January 9th 2024

Chapter 9
The Potential For Presentation

The third week of the school year had gone by in what felt like a flash and a drag all at the same time. Maya had been doing very well with the start of this new pregnancy, all things considered, enough that she and Lucas had been feeling that they would have little to no trouble keeping their secret a secret until such a time as they decided that it was time to share this happy news with family and friends. And then Monday morning had come around, and Maya had been sick, enough so that she'd ended up missing half her morning classes before finally feeling well enough to go in. She might have chosen to stay home the entire day, to rest up, but she knew herself too well to think that staying home wouldn't have made her feel worse than she already did. Lucas trusted her to know what was best for her and the baby, so he'd come back from the ranch and had driven her to the school.

The rest of the week had her feeling just about the same way, not so bad that she needed to stay home, but not so well that she would have been on top of her game. The fact that no one, even as a joke, had suggested that she might have been pregnant was maybe thanks to the fact that her youngest baby was five and they had a vague notion that she and Lucas had long ago 'closed up shop' on future Friars without in turn knowing that the shop had been reopened a while back, hoping for this very eventuality. So, she'd been there, with her students, but she had been far from on top of her game, leaving the memories of this week to be seen behind a fog.

Friday afternoon, as she'd started to feel about as good as she'd done all week and been gifted with the box full of freshman diaries for the first time that year, she'd made her way through the books, little by little as moments presented themselves in class. She may not have been present for her youngest students that week, not the way she would have wanted to be, but they had all been together long enough by now that, even at half strength, she would be there for them and give them what she could from what she'd gotten to know of them.

Logan Meyer, her disruptor of day one continued to show that he had some issues with keeping still, or quiet, but given something to do, he would do it, and though she would have to redirect him to it now and then, he would acknowledge her and his deviations in such a way as to show that he had started to develop respect for her. His neighbor across from him was gaining some of that, too, much as he'd try not to show it. Demi Baxter-Ray had stated that she drew a lot in her introduction, and after three weeks Maya could confirm this was the case. She saw her most of all in class, yes, but she'd see her around the school throughout the day, too, and the times were few and far in between when she didn't see her with a pencil, pen, marker, brush, and a surface to adorn with those. And Isla Baird… She couldn't think of many others of her students, across all her years teaching, who'd sat in her classroom with such rapt attention, taking everything she told them and showed them as though there could be nothing in the world so fascinating as this. It made her want to find new things to stoke the fire in her eyes, always.

After she'd made it home that afternoon, she'd wanted to do her next box, but she'd put it off until the next morning, telling herself that taking the evening off and relaxing would help this slight improvement to really settle in over the weekend. She'd woken up on Saturday morning and known that this had been the right call, so she didn't waste time to settle in with her boxes as soon as she could.

"Mama? Mama?"

Her smile was automatic as she heard her baby boy's voice. Soon, there were hurried footsteps, not just his, and just after he'd ended up running past her door, his youngest big sister came to a stop in the doorway.

"I found her, EZ! Here, here," Aubrey motioned, and a squeal preceded Ezra's return.

"What you doing, Mama?" he asked, coming around to find her.

"Oh, you don't remember this, do you?" Maya asked as she lifted him up and sat him in her lap while Aubrey hoisted herself up to join them on the mattress. Ezra looked at the first batch of books sitting there and he brightened. Yes, he did remember, he'd sat with her several times over the previous year as she'd gone through diaries. They hadn't gotten to do this for so long now, but they were back!

"Which ones are these?" Aubrey asked, posted up on her knees and trying to figure out which box they were up to.

"Oh, well…" Maya got hold of the first book and showed her daughter the spine. "Can you tell what that says?" Aubrey took the book from her and lightly traced the letters with her small finger.

"H…" she whispered. "A… L… E… Y… Haley! It's hers! Aunt Haley's book!" she declared before turning it around to look at the cover. It looked like a movie poster, right out of a blockbuster action movie, with the aspiring stunt woman posed front and center. She'd had Shawn take a picture and traced it out on the cover, and it was perfect. On the back, she'd done the same, a series of smaller images like a how-to for one of her favorite jumps. It was Haley through and through, and Aubrey loved it as much as her mother had when she'd first seen it.

The week had been rough all throughout, but she'd had her little sister whenever AP Juniors came through, and was she ever glad to have her there. She was always happy to have her siblings there, and it would be a bittersweet moment when the last of them graduated out, but on this week, with the way she was feeling… Haley didn't know the reason for her state, though by the end of it Maya suspected that she might have guessed without making her come out and say it, but she didn't need to. She saw her sister was unwell, and she became the very best of backups, jumping in to help whenever she might be needed. She'd kept that class energized, and Maya loved her so, so much for it.

She had a group for that at least. Martin McNeil with his good, casual energy the way they'd come to know it in his basketball game commentaries… Quinn Monterey, who was such an artist in every part of him, showing it in what he produced and what he provided in class discussions… Even Reese Quinland, who had started off so quiet, not wanting to draw too much attention to himself, as he'd started to be coaxed out of his bubble from time to time, but showing that under all that he had or had not done he could be someone they'd call a friend… For what little Maya could take away from this week, feeling the way she'd felt, she would remember this, her AP Juniors rallying together, as disparate as some of them could seem.

"I think that's his favorite," Aubrey declared. They had finished with the box, but Quinn's diary remained clasped in Ezra's hands as he continued to stare at the gold drawn over it. This really was one of the most intricate designs Maya had seen. It took some coaxing, but it was finally returned to the box, allowing them to pull the next one open, heading one grade up, to the AP Seniors.

"Do you know whose diary this is?" Maya asked as she pulled one of them up for Ezra to see. He took hold of it at once and stared at it while Aubrey tipped her head to try and make out the letters on the spine. She could see the first name alright, but her brother's hand was in the way for her to see the last. It would be essential here, seeing as the name she'd deciphered was 'Max.' They had two of those…

"I don't think he knows," Aubrey looked back to her mother, and Maya bit back the laugh she felt coming up, thinking how her daughter's question was really just the means to an end in which she got to know if it said Farrell or McAllister.

"That's Daisy and Callum's mama's book," Maya told Ezra, and he sat up with a merry smile, hearing his little friends' names.

Her queasy week had not helped her pursue the plan for her supercharged year with the AP Seniors, but she'd done her very best for all of them to have a good time nonetheless. Borrowing on previous years, they'd had themselves a week of portraits, each day seeing a different group of students coming up to pose while the others sketched them, and it been as chaotic and informative as ever, seeing who struggled and who thrived in finding themselves in the spotlight and how they all coped in that position. She loved especially seeing the way the others would rally around those who'd struggled. Having that bond would take them far as the year went on.

She had one box left by the time they stopped, which was just as well, as Mackenzie was upset to learn she had missed another diary session after the previous week's. Maya promised her that she would wait and go through that last box with her the next morning, and there was no chance her Macaw would miss that one. She was posted up at the foot of her parents' bed when they woke up, legs crossed under herself and her own diary open in her lap as she was bent to draw in it. The girls all had their own, and they loved to use them just as much as they loved to show them to their parents. And when they managed to finish one up and start another, oh, they couldn't get their hands on the metallic pens fast enough.

Mackenzie had to wait until after everyone was up, and everyone had their breakfast, and it was all much too long a wait, going by the look on her face, but finally they were set to head back upstairs, and she was off like a rocket, sat at the ready on the bed before Maya had probably made it to the first step.

"Annie, are you coming, too?" her voice rang out, and Maya turned to find her firstborn on her heels, smiling like she'd been waiting on the summons. "I'm going to start without you!" Mackenzie informed them.

"You wouldn't!" Marianne called back.

"Would, too!"

"Yeah, she would, come on," Maya nudged Marianne to go on ahead, reaching the room to find Mackenzie in a giggle fit as her big sister had her caught up in her arms and unable to start until their mother was by their side.

It was a good match for this last group, really. Juniors in last period was a constant, and after three weeks she could confirm that the other half of the grade, the AP Juniors in early afternoon, were their own thing, even as Haley looked determined to keep to the mood she'd heard about in the past.

This year's juniors had plenty to work with even without her. Hunter Matthews was giving the impression that the year, young as it still was, had already caused a few headaches over the subjects where his grades struggled most. Jonah Killian continued to make her think of her son whenever she saw him, which she tried not to think about even as it made her think of the days when she still only suspected that his older sister was Ezra's birth mother. Meanwhile, Madelyn Carter still very much had her estranged cousin on her mind, though she hadn't worked up the nerve to approach the senior. Claudia Carter had plenty to deal with, so maybe it was just as well, but in due time, maybe it would be good for both of them.

Mackenzie disappeared very quickly after they'd finished the last of the diaries, summoned as she was by her uncle MJ, seeking his buddy on a trip out to the library. It wasn't that the others didn't like going out there, not this bunch of tiny readers on the rise, but this had become their thing. He'd grab something for one of his classes, and they'd end up trailing through the kids' section. She loved to explore, at length, and he had an endless supply of patience for his niece, matching her energy to the point where she'd get to extend her visits rather than shorten them.

"Are you feeling better?" Marianne quietly asked her mother. Maya smiled. It was just them now, no one was around, but Marianne wasn't taking any chances. She'd guarded the secret of her unborn sibling like the most unbreakable actress. But seeing her mother feeling ill all week, she would worry.

"Even better with you right here," Maya promised, kissing the top of her head when she snuggled up closer.

"When are you going to tell everyone?"

"Soon, probably," she nodded. They'd been talking about it, her and Lucas, trying not to give space to any fears that anything might go wrong. They had decided to wait it out, to hold their joy to themselves until the time when the right moment would reveal itself. "You want to be involved, don't you?"

"So much," Marianne grinned, and Maya laughed, hugged her again.

"Yeah, you did so good last time."

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners