February 8th 2024

Chapter 39
The Facts in Progress

It was a good thing that she'd been doing this long enough that she had these evenings down to an art. Suddenly, she had eight groups instead of four, which meant keeping things concise, keeping the chatter in check, no matter how much she loved talking with the parents.

Here she was, talking with Annabeth Weller about her daughter, Kristen, joining her as a junior, and she could see the seconds evading her like the last grains of sand in a timer, and she didn't want to have to cut it short. They had started talking about basketball, and it turned out that both Wellers had played in high school, so that had gotten Maya talking about her own team, too… Mrs. Weller was a couple of years ahead of her, and she hadn't studied here, but she remembered hearing about the teams being dismantled…

They got to talk about Kristen, too, first and foremost. She was very happy for being in art now. Her mother talked about how much the diary especially had become something of an outlet for her, to clear her head. Maya could already tell, from the pages she'd seen since the start of the year. She was right on track for filling up the sketchbook by Christmas, and Maya had already set aside a second volume for her. She could have the first one done in no time if given sufficient prompts, and Maya had half a mind to draw up a list for her.

Of all the relationships she had with the multitude of parents she'd be seeing that night, some couldn't help but stand out. She'd be seeing her father later on, of course, but before she got to him, she'd be seeing one of his best friends, as Topanga Matthews joined her to talk about Hunter. She was always so happy to have him in her class, and now they were already moving well into his third year. She'd had the privilege of teaching another of the Matthews kids, her very first year as a teacher, though only briefly as August had already been a senior. That year had not been without its troubles for him, but it had been a good one for them to share, one of them beginning as the other ended their time in these halls.

Hunter was very much his own self. He had qualities he shared with his older siblings, of course, but Riley and August were as similar to one another as Hunter was different from both of them. He had spent his entire life living in Texas, which might have played a hand in his growing into the young man he was becoming, but they supposed in the end it only mattered to a point. He had that Matthews heart in him, and Maya could see it when he was in her class, or hanging out with her siblings. She looked forward to finding out who he would grow into.

In the meantime, she had her third Carter of the night come along, here being Tom Carter, Madelyn's father. She knew him well enough, seeing as his daughter and her younger sister had been best friends since they were little. There was that awkward period where they had not been as close of friends anymore, but then they had found each other again, and their families could all recognize how much the two of them needed one another. This had been in the time when Madelyn had gone and been found out as pregnant, which could have been a lot worse for her if her parents had turned her away, but they had been there for her, and they had supported her along, through the birth, and watching their new grandson being taken away by his future adopted mother and father. And in the time since, two years already, they had stood by their daughter. Maya really liked Tom Carter, on this night especially for his shared disdain toward Mrs. Rina Carter. If they'd had an excess of time, they could have spent a good, long while talking about her.

Instead, they focused on Madelyn, as they should. Sometimes it was hard to believe that she was still just a junior, after everything that had happened, but then thinking about it, they also knew that they were grateful to know that she had made it to this point like this. She'd been through enough, and they wanted her to have the life she'd always deserved.

When Maya was next visited by Alexander Killian, her insides felt as though they could not settle. She could put it off to pregnancy, which she did, but that was so far from the whole truth, wasn't it? For a while, the two of them had met, to discuss both Jonah and his older sister, Agnes, neither one of them realizing that she had become mother to the grandson Mr. Killian did not know he had. But in time… In time, the truth had come to her, suspected at first and finally confirmed, and now… Now, she would look at this man, always knowing that she was keeping something monumental from him, and she could barely cope with that. It wasn't her fault, nor was it his. It wasn't anyone's fault, no. It was someone's secret, Agnes' secret, and she had a right to it. But it was difficult for Maya to bear it, especially when she'd look at this man and spot something, anything, that made her think of Ezra.

So, she did her best to focus on Jonah, as well she should. Where she was concerned, with her class, Jonah did alright. Was he going to become some world class artist someday? Highly unlikely. But he gave everything the focus that was needed, and he always looked happy at what he created. Haley would joke that everyone was too enthralled to tell him that his art wasn't that great because he was hot. The fact that she knew they would tease her relentlessly for it didn't seem to bother her enough not to say it.

When Carla McNeil came into the classroom, she'd brought cookies, home made, and Maya loved her eternally for it. Martin's mother explained that between the baby and the fact that they would only have a few more of these meetings, she'd wanted to bring her a treat. Hearing this, Maya was taken aback. Somehow, this had slipped her mind, and she had trouble figuring out why at first, but then… she guessed that it all went back to Carla's stepdaughter, Rochelle. She had been the first of the extended family to come through here, talking about her many younger brothers. Both her parents had remarried after their divorce, so along with full brother Rolly, and stepbrothers Tre and Lamar, she'd ended up with half brothers Martin and Elijah. Maya had now taught all six of those kids, the youngest still a freshman, and because the boys all connected back to Rochelle, they were all one big family in her head. But they were two families when it came to the kids, and Martin was the last of the McNeil line.

They were barely over the halfway mark with Martin, she reminded herself. They would have all of senior year ahead of them, and the rest of this junior year, and that was good to remember. He may not have made big waves in class, but all students knew his voice, whether it was coming over the speakers at the basketball games or for announcements… How would they replace that?

Speaking of not making waves, she got to say as much when she met Peter Quinland for the first of their two meetings that night. He was seeing teachers for both of his sons, though Maya had to bet that this thread of meetings, for his eldest, would be the hardest for him to cycle through. He'd been here before, back when Reese had been a freshman, but then juvie had happened, and this was the first time he was coming back around to talk about him…

For what she'd seen of him so far, Maya didn't have anything to say that would even allude to anything that had happened in the time where Reese had been… away. What mattered to her was the here and now, the time he spent in her classroom, and over on the cheer squad. If Reese's going for AP art had been a surprise, his tryout for cheer had been an even bigger one. And in the time since they'd started with practice, with cheering at games… She was really happy to get to know him, in this present time. She knew a thing or two about mistakes, about how much they could change the way people perceived you, and she didn't want to be that for Reese. He was showing all the signs of wanting to make a turn with his life, and she would be right there to help him in any way she could.

She had not had many opportunities to be starstruck at meeting parents. There'd been Stella's mother, of course, but this was different. When she'd met Quinn Monterey at the start of the year and he'd told her how he'd transferred here, how he was an artist already, following in his father's footsteps, she had not made the connection, which was in part due to the fact that Quinn went by his late mother's surname. But then curiosity had sent her searching, and when she'd learned that Quinn's father was called Stephen Pelletier, it was as though she'd fallen through a spiral of memory, one that landed her all the way back in her favorite museum, as a teenager, sitting in awe in front of a painting with her friend and future husband by her side. It took her to a poster on her wall, to a book that sat on her class shelves to this day…

When he walked in, she was scared she would blurt out something like 'my children owe you their lives' or something. He would probably have turned on his heel and never returned. Instead, he came and shook her hand, and he sat with her, and they spoke, and she did not in fact make a fool of herself. On his way out, she was sure he spotted the book's spine and recognized it, but he merely smiled and wished her a great evening. There were no words. Naturally, the very next person to walk through the door was…

"What's with your face?" Shawn asked his daughter. "You feeling alright? If you need to take a break while I'm here, I'm pretty sure I know everything I need to know about how Haley's doing, I just came to see you," he pointed out, and it made her smile. "So, what happened?" he asked even as he noticed the cookies from Carla McNeil and sidled up to grab one. She pointed to the book on the shelf, and he followed her finger. "You want the book?" he frowned, not following. So, she told him how she'd just met the artist whose art was on those pages, and how it had come to be. Seeing her father nearly drop his cookie after going wide-eyed, it was kind of worth it. "That was him? The guy I crossed in the hall?" he pointed back. She nodded. "This is going to sound weird, but I always knew he'd have great hair," Shawn stated before biting into the cookie. The look on his face said it all, even before he snatched up another one and sat down.

"Great, you guys can have a competition," she squinted at him before snatching the plate away. She always shared, but the rules were different when she was pregnant and he knew it. He held his one and a half cookie close and squinted back. It made her laugh, and she used the remainder of their meeting to tell him about sitting with Stephen Pelletier. It was a nice rest with so many more meetings ahead of her.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners