A/N: [November 24th 2024]

November 24th 2023

Chapter 328
We Live Through His Eyes

Ezra had spent most of his second class in his mother's art room sitting in his aunt Haley's lap. He'd taken a nap there, too, and Maya had to laugh, remembering how her little sister had held on to her nephew. She didn't need him removed from her hold. She could do her work and hold the tiny boy clinging to her all the same, so her big sister let her be, sneaking a few pictures throughout class. When he woke up again, he wanted to walk around and, as she'd finished what she was working on, Haley got up from her seat and walked with him, hand in hand.

"If we keep this up, he's going to want to come here every day," Maya informed her sister.

"Good, bring him," Haley smiled. "You want to come here and play with me again tomorrow, EZ? Yeah? Yeah?" she looked down to ask him, complete with a big nod he was bound to try and imitate, which he did. "See? It's what he wants," she nodded innocently.

"He's not even two years old," Maya whispered with a smirk.

All jokes aside, Haley wasn't entirely wrong. Before and after their time with the sophomores, they'd had some free periods to wait through, and she couldn't exactly sit Ezra down and tell him to wait. On their first free period, they had gone to the gym, to sit in the stands and watch Dylan and his second period class play. Ezra was as good of a motivator as any band of kids could need. It didn't matter which team they played on, the blues or the reds, he would cheer them all on. He'd been to plenty of basketball games with his family, he knew how it went. It was him and his mother, clapping and cheering, and he loved every second of it… well, except for the time where a ball flew closer to him than he liked, but he got over that in time.

After the sophomores, they might have gone back to the gym, but it had started to rain outside, and Ezra noticed it, and he made it very clear that he wanted to watch. So, Maya raised him up to sit on top of the shelves all along the windows so he might look out. The patter of rain against the windowpanes had him captivated, and it reminded Maya of her nephew. Sweet little Felix had always loved the rain, still did, and Ezra was the same way. In this case, it had the power to keep him entertained through the whole of this free period. Even after Maya had to bring him back down to stand on his feet so she could finish cleaning up before lunch, he just sat there, on the floor, his head raised back to he could watch the rainy sky.

"Hi…"

Maya looked up, blinked, as she discovered Agnes Killian stood in the doorway. The girl was not pretending anymore, was not holding herself behind a mask anymore. Her hands were together, nervously holding to one another, even as her eyes were fixed on the boy sat on the ground, his back to her, completely oblivious to anything but the rainy sky that had him smiling.

"Hey," Maya took a step toward her, feeling her heart beating with the significance of this moment, undefined as it remained. "Come in. I have lunch. The girls helped me pack this morning, which means I have more than enough for three, if you'd like to join us," she explained, indicating herself, Agnes, and Ezra on the floor.

"I… O-okay…" Agnes replied, and Maya could guess her heart was beating very fast, too.

"Hey, EZ, you hungry? Lunch time?" she went to pick up Ezra from the floor and he protested at once. "I know, I know, but you gotta be hungry by now, yeah? What does that tummy have to say?" she gave him a few light prods, and he went from upset, to puzzled, to amused, in the span of three breaths. "Yeah, that's what I thought," Maya smiled, kissed his cheek as she carried him back to her desk, to sit in her lap. "Come on, have a seat," she told Agnes, as she could see her still nervous on her feet.

She came, and Ezra finally noticed her there. He hadn't spent so much time with her that he knew her well, that he would run to her on sight, but she was still familiar enough to him that he treated her to a smile rather than burrowed himself against his mother. Seeing this, Agnes smiled. She smiled about as fully as Maya had seen from her in a long time, and it was like unlocking every bit of her that had been passed down into her son.

They didn't talk about any of the events that had led to this moment, not the pregnancy, or the choice, the birth or the surrender, the father… They just sat there, in truth, and had lunch together, and it was a start. It was enough. At the end of lunch, Agnes went away, and when Ezra waved at her this time, she waved back and smiled. Maya hoped for her sake that she would have a good rest of her day, a lighter one than she had been afforded in a while.

As for herself and Ezra, Maya soon welcomed the freshmen. They were as surprised at finding the small boy there with them as they were curious whenever he would wander near them. Ezra went around like he was an old pro now, like he'd always been wandering about this room. Now Maya wondered how this would all translate when they reached the silliness of last period with the juniors, but that was a while away still. Right here, the freshmen were all progressing on their projects, and in the spirit of the rainy afternoon and the special visit, the period turned into a project day. It also turned into something like a trial run of presentations, as some of them started showing Ezra what they had been doing, telling him about the stories they had been crafting in their comics. Ezra loved a good story when he heard one, no wonder with who he'd grown up around, and he stood before each student and listened with great attention. You're a lot like your birth mother that way, my Pan. She took a few pictures of him standing there, listening.

When the freshmen were dismissed, the rain had just stopped, and there was only one thing for Maya and Ezra to do. They couldn't exactly go and sit on the bench, but they could go and get some fresh air, possibly step into a few puddles with their rain boots. His sisters had been taking him out there after rain, and they would call this 'the reward' after a day playing inside. They weren't there with him here, but when the boots were put on him, and hit little coat with it, he looked like he knew exactly what they were about to do. When they made it outside, Maya had to hold on to him good to make sure he would stay in her arms until they made it down the steps to where he could be set down. His boots made contact with the ground and he'd already spotted his first puddle, so he went toward it with everything he had. It wasn't as easy to run around in those boots, but he managed well enough. They might have heard his squeals of delight all through the school.

They had barely made it back into the school, the better to warm up and relax ahead of last period with the juniors when they were joined by a couple more tiny guests, these ones repeat customers of just about every afternoon. Daisy and Callum McAllister were only days apart from Ezra Friar, and they all looked like they might have been fraternal triplets together, not just the twins. Ezra might have had the slightest edge on the pair, height wise, though this could also have been an optical illusion from his hair. Either way, the three of them were very familiar with one another, and that was just the added energy they needed for this last class of the day.

Shortly after the previous class ended, Max and Max arrived in the art room, and the twins were reunited with their mother and their uncle. The funniest part came as the two little ones pointed and looked back to Ezra and then back to Max and Max as though to say 'look, Ezra's here, too, we were playing together just now, isn't it great?' Ezra wandered up to them, too, babbling what seemed to be the tale of his trip to jump in puddles earlier.

The three little ones had all shown their love of moving about the class while everyone worked, but on this day they all preferred to sit together and play with what toys had either been brought by Maya for Ezra or by the twins' sitter when she'd dropped them off. Maya had gone and used the opportunity to go back over and then expand on some techniques for the juniors' photography project. She had taken a few pictures before class started, took a few more as class was happening, and she projected them up for the class to see while she gave her lecture.

"Zee!" Ezra pointed to the screen showing an image of him and the McAllister twins. That was how he'd refer to himself, and now it stood in for 'hey, that's me!' The twins looked over and saw themselves, too, and they looked at their mother with equal curiosity.

"Yeah, that's you guys!" Max told her children, even as their uncle came to crouch and sit with them, and she soon did the same. Before she knew it, every one of her juniors was sitting on the floor, the three little ones at the heart of their group. They were all grinning, looking back at her, and Maya didn't know how she didn't just burst out laughing. Yes, this would happen at the end of the day with the juniors, wouldn't it? They stayed there for the rest of the period, taking notes in their notebooks, which they had naturally brought with them when they'd gone to the floor. Callum and Daisy ended up in the laps of their mother and uncle, while Ezra went and did the same with his neighbor and sometimes babysitter, Amy Dixon. He looked like the proudest little student.

"Hey, bud, guess what, the day's done," Maya told her son, when the last bell had rung and she went to lift him up, freeing her neighbor to head home. "You had your first day at Mama's school, did you like it?" It may or may not have been in response to her question, might just have been his mood at the moment, but Ezra gave her a great big smile and pressed his hands together in merry excitement. "We're going to have to see if we can do it again, yeah? I know a lot of them today will love it if you come back. Do you know who will love it the most? Mama," she quietly informed him, pointing to herself. He responded by smashing a kiss at her cheek, and she hugged him. "You're picking up your dad's tactics, aren't you? Trying to make sure I'll bring you back tomorrow? You know what, I could be convinced, not going to lie."

She'd had help to clean up after the last class, so they could soon leave together and drive on home. Like in the morning, Ezra watched the world through the window as they went. It was all changed by the rain now, he had to take it all in again.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners