March 6th 2024

Chapter 66
The Year of Inspiration

Back to school morning after the holidays was not the same as back in September. For what they'd seen of it with their daughters over the last few years, it was a happy medium between 'can't we just keep playing together here?' and 'oh I can't wait to be with my friends again!' This year, they had the added giddiness of just having changed up their rooms the day before, so breakfast was full of talk about what it had been like, going to sleep, waking up… As it turned out, Ezra had gone running back to his parents' room, not quite ready to be away from them. Lucas had helped him get to sleep and set him back in his little bed, where he'd stayed for the night. According to Mackenzie and Aubrey, he'd been very happy about waking up in their new room together.

Marianne did not mention the conversation she'd had with Maya, so it stayed between them. It was something they would get to share, just the two of them, and that was something they could appreciate, something to hold on to. Everyone eventually got ready and they were off, back to work, back to school…

As she arrived in the faculty lot and made her way around to the bench, Maya sat with a sigh, a deep breath… Part of her had wondered if she'd even make it this far, still teaching through this pregnancy, and she was happy to see that everything was still going the way she'd hoped. Her goal was to keep going through Valentine's Day, the dance at the school and the ball at the ranch. After that, she could be satisfied and bow out to await the birth of her baby boy.

She had to chuckle, seeing the look on Freddie's face when he came to join her. She must have looked as though she was ready to have this baby at any moment, but she reassured him that everything was still going according to schedule, and he could take a breath. She told him all about the big room transformations, about how Ezra was now sharing a room with his sisters. She showed him a picture they'd taken of him, sitting on his new bedding with a big smile full of baby teeth, and she assured him that she had already sent it on for Agnes to see, too.

"Maya!" a voice called out, and maybe it was thanks to the fact that she'd sat in this very spot and heard that exact call countless times before while being there, but she knew who it was right away, never flinched in surprise the way Freddie did. She looked over, smiling, as Dylan came jogging over to them. "Good morning, AC," he grinned at his assistant coach, and Freddie tipped his head in greeting. "Wait until you hear about this," Dylan looked back to his old friend, and his face said 'I had a great idea,' which could be great… just like it could be a potential disaster if it failed.

The more he told her though, she had to think it would be the former in this case. He'd had the thought of creating a new dance club at the school, and he'd already run by Lita and Alistair. The vice-principal had just written back to him, letting him know that he was clear to put out a sign-up sheet and see what happened. He'd given them a very detailed plan of what they could all do, what it would bring to the school, and they couldn't agree more. When he told her, Maya was only sorry she couldn't move the way she could have done if she wasn't seven months pregnant.

She couldn't speak for how the rest of the subjects would handle the first day back after the break, with for her class, it was all about returning diaries, hearing about what everyone had been up to, and giving them some time to start the assignments she would have given them. Across both groups of freshmen, the return to school felt very different from the one at the start of the year. They all knew each other now, and they were happy to be back in her class. The break had been great for some, less so for others, but now that they were here, all of it seemed to resolve itself in a feeling of peace, and she was happy to provide it. On one side, she would get Peggy Sheridan, talking about what Christmas looked like with her family, her parents and all her siblings… and on the other, there would be Logan Meyer, being strangely quiet, like whatever memories he had of the holidays he would have happily been rid of. She didn't expect to find out much more than that in his words, so it would be a matter of time until she saw what he drew before she knew if it would manifest on paper. She got Isla Baird, talking in great detail for what little time she got about her family's Christmas day party, and she got Ada Marie Minkus, being unable to hide that the holiday had become a complicated one for her, even as she couldn't hide that there would still be moments, parts of it, where it would feel like something wonderful she never wanted to forget.

The sophomores, one group after the other, made it clear to her quick that they'd had a great big party over the break, the likes of which they would be likely to reminisce about for years to come. Not all of them had been in attendance, and those of them who hadn't been, for the most part, looked incredibly disappointed that they hadn't made it, whether because they had been busy with family things, both in and out of Austin, or because no one had thought to try and reach them with the invitation.

Allie Sheridan had barely made it out there, as she and Peggy had been at the mall, working what Maya would lovingly called 'a time honored tradition.' They had been elves at Santa's village, and right when their shift had ended, they'd left in haste, so much so that not only had Peggy managed to score an invitation, but the two of them had still been in costume, ears and jingling shoes and all. Meanwhile, Katie Willows had been the host for the party, along with some of her classmates. She had not been the one in charge of the invitations, clearly, or every last sophomore would have gotten one. Instead, it had been her job first to secure her home for the party, and then to see to it that it was still in one piece by the end of it. Thankfully, she was successful across the board. The Yoon twins had not managed to make it out there, as they had been caught up in family gatherings, but they would have both wanted nothing more than to be at Katie's house instead. Cait had already known roughly what to expect from their relatives, even if they tried to keep up appearances, while Clare's own… change… had gotten her a mix of responses, none of them feeling all that great.

"How's Deanne doing?" Maya asked Angie Anna Bowles after the XC had gone to get their lunches, leaving her to help with the clean up after their class.

"Her dad called the other day, said how he felt bad for not being there at Christmas, but he hoped she understood. She told him she did, but after they hung up… Anyway, she doesn't want to talk about it, so I'm not going to make her."

"Good call," Maya nodded. She had gotten that vibe off of the girl all through the period, and she wished she could do more for her, but it would all come in time, she had to believe it. "How about you?" she turned to Angie Anna, and the girl let out a deep breath, thinking.

"I almost don't want to say it, like I'll ruin it…" she admitted. "I was just thinking, last night, how this year is going… It's been better, I've been better… than I have in all this time. My mom's been seeing it, too, I think. I could see it, with Christmas?" Her face read like she would be more upset for her mother than for herself if it came that she'd be sick all over again, even just a little. And there was nothing any of them could do about it.

The juniors in their respective groups were just as she always expected to find them, though some of them did feel as though they had swapped moods on this first day back, between the usually chaotic last period juniors and the calmer AP juniors, two periods prior. Then again, the fact that her baby sister should be 'all over the place' here would never be all that surprising. Haley spent the better part of class recounting how she'd spent a great part of the break attempting to land this new move, which Maya could confirm, as she'd watched her do it again and again, out behind the house, with a captive audience of her nieces and nephew. She'd spent about half the length of the break staying at the Friar house with her siblings.

In the last class of the day, on the other hand, she got a much quieter Hunter Matthews than usual. Like her sister, she had known this boy all his life, and she didn't know that she had ever seen him so stuck in his own head. He wouldn't look up unless she called on him, and even then he didn't really keep his head up. She didn't force him to, and when she approached him at the end of class to ask if he was okay, he promised that he was before excusing himself to follow his friends. Was there more at stake here because of the bond between their families? Probably. But at least because of that bond she could tell herself that, if there was something wrong, he would be on his way to joining some of the best people to talk to at a moment like this.

With the seniors, both in the morning and in the afternoon, she had to work so very hard not to let her emotions get out of control, which was very difficult when her mind had to go and remind her that they had just crossed another milestone of the school year, and that just as each year this trail would be most felt with the class of students on the verge of graduating, this year it was these groups. Each graduating class was special in its own way, so this cycle repeated each time, yes… and yet…

It was almost four years ago now that she'd seen the beginning of what she'd called 'the Max and Max era,' and that had been one thing when they had been mostly strangers to her, the younger brother of one of her students and his lifelong best friend, but now… Now she had been with them both through so much, and she was overwhelmed at the notion that they wouldn't be in her class anymore, and the same went for little Daisy and Callum McAllister, coming along for class time with their mom. Who knew, in about twelve or thirteen years, she might have the both of them in her class, but in the meantime she would have their mom's younger siblings, already one among them and another not far behind.

Oh, she doubted either 'girl Max' or 'boy Max' would be gone from her life in any way once they got their diplomas, and the same could be said of several others in that class. The Dixons, the Bennetts, they were right up there with the McAllisters and the Farrells. If she could remember that, she could get through all those milestones with them.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners