Chapter Text
It was the first day of the new school year. Maya who just turned 16 this summer, woke up feeling great. She walked to her closet and passed her medals on the way. She attended several track meets this summer, she even went to Canada for a few of them and won most of her races. But right now she didn´t care about any of this. She was getting ready for school, put on her favorite pair of Jeans and a simple black T-Shirt. She looked at the picture of the group of her closest friends. She was sooo excited to see them again. Since everyone was on vacation and out of the city she hadn´t seen them for 8 weeks.
Of course, they called and texted each other. Especially she and her best friend Andy who she knew since kindergarten. On normal days they were inseparable. They told each other all of their secrets. Andy was the first person who Maya opened up to about being bi, a little over a year ago, and Maya was the first who knew about Andys secret boyfriend Robert from the high school of the neighboring city. Maya didn’t really understand why Andy didn´t want to go public with him, although Andy tried to explain it to her that it was because of her dad. It was weird for Maya on some days. When she was at Andys she saw that loving single parent and how he talked to his daughter and in school he was “Mr. Herrera – strict principal”. Andy and Robert were dating for about six months now and although she was happy for her most of the time, sometimes Maya was jealous. Jealous that she hasn´t a boyfriend or girlfriend right now. She went out on some dates with three of her team mates, but at maximum it ended up in kissing and never got into something serious at least from her side. She tried to go out with one of her classmates, but after 4 weeks they broke it off and he was with someone else now. She just wasn´t feeling it with any of the girls or boys. But who knew? Maybe this year was the year. Maybe there is someone new in the team, or she would meet someone at a party. But she didn´t want to think about it right know and put her focus back to the picture. Next to her and Andy there was Dean. Dean was the quarterback of the schools football team and he had the biggest heart. His parents were rich, but he never bragged about it. He was this loving giant who was just nice to everyone. Also, there were Vic and Travis. They were best friends too. Vic lived with her grandma since here parents were working nonstop and Travis whose parents were strict as hell went and visited her very often. Her grandma was so welcoming and always told him that he was too skinny and that he had to ear more, so she made him an extra portion of whatever they were eating. The last two people on the picture were Jack and Ben. Ben was two years older than all of them. He joined their group later. He was at the football team as well and Dead introduced him to all of his friends when they were in eighth grade. Ben graduated high school last year and was starting college. His dream was to become a doctor. He had this dream for a long time now. Maya had no clue at all what her adult life, as she liked to call it, would look like. She liked running and she knew she was very good at it, but she also knew that this was a thing she could be doing for another ten…fifteen years or so, and that would be it. But she had no idea what to do with her life. But she told herself that she had two more years of school and that she would figure it out some day. And then there was Jack. She would say it was complicated. He asked her out a couple of times, but all she saw in him was one of her best friends. She felt sorry for him and she was hoping that she wasn´t losing him because she didn´t feel the same for him. After she took one last look at the picture, she took her backpack and went downstairs. “Morning Mom” she said as she entered the kitchen and saw her mother and brother eating breakfast. Mason who was two years younger than her had grown so much over the summer, that he was now taller than her. Which wasn´t that hard because she was pretty small, but still... “Morning Mason”. He looked grumpy “Someone is in a good mood today. It´s the first day of school, what is wrong with you sister?” She started laughing and told him that she was just very happy to finally see her friends again.
The fourth chair on the table was empty. Mayas parents had a divorce when Maya was ten. She wasn´t talking to her dad very often. He had a new wife and had moved to another state. He didn´t seemed to be very interested in neither her nor Masons life. But she was fine with it. Her home was happier since her father left. With all the yelling gone, her mother was like another person. She worked in the local pharmacy and made some friends since there was no one telling her to stay in and be a full-time mother and housewife anymore.
Overall, Mayas life was good. She had nearly nothing to complain about and with this thought she asked her brother to hurry up so that she could drive them to school. Her grandparents had bought her that very old, very rusty car for her 16th birthday and apologized for the look of it, but for Maya it didn´t matter. She loved that car. It gave her freedom and she was happy about it, even if it meant driving her brother to and from school.
When they arrived, she saw her friends sitting at their table. It was the table where the six of them first got together five years ago after a fieldtrip waiting for their parents to pick them up. There was a mix-up in the schedule and somehow everyone got confused on when to pick up the kids and at the end every parent was late. The teachers put them in groups for them to entertain themselves and they had to kill the time by talking to each other. These three hours changed their lives and they were friends ever since. The tables were numbered for some reason and since theirs had the number “19” on it, that´s what they called their little group of friends.
All Maya could do was smile. “Nineteen” she shouted and her friends saw her and were excited that she finally arrived at school. She hugged everyone and it was a very warm hello after this long summer. Dean seemed to have grown even more. Travis and Vic seemed closer than ever and Jack was not weird at all to her. She was relieved at that. Andy pulled her to the side and showed her a necklace. It had a ring on it. “Robert gave it to me. Isn´t it beautiful?” Maya was more than happy for her best friend. She seemed so in love. Out of the corner of her eye Andy saw her father approaching and she quickly put the necklace back under her shirt. But Mr. Herrera passed them and went to the parking lot. It seemed like he was waiting for someone.
Soon after, a black car arrived and a woman got out and talked to Andys father for a bit. She then went back to the car to open the back door. The six friends heard the woman very harshly say “Just get out of the car now! Mr. Herrera will show you the school.” Everyone was curious by now. And then it happened. A girl got out of the car and all Maya could do was stare at her. She was gorgeous. Tall, long brown wavy hair, skinny jeans, a dark green blouse and black all stars. Maya had never seen someone this beautiful. She was completely blown away “Who is she?”