April 22nd 2023

Chapter 206
Closing the Books

In many a home around Austin that morning, children would be very aware and eager at the knowledge that they only had this one day left of going into school before they'd be free for the summer. That feeling was reigning in the Friar house as well, though on the whole, the ones who were showing the most enthusiasm were not even doing it for their own benefits: they were just excited that their mother would be finishing, too.

"It's like they forgot how I was here not too long ago," Maya commented as she and Lucas each saw to one of the twins. Out beyond their room, they could hear the boys back in their room, getting ready for the day, and it sounded a lot more like they were playing around than getting dressed. They'd been all over the place since they'd woken up, always with a single thought running through their heads: one more day and their mother wouldn't be teaching again until the fall.

"Or," Lucas tipped his head to her without looking away from Jack, who was getting a bit wriggly while being dressed like he could sense the energy coming out of his brothers' room. "They missed you so much once you went back that they're happy to get you home again."

"You say things like that, what if I don't want to go back next fall?" Maya asked him with a hum even as she was captivated with what she would lovingly call her weakness: tiny baby feet. Simon was giving his pair some good wiggles while she dressed him, and she couldn't help but grin and lean in to kiss his squishy face. "I'm just kidding, huh, Nugget? I can bring you and your brother in to see my class when I go back, how does that sound?"

"You know who else would like to go in there?" Lucas asked.

"Oh, I know," she smiled. Ava had been talking about how much she wanted to go and see her teach, and the closer they'd been getting to the end of the year, closer to the end of her opportunities until September, the more persistent she'd grown with her arguments. "I told her she only had to wait one more year and she'd get to be in there for two whole years, but she doesn't want to wait."

"Yeah, she doesn't want to wait," Lucas nodded along, lifting Jackson into his arms.

"Alright, yes, I wouldn't mind having her there either," Maya admitted, happily busted as she pulled Simon up. "She wouldn't mind missing the last day of fifth grade, would she?"

"I wouldn't," a cheerful voice pulled their attention back to the bedroom door. The seven-month-old boys reacted faster than their parents did, squealing at the sight of their big sister. They loved their big sister so very much. The joke around the house was that, with her auburn hair, she stood out to them from the rest of their family, parents and brothers all with varying blond tones. Whatever it was, they were sufficiently agitated that it made Ava move from where she stood to approach them and take one each of their hands in her own. "So, I can go?" she asked, perking up again as she turned to her mother. "Please?"

"What about…" Maya searched for a moment, then, "Kelsey. What about her?"

"Oh, it's okay, I already told her I might not be there," Ava informed her with a swiftness that could have given her parents whiplash. She shrugged. "I thought, since today's the last day, maybe you'd finally let me go with you."

Maya barely kept hold of a snicker, thinking about how Shawn would tease her from time to time, saying that Ava was just meant to be her kid. This whole reasoning of hers that morning made it that much harder for her not to know exactly what he was talking about. She's got something of Lucas in her, too. She's our girl, our Sweetpea.

"Alright, fine," Maya sighed, overdramatic for effects. It made the twins laugh even as Ava stepped up and hugged her arms around her mother.

"Thank you! Thank you! I'm going to go call Kelsey, I don't think she's left yet!" And she was off.

"So, we should go ahead and call her school, huh?" Lucas spoke to Jackson with an innocent tone.

"Okay, ha ha," Maya squinted at him. "But yes. Why don't you go ahead and do that? Hand over the Peanut."

Were it any other day, the argument would have been a lot harder to sell, sending one of their children on to school while his big sister, who went to that same school, stayed in the minivan. Letting the school know was, in the end, a lot easier than telling Elliott, or Noah, or Jamie, who all wanted to go with the two of them, too. It required a promise made to each of them that they would get a turn at some time the following year before they reined in the big blues. They were sent off to their days, at the elementary school, preschool, and with Granny Mel along with the twins. Lucas was headed to the office with his father, and Maya and Ava were off to the middle school.

She wasn't unfamiliar to it, not when she'd been working with students there, helping them with their public speaking, but they weren't the reason she wanted to be there that day, no, this was only ever exactly what she'd told her mother. She wanted to watch her teach. So, along they went, mother and daughter together, toward the art class. When they arrived, Ava looked around like this was her class to teach, to organize, and she was going to get all the things she needed. Maya resisted the urge to laugh, instead leaning into the impulse.

"What do you think we should do today?" she asked. Ava turned back to look at her. "I didn't really plan anything," she explained with a shrug. "Figured we'd just call this one how we saw it, last day and all, but we can do it your way. It'll be Ava's Choice," she intoned. Oh, Ava liked that. "MoMas are up first, what do you want to do with them?" Maya asked, indicating the supplies.

She didn't have to wait long. Ava looked at everything with a look of deep thought in her eyes before she straightened up, inspired, and started picking out a few things. She set them on the nearest table and turned to her mother.

"What do you think? It could be good, first class of the day," she reasoned.

"Sounds good to me," Maya nodded. "We're going to need more of those for everyone then. Start grabbing, get placing."

Ava was very efficient at class setup, as Maya knew she would be. Soon, they had everything set for the first group of seventh graders. Ava had set aside an extra kit for herself, at one of the empty seats, close up front. She settled in even before the students started to arrive, and she looked so eager to get started that Maya had to take a picture. When the kids started to arrive, they were curious about the girl sitting in wait, clearly not of their grade. Most of them did anyway. Some of the students knew who Ava was in relation to their teacher, either because they'd seen her with the Friars, or on the segments with Lucas… A couple of them knew her because they'd been meeting with her to get help with their public speaking. One barely acknowledged her, feeling awkward at having an eleven-year-old as his tutor, while the other smiled and waved at her. Ava played along with the first, waved back happily at the other.

Smaller stature aside, the fifth grader fit in very well with the students two years ahead of her. Maya could see her looking on the whole time the class went on, and it was nearly impossible for her to keep a straight face the whole time. She could have left this period as free and unstructured as could be, being the last of the year, but Ava's presence there compelled her to go another route. These kids, just like the ones in the next period, where Ava once again went and picked out supplies, would be back with her in the fall, in her afternoon eighth grade classes, so she could very easily see this last day with them as seventh graders as the means to bridge the two halves of their time with her. It was still fairly new for her to get to transition kids from one half to the other, and she was realizing how much she'd have to contend with the fact that two years was all they'd get. They'd have had twice as long if she'd gone for high school instead of middle, but she'd made her choice and she knew that it was the right one.

With two periods behind them, they had a long stretch of time ahead of them before they would welcome their next group. As soon as the Class Creatives had cleared out, Ava was up and gathering brushes, bringing them to the sink to be cleaned.

"Maybe I should have you around more often," Maya laughed. "So helpful, thank you."

"It's the last day, everything's gotta get put away clean, doesn't it?" Ava reasoned.

"True, true," Maya confirmed. "But there's no rush, is there? We've got a few hours ahead of us."

"I don't want to put it off," Ava admitted, and Maya knew her enough by now to understand she meant it. Whether it was just in her nature or if it had been taught to her, growing up back with her birthmother, she had always been a very neat child. She picked up after herself, didn't leave anything to later that could be done right away.

"Then let's get it done," Maya smiled and moved along to gather the morning students' work. It would be kept at the ready for when they'd return in the fall, eventually sorted into two piles once she'd know which of them would be Mindscapes and which would be Polychromatics. This begged the question, and as they both worked on their ends of the clean-up, Maya asked it of her daughter. "Do you know which groups you'd want to…

"MoMas and Polys," Ava replied without skipping a beat. Maya smirked.

"I see that about you," she slowly nodded. "What happens if that doesn't work out? Whatever classes you'll be in, you might end up in either one of the others…"

"It'll work out," Ava remained confident. "I'll be here first thing in the morning and last in the afternoon, so I can help again," she went on to point out, smiling as though to say 'see, that's a bonus.' "I don't know if Kelsey will get to be in the same groups, too. I hope she is, because she's my best friend, but if she has to be in another class, then that's okay, yeah?"

"Yeah, of course. Plus, you'll get to exchange stories when you get back to each other."

"We will," Ava agreed. Maya could see a pensive little smile rise onto her face as she considered the two options, both of them with benefits of their own, and they were all that she cared about in the end.

They had taken a chance, Lucas and her, when they'd connected the two girls. They knew Ava needed a friend, and Kelsey seemed a likely candidate, but they could not have imagined the bond that the two girls would forge in such a short time. They might have been friends all their lives instead of less than a year. Either way, the effects spoke for themselves. Of all the happiness that Ava Nash had amassed since she'd gone to live with the Friars and stay there, a whole lot of it had come from them, her new mother and father, her new brothers, and everyone else who'd come along with them to call her family, but another great wedge of it had come by the introduction of this one girl, and her importance was undeniable for it.

Once everything was cleaned up, Ava had already decided what she wanted to do for the last two periods, that afternoon, so they went ahead and set everything aside ahead of time, all the better to leave the two of them wide open until later. Maya gave her daughter two options for lunch: the school cafeteria or Ma Maggie's. It was, on the whole, a silly question, but she had to ask it, didn't she?

"You know Kelsey can sing?" Ava asked as she inspected her options on the menu sitting before her.

"I didn't know, no," Maya replied.

"She's great," Ava nodded. "I wish I could sing even half as good as her, but… I can't," she frowned shyly.

"You could learn to," Maya suggested. "You could try it out. I could help you," she smiled, immediately enjoying the prospect of getting to share her music with her daughter.

"I don't know. I tried before. When I was little, my mother wanted to put me in talent shows and stuff. She got me a teacher and everything. But I was so bad that he gave up. He was a nice guy, I think. He told my mother that he would feel bad about taking her money. After that, she stopped trying, I guess, but I just… I kept thinking about it. I thought that I could make it, and then… she'd be proud of me. It's stupid…"

"It's not," Maya promised. She reached across the table, held out her hands, palms up, and Ava clasped each with her own. She didn't need to bring up her father. Just in this, Ava would know what she was thinking about. Their situations may not have been exactly the same, but in this, they had been unfortunately similar: they just wanted to earn their parent's favor, their love, their attention, because they'd lacked it. "So, would you like to give singing a shot or was that just sort of…"

"I would, but it's hopeless, really," Ava promised.

"Can you sing for me, so I can see how 'hopeless' we're talking about?" Maya asked, air-quoting. Ava's eyes briefly widened as she looked around. "Not here, not here," Maya quickly specified with a chuckle. "Back at school, or at home… or in the car, if you'd like. Good place for singing, cars."

"It's so bad," Ava insisted, but she was smiling despite herself.

"Do you plan on being a singer at some point in your life?"

"No," Ava blinked, not following.

"Well, then, what does it matter if you can't sing on key? You like to sing, then go as loud as you want if it makes you feel good. If it's that bad… I'll get earplugs." Ava burst out in giggles at this, especially as Maya mimed sticking the earplugs in and giving the thumbs up to keep going.

"I'm really glad you let me go with you today," she declared, once the laughter had been brought back under control.

"Yeah, so am I," Maya smiled at her. "Love you, Sweetpea."

"Love you, too, Mama."

It took about half the trip back from the restaurant to the school for Ava to work up the nerve, even as Maya ever casually kept the radio playing as upbeat and inviting of songs as she could find, but finally she did go ahead and start lending her voice in harmony when one came along that she could not resist. For what she could hear, Maya would by no means have called it hopeless, though she could imagine how someone might say so. She would not be one of those. If there was anything to be done for her daughter's singing abilities and she wanted her to, then Maya would get her there. Until then, she sang along with her all the way back to school.

They had time left still until they'd receive the eighth graders, so Maya took Ava through the classroom with her and they worked together to get everything done that needed doing ahead and could be done ahead of the year ending. She was happy to do it, and they worked very well together. Finally, the Mindscapes came along, and it was clear that the word had gotten around about Mrs. Friar and her guest that day. The students, whether they knew her as the others had done or not, welcomed her presence.

Where the project with the seventh graders had been about bridging, with the eighth graders, as they were on their way out, starting high school in the fall, so that was what they'd be encouraged to reflect, in their own ways. It felt that much more potent once they got to the last period of the day, the last of Maya's groups, the Polychromatics.

"Ava! I heard you were here, hi!" Eliza came along, arms open wide to her one and only niece, and Ava hopped off her stool to go and hug her. "You're sitting with me, right?"

"Yeah," Ava pointed back to where she'd just been before leading her aunt over so she might show her what she'd done all through the day.

She hadn't shown any of her work to her mother just yet, because she wanted it to be her surprise, for the end of the day. And when the class let out, sending the students off, freely on to summer, she didn't show it until they had done the last stretch of cleaning up and all they had left to do was gather their things and leave. Finally, she brought her mother over to where she could unveil her four pieces. Two of them had been done as close to in line with the seventh graders' theme as possible, and the others had done so for the eighth graders' theme.

"This one I made about what I wanted to do this summer with Dad," Ava pointed to a drawing of her and Lucas, clearly at the ranch, the presence of cameras and other equipment suggesting that they were in the midst of doing a segment. Also in the image, she could recognize Ava's uncle Owen, and Kelsey, too. "And this one, I thought about a camping trip, all of us together. That'd be fun, right?"

"Very," Maya smiled. "So, what'd you do with the other two?"

"This one, I was inspired from lunch, and in the car. I wanted to think about something I'd want in the future." She'd drawn the two of them, in the car, singing along. There were many musical notes streaming from them. The ones from Maya's side were all perfect, while the ones on Ava's side looked like they might have been broken once but had been stitched back together since. Either way, they both looked happy to be there.

"Sounds like a plan," Maya nodded firmly, and Ava matched her. Looking to the fourth, she smiled again. "I think this one's your best one of the bunch," she declared, and Ava seemed proud. "I'm sure Kelsey would be happy to see you did a portrait of her."

"You think so?" Ava asked, uncharacteristically bashful all of a sudden.

"Yeah, I mean, you really captured her essence," Maya told her. "Did you just decide you wanted to do a portrait instead of the future thing?"

"I don't know… I was going to do that, like I did the first time, but then I just…" she pointed to the painting. Maya could just about feel her daughter's nerves twisting themselves in knots, and right then, the solution felt like it was right in front of her… and it came with questions, with one big question that had felt only half formed up to now. She didn't want to push the topic, not if she wasn't ready.

"How about we drive over to her house on the way home. You can give it to her, ask how her day went and tell her about yours."

"Can I?" Ava brightened immediately.

"Get your things, let's go. You can pick the playlist."

They arrived at the Farrell house even as Kelsey and her brother were arriving back with their father. She was barely back in her wheelchair and then there was her best friend, hurrying along from out of her mother's car. Kelsey's smile was pretty powerful already, and when Ava held out the portrait rolled up and tied off with an elastic, Kelsey unfurled it and reacted accordingly. She loved her gift and thanked her friend accordingly. Ava's hands were drawn to her hair, seeking activity rather than staying at her side, and the whole scene as it carried on with school stories told Maya all she needed to know. She looked at her daughter and saw someone who knew just who she was. She hated to think that she didn't feel comfortable about telling either her mother or father that she liked girls, hated even more to wonder if she might have been afraid that they would reject her once they knew. That would never happen, never ever, but all they could really do now was be there and keep showing her that was so until she was ready.

"Mama, Kelsey asked if I could sleepover tonight. Can I?" Ava asked when she came running back to the car.

"Sure, you can. Want me to pick anything up for you from home?"

"No, I'll be okay," she smiled.

"Alright, well, call if you need to, yeah?"

"I will," Ava promised before opening the front passenger door and climbing halfway in, the better to hug her. Maya welcomed her at once, kissed her forehead at the same time.

"Have a good night, Sweetpea."

"You, too, Mama."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners