March 25th 2024

Chapter 85
The Tension in Leaving

Looking after one toddler while this far into her pregnancy would already have been a major task to undertake, especially if her fairy boy was feeling particularly energetic, which was nearly a guarantee. Now to throw in his young cousin, too, would really feel like asking for trouble, but Maya did not mind at all. Ezra and Finneas had grown up together, the connection feeling as strong between the two of them as between their respective parents. To Maya, Wyatt's boy was just part of her immediate family, like one of her own children. Of course, she would be so happy to get to look after him even as Ezra got to stay home with her instead of going to the ranch with Lucas the way he so often did.

The two of them were like a pair of sweet… short… gentlemen, coming up to her, where she sat, to ask if she wanted anything, as though they'd be able to retrieve it no matter what, asking her what she was doing… She was taking her time and enjoying the process of going through the sketchbook diaries of her students, class by class. Dakota would bring them to her, two by two throughout the week, and pick them up when dropping off the next batch. Today, she had the senior boxes.

One of her constant joys came when she got to see what Robyn Blakely had on those pages, if only because she would see her drawing just about any time she saw her around the school outside of her tenure on the girls' basketball team, and now she got to see what she'd been doing all this time. She had been an impressive artist from day one in her class this year, which had only made Maya that much more upset that she'd been kept from entering her class all this time. It was always important to her to honor the fact that Robyn had been drawing strictly for herself all time. She didn't want to turn it into a chore for her. She felt as though she had achieved this task well enough. And in the process, Robyn had been improving her skills, which was simply a bonus for Maya. It was never Robyn's intention to make a living from her art. She was an athlete at heart and would pursue that path. But giving her more tools to practice the thing that was all hers, for herself, that felt really good.

In Rafa's diary pages, by contrast, she found someone who definitely did not use art outside of class very much, if at all, and that was just fine. She could see very well how he enjoyed himself in the work he did, giving it his undivided attention the way he did all of his school work. It was a good release for him, as it was with many other students she'd seen come through her class over the years. It got to be a part of his day where he could, hopefully, let most if not all the stresses of his life wait without following him into this world. The imagery would always leave her wondering what would happen when they left the classroom, if those stresses awaited their return, ready to sink their teeth in again, but then in her imaginative mind, she could see a version of this question where, after being separated from the stresses, they didn't stick to anyone so well, momentarily if not forever. Maybe continued exposure would manage to keep them from sticking on less and less as time went on.

If that was the case, then she hoped it was working on Amy Dixon. Maya was unsurprised to find that her neighbor was overtaken with a high level of… admittedly self-imposed stress as she drew ever closer to graduation. For what she'd seen of her work since they'd come back from the holiday break, she had been putting on more and more pressure. Maya saw this a lot in the way it affected her art. She was always the type to try and give as much detail to her work as she could, and Maya would love to see that whenever she'd look through her diary. But more and more, it felt like she would do her diary because she had to and not so much because she wanted to. It was still showing her personal style, for sure, but the detail was largely gone, and it worried Maya to see that reflected in Amy as a person. Of course, if it wasn't enough that she had to deal with school, with graduation and the prospect of college right ahead, she now also had concern toward her boyfriend and his ongoing recovery following his injury out on the basketball court.

Jake Bennett's diary, in reverse to his girlfriend's, had never been so full of detail. It was not exactly her kind of detail, but in his case it showed how much the boy had been working had to cope with what he'd lost because of his injury. It could not have come at a worst time for him. He had needed to be out there, still playing as he'd been playing all along, or his college prospects might evaporate out from under him. He'd had his heart set on playing at his late father's old school, on his team, since even before Mr. Bennett's passing, had wanted it that much more after he'd been lost… But now he had been sidelined, and he had been too deep in the world not to know how detrimental it could all be for him in the long run. His diary had managed to become a place where he could express all this, and he did, with enough input that Maya could just about hear him in the work that he did. She had been doing her very best to see and hear him and respond, to help him. She couldn't do so much while she was away, but she would try…

In her second box, her AP seniors, the first book she got her hands on belonged to Lindsay Dare, and it made her smile at once to see it. She would be proud of so many of her students, all for their own reasons, their own achievements… With Lindsay, a lot of it went down to who she was as a person. The friendship was strong within her, the kinship she felt toward people, whether or not they were even 'her' people… She was just kind, all around, kind with herself, kind with her time and the aid she was willing and able to lend… Maya had seen others of her type, as a teacher most of all but also beyond. She would try and be this, too, as much as she could.

Lindsay's diary was a perfect exploration into who she was, and it had fast become a favorite among the young Friars. Lately, she had been exploring how to draw people in motion, and Maya had done her best to guide her in this. She loved nothing more than to open the book and turn to the newest pages, seeing her latest attempts.

She could count on others in this senior class for the raising of spirits, too. Max Farrell's name definitely came up fast in that category. The cheer squad would for sure be hit by his departure at the end of the year. Some of her cheerleaders had felt like an easy pick from the start, while others had come along and taken her by surprise just for showing an interest in the squad. They might have been some of her favorite journeys to witness, and Max had for sure been one of those.

For having known him as a very introverted kid, he had really opened up over his years in high school. Some of this had come in the way he'd stepped up after his best friend had found herself pregnant and given birth in the midst of their sophomore year, and then had been revealed to be carrying twins. He had been by her side through all this and beyond, when he had no responsibility toward her and her children other than that they had been friends for all their lives. He had taken that energy into the cheer squad and through his school, and Maya was so very proud of him for it.

His best friend was very proud, too, as Maya knew. Max McAllister could not have foreseen how her life would be altered, in the spring of her freshman year in high school, when she had been met with the possibility that she could be pregnant. But it had happened, and she had chosen to raise her child… children, as she'd come to learn… and she was very aware of her good fortune in having the support system she had around her, whether at home, at school, or beyond. Her upcoming graduation would also bring the close to a chapter where Daisy and Callum McAllister would no longer be spending a good part of their afternoons at the school, or adding their own personal touches to some of their mother's diary pages. Already, there had been a project going to supply the little ones with a pair of caps and gowns to match their mother's when she'd go and get her diploma, and it wouldn't matter that she'd be on maternity leave at the time, Maya would be there to see those ensembles presented to the young McAllisters.

The last diary she pulled from her second box that day, near the end of the boys' nap, belonged to Claudia Carter. Maya felt sorry to miss all of her seniors' final days, as she did every year, and the reasons would vary from one student to another, but this one… The overwhelming feeling was that she could have done more, should have been able to do more. She knew that she couldn't do everything, be everywhere, but in the case of all of those kids who had been at this school before this year, especially those who'd two years, or three in the case of the seniors, with their options restricted by the hand of their former principal… It was impossible for her not to know that she genuinely could have played a different role, and she would have, if not for Sandra Davenport.

Still, she would look at the pages of Claudia's diary, from start to present, and… well, maybe she actually had made a change for her, maybe she had helped to start something for her. She could hold on to that. She was one of those few who had made such steady use of the communication page that Maya had a whole folder full of sticky notes she had carefully preserved and organized. Maybe one day she could show her.

"Hey, guys," Maya smiled as she set down the diary in its box and turned to find two pairs of eyes staring back at her, barely out of their sleepy mode. They lay next to her where she sat up on the big bed, and as Ezra immediately reached to cling to her, she reached out and gently brushed at Finneas' hair. It was amazing sometimes to look at the two of them, cousins with not a drop of blood shared between them, and yet she could see a genuine bit of resemblance between them. Maybe it came from their being raised together. Sometimes she would look at Ezra and swear he looked like his older sisters. It was in the way he carried himself, the expressions on his face… It made her inexplicably happy, every time.

When she asked them if they'd had a good nap, she was treated to a long and winding tale of the dreams they'd had, and she just smiled the whole time. As young as they were, their imaginations had been shaped the same way the rest of them had, and if she had to miss out on days at school for this, then maybe she could cope just fine.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners