February 9th 2023

Chapter 40
We Greet Team Spirit

It wasn't easy to have any kind of fixed schedule when it came to Lucas and his basketball team. Some of them had relatively fixed schedules, but even those were not immune to the unexpected emergency and delay, and that only increased when they had children, too. Add on those of them whose schedules were even less locked down, and it became a matter of working with options, not one set time for all. It wouldn't be uncommon for them to have practices where only part of the team would be available, some of the others turning up if they were able. Always, they would go on with the aim to have a full team practice once a week, and they usually pulled it off, especially if they had a game scheduled.

This week, they had a whole other plan. It was double game day at the high school, and Lucas would be there, naturally, as would Maya and the girls, and Sydney Carter would be there for daughter Maia Bennett even as she'd be there accompanied by her sons, all of them as good as waiting for their turn, as soon as they'd start high school, to join the boys' team. They all played, in one team or another. There were a few more of the members on the doctors, nurses, and paramedics' team who had a child, niece or nephew, cousin, sibling, or other close enough acquaintance on one of the school's teams that they would have likely been in attendance anyway, for one or both games, so it was an easy leap for them to decide to make it a full team outing.

They were quite a sight to see, all of them in the stands together. It kind of looked as though they were there to support a team that wasn't playing that day, with how many of the team's players or the spouses or children had come wearing a shirt, hat, or other piece of clothing with the med team's logo. The effect was reduced once the signs were put into view, supporting the school's players.

"Oh, no..." Lucas heard Marianne's voice and turned to see what was wrong. She had a frown on her face, and he followed her line of sight... Ah... He had to will himself not to show any inclination to laugh or cringe sympathetically as he saw them... The cheerleaders.

They weren't terrible, not at all, but they couldn't be called good either, not as a squad. Individually, he could see several of them having loads of talent, yes, but together... It was impossible not to see that the individual struggles spiraled to create complete dissonance. Throw on the way some of the people in the stands were all too vocal with their opinions and then they had no chance to rally. Some of the players looked like they wanted to encourage them, cheer on the cheerleaders, but others were flat out discouraged when they saw them coming, like it would throw off their abilities to play well.

From what he'd heard through Maya, Dylan, Morgan, and anyone else on the faculty he was familiar with, the less than stellar streak of the brand new squad was not making the new principal happy either. This was one of Sandra Davenport's first projects upon taking up the post, and this was what she'd gotten for it. Maya would tell him especially how conflicted she was by the whole thing. There was a part of her that was pleased that things weren't working out for the new principal, no use denying it, but she wasn't so opposed to the woman that she'd ignore the rest of the picture: the kids.

She hadn't forgotten how excited everyone had been about the return of the squad at the start of the year. She also hadn't forgotten about sitting in on the tryouts, seeing the giddiness the day the list had gone up, or when the uniforms had first started to appear. They were a common sight now, like they could have always been there. And yet now, with the way everything had been going... They had lost some of that shine once it had become known across the school that they were doing as poorly as they were doing.

The choice was right there, wasn't it? Either let it go, do nothing, and watch Davenport's pet project crumble into pieces, a firm strike against her and maybe a reprieve for the art department, or try and do what she could to bring the shine back on to those students who'd met the news of the squad's return with anticipation.

Not a choice... never a choice. Sure, both sides could be said to have the students' best interests at heart, but one of them was only a consequence of a spiteful lack of action. That wasn't going to be her style, ever. She didn't know exactly what she'd do to help, but she was thinking about it. Lucas could see it in her eyes sometimes, and especially here, on game days, watching the squad. She looked as though she was collecting data.

"Daddy, I want to sit with you," Remy told him, tugging at his sleeve. His arms were presently keeping both Aubrey and Mackenzie secure on either of his knees, the girls fascinated by what they saw below, the game in play. If Remy was going to claim one knee, one of the little sisters would have to be taken up elsewhere.

They didn't lack in takers, sure, but the question had more to do with whether either one of the girls would be on board with being moved. Katy tried it, leaning in from the row above to see if Aubrey would want to go to her Nana. She smiled at seeing her, absolutely, but she made no move when arms were offered to her, instead looked to her father and held to his arm around her. No go. Grandpa Shawn tried it, too, with his dear little Fleetwood, and he was almost successful, but then Mackenzie squeaked and refused. She wanted to stay with her Dada, too.

"Daddy…" Remy tugged again, and he sighed. It wasn't the first time anything like this happened. They'd sailed right over the 'so many arms, so many daughters' line in the blink of an eye once they'd had the triplets. If it was only up to 'everyone gets held,' they could work it out fine; but then when they all wanted one lap and it was all taken up… The best they could do then was to try and give them some way to change their minds and save themselves a tantrum.

"Hey, kitten, what do you have there?" Maya leaned to speak at the four-year-old's ear. When Remy turned to look at her, she motioned for her to come closer, one arm still holding to Kacey, who was making the most of her current headrest called 'Mommy's shoulder.' "Right there, right… ha!" Maya scooped up Remy, and she squealed, surrendering to her being pulled on to her mother's knee to join her twin. Kacey jumped, pulled out of her reverie but not nearly as startled once she found Remy next to her. With the spot on the stands between her parents vacated, Marianne climbed down from where she'd been sitting between her grandfather and her aunt Haley before reaching back to help down Lucy, who'd been in their aunt's lap, and park her in her own lap.

"This is so fun!" Marianne told her parents as she looked around them and observed her father's teammates and their families all around them.

"Yeah?" Lucas smiled, laughed at the way she nodded so determinedly.

"Yeah," she told him. "Are we going to dinner all of us after the games?"

"I don't know about all of us, but whoever's available, probably. How about we head back to the ranch, huh?" She liked the sound of that and, going by the way several of them perked up at the suggestion, so did her sisters and her niece, sitting between her Pappy Luke and her father. Now all they had to do was get the word out as the game went on.

Despite troubles with the cheerleaders' performances, they couldn't be faulted for how they actually cheered on their schoolmates as they played. Whether it was them, or the home court crowd in the stands, or being at their own school, or all of this and the work of their coaches and teammates, the players were having a great day. And as much as she gave her attention to both of the teams, devoted always, Maya would have been lying if she said she wasn't focused on one of them in particular today, on part of that one team most of all. She was following her sisters, identical twins and yet no one would mistake one brunette for the other if they had seen them play before. They had their own movements when it came to basketball.

It had been a pleasure and a privilege to watch them out here for nearly four years already and now, knowing how close they were to closing out this chapter in their lives… It took Maya back, all the way to when she'd been a senior, playing her last games. Of course, in her case, there had been that matter of the two years, as a sophomore and a junior, where she'd been unable to play, like everyone else at her school, when there hadn't been any teams. Still, teams or no teams in the school, she had been a part of them, her and the other players, and it had been such an important part of her high school experience that the two could not be divided from one another. And to look at Nellie and Gracie now, Maya knew they were getting to feel it, too… the turning of the page. They didn't want it to end.

Most of Lucas' teammates made the journey over with him and the family, from the high school to the ranch, after the two games were over. Lucas, the team, and the spouses sat and discussed the two match ups they had witnessed earlier, praising great plays, and recalling one detail and another. The children, the tall and the small, convened at the hoops, where they were joined by Rafa Vega. The boy showed his own potential for being a player on the boys' team, if he should ever choose to join it. He wasn't part of their 'team family,' but with how they'd taken to using the ranch as a meeting place for these big meet-ups, the B&B's manager's son had become a fast staple among the teens and children.

"Mom! Mom! Dad! You gotta see!" Marianne came running up to the table, dragging Rafa by the arm and – by extension – Rafa's phone. "He caught it, look!" she turned to the boy so he would present his phone. He looked kind of excited to show them, too, so they leaned in to see the video, which showed several of the children playing together.

In one instant, Maia Bennett's younger brother tossed the ball – carefully – toward Kacey Friar, who closed her small hands over it and stopped its fall. The little blonde just smiled, and squealed, and turned to throw the ball with all her might. It was a total fluke, no doubt about it, but the ball sailed, connected with the edge of the hoop, and after keeping all of them holding their breaths for a moment, it tipped through the opening. The sound of cheering children burst from the phone, drawing everyone to look over if they hadn't done it already. Maya and Lucas were just looking at the screen, the kids rushing in to lift up the four-year-old like the one who'd earned them a championship. She had no idea what was going on except that she'd put the ball in the hoop, and everyone was very excited. She hooted and hollered, arms up like she'd seen.

"That right there, all you," Lucas grinned as he looked to Maya. She reached out, 'confirmed' the presence of the invisible hat on his head before reaching back and, surprise, discovering one on her own head, too.

"Let's call it even and say that's both of us, yeah?"

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners