Chapter 168
Friar & Olsen

Within a few weeks of this first year as a teacher, Maya had started to feel more comfortable, feeling that she was really finding her rhythm. This was all brand new to her, so she knew it would take time and experience for her to properly develop in her work, but that didn't stop her from seeing opportunities and following them. For one thing, it had quickly become important to her that she set her four groups apart. It was easy enough to say she had one grade in the morning and another in the afternoon, but then she had two groups of each, so what about them?

She was getting to know them all better, which made it easier to remember who was in each group, but she wanted to take it further. One day, she'd decided to put the question to them, to see what they thought. The ideas would rank somewhere between ridiculous and interesting, but finally they were an agreement. They needed to name the classes, like teams, like houses.

Now they'd just needed names, and again she'd opened up suggestions to the groups. In each class, there was a nomination period, from which Maya selected three candidates. The students voted, and the top earners were locked in, always to be known as having been chosen by her first ever students. Maya had drawn several insignias for each of them, crests, logos, whatever they wanted to call them. She'd had stickers printed, distributed some to everyone. They adorned planners, notebooks, sketchbooks... It united them. Maya loved to see how much that meant to them.

She started her mornings, appropriately, with the Morning Makers (the MOMAs for short), previously known as 7th A, and continued with the Class Creatives (a play on the class clown), previously 7th B, and then after her extended break would spend the tail end of her afternoons with the Mindscapes and the Polychromatics, formerly 8th A and 8th B respectively. Maya liked the idea of running into former students, somewhere down the line, and recalling how they had been a MOMA and a Polychromatic, or any other combo…

They all had their own qualities, and something about defining each group, giving them some identity, even if it was one that they'd only hold for a year, helped her to take note of what they all brought into her life, as much as she worked to bring things into their lives, day by day. Even though she'd long worked past her first-year jitters, it still made her so very happy to start her days with Eliza in her classroom. It was really not as weird as it could have seemed to have her little sister there in the room. If anything, it brought an energy into their period together that could not have existed anywhere else.

Then in the next period, she'd get the likes of the Shelby twins, Ruby and Abby, and in their case, too, there'd be something because she knew them. It wasn't the same kind of energy as with Eliza, but it was still pretty good. With them, it had less to do with home, and family, and a lot more to do with… this, right here, when she had been in school herself. The Shelbys, in their multitude, felt more connected to her high school days, true, but then middle and high school had all just felt like one very important block in her life, six years where she had found herself, where she had grown beyond New York Maya. So now, having those two girls in her class… It brought her right back into that headspace, even more than being in this building could.

It had been very hard to resist going home between her 7th and 8th grade classes ever since Lucas' accident, but she was doing her best and so far mostly succeeded. It had been over a month now, and even though he wasn't back at a hundred percent just yet, he was near enough to it that they could nearly count the entire event as being in the past, and that was what she was most thankful for. With that in mind, she could face the long break and then carry on with her afternoon classes.

Her first group of eighth graders, her Mindscapes… The name definitely fit to a lot of the work that they put out in class, but as far as their behavior… Oh, they were the most chaotic bunch by a mile, and a lot of it had to do with a boy called Kyle Thomas. He wasn't troublesome, not to her, though she'd definitely heard some of the other teachers get exasperated about him. His was the name she heard most often brought up across the teachers' lounge, closely followed by a girl called Rochelle. She wasn't taking art though, so it was just about Mr. Thomas. He was just a bit all over the place, like Dylan combined with about four or five cups of coffee in him, but never having consumed a drop in reality. If they could just get him focused, and Maya was getting better at that, then he was one of the best artists in any of her groups, so for that she couldn't help but champion him to her colleagues.

Her days would end with the Polychromatics, and compared to the previous group, this one would feel like plopping down on the couch or the bed after a long, busy day. They were the most relaxed of the lot, which didn't mean that they were overly quiet or uninvolved, no. But she would set an activity to them, and they would just go and do it, sitting around the classroom with the most focused concentration. Some among the group, she could see, were compelled toward that quiet simply for the fact that everyone else was doing it, so it would seem weird to wander from that, but then they'd get into their work and… they'd just go along with it.

There like with the previous group, she'd started out the year far less of a stranger than she'd done with the morning classes, seeing as a few in both afternoon groups were in the baking club last year, while those weren't in it were still very aware of it, in some cases enough that they had joined the roster for this new year. They had been going now for a few weeks, stronger than ever, and Maya had to admit that all this week, on Monday, Wednesday, and now today, Friday, she had been sort of… distracted? In a good way, yes, but she'd been distracted in baking club. It couldn't be helped, she would be in there and she would think about what was coming up this weekend… who was coming.

Ever since Charlie and David had announced their intention to move to Austin, they'd been working toward this weekend, when they would finally arrive. They had been taking care of plenty of things on their end, back in Arkansas, while out here both the young Friars and the Hunters had been working together to help them. Their biggest task had started off with doing the foot work when it came to the house. They had to find one, had to go through the purchase once they did find it. They would have adjusted their schedule if it happened that they didn't find a house in time to get the family out here by November, but luckily they had found just what the Olsens were looking for. They'd had the keys about a week before Lucas had his accident, which had complicated things in that he'd been supposed to help out with the bit of work that needed doing ahead of the move, but they'd had some very kind helpers step in, which had allowed them to get everything done.

As excited as Maya was – and she was really just beyond thrilled – no one could have been more excited for this weekend than her mother. Katy was just ready to have her baby sister back in town, there to stay for good. It was wild to think about how far they'd come, not only that it had been about ten months since they'd even known one another but also that it had been that long since their first meeting. It had been almost a year since the call to Betsy, and Charlie's surprise visit, and then the Clutterbuckets' surprise visit, too… Ten months of getting to know each other, and catching up, of long-distance baking, and then short distance, thanks to the summer they'd spent out here…

They'd be on the road by now… They would have said their goodbyes to the family back in Arkansas, to their friends. They would have packed up the last of their old home, and then Charlie, David, Caitlin, and Harry would have started the long drive to their new home.

In sheer vocal volume, the Most Excited award would probably have to go to the Friar brothers, all three of them. Oh, the distance had not diminished the bond shared between them and the Olsen kids. It quickly got to feel like a sort of… reverse car ride in their house, where instead of asking if they were there yet, Elliott and Noah would continually want to know if the Olsens had arrived yet. Even when they knew the answer would be no because they weren't going to come until the next day, they would still ask, just in case they came early for some reason. That could happen, couldn't it?

As it turned out, it wasn't so crazy of an idea. They didn't arrive on Friday night, no, but when she woke up on Saturday morning and got around to looking at her phone, Maya discovered a message from her aunt: they had arrived a few hours early and were already at the house, unloading what they'd brought on the drive as they awaited the arrival of the moving truck. The Friars, like the Hunters, were all invited to join them at their earliest convenience. Maya couldn't speak for her parents and siblings, but as soon as it was heard, within the Friar house, that the Olsens had arrived, they had three little blond boys to contend with, which could only mean one thing: They needed to get moving.

Soon, with the boys loaded into their seats and ready to go, they made their way to Ma Maggie's. It really felt like the thing to do, with it being this early and with their family newly arrived in town… As it turned out, this was a shared train of thought, as they had barely arrived that they were joined by the Hunters, who'd had the same idea. It was probably a good thing that none of them had had the chance to order yet, though could there really ever be such a thing as too much breakfast food?

With their (generous but still reasonable) order secured, the two vehicles tailed one another on the way to the Olsens' new home. They'd all been there several times before the family ever set foot inside, so it was getting to be familiar, but even then, it felt like they were coming to it for the first time again that day before suddenly there was David's truck, halfway unloaded… and there was little Caitlin, posted in the window for a split second before she ran off and appeared again, hurrying out the open front door to stand on the porch as she saw the others arriving. By the way she would pivot to face back inside the house and then outside again, they could guess that she was speaking with one or both of her parents presently out of view.

She must have finally gotten the okay to advance though, as she soon came climbing down the steps and hurried to stand at the edge of the grass, keeping her securely off the driveway as the two vehicles came to join the truck. She was bouncing on her toes as she waited, but patience paid off, as Lucas came out and helped Elliott and Noah down to the ground, where they wasted no time in running up to their cousin for a reunion of the small and loud bunch. When Maya came around with Jamie and put him down as well, Caitlin was amazed because she'd never seen him walking in person before, and she knew that was a big deal. Jamie went right up to her and she leaned to embrace the fourteen-month-old, who appreciated this for a few seconds before deciding he'd had enough hugging and stepping back.

Theirs wasn't nearly as loud of a reunion as the three brothers and their cousin's, but as Charlie and David appeared, with little Harry in tow, and found the Friars and the Hunters, the feeling was about the same. The long-awaited day had arrived! With added arms, they made quick work of finishing with the truck – Lucas was still advised to stay back, so he looked after the kids – and they went in to share in the offered breakfast. There was no table yet, or actual chairs, but they had brought enough of their camping gear to make everyone at ease that couldn't be accommodated otherwise. The kids gladly sat to a blanket, like an indoor picnic.

If all went well, the moving truck was due to arrive in mid-afternoon. So, once breakfast was over, while the kids went on playing and David, Shawn, and Lucas did their own thing back at the house, Maya followed her mother and aunt on a quick run to the mall and then the grocery store, to pick up things Charlie needed but had waited to get once they arrived in Austin.

"Hey, can I show you something?" Charlie pulled Maya aside while they waited on Katy. They'd walked by a store and she'd wanted to go in and try on a few things, and since they had time…

"Yeah, sure, what is it?" Maya asked. Charlie had her phone in her hand, but she didn't show it yet.

"Just to be clear, I didn't set off with a whole plan already made. I had this idea, and I was going to talk it with you guys before even looking anywhere, but then while we were driving into the area earlier, we saw this place and… well, I'd really like to know what you think so maybe we could try and jump on it while we can, if you'd want to."

"I… I still don't know what you're talking about, what…" Maya started to ask, but then Charlie showed her the picture on her phone. It was still dark out when the picture was taken, as Charlie had said, as the picture was taken when they were coming through Austin with their truck, but Maya only had to see the building in the picture to recognize it. The building was right next to Nando's diner. Though unlike the diner it was empty and had been for a few weeks; it was up for sale. One look at the picture and then at her aunt, and Maya felt as though she knew what Charlie was getting at. She blinked, gaped a little. Did she really mean…

"I thought maybe… it could be ours. We already work great together, you saw that. And it would be a great way to grow you business, and earn more, for your family and mine. Obviously you have your job, the school, but David and I are still situating ourselves here. We could handle the day to day, and then you'd get this space to work in, more space, equipment to make it so you don't have to spread out across four or five kitchens… If it's a bad idea, I won't even…"

"No, no, I didn't say that," Maya promised at once. "It's just… It's a lot to process," she explained, and Charlie nodded. Maya looked at the picture again. She could almost picture it already, which was kind of proof enough to her that she wasn't going to say no. She wasn't saying yes either, not yet, but… she could agree to consider, to look into it. Their own bakery… She would never even have considered it, but now… It wasn't a bad idea at all…

"Please, take your time, think about it," Charlie told her, and Maya smiled, shortly preceding her aunt in doing so. They were going to be so close to one another now. Even if she didn't have an answer until tomorrow, or the day after that, or longer… Charlie and her family were now just one short drive away.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners