December 19th 2019

Chapter 353
Their Cheers For Ceremony

The vast majority of the household woke up on graduation day with a pounding headache. They had not planned to end up at a party the night before, but then word had reached them of this party's existence, and out of some wish to just make the most of the end of their college experience… Right about now, they were faced with those consequences, and maybe later they would laugh it off, joking that that was part of the experience, too, but until then…

"Please don't let go of me until I make sure the world isn't spinning?" Maya mumbled, holding to Lucas as he had his own arms around her.

"Something hurts, and I can't tell what… How does that happen?" he asked, in much the same tone.

"Your head, is it your head? Mine's there, too…"

"No… Well, yeah, but also like…" he lifted his hand, like he would start pointing at parts of himself and it would finally tell him where exactly…

"What's that?" she pointed to his inner arm. Below his elbow sat the tattooed birds, but now above that bend…

"What's that?" he echoed, getting a hold of her pointing hand. There were her birds, on her arm, but just lower, inside her wrist…

"Oh… Oh, I'm getting a weird flashback right now…" she breathed, as they took in the clear coverings over what were some very real and very fresh new tattoos, identical again. "I need to…" she moved to rise, regretting every movement that meant she wasn't lying down as she moved out into the hall and met three closed doors. "Hey, anyone awake?" she asked, not so loud, because loud was bad right now. A moment later, Rosa's door opened.

"Hey!" she grinned, way too upbeat and, again, so loud…

"So, you were sober last night, help me out here?" Maya raised her hand to show her wrist. Rosa nodded, holding out her own arm, where there was a third identical tattoo. "And we all got those, yeah?"

"The seven of us, yeah," Rosa told her.

"It was your idea…" Maya vaguely remembered now.

"Started out that way…" Rosa gave that slow nod of 'come on, figure it out.'

"Yeah…" Maya hummed, recalling. A girl at the party had seen Maya's birds, and Rosa had said how Maya and her boyfriend had the same one. She'd gone on to state that she wished they'd have something like that someday, and then Maya… She'd instantly – drunkenly – declared 'let's do it!' From there, she was unstoppable, a servant to her imagination's evil twin. The idea had come together, and she'd gotten a hold of each of the seven of them, putting forth the idea: They were all about to split off, and it was the perfect moment to go and get matching tattoos. Some of them had been unsure at first, but one by one they had felt the excitement rise in them, and finally they had bailed on the party. They had Rosa and Sophie to drive them in the two cars, their designated drivers, and then there they were…

"It's a clock…" Maya finally looked down at her wrist.

"Big hand on the twelve, little hand on the two," Rosa smiled. "That was your idea," she looked past Maya, to Lucas, who'd finally come to join them. "Clocking two!" she intoned, not so loud as they normally would, when they'd use the call to announce 'family's coming, we gotta clean!' and they would all band together to get things done. "Plus, all those drives back and forth…" Now that the shock had worn off, they had to admit, that was kind of the best thing they could have come up with to represent that time they shared. "Oh, best part, right here, see?" she pointed to her own wrist.

Where one might find a brand name, there were the letters LMSCDRR finely traced. According to Rosa, it had taken them a while to decide on the sequence of initials, but they'd been satisfied in the end. Whatever came next, they'd always remember their years in Houston.

Little by little, the rest of the house woke up, giving way to a few more instances of hungover surprises as the tattoos would be rediscovered. But then they realized what time it was, and they were all left to scramble, as much as possible, to go and start getting ready for graduation. Four of them were to walk the stage that day – Lucas, Maya, Riley, and Chiara – but that didn't mean that the others, who were either done, halfway through, or had never gone to college to begin with - Sophie, Rosa, and Dylan – didn't have to rush, too.

The doorbell rang, twenty minutes later. Sophie and Rosa were seeing to the preparation of breakfast, and the others were either in the shower or done showering and now getting dressed. When they heard that bell though, they all sort of stalled. That couldn't be their families, could it? They'd already said they would all meet at the university…

They heard a squeal from downstairs though, which told them it wasn't going to be anyone's parent, no, but it could be…

Maya came barrelling down the stairs – much as was possible – halfway done with her makeup, and found that her guess had been correct. She went the rest of the way and threw her arms around Nadine, who hugged her back at once, just as excitedly.

"You're getting married in two days, it's about time you showed up," Maya laughed even as she cried.

"And you're graduating in a couple hours, you're going to have to start that over," Nadine indicated her face with a chuckle.

"Oh, yeah," Maya reached up to her eyes.

"I'll help you fix that, then you can tell me all about this," Nadine took up her hand, peering at the new tattoo.

"First things first," Maya moved to pull Zay into a hug, too.

"I was going to say…" he smiled, just before Maya caught up that smile in her hands.

"Isaiah Babineaux, I have missed you."

"Well, that won't last long, we're all going to be Austinites together again once you move back, too." This made her very happy to hear, much as she knew, of course. The whole reason they were getting back to Texas just two days before the wedding was that, along with finals, and more graduating, they had to pack up and ship everything out from Boston. But they were here now, and they had a house waiting for them, though they would not move into it until after the wedding and honeymoon.

No one would know the frenzy which had ruled over the house as they all got ready, seeing them stroll out of their cars and toward the area where graduates and their families already waited. Gowns were being pulled on as they walked, hair was fixed, and – maybe more importantly – they had consumed breakfast, a solid amount of coffee, and they had seen to combatting their hangovers… They were good to go.

"I really like this look on you," Maya turned to Lucas as he'd finished putting his gown on straight. He laughed, taking her hand. "I do, okay?" she laughed back. "Makes you look like a judge or something."

"And that's something you're into?"

"Starting to…"

Their world was descending upon Houston today. The Tucson Harts, all of them, the Hillards and the Cassidys, the Hunter Harts and the Friars… This was their big day, and there was no doubt, not for a second, that they had people out there who wanted to express their love and their pride. As soon as they spotted their families off in the distance, they knew it wouldn't be long that they'd be spotted back. And once that happened, they'd be pulled off in opposite directions.

"Oh, here it comes…" Maya smiled when she saw Nellie and Gracie detach from the group and start running toward them. Not far behind, Maggie Hillard saw them take off and she grabbed hold of her brother Henry's hand so he'd follow and she wouldn't get in trouble for wandering away from her parents. "Catch you later?" Maya asked, squeezing Lucas' hand. He brought hers to his lips and kissed it.

"Bet you will," he promised. "Look out," he nodded ahead of them, releasing her hand in time that she could crouch and receive her sisters into her arms.

"Hey, you two look so cute, wow, yeah, tight, tight, tight," she laughed, getting the air squeezed right out of her with those hugs and loving every second of it.

"Look, we get to wear our necklaces today!" Nellie announced with a smile as they pulled back. She held up the fine chain with the small heart-shaped locket, a looped P on the front for Penelope. Gracie did the same, showing hers, with the G on the front.

"I see that, yeah! I got mine, too, see?" she pulled it from inside her gown.

"There's lots of people," Gracie whispered, looking around. "Are we sitting close?" Katy had told Maya how the girls and MJ had needed to be told how they wouldn't be sitting with their big sister. It had not gone well.

"Uh, I don't know exactly," Maya admitted. "But, look, this is my hat I'm going to wear," she showed her cap. Of course, she wasn't going to pass up giving it a bit of a makeover, none of them would. She'd thought long and hard about what she wanted to put on hers, and all she could think was 'The diploma is going to show my work, now I want to show I didn't get there alone.' She had made sure not to forget a single one, practicing on paper before she went to work in tracing all those names, no one bigger, no one smaller, just her family and her friends, all of them, mentors and inspirations… It was colorful, and thanks to sparkles, it was shining in the May sun.

"There's my name!" Nellie pointed when she found it.

"You look for this, and if you can't see it, you tell Mom or Dad to write to me, we'll find a way for you to know exactly where I am. Deal?"

While Maya carried on with her siblings, her parents, and all the Harts, Lucas had found his way to his parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins… He was led there by the youngest Hillards. Maggie looked like all she'd needed to hear was that they were going to some special ceremony and she'd translated this to 'I'm going to look like a princess.' Henry, for his part, was proudly showing off his new Star Wars watch, a gift from his cousin, to compensate for the fact that he couldn't wear his 'Yoodie' now that summer was coming up fast.

"There he is," Pappy Joe managed to get to him before his mother had a chance to squeeze the life out of him. Lucas smiled as his grandfather gave him a quick hug.

"Last time I graduated, you gave me a house, what's it going to be this time?" he teased, making his grandfather laugh loudly.

"You just wait and see," Pappy Joe gave him a tip of the head. "I'm going to get out of the way now, I just wanted to say congratulations real quick." As soon as he had stepped aside, Hurricane Mel came sweeping in. She looked like she'd had herself some emotional outbursts already, to see her boy graduating from college, even if it was just the halfway point.

"You look just like your daddy did when he got to walk up there…" she told him, picking at his gown to ensure it was on straight before checking his hair.

"Mom, please," he laughed, stalling her hands. She let out a breath and nodded. He was not even worried, when he'd walk that stage, he'd definitely be able to find her, cheering loud.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners