August 29th 2023

Chapter 241
We Look For A Chance

"Whenever you guys are ready to start class, I'll be right here, yeah?" Maya called over the noise of voices talking over one another. It was easy enough to get the class to attention this way, she had to admit. Her voice would carry, and she could usually count on students here and there getting the message and shushing the others at their stations. It would not take more than thirty seconds to get complete silence unless anything particularly juicy or disturbing was causing the chatter. This was not one of those days, and the class settled down in all of fifteen seconds. "Thank you," Maya stood back up from her chair and stepped to address them.

"Mrs. Friar?" MJ raised his hand high and smirked.

"Yes, Mr. Hunter?" Maya raised a brow at him. She didn't mind him causing what might be construed as a distraction so long as it was for a good reason, and this so far had the potential to be something class related, which turned out to be the case.

"What's all this?" he gestured at the objects on each of the stations. None of them were art materials, not so far as any of them could figure out a way for them to be. The objects all looked like they had been pulled at random off this shelf or from that cupboard, this drawer or that box of random things in someone's basement. To those of the students who had actually been to their art teacher's house, they looked familiar for those very reasons.

"This…" Maya pressed her hands together like she'd been hoping that someone would set her up like this, "… is the start of your last end of year project."

She would have those same objects out on the stations by the time the sophomores came along two periods later, though she did take the time to swap some of them around to create new combinations, new ideas. It had been her intent to make things as random as they could be filled with possibilities for all her students. She'd already gotten to see her seniors stare at her offerings and try to come up with some way to use them in their projects, and now she'd get to do the same with her sophomores.

It had been made official by now that Max McAllister would not return to class until the following fall, where she would be a junior, provided that she completed all the necessary work and tests as she had been doing since going on leave several months ago already. Callum and Daisy McAllister were growing by the day, four months old already, but it really seemed impossible for their mother to leave them, and with how little there was left of the year, there just didn't seem to be a point. She would return to them in September, her children coming on to a year old. She was still involved today, as Max Farrell had been given permission to call her up so she might see the objects at their station. This caused a temporary rush over from their neighbors as they all crowded in around Max, asking that Max show them the twins. They eventually moved back to their seats, this upon the request of 'Mama Max' herself, which had her art teacher chuckling quietly before thanking her and carrying on with the explanations for the project. Did she go and 'confiscate' boy Max's phone once everyone started to work so that she might get to see the babies? She might have…

By lunch time, the objects were shuffled again, ahead of the freshmen's arrival, though before they'd walk in as confused as those who'd preceded them, Maya's colleagues and lunch buddies would have their go. It was honestly a nice change of pace from what was getting to be a constant cycle of discussing the cheerstery, the secret cap on the art class capacity, the removal of the student government, just anything to do with the principal. All of it was important, sure, and they wouldn't get anywhere if they didn't talk about it, but lately it had been feeling as though they'd become stuck, as though they were running in circles, no progress, so the conversations got to feel tired, repetitive, pointless… Part of her was left thinking as though this was all exactly what Sandra Davenport had wanted, for them to feel powerless against her advance, so she could eventually just raze them from her path. But no… No, it was far likelier to her that it was just as she'd been saying. They were wearing her down, they were making her make mistakes, and she would topple herself sooner or later.

When the freshmen finally came along and saw the objects, to their credit, they put the pieces together on their own before she ever had to lay it out for them. She wasn't surprised to hear some noises of complaint out of some of them, claiming the project to be dumb. She could identify them before they ever said a word, and she knew that she would only ever get out of them what they were willing to put in, so she didn't overthink their reactions too far. She could write a long list of kids she'd taught over the years who'd been complainers in their first year and changed their tunes bit by bit in the following years. If she lost her patience with them now, they might never get to the other side. She would keep giving them opportunities, keep seeking other ways to connect with them and connect them with art.

"Mrs. Friar?" Haley raised her hand, and Maya resisted the urge to ask her if this was a genuine class question or not. Sometimes it genuinely felt as though she and MJ had a bet to see which of them could make their big sister cross the line back over from the teacher side.

"Yes, Miss Hunter?" Maya humored her with a smile. Haley held up one of the objects sitting on her station.

"Isn't this mine?" she asked, causing a roll of quiet laughter to break across the class as everyone tried to see what it was.

"I don't know, you tell me," Maya challenged, holding her sister's gaze to see if she would break. They both knew that much as Haley had coveted the trinket for years, it very much belonged to her big sister. The way she looked back at her, she might have been accusing her of baiting her by putting the thing on that station in particular. Maya would neither confirm nor deny.

Her afternoon break saw her treated to not one but two tiny visitors she'd wish to hold on to through her last class of the day, as her baby boy was brought around by Lucas, and her little granddaughter by her eldest. Ella was always so happy to see her brother, but it almost paled by comparison when it was Sunny seeing Uncle Ezra. She was older than him by a few months, coming up on eight months while he was recently four months old, but she had enough of a sense of their being family that she'd react when she saw him, though it would be hard to say just what she thought he was to her. All they knew was that she'd cry bloody murder when they'd be parted from one another, and Ezra was coming to see that separation just as she did. Their parents would try not to think about it too much until they absolutely had to, instead making the most of their time together.

Final period juniors coming up against the array of mystery objects did not disappoint. They all came along and bottlenecked in the door as they saw what awaited them, enough that those in the back would end up nudging them forward, so they might get in and see what the hold up was. Sometimes she wondered what it would look like if the juniors had their class earlier in the day, and if there was any other period that would hold up the vibe of her second oldest group of students. She deeply doubted it at this point.

She was happy to see that things were still going well with Freddie Jacek and Agnes Killian. They had been spending more time together since he'd gotten up the nerve to ask her to the dance, since they'd gone together and had a blast, as far as Maya had been able to see. Oh, she did her best not to get overly invested in student romances, but could she help it if some of these kids were being all adorable and sweet together? They just seemed to fit together, as soon as they'd started, and she could hardly predict what the future would hold for them, but… well… she had seen couples like those before. One could say that she was part of a couple like that. And of the ones she'd known – besides herself and Lucas – the prediction was absolutely warranted. On this day, they spent most of the period looking at the objects on their station, heads bent together and whispering, considering one item and then another, laughing now and again. Maya willed herself to look away and see how the others were doing, but she could still hear them sometimes, and it kept her smiling all through to final bell.

By the time she stood with Betsy, looking over cheer practice, she was eager to get home, not because she didn't enjoy practice with the squad and her mother's cousin but because she wanted to talk something over with Lucas. She considered running it by Betsy, but she knew better than to vocalize anything out here that she wouldn't want the principal overhearing, which turned out to be the right call on that day, as they were visited by Sandra Davenport for part of their practice. Maya and Betsy had to work together to recenter their cheerleaders' focus once she arrived, as they'd all have something to pull their concentration, nerves or frustration, and neither of them wanted to give the woman the satisfaction of thinking that she had any of them rattled. They pulled together in the end, and she went off without a word or any sight of a smirk.

When she arrived home with the girls, they all had plenty of a pull away from her or Lucas once they got their hands on their brother, so she was able to sit with him and talk briefly.

"Do you think I could handle more?" she asked him.

He looked back at her, not following, and she clarified that she was referring to school, to her students. She explained her thoughts as best she could, which was not so easy, seeing as she was still piecing some of it together, the thought new, small now but expanding the more time she had to think it through. The problem as of yet was still about making it happen, which would be unlikely with Sandra Davenport around, but she was almost sure that this could be the thing to finally push her over the edge if handled properly. It was only a matter of moving everything in the right way, at the right time, and then the rest would become unstoppable… hopefully…

"When is this supposed to…" Lucas asked, following her, but also just a bit unsure.

"Not yet, probably not until next year," she shook her head. "We might have to hold on for another year with her, but if things go like I think they could, then next year will be the last one where Sandra Davenport will ever darken our hallways with her 'dazzling' presence." Lucas tried not to laugh, but the image she presented made it impossible. Instead, he pulled her into a hug, affirming with great pride that she could sometimes be very, very scary, and this was a good thing.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners