April 10th 2020

Chapter 101
Their Sounds of Play

"That was… wow…" Lucas breathed out with a smile, as Maya's hand brought the guitar strings to a still. She had just finished playing her new song for him, the first person to hear it since she'd started to work on it a few days before.

She had been… well, maybe not nervous exactly, but… She had wanted so much for this one to be good but there had been the tiniest bit of apprehension over what she would come up with. Somehow, after the success she'd had with Ree's song, and then how well the Violets' song was progressing along the charts, too… it just left her in this place like she was bracing herself for the one that would flop. She really didn't want that, one way or another, but she especially didn't want it to be the case now, for her first new song for the band since she'd started with the label, which would just make it seem as though she was phoning it in for TXNY and keeping 'the good stuff' for the success and the money.

"Swear it?"

"On Archer's head," Lucas nodded, which made her laugh.

"Alright, I get the picture."

"It was beautiful," he went on either way, in all earnestness. Maya smiled at this, leaning over her instrument to kiss him. "Are you doing it for the show?"

"That's the plan, yeah," she tipped her head. "Once the others get here we'll start working on it together, and we'll go on from there. I kind of want to play it for Ramona before that though. It's not like I wrote about her, but she did sort of inspire me into writing it, so I just want to make sure she'll be okay with it, I guess."

"She should be back any minute now, I can send her down here when she comes back from the Sandersons'," Lucas offered.

"Good, I'll be here."

Though she was still riding the couch upstairs, Ramona would be returning to the apartment in a few more days. Robbie was in the process of moving out to Houston, and until he was gone she would remain with them. They would help Ramona move things around once that was over, possibly do a bit of redecorating, to help her make the place feel like less of a constant reminder. Maya had told Lucas of her plans to help Ramona keep up with the costs of the apartment until she was ready for a new roommate, and even though she'd never seen him reacting in any way like he didn't agree, she still felt a bit of relief to find he was on board, every step of the way.

She played the song for Ramona, once she'd returned from the farm. She'd been going up there in the morning along with Lucas, and Missy Sanderson had really gotten to like having her around, too.

"I won't play it if you don't want…" Maya shook her head as she finished the song and found Ramona looked just on the edge of weeping.

"No, it's okay," Ramona quickly insisted. "This is nothing," she indicated her face. "A lot of things set me off these days. I don't mind letting it out if it means it's gone after. The song is amazing, you have to do it." Maya stopped herself from asking if she was sure. Her face said it all.

"Okay," she smiled. "You want to stick around for practice?"

"Alright, yeah," Ramona smiled back.

They didn't have long to wait for practice to start. Nadine had gone and picked up the others on her way over, so they landed at the house all at once. Upon finding Ramona there, too, they had all gone about asking her how she was doing, like a band of big sisters, swooping in to shelter a little one in distress. They all had their own ways of responding, but on the whole it was all about wanting Ramona to be able to move on from this moment in time. Without a doubt, if Robbie had deserved it they would have stood like a defensive wall in between, but it really wasn't that way. In the long run, the couple might have a shot at salvaging a friendship, but this time wasn't here yet.

"Can we hear it now?" Rosa turned to Maya out of nowhere, leaving her blinking back in surprise. She hadn't even mentioned there being a new song, just in case she changed her mind about using it, or if Ramona didn't want her doing it. "You have a tell, you know that?" Rosa pointed out.

"Since when?" Maya asked, her posture shifting.

"Oh, please," Nadine chuckled. Maya looked at her, then over to Riley, who took just a second too long to look away and pretend like she had no idea. Clicking fingers made her turn her head back to Kayla.

"I caught it before they did," she signed her 'confession.' "I didn't mean to tell them," she went on, playing innocence and failing, possibly on purpose.

"So I have a 'new song' face, is that what you're saying?" Maya asked the group, who all nodded, one after the other. "Alright, fine," she sighed, all the while playing the last couple minutes back through her head, like she could figure out what this 'tell' was, the better to stop it from coming up again the next time.

Taking up her guitar once again, Maya played the song for the third time that day and not the last time, once they went about turning it from a solo to a group effort. All teasing aside, once she'd started singing along, her bandmates were paying attention, taking it all in as each of them would. They were already working out possibilities as to how they'd expand the track with their instruments, their voices… Once she'd reached the end, it wasn't long that they were all standing/sitting behind or holding their instruments and having her start over, one by one weaving their own sounds along. The song didn't take long to start sounding more… real, more substantial. As much as she enjoyed the actual composition part, Maya definitely loved this part most of all.

After they had gotten it to a point where they weren't adjusting anymore so much as just playing it through, Maya didn't have to wonder anymore whether or not they would be performing this one at the club. It was ready, it needed to be heard.

"I remember when you guys were starting out," Ramona spoke up, from where she'd been quietly looking on and listening on the couch in the corner. They turned to look at her. "My best friend at the time, she'd gone on to your high school, she heard about you and she sent me videos you'd posted." She'd ended up in private school herself, after they'd gotten out of the eighth grade, actually the same school Cecilia currently attended, which had led to her falling out of their close circles. "It's hard to believe it's actually been that long."

"Yeah, no kidding," Riley agreed.

"Ten years this summer," Nadine smiled.

"And a tour…" Rosa chimed in as usual, which got her a look from Maya. "After the wedding," Rosa promised. "And the honeymoon," she added with a shrug.

"Things have a way of changing out of nowhere. It might not be a good idea to make plans like that so far ahead," Kayla pointed out. "Look at last summer."

"I know you want this, and so do we," Nadine added, looking to Rosa. "But that's just how it is a lot of the time, isn't it? It's never the way you want it to be." Maya frowned, unsure why it felt to her like the statement was odd, maybe just the way she'd said it, like 'believe me, I know what I'm talking about' had been right there underneath.

"Plans get tricky, I get that," Rosa admitted, drawing her attention away from Nadine's words. "But it's like we haven't done half as much as we used to before we left Houston," she pointed out with some frustration. "I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, I just… I kind of came out here for this, didn't I?"

"No, you're right," Maya breathed out, reaching over to squeeze her bandmate's hand. "I'm sorry, I guess it's just been difficult to find balance out here. It was easier when we all either lived together, went to school together…"

"I've missed it, too," Riley admitted. Kayla raised her hand in adding her own agreement to this.

Looking around at the four of them, Maya felt it, too. Yes, they had done some things together, some shows here and there, but on the whole… The last year had been hectic in a lot of ways, and what it really came down to was that the band had been left to suffer for it. Right now they were preparing for a new gig and it was like all of them had perked up at once. They'd craved this next moment to get together, to make music.

"I was so worried that I'd end up leaving you guys behind with everything else I've been doing," Maya let out a sigh. "Turns out, I was already doing it."

"We all were," Nadine told her, nudging her foot with her own.

"We can fix it now, right?" Kayla asked, looking around the group.

"Yeah, we can!" Riley nodded firmly, then paused. "Can't we?"

"We've got this show coming up… Let's call it our great reawakening," Maya declared, standing up. "It's not a comeback, we never went anywhere. We were just sort of… asleep on the job." Rosa practically leapt back on to her feet. Of course she was in. Maya grinned, pulling her in a teetering hug. "We are going to have that tour, one way or another," she told her fellow shorty, who fully approved of this. After that, it would have required a photo finish to know who of Nadine, Riley, and Kayla had gotten up first, as the three of them sprang up to join in on this call to awakening.

"We can do a compilation, too," Nadine suggested. "Pick one song from each year, like a timeline."

"Put it on our page, people can decide which ones they want, like a bracket or something," Riley added, and Nadine nodded in agreement.

"Maybe the website could use a new look," Kayla added. "It's been a while since we changed it."

"Uh… I could help with that?" They turned to find Ramona had her hand half-raised. They hadn't exactly forgotten that she was there, but with this sort of call to arms it had been the five bandmates in a circle, and then there was their friend, their audience… "I picked up a lot of tricks when I helped my mother with her shop's page, and I… well… I could use a project," she admitted shyly. Maya and Rosa both lifted out their arms to open the circle, no need to think about it.

"Welcome aboard," Maya grinned, reaching out to pull her temporary lodger to join them.

After the rest of the band had gone off again, and the household left behind had started on toward heading to bed later in the evening, Maya had gone to say goodnight to Ramona. She was in the process of making up her 'bed,' as she did every night and undid every morning.

"I'm sure you're not going to miss doing this every day," Maya commented. Ramona smiled.

"I really don't mind. Besides…" she paused, breathing out. "I don't know what I was going to say. Sometimes all I can think about is that Robbie and I were barely married a year, and I know what people must be thinking. But we were together for much longer than that, and that's kind of the part that makes it worse, and why I can't go back to the apartment yet." Maya nodded. She understood that, as much as she could, in her position. "I can't wait to get started on the site," Ramona added after a moment, a smile returning to her face. It echoed on to Maya's face, too, this solidarity.

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners