April 4th 2023

Chapter 94
We Change Schools

"I almost called to check on all of them," Maya confessed with a sigh as she sat outside, on their old bench, near the end of the lunch break.

"Does it make you feel better if I tell you that I did, too?" Lucas told her, and she smiled. He wasn't there next to her, but she only had to hear his voice in her ear and it felt like he was.

"Did you really?" she asked.

"Had my finger on the contact and everything."

"Which one?" she wondered aloud. "The preschool or..."

"Both. Not one after the other though."

"Oh, that's a lot more reasonable then," Maya smirked, especially when he laughed. "It's going to be like this every time, I get it, I'm just all up in Mommy feelings."

"Nothing wrong with those."

"Glad to hear it. Now, if you would like to drop in over the long break to get some quality time with me and our youngest..."

"I will be there."

When they'd said their goodbyes, Maya got up and walked back into the school, heading to the art room. She walked in and was immediately startled to find someone was already there, sat hunched on the window ledge, looking out.

"Already done with lunch?" she asked, and the girl turned her head. Her hair was a very bright blue, like it had either been dyed or re-dyed not too long ago. This, matched to the mostly black clothes, black lipstick, and the loop piercing over her bottom lip, would create an image that was hard for anyone to ignore, but for Maya, it soon clicked with a few things she'd heard about through letters, and she began to suspect that this girl in her classroom was not actually one of her students, but instead… "Kinsey?" she asked, and the girl hopped from her seat to walk over to her and extend her hand to shake. Maya accepted it and they shook on it.

"Cade said I could come here whenever I wanted," she informed her. Maya's gaze was momentarily drawn to the scar near one of the girl's gray eyes, crawling to hide its end point somewhere under the bright blue bangs.

"He's absolutely right," Maya smiled. "Welcome. How was your morning?"

"Okay, I guess," Kinsey shrugged, playing at her nails, which explained the chips already present in the black nail polish. "I'm not really a great student, you know? I get by, but barely. Almost didn't make it here this year."

"Yeah, I know how that goes," Maya nodded. "Well, I'm glad you're here. Listen, I'm going to get things set up for class, but you're welcome to stick around."

"I can help. What do you need?" Kinsey offered at once. It gave Maya the impression that she wanted a valid reason to be there, now that she'd been discovered, like she'd come here to hide.

"Well, there's not much to do now, with the freshmen, but it will go faster with your help, thank you."

They spent a few minutes like this, not talking much, and as this went on, Maya couldn't help but turn something around in her mind, couldn't help thinking of Cade's letters. He'd made it sound like Kinsey was one of the smartest kids her age, so why would she be squeaking by in her grades? Whatever it was, she wouldn't get to know that day, as soon she had to – reluctantly – head off to class, while Maya awaited her first freshmen of the year.

That first one turned out to be her neighbor, Amy Dixon. She had shot up in height over the summer, which could sometimes give her the impression of still needing to learn to walk and exist in her new body, but today she was about as confident as Maya had ever seen her. She also looked significantly more made up in her style than she'd done over the summer holidays or even back in middle school. This was not a new phenomenon to Maya, seeing the kids who followed the 'new school, new me' mentality, but it was a bit strange when that came attached to someone she vividly recalled as a tiny child, asleep on her father's shoulders, face full of ice cream. The Amy that walked into her class looked much more grown, and maybe that was the perception she wanted to put into the world in this school, but then the moment she walked into her neighbor's class, the smile broke all illusions.

"Did your parents see you like this?" Maya asked, her voice making it clear there was no judgement whatsoever.

"No way," Amy chuckled.

"How long do you think you can keep it up without them seeing the new you?"

"I don't know yet. It's fine. They keep saying that 'you need to express yourself', and 'you need take your place in the world,' and I'm doing that, see?" she asked, shifting from an accurate impression of her mother, and her father, into a smile and a proud stance that sent the thin braids down her back swaying and clicking together.

"Well, I can't argue with that," Maya admitted, and Amy nodded, her smile growing. "How's your day going?"

"Easy, I guess. We didn't do a lot so far. Oh, but in gym, Coach Orlando said he couldn't wait to see me on the girls' team," Amy shared, which made Maya chuckle.

"It helps that he's seen you play before."

"Hey, you know Jake Bennett, don't you? Isn't his mom on Mr. Friar's team with him?"

"I do know him," Maya confirmed with a curious smile. "Why?" Amy didn't give her answer with words, but the smile peeking through her pressed lips said it all: She thought he was hot.

Maya could see how Amy – and other students as well – would have this opinion. Maia's younger brother, the first of three Bennett boys, was the picture of his father with a sprinkling of his mother, according to his mother herself. Like his sister, he wore his Māori heritage well and proudly, for himself as much as in memory of the late father who'd given it to him, and as Sydney Carter had been telling her teammates and their spouses, he'd been particularly dedicated to all of this over the summer, in looking to his younger brothers. He knew now more than ever that his sister was one year off from striking out into the world, and he saw the responsibility as falling to him as next in line.

What this translated into, as far as who he was in school that day, was someone with an easy confidence, walking tall but relaxed, smiling, and the effect was right there in how the likes of Amy Dixon reacted. Morgan would later report one girl had actually come this close to running into an open locker door after getting distracted by him.

Maybe the solution here would be 'strength in numbers.' If they had someone there with them, it was so much easier not to get caught off guard by cute boys in the halls. The trio that came along to round up her freshmen that afternoon was familiar to her for sure, some more than others. Last minute exchange camper and habitual summer camper at the ranch Kimiko Matsuoka was being escorted along by her host and cousin, Max Farrell and his best friend, Max McAllister. Nellie had already dubbed the graduating class of 2042 as the 'girl Max and boy Max' era.

As far as she'd heard, from Kelsey, from her parents, Max Farrell had been 'friends' with Max McAllister since they were babies. They had first been introduced to one another in a pediatrician's office. Brian and Haruna had just moved to Texas with their six-year-old daughter and their infant son, and between Kelsey and all her needs and Max and his being freshly joined to the world, their care was a priority. That was how they had ended up in the clinic with a then seven-week-old Max – fifty-two days old specifically – and sitting across from Ingrid and Natalie McAllister and their Max, who was also seven weeks old – fifty-three days old in her case. By the time they had bonded in the comic coincidence of their babies' names and neighboring birthdates, their fates were as good as set. Ingrid and Natalie had been essential in helping the Farrells settle in, from Brian who had been away from home for a decade to Haruna who had never left Japan until she and her husband and children had moved to Austin. And so, Maximillian Farrell and Maxine McAllister had spent the next fifteen years forging a relationship that met at the happy middle of best friends and siblings.

Max Farrell looked so much like his sister, especially with that lanky frame of his, and then of course his smile. According to Kelsey, as tall as his figure made him look, she was actually a couple of inches taller than him at fifteen, whether anyone would ever be able to tell or not. While his mother had been sick, a few years back, he'd become so closed in, which was understandable. He was eleven, he hadn't been so young as to not know what was going on around him, but he also hadn't known what to make of what was going on. While Kelsey had had Ava and Olivia to support her, Max had had his best friend and soul sister… Max.

Max McAllister had the physicality of someone who'd grown up an athlete, and for good reason. She'd been a gymnast since age three, and she could have been on track to go as far as the Olympics if not for an injury when she was twelve. It wasn't that she couldn't have gotten back into it all after she'd had time to recover. When she'd gotten on the other side though, she'd found that her heart wasn't in it anymore. She'd had to find who she was without this great part of her life, and there had been so little of it… She didn't want that to be her future.

Between one Max moving on from the near loss of his mother and another needing to find herself and rediscover herself, they had spent the last couple of years working on themselves together. To look at them now, they had done a pretty good job. They were both happy and thrilled to start high school together, especially now that Max's cousin Kimiko was going to be spending the year with them. They didn't often get to see each other, which had been one of the great motivators for Kimiko to attend camp at Sullivan Stables over the last few years. Knowing this, offering up the suddenly vacated XC slot to the girl had felt like the easiest solution and most preferable for all involved.

Looking at her group of freshmen for this year, Maya felt nothing but excitement. She couldn't wait to see what they would all do. She doubted that they would be another gold star group like the one she'd just had graduate, but they didn't need to be. They could just be themselves and be amazing in their own rights. She presented them with their diaries, taking the time to explain to them what they would be for and what their first assignment would be. Oh, she couldn't wait to see the covers they would come up with, couldn't wait to get a first look at what their individual styles were like. Maybe getting to see them all would be good for the girls to get past this thing of theirs… Marianne's been bringing them into diary time since they were babies… Meeting the new kids always felt like setting the mood for the new year and, if that was the case, then this year was off to a great start.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners