A/N: [July 10th 2024]

October 1st 2023

Chapter 274
We Return to These Halls

Every morning was a toss up, no predicting whether they'd wake peacefully and with only one another for a companion. At one time or another they could have ended up with a young visitor deciding that she'd have a much better night's rest if she was cuddled up to one or both of her parents, more than one even. And if they didn't get any sleep buddies, they might be awakened by the arrival of a human alarm clock. That was what they got on this morning, and all of this for one very important reason.

"School today! School today! Mommy! Daddy!"

They barely started to wake that they both felt arms and legs coming at them. Their girl, their Macaw, had climbed onto the bed, propelled by the energy in her, and she had enough of this that she nearly trampled them both. If they hadn't been awake before, they sure were now. Maya caught the five-year-old up and pulled her close, she knew, before she could accidentally encounter her father's injuries, recovered as they were by now.

"School, yes," Maya promised, pressing kisses at her daughter's cheek. "Go and wake the others," she redirected her to land on her feet and set her running around the bed with a pat to the back. "Gently, please?"

The Rise and Shine patrol made its way from one room to the next on the first and second floor of the Friar house until all its residents were awake and mobilizing themselves to the day that was starting. The college students upstairs had already started their semesters by now, just a few days under their belts, and not all of them had classes in the morning, but if they didn't then they had jobs, or a young son to get on his way for his own day before he could retreat for a bit of studying before he had to get to class.

With all their girls to get ready for their school days, Maya and Lucas had long gotten their morning routine under control, so having one more girl to see to was no big deal. They had plenty of practice as far as wrangling giddy girls, too, which was good, because Shonagh was simply beside herself as she looked forward to her first day of school in Austin. Since Haru's departure, Marianne had turned her focus to helping her guest and new friend be ready, telling her anything she felt would be helpful for her. A school layout had been drawn up and hung on the back of the green room's door, the various teachers, staff, every adult that Shonagh might come to interact with had been described and told of as though Marianne had assembled profiles on each of them… Classmates and kids from other grades had received a similar treatment, as Marianne had sorted them all from friends, to friendly, to so-so, to bullies and troublemakers…

"Just make sure things don't get carried away, please?" Lucas told Marianne as they were dropping Aubrey off at preschool.

"What do you mean?" she asked, clueless.

"She needs to see things for herself, not just recite everything you told her like it's law," he explained, and Marianne hummed.

"Got it."

It had been very important for all of them that they should be there when Aubrey would be dropped off at the preschool that morning. Last year, she'd had Mackenzie with her, so it had been easier for her to be left there, but now her older sister was starting kindergarten, and they wouldn't be in Miss Alma's class together. Sure, she'd already spent a year there, she knew and was friendly with many of those kids, and she adored her teacher, but they knew her enough to see where it would be a problem for her that she didn't have her sister by her side, and as excited as she'd been the last few days and that morning so far, they could see the realisation settle into her mind that she was about to be left on her own, and her sisters stayed with her as long as it took – they were early – before finally following their father back to the minivan.

They all had something to be excited for as they advanced toward the elementary school. Mackenzie was as happy to begin kindergarten as her older sisters were for her to be there, among them. Lucy, Kacey, and Remy were ready to kick off second grade, much more than they had been to start first grade, not knowing how it would go, now that they had to do so many more things on their own now, not with one another. There had been talk of splitting them up, two in one and one in another, or one each to the three groups of second graders, and sooner or later it would have to happen, and it would do them some good whether they saw it that way or not, but that wasn't going to be this year, and everyone was glad for it.

Marianne truly wished that Shonagh could have come along as an XC the year before. Oh, how much fun it would have been for them to be in her uncle Zay's class together… What if they ended up in a class with a teacher they wouldn't like? She'd heard her uncle talk about some of the teachers in the fifth and sixth grades, and he didn't seem to like a couple of them. Lucas and Maya had done their best to send her along with the optimism that, whoever her teacher did turn out to be, they could be someone she actually really liked. She just needed to give them a chance. She would do that, would do her best to do that… but until she actually got there, how was she supposed to know? Well, all she could do was march forward, and so she did, arm in arm with Shonagh. They'd be brave together.

Someone who would not need to be brave in any way that morning was Megan Orlando. She had been made a promise on her birthday, just a few weeks back, and there was no chance whatsoever that this promise would be broken.

When Maya drove into the faculty lot of the high school, she looked around, hoping that she hadn't missed the arrival of the Orlandos, and she was happy to find that the familiar car hadn't arrived just yet. She got her boxes of diaries loaded up on her cart, but she didn't go into the building. Instead, she waited and kept an eye out. She didn't have to wait very long, nor had she expected to. Dylan could generally be counted on to arrive at the same time unless something beyond his control kept him back.

"Hey, guys!" Maya beamed when the father and daughter emerged into view, stepping out of the car, and looking like the team that they were. The seven-year-old had a jacket that matched her father's, and she also had a cap, which she'd received on her birthday. "Coach Orlando, Assistant Coach Orlando," Maya tipped her head to them in turn. Megan's smile right then was so like her father's that Maya had to keep her own smile from bursting right off of her face. "You're looking great, both of you," she declared as the junior turtle hurried to her open arms for a hug.

"Thanks!" Megan chirped as she stepped back, fixing her hat back into place.

"You're missing your first day of class," Maya pointed out.

"I know, but they said I could," she indicated her father, who was already having trouble reining in his proud papa face before having set foot inside the building.

"Good enough for me. Let's go, Orlandos."

Megan wanted to be the one to open the door, and so she did, leading the way for the three of them. She'd barely stepped over the threshold though that she turned around at once, to ask her aunt if she needed help with her things. There was no way she was going to make her push the cart along, heavy and hard to maneuver as it could be in places, but she knew that this helpful compulsion was deep in her DNA, so she compromised by passing her own bag along to her. The girl gladly slung the strap around her shoulder and started into the hall. She knew her way around the building already, had been coming here for as long as she could remember, same as a lot of the faculty kids did, and she guided them to the gym like she really was the assistant coach. Maya followed along, taking a few pictures, as she'd been relieved of cart duty – as she'd figured she would be – by Dylan. Sure, she'd have to double back and push it further than she might have done originally, but that was as far from a problem as could be.

After watching Megan help her father get some equipment out ahead of first period, Maya turned her cart around and started on her way back to the art room. She took her time, enjoying the quiet of morning at school, before the halls were crowded, before the press of voices settled over them… Back when she'd been a student here, she doubted that she would have enjoyed this as much as she did now, but she had appreciated it, for sure, as she'd discovered that she could actually enjoy school. That had been so far from her, before Texas, and it was in times like these that she most wondered what her life might have been if she'd never left New York.

As mornings went though, this one was special. This was the first one of the year, of a brand new school year, and right here and now, all the possibilities were out there, waiting to be grasped. This could be the year where some of these kids' lives changed forever, this could be the best year of their lives so far like it could be the worst… She'd wish them all the former, of course, but right here and now there was no way of knowing which way it would all sway. The pages were blank, like the pages of the diaries she brought to her classroom were blank, their potential unspent. She might not have had complete control over it all, but whatever could be done for them all to have a wonderful year, she would do it, and that she could promise.

Guiding her cart into her classroom, Maya smiled. She'd come and swapped out the art on display just a few days ago, but this was really the first time she got to walk in and see the room as her students would see it, and she was very happy with the result. There was so much that she wanted for her year here, personally, her fourteenth as a teacher. Her greatest wish was not one she would ever say out loud on the premises, not when a certain someone had a tendency to pop up in the most undesired times, but it was still the thing she wanted and needed the most. After three years of strikes and counterstrikes, the feeling was very much that they could not go on much longer without one of them finally being knocked out of the battle for good, and Maya may have had every intention of making it so that she would be the one left standing, but then her opponent would say the same of herself, wouldn't she?

"Hey, Megs," Maya smiled when she turned and found the girl standing in her doorway. Oh, how she couldn't wait to have her and her siblings in her class. They still had a few years to go. "What are you doing here?"

"We're ready in the gym," Megan informed her. "Can I help you, too?" Maya smiled.

"Step this way, Miss Orlando."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners