August 7th 2023

Chapter 219
We Try For Everyone

Though they had been trying for another baby for a while and had still been trying up until the night of December 2nd, a big part of Maya's heart and mind had forced itself to start accepting that it might not happen, that they would not have another child. She'd been okay with it for the most part, but now... Now she got to wake up most mornings to the sounds of Ezra awake in his crib and she knew that sooner or later she would have regretted that they never succeeded. This baby boy had not been born of her body, but try and tell her that it made any difference...

"Hey, good morning, bud..." she whispered as she approached the crib. He looked up at her now, and to catch the moment where he realized she was there, to see the happiness take hold... "You be good for your dad today, okay? Not that you're ever anything else, but you know, you spend enough time around me, you might develop some of my habits," she smirked as she picked him up. Ezra responded by laying his head at her shoulder. As though she didn't already feel like staying here all day with him...

But she pulled herself together and eventually arrived at school. Heading inside, though it might have felt very quiet to an untrained ear, to her there was a feeling of activity enough to tell her that there were already a good number of students on the premises. She could think of at least six. As she headed toward her classroom and came nearer and nearer, she could hear their voices, the quiz teams... MJ and Haley had cleared out early, on their own, and while she was sure to find him in the gym, she found her little sister in the art room, with her teammates.

"Morning, Mrs. Friar," Agnes smiled when she walked in, and the others looked up.

"Hey, guys," Maya smiled back. "You didn't want to sleep in a little longer this morning?" she asked, teasingly.

"What, and miss this?" Lydia asked, indicating their small score board on the tabletop, showing that Born Curious was currently very much in the lead, with three members on each side.

"The match isn't over," Susan Kendall declared, to Kip and Kinsey's agreement.

"Isn't it though?" Haley indicated the board and the time.

"We've still got time to turn this around, let's go," Kinsey tapped the table with a nod.

It was all in good fun, as shown by the barely contained grins on their faces. There was some competition between the two teams, sure, but at the end of the day, they saw themselves as the two halves of a whole and they functioned that way. Just now, they really needed to embrace that, as they were each down a member. Max would be back in a few weeks, hopefully, and as for Marie, the timeline would all depend on when she had her baby and how it went.

They briefly spoke of what they'd done over the holidays, as teams. They'd gathered a few times, mostly in the homes of their members on leave in order to make things easier. To hear them tell it, none of it had gone as well as they would have liked, which was why, now that they were back, they wanted to do everything to get back on track. They asked after Ezra and how he was doing, and she happily told them what she could, showing them pictures...

"Alright, we really need to get back to work, and if you whip out the videos, it'll all be over," Haley finally cut in, nudging her sister and teacher's phone back to her.

"Okay, okay, I get the message," Maya chuckled. "I'll go see what MJ is up to."

"Yeah, you do that," Haley smirked.

As expected, Maya tracked down her brother in the gym, mixed in with other members of both the boys' and girls' basketball teams, the LGBTeam, and some of the cheerleaders. There were about twenty-five of them in total, mixed up and split to create two teams, the rest of them standing on the sidelines to cheer them on.

It was the perfect kind of chaotic. The players were all great as players, and the cheerleaders as cheerleaders, but those who found themselves doing the opposite of what they normally did were either surprising for the talent they showed or completely failing to keep up with the others, which made everyone laugh.

"Maya, tag in!" MJ called out a challenge when he spotted his sister. The others, who all knew her history with the girls' team very well, hollered their support while Maya laughed.

"In this?" she pointed to her dress and her shoes. Several of them responded to this with shouts of 'go get changed.' "Another time, alright?"

"Tomorrow morning," MJ doubled down, his grin turning him into a younger, blonder Shawn Hunter. "Say promise."

"You're going to hold that against me, huh?" Maya gave an exaggerated gasp, to which MJ nodded. "Fine," she sighed. "I promise." The cheers were heard all the way in the art room. "Alright, so who's going to be on the winning team? I mean, my team," she raised a brow. Every hand went up. "Yeah, we might have to draw from a hat."

Maya watched the mismatched play go on for a few minutes before heading back toward her class. She took her time as she went, giving the teams there some more time to do their thing. As she went along, she passed the poster that advertised the year's musical. It was a little known collaboration between the art class and the graphic design class every year, always given over to the seniors. She had each year's creation in an album, together with pictures from across the year and the musical once it premiered, turning the posters into chapter headers. She had some personal favorites, naturally, but she did love them all in their own ways.

Once they'd make it into January, even if they still had months to go ahead of them, it would start to feel like they were coming up to their big moment, closer and closer each day. She loved to see the excitement rising each time. The last few years, she had to say, she was particularly happy to see that anticipation in everyone, if only because it would annoy their principal.

After they had put on her musical last year, hers and her siblings', she had this thought like she might want to make another one, if only so that they might produce it here, too. If it went the same as last time, of course, it could take years, and there would have to be an idea. No, what she'd really want to do would be to have a class where kids could try their hand at making their own musical. There was no way it would fly, not here, not under Davenport, but she wouldn't give up on the idea, not if she could make it happen someday, somehow. If they could just get a better principal...

"Welcome back, Mrs. Friar," a voice caught her by surprise, only to make her smile.

"Why, thank you, Vice-Principal Song," she replied in a similar tone. Alistair Song smiled back at her, looking so much like his daughter Alia when he did so.

It was inevitable, with any of her daughters' friends, that she and Lucas would go and develop relationships with all of their parents. For the sheer number of people that this involved, naturally, it didn't mean that every last one of those people could be counted as friends themselves, and close ones at that. But then the more time the Friars had gotten to spend with the Songs, the more it felt like they were crossing the boundary from acquaintances of convenience to actual friends. Maya was never so sure of this than in how she had actually confided Ezra's true origins with them and the secret felt safe by more than the fact that it had not yet been spilled. It had not been completely intentional for them to say anything, but it had happened, and not once was Maya afraid that he would turn and say anything that would reach the principal's ears.

"How are things past the glass walls?" she asked with a smile. Part of that growing friendship absolutely existed in how time was allowing the vice-principal to feel more and more at ease with showing that, like a large portion of the school, he had strong feelings toward the principal and her practices, and they did not tip anywhere in Sandra Davenport's favor.

"Frosty… Yeah, that's a good word for it," he declared with a slow nod.

"I am so sorry to hear that… Well, you know, if you feel like warming up, you're welcome to join us for lunch."

"Thinking about it," Alistair called back as they continued on their separate ways.

The day soon began, which for Maya meant seniors, and then sophomores after a period off. She was curious about how each of them was doing, naturally, but of course some of them came with their own individual issues. She only had to look to someone like exchange camper Brett, over with the sophomores. A lot had happened since he'd first arrived, months of his being in Austin, with his host family, at his temporary school, and of course the ranch… He still carried some of the hurt that came with the circumstances of his arrival at the ranch, and those would likely be with him even after he left Texas, but the feeling was very much that, when he did go back to his family, he would do so as a stronger person, as someone who was not going to expect anything out of his family anymore than exactly what they would always do. He would strike out on his own, the moment he could. And Maya, for one, couldn't wait to see what he became.

The day carried on, and Maya could feel herself doing exactly what she'd done before the break, exactly what she'd known she'd be doing. She was looking at all the faces around her, all those kids sitting in her classroom from morning through afternoon, looking… seeking… She knew her baby boy's face so well now, his eyes, his nose, his smile, his ears, the shape of his face, his chin, his cheeks… And the more he grew, the easier it would get to maybe see something and recognize it… She knew why it was so important to her that she find the answer, and it was all very valid, but at the same time, was it as important as she was making it out to be? Yes… and no… and yes, very much… She wasn't about to force a reunion, and if Ezra's birth parents wanted to carry on being unknown to their son, she would respect that. She and Lucas would raise him as their own, as they'd done since the second day of his life, and the questions, when they came… Well, they'd find a way and deal with those in due time.

"Signora Friar!"

"Can I tell you how much I'm going to miss hearing you calling me that?" Maya couldn't help but grin, at the start of the last class of the day, when their international XC walked into the room. Her smile made it that much better.

"Then you need to come to Italy to see me," Gianna declared with great confidence that made Maya laugh.

"I just might do that."

"Good. And also, you could bring the rest of your band with you, yes?" she suggested, which pulled a knowing smirk from the art teacher.

"You know, the idea does sound very appealing," Maya reflected with a slow nod. Gianna matched it, as though to say 'there, see?' She could hardly know the memories she had of going around Europe with her friends, when she'd been only slightly older than her, making music along the way… making longtime friends… The idea of revisiting this time of their lives was really as promising as she could want it to be.

With the sound of the bell though, the day was over, and right then Maya was not interested in European vacations so much as a one-month-old boy who'd brighten at the sight of her, at the very sound of her voice, of a mass of young daughters who'd show that same enthusiasm and pair it to words, to hugs, and stories… and of a husband who had just the arms to join hers in holding them all. Her day was done, and she couldn't rejoin them fast enough.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners