February 1st 2024

Chapter 32
The Needs of Friends

After a month and a half, the year really felt good and settled in. It felt like she'd never left her returning students for the summer, and those she was teaching for the first time had lost most of what had made them strangers. She wouldn't go on suggesting she now knew them inside and out, but she knew them enough that she had the base to then look at them and start to see beyond what they readily presented.

She was with her AP sophomores now, in the last minutes before the period ended and everyone ran off to lunch. They were picking up after themselves, cleaning their stations, and the room was buzzing with conversations, laughter… Angie Anna Bowles was looking as bubbly as she'd ever been since Maya had known her, talking with her XC guest, Deanne, while they cleaned their paint brushes. Katie Willows was crouched with a full concentrated brow as she cleaned up a paint spill, and this was on par with what Maya had seen of her in class. Coupled with her diary pages, she could also see what Katie might not have known how to express, which was that AP art was more than what she'd anticipated. But she wanted to keep at it, she did, and that was all Maya needed to know to go ahead and see her through it.

Her newbies now… Clare Yoon, Jesse Durant… She'd been getting to know them, and the place where they had started out was not ringing so true now. It was still there, but there was something in the way. Clare was still talking with her friends, but something about it felt hollow, and Jesse… He was done cleaning, back sitting on his stool now and scribbling at one of his 'action pose' sketches, and that was fine, but also he looked like he was trying to stay focused on it and running into wall after wall of thoughts in his head. She needed to see if she might be able to talk to him… Later… The bell rang, and everyone who was done was gone with a wave or a 'bye, Mrs. Friar,' including Jesse.

The last of them went off after hastily finishing up with their material clean and nearly ran head on into Lucas as he walked in. They apologized, the girls giggling when they realized this was their teacher's husband and giving her a look like they were impressed. She bit back her own laughter and went up to greet him instead.

"Where's my fairy boy?" she complained, half joking but also half genuinely disappointed.

"Back at the ranch. He was having such a good time at the retreat," Lucas explained, apologetically smiling. He kissed the top of her head and embraced her and all she could do was hum, melting into his hold.

"You're lucky you're a really good hugger," she told him, and he laughed. "Especially when I'm pregnant, imagine that."

"Noticed that," he agreed.

"Yeah, so keep 'em coming, Friar."

She'd made her peace with the fact that this pregnancy and the first year of their art school had crossed paths, and the former would have her stepping back from the latter before it was over and returning only to begin the next. And the more time went on, the closer she was going to get to that point. There was still time, but she kept thinking about it, as she told Lucas when she pulled back and they stood there, in the classroom where they'd once been students themselves.

She wanted to stay as long as possible, and he got that. She could see the thoughts playing across his face whether he spoke them or not. He was thinking of the day Aubrey was born, and she got that. It was still her call when she'd go on leave, and he'd back her up.

"The goal…" she intoned, and he matched her stance, which made her smile. "I want to go to the Valentine's dance with you, belly out to here, all of it."

"Oh, yeah," he nodded. She laughed, more so as he put his arms around her, estimating where the space might reach by that point, so close to her due date.

Their would-be classroom slow dance was interrupted by an awkward 'excuse me?' and they both turned to find a girl stood just outside the doorway, a freshman, Lucas estimated in his head, though he, like Maya, was more concerned with her elbow, which was bleeding into the sweater she'd bunched up around it.

"Isla, what happened?" Maya moved up to her and walked her toward the sinks, where her first aid kit was hanging.

"I backed up into Stephanie Barrows' locker door when she opened it," she explained. She kept looking back to Lucas where he stood, like she'd gone to her art teacher for help and felt awkward about interrupting whatever had been going on.

"I'll go see what Dylan's up to," he told Maya, and she gave him a nod, fully in mom/nurse mode. Walking out, he heard Isla talk about the incident again, and Lucas guessed this Stephanie Barrows was a constant point of contention for her. He knew, from the diaries, that Maya was already so protective of Miss Isla Baird, of her wide-eyed attitude toward art. It was no wonder that this was the first place she'd gone to instead of finding the school nurse.

Walking through the halls, he kept thinking about how Maya had described exploring the school after their transformation. She'd say how she still saw how it had all looked before, and he did, too. But then they'd turned the page, started this new chapter, and it might not have seemed like a lot to some, but it was like night and day to her. They'd loved the old school fine, but the new one made it feel as though it had languished in unexplored potential for years, even before Sandra Davenport had dug her claws into it.

Maya had told him how it made her wish she could have been a student now, to attend this version of the school, and he was feeling it now, too. Back at that age, he might not have been so sure with the idea of a school for the arts. It was only when Maya had come along that she'd helped him find that appreciation in his heart and mind. He loved the idea that some of these kids could be in for an awakening, too. It might have been that new students would have to be art lovers already, but for what he'd heard, from Maya, and Dylan, and Morgan, and Mr. Matthews, some of the freshmen had joined them because it would have been the school they attended anyway, and they didn't want to have to go further, to another school. It wasn't as though they were forced to load their arms full with arts. This was still their first year, they were figuring it all out, but it was one of the most important things to them that any kid could come to them, no pressure, no worries.

They had a solid group of teachers assembled for this task, whether or not their subject of choice was art-centric. One of the biggest examples of this was none other than gym teacher/basketball coach Dylan Orlando, his own childhood friend. That was who he was though, wasn't it? For as long as he'd known him, he was just such a trooper for his friends, his family, and now the same went for his students. He hadn't gone to college at the same time the rest of them had done it, he'd taken a few more years before he'd figured out what he wanted to make of himself. To look at him now, there was no doubting that he'd made the right call in waiting.

"Hey, hey!" he called out when he spotted Lucas walking into the gym.

"What were you doing?" he chuckled, pointing to his friend, still picking himself up from the floor, where he'd been sitting, moving around like he was dancing in his head, or even figuring out a dance?

"Oh, nothing… not yet… I don't know, I'll tell you later," Dylan promised, jogging over. "What are you doing here? Lunch in the art room?"

"Not yet," Lucas echoed his friend's response and made him laugh until he explained what the delay was about.

"You should see her in gym. Stephanie, not Isla. I try not to judge, I really do, but she's just…" He didn't finish the sentence, but the look on his face suggested 'a nightmare,' or some word he would never bring himself to say about a fifteen-year-old. "Anyway, not important. Shoot off?" he asked, and there was that grin he'd passed down to at least a couple of his kids, the one he'd had for as long as Lucas had known him.

"Hey, they were almost out of the chili, managed to get some. I think Mrs. Nichols thinks I'm still a student… Oh, hey!" Freddie Jacek paused walking through the gym, a loaded tray in his hands, when he spotted Lucas. He looked down to the tray like his very first thought at the sight of his son's adoptive father was 'oh no, I don't have enough now.' "Want some chili? I can see if I can talk a third bowl out of them?"

"I'm alright, don't worry about it," Lucas told him. Dylan had been waiting on that chili though, so he went ahead and snatched up one of the bowls and a spoon before moving to the stands to sit and eat. "You and Agnes are still coming for dinner tomorrow night, yeah?" Lucas asked Freddie.

"We are," the boy promised, the look behind his eyes feeling like he was seeing Ezra's little face in his mind.

"Hey, Lucas, guess what," Dylan called up, covering his mouth as speaking had demanded priority over finishing his spoonful of chili. Lucas blinked while Freddie laughed, and they waited until he'd swallowed before letting him go on. "Freddie's going to be my assistant coach," he waved at the boy with his spoon. Lucas turned to look at him, now looking surprised that they were sharing this bit of news already.

"Yeah?" Lucas asked, and he nodded. "Congratulations," he held out his hand. Freddie shook it, sheepish but happy. "I'm sure you're going to be great. Might get him on track when his brain goes five different directions," Lucas nodded to his friend, and Dylan laughed.

"There's only two people able to do that," he appraised, and Lucas knew that this could only be Asher and Riley.

Maya texted him to let him know that Isla had gone off to lunch, her elbow cleaned and bandaged up, so he said goodbye to Dylan and Freddie and headed back to the art room. By now, Angie Anna and Deanne were sitting as they did every day, having their lunch away from the cafeteria, and the knit club was slowly but surely coming with their lunches. Maya was sitting at her desk, where a couple of the kids were showing her the progress they'd made on their knitting since the last meet. As before, with the news of her pregnancy, many of them had been creating things, blankets, clothes, toys, all for the new baby, and Maya received each one like it was the greatest honor.

"Did you have chili?" Maya squinted when Lucas approached her.

"No, Freddie and Dylan did," he explained, and she looked at him with big 'where's my chili?' eyes. He opened his mouth to point out that, statistically, it wouldn't sit well with her at this point, but decided that she would know this very well and was ready to accept the consequences. So, he shut his mouth and tipped his head to her before turning on his heel to make a run for the cafeteria. It had been many more years than Freddie since he'd been a student, but Mrs. Nichols had been a big fan back in the day, so if there was any left at all, Maya would get her chili.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners