July 11th 2023

Chapter 192
We Cultivate So We Might Grow

The Friar girls were very excited when they were told that their grandparents would drive them to school along with Maisie that morning. It was a very satisfying trade off to being brought in by their parents, enough that they might have considered doing it more regularly from here on out. For today, at least, there was a more immediate reason for this hand off, which was that for this third field trip day, the freshman day, Haley Hunter had asked for a ride to school and the bus loading zone by her big sister and teacher... and her brother-in-law, the very official co-chaperone. And when they had agreed – of course – they had gained an immediate tag along in the form of big brother MJ.

Those two together were just their own brand of chaos. They were the self-proclaimed king and queen of The Drama in their house, surpassing she who had gifted them this quality in birth, their mother. At any time, they might be perceived as a tag team and bitter rivals in turn, and there'd be no stopping to decide which one they were on some of those days. On this day, MJ spent the entire ride recalling his own field trip and calling up memories of the things he'd seen like he was setting his little sister up for a scavenger hunt. Haley would listen to him, but she'd also interrupt and ask questions, smirking, knowing how it would frustrate him to get thrown off course, and by the time they got to the school, he would have called her hopeless, hugged her tight, told her to misbehave, and gone off to his day of classes.

It was the freshmen's very first field trip in their high school careers, and their destination was as much an exciting one to some as it was a nightmare to others. So far as their busload of kids, Maya and Lucas were both happy to see that, on the whole, the vast majority fell in the first category. It made for a very noisy ride, and so the two chaperones would end up taking regular strolls along the aisle, the better to see what everyone was up to. At one time, this got Maya's arm caught by her sister as she passed.

"I need your help with something," Haley declared, and Maya's eyes quickly went over to Madelyn. "Not her, she's good, she's taking a nap, leave her alone," Haley shook her head. Indeed, Madelyn was resting against her best friend's side, headphones clamped on over her ears and sound asleep. "I want to be on the quiz team."

"Oh…" Maya reacted, surprised.

"But if you just pick me, people will just say you did that because I'm your sister, won't they?" Haley went on. Maya wouldn't have suggested anything like that, but then again… "Can't you find a way to make it okay? Please?"

She couldn't make any promises just like that, but she could at least assure her sister that she would do her best and think of something. This was her third run through the museum in as many days, so it wouldn't be too much for her to walk and think at the same time, although at the same time… It was this group's first time, and she had managed to get her entire group on this side of the divide, so if she was going to consider her sister, she would have to consider the rest of them, too, to see if any of the others might have had a better claim on the freshman spot for Born Curious.

It was impossible not to look at someone like Jonah Killian, Agnes' brother, and wonder if he might be inclined toward the club the way his sister was. But then for what time she'd known the boy, in the month and some since the start of the school year, she wasn't sure. It wasn't that he wasn't smart enough, though she didn't know much about what his grades were shaping up to be. But everything she saw of him, his personality, his tastes… The quiz team wouldn't be his speed. These days he was still very much hoping to form a band. He hadn't managed it yet, any part of it, but it was still something he thought about a lot of the time. She only had to watch him when he'd be in class, or in the halls, or she could look at the first few pages of his diary so far if the rest hadn't told her enough. He would keep on cheering for his big sister, they could count on that, but joining her at the table, never.

In that same respect, Martin McNeil had a legacy with the team, too, and he had it twice over. His big sister Rochelle had kicked things off years ago, and not too long ago his big brother Rolly had followed in her path. It'd be something if he went and followed in their footsteps, wouldn't it? It might be, sure, if he actually wanted it. But he didn't, and in his case it was more than just a guess, like it was for Jonah. He hadn't simply walked up to her one day and said 'Hey, Mrs. Friar, I don't want to be in the quiz team.' But then the subject of the quiz teams had come up as Stella Buckley regained her French class following her maternity leave. Martin knew her very well, as she had been teammates with his sister, and, in the conversation, he had told them where he stood.

As far as school activities went, he didn't have so much spare time as to devote himself to anything that would interfere with his dancing. Yes, he'd come to this school in order to do more than dance, but he couldn't pretend as though dance wasn't more important to him than a lot of other things. He didn't want to be part of the club because he respected it too much to simply join it because that was what his siblings had done. He couldn't be there every morning in the art room, on lunches, or beyond. He had joined the knitting club at least, and he was looking to follow in his brother's footsteps in one thing at least, which was to sit as commentator to the basketball teams' games, and Maya was sure he would be great at both. So far as her quiz club query… it was a no.

If she looked to someone like Hunter Matthews, well… As much as he got by enough to never worry that he could fail a year, it was plain to see by just about anyone that the academics were not at the top of his list. If anything, where Martin McNeil and his love of ballet would make him into someone of which their principal took very little notice, Hunter would have all the makings of being her star pupil. He was a great athlete, a chameleon who could weave himself into any sport and come out looking like he'd been playing all his life. Dylan had been waiting for him to start high school so he could get him on the boys' basketball team, and he'd pulled it off, much to the disappointment of any of the new coaches who'd actually bothered to keep an eye out on the kids who might come in and elevate their teams. The basketball team had snatched him, and now he was in line to be their star player.

And when it came to the quiz team, much as it would have made Cory proud to have his youngest join their ranks, even he had seen no point in trying to talk him into it. Once upon a time, he might have done it, back when his grown children had been students, but Hunter had come so much later, and definitely unexpectedly, and he just wasn't the same man now as he had been with his youngest's older siblings. They all loved him for the father he'd been in their time, and that was kind of what mattered the most. And that made one less potential addition to the Born Curious roster.

Madelyn, now… She might have been someone for them to look to, in many ways. Her grades had been great in middle school, though for sure they had taken a hit after she'd found out that she was pregnant. It had been a great shock to her, and so her focus had slipped. And now, as she'd started high school being seven months along and on the verge of this incredibly life changing moment… The grades could take a rise, absolutely. And if their great rule was that Born Curious was family, and that they looked to people who could benefit for being on the team, Madelyn had that… so much.

But for what Maya had seen of her so far, and what she could foresee the near future being like for her, it was just not something she saw as being beneficial, not to the team and least of all to Madelyn herself. In another lifetime, she could have been great, but now… Now, it just didn't feel possible. She wouldn't rule her out entirely, no. If she wanted to give it a shot, they would make it happen, they would wait for her, or maybe find someone to hold her spot… She wouldn't be in bad company either, with her fellow Mamas already part of both teams, but it was one thing for Marie and Max to carry on where they had been, and another for Madelyn to try and do the same, when she was all of a month at the very most from giving birth. She was only still in school at this point because she'd convinced her parents that she could stick it out a while more. She absolutely looked like she was that close to delivery, but she was holding on to her 'normal' life with everything she had.

One student after another, Maya considered her class, and while she had a very small pool of potential members, her thoughts inevitably went back to her sister. She would certainly be the first Hunter among them, the last remaining contender, and she'd be lying if she said she wasn't thrilled at the chance of having her be on the team. And she'd be a legacy, too, wouldn't she? Sure, Maya hadn't been part of Born Curious as a student, but she'd been one of the originals, the Basket Cases, who had passed on their initials upon the relaunch of the team. Even so, both she and Haley knew that there'd be people out there who would have much too much to say if she was simply chosen by her sister/teacher just like that.

She discussed all this with Lucas as they kept an eye on the students, and he was right there with her on all of it. They just needed to find a solution, something good and solid that couldn't be knocked down or seen as nepotism. The solution was kind of right there in front of them: Maya couldn't be involved in the choice. Someone else would have to choose, would have to look at all the candidates and be able to say that Haley Hunter was the clear choice, the winner overall. Once they started to look at it like that, the answer felt a lot easier to come by. If they held a competition, and it was absolutely undeniable that Maya had not had a single hand in picking the questions or doing anything to influence the outcome, then one of two things would happen: Either Haley would come out on top, and she'd get to be the new freshman on the team, or one of the others would come out on top, and Born Curious would have its new member all the same.

When they shared this idea with Haley, at the end of their museum trip, she was on board at once. She didn't like the possibility that she wouldn't be picked, but she was competitive enough that she looked at the challenge with vast interest and motivation. She was going to give it all she had and she would show them that she belonged on that team. Maya really wanted her to do just that, if only for the added bonus of rubbing it in Sandra Davenport's face.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners