March 21st 2020
Chapter 81
Their Music to Train
The gig for Lucas' classmates was three days after the end of their semester. The day before that though, the girls from TXNY had a whole other kind of gig…
"There's a lot of them today," Riley commented, as the five of them walked into the theater.
"We've been at capacity for a few weeks now," Maya couldn't help but smile as she reported this. "I've been thinking we might need to hire on a few other mentors, that way we can allow more registrations per session. Either that or adding another session to the schedule."
There were plenty of Stage Ready regulars by now. They would be weekly attendees, some of them hitting two or all three of the weekly sessions. They had who were not exactly regular, but still came more than once. There were the one-and-dones, whether they just needed the one session for a specific reason, or because they hadn't liked the experience. It had worried Maya, the first time that had happened, but she'd quickly been reassured by Siobhan, and her mother, and any number of people, who pointed out how those people, more often than not, were just entirely more self-assured of their talent than they were aware of just how much or how little of it they had.
Maya could always spot the first-timers. This almost went without saying, seeing as she did handle registrations, and how the repeaters would usually greet her with a smile and a wave. More often than not though, she would always find them on a single sweep of the room. They'd be the ones looking sort of nervous and uncertain, or keeping to themselves… They had three first-timers that day, and she found them immediately.
"Be right back," she told her bandmates before moving to greet her newbies.
They would have these sessions where the rest of the band would be there with her, like guest mentors. They may not have had specific qualifications for training others, but then they had experience in them now, years of performing on stage, of following this little passion they had cultivated all this time. Just that morning, Lucas had hit her with a realization that still sort of blew her mind. They'd been in the bathroom, brushing their teeth, when he'd turned to her and stated…
"You know it'll be ten years next summer, the band?"
She'd nearly choked on the tooth paste. He was right. They had started it all, the summer before 9th grade, at the Babineaux party. She'd been in this band since she was fifteen years old and now…
Maya shared this little fact with her bandmates, and the effect had been very similar with them as well, especially for those who would be celebrating their tenth anniversary the following summer, too. And then the others… they would be closing their fifth years by the coming fall, wouldn't they?
"Okay, but come on, world tour," Rosa had reiterated, tugging at Maya's arm.
"I would love to, but see there's this little thing happening next summer, sort of getting married…" Maya pointed out with a laughing sigh.
"What's more romantic than a destination wedding!" Rosa threw her hand up. Maya stared at her, not believing for a second that Rosa of all people would play the romance card, when she would sooner write the whole concept off. "What, I shelved a lot of bridal magazines in my day, I can be curious."
"Lucas and I already know where we're getting married, and it's going to be right here in Austin, Texas," Maya reminded her.
"Honeymoon then?"
"Yeah, you're not invited to that one, sorry. But we will do something special for the 10th, don't worry. We have a whole year to figure out what that'll be!"
The anniversary plans would have to wait, as they were now set to integrate themselves into the Stage Ready session that was about to begin. Maya could already tell that some of their regulars and semi-regulars, and even one of their newbies, had shown up on this particular day because they knew the band would be there. If she wasn't sure before, then it would become clear by the time the five of them climbed up on stage for the welcome/intro talk. The newbie in question, Maya knew, had come especially because of Kayla, as she was deaf like her. As for regulars, well…
"Maya!" a familiar voice called out, as soon as the intro was through and everyone started to move off to where they needed to be. Out from the mass of attendees came forth Lucas' ten-year-old cousin, Lea Sullivan-Reyes, daughter to his mother's brother and his husband. It hadn't taken long for her to convince her fathers to sign her up for Stage Ready once she'd heard about it. She had been ready to sacrifice her allowance and pay for it herself, whether or not that would actually cover the fee, but Maya had told her that she'd give her the 'family discount.' Truthfully, Lucas had taken it upon himself to foot the bill for his cousin, as an investment toward her acting dreams.
"Yes, Lea," Maya waited for the girl to get to her.
"Can I go first, please? I worked all week on my monologue and I can't stay the whole time, I'm supposed to go with Dad to get the cake for Papa's birthday."
"Uh…" Maya looked around. "I think you might have to settle on being second, is that cool?"
"Fine, I guess," the girl sighed anxiously.
"Hey, hey, come on," Maya lightly tapped the top of Lea's head. "Being first isn't all that great, not all the time. Sometimes it's kind of better to let someone else have the first piece… Usually comes out all broken like a pie," she pointed out, getting a smile out of Lucas' young cousin.
"Alright, but I'm really second?"
"I swear it, and may a plague fall on my head if I'm lying," she dramatically drew a cross over her heart and offered her hand to shake.
"Okay," Lea giggled and shook her hand.
Maya always made it a point to attend as many of the sessions as she could. She didn't have to be there every single time, leading the whole thing. They had a good, solid team, who would see their students through whatever needs may have brought them to Stage Ready. But Maya really wanted so show up, to take part, and so she did. Over time, since that first day, she had really gotten to love it more and more. She would take it all in at times and it would send her heart skipping and leaping to think that she had made all this happen, that it had been her idea that started everything.
Now with the camp coming up, it would be five days a week of this, five days a week with kids just like Lea, and now that… She might have been looking forward to that most of all. She wouldn't necessarily be here on all those weekdays either, especially when this mini tour of theirs would go and kick off, but she would absolutely be here as often as she could.
As promised, Lea had gone up second, with the rest of those who'd come to work on their acting and their stage presence. At ten years old, she might not have been up there with the all-time greats, but her potential was right there, and it rang true enough that you would look at her and you'd know that, if she kept going the way she went now, she really would become a famous name someday in the near or further future.
"That was amazing, kid!" Maya held up her hand when Lea came bounding back over to her. The girl high fived her after nearly hopping to get at that offered hand.
"You think so?"
"I think and I know so," Maya promised.
"I almost got the crying down, but it's hard."
"Yeah, well, just make sure you tell your dad that's what that is," Maya indicated her face before pointing out the figure of Michael Sullivan, standing midway up the auditorium aisle. "He definitely cried," Maya revealed in a whisper. Lea beamed, quickly hugging her goodbye before dashing to find her father and ask him what he thought of her performance.
The session went off the way Maya always hoped the sessions would go. There was not a single problem, no divas… A few of their people had themselves a moment of revelation, which were always the best thing to see, and when those moments would come it would be hard to see anything top them as most memorable for the day.
"I just need to wrap up here, I'll meet you guys at Chubbie's?" Maya told her bandmates when the session was over and everyone was starting to leave.
"Are you sure? We can wait for you," Nadine insisted, only to have Rosa clear her throat at her, giving a pointed look Maya could recognize just as well, for having lived with the girl for a while. That was one big 'I am starving, please can we go eat now?' stare.
"Please, go feed the little one," Maya smirked.
"Oh, look who's lording that one taller inch over me now," Rosa 'accused,' as Kayla directed her up toward the exit, while Nadine and Riley waved back at Maya.
"I'm ordering you a milkshake in twenty minutes," Riley informed her.
"And this is why you'll always be my favorite," Maya grinned.
After the four of them had left, she'd gone back up to her office, grabbing a few things before tracking down her team, to ask after how the session had gone for them, if anything came up out of the ordinary, or needing her attention. She would get to have a look at their notes later on, but she generally wanted to get their first impressions right on the day.
Maya: About to leave the theater, band and I are heading to Chubbie's.
Lucas: Done in thirty, meet you there.
Passing through the auditorium again on her way out, Maya could see someone standing in the lobby, a woman typing at her phone. From a distance, she gave off an impression somewhere between business woman and artist, though that last part might have had to do with her hairstyle and the tattoos along her arm, clashing and yet complimenting her sleeveless dress and heels.
"Hi, can I help you?" Maya asked, once she passed from the auditorium and into the lobby. Now that she thought about it – and she really didn't see how she could have forgotten the woman once she'd seen her once – she recalled seeing her in the audience for about half the session that day. She'd figured maybe she was there to pick up one of the students, or she was sort of auditing… They got some of those sometimes, and at least half had ended up joining as actual students in the end.
"In a way, I suppose you could, although I really see this as going the other way around," the woman declared, and Maya paused. She knew that voice from somewhere, but she couldn't pin it down.
"You want to help me?" she asked, blinking.
"At the risk of coming off as persistent, yes, I would, very much," the woman tipped her head, and something in her tone helped Maya piece it together. She did know that voice. She'd never met the face that went with it, but she'd spoken to her, a couple of times. Audra. Malcolm the music store guy's cousin. Malcolm's cousin who had offered TXNY a record deal, about a year before. She smiled now, like she could tell Maya had figured out who she was. "I was hoping you and I could talk, discuss a few things?"
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
