January 26th 2019

Chapter 26
Her Song For Resolutions

It took going down a handful of steps, moving themselves away from the blast of the music above, to start catching on to the music from below. This one was much simpler, falling less along the lines of 'let's jump around again and again' and more 'let's make some music.' It took a few more steps down for them to establish that this wasn't coming from some recording. There were people in their instrument room, using some of them, two that they could identify. Someone was on the drums, with a steady rhythm, and someone was on what definitely sounded like the bass guitar. And there was singing, one singular voice. Even with the soundproofing they'd done on the room, it was a wonder they could find enough peace to make something like this.

As the search party, momentarily thrown off from apprehension and into confusion, came around the bottom of the steps, they found answers to all their questions. Where was Rosa? Was she okay? Who was down here making music?

Franny was sitting on the couch in the corner, listening with a beaming smile, a captive audience to the duo at the heart of the room. Kayla… Kayla was at the drums, a happy look on her face and a deftness with the sticks in her hands that showed this was by no means her first time sitting to a kit like this. How had it never come up until now that this was something she did? Well, Maya supposed that she'd never thought to ask, and she felt sort of bad for it.

If this wasn't enough of a surprise, there she was, the one they'd been searching for so frantically. Rosa sat on the ground, a few feet away and facing the drums, legs crossed, feet bare, and the bass balanced in her hands as she played and sang in equal measures of beauty. It was like watching her soul, finally open for them to see, even if they hadn't so much been invited to look into it as they'd stumbled upon it. Even now, she remained oblivious to their presence. She just played her tune, her and Kayla both.

It was Franny who saw them all stood there, and she just smiled at them, grinned, really, with a wink and a finger to her lips. Be quiet, listen.

So, they stood, and they listened, which was really not hard for them to do. You would have thought, by the way they played together, that they'd done this so many times before, the two of them, when in fact they had only met on this night. Maya could feel Riley gripping on to her arm, not saying a word and not needing to; she was way ahead of her. Halloween had once found a way to make things move forward for her before, and now maybe it was doing it again. Was it any wonder she loved it so much?

Looking to her other side, much as she could see her other roommates, Maya was also aware of Willow, who'd been her search buddy upstairs before following them down here. The way she smiled, listening to the two girls before them, the way her fingers moved at her sides, it was like she was imagining being out there with them, with some imaginary instrument in her hands.

The spell was broken, interrupted, when someone upstairs had the presence of mind to shut the basement door again. The sharp sound had stalled Rosa, which stalled Kayla, and then the girl sat on the ground had seen that first startling instant redoubled when she'd turned her head and seen the six people standing there, staring back at her.

"Sorry, I… sorry…" she blinked, looking at them, looking down to the bass in her hands, then back at them. "I…" She was at a loss for words to explain how she'd ended up down here, playing their instruments. The light she'd had about her just a moment ago had gone and seeped back into hiding, and she was the same girl they'd known before once again. She was looking to Kayla and to Franny for assistance, so Franny was finally the one to get up and explain.

"We were talking up there, and one thing led to another, we got into music, Rosa said she'd been teaching herself how to play bass…"

"You taught yourself?" Riley blinked, impressed. Rosa gave a very small nod, though her face seemed to have designs on relaxing into a smile. Kayla jumped in now, and Franny translated for the others.

"Since she told us about her and the bass, I told her about learning the drums. I've been playing since I was ten years old." Here, Franny took up the tale for herself again. "I knew you guys had those down here, so I figured… why not see where it would take us," she shrugged, with an innocence that betrayed at least some intent, and the way she kept Maya's eye, it wasn't long that she understood what this was all about.

She and Riley and the others hadn't exactly been advertising their current shortage of members and their attempts to recruit new people into the band, but a week or two back, in something resembling their very first meeting, Franny had come upon her in Professor Robinson's class and she'd found her in the midst of some intense scribbling. Kayla had been off getting water at the time, so Franny had been the only one to see what she'd been up to. Drummer. Bass player. ? and then underneath these, a growing list of possible instruments, some a bit more out there than others as they got further down the list. Neither of them had dug into the subject, though Maya knew she'd seen the list. She hadn't been sure whether Franny had understood what it was about, but now…

"We, uh… can you hold on just a second?" Maya told the three of them there, "I just need to… one minute, I… Riley?" She reached for her friend's hand as casually as possible, pulling her away toward the guys' bathroom, just ahead of a few of the guests who'd come down to use it, paying no mind to what was happening in the instrument room. "This'll only be a minute," Maya told the guests before pulling Riley into the bathroom and shutting the door. Now that it was just them, Riley looked like she'd been biting her tongue for a couple minutes and she was finally allowed to let it go.

"Maya…"

"I know."

"Kayla…"

"Yes."

"A-and Rosa…"

"With you so far."

"What about…"

"Well she's here, we can always ask…"

"What if they…"

"We won't know unless we ask, so… are we? Asking?" Riley didn't have to speak, her head was already nodding rapidly and doing the answering for her. "Right, okay…" Maya breathed. "Why am I so nervous about this? Are you…"

"Oh, I'm melting over here…" Riley confessed, and Maya just laughed, grasping her friend's hands.

"Ready?" she asked, and Riley nodded again. "Okay, let's go."

They were no sooner back out of the bathroom that the first of the guests hurried in and shut the door. Maya and Riley both gave casual nods of greeting to those still waiting before moving back to the instrument room. While they'd been gone, as though further driving the point home, Willow had gotten Rosa to start playing again, and now the two of them were singing in harmony. The rest of them were packed on or around the couch, listening, waiting… The girls stopped now, looking back to the returning duo.

"Sorry about that, just had to… uh…" Maya frowned to herself, not sure where that statement was trying to go, so she paused, started again. "So, here's the thing," she stepped forward, ensuring that Kayla could read her lips, using what signing she had learned that could be used here. "For the last couple years, our band has been functioning with three of us in Austin, and one in New York. But now, our third here is off in Boston for medical school, which leaves just… us," she indicated Riley.

"Last summer, when we were all together, Nadine and Smackle both gave their blessing for us to try and bring new people into the band, so that it can continue on. We've been going over how to make that happen, and we had decided to sort of just… wait to see if maybe we would find the people we needed, without having to hold auditions or anything like that, and well… What I'm taking a while to get around to asking is… Kayla… Rosa… Willow… would you like to be part of our… new lineup, for TXNY?"

Maya was not in the habit of finding herself so shy about asking something of people, friends or otherwise, and it was a strange sort of feeling that she was not looking forward to have repeated, especially in the moment after the request had been put out and they now had to wait and see what the response would be. She could see the trio she had called on was now reacting, first in surprise, now in consideration of what she'd asked of them, and waiting for the next part, for the one where they would either say yes or no… it was getting her heart beating ridiculously fast.

Kayla was signing away to Franny, and Maya picked up enough to guess that the girl was just wanting to make sure that she'd understood what she thought she'd understood, like maybe she had just totally misread what she'd been told, because had she seriously just been asked to become part of one of her favorite bands? Franny had just laughed, confirming that it was indeed what she thought it was. At this, and after one more stunned demand as to whether she was sure or not, Kayla had turned back to look at Maya with a grin and she'd nodded. Just like that, they had themselves a drummer.

"What would you want me to do?" Willow asked, curious. "What instrument, because I have a few." Maya remembered this from the day Dylan had first pointed them in the girl's direction, when he'd said she played 'five instruments or something.' When they asked her what those instruments were, Willow revealed that, along with her ukulele, she also played the violin, trumpet, piano, and had been learning to play the electric guitar. She was like a one-woman band, and that was very, very interesting all of a sudden, even more than it had been before.

"Whichever one fits the song, I guess?" Maya suggested, a look in her eye like she couldn't wait to get in touch with her song writing partner and go 'look, look at all the new instruments we can incorporate into our music now!' "What do you think?"

"I think… that'd be great," Willow declared, beaming, and Maya looked to Riley again. Now they had a drummer and a wild card… which left them with…

Rosa had been quiet up to now, and as everyone turned to her, knowing she was the last one still up in the air, she looked even more cornered. Maya had been feeling an easy bond forming with the girl since they'd first met, and looking at her now she could fairly say she understood what was going through her mind. She wanted this, oh she so wanted this, but she wasn't sure she could trust that it would work out. Was it her mother? Would she say no? Or did she have stage fright?

"If you want this, the spot is yours," Maya told her, keeping her eye with an encouraging nod.

Rosa took a deep breath… took another deep breath… and then she said yes.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners