February 14th 2019
Chapter 45
Her Band of Girls
Maya knew for sure that Willow and Lion had been communicating more and more in the past several weeks, because the moment he saw her walking toward him, so she might introduce herself, he'd pointed at her like he knew her face but couldn't quite place it. Then, when Isabel had made the introductions and she'd said Maya's name, the recollection had filled out his memory. He had smiled at her, and her first impression of the guy, now that she had met him and started speaking with him, was that he was just… cool… There were people who simply had that air about them, and Lion had it in spades.
"Willow never said you were moving back here," she mentioned, and he nodded.
"She doesn't actually know yet," he admitted, with as sheepish of a look as his vast coolness could muster. When Maya – and Leona at her side – blinked, he went on to explain. After Christmas, Willow had gone off to visit family down in Florida. This, Maya was aware of, like she was aware that she hadn't returned to Houston yet, and wouldn't until two days from now.
While Lion had been considering a return stateside for some time, which had triggered his starting to write with Willow again, he hadn't mentioned it to her just yet. He didn't want to get her hopes up, especially as their ongoing correspondence had been quick to make some old feelings resurface. When it had become real, his return, he'd wanted to make it a surprise. He was crashing at his eldest brother's place until he found a more permanent home… and while his belongings were making their way back from Japan. Then the job, well… he'd started looking even before he'd flown back, and by some chance – and timing – he had gotten into contact with the restaurant just as Isabel was seeking a new server.
In all this, he'd been working to keep up the surprise for Willow, and until she was actually back in Houston, that meant not telling anyone. He hadn't known he'd be running into her friends here.
"Your secret's safe with us," Maya had assured him, as Leona nodded.
And two days later, when Willow Regan had returned to Houston on a flight from Tampa only to find herself greeted by one Lionel Obi smiling back at her. They would soon come to discover the Kryptonite to Lion's cool demeanor, the first time they'd see him exist in the same room as Willow.
By the time TXNY had their first practice of 2022, a lot had changed. There had never been one moment in particular where either of them had needed to discuss their getting back together. The way she said it, the moment she'd spotted him outside the gate everything had just fallen into place, like they'd simply been on pause all this time and they'd finally unpaused. The very next day following her return to Texas, Lion was moving himself from his brother's place and into Willow's apartment.
"You're going to have to try and control that permanent little grin you've got going right now," Maya happily teased her friend and bandmate when she came bounding down the basement steps to join her, and Riley, and Kayla and Rosa.
"Can I pick your brain about something later?" Rosa had asked, tipping her head back to spot Willow from where she sat, fussing over her bass. Maya was pretty sure she was going to be quizzing her about 'love stuff,' the better to inspire the Valentine's Day window at the book store. She'd gone through that quiz herself when Rosa had arrived for the day's practice.
"Sure," Willow told Rosa, passing her with a playful tap to the forehead that made their young bandmate smile.
"Okay, before we start," Maya came to stand before the others. She was proud to say that her knowledge and ability when it came to sign language had vastly improved in the months she'd been friends with Kayla, and she showed this now by signing along as she addressed her bandmates. "We said from the start that we would make our big unveiling of the new members of the band in the new year, once we all had the chance to grow together and start making things happen."
Figuring out how to balance the letting out of information about the band's hiatus and their advance toward their great return had been a challenge already without having to do it in the midst of their first semester of college. It had always been important to find a way to be transparent to those people who'd been faithfully following them all this time while also keeping some things a surprise, the better to make the reveal they were now approaching. When they'd taken Kayla, Rosa, and Willow into the band officially, they had said as much online. They hadn't mentioned any names, or shared any photos. That would be happening… soon.
But between that one announcement and now, they had been working to put out some careful teasers in the form of audio recordings. The first time they'd all sung and played together for the first time, that recording had been uploaded to their site, coupled with no other visual than the animated version of their band logo a fan from Spain had created for them. There had been more of these, at least one a week, and each of them had been received with growing intrigue and anticipation. So far, the change in the lineup was appearing to be received positively. It still sounded like TXNY, still felt like TXNY. It was different, but it was definitely them.
They'd taken a next step in this soft campaign by releasing isolated recordings. Kayla had done some drum solos for them, showing them what they'd come to know from her and even some things they hadn't known she could do up to that point, like she'd been intent on seeing that it wouldn't just be the fans who'd be surprised. Rosa had done one bass solo, then a couple others where she sang along with her instrument, others where they all played for her to sing. Willow had some of those, too, and then many more where she flexed her instrument playing side, alternating from one to the other. The introduction of those new tones to the band's music had been something more for the fans to wonder at.
Already before the actual reveal they had expected at least some to greet the change with much less enthusiasm. Maya and Riley, who'd been through that side of it before, had done their best to prepare the others, Rosa, especially. They knew very well she'd be the most vulnerable to whatever would be said about them, about her.
Over the holidays, when they'd all been in Austin, the five of them and Nadine and Isadora, too, they'd made use of this precious time by recording a few things, songs, videos, anything they could think of. They didn't have their instruments with them, but they could work around it. They had also taken the time to sit, the seven of them together, and take turns sort of interviewing their newbies. Whatever parts of themselves they felt ready to put out there, they shared.
"So we took those interviews from Austin," Maya went on to tell them at practice that day, "And we edited them with bits from here and there, videos and the audio teases, sort of like a… an introductory package, for each of you. They're going to be put up on the site… today," she revealed, getting the trio's attention at once. It was finally happening, their first big step… their unveiling…
They'd sat there for a while after that, huddled around Maya's laptop, to view those videos before they hit the internet. There were four, one for Kayla, one for Rosa, one for Willow, and then one more that was their very first performance of their first of a few as yet unreleased songs, new music that had been created specifically for the new TXNY five. The video actually started with the five of them performing TXNY's very first 'hit,' and then, somewhere down the middle, the song had started to veer off course, down a new path, a new rhythm, and they launched into the new song. It was their way of saying 'here we are, this is who we are now.'
"Wow…" Rosa had been the first to say anything, when the video had come to an end, a proud little smile on her face that was mirrored on the others'.
"So… All systems go?" Maya asked, looking around. It was yes all around, so she looked back to the laptop with a smile, and within minutes all four videos were live on the site. Whatever came next, well… they would find out sooner or later. They didn't sit around to wait and see; now more than ever, they had a practice to focus on, especially with the final announcement Maya made to them, even as she made it to the site. Accompanying the four videos, they'd watched as she typed out a notice that they were going to be having their first live performance… in two weeks.
"Wait, we are?" Kayla had signed.
"Are you serious?" Rosa was sitting up rod straight, her face alight with equal parts giddiness and crushing anxiety.
"Is that why you asked what we were doing that day?" Willow realized.
It was one thrill upon another, between the videos, and the upload, and the announcement of their first gig together. What it turned into, might have been their most exhilarating practice yet, as though their unveiling was more like an activation. There had never been any doubt that TXNY deserved to go on, and certainly everything they'd been doing to even get to this point had been done under that belief, but that day, that practice… It had never felt so true.
"I need to get home, have to take Gideon out for his walk," Rosa had scampered up the stairs after practice was over. The newest member of the Coleman/Del Vecchio family was still a young pup, still small, though from everything they'd been hearing, he was likely to grow into a much larger dog by the time he stopped growing. It had been just under a week since he'd been brought home from the shelter, and much in the way that everyone wanted to know about MJ when Maya had come back from Austin, Rosa's friends and bandmates all wanted to know about little Gideon.
She hadn't brought him to the house just yet, wanted to wait until he'd adjusted some more before introducing him to Trix and Lou. The two dogs of the Houston house may not have met the pup, but they certainly smelled him on Rosa, and they were notably intrigued. They had seen the little guy by now, going over to Rosa's, some evenings spotting the two of them on their regular walks…
"Lion's stuff just got delivered today, so I need to get back and help him unpack," Willow had followed after that, leaving Maya, Riley, and Kayla to climb back up to the ground floor together.
"Want to stay and watch a movie or something?" Riley had asked Kayla, who explained that, while she did plan on staying, it was only that she and Maya needed to get started on a project for Professor Robinson's class. Franny was already on her way to come and join them. This was going to be a big one, and they really needed to get started.
"Almost doesn't seem fair, does it?" Maya sighed dramatically. "One second we're down there, making music like the rest of the world isn't there, and the next… the world is back, and it demands studying, so much studying," she told Kayla, who gave a laugh, followed by her own flare up of 'drama.' They could handle being back in the real world, knowing what awaited them back in their musical world.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
