A/N: Still one day behind...


July 25th 2023

Chapter 206
We Open Up About Them

When they'd realized it, Maya had been left feeling like it had to be a mistake, or it was a trick and the rug would be pulled out from under her feet. Beforehand, before… well, Davenport… she would have just thought herself fortunate, that the stars had aligned for once, but now she couldn't help but be suspicious, and it amused Lucas to no end, even as they drove off together on their way to the school. She would get to go to Parent Teacher Night and be the parent for once, which had hardly ever happened in her years of having school-aged children. It usually was that both the elementary school and the high school would have their parent nights at the same time, making it impossible for her to be anywhere else but in her classroom, meeting parent after parent. Sure, she loved parent night, loved talking to all the families, but she also wanted to get to sit and listen, to hear about how her children were doing instead of talking on and on about other people's children.

They'd already gotten to talk with Miss Alma at the preschool, with regards to their youngest two, and Maya had been so happy to hear from the woman who'd been following along with each of their young ones at this stage of their lives, and it was a lot to consider that they could be so close to putting that chapter behind them, if Aubrey remained their baby girl. She was still only starting preschool, but they knew from experience that it could all pass them by so, so fast, when it still didn't seem so long ago that Marianne had brought them to meet the woman in the first place. Each of their girls had their own experience in here, and for the ages they all were when they'd been here, they'd also developed enough that they felt like whole new people by the time they left, and all of it for the better. Aubrey was only starting on that journey, but they were already seeing it. Oh, she was still their Lucky, their littlest one, and she remained as delicate as ever, but she was also starting to assert herself in ways that were as wonderful to her parents as they made them nostalgic.

Mackenzie was certainly moving along that path herself, one year and some dust into her preschool time. She was still their funny little Macaroni, their Mackerel, Macaw, Mack Attack, all of it, and she would stay that as she kept growing up… they hoped… But she would be five in the spring, and there was so much more to her now beyond her just being a cute and funny kid. Her energy was so infectious, which her parents saw plenty of back at home, but then Miss Alma was seeing it at school, too. Sometimes, it could be that there was just a bit too much of that energy, as her teacher had needed to point out, but she never faulted her for it, for her being a kid, the way some others in the world might have wanted to do. She did note, this time around, that ever since Mackenzie had started doing gymnastics, she'd gotten to feel a bit more focused, so maybe this was just the outlet that her energy had needed. For sure, she was loving every minute of it, they already knew that, and they looked forward to seeing how it went as she grew.

Tonight, it was all about the other four, their elementary school girls. They would have exactly one sweet spot of a year where all six of their younger girls would be attending the same school, when Aubrey would be in kindergarten and Marianne in sixth grade, which would make these parent nights as tricky as they got, having to hit four different classes in one night, but they would cross that bridge when they got to it, in just under two years. Right now, it was about the triplets and their firstborn. Lucas had been going to these nights here so long that it all got to feel very familiar, while for Maya of course there was the 'thrill' of actually getting to go for once, and as they walked up to the building he made sure to playfully tease her about it all, making sure not to cross the line between 'you finally get to come' and 'you just weren't here.' Maya never doubted which side he was on, so they could joke about it together. They joined the other parents, waiting to speak to the triplets' teacher, and went in once they were called.

The three sisters had made it through the start of the year well enough, moving past the growing pains of being in this new setting, this new stage of their lives, by being together. They still had tendencies to 'fall in,' to go in triangle mode, mostly when one or all of them were feeling insecure and uncertain, but as they navigated the first grade, it happened a lot more often than they'd care to admit. A lot of the time, as their teacher shared, the burden of rallying fell on Kacey, though she generally seemed comfortable with the position, something to be expected as she'd done it most of her young life, so it was no surprise. If her sisters and fellow triplets were having difficulty, she'd be the first one there to help them out, to stand up for them. It manifested as needed depending on if Remy was the one with issues or if it was Lucy. And if ever she was the one struggling, her teacher saw as her parents did, how she'd try not to show it, to hide it, but in turn Remy and Lucy would just know, and they'd surround her at once.

When it came to Remy, her teacher was very proud of the progress she was making. Her temperament was a bit all over the place at times, which was not new for her parents to hear, but if they could get her in the right mindset, she was doing so much better than maybe Remy herself would realize. Oh, she was for sure lagging on some skills by comparison to her sisters, or the rest of the class, but none of it was anything that her teacher saw as worthy of concern. Sure, of the three of them, she was a distant third as far as handwriting, but she was only six and hardly on her own in that department. She had a curiosity her teacher called unparalleled, for good or ill, reminiscent of when Marianne had been in the first grade even if the older Friar girl's curiosity translated far more into imagination. As far as Miss Remy Friar was concerned, curiosity could often end up with a band-aid, or a time out. None of it resolved itself in too much trouble by the time she got home, but again it all came down to what had happened and why.

Last of their first graders, they had Lucy, who might have been the easiest of the bunch in their minds, only according to her teacher, she was struggling the most out of the three. Some of it came down to who she was and had always been as a person, and they had known to expect as much. Their bunny girl was quiet, mingled best with some people she connected with easily, but she could always learn to do so with others after knowing them a while. This was less of an issue here because most of the kids in her class had been in kindergarten with her, or preschool, or they were in the afterschool program with her…

It was the actual class that she struggled with though, the things she and the rest of the class were learning from day to day. Lucas and Maya had seen hints of it already, when they would sit with her for homework, and would see the look in her eyes, how it didn't sit well with her that she just did not follow with what she had to do. Like her teacher, they were willing to look at all of this and believe that there was more than enough time to believe that things would take a turn.

"Should we let him wait for a minute?" Lucas wondered aloud as they walked from one class to the other. Maya snorted.

"You would that to your best friend?" she 'accused.'

"From Texas," he tacked on, which made her smile all over again. "Anyway, wouldn't you?"

"Alright, that's fair," she readily admitted.

They didn't keep Zay waiting in the end, didn't keep "Mr. B" waiting. Showing she was very much their daughter, the day she'd first heard someone refer to her Uncle Zay like that, Marianne had been beyond eager to be reunited with her parents, just so she could tell them that, knowing how it would make them both laugh until they were red in the face. They would tease him relentlessly after that, always in the good natured way of friends.

They knew very well what to expect from him when they watched him see them coming. Yes, they had all been friends for a very long time, and they saw each other all the time outside of this setting, but today that was not who they were to each other, and as professional as he could always be, this one was harder to navigate, and he was having to remind himself to stay in teacher mode with them. Knowing that, it was probably not going to help him that Maya greeted him with a 'hey, Mr. B!'

"Alright, detention, both of you," Zay pointed to them both in turn before waving them into the room. They laughed and did as told.

It was all as straightforward as it got with Marianne. She was and had always been a very good student, and she continued to be at the top of her class from year to year. As proud as they were of her for that, the thing they always were proudest of would be her progress as a person, as a friend, as someone existing out in the world.

"This was nice," Maya declared as they left the school together. "What are the odds I get to come back in the spring?" she wondered aloud after a moment. He smiled over at her, and she sighed. "Yeah, probably not, huh?"

"You never know, he declared, and just smiled.

"I do like the optimism."

"I've got a lot of that, whenever you need it."

"Oh, I'm very aware of that," she nodded up at him. "It's one of your most charming qualities to have passed on to our daughters."

"You've got a few of those, too," he informed her, and she smiled back at him, prompting him to bring her hand to his lips.

"My mom used to hear a lot of the same things as we did about Lucy when I was her age," Maya stated aloud the thought that had been playing at her mind. Lucas looked at her like he'd figured this would be coming, that it would be the part that would hang her up.

"You got through it," he reminded her, and she didn't need to remind him that this turn had only happened years later, after a whole heap of struggles that had not done wonders for her self esteem. "She's only starting," he went on, and she nodded. She hadn't forgotten that either. "And we can give her everything your mother wishes she could have given you back then," he went on, and she only had to look at him to guess this statement came of conversations he'd had with her mother, likely at the ranch, when she was there to film her series.

"We can," she hummed, choosing to go on the side of his Huckleberry optimism. "We will."

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners