A/N: [November 26th 2024]

November 26th 2023

Chapter 330
We Create Together

They had turned the calendar pages into April already. The day they had turned the page, Mackenzie had insisted on being the one to do it, all so that she could see the square for the twenty-fourth, because she knew it would already say that this was the day where she'd be turning six years old. Never to do things halfway, not only had Maya marked it and drawn inside it to leave no room for error, she had also traced a trailing countdown across the bottom of each row of squares, linking the entire month up to Mack's big day. Each day so far, she had gotten to grab a marker, the color of her choice, and fill in the circle with the countdown number inside, showing just how many days were left. She loved it, and so did the other girls, who would for sure have the same thing going on their own pages, in May, and August, and October…

They were still a little way away from the end of Mackenzie's countdown, but it did feel as though counting down made the month go by faster. Spring was well upon them, and they could already feel summer on the horizon. On the whole though, they were still in the day to day of school, and activities, and work, and family… It could feel like a lot of the same, over and over, but they always found the best ways to lose sight of the repetitions and only ever appreciate everything else, the things that made any one day feel special whether it was through the things they did, the people they were with, or both of those at the same time.

The thing that had made these past few weeks feel new and unique was Agnes Killian being let in on the fact that the Friars knew she'd been Ezra's mother. It was all still new for all of them, naturally, slow going, but that was alright. Both Maya and Lucas felt it was important that Agnes should be the one to decide how fast or slow any of it went, what was said or done and when, which was good. As of yet, anything that had been shared by Agnes had been given in bits and pieces, little ones, few and far in between, and by no means in chronological order.

She'd told Maya about sitting in art class with her, when she'd still been adjusting to the news that she'd gotten pregnant, still been trying to figure out what she would possibly do about the baby. She'd sat there, watching her, listening to her… She'd talk about her kids a lot, not even realizing she'd be doing it sometimes, and according to Agnes, it was always clear, even just listening to her, that she was a wonderful mother. And she had seen her with her kids, too. She'd seen her sometimes, from a class window, sitting on the bench during her afternoon breaks, and even out and about in town on errands with the girls. And that was how it had come to be that she'd decided to place Ezra in her care. She had never regretted it for one second. It had been the only way for her to go on in peace after the day she'd let him go. There was no more development beyond this, beyond stories and occasional encounters. She didn't know what she wanted to do now that her identity was open between them, and they would let her decide, no rush.

Now, as far as the art students across the school were concerned, they had a surprise announcement set before them on one of these April mornings, as their teacher informed them that they were about to enter Collaboration Week. It was one of those things they didn't do every year, though she always made sure that it would happen at least once in the time that each graduating class spent at school with her. The times they'd done it in the past, as far back as when she herself had been a student, oh…

Her own collab week had been so good to her, to Lucas, their friends… They had turned themselves into a live painting. A backdrop, clothing, themselves… They'd all had to stand there, as still as though they were part of the painting themselves, throughout the evening, taking breaks now and again… running around the school to waken themselves up… The painting she had created for them to recreate was framed and hanging on a wall at home.

When she'd moved to the other side, as a teacher, and she'd assigned a collab week, she'd been so curious to see what the students would do, and she had not been disappointed. It had been the same way every time, and it would be the same now. Some teams would choose projects that felt familiar, and that was fine, while others would do something completely new and unexpected, and those would be the best. She had her eye on a number of her students as being likely to do one of those even before she'd made the announcement, though she'd never say that out loud, naturally. She had already been surprised in the past, this always in the best way.

As ever, the first of her groups to hear about any of this were the seniors in first period. She might never have held a collaboration week this late in the school year, going off of the students' reactions. A lot of them were already in deep with finals preparation, the final push ahead of their move from high school to college, and this new thing, even if it was only to take place over this one week, felt like a lot to add, especially seeing as it would require for them to do this in a group. Did that mean that they wouldn't want to do it? Not at all. It was more like being so busy with one thing that had to be done only to be told of another thing they needed to do, much smaller but also much more fun. The announcement was made near the end of class, so they were released in those last five minutes to go and figure out their groups and start brainstorming as best they could with the time that they had. Maya was happy to see that this happened easily enough, and by the time they left, everyone looked like they had the start of a plan.

With the sophomores, it was an instant intrigue, most of them having no idea what this whole project entailed except for those in the class who might have had older siblings do it at some point while they'd been in Mrs. Friar's class. Haley in particular was very happy to know that they would be doing this. She hadn't even been born when the live art project had been done by her sister/teacher and the others, but she'd heard the story, seen the pictures, and she was obsessed with it. Maya wouldn't be surprised if, whatever group she ended up in, her little sister decided to do the same for her own project. She'd have Madelyn with her, obviously. She wanted to know if this collaboration could be done between students of different grades at the same time, and Maya told her that yes, if she wanted Rafa in her group, she could recruit him, and she'd make sure to run it by him when the juniors had their announcement at the end of the day. Until then, she had to keep it quiet, and Haley promised that she would. Whether she'd succeed would be left to be seen.

She had to say, she was always very curious to see what the freshmen would come up with. Her youngest kids, their first year with her… A lot of the most unexpected projects she'd seen over the years had come out of this group, and this year could bring a few more of those, for sure. When they found out about the project, here again, some students with older siblings could remember their doing it in the past, and they brought stories for the others to start and understand what this would be like. The groups took longer to come together in this class, and it took a moment for Maya to understand why, but eventually she did. After she'd left them to the brainstorming, they'd all sat there for a bit, thinking to themselves, and looking around… They were getting ideas already, not about the people they wanted to work with but about the projects they wanted to do. When they did go about teaming up, some of them had friends nearby already, but beyond that, they looked like they were trying to figure out who might be most in line with the kind of thing that they wanted to do. Maya was so surprised at this response, but most of all she just loved it.

The McAllister kids were to be dropped off early today, almost as soon as her class with the freshmen was over, so she was outside to collect them when their sitter came along. Daisy and Callum both called her Yaya, and it just reminded her so much of when her little Hunter siblings had been tiny. They'd sometimes called her that, too, which only made her happier to hear it now from these twins. She pushed the double stroller along and brought it to sit at her old bench, the better for them to enjoy the April weather. A few days a week, she could count on Ella coming along with both Sunny and Melly, but she couldn't make it today, which was alright. She had her little buddies here, and she was happy for that. When it looked like one and then maybe both of them were going to need a diaper change, they left the bench and headed into the school. The changing was done with the ease and speed of one who'd changed enough diapers in her lifetime to do so with her eyes closed, and then they moved back on their way to the art class.

As they went, they crossed Principal Davenport in the hall, and Maya had half a mind to speed the twins along as fast as she could and as far away from the woman as possible, but she made herself move along like there was no big deal. Sandra didn't even bother to put in the show of stopping to greet the one-year-olds. Instead, she looked on like all she wanted was to have one good reason to prohibit their being in class every afternoon. Clearly, she had none.

Last of all, she had her juniors to announce the collab week project to, and here her predictions were for the most concentrated group of strange and puzzling creations, but also some of the most fun. As promised, she advanced the invitation for Rafa to join Haley and Madelyn's group, one grade below him. He was very happy to do so and, knowing both his connection to Haley and to Lucas, she was almost sure that he had already known about the live art project of years past, and that he, too, had started to think of doing exactly that. If that was what they all wanted to do, she wasn't about to stop them. She could see them all being so devoted to their individual tasks, her little sister being very much about creating the perfect poses for everyone… Everything was going to be great, in this class, and in the others, too. She foresaw the likelihood of Sandra Davenport trying to throw at least one or two great obstacles into her path, but she was very skilled at maneuvering around those. She'd do just fine, as would her young artists.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners