July 7th 2023
Chapter 188
We Surround With Heart
By the end of their first week back to school, there would be a feeling of routine installed, of rhythm. They all knew what to expect in the morning when they woke up, and they did it, of course, but maybe most importantly they enjoyed it, looked forward to where they were all going. Things might waver as days and weeks progressed, and there might be some days where they would be less motivated for some reason, but it would be a phase and it would pass... hopefully.
As to the Friar girls, their first week, individually, had on the whole gone very well. Whether they were in preschool, first grade, or fourth, they were all learning, and spending time with friends both new and old, and though there was the occasional fit for saying goodbye to their parents in the morning - nothing new for any of them at any time - the reward came in the afternoon where they were reunited, either headed home, or to the ranch...
The best part, for Lucas and Maya especially, would be when they would get them back at the end of the day and see the joy in them, hear the stories that they brought back with them. It continued to be so funny to hear the youngest two go on and on about how much they loved Miss Alma, especially when the other four would chime in, too, remembering when she had been their teacher, too. Meanwhile, the triplets were adjusting to the setup of their class, which was aided immensely when their teacher spontaneously decided to rearrange the desks into groupings of four, two and two facing one another. Kacey, Lucy, and Remy ended up in one such grouping along with a boy who reportedly kept looking at the three of them in confusion at the idea of triplets.
Maya had plenty of stories herself, thanks to her students, and she would share them when she could. It all depended on a number of things, from whether it would be appropriate for one or another of her daughters to hear it, to whether the people in the story would want it all shared with anyone, child or not. There was one thing that she could count on across the board, more often than not: she had received the diaries back with their covers decorated to represent them. There was no holding them back once they saw the boxes being brought back into the house. Their understanding of senior, junior, sophomore, and freshman varied across the ages, but they all knew that their uncle was now in the eldest group, and names or not, they sure knew what the colors of each box meant. Aubrey had gone so far as to pull the lid off of it and start rifling through the many books lined up inside.
"Alright, easy there, Quick Draw, I know the one you want," Maya laughed, pulling her youngest back by scooping her up around her middle. She just found it funny and squirmed around like she was being tickled.
Maya had no trouble finding her brother's book. For as long as he'd attended the school, he had been the president of the not-actually-a-club 'Yep, I'm gay, you got a problem with that?' club, and each of his three previous covers had shown that in some way or another, but this last one was very much his grand finale. Every single one of those students had been handed a golden pen, but MJ's cover was truly the one that shone the most, and in many more colors than gold.
All through the weekend, they would be exploring those boxes. It wasn't just about looking at each one, not when Maya had to set their next assignments, and take notes about the work they'd done already… and the girls could spend a whole hour looking at any one of them if no one said a thing. Lucas had come up with a way to make it sort of like a game for them, so they could keep it moving and not miss anything at the same time… and he'd also reminded them that, given time, they would have plenty more opportunities to stare at the books to their hearts' content. At any time, their answer would change if they were asked what part they loved most about seeing the diaries. Sometimes they loved the new kids best, because that meant new people who did different art. Other times they loved getting back to old favorites, the people they were starting to recognize by name and style if not by face.
With the new juniors, they'd had two years already, and so when she would pull out a new diary, there would be a moment of everyone looking at the cover and trying to decide who had done it. They were remarkably skilled at making those identifications, but Lucy was easily the best, even if she'd often stay quiet in favor of letting her sisters answer. Lucas would be the one to get her to speak up after the others had given their choice and gotten it wrong.
"That one's Freddie's," she told of one, and Maya smiled. "I like it," Lucy added, tipping her head back to look at her father. Lucas nodded appreciatively. He liked it, too, loved how the boy had portrayed his vision of what family was to him, or at least that was the impression that it gave him.
Coming down to the new sophomores, the students here weren't new anymore, but they were new enough still that they had plenty of room to expand and develop in. This group had the extra benefit that not all other groups did as far as how many of its members were people that the Friar girls knew in one way or another in their day to day life. Jake Bennett was like a brother to them, and he treated them all like his little sisters whenever his mother and their father's basketball team would get together, and it would always be deeply funny to see how they all interacted together. And Amy Dixon was always just down the road, so if either of them went by each other's house and they were within view, it would just be a big game of waving at each other for as long as they could see one another. And then Rafa, well, as far as they were concerned, he was fully family, and he took that distinction with honor.
When it came to Max and Max, well, they had been an iconic duo for as long as the girls had known about them, whether or not their respective ties to the family came into the conversation. There was their Farrell friend, and his family at large being connected to the Friars, and then the McAllister girl, with her legend of a mother in the former and future third graders' hearts... When they had learned that this Max was pregnant, their parents had done their best to share this information with care.
Not knowing at the time what Max planned to do or how she felt, they didn't their pack of giddy girls coming in all happy and wanting to touch her belly once she started to show. Once she'd declared her intention to keep her baby, and once they'd learned it was TWO babies, well... The sisters' brand of care and attention seemed as though it went a long way to help the soon-to-be mother discover who she could be, who she would be once her children came into the world. It wouldn't be anything like becoming a mother to two newborns while attending school, but having these memories to hold on to… That could be invaluable.
Now when it came down to the freshman box, there was something deeply thrilling at the thought of looking at these covers and not knowing a single thing about the people who drew them beforehand. That may not have been the case for all of them, some more than others, but even if they did know them and had known them all their lives, now that they were part of the roster of diaries, it felt different, and that was great. They had been most thrilled for having their Aunt Haley 'in the boxes' now, enough that they could barely hold still when it was the freshmen's turn. Maya had not kept them waiting longer than they had to. She'd pulled out her sister's book first and presented it to her daughters.
Haley's book was – as far as Maya was concerned – the most Haley thing it could ever have been. It couldn't have been more Haley if it had sound effects. It had her energy from corner to corner, front and back. It wouldn't matter whether or not she'd call herself an artist, or if she could draw like any of the top artists in her class. She was good at her own thing, and as soon as Maya had seen it, she'd laughed and obeyed the urge to hug her sister.
She'd felt that urge, too, when she had received back Madelyn's diary, if for a whole other reason. When she'd looked at hers, all she'd seen was the chaos of her mind at the moment, dealing with everything that was happening in her life, coming out in waves, like she hadn't meant to put it out there, but it had just kept coming, and coming, until she couldn't stop. And then she'd had to hand it in like that, and she'd looked like she was only realizing then just what she would be handing in, and there was just the smallest thought in her to pull her hands back, to hide the book and say she hadn't finished it, as though Maya hadn't seen it already. Would she have played along and let her do it? One hundred percent, no hesitation. But Madelyn had gone ahead and placed the book in her hand, and Maya had only needed one look at it to understand what that hesitation was about. The hug came later, when they were on their own and able to speak.
"Did you go and dig in the boxes, too?" Maya asked Lucas, chuckling, when he came up to join her in her art room. It would have been showing poor knowledge of who she was if any of them expected her to go anywhere except to sit at her desk after having spent so much of the weekend looking through her students' work. She had to be here, had to take up some tool or another – pencil that night – and create, and so she did. But now here was her husband, with a book at his side.
When she first saw it, as he held it up, her immediate response was to frown and think 'that's not a diary.' But then, wasn't it? No, it wasn't one of the sketchbooks they used in her class, but it was a diary. Its pages were not covered in art but in words, for the most part, and all of them in the very soothing and perfect hand of Melinda Friar. She looked up at him, and Lucas nodded.
"I had to dig through to the older ones, make sure the years matched. I'm not even sure what will be in there. Maybe we're looking at this for nothing, but maybe we're not and… whatever the answer is to your mystery, it could be here… some of it…" He walked up closer until he could hand it to her. It was strange how she felt just a bit like she shouldn't touch it, like she should leave it alone and let her mother-in-law rest in peace. But again, she knew that Melinda Friar would not take this situation sitting down, and she would want Maya to use her diaries if they were going to help. She thought of a time where her daughters would enter high school and imagined what it would be like if there was no art left to be found. And she took the book.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
