January 13th 2024

Chapter 13
The Potential For Students

"Hey, Mrs. Friar."

Maya looked up and immediately started to laugh, seeing the grin on her sister's face. She'd wanted to fool her into thinking that one of her students had come to see her over lunch, and she'd succeeded. Nellie had been her student, but not anymore. She had been returned to her place as little sister soon turned to roommate, but after that morning's surprise…

"You're funny," Maya told her as she moved to embrace her. It was a good squeeze of a hug, which felt to Maya like Nellie had first wanted her big reveal to her specifically to happen in a one-on-one setting. That hadn't happened, but that didn't mean they couldn't have a kind of do-over. "Feeling better?"

"Yeah," Nellie chuckled, brushing her hair back and letting out a breath. "Last few days, I was mostly fine, so I figured no one would put it together, but this was as bad as it got since it started. Gracie knew before I did," she revealed, and Maya wasn't surprised. There was a reason they called her Sherlock Hunter. "Just looked at me and started asking questions, and next thing I knew, we were at the store, and then… yeah…"

"And Bobby doesn't know yet?" Maya asked, still half holding her sister.

"I was going to tell him right away, but he was working late that night, and I thought about how I would tell him, and then I had this idea of telling him at the competition, at the ranch, where we met… I just have to hold on a few more days and hope he doesn't figure it out. Gracie swears I already changed and they're going to know when they see us together. Do you think they will?" she asked as she took a step back for better inspection.

"I think you'll make it to Saturday," Maya promised. "Did you have lunch yet?"

"No, and I'm starving," Nellie hummed.

"Yeah," Maya laughed. "Come on, let's go see what we can get." Nellie nodded, then gasped, remembering.

"Mac 'n Cheese day… Yes…"

Maya laughed and escorted her out of class and along the halls toward the cafeteria. It was the first time Nellie saw the school since the big transformation, and she was in awe. Even being there five days a week, Maya still got that feeling sometimes. She could barely accept that they were already nearly through the first month. They had wanted nothing more than to save their school from Sandra Davenport's manipulations, which had taken them almost four years to achieve. Even when it had finally happened, they could not have foreseen what they would get in return. It was the perfect response to the way she'd come for the arts in their school, tearing away at it, piece by piece.

They were still finding their footing, they would not deny it. The last four years had been such a mess and the shift toward their school for the arts had happened with so little time to make the turnaround happen in time for September. Once they'd made it to that first day, it was a relief as much as it left them to think about what still needed to happen. A lot of that first year as a whole was going to be about seeing how they were doing, seeing what needed to be adjusted, added, removed… They had about the best team they could have hoped for in order to make it happen though, so their growing pains were encouraged rather than criticized. They would continue as they had done, week to week and month by month.

A big part of the transition, for all the focus they were putting on the arts, had much to do with the side of their school that had little to nothing to do with those. The 'general' subjects, which were naturally still part of every student's load, were not suddenly tailored to the change. If anything, it was important to everyone to make sure that they didn't get lost or under served, left to stand in the wings while the rest of them had the spotlight and song and dance enough to drown them out. They had made it very clear that the students needed to maintain their grades at a certain level in order to have access to whatever concentrations they might have sought out. They would have plenty of resources at hand if they needed help, and it would be up to them to use those. Either way, if they fell below the line, they knew what would be on that line for them to lose.

What had been most thrilling, to Maya especially and to plenty of her colleagues and students, was the expansion of the art departments. When the change had started, it had been as much about reinstating the elements that had been removed by Davenport as it had been about opening new doors, going beyond and exploring new territories together. Those of them in the faculty who'd already been art-centric had been immediately giddy and overstimulated as they'd imagined what they might have to offer for the new year. What could they add? What couldn't they add! Maya had spent a great part of the weeks leading up to the start of the school year getting texts and calls from Morgan as she brought up ideas for the music department.

Even once the year's classes had been locked in, she still had more, ready to be put in effect as soon as possible, and as she'd been put in charge of that department, then their students were in maybe the best hands they could have been. The singers, the musicians, everything in between, she had them covered. Sandra Davenport had never liked her, and she'd had reason to be cautious around her. Now that she was gone, Morgan not only got to remedy the damage that had been done, but she also got to go on and do her very best to serve the student body. And if the knowledge that their former principal would be fuming to hear about it made her work even harder, well…

One of Maya's favorite parts about the change to the school was to watch all the departments that got to rise up, grow, expand… The dance department, that might have been one of her favorites to see develop. They'd had dance classes before, as she'd never let Lucas forget, but not like this. It was important to them to cater as much to existing skill, in whatever styles they had developed it, as it was to offer a start to those who had either had only media and the internet as their teachers or not even that. There had been a lot of talk about what this could all add to the musicals in the future, and this fed directly into Maya's imagination, coming up with productions they could put together, this year and beyond. She'd already had it in mind that this year's musical had to be the biggest one they'd done, with how hard they'd had to fight just to get here, and now the more she got to see from the other departments made her as thrilled as she was disappointed to think she'd have to sit out the end of the year while on maternity leave.

She'd have to figure plenty ahead of her leave, with her in charge of her own department, including her own classes and those concentrating on a handful of creative arts. All of her AP students were also in one of those classes. A lot of her regulars were in one, too, but the majority were in music, dance, drama… It was a lot of work, juggling classes, clubs, and now the department, balancing it with her home life, and then her music, and especially now with the baby she was doing her best not to overdo it, but it was difficult, enough so that she was often having to consider whether it would be too much. She had people around her who would not hesitate to tell her if they saw her reach her limit, but her hope was that she'd find a solution before she got that far, even if it meant making changes she didn't want to make, cutting back… Years ago, she'd been so sad at the idea of stepping back from Stage Ready, but she'd done it, and it continued to thrive to this day without her.

Nellie would visit her at lunch every day that week. It wasn't as though they didn't see each other back at home, but it was different. Mornings meant getting everyone up and ready to go to school or work, and afternoons turned into evenings, with homework, and play, and dinner, bath time, family time, story time, bed… Lunch in art class provided the quiet, sister/mom-to-be time that the first timer needed. She was due in April, short weeks after Maya was. Even though Gracie insisted that they could already tell by looking at her, especially comparing the two of them, Maya had to say she was on Nellie's side of it and she really saw nothing. She had her little bump going already, while Nellie had at best the thinnest of a rounding going, nothing that couldn't be passed off as having put on a few pounds while still fitting in all her clothes.

She had seen her sister through all her pregnancies, she had enough of an idea of what would be ahead for her, but there were definitely a lot of things she was clueless about, and those were the things she asked her sister about. It reminded Maya of the days when Cara had been expecting Felix, and she was only ever happy to be the person her sisters turned to when they needed anything like this. With Nellie, she saw a lot of nervousness about the actual giving birth, for sure, but more so about what would come after, when she'd have the baby and it would have her as a mother. It wasn't that she didn't think she could look after a baby, but it was one thing to help with a baby or a child and then hand them back to their parents and a whole other thing to be the one responsible, all through their lives, for an entire human being. Faced with having to find out the answer in little more than half a year's time, the clock was running out on whether or not she'd be fit for the title. Maya could only do so much to reassure her, but she gave it her all, over these lunch visits and beyond.

Whenever she would feel as though the conversations were only making Nellie more agitated than calm, Maya would tell her about her classes, her students both new and returning. She'd show her sister what they'd been doing in class that morning and the previous afternoon - as she had done each day that week with her - and it would be enough to send her on her way, off to class, or work… The nearer they got to the weekend and the competition, the day where the big news would be revealed to the family, these recaps came earlier and earlier in the visit, but that was alright. She had enough students and stories to talk for hours on end. She did miss her breaks as they had been, the free periods where she didn't have classes to teach until this year, but only for the sake of convenience.

As loaded as her days had become thanks to the added AP classes, she wouldn't go back to the old way, not for a second. Right now, she was enjoying this period of growth and discovery. One day, this would all become the norm, and they'd go through it all without a moment's notice, and it would all be thanks to this time when they'd been figuring it all out. She pointed this out to Nellie, and she trusted her sister to know the same would be true for her as she embarked into motherhood.

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners