A/N: [October 6th 2024]

October 6th 2023

Chapter 279
We Return As We Discover

"Dad, we're done!" Marianne's voice floated out, and Lucas moved toward it with a curious grin. At the table, all the girls were in the process of picking up their books, pencils, and other supplies with a noted haste.

"All of you? Already?" he asked. Sure, most of their homework load was supremely reasonable, but this did feel very quick, some would say rushed, even for them.

"It was easy," Remy nodded.

"I drew a horse, Daddy!" Aubrey held up her sketchbook for him to see.

"Huh, look at that… Is that a diary or your own stables there, Lucky?" Lucas asked as he came closer to the table. "Let me have a look, yeah?" he waved at all the books, and they were presented to him for inspection. They had all done their work, that was for sure, though he couldn't help but wonder if some answers might not have been fed from some of the others in an effort for them all to head out the door as soon as possible. It would not get them anywhere to start and point fingers, but he would definitely have to talk to them all later on before this became a pattern. "Alright, well, guess we better get going, yeah?"

He barely had to finish that sentence and they were all on their way to put on shoes and jackets before hurrying out the door and to the minivan. Seatbelts were buckled, everyone in their seats and set to depart in as orderly a fashion as he only ever saw when there was a collective desire for them to go somewhere or do something. And he had promised them that they'd get to go and watch Nana Katy's show get made…

They had recently begun airing their eighth season and, considering that this had all sprung from his book of stories about the ranch, he was maybe most bewildered that it had been on this long, or that it had been even longer since he'd put that book out into the world. Ten years, almost… Marianne had been just a baby at the time he'd been working on it all, their other children either as yet unborn or unknown to them, and now… What a difference a decade made, right?

It was funny to see the way the girls would react to it all. The book had been part of their lives from the very beginning. The fact that their father had put it all together, even if they'd been told, didn't seem to register with them until they'd be able to read his name on the cover for themselves, and even then, it didn't always connect. They'd seen it at a bookstore once, and they'd been baffled at seeing what was to them their storybook, with all the tales about their grandparents and great grandparents and Sullivan Stables, or that people had bought one of them for their own.

As they'd gotten to hear, their father's book of ranch stories was known even beyond Austin, beyond Texas. What had started out as a small publication a decade back had understandably hit a much wider market after the success of the television series. Suddenly they all wanted to know about the work that had inspired it. The book had since been sold in several countries, translated in several languages. A young Tomas Silva had found it in a library, back in Brazil, and he had found it fascinating, shared it with younger brother Gabriel, and when he had suddenly been unable to take this chance of traveling to the ranch in question, it had been an easy choice to send Gabriel in his place.

He was doing pretty well for himself, all things considered. The switch had needed some talk to sort out, but Cristina and Rafa had still been willing to host an exchange camper, and by some work he was taken into the school, too. Now he'd had a month to adjust, and he still could be seen walking around the ranch like he might have needed someone to pinch him, to prove to him that he wasn't dreaming and that this was real.

All the kids who'd traveled out to be their XCs this year seemed to be so happy to be there, for their own reasons, and every time Lucas spotted their second youngest camper that year, he felt a tug at his heart, knowing what he had to be feeling, already a month into his stay with them. Thirteen-year-old Ricky had come with his horse, Skipjack, but he wouldn't be returning home with him at the end of the year. Skipjack was due to take up residence at Sanderson Farm and live out his days there, which would be wonderful for him, but for Ricky, who had grown up with his horse friend and was now expected to go on without him… Skipjack would be well taken care of, they'd shown him as much, and he trusted it, but still… The whole thing was making it hard for him to concentrate when he was in school with his host, and there were concerns that, if he didn't improve, they might have to send him home early, but Lucas had promised that they would help him do better, and he kept his promises, didn't he?

He wouldn't be alone in this. Maya could not have possibly heard about this situation and not felt the need to step in and act. She had seen more than her share of kids who'd had to deal with problems at home that had shifted their focus away from their schoolwork, and she'd always done what she could to help them. Ricky may not have been her student, may not have even attended her school, but it didn't matter. She would help him, too.

She was so happy to see how the program had expanded this year, continuing on with the international campers but also doubling the number of kids they could bring along for the experience. She knew that they would have brought in even more if they could, but really four was the right number, at least for now. For all they knew, they would bring that number up again in the future, if that was right for them. Right now, with Gabriel, Cate, Ricky, and Shonagh, they were right where they needed to be. The four campers all had their own things going on, but then they'd be brought back together at the ranch, and they'd have their little family, like spontaneous brothers and sisters.

That being said, Maya really felt as though Gabriel had lucked out the most as far as the class that he'd landed in. It wasn't just that he'd joined Rafa and the juniors, but also that – at least where it came to art class – he'd joined this group of students in their 'last period junior chaos' era. He would go through his days in class with them, and it would all be as it was, but then they'd come to her class to close out their days, and he'd be so happy to be there.

She hadn't forgotten what it was like for him at the start of the year. Day one, there had still been this concern like he might not get to stay and he'd have to go home, to forget this opportunity. And by the time he'd made it to her class, he had gone through most of his first day, getting his first impressions of being part of all this… and he didn't want to have to leave, so much that he looked like he was trying not to get attached to anything and was failing at every turn.

Day by day and week to week, Maya had gotten to see that fear relax and fade away, and she couldn't have been happier. Rafa had been so happy to have Gabriel with him, both at home, around the ranch, and at school. He had been expecting a boy his own age in Tomas, but instead he'd gotten Gabriel, three years below him, and the way they were together, it felt to Maya like her sister's boyfriend had found himself a little brother, one he'd be so sorry to see leave at the end of the year.

Funnier still than seeing Rafa guide Gabriel along on that first day had to be the way Amy Dixon and Jake Bennett had come to her at the start of the period, both asking after how their respective younger siblings had done when they'd had their first class with her earlier that afternoon. Maya had promised them both that Julie and Willy had been just fine, and that they would be fine again the next day, but they still wanted more details, which she'd done her best to provide within reason and without holding up the class. Sure, by now, they knew what they were in for with her, as did the rest of the class, but now there was the added question of the year's project, rounding out the other groups' choices. It could have been that they would pick the same thing as one of the other groups had done, which would have been fine.

Amy had been the one to first offer up photography as an idea, and Maya had done her best not to show anything to suggest her own thoughts, but on the inside she was already coming up with so many possibilities of what they might do with that. Jake had quickly backed up his girlfriend's suggestion, much to her appreciation, and in no time the rest of the class had decided that photography sounded like a great choice. The rest of the period had quickly dissolved into a lot of very silly and very exaggerated modeling after this, but Maya expected nothing else from the group at this time of the day. Plus, really, it felt like as good of a way as any for all of them to show her where they all stood before a bit of guidance. Oh, if her father could see her go…

Neither one Max nor the other had actually taken pictures like their classmates that day. It was plain to see that Max McAllister was having a rough time of being back in school, away from her babies, while Max Farrell was being the very best friend that he'd always been to her, as both of them waited for the period to end, allowing them to head out and go collect Callum and Daisy. The pair, much like Ezra, were coming ever closer to their first birthday, and they felt less and less like babies by the day, but Max had been with them all summer, and she'd wanted so much to hold on their 'little' days for as long as they'd last, and this had been a lot, recognizing she'd have to miss out on so much. So, rather than take new pictures, the two friends had sat huddled together, scrolling through the multitude of images of the twins they could choose from. Maya was more than happy to allow this alternative.

Like the rest of their class and everyone else in the school, they'd had a month now to get into the rhythm of things, which they had done, but not without some level of difficulty, for Mama Max especially. This had led Maya to make an arrangement with her student. Every afternoon, Callum and Daisy were brought to the school ahead of last period, and when the juniors came to art class, there the two would be, merrily reunited with their mother, but also with their many 'aunts and uncles,' who would crowd around the boy and girl like they were family. They would stay among them for that last period, held by one Max and the other, sometimes by a classmate, sometimes by Maya herself… Was everyone happy about this arrangement? All but one, absolutely. The most important part was that end-of-day with the juniors was never as crazy and wonderful as it was that year, all of them and the McAllister twins.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners