A/N: One day behind...
July 30th 2023
Chapter 211
We Wish For Truth
The day was halfway done already. Lunch had just ended, which brought the freshmen into the art room for their class. Already, Maya's mind was off in another direction though, because it was the last day of November, and as her younger daughters had made sure to remind her that morning, the fairies would be descending upon them that evening, bringing their magic to the house. They all couldn't wait and, frankly, she was right there with them. The tradition had been part of them now for several years, and she was well aware that it would only be able to go on for so long before it would be forced to change. At some point, all the little children in the Friar house would know what really happened on the night before December began.
"Alright, let's do something different today," Maya addressed her students when the bell had rung. They looked at her, most of them, and the last few slowly but surely quieted down once they were the only ones left. Maya smiled. "I want one of you from each station to tell the class something. Maybe something you saw, or read, and then everyone will take one of those statements and interpret..."
She was cut off by the fire alarm, and for a moment she was as confused as the kids. Yes, they were scheduled for a fire drill this week, but they'd all been told it would be on Friday, which was two days away, so was this... No, there was the call that it was a drill, and that they had to follow instructions and procedures. She had a pretty good idea that this bit of misinformation had been fed to them on purpose, but she wasn't going to dwell on that just now. She had kids to lead out.
She used to love fire drills back in New York because it meant she could get out of class for a while. Once she'd made it to Texas, much as her attitude toward school had changed, she felt the same, because she got to hang out with her friends for a while. Now that she was a teacher, she hated fire drills. Yes, she saw the merit in having them, but they mostly left them stressed as they had to make sure everyone got where they needed to be. She thought of Marie, the last Mama still in school, as Max had bowed out until after her twins were born.
"Are you guys good?" Maya asked her freshmen once they had been counted and left to stand together outside the school. She got a series of yesses and nods from most of them.
A couple of them looked just a bit shaken up by the whole thing, which would happen every time. After a while, Maya would know the ones who'd have trouble with the drills, so she'd be able to keep an eye on them, but when they were new, there was no way of knowing unless she saw it. She couldn't always rely on them being 'the quiet kid,' because that had no bearing on how they would respond to the drill. Right here, she had someone like Jonah Killian, not someone she would have expected to freak out, but he did, a little. Hunter, Martin, and Haley were all sticking close to him, helping him deal with what he was feeling, so she left them to carry on rather than intervening and bringing it to everyone's attention. Pretty soon he'd be alright, waiting with the rest of them.
From past experiences in these drills over the two and some years that Sandra Davenport had been their principal, Maya knew that they'd all have a while before they went back inside. It took way longer than she was used to in the past. Morgan would often suggest that the reason was so that the principal could go sneaking through all their classes. It was a joke, but then again, knowing Morgan... and knowing Davenport... it was hard to decide if she didn't actually really believe it, or if she might have been on to something with her theory.
"Hey!" Stella smiled as she and her French class ended up nearby, allowing the two teachers to chat, even as their two groups would do the same if they knew one another. Maya spotted MJ going up to Haley and giving her the biggest, most sweetly embarrassing big brother hug. With how she was minus her best friend at the moment, she appreciated more than she let on and Maya knew it. "Did you happen to talk to Phoebe recently?" Stella asked, casual but also very obvious.
"I might have," Maya replied, with a much better poker face. It was enough to leave her former student confused as to whether or not she was able to say what she wished to say. She could never blow the surprise that her best friend was expecting her third child and rob her of the reveal. Luckily, Maya just smiled, and Stella breathed out. Yes, of course she knew the secret. "Feeling a bit emotional there, Auntie Star?" Maya asked quietly, and it only made Stella smile harder to hear four-year-old Myles' nickname for her. Even his baby brother KJ, at all of a year and a half, knew who that was.
"We should have just brought our diaries or something," Maya heard Martin McNeil say, which turned her attention back to her freshmen.
"Yeah, we could have drawn everyone here," Hunter Matthews chuckled, indicating the seniors, his lifelong family friend and 'fellow Hunter' MJ along with his friends, Ash and Lydia. The trio had fallen into a bit of a huddle, whispering to one another, and Haley was now trying to scoot in nearer, the better to listen in, only to get a face full of her brother's hand while he held her back. That didn't stop her from trying, and she played dirty.
"Hey, come on, knock it off," Maya clapped her hands at them even though she laughed. They sat back and looked at her like the reincarnation of their mother, complete with pointing fingers to one another, proclaiming that the other had started it. "Don't think I don't have tricks up my sleeves, too," she gave them a look and they gave up, which made the students, senior and freshman both, dissolve into laughter.
"Can we come and help tonight?" Haley asked, sitting up, and now she and her brother were on the same page. He signaled as though to say 'yeah, count me in.'
"Help with what?" Jonah asked, better now.
Before Maya could say a thing, her siblings very helpfully jumped in to explain to their fellow classmates about the Christmas fairies and their visits to the Friar house. The kids had a lot of questions, which went a long way in helping the time go by. Pretty soon, it all devolved into a lot of chatter about what they were all looking to do over the winter break, and that worked, too.
"Hey, Maya," MJ appeared at her side, which startled her.
"Sneak," she accused, whispering.
"You bet I am," he quickly replied, the better to move on to what he wished to talk about. "You'll never guess who we tracked down," he told her, and his excitement left her at once curious and apprehensive.
"Who?" she asked.
"The cheer coach," MJ told her, and she frowned. "Not you, the old one, from before our school lost its squad." Her posture shifted despite her intent not to react, and now she was stuck between wanting to know everything and fearing who might be able to listen in on what they said to one another. "It was hard, I mean we had to track down anyone who could at least tell us her name, and then we had to find her. She left Texas, not long after the squad disappeared, hasn't been back since. She gave it up, too, coaching, cheerleading, dancing, all of it. It's really kind of messed up when you think about it."
"Okay, look, go back over there and wait like the others," Maya cut in.
"But…" MJ protested, but she gave him a look and he understood. Not now. "Got it," he bowed his head and went on his merry way. No sooner was he back with his friends though that Haley looked over and walked in her direction.
"What can I do for you, Miss Hunter?" Maya asked, watching her approach. Haley came all the way to where she could lean against her sister's side.
"Hi," Haley smiled at her, and Maya laughed. "What did he want?"
"Your Christmas present," Maya squinted at her, and Haley just squinted back.
"No, you were not," she insisted.
"Well, I guess that's up to you to decide, huh?" Maya told her. Haley would not be so easily turned away, and they both knew it, but then Maya would not be any easier to sway either. They could do this all day.
Luckily they were 'saved' by the call to return into the building and on to their respective classes for this period that was nearly done now. It was one such rare occasion then where they had no choice but to call a draw. Maya didn't count herself so easily out of the discussion, not with how she knew her sister could be very, very persistent.
There was no way she wasn't the slightest bit aware of what MJ and his friends had been up to, but even so, they had generally kept her out of all their intrigue, and they planned to keep it that way. They could very easily imagine what it would be like if they involved Haley Hunter into the cheerstery. There'd be no stopping her, she'd be relentless, maybe a little too much. They wouldn't be above calling her in if the need presented itself, but until then…
Her period with the freshmen was indeed worn down to mere minutes by the time they all sat around their stations again, so they could only put away what had been set out for them and go on their way when the bell rang. After that, she was ridiculously happy at the knowledge that she would be visited by her daughter and granddaughter. There was Ella waiting for her out on their bench, with Sunny up in her arms instead of her stroller. The baby girl was the widest of awakes, and that only went higher as she spotted and recognized her Nana. Maya scooped her up into her arms and sat with her like the exact solution to all her problems present, perceived, and future, could merely disappear in a cloud of smoke.
Maya caught Ella up on her fire drill adventures, which brought memories to her daughter of her own experiences with fire drills. She had really not been a fan of them. At least Sunny would have a few more years to wait before she had to deal with those, huh?
When she got to welcome the juniors in last period, the mood was still very much angled toward the 'break' they'd had at the start of the afternoon. Last period juniors were already hard to wrangle, but last period juniors who'd had a fire drill were near impossible. Maya borrowed a page from her freshmen and asked them to draw something or someone they'd seen while they'd been outside, and that seemed to get some results.
"Hey, did you talk to Jonah since the drill?" Maya stopped at Agnes' station. The girl looked up, blinking, before realizing what she meant.
"Oh, yeah, he's okay now," Agnes promised. "Neither of us really do well with those," she admitted, and Maya nodded. She remembered from the last two years, and she could see the traces of it still in her eyes.
"Well, you got through it," she pointed out, and Agnes gave her a small smile before showing her drawing. Clearly what she'd seen was her art teacher, because she'd drawn her.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
