Last day," he stated, and she buried her head in his chest with a groan.

"Don't wanna," she declared in a very sound imitation of any of their daughters.

"But summer's almost here," he reminded her, rubbing at her back. "It'll be fun."

"I know… I know," she replied, earnest on the second time. "I'm just going to miss the ones that are going away…"

"Especially your brother?"

"Yes, but don't tell him that. It'll go to his head," she rolled her eyes, making them both laugh.

Jokes or none, when she arrived at school that morning, the last of the school year, she was met with one Matthew Jonathan Hunter sitting at her desk, casually doodling and – she'd guess – waiting for her. He heard her coming and pivoted in his seat, as though he was right where he belonged.

"Good morning," he greeted her, sounding like their father. She gave him a look, and he tipped his head to her, indicating he had gotten the message, and he got up out of her chair before hopping to sit on the edge of her desk. "Look, I made you something to remember me by," he handed her his doodles. "Please don't grade them," he added.

"Are you kidding?" she smiled, taking the page. "That's A+ material," she informed him. He stood by and grinned as she pinned his drawing amid her 'personal' pieces. A lot of those had been made by her daughters, but others had come courtesy of nieces, nephews, junior turtles, friends, former students… "There, fits right in," she declared before turning back to MJ and catching him in a good hug.

It was just the way for her to start this day, and it flowed along with no sign of slowing down. Soon, she had said farewell to her seniors and was set to do the same with her sophomores. She would see them back in the fall, same as she would the kids she'd see that afternoon, but she never lacked for ways to feel nostalgic about her students. Saying goodbye to the sophomores meant feeling the clock start to tick louder as they'd be heading into the latter half of their high school years. It never stopped rolling. She had them for four years, but each of those years saw arrivals and departures. There was no stopping the motion.

Lunch on the last day was as relaxed as it got for Maya and her colleagues, gathered up in the art room. This time around, they added to the experience by having their spouses join them if they were available. The one who could not attend was Stella's husband, as The Young Frank was out in London at the moment, but he had taken the time to join them by virtue of a video call. When it was all of them in that room, as much as the teachers could feel nostalgia at the thought of parting with their students, they turned just a bit into their students, eager for the start of summer and talking about their plans for the holidays.

"You could stay with me," Maya clasped Lucas' hand before he could turn and head out, giving him her best motivating smile, which got a chuckle out of him. "You could model for the class… It's been a while."

"Not sure that would end up the way you're thinking," he pointed out, and she frowned with exaggerated disappointment. He leaned up to whisper at her ear, ending with a kiss to her cheek. When he pulled back, he was glad to find a pink tinge to his wife's cheeks and the hint of a spark in her eyes. "Later, Mrs. Friar."

Afternoon began, and if she hadn't already been in her classroom at the end of lunch break, she was sure she would have come to find a repeat of that morning's visit, courtesy of her last little Hunter. When Haley appeared in the doorway, she just barely let a hint of disappointment peek through as she reined in the rest of the expression. She'd wanted to do like MJ, and Maya wouldn't be surprised if the two of them had made a wager of some kind, which she might not have lost. Those two were already making the most of the end of the year and summer about to begin, knowing that come summer's end he would be leaving their parents' home and relocating to their big sister's.

The last long break was spent with Ella and dear Sunny, as the eldest Friar girl helped her mother do a bit of end-of-year cleaning in the classroom, while her younger daughter helped her grandmother have a good bit of smiles as she looked on to the end of her day.

Juniors on the very last day of school was as unfocused and chaotic as ever, and that was just fine. The next time they'd walk into her class would be at the very beginning of the first day instead of the very end of the last day. They would be seniors, one more year with her. Agnes, Freddie, Noor, Austin, all of them… They were going to make this a good one, a great one… And if she could get that win, maybe one last one under the constant gaze of Sandra Davenport as their one and only principal…

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners