The Fourth of July Family Reunion

"Do you have the sparklers?" Spencer Hastings asked her best friend Aria Montgomery as she helped Aria pack her car with picnic supplies.

It was July 4, 2025, and the Fitz-Cavanaugh clan was having a picnic before the fireworks at the local Rosewood park. Both families were visiting Rosewood during the summer holiday, mostly because Aria and Spencer's parents were nagging to see their grandchildren more often, but neither could help the fact that their daughters had moved to New York with their beaus—though Spencer had attended college in Pennsylvania before following Toby to New York to support his job promotion, and had quickly founded the start of her career as an interior designer. (Both she and Toby were building a reputation for doing amazing work for homes, lofts, and apartments.) Aria had studied art, specifically photography, and English education and was teaching advanced English at a New York City private school while occasionally teaching art at a community center for extra money.

Today they were planning to meet Hanna and Emily at the park and celebrate the Fourth of July since it had been a while since their last get-together, and Hanna was being even more of a nag to see her godchildren.

"Yes, Ezra bought a whole box the other day," Aria confirmed, and Spencer handed her the second basket that was warmed by the food inside. Aria gently placed the basket in a box so it wouldn't get shaken around during the drive and was about to slam the trunk closed when Ella came hustling out, grandson in her arms.

"Byron, Toby, and Ezra are pretending like they're monsters and chasing the kids around," Ella huffed, then gestured to the little one-year-old boy she was carrying. "But I managed to save Jem before the ruckus freaked him out."

Right at that moment, there were two childish screams as two kids, both approximately four years old, came scrambling out of the house and towards the women. "Mommy!" the little girl shrieked and hid behind Aria's legs. "Daddy's a monster now and he's trying to catch us!"

"Oh, Daisy—," Aria began, but was interrupted by Keenan bashing into her legs. "Auntie Aria, save us!" he screamed, and when Ezra, Toby, and Byron peeked out the front door, the two children screamed bloody murder some more and rushed to Spencer, yelling out, "Mommy, there are the monsters!" and "Auntie Spencer, don't let them catch us!"

The three women glared at the men who nonchalantly slid back into the house like they hadn't been the cause of the kids' excitement. Eyebrow twitching, Aria strode as calmly as she could into the house. Spencer was going to follow her when Jem's hazel eyes filled with tears and he started to cry, and Spencer cooed and took him from Ella, soothing him while Ella handled the adrenaline-high toddlers and told them the boys weren't really monsters. By the look on Aria's face, Spencer knew the men were about to be scolded.

When Aria saw the men casually putting together the sparklers and the rest of the food, she crossed her arms at her chest and cleared her throat. "What did Spencer and I say about keeping the kids calm before leaving?" she lectured them, and they bent their heads like berated puppy dogs.

"Daisy wanted to play with the sparklers, and then Keenan wanted to play with the sparklers, so we had to get their minds off sparklers, and so we told them we can play a game where we're monsters and they have to run away from us unless they want to be caught," Toby explained, and Aria raised an eyebrow.

"And why couldn't you just bring out Pigtunia? Daisy and Keenan can play with that old thing for hours."

The three men shared a look and Ezra mumbled, "We were bored, too."

Aria glanced out the kitchen window and saw Ella crouched in front of the frowning kids as Spencer sang a song she was making up at the top of her head to Jem. "Boys," she huffed before spinning around on her heels and out the door.

"Do you think," Byron said in a quiet voice so that only the men could hear him, "we have to apologize?"

"Yes!" Aria cried out, and the three men jumped, expecting her to be gone.

"Well then," Ezra said awkwardly. "I guess we'll just finish this stuff in the kitchen first…"

"Yeah, mhmm," they all mumbled in agreement and continued to very slowly pack the rest of the supplies, including bug spray, sparklers, blankets, and Pigtunia.

Once Spencer saw Aria storming out of the house, Jem started squirming in her arms and mumbling "Mama." She handed him off to Aria, who propped her chin on his small head of dark hair, and muttered through her teeth, "The boys aren't getting cake tonight."

Spencer smirked and saw the men leaving the house behind Aria's shoulder. "More for us and the kids, then," she said, and winked while stepping away to allow the men to put the last of the stuff in the trunk.

"Too bad." Aria sighed dramatically. "It's homemade fudge cake."

"Oh yeah!" Toby exclaimed in excitement. "We can't wait to dig into that!"

Spencer and Aria shared a look that said, If only they knew.

Everyone started piling into the car, in which case Keenan and Daisy came running away from Ella exclaiming, "Backseat, backseat, backseat!"

As usual, they got their backseat, though that meant sharing it with Byron, so their noses were crinkled the entire trip as they attempted to play with the dinosaur and unicorn toys over Byron's lap, but their arms were too short and they could barely move since they were strapped into their toddler seats.

Ezra was driving while Aria was sitting next to him, and then behind them were Spencer and Toby with Jem on Spencer's lap. Ella stayed at the house and said she'd meet them at the park a bit later. "I think he likes me the best," Spencer was telling Toby as Jem wriggled in her grasp.

"How about I play with you?" Byron offered the two grumpy kids who were dying to play with each other, but they only responded to Byron with a horrified expression on their childish faces. "Grandpa, no!" Daisy shrieked.

Byron stiffly sat between the children and recoiled. "Never mind then. Carry on."

Once the carpool made it to the park, the two little kids in the back started to hop up and down in excitement. But it wasn't until they saw their Aunt Hanna, Uncle Caleb, and Aunt Emily that they got really hyper. So hyper, in fact, Spencer had to squeeze Jem as she pulled her feet up onto the chair so the kids could get out of the car faster; they were so pushy, she didn't even have the time to unbuckle her seatbelt and get out before them. At first, Spencer thought Jem would have been upset by the sudden squeeze, but he just passively twitched his nose and reached out to hug Spencer's neck, which Spencer happily obliged to.

"There are my sweet godchildren!" Hanna crowed, fawning over the two kids and picking Keenan up in an embrace while Daisy pleasantly hugged her leg.

Emily took Jem from Spencer and nuzzled him before enveloping Spencer, then Aria, into a hug. "It's so great to see everyone," she said, her eyes bright and energetic for the fun, upcoming evening. She turned to Jem. "Especially you, Jeremy. Last time I saw you, you were only six months old. But your mom posts enough pictures of you on Instagram."

All of a sudden, a tiny blonde-haired girl came bounding around the corner and gasped melodramatically when she saw Keenan and Daisy. "Daisy!" Elle, best known as Ellie, Rivers squealed. "Keenan!"

Hanna put bouncing Keenan down and the two girls and the boy went crazy chatting with each other, Daisy leading her friends to the trunk of her family's car, which Byron had opened to unload everything, and pulling out her and Keenan's toys so they could play together at that exact moment.

Aria was the next one to gasp audibly when she saw the little brunet boy around Jem's age in Caleb's arms. "Nate!" she cooed. "I haven't seen you in six months either! You're so big!"

While the women caught up, something Caleb was dragged into unwillingly because he was holding the one-year-old child, Toby and Ezra were pondering where to set up their stuff. "How about closer to that tree?" Toby pointed out, and Ezra squinted against the sun to see what tree Toby was talking about.

"But the fireworks might be blocked out." Ezra thought for a minute and pointed to an open, grassy space. "How about there?"

"I don't know," Toby said uncertainly. "It's already getting crowded around there."

Keenan came sprinting up to Toby and tugged at his dad's knee-length cargo pants. "Daddy, can we go play on the swings?" he asked innocently, his husky blue eyes widening and his bottom lip slipping out into a pout. It was the puppy dog face that only worked on him and not Spencer. Daisy appeared behind Keenan and batted her round, green-blue eyes. "Pleeease?" she drawled out, then gave a toothy smile. Elle bounded up behind them and did the same thing, and for the first time ever it was noted how all of the kids standing in front of them had some color and form of blue eyes.

Toby and Ezra were overwhelmed by the amount of cute groveling that was going on in front of them, and both let out a pent-up breath as they simultaneously said, "Yes."

"YAY!" the kids screamed and went scurrying off to the swings, and the dads returned to their debate.

Eventually everyone settled down and Toby and Ezra found what they considered the perfect place to set up their picnic, and it was near the park grill, too. Aria, Ezra, and Spencer were taking out the hot dogs—vegetarian options included for Aria, of course—to grill up when Ezra got pulled away by Daisy to be pushed on the swing. Byron was starting the grill, and Hanna, Emily, and Caleb were huddled near the swings; Toby was pushing Keenan, Hanna was pushing Elle, Ezra was pushing Daisy, and Caleb and Emily had Jem and Nate set in the baby swings, conversing nonchalantly. Hanna, Toby, and Ezra had a harder time talking, however, because their children were being very loud, yelling, "Faster!" and "I want to see how high I can go!"

Spencer and Aria watched the joyful scene of their friends and family bonding and enjoying themselves for a minute before returning to removing the uncooked hot dogs from their package and putting them on a plate so Byron could grill them up. "So, I was thinking of having another kid," Spencer said as though the subject of the conversation wasn't serious at all.

If Aria had been drinking something, she certainly would have spit it out. Not that it was that surprising, but more because it came out of nowhere. Instead, she gulped away her shock and smirked. "Is Keenan not enough?"

Spencer raised an eyebrow sardonically. "Was Daisy not enough?"

As always, Spencer was right. "Touché," Aria replied, "but life is full of surprises."

But Spencer felt a bit wounded by Aria's original comment; the way she interpreted it, Aria didn't think she was being serious. "But really." Spencer lowered her voice. "I want Keenan to have a sibling."

Aria shrugged her shoulders. "You're a great mom, Spence. You and Toby are amazing parents. So if you want another kid, I say go for it." After a pause, she added, "And talk to Toby first."

Spencer's cheeks flushed, a bit embarrassed for bringing the entire thing up before instantly reminding herself that Aria was her best friend. While taking out the homemade fudge cake they'd baked together yesterday (with Daisy and Keenan going berserk around them until Ella volunteered to take them to get ice cream since Ezra and Toby had gone to a bar for some bromance), Spencer chimed, "I was thinking of doing what you did with Daisy. You know, ask the doctor to write the sex on a piece of paper and fold it up, then give it to a bakery and ask them to color the cake blue or pink and smother it in frosting so we won't know until we cut it open. And then we'll throw a baby shower and cut the cake and everyone will be surprised by the sex of the baby—regardless if the baby ends up identifying with that gender or not." Spencer thought back to Aria's first baby shower, how her friend had held the cake knife reluctantly even though she had no preference of sex, until Ezra had coaxed her into cutting it and she just stabbed the knife into it, a piece of chocolate-frosting-covered cake falling to the ground and revealing the pink inside. There was a giant, collective gasp of surprise, and soon everyone was buzzed with anticipation, wanting to hug the couple all at once. Spencer had never seen Aria try so hard to look comfortable as she was squeezed in all directions. She had also never seen Ezra so hyped and anxious at the same time; it was like he had caffeine pumped into his system, and then he had passed out, nearly killed by new parent vibes, on the couch before eight.

Once Spencer and Aria had set everything up, they joined the vivacious pack at the swings, giving the kids more excitement. Aria plucked Daisy, who wasn't swinging that high, off the swing, procuring a squeal from Daisy, and sat down in her place, plopping Daisy on her lap. "If Mommy wants to swing with me, then Daddy needs to push harder," Daisy announced as she prepared herself by scooting farther into her mother's lap and clinging to the chains with her tiny fists; Aria had her arms wrapped around the chains and Daisy. "Yeah, Daddy, use those muscles," Aria agreed, then giggled when Ezra sighed overdramatically.

A little while later, the chatting mass at the swing set was greeted by the new arrivals: Ella, Ashley, and Veronica, who had planned a shopping trip before meeting the family at the park. Elle jumped off her swing, Keenan squirmed out of Spencer's arms, and Daisy jumped off Aria's lap, and they all ran to their grandmothers, Hanna following them.

Spencer plopped onto the swing next to Aria and loosely gripped the chains, exhausted. "It's only six and I'm done for the night," Spencer declared, and Aria smiled and nodded in agreement.

Unbeknownst to them, Toby and Ezra were counting down silently as a knowing Caleb and Emily watched on amusedly and anxiously. Once they reached one, they pushed their respective wives on the swings and each one jumped out of their skin, clinging to the swings and beginning to giggle in surprise until they were tearing up. "What the heck!" Spencer yelled while still laughing, the men still pushing them as they swung back and forth. "You could have warned us!"

"I'm more concerned why we're all acting like children today," Aria spoke up, referring to the supposed adults.

"Once a child at heart, always a child at heart," Ezra explained, and Spencer rolled her eyes. "Don't give me 'the look'! I was stating a fact."

Eventually the kids came running back with Hanna behind them. "Elle and Daisy want us to braid their hair," she said directly to Aria.

"And I want to play with Nate and Jem!" Keenan exclaimed. "I'm going to show them my dinosaur toys!"

Aria and Spencer came to a stop and stood up, Aria going with Hanna while Spencer took Keenan's hand, bent down to his level, and told him to play carefully with the even younger boys. Emily took Jem out of the swing and sighed in relief. "I think we can all use a break from these swings."

So the group moved towards the blankets laid down on the grass. As Aria started braiding Daisy's thick, wavy, nearly black locks, Elle held up ribbons to Hanna to be put into her straight, dirty-blonde hair, and Daisy begged for ribbons in her hair, too. Then the little girls asked their mothers if they wanted their hair braided, and Hanna and Aria couldn't really say no. By the time they finished braiding, Spencer walked over and held back a snort. "Wow. That is some interesting braiding going on."

Daisy and Elle had attempted to braid their mothers' hair, but because of their tiny fingers and little experience, they had ended up looking like birds' nests. Hanna reached up and fluffed the loose pieces, giving Spencer a look, and said, "You're just saying that because you're jealous."

"Do you think we can braid Daddy's hair?" Elle asked Hanna with a toothy grin. Even though Caleb hadn't grown out his hair as long as it had been in high school, it was still a bit longer than from when he had cut it after leaving Ravenswood.

Daisy and Elle skipped off to try and braid other people's hair while Aria took out her braid; it was too messy and was falling out because of her layers anyway. Spencer sat down and joined Hanna and Aria, who were then joined by Emily out of the blue. "Look at this crazy family of ours," Emily said, followed by a sigh. The parents were huddled near the griddle, whispering about who knows what (most likely about Rosewood gossip or their grandkids), and the husbands were supervising the kids, the young boys being attacked by the girls who wanted to tie their hair with ribbons. Jem was the only one who didn't put up a fight, but in his defense he was the most passive and peaceful out of all the children, bless his soul. At first, Keenan whined about it, but then he let Daisy tie in a couple neon green ribbons and his eyes widened in excitement when Toby told him that at night the ribbons will light up just like the light-up sticks the kids liked to snap to make them glow.

"I love it," Hanna replied, a proud grin on her face. "I think we did well in the reproduction department. Though someone—" She looked at Emily "—is adopting the most adorable baby in the planet from the Philippines."

Spencer and Aria, who had yet to hear this news, exclaimed at the same time, "What?" So Emily had to explain to them that when she was helping out in the Philippines, she had come across the sweetest child, less than two years old, who had recently been orphaned. "Her name is Malia and they're flying her in next week."

"Emily, that's amazing!" Spencer congratulated her friend. "The kids will love her, I'm sure."

At that moment, a car door slammed, and the four best friends' heads whirled around when there came a loud, audible gasp from Ella, who had dropped a whole plate of hot dogs to put her trembling hands to her mouth in shock. She was so overcome, tears overwhelmed her kind, brown eyes. "Mike?" she whispered, and started rushing to someone in the parking lot.

When Aria heard her brother's name, she looked at where her mom had headed and was paralyzed in surprise. Spencer, also dumbfounded, anxiously watched Aria's expressionless face. It was as though she had frozen into a statue and could no longer move.

Then she shot up, tears streaming down her cheeks, and ran over to Mike, wrapping her arms around his neck so tightly he had to tell her to loosen up or she'd strangle him. "I'm so glad you're safe," she sobbed into his ear, her forehead collapsed on his shoulder.

As Ella separated from her son, the kids, who were extremely confused, finally saw who had arrived. At first, they had no reaction, but then a light bulb went over Daisy's head and she shot up and sprinted over screaming, "Uncle Mike is home!"

Aria moved away so Mike could pick up Daisy; he was tearing up at the sight of his niece who had grown a full year since he had last seen her. For a moment he was worried she wouldn't even remember him—after all, he'd spent a lot of time with her after Aria and Ezra returned to work, but it's not like babies were that capable of retaining memories. But she wrapped her stubby arms around his neck and had a beaming grin on her face, glad he was home.

Toby, Ezra, and Caleb watched the Montgomery family reunion as the rest of the kids kept playing like nothing emotional was going on. Ezra sighed; though he had befriended Mike in the past fifteen years he'd known him, it felt odd for him to join them, even though he was, by marriage, part of the family. "You should go over there, man," Caleb suggested as Ezra stood there stiffly, wanting to welcome Mike back but not wanting to interrupt his reunion with his sister, niece, and parents.

"Yeah, and bring Jem. When was the last time Mike saw him, anyway?" Toby said.

"He never met him," Ezra replied, reminiscing back to last May when he'd returned home from work and Aria had been in tears saying that Mike's military duties were calling him away for a year, possibly more. Mike had promised Aria he'd wait until his nephew was born, but the military orders trumped a brother's promise. And since Mike had made the decision to join the military after graduating from college, she'd fretted over him endlessly, worried about his depression returning or of him dying alone.

Sighing, Ezra, unusually calm in the emotional circumstances, picked up Jem and casually walked over. He would have hugged Mike if Mike wasn't so entranced by the one-year-old in his arms, like Ezra wasn't even there. "This must be Jeremy." The one-year-old stared curiously at the lachrymose man, the uncle he hadn't met yet. He allowed the stranger to hold him and introduce himself, though Jem was shy and kept looking away. "He has your eyes," he told Aria, then finally acknowledged Ezra and gave him a big, bear-like hug.

Spencer, Hanna, and Emily got up and padded over to the boys and other kids. Hanna was getting teary-eyed, and after waving off Spencer for pointing it out, walked over and welcomed Mike home. The boys were uncomfortable—they didn't really know Mike that well and had only talked to him during holiday parties—but Spencer and Emily, after debating whether they should wait a couple minutes until Mike's family parted from him, went up to greet Mike since they realized that he wasn't going to be left alone anytime soon.

Once everyone had settled back down and Mike, not letting go of Jem, who was forming an attachment to Mike, had followed Daisy to play with her and her toys by her insistence, Aria returned to the girls and smiled. "I don't know how this day could get any better," she said, Spence encasing her in a hug.

As it turned out, all of the kids liked Mike. They had a sudden loss of acknowledgment towards their parents and just wanted to hang out with Mike. They asked Mike to help them fix a toy, light a sparkler, and build a necklace out of glow sticks. The parents felt rejected and huddled together on the ground, sharing blankets with each other while complaining about the lack of attention from their kids.

"Are we already turning into that?" Hanna asked while pointing to the older adults at a picnic table, laughing about something.

"I think we've always been like that," Spencer scoffed.

"But we're cooler parents than they are," Ezra pointed out. "…Right?"

"Obviously," Aria agreed, leaning her head against Ezra's shoulder.

A moment of thoughtful silence passed and Hanna crinkled her nose. "No," she said, "I think we're actually kind of lame."

There was an uproar at Hanna's comment, everyone yelling, "Come on, Hanna!" and "Don't lie about this! We're so much cooler!"

Their fight was interrupted by Mike surrounded by their kids. "Sorry to interrupt," Mike said hesitantly as everyone stared at him. "But the fireworks are starting soon and the kids are cold."

As everyone was herded together on the blankets, Ezra draped his jacket over Daisy, and she flapped her arms around in the overly large sleeves, and Aria scooped Jem onto her lap and wrapped her jacket around him, and his head poked out of the top. Ezra then wrapped his arms around Aria's shoulders, warmed by her with his lack of a jacket. He kissed the side of her head as Daisy exclaimed in disgust before yelling for a sparkler, in which Aria helped her light before taking Ezra's hands in hers and wrapping them around—despite being cocooned to his mother's torso—a shivering Jem. Mike came to join them and offered—more like requested—to hold Jem in his much warmer leather jacket. To say the least, Jem didn't protest, and Aria was able to squeeze closer to Ezra without having to worry about possibly squishing their son. Sighing peacefully, she leaned her head on his chest.

Spencer and Toby huddled near Aria and Ezra because their son enjoyed Daisy's company so much, and she scooted into his side. Keenan ran up to them because he dropped his sparkler on the ground and it had burned out, and when he pranced away, his head and neck glowing in the dark from the ribbons and jewelry, Spencer leaned her head on Toby's shoulder. "Wouldn't you want another one?" she asked smoothly. So smooth, in fact, Toby couldn't say no. But before they could seal the deal with a kiss, Veronica, along with Melissa who had just arrived, sat down next to them as Melissa—surprise, surprise—immediately started chatting about her time in San Francisco.

Meanwhile, Hanna plopped onto Caleb's lap once Caleb had finished re-braiding Elle's hair, and Hanna had sent her off with yet another sparkler. "I hope I'm not too heavy," she joked, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I did just eat probably five hot dogs and three slices of cake."

"I don't think you should worry about you," he, in turn, teased. "I ate twice as much as you, and gained five pounds. I might just keel over from a heart attack any minute."

"Guess who finally woke up?" Ashley appeared with a sleepy Nate over her shoulder and situated next to the couple. Nate's floppy brown hair draped over his eyes; their children, rather than having come out mixed like everyone else's, were exact replicas of Caleb or Hanna.

Emily joined Hanna, overhearing Melissa talking for what had seemed like hours with no interruption, and fidgeted awkwardly. She kept straining her head to look over at the parking lot. "Looking for someone?" Hanna asked, eyebrow raised, while Caleb tickled Nate on the blanketed ground.

"No…," Emily trailed off, then stood up again. "I think I'll go play with Jem. I haven't seen him that much today." With that, she disrupted Mike's bonding time and they talked about their time overseas while Jem squirmed around, curious by the lightning bugs landing on the grass.

Car headlights flashed, and Emily snapped up. "Are you okay, Em?" Aria asked, confused and concerned at the same time.

When the woman parked the car and stepped out, dressed in ripped jean shorts and an American flag jacket, Emily's heart swelled and she turned to everyone, who was watching her. "So, earlier tonight you might have heard that I'm adopting a little girl from the Philippines… Well, I'm not doing it alone." The woman approached, waving, and took Emily's hand. "Maya and I are going to raise her together."

Instantly Maya and Emily, having secretly been dating again for the last few months, keeping it clandestine because both were unsure if they could keep the relationship with Emily always abroad, were the center of attention, and the kids, once waving around their sparklers while simultaneously pretending to be dinosaurs, stopped to see why no one was looking at them anymore.

Suddenly there came a booming, popping sound, and the kids shrieked and began waving their arms again, but this time running to their parents. The sky lit up in red, white, and blue colors. "The show is starting!" Emily exclaimed in excitement, squeezing Maya's hand, and took an empty space with Maya. Their hands were inseparable as they scooted closer; Emily looked happier than she had in months. Everyone turned their attention to the fireworks, occasionally distracted by their significant other whispering something either romantic or sarcastic in their ear.

Somehow Nate had fallen asleep again and wasn't woken up by the boom, but Jeremy, also not having experienced fireworks before, began to whimper and cry. "It's okay," Mike attempted to soothe him, but to no avail; the fireworks kept popping, the kids, now adjusted again, screamed and clapped, and Jem cried even harder.

"Here," Aria said, retrieving Jem from Mike's arms. She held the child's face to her chest and gently covered his ears, and as soon as he calmed down Ezra took him and propped him over his shoulder, facing away from the flashing lights.

Once the show was over, the older kids' were so riled up, the parents knew they couldn't take them home right away. So the adults packed up while Emily introduced Maya to all the children, in which Maya, at the end, pointed at each child to make sure she knew whose was whose. By then, Keenan and Daisy were passed out on the grass, dead sparklers in hand, while Elle, refusing to give in to the sleep, weakly skipped around them.

It was a holiday like no other. Everyone got to see each other after months of not seeing the other, and a new addition, with another on the way, was added to their grown group. The kids expressed excitement in a new friend joining them.

No one truly wanted to say goodbye. But by eleven, it took ten minutes for everyone to hug and tear up a bit and promise to text, and they separated to their cars. Mike, having taken a taxi, held both Jem and Daisy, one in each arm, while Aria and Ezra looked over the contents in the trunk to make sure they had everything, and he rode home with them, where he would be spending the next few week; Ella fawned over him the entire ride. Ashley strapped Elle and Nate into their seats before kissing Hanna and hugging Caleb goodbye. Spencer and Toby nodded their heads politely as Melissa finished telling one last story, and practically jumped into the front seats when Veronica announced that Keenan was fast asleep in his chair. Emily hated having to part from Maya again because they took two cars, but Maya promised she'd see Emily at her house, since Emily's parents were vacationing in Hawaii for the weekend.

And there's no better place than here to wrap up this story.