April 1st 2023

Chapter 203
Welcome Back

The last few days had felt very much as they had always felt when they would roll around, only they usually happened in late August, not April, but here they were, and it was happening, and Maya was kind of glad. It would have been a bad sign if she wasn't feeling it, right? It would have been bad if she thought about going back to school, to work, and she wasn't excited about it. But she was, she really was, and now finally the morning had come. She was back in her classroom that day, with all her groups, and the baking club at the end of the day.

Admittedly, not everyone was looking forward to it like she was. As much as they had hyped him up at the idea of spending his days with his grandparents and his baby brothers, Jamie Friar was very upset to know that his mother wouldn't be there with them, too, like she'd always been, and he was being very vocal about it, crying a lot, clinging to her... It had put Maya in the very awkward position of wanting to reassure him and comfort him but also needing to help him understand that this was just how it would have to be.

When she woke up on the morning of her return with her two-year-old son having squeezed his little self, there in the space between her and the edge of the bed and holding firmly to her, she let out a sigh, kissed his blond head. There was nothing to prevent her from bringing him along with her to class. No one would bat an eye. Except if she did that... If she did that, all she'd be doing would be delaying the inevitable and strengthening his hold on her. He'd have to stay behind.

Getting him to hear that and accept it was a lot easier said than done. His siblings had this whole thing going about wishing their mother a good first day back, but all he did was frown or throw fits. By the time she had to go, he was just mad, and he wouldn't kiss her or say goodbye.

"He'll get through it," Lucas assured her, hugging her as they both prepared to head out, him to take the kids to school and head to the office, and her on to the middle school.

"I know he will," Maya sighed. Oh, she was going to keep holding on to him as long as she could. "More concerned about whether I will right now." Without a word, he reached into his pocket, and she felt him pull something from it; she didn't need to see to know what it was. He just clipped the chain at her loop and slipped the watch in her pocket. "Just in case?" she asked, and he smiled.

"Just in case," he confirmed. She stretched up and kissed him. He just couldn't help himself, could he?

If saying goodbye to her grumpy Tadpole had been hard, it didn't get any easier to leave behind his baby brothers. Simon and Jackson Friar were five months old now, hardly the tiny babes they'd been when they had come into the world, but then try and tell her that. She knew deep down that she could leave them to sitters all day and they would be fine, that they had their bottles all waiting for them for the day and everything, but then they'd been so much of what the last five months had been for her, and even before then, back when they'd been in her belly... It was all happening so fast.

Well, now, she'd done it. She'd left the house and she was on her way in to work. As she drove, she would occasionally hear the clicking of the pocket watch chain at her side, and it would make her smile, make her think of her husband, and it would feel like he was with her. It was just what she needed to get her started on this day.

When she arrived, she parked in the faculty lot, but rather than walking up to the door nearest to it, she walked around to the front of the school and ascended the steps. This felt right. This was where she had spent so many hours with Lucas, with their friends... This was where he had proposed to her, with their first baby growing inside her... This was where she had come and started to make a difference for kids, the way she'd wanted to for so long, and now she was back, and each step she took brought her closer, made her even more excited to be back.

Her classroom looked very much as she'd left it, something for which she'd have to express her gratitude toward her substitute, Barton Day. There had been some changes, but these were very much the kind she would have wanted to happen: There was new art on the walls and around the room, pieces created by her students, her seventh grade Morning Makers and Class Creatives, and her eighth grade Mindscapes and Polychromatics. She had missed a lot of this school year, though she'd heard plenty about it through Mr. Day and through the likes of Munroe and Day up at the bakery and of course her sister/student Eliza Hart-Brett.

"You're here!" she appeared in the doorway, all of minutes after Maya had started to prepare for first period. She smiled and opened her arms ahead of getting pounced on by the eighth grader.

"And you're early! Your class isn't until the end of the day, remember?"

"I know, I know," Eliza sighed. "But I wanted to see you now."

"That's fair," Maya nodded. "Pretty glad to see you, too."

"Can I help?" Eliza asked, looking at the supplies in the process of being laid out.

"See, now, that's a complicated question," Maya put her arm around her sister's shoulders and looked about the room. "I'm always so happy to welcome help, but today, first day back..."

"You want to do it on your own," Eliza guessed. Maya responded with a sheepish nod. "Can I just hang out without helping then?"

So, Eliza stuck around and, while Maya finished her setup, they talked about what it had been like on Mr. Day's last period of teaching them. The general opinion was that he had done very well and everyone had loved him, though of course they were all looking forward to getting their real teacher back. If ever she needed to be away again, they would just have to hope and see if he would be available again.

Maya got the same impression when, shortly after Eliza had gone on her way, she was joined by a couple of her first period seventh graders, her Morning Makers, aka the MoMas. One of those was the recent substitute's son, and as awkward as it could be to have one's own parent as your teacher, Lambert Day had not minded it in the slightest. He was just that kind of carefree kid, and he enjoyed having his father around, especially if he got to playfully tease him.

"Welcome back, Mrs. Friar," he greeted her. Right behind him, Taylor Munroe echoed this sentiment with a tip of the head.

"Thank you, and thank you," she smiled at them both in turn. "Glad to be back."

Looking at them both there, looking at Lambert in particular, she got to thinking about Jamie again. He just loved running into these two whenever he'd be at the bakery. With Lambert, it was easy to understand, as he was a great young chef and Jamie was the captain of the Food Network fan club. But then there was Taylor, too, and while he had no real kitchen aspirations, he would be there, doing his job, and he would instantly find any and all small tasks that might be handled by the small child and take him on to perform it. Jamie would look so proud whenever the boy called on him for help.

Neither of them would be working that day, but they would be in attendance at the baking club, and Maya had half a mind to see about getting Jamie up here to join them for that. It would be a good compromise, wouldn't it?

The more the art class filled up with the MoMas, the noisier it got, as they all greeted their returning teacher and wanted to tell her about how it had been while she was gone, and how happy they were that she was back, and how they had their projects ready for her... By the time the bell rang and they all sat in their places, the biggest question they had was about how her babies were doing. Maya was more than happy to fill them in about Simon, and Jackson, and about how they were both growing so much...

She'd been through this before, going back to work after a baby before, but sharing it with her students, as she would do three times more throughout the day, it felt different, a good kind of different. It was always something else, talking about her children with kids, teenagers... They had their own kind of fascination, as she'd seen especially with her own younger siblings, and her junior bakers, and now her students. She had the same impression with her second half of seventh grade in the following period, her Class Creatives.

When each group had gone on their way to their next classes, Maya had been left with a stack of special projects already turned in, and it would have been so easy to spend her long stretch of time until she saw her eighth graders just looking at each piece in that stack, but she chose to resist. She would take them all home, all four groups' stacks, and she would take her time to look through them across the nights to come, the better to hand them back in on Friday.

Without dipping into those first stacks now, of course, she did have a long time clear ahead of her, but she wasn't without means to keep herself occupied. She had months to catch up on, beyond what she had been keeping up with. She'd seen the broad strokes, but now she was after the details. She got to see these for her seventh graders, even as their first classes back together had helped her to accomplish some of it already. She also got to do the same for her eighth graders ahead of getting them back

She saw and sympathized for the Shelby twins, Ruby and Abby, as they'd found themselves split up this year, the former in Polychromatics and the latter in Mindscapes. It wasn't even the first time that they were put in different classes in the years since they'd started, but it didn't change the fact that they disliked very much being apart from one another, and with a class like hers, Maya felt that she could really see it in the work that they did. It made her think so much of her own twins, her little Hug-a-bears, and what it would be like for them, if and when they would get to a point where they couldn't be together. They would try sometimes, they'd see how the two of them would cope with separation, and the answer was usually 'not well at all,' so they hadn't forced the issue just yet, leaving them instead a longer grace period.

When she finally saw the first of the Shelby twins, Abby, she still had those thoughts in her head, to the point where she only resisted the urge to hug her and comfort her by thanking her for welcoming her back and answering her questions about how her boys were doing. She'd already been getting 'twin insights' out of her little sisters, so she wasn't surprised to now be getting some from Abby and later Ruby as well. If anything, she welcomed it all.

She knew that Lucas was in the same position, as he now had Nellie as one of his riding students, and both she and Gracie had spent the past five months going around like the great ambassadors of twindom around their nephews. And if that wasn't enough, he had his other new young rider, also an identical twin, boys this time, like their own. Bobby Davis had been very intrigued to learn that his instructor had twin sons, and whenever they'd had lessons together, he had always come along with questions or advice born of his knowledge and experience along with that of his brother, Ethan.

Making it to the end of the day, her last class, Maya was reunited once again with her little sister. After her initial visit at the start of the day, she had appeared again at lunch time, sharing a meal and stories of her morning along with her older sister, and now she was back again, her tales of her afternoon having to wait a while longer before they could be shared. First there was class, then it was off to baking club. This time, she was more than welcome to help with the setup, and she did so while talking of the rest of her day with both Maya and co-instructor Charlie. There was something so wonderfully odd about the moment for Maya, being with her half-sister and her mother's younger sister, both of them estranged from her until life had brought them together again... She couldn't imagine her life without them now.

The baking club had thrived in her absence, and as glad as she was for that, she was even more so for being back with them now. It was especially so as they were joined by some very special guests. It was slightly chaotic at first, with Jamie hurrying to team up with Lambert and Taylor, and all the young bakers crowding around to see the baby boys in their stroller, pushed by their Granny Mel... In the end though, it was the perfect cap to Mrs. Friar's return to the school, topped off with colorful cupcakes.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners