A/N: Eighteen days behind...

September 13th 2023

Chapter 256
We Prepare For This Moment

It was relatively instantaneous, when the prom had been delayed, that the Shelbys decided to do the same for their own party, in solidarity. And as much as the students had been thrown off about the prom, knowing more or less what had been the cause of it, the basketball teams had accepted the choice without a moment's reflection. They were all confident that sooner or later they would get their day, and it would be excellent.

Their patience was finally rewarded, and their prediction proven correct. Even as they gathered in the Shelby house's basement, Maya, Lucas, and their friends and former teammates could heard the music and the noise coming from outside, and they didn't mind it. They just laughed and carried on talking with their friends. The joke became that, the more the kids wore themselves out outside, the more odds would be on their side for the inevitable shoot off.

This prediction didn't exactly go as some of them would have thought. When they did all head outside to join the members of the boys' and girls' teams and the LGBTeam – always on the invitation list – a different challenge was suggested in that they wouldn't play new teams versus previous teams but boys' teams versus girls' teams. Those of the LGBTeam were free to join on whichever side they chose, or whichever side supplied them with the most convincing sales' pitch.

As much as some of them could not ignore the passage of time and the way their lives had made them not nearly as fit for basketball as they used to be, there was no denying what they had once been able to do, some more than others. At the end of the night, it almost didn't matter that the girls' teams' side had crushed the boys' teams… mostly. What mattered most of all was that they'd loved every minute of it.

It all felt close to a dream, the next morning, as several of them crossed paths again at the school for the graduation ceremony. As they went around for a bit of mingling with graduates and their families, Maya and Lucas were reminded of days where going anywhere when they'd had games the day before would leave them wondering if that was what being hungover felt like. They had since discovered that it really didn't, although in this case, maybe it did, just a bit. It wasn't so bad. Having this shared bit of delirium was as good a way as any for them to fight against a giggle fit and enjoy the struggle. It was all just a bit childish, but considering they would have to sit through a Davenport speech, this was as good of a way as any to get through it all and focus on what mattered, which was this latest crop of graduates, the class of 2040.

Seeing Marie Nilsson come along, it was impossible not to recall the ceremony one year ago, where her older sister had been the one graduating. That was when the news had hit that she was pregnant, just as Max McAllister was, just as Madelyn Carter was… Just as Ezra's mother was, whoever she is… Now here was, a much different young woman than she'd been a year ago. She wore her cap and gown but, unlike the rest of her fellow graduates, she had an extra accessory, namely the carrier that kept her baby daughter against her. Apparently, big sister/aunt Miley had gifted her niece with a miniature cap and gown for the occasion, but the cap had made her cry, and she'd spit up on the gown, so she had neither now. It didn't matter. To look at Marie it was plain to see that the intention had mattered far more than the result. Maya and Lucas both knew that she had worked so hard to get here, that she had not wanted to fail. She had not failed, she had succeeded, and there was no way she would not include her daughter in this moment, as she herself was the other achievement she was proudest of this year.

"Hey, Teammate," Maya beamed, holding out her arms to welcome Ash Bell in an embrace. The graduate happily met her in this hold and squeezed back as they were squeezed by their now former teacher. It was thanks to Ash and the rest of the players who'd joined the girls' teams' side that they had come away with the win the night before. To look at the way they smiled today, it might have been just the thing they needed to rid themself of their pre-graduation jitters. Not that there was much to worry there, not with their girlfriend, their little sister, and their father right behind them, and their friends not far behind.

Ash had been sidetracked by the year they'd repeated, by ending up among a new class full of mostly strangers, but they had pushed through, and now here they stood, looking the tiniest bit mismatched stylistically in their cap and gown but still making it work. The smile helped a lot.

"Hi, Mrs. Friar!" Kennedy Bell fell in alongside her sibling with a vey similar smile that made Maya laugh in awe. How fast she was growing… She was entering middle school that fall and, according to Ash, already had her heart set on doing so much once she made it to high school, all thanks to the many things she'd seen and heard through her sibling. To hear her go on about it, she would be part of more clubs and activities than any one human teen had any means to call their own. Her family didn't discourage her, and neither did her future teacher. They'd have to wait and see what happened in two years…

"Lucas! Incoming!"

He barely had time to stop, recognizing his uncle's voice, and turn before he spotted his cousin zooming toward him and received her with a sound of surprise. Lydia gasped and pulled back at once, as though she'd hurt him, but he reassured her, and she was smiling all over again. He couldn't get over the fact that she was going to be walking out there today. Hypnoteyes… He remembered when she was just a tiny girl, needing immediate release from itchy tights at dinner. He remembered when she was a tiny babe, newly delivered into the world and into her fathers' arms, visiting her aunt, uncle, and cousin with the two of them and her older sisters.

"Alright, be honest. Who cried the most so far?" Lucas quietly asked, making Lydia laugh as she looked back to her fathers and her siblings. Lea and Lara were anywhere between sisters and mothers to their baby sister, and they were smiling just as their fathers were. The only one not entirely thrilled with the occasion was clearly Leyton, who was not liking the suit he had to wear, not one bit. Keith was constantly having to keep him from undoing one thing or the other, reminding him that it was only for a few more hours, that it was an important day for his sister.

This at least seemed to help, because Leyton loved his sisters that much, but then sooner or later the discomfort would set in again… And before they'd see the graduates head out to take their positions, Lydia would be found helping her brother out of his bow tie, a small concession that went a long way and promised that his would be the loudest voice cheering for her when her name was called and she walked to receive her diploma.

"So, I heard a rumor…" Maya declared as she came to track down her little brother. MJ carried his cap under his arm, looking either like an officer or someone who did not want to ruin his hair. The smirk tended to lean more toward the latter option.

"What rumor was this?" he asked, matching her tone. She held his gaze, neither of them blinking…

"Matthew Jonathan Hunter, tell me you are not," Maya raised her brow.

"Tell you I'm not… what?" he challenged, and she only had to reach toward his gown and see him step back to know she was correct.

"MJ, you can't," she quietly insisted, which would have been entirely more convincing if the corner of her mouth would quit quirking up.

"Sister, dearest, I have no idea what you are talking about," he sighed dramatically.

"You are naked under there, aren't you?"

"As the day I was born," he nearly flourished.

"MJ," she bit back a laugh.

"Tell me you wouldn't love to see the look on the old bat's face if I went running past in all my glory in the middle of her big speech."

"That's a trick question," she pointed her finger at him. He just grinned like she'd given herself away. "It's going to be very hard for you to move into the house in a few weeks if you go and get on her wrong side."

"I graduated, fair and square, third in my class," he dusted off his shoulders, checked his hair for good measure. "She can't touch me."

"Fine, if you won't reconsider for me, do it for our grandparents. You might give one of them a heart attack." MJ squinted at her like she'd given a low blow. It wasn't as though she genuinely believed they would drop dead at the sight of his… physique… but he loved them enough that he couldn't dare take a chance.

The most they got to see of MJ's aborted stunt was as he walked across the stage and, while the principal was busy calling up the next student, used his newly received diploma to pull up one side of his gown enough to show a long, bare leg that got his classmates shouting and laughing. The gown was down again and he was sauntering off before Sandra Davenport got to see anything of what had the assembly reacting in this way. The Clutterbuckets did not suffer any health issues. If anything, Tanner's great mustache tweaked with the hint of a smirk, while Angela laughed and clapped for her grandson. Maya's favorite part, aside from the way her three younger sisters were piled together laughing, Haley in between the twins, was seeing her parents, both of them clearly too busy being proud of their one and only son to be anything other than happy to see him go, whatever clothes he did or didn't have on beneath his gown.

They didn't stick around too long after the ceremony was over. Maybe this was in part so that they wouldn't be anywhere near Sandra Davenport when she'd hear what had actually made everyone laugh, but mostly they were only heading back to the Hunter house, the better to enjoy MJ's graduation party. He had asked that it take place right after the ceremony, as he was heading out to a party with his classmates in the evening, and who were they to argue. This was his day.

"Yeah, that's more like it," Maya grinned when MJ finally appeared, his gown replaced by the clothes he might have worn beneath it. He just rolled his eyes and brushed at his hair with his hand. "The college guys won't know what hit them," she declared, and for all his streaking courage, the compliment actually brought on a slight blush to his cheeks. Maya gave a quiet cackle and pulled her baby brother into a hug. "Alright, now I gotta know."

"Know what?" MJ asked, clueless.

"The boy who already noticed you," Maya filled in the blank, and if her brother's intent was to act innocent, he could not keep his face blank no matter how hard he tried. She could have teased him, but she knew him enough to think maybe there might have been more to it. "He's not out yet, is he?" MJ looked back at her, shook his head. "Alright, then I won't push. But if ever things change…"

"I know," he nodded before hugging her again, this time making it as good of an 'I love you, sis' as there could be. Maya hugged him back in kind.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners