June 12th 2023

Chapter 163
We Must Bring Our Colors Out

"So, what do you think?" Maya asked, trying not to sound overly chipper as that would never pass. Standing in front of her and looking at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, Marianne would inspect her once again blond hair, which her mother had done in a very good style for her day of school, if she did say so herself... and sigh.

"It's good, Mom," she replied, and she meant it, but she couldn't hide that she missed her red hair, and Maya hugged her, kissed the top of her head, which made her smile. "Thanks."

"You're so, so welcome," Maya told her, teetering and making Marianne laugh.

"I just thought... because of prom and... We're still having home prom, right?"

"You ask me every year, like I will suddenly NOT want a reason to get everyone in fancy dress and have this party at home, come on. Don't you know who your mom is by now?"

"Oh, I know," Marianne grinned, and Maya paused, looked down at her. "Wait, wait, my hair!" Marianne squealed before bursting out laughing, buried under copious amounts of Mom kisses. The hair survived, and she would go off that day, looking forward to home prom.

Maya very gladly took this memory along with her into school that day. It wasn't as though she needed it to combat some miserable feeling, but as the year was fast drawing to an end, going to work would start and involve a lot of ups and downs as the days would advance. This time was filled with endings, some of them meant a parting of the ways, others only had them split for the length of the summer break and then they'd all be back together, just at a different time of day… For some of her students, she knew, that whole pause would not be nearly as free and exciting as they would have imagined it to be, while their return in the fall would bring its own complications, but that was only all the more reason for her to back them up, as she always would.

Some of them in the past had told her how this time of the year felt like detachment, like the closer they got to the end of the year, to summer and whatever the following year would be for them, part of them was already trying to make it seem like they didn't care… and that couldn't be further from the truth. Oh, some of them loved to be here, far more than they'd ever admit it, and this detachment kick was a lot more about self preservation than anything else. They might fare a lot better with this summer break if they thought they didn't want to be in school anymore, with their friends, their teachers, their favorite classes, teams, clubs… As though they were fooling anyone, even themselves.

One person, she knew, who made no secret of how sad she was at the prospect of saying goodbye for the summer, was not a student at all. Michelle Day had been hesitant, back when the idea had been brand new, about stepping in to lead the knitting club, and now it was just the highlight of her days, an unexpected new chapter in her life that meant more and more to her now. At first, she'd carried a lot of grief for the loss of her son, for Lambert, and she still did now, even if she had been forced to live with it, but now there was something else for her to consider, and that was that her three remaining sons were all out living their own lives now. They had either graduated college and started their career or they were in the midst of their studies and very much living out on their own. It wasn't that she was unhappy, just her and Barton at home, but getting to come to the school to interact with her contingent of knitters and crocheters would give her a thrill she had never seen coming, and she wished they didn't have to part for the summer.

"Hey, you three," Maya came to a stop, mid walk down the hall, as she came upon Max, Max, and Kinsey, sitting on the floor outside the gym, backs to the wall and looking undeniably downcast. "Everything alright?" she asked, trying not to zero in too much on the one of them coping with an unplanned pregnancy at the age of sixteen. Try as she might though, going by the way the other two freshmen swivelled their heads to look at her, the issue very much had to do with her.

"I can't play," Max told her teacher. "The end of the season…"

"Ah," Maya sighed.

It wasn't like they hadn't known that once everyone knew about her secret they would feel it was best not to put her out there, and that was just what had happened. But she had been a wonderful asset all year long, as much as she'd loved simply being part of the team. She was gutted at having to essentially abandon them. It only made it worse that some of her teammates responded to the news like that was exactly what she'd done, and they would never forgive her for it. Was this a lot of teenage girls being overdramatic? Sure. But Max McAllister was not entirely in control of her emotions just now, and the response felt like a gut punch on top of everything else.

"They said if they lose it'll be her fault," Max shared his best friend's sorrows. "And that if they win, it'll mean they never needed her in the first place."

Maya was shocked, although maybe not as much as she might have been. Instead, she heard the words and felt that she knew exactly who they were talking about, and she was making mental notes to intervene on Max's part.

"And I said we wouldn't cheer for those idiots until they apologized, so… there's that," Kinsey informed her cheer coach, pointing between herself and Max, who firmly nodded his head and bumped shoulders with his best friend, making her smile.

"Let's just try not to go and declare all out war with the basketball teams, alright?" Maya raised her hands, trying not to let the proud smile bloom on to her face.

"We have no problem with the guys, they've been great. It's those deceitful little b…" Kinsey started, then paused at the sight of her art teacher's raised brow. "Ball players," she frowned.

"Listen, I'm not going to make you do anything you don't want to do, but you might consider how many of them are giving you trouble, and how many are being supportive. Do they deserve some cheers?"

"Hundred percent," Max nodded her head at once, looking from one of her friends to the other. They knew their teacher had a point, as much as they hated to admit it.

"Right, so… Will I be seeing you both at practice?" Maya asked her two cheerleaders.

"Yes, Coach," they both replied, and Maya didn't hide how it still made her smirk to hear any of them call her that. She nodded at them in thanks.

"Can I come, too?" Max asked, pulling herself up to stand, which made the other two do the same on either side of her. "To watch, you know?"

"To cheer on the cheerleaders?" Maya suggested, and the girl nodded with a smile. "We would be happy to have you, Miss McAllister," she tipped her head. "While you're there, we can think of a way or two to get those 'ball players' to mind their manners."

"There's going to be a party, to say goodbye to Maia and Miley as captains, right?" Max asked, as the trio trailed after their teacher/coach. Maya looked at her and gladly fed into her excitement.

"Of course. It's tradition," she declared, with all the flourish the statement deserved. "We close out one year, see the seniors off, and we start thinking about next year. You two won't be the new kids anymore," she told the quiz teams' freshman members, a moment before a thought came to her and she pointed her finger at them. "But no matter what anyone tells you, that doesn't mean you need to start looking for someone new to take your places before you start your sophomore year… or in the first few weeks, alright?" Kinsey and Max looked at each other, then back at her. "You already started, didn't you?" Maya sighed.

"We didn't," they both insisted, and even Max Farrell heard this and had a look to suggest he saw through them, too. It could have been Agnes, or Kip, who would be juniors in the fall, but it was a lot easier to guess that their future captains, future seniors Lydia and Marie, were the ones already prowling for fresh meat to close up the ranks of Born Curious and the Critically Bookish.

"Do I even want to know?" Maya looked at the two girls. They wouldn't say a word, and Maya kind of had to respect that.

"I'm still going to get to be part of the team, right?" Max asked, with a flash of her earlier sadness.

"As far as I know, answering questions is not so physically taxing that you couldn't handle it," Maya gave her a reassuring smile.

"But what about… you know…" Max Farrell spoke what was very likely on his best friend's mind at the moment.

She didn't need to ask for any further elaboration to know what he was getting at. Sandra Davenport… She'd paint the whole thing with the mask of caring for Max in her 'fragile condition,' but she wouldn't fool any of them. More and more, she gave off this sense of looking for any and all ways to be a nuisance to Maya and anyone who championed her… which was just about anyone in the school, but also some people more than others.

Maya wasn't going to let that get in her head. That was when she'd truly win, and she wasn't about to hand her that. This time of year did play with her emotions, yes, and some of it was about the things that made them sad, but there were just as many if not more that made them happy, so that was what she'd focus on now. Right about now, the thing that was consuming the most of her mind was the prom, and if that didn't give her plenty to keep her busy, she didn't know what could.

While she had her daughters looking forward to their small home version of this night, everywhere she looked, the students of her school were in a frenzy. Everyone that was seeking to attend had their checklist, and right at the top was the all-important acquisition of a date. Some of them were already in a couple, which by no means stopped them from making a show of asking their significant other, while the others had to make quick work of putting in their invitations, for fear that they would lose their shot otherwise. It was going to get brutal, the longer it took for some of them to figure out who they'd be dancing with on prom night.

"I don't know I'm ever as happy to know we had each other back then as when prom season rolls around," Maya would tell her husband, and as soon as Lucas would smile, she would be made to remember she had said something to that effect the year before… and the year before that… and the year before that… She'd likely say it again in years to come, and it would never stop making him smile. It was a part of their lives, and in all the ups and downs of the end of the year, this was as 'up' as they could go.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners