December 18th 2019

Chapter 352
Their Cheers For Surprises

The next morning had kicked off with the appearance of the slightly less toothy Wyatt. He'd been made cautious in his ascent up the attic stairs after his fall, so they'd heard him coming a good minute before he reached the top. They'd spent those seconds just smirking at each other, signing to one another.

"Should we pretend to sleep?"

"And jump on him?"

"I will eat you up, little boy…"

"Was that 'm-w-a-h h-a h-a?'"

"I am a witch in the woods. I need to have a witch laugh."

"He's coming. Sleep!"

When the wood witch had 'eaten' Wyatt, they'd all gone to have actual food, with the rest of the family. They had been joined by James and his kids, and Luna and her girls, and Granny Lizzie. This had turned into so much non-stop activity that it took until mid-afternoon, before Maya remembered about the voicemail and found a minute to listen to it. Lucas was off doing some thing or another with Sam. The other kids were out in the yard below, throwing a ball around.

If there had been anyone around to watch her face as she listened to that message on her phone, they would have witnessed nothing short of a journey. It had started in curiosity, shifted into confusion, then shot right into disbelief, and breathlessness, and shock, and then she was just… full to bursting with what she could only refer to as an 'OMG OMG OMG OMG' feeling. It was too big, it couldn't be put into words. It could barely be contained in her own brain, and heart, and just…

"Maya?" Lucas' voice, from upstairs, brought her back to reality, so swiftly that she nearly dropped her phone. "You up there?"

"Down!" she called, sticking her phone in her pocket in an instant, batting her hands around to create air, to cool down before he'd show up.

"I thought you were in the attic," Lucas told her as he came bounding down the stairs.

"Yeah, no, I was just… What's up?" she casually asked.

"We need to get going soon, are you ready to go?"

"Uh, yeah… yeah… I just need to go and say goodbye to everyone, and then James said he'd drive us to the airport."

She'd had to make herself – somehow – hit pause on thinking about that call, until they were home again, until she could…

Once it was just the two of them on the plane, it was easy to go and think about something else for a while. All she had to do was tell the attendant that it was Lucas' birthday, and ask if there was anything they could do to make it a bit special. They'd spent the rest of the flight just him and her, as they continued to celebrate him. She had a good feeling that they would step back into the house and find their roommates had rounded up some more of their friends to come along and celebrate, too.

Good… I need to talk to them, I need…

Rosa and Joseph were there to greet them at the airport when they landed. Joseph took their bags, and he started on ahead with his cousin. Meanwhile, Maya tugged Rosa by the arm so they'd remain a couple steps behind.

"Who's at the house right now?" she whispered.

"Some people…"

"Rosa."

"Okay, a lot of people. That's okay, right?"

"No, yeah, that's good, that's great, actually."

They had come up to the house, and it could have been a contest between Maya, Rosa, and Joseph, as to which one was most pathetic in their attempt to not be the first one at the door, so Lucas would be the first there. It wasn't like he hadn't figured out what was going on, and he gave them a shake of the head before going on ahead and through the door to receive his cries of surprise.

It took almost a half hour before she managed to do what she wanted, but finally she made it happen. She got Riley, and Rosa, and Kayla, and Willow, and she brought them upstairs. They ended up in Rosa's room.

"Shut the door," Maya told Willow, the last one up. "I need to tell you guys something." Riley gasped.

"Maya… Are you…" she looked down.

"What? No!" Maya blinked, laughing.

"Did Lucas propose?" Willow asked.

"No…"

"Did you propose?" Rosa asked.

"No!"

"So what is it then? Come on!" Kayla signed, giving the others a look like 'shut up and let her talk' to the others.

"I got a phone call while I was in Tucson. I didn't actually get to pick up, didn't even know I had a message until last night… Anyway, just listen." Pulling out her phone, she pulled up the message and played it over speaker so they could all hear it.

On the line was a woman called Audra. She identified herself first as the cousin of Malcolm from the music store. Then, she went on to say she worked for a record label. Malcolm had gifted her with one of the physical copies of their Christmas album they'd given him to sell at his store. She'd listened to it, and had – as she put it – been sent down the rabbit hole of researching the band. She'd heard about everything there was out there for her to find. Upon hearing her rave about them, Malcolm had passed on Maya's contact information to his cousin. Now, here she was, reaching out.

She wanted to set up a meeting, between the band and her, to discuss possibilities.

She wanted to line them up with a record deal.

"I looked her up, she… she's legit. And she wants us."

For a good minute or two, her friends and bandmates were giving Maya some excellent imitations of the way she'd reacted when she'd heard that message for the first time. After all this time, all the work they'd put in, to find out that someone out there wanted to expand their reach… If they had gotten their name and their music across the world, they were still far from being truly well known, so what Audra was offering them, oh…

Except it wasn't that simple, was it?

Whatever lineup they'd had over the years, with Maya and Riley and Nadine and Isadora, then the five of them in this room today, and now… Willow may not have been an active member anymore, but she was still one of them, so there had been no question whether she deserved to be part of this discussion or not. With or without her, the offer remained the same.

So did the significance for each of their futures.

Here they were, with three out of the four ongoing members just days from receiving their diplomas, following four years of studies, with the other still trying to find her way but very much determined to get there. If they went and took that deal, what would it mean for their education, and how much of it they did or didn't use from day to day? If she went and became a singer in a band, made that her career, then she would never be a teacher, would she? If she did, it might not be for years… and it would come on the heels of whatever had made that she wasn't living from her music anymore.

But…

At the same time, they were very aware of what kind of opportunity this was, just as they understood that if they didn't follow it through this time around then there might never be a next time. There were so many people out there, working and working away, every day, to even come close to a chance like this, and now said chance had turned on to them. Regardless of what choice they made in the end, they needed two things: they needed to think it through… and they needed agreement between them.

"Who else knows besides Lucas?" Willow asked. Maya shook her head at her. "You haven't told him?"

"I wanted you guys to be the first ones to hear," Maya explained. No one would fault her for that, not even Lucas. Either way, it didn't bring them any closer to figuring out what they would do. "I'm not going to say anything until we decide," she vowed, and the others soon made the same vow. Until there was a decision, they would be the only ones to know. "I'm also going to have to at least call her," she held up her phone. "So she knows I heard her message and I'm not ignoring it." They agreed. "What do I tell her though?"

Another silence fell over them.

"Tell her that we are about to graduate, and we will get back to her after that's over," Kayla suggested. That seemed fair, so that was their choice.

"Do I call her now?" Maya frowned. "It's Sunday evening, I don't know if she'll be…"

There was a knock at the door and four of them startled and jumped. Kayla looked at all of them until Maya explained that there was a knock.

"Are you all in there? What's going on?" Sophie…

"Band talk, be right out!" Rosa called at her.

"Okay, just that I'd hurry back if I were you. There's cake, and it's going fast." Her voice was growing fainter, like she was walking away, back toward the stairs.

"We're not going to figure this out today, are we?" Riley guessed.

"No," Maya agreed. "So let's just go back down there. I'd feel rude to miss my boyfriend's birthday party."

Though they all went back, it was clear, looking at each of them, that they were thinking about what Maya had told them before. How could they not?

"You tired?" Lucas asked, as they were dancing. She looked at him. "So am I," he admitted. "If it wasn't that they're all here for me, I'd go and get a nap or something. We did just get off a flight not too long ago."

"If that's what you want," Maya nodded understandingly. Lucas looked around, looked at all these friends of theirs who'd shown up. Soon, they'd be split, when some of them moved back to Austin again.

"Not just yet," Lucas finally declared, and Maya smiled.

"So, on a scale of one to ten, how good was this birthday?"

"Twenty-four," he declared, smiling.

"I knew you'd say that," she laughed

She wasn't looking forward to keeping this bit of news from him, even if it was just for a few days. She didn't like keeping anything from him, and she knew he felt the same way in reverse. It would affect him, too, if she chose to go through with this, she knew… But one way or the other, it still very much felt that, before she brought him into this, she needed to know that there was anything to bring him into, and there would be no telling for that until the rest of the band made its choice.

You need to make a choice, too, remember?

Every time she tried to ask herself what she wanted to do, it was like she was made to face the fact once again that she just… she didn't know. Wouldn't she be happy either way? As a teacher or as a singer? And whether she did or didn't say yes, she would still have her music, wouldn't she? She'd have…

"Hey…" She blinked, looking up, realizing she'd been off somewhere else.

"Sorry, I just…" she told Lucas.

"You're just tired, I know," he told her, leaning to kiss the top of her head. "Come on, you want to get out of here?" He smiled, and she was a goner.

"Sneaking out of your own birthday party… Look at you…"

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners