A/N: [October 13th 2024]

October 13th 2023

Chapter 286
We Aim to Create

Every season, every month of the school years would be special in their own ways. Now, they were deep in the heart of October, and Maya was as happy as could be. The teams and the clubs were coming together, kicking off for the new year. The classes had had time to really settle in, the new students didn't feel so new anymore… As for this year in particular, it had been good, truly. There was still the looming presence of Sandra Davenport and all that she represented, but Maya and her colleagues were as determined as ever to be through with her as soon as possible, and plenty of students were feeling the same way. If they had it their way, this would be the last year where she had absolutely anything to do with their school. In the meantime, they all had plenty to do to keep them busy besides seeing to her departure. Maya, along with quiz teams, a cheer squad, a musical, had her classes. And in each of those, they had their year's project to work on.

The seniors had their clay. Every Friday would be devoted to their getting to practice their skills even as they learned about other clay artists and their work. Everyone would do their best to not make so much of a mess once the hands-on part would happen, and they would do well, for the most part, but there had definitely been one Friday morning where part of her wished that a later group had chosen the clay. She supposed it was a good thing that she never had two classes back to back, giving her time to get everything back as it should be before the next group came around.

They were still in October, still had many months before the end of the year would be upon them and they'd have to turn in their final projects, but Maya made sure to set them on the track of preparing for what that final piece would be. Their Friday periods would thus begin with ten minutes of brainstorming, sketching, and consulting with her if they so wished it. With this being their last year with her, in this school, this would almost inevitably turn into a bit of reminiscing, of looking to the future, and even though this had not been the intention with this project, she had to admit she loved that this was where it was all going.

She'd gotten to speak with Freddie Jacek for a while, to hear him expand on his current situation, as he approached graduation and his departure from his foster parents' home. He wanted out, he needed out, but he was struggling with the possibility of striking out on his own. Over the weekend, when her parents and grandparents had been at the house for dinner, she'd mentioned this, and her father had asked if he might step in and help the boy. She knew where this desire came from, so as requested she went ahead and gave Freddie her father's contact information. It would be up to him to decide what he'd do with it.

Once she'd have her class clean on those Friday mornings, she would swing right on to setting up for the coming of her sophomores, as they had their project day, too, in their case, that meant a concentration on the art of drawing portraits. They had started to explore various mediums, seeing which ones might suit them best, doing the same with styles. They had plenty of sources out there for inspiration, just as they had willing subjects on hand for practice. Maya could always count on one teacher or another who was available at the time to come and sit in the art class and be drawn by the sophomores. If they had no one, she could slip into the role of model with ease.

When she was able to move about the room, as she did that Friday, she could stop at each station and answer the students' questions if they had them. They had none other than Mr. Matthews as their model this time, which was cause for at least some giggles and awkward looks from the station where Haley and Madelyn sat with Hunter. The poor boy was trying very hard not to catch his father's eye as he worked on his own portrait. To hear them talk as she stopped at their station, Hunter was having trouble doing this image of his father and not having it turn into a picture of himself, as though he was only now catching on to the ways in which he and his father resembled one another. Haley would go and tease him, but then all Hunter had to do was point out she had done almost the same when she'd drawn her older sister the week before.

By the time she'd hit lunch time, her mind would already be looking forward to her next class, as it would bring her freshmen along for their project day, for their joint project with English class, as they dove headlong into the world of comics, of manga… This would be the first of those days where her students would have the pleasure of welcoming a guest, and this one would be her own little brother, her Sammy, the published comic artist and author. If any of her students were already readers, they might know of him, of his own ongoing series, or even of the few other titles, wider known titles, where he had been brought on to either write or draw, sometimes both. Did she ever take great pleasure in being the proud big sister, in getting him to go all red in the face…

On those Fridays, they were to come along with the work they had done over in their English class, the better to carry on with the art side. They would bounce this work back and forth, between Maya and Lindsay Alcott, and the two women would love nothing more than to go through it all together, after the freshmen had come and gone. Any chance she got to know more about all of them, to watch them try new things… It was wonderful. Some of them were still struggling with their stories, coming up with all the pieces of it, while others looked as though they could have run on and done an entire saga if given the chance. Their art and English teachers were more than happy to give them that opportunity. They had four years ahead of them after all.

After her long break, which ended with her receiving their regular end of day guests and entertaining them until their mother and her classmates arrived, the juniors came in for their project day, for photography. When the previous period's bell rang, Callum and Daisy McAllister became giddy at once. They may only have been ten months old, but they knew that soon after that bell rang, there would be a knock at the door, and it would open, and there would be…

"Mama!"

"Mama!"

"Hi!" Max was smiling as bright as ever, dropping her schoolbag and scooping up her son and daughter for a big hug. Ever since they'd started bringing in the two of them at the end of the day, it had made the young mother so happy, and that in itself was all the reason Maya needed to continue hosting the twins through final period that she needed. It would be another matter next year, when Max would be a senior and thus sitting in art class at the start of her day, but that would be a matter for next year.

Here and now, the brother and sister were just the subjects they needed when the cameras came out. They weren't always going to be working on shots that involved people as their subjects, but until then, it was the Callum and Daisy show and they were stars. They would have to work around their presence when they'd get up to the point where the students learned to develop their photos. Maya could think of plenty of people across the school who would volunteer at once to see to the babes when the time came.

Before she'd know it, the juniors would depart, the McAllister twins carried off by their mother and their favorite uncle, and she'd be left to close up her class for the week, collecting her full boxes of diaries and heading home. She was really getting to love these Fridays, the way it would allow her to stop and look back, thinking of all she'd gotten to accomplish with her students. She'd get to look through whatever they'd left behind from the day's work if there was anything to look through, though she'd have to be careful about that, or else she'd end up settling in and not get home when she needed to. She was just so proud of everything they were all doing. She knew they all still had a long way to go before these projects would be done, and they were all so excited to see how it would all turn out, which was really the best part in all this, the overall connection and devotion they felt to their bit of creation. If that wasn't enough reason to keep fighting for the art in their school, she didn't know what was.

This would all go and take her back around to the whole Davenport situation, her vendetta against the arts, the things she had taken away and those she still tried to. She thought about the whole secret that Freddie and Rafa had uncovered, the cap she'd put on her classes… Could she have taken a load more students in each of her classes? To some degree, definitely, hard to say how many exactly, but even so, that would have been up to her to decide if the principal hadn't gone behind her back. That was what she'd done, they both knew it, even if Sandra Davenport didn't know that she knew. If they could just get her out of this school, oh… The first thing Maya would want to do would be to find out just how many kids had been turned away and then see if they might get any of them in next year. They'd do these projects again, maybe not these exact ones but whatever they all wanted to do, and it would be wonderful.

What if it doesn't work? What if she gets her way in the end? She couldn't ignore that possibility. She wanted to. She wanted to believe it wouldn't come to that, but it was impossible not to consider that there could come a time where she would be the one pushed out. If that ever happened… it would be the end of everything for this school. It wouldn't be their school anymore, their wonderful school.

She hadn't forgotten about what had happened in the past, about their whole 'cheerstery' situation. MJ may not have been going to her school anymore, but he was living with them at home, and he had definitely not forgotten about this thing that he and his friends had obsessed over for so long. She had done her best not to go and let it get out of hand, but she also knew that this could well be their most concrete means of putting a wedge in the door, of getting Sandra Davenport away from them. She might go and give the former cheer coach a call. It had been seven months already since she'd first spoken to Caroline Renshaw, and as much as she wanted to give the women her space, she had to see if she might have it in her to help them out. Given the chance, if she were in her position, she knew she would want to help, but in the end it wouldn't be up to her. If Caroline didn't want to get involved, that would be the end of that, but if she did want to get involved, then it could be the end of Davenport's era.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners