A/N: APRIL 9TH - Hey, guys, so we had a big storm up here on Wednesday the 5th, most people in the area lost power for the last few days, I got mine back yesterday but didn't get my internet back until today, so I couldn't post anything. Going to get the last few days' chapters posted ASAP!

April 9th 2023

Chapter 99
We Move Into Teams

Every September would get to feel like moving into a new house, a new neighborhood. They needed time, all of them, to settle in, to familiarize themselves and get comfortable. It was by October that it really got to feel like they'd made it past that stage and they were getting to the 'good' part of being moved in to that new place. Now they could really get to feel that it was their own, and they would expand. At school, this translated no better than with team tryouts, with recruits, and with the rise of campaigns.

For Maya, this was as busy of a time as it could get, this year more than ever now that she was seeing to the squad on top of everything. So, it was a good thing that she had backup.

"I don't have to make a speech, do I?" Betsy quietly asked as she followed her cousin's daughter into the gym.

"You do whatever feels right," Maya told her, smiling. "If it helps, I'm kind of nervous, too."

"It does, actually. It would help even more if I knew how you can not look it," Betsy hummed, and Maya gave her a sympathetic smile. "Right, okay, let's go. You'll point out you-know-who if she shows up?"

"Trust me, you'll know her when you see her, and you will. There's no way she's not coming to see who you are."

Maya was correct, but she barely paid Sandra Davenport any mind, not at the moment. She knew there would be introductions to be made, pleasantries with an undertone of mistrust, but right now she and Betsy had a job to do, and so did the basketball coaches. For the second year in a row, weather united the tryouts into one time and place, which at this point felt right enough that they might just keep going in this manner, headed forward.

The gym was not nearly as crowded as it had been last year, when the squad was new and students from all years showed up in great numbers for a shot. In the depths of the cheerleaders' struggles in that first year back, several of those who had not been selected were very vocal in saying they were glad not to have been picked, or how they now knew why they hadn't been picked, because the coach was so bad and could not recognize real talent. She saw several of those kids among the day's hopefuls now, their faiths suddenly restored, never truly blemished, if you asked them. And she saw new names as well.

Of her students, the most surprising might have been Max Farrell. It wasn't that she had any thoughts against his potential, but she had not expected him to want this. It wasn't until she saw him move that her surprise turned from unexpected to delighted. She had done enough by now to recognize potential, and he had it the most of any boy who tried out that day, maybe the year before, too.

And then there was Kinsey. Her look continued to be a point of contention for some people, and it might have been that they would have won out over her if she didn't have the right people in her corner. As it was, she very much had the right people, and so she came along, all blue hair, dark lip, piercings... This was not to be her fall from grace either, if anyone thought that she wouldn't be able to match energies with the other cheerleaders. She did a lot better than anyone expected, which was getting to be a theme with her.

It had taken very little time for Maya to know she would be an ideal candidate for the Critically Bookish, this thanks to the fact that Kinsey had taken up residence in her classroom nearly every day at lunch since day one. They would often talk when the occasion presented itself, and when they didn't talk, she would see the girl as she ate and afterward, either reading or writing for class. By week two, she'd had suspicions and by the fourth she'd been convinced that the girl really was so much smarter than she was letting on. Maya wouldn't usually go about making assumptions, but she had some ideas of why she'd do anything like that.

She'd filled Stella in on this and found that she'd had the girl on her radar as well, which settled it. Now, the hard part would be to get her to say yes when they offered her the spot. They recruited new CB captain Miley Nilsson along with her teammates, younger sister Marie Nilsson and Kip Perreault, to speak with her and see if she would accept. Both Maya and Stella were nervous, knowing they didn't want to force her, but also that they knew she needed this... and that was their entire reason for existing.

She had a much easier sell with her candidate for Born Curious, but then she'd come to expect as much. The moment she pulled Max McAllister aside and started talking about the team, she could see eagerness in the girl's eyes, like she was preventing herself from calling out a yes before she was properly asked. She said it as soon as she could then, and as she went on, Maya realized how she'd become so prepared for this possibility. She was best friends with Max Farrell, which had long put her in the vicinity of his sister Kelsey, and then one of her best friends and eventual girlfriend, former BC captain Ava Nash. To hear Max go on, she kind of idolized her, which made Maya smirk as she thought of Ava ever learning this.

It would take much more of a pitch for the other team, but by tryouts day, they would have Max M. and Kinsey installed as the new quiz team freshmen. That was one less thing for all of them to worry over, the better for them to focus on everything else, like the student elections.

Frankly, she hadn't paid much mind to them over the best part of her teaching career so far. It had been a thing, and some of her students had been a part of it, but it was regular school activity and not one she was particularly connected to, so that had been that. It wasn't until last year, with the change in administration, that they had really become something else to her. This may have been one of the first years where she was genuinely following the campaigns. She had found her first 'ally' in the student government thanks to Freddie Jacek, and he was carrying on again this year, as a sophomore. It was his way of challenging himself, of taking some place in the world, and it suited him very well so far. Maya was so proud of him for it, and when she'd told him this much, he'd grown timid but grateful.

There were many candidates to take up a post like he'd done it, among the freshmen, and biased as she could be in private, her eyes went easily to Rafael Cruz on this one. She'd been as disappointed as he was, at the start of the year, when it had turned out that he hadn't made it into her class. They had now rectified this, of course, and he had been a welcome addition. Rafa had turned in his diary, cover drawn overnight as soon as he'd received it and all set for his first class, and by now it could be forgotten that he hadn't been there all along. His diary cover was drawn over with a perfectly spaced array of basketballs, the details added in each one making them look with just that gold pen as though lighter at the top of the book and darker the further down they went. It was an impressive start to say the least.

Rafa was here today for tryouts, naturally, and he was doing very well for himself, one of many. The freshman class provided them with plenty of new talent each year, and this one was no exception. Two of those were no surprise to Maya of course, three with Rafa. She'd known before the school year even started that she could expect Amy Dixon to try out for the girls and Jake Bennett to go for the boys, but it made it no less impressive to finally see them out there among the players. The teams had lost many great players last year with Nellie, Gracie, Desi, Ethan, and Tre graduating, Bobby as well, even if his career had expired before he ever got a diploma. The kids who tried out now were well aware of this and seeing how much they all wanted to step up to the challenge made Maya as proud of her school as ever.

"Do you know what she asked me earlier?" Dylan asked Maya and Betsy when he came jogging over to talk to them, nodding back to the girls' coach.

"What?" Maya smiled, sensing his amusement.

"She wanted to know if Haley had any plans to try out next year. Said she could do with another Hunter." Maya laughed.

"Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but my little sister has her eyes on being part of my squad already, so..."

"Yeah, I figured as much. But hey, if she waits another... six years, she's probably going to get her first Friar, and that'll be something," Dylan grinned, especially at the 'pained' look on his old friend and colleague's face as she contemplated how near she was to her firstborn walking these halls... "Too soon?"

"Too, too soon, go away," she shooed him off with a smile.

"Okay, so that's definitely her, huh?" Betsy spoke even as Dylan was headed back, and Maya looked over to find... Ah, yes...

"In the flesh... and the suit... You know, I get dressing professionally, but she just looks like..."

"She's dressed for a different profession?" Betsy guessed, and Maya pointed at her. Yes, exactly.

Sandra Davenport definitely saw them, and she sent them a wave and a disingenuous smile, but she didn't seek out a conversation, which felt to Maya just worrisome enough that she couldn't help but keep an eye on her for as long as she was in the gym. She was discreet about it, and the same could not be said for the principal. She was watching them alright, likely trying to find an angle. Whatever she hoped to find though, if she did find it, she didn't show. Eventually she was just gone, and the afternoon moved on.

When all the tryouts were done, the gym started to clear out, and Maya and Betsy ended up sitting in the stands, looking over their lists, their notes, so they might start and figure out their squad. They'd have a few days before lists went up, but they wanted to get the ball rolling. They had several of their cheerleaders returning from the previous year, which got them started. Those they had lost were mostly to graduation. The two that weren't, those who still attended school, had chosen not to return because as much as things had started to improve, they couldn't do it anymore, and Maya respected that. If they changed their minds in the future, they would always be welcome.

"I'm really glad we're doing this, you and I," Betsy smiled as they closed up their notes and moved to leave the gym.

"Me, too," Maya smiled back. In her head, they weren't so much coach and assistant coach. They were on the same level, and in some elements, Betsy might have been the one in charge as far as Maya was concerned. None of them had set out for this to be who was in charge of the squad, but that was where they had all ended up, and now that they were there, there was no chance of any of them giving anything but their very best.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners