July 9th 2023

Chapter 190
We Cultivate For The Future

It was by now a time honored tradition not only for the art teacher but for her husband, too, to accompany the students of each grade on two or three field trips every year, to look after them, make sure they didn't get in trouble… maybe had some fun while they were learning… Now the time had come once again, and they were as happy as ever to go and accompany the seniors on this first outing, especially as they'd run into some roadblocks along the way. They hadn't been unexpected roadblocks, and for that they had been able to work around them and get the kids loaded up on a bus to go and discover a bit of art beyond their classroom. Not all of them who came along were in art class, no, but that didn't stop the subject matter at hand from being important to witness, the better to enrich their knowledge. There would be no sight of their… detractors on any of these trips, so they were at the very least guaranteed that much peace.

Any bus ride with students being sprung from class, whether or not they would enjoy their destination, would be a noisy affair, but neither Maya nor Lucas minded it. Maybe it reminded them of car rides with their daughters, maybe they had still carried enough affection toward their memories of being in high school and going on these trips that they saw absolutely no reason to respond with anything else but a smile. On this trip, somewhere in the midst of all the noise, they could at least pick out one subject in particular hopping around from one smaller conversation to another: basketball.

The season hadn't started yet, and the tryouts had only just happened, the teams not yet announced, so all they could do was speculate. Lucas discreetly signed to suggest that they were doing this on purpose, hoping maybe to pull something from her, by how she reacted to what they said. It made her laugh quietly, which in turn had them staring back at her, but there was nothing to find there. If they'd gotten to know her at all over the past three years, they would know that.

As far as new talent coming along, she could for sure have confirmed the likes of Jonah Killian and Hunter Matthews were in good standing. She could also have recounted how part of her had been so sure she would see her little sister going in for the team, too, even though she'd been talking of trying out for the cheer squad, which she did do in the end. It wasn't as though she wouldn't do great as a cheerleader, no, she would be fantastic. But Maya had seen her play opposite Nellie, Gracie, and MJ, all three of them great talents who would be remembered, and she'd been sure that Haley would complete the quartet of Hunter legends… She would be a legend, just for another team.

Once they arrived at the museum, everyone got off the busses. Maya might have seen the merit in having her entire class of seniors with her and leaving the others to their own chaperones, but she actually didn't mind the mix of students she ended up with. She fully trusted that those who didn't follow her would be in good hands, too, and she'd get to hear all about it in their next class back at school. Until then, the two groups lined up outside to hear their instructions ahead of going in. This led to a bit of playful banter between the two groups, as though they were embarking in a competition, and they would soon see which side came out victorious. This was fully endorsed by Maya, who looked forward to seeing how this would pan out, whether this was all just talk or not. Knowing these kids, this would be anything but.

"Runners?" Lucas wondered as the two groups split off, and Maya snorted, laughing quietly with him for a few beats before they both did a bit of clearing their throats, attempting to look like serious, responsible chaperones before they could look at the selection of seniors that they had walking with them. Any of them likely to make a break for it and explore on their own? They exchanged a look and a thought with it, further challenging their ability to appear serious.

If anyone was going to scamper off, it would be her brother and his friends. It was already fully within their personalities to do so, but also MJ, like the twins before him, had been raised on his big sister's stories. Maya had a very specific memory of taking a four or five-year-old MJ to this very museum, a brother-sister day out, and telling him how she and Lucas would go seeking 'weird stuff.' They had pretended to do it, even though there had been no one to see them go, just a college girl and her baby brother she didn't get to see nearly as often as she'd like to… From there, the subject had come up again enough times, the act committed on past field trips over the first three years of his high school days… He couldn't possibly let one of his last chances slip by, could he?

And he did go, him and Ash together. Lydia would have gone with the two of them, for sure, but she ended up staying with the group and walking with her fellow quiz team captain, Marie Nilsson, who'd ended up on their side of the divide. Also on this side, and maybe wishing he hadn't been as he'd likely seen his ex and his friend go, was Lamar Whitley. Maya hated to think of it this way, after his breakup with MJ he had more or less faded into the background in the class. She felt bad, even if there was nothing that she could have done for it. She wasn't responsible for what had happened between him and her brother, but he was still one of her students, and maybe she'd allowed him too much space, not wanting to come off as the big sister getting mixed up in their relationship. At this point, she wasn't sure there was much more to do without it coming off like a pity play. The best she might have been able to do was let him get to the end of the year on his own terms and move on.

"Mrs. Friar? I need to…" Marie sighed, motioning back the way they'd come.

"Yeah, okay. I'll go so we can catch up with the group," Maya told her.

"I can go with her," Lydia insisted, but Marie looked like she didn't want this all to turn into a thing, so Maya turned to Lydia and tipped her head to Lucas.

"Keep an eye on your cousin for me, will you?"

"Hey!" Lucas played along before nudging for Lydia to follow him. She hesitated, but she went, and Maya escorted Marie. "You know, if you wanted to go and see what MJ and Ash are up to…"

"It's okay," Lydia smirked despite herself. "I told her I'd help look after the others, when she goes away after… you know… We don't even know what will happen when Max has her babies, how long she'll be gone… What are the odds, right?"

"Right…" Lucas hummed.

"Maybe we'll get alternates or something. We're not allowed to compete with both teams separately anyway, not everywhere. And we don't even have our new freshmen yet. You should bring that up with Maya."

"In this conversation, I'm pretty sure she's still Mrs. Friar," he whispered at her, grinning, and his cousin gave him a look well worthy of her Hypnoteyes nickname.

Maya had not followed Marie into the bathroom. She waited for her out in the hall, kept an eye out in case she spotted her brother and Ash as she contemplated how much longer she'd be able to give them before telling them to come back. As far as taking a lot of time though, when it did feel like a long time had gone by, she stepped through the bathroom door and looked inside.

"Hey, are you alright?" she asked. Marie stood at the sinks, looking at herself in the mirror.

"I don't know, do I look okay?" she asked. Her eyes were bright with unshed tears that were just waiting for the slightest bit of give in order to start rolling out. "Everyone's so curious about this baby, about what it is, and if it's kicking, and what I'm going to do with it after it's born… Well, he's a he, and yeah, he does… a lot, and… and I don't know," she bowed her head. Maya decided that, in that moment, a hug was the most human thing she could give. "When there were the tryouts, for the basketball team, I kept thinking how I hated that I couldn't play this year, and then I just felt so selfish about it…"

"You're allowed to be selfish," Maya assured her, rubbing the girl's back until she could be calm enough to return to the others.

By the time they did, they very coincidentally came across MJ and Ash, and Maya motioned wordlessly for them to follow, so they did. The better to give Marie a bit more space for silence, she asked Ash what they and MJ had found on their 'weird hunt.'

"I don't know if it was weird," Ash shrugged, though they did launch into the story, catching the purpose of her teacher asking the question. Whether or not this was the actual full story was left to be determined. Some things just could not be shared with someone, because while they were your friend's sister, they were also your teacher, and someone who had looked at for you for four whole years already and even beyond, and you didn't have it in you to share anything that could have put them in the position of deciding whether or not to betray your confidence.

In the end, they went ahead, accompanying Marie back to where Lydia and the others were getting on, allowing Maya to loop arms with her brother, keeping him 'prisoner' with a smirk.

"You look just like Mom when you do that, you know?" MJ pointed out.

"You look just like Dad when you do that, so I guess we're even," she squinted at him, and he laughed, running a hand through his hair. "And that."

"Okay, I get it, we're clones, I guess."

"Except the color there," Maya gestured at his hair. "Hey, we should dye it for Halloween… For science," she nodded and grinned before letting out a quietly contained laugh for the way he looked momentarily intrigued. "So, new topic," she tapped his arm.

"It's not about my love life, is it? Because I've got enough of that from Nellie and Gracie."

"Well, it wasn't, but it can be…" Maya raised a brow, but MJ gave her a look and she surrendered. "College, how about that?" she offered.

"Better be worth it, because the applying and getting in part feels like a headache already," he frowned. Maya gave him a pitying laugh. "Right now, I'm only in it for the accommodations," he intoned.

"The accommodations, yeah…" she hummed. "You're ready to share your room with a toddler, huh?"

"Oh, yeah. Wyatt and I worked it all out. It'll be great," MJ promised.

"If this keeps up, we're going to have to build another floor again…"

"Yeah, keep going, add more levels. We can all live together in the same house, it'll be great," he joked, and she gave him a look. "You're going to need a bigger table in the kitchen… And a bigger kitchen."

"Hasn't even moved in yet and he's ready to do a remodel," Maya sighed over-dramatically, guiding her brother back to his classmates.

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners