A/N: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available!

May 6th 2021

Chapter 126
Our Surprises For Auditions

Maya had become very tuned to the fact that time moved fast, faster than she cared for it to go, but sometimes especially it would seem impossible for so much to happen in so little time. That was how she felt on Friday morning, as she contemplated what was ahead of her. It really wasn't that long ago that this day had only been meant to be… a regular day, same as ever. Go to school, collect the diaries throughout the day, go pick up the Russell kids' diaries and check on them, then come home and enjoy the start of the weekend with her husband, their daughter, her sister, and their grandmother. And instead, now, today was both comic day with Sam and audition day for the musical, which had not even been a thing up until so recently. Miranda wanted to get things started, and they were right by her on that.

"Hey! Are we dropping you off on the way?" Maya beamed when she saw Dora arrive along with Sam. They were supposed to head into school together, the better to get things set up in class ahead of the first group's arrival.

"No, actually, my one class today was cancelled," Dora revealed with a smile, looking to Sam even as he was looking at her. They both had this sort of buoyant trace of a smile about them.

"So, I got the idea that it could be nice if she got to sit in today while I'm in your class, is that okay?" Sam asked his sister.

"Sure, absolutely," Maya replied at once.

"And I know you're having auditions today, for your school's musical. Can I be there for those, too?" Dora asked.

"I don't see why not," she smiled.

"You know, I would be happy to pitch in with the set building, whatever you need," Dora added, sounding very much like her mother, Dot, who had taken her down the path of wood carving from so long ago. Now, while Dora had gone for her degree – in English and Irish Literature – she'd also developed and honed her skills, that she might join the family business in earnest.

"Yeah, same here," Sam joined in on the offer.

"That would be great, yeah, now what's going on here," Maya gestured from her brother to his girlfriend, refusing to let this drag on any longer. Their faces were showing very plainly that their minds were in a whole other conversation than the one their voices were putting forth. Upon being 'busted,' the young couple just smiled even more, and it gave Maya a hint. "Wait…" she blinked, straightening up. "Did you…" she asked her brother, who had about zero chance to keep a straight face against her.

"Last night," he finally tipped his head in a nod. Maya pivoted to Dora, whose own glowing face was all the answer she needed. He had not waited until the summer and a trip – which would not be happening anymore anyway – to pop his question, and she didn't need days to come up with her answer. Just like that, Maya's little brother was getting married, and much sooner than anticipated.

"We want to do it at Christmas," Dora revealed, even as she was being hugged by her excited future sister-in-law.

"Then that's what you'll do," Maya vowed as she worked to control her tears before she ended up needing a touch up on her face. She would help make sure they had the wedding they wanted, mark her word. "What about your parents, what's going on with that?" she asked them both.

"Well, we would have liked to tell them all at the same time, but it'd be hard to find a reason to bring them all together in the same city without giving ourselves away," Sam explained. "So, we'll just do them one at a time. We're going to Tucson next week, so we'll tell them then."

"And we're going to dinner with mine next Friday, so that's when we'll tell them," Dora followed. They both looked so nervous at the prospect, just in that way where they were both clearly so happy with their news and they just hoped the sentiment would be shared by their loved ones, future grandparents and aunts and uncles all.

"What about the ones who live in this house?" Maya had to ask. Neither Cara nor Granny Lizzie had any idea, not about the wedding or the baby.

"Well…" Sam turned to Dora; it was her choice. She nodded, and Sam looked back to his sister. "Can we join you guys for dinner tonight?"

Suddenly, the day felt even more important, loaded with whole new memories. Comics day, audition day, engagement day… The ride to school was spent the way Maya would have expected it to be spent, once she knew she'd be traveling with her brother and his fiancée, the recently expecting and engaged. So few people knew about any of this beyond them – only Lucas, and only the baby part – that they couldn't pass up this moment where they were free to speak openly. The ride went by in a flash, thanks to the outpouring of questions.

To no one's surprise, Sam had been reading up, though it was only brushing up at this point, so that he might go through it all with Dora. He still remembered from when he'd done some reading at the start of his big sister's pregnancy. He'd actually tried reading some things, years back, when Wyatt was going to be born, but he'd been nine and it had been… awkward. Now it was so different, it was his child growing, and he would do everything to see it come along as it should. They were also throwing around ideas for the wedding, and it sounded to Maya like they'd already discussed a lot of it before, either last night after the proposal or this morning before showing up at the Friar house.

"Word of advice, pull it together with your faces," Maya told the pair of them as they walked into the school. "Unless you want everyone to know just by looking at you."

They managed to get their game faces on, and the three of them went about preparing the classroom ahead of the first group of students, the seniors. If anyone had trouble behaving, it was Maya herself, who could not help but have a great big proud smile on her face as she'd introduce her brother to the class. Some of them had met him before, naturally, and they would chuckle at seeing how he'd try not to roll his eyes, even as he smiled, too.

"This was great!" Phoebe came up to tell them at the end of the class. "Wait until Taylor shows up, he's going to love it." Maya could have told her, how her little brother was the whole reason why she'd done this in the first place, but she preferred to play it this way, to let it be this small bit of unexpected happiness.

After two out of four sessions, Maya was further convinced to the fact that Sam would make a great teacher. It helped that he was even more knowledgeable on the subject than she'd realized, and he was able to answer questions and explain things with great and truly informative detail. She particularly liked watching Dora as she watched him, saw how contented she was. And then she also found Dylan, absently standing in the doorway, listening in as Sam spoke, near the end of the sophomore class. As the period let out, he came in, expressing his wish that he'd be able to sit in on the whole period.

"What's up?" Maya asked him, guessing he hadn't shown up just to eavesdrop.

"Uh… Oh!" he remembered, snapping his fingers as he did. "One of my juniors got clocked by a dodgeball earlier."

"Ouch," Maya cringed with sympathy. "Are they okay?" she asked, not seeing what it had to do with her.

"I went back to check on her, she's with the nurse. But she has a bit of a… black eye situation," Dylan gestured to his face. "Nose stopped bleeding, so that's good," he nodded, showing how he felt bad for the girl, even if he hadn't been responsible for it. Maybe seeing how she had no idea why he was saying any of this, Dylan continued. "She has her audition over lunch today, for the musical. She wants to know if she can switch to the end of day slots, so she has time to recover her wits."

"Oh! Oh, sure, yeah," she gestured for him to follow her to her desk, where she grabbed her notebook, everything to do with the musical. She had the list here, hadn't even really had the time to look at it as she'd found it waiting in her inbox this morning. "Name?"

"Deanna Frazier," Dylan provided, as Maya scanned the list. Some of the names were familiar, for being in her classes, others less so. This one was not one of her students, but she was sure she'd heard of a Deanna out of some of her juniors, when they were free to talk as they worked.

"Right, okay," she nodded, finding the name on her list for the lunch break auditions. "Maybe I can get someone to swap from the afternoon session," she let her index drag over to the second column.

She saw a number of students listed on either side, which made her smile. Some were surprising, others not. Of course, Lea had signed up. She was the very first person to write their name on the sheet up on the bulletin board. Kai had signed up, and it felt somewhere between surprise and expectation. Sometimes, when they could speak in class, he would quietly sing under his breath. It was mostly to make Missy laugh, which it did, but he did have a good voice, from what Maya had heard of it. More surprising was Lambert Day's name showing up. She might have expected Roman instead, but she was curious to see what the freshman would have to offer.

Most surprising of all… Stella Buckley. If she had to pin 'most unlikely' on any one of her kids…

"I'll take care of everything," she told Dylan, who had wandered over to scan some of the displays Sam had put up along the board. "Hey, Orlando," she clicked her fingers, and he spun around, giving her those eyes that she'd known since they were in middle school. He was nearly thirty and to her he would always be that boy… "It's handled. I'll tell Deanna she's clear for this afternoon."

She found the girl, at the nurse's office, lying down on one of the two beds with an ice pack. She might never have known the name to put to the face before, but she had seen her in the hallways enough times to recognize her as a student at this school. Right now, of course, her face was not exactly in its regular state, and no one looked more disturbed at this fact than the junior herself. They had never spoken, Maya knew her only by face, but Deanna Frazier absolutely recognized her by face and name both.

"If you're good to sing this afternoon, you're welcome to it. If you'd prefer to wait, I can see if Miss Stewart and Mrs. Ortiz are available to come in and hear you over the weekend, maybe Monday morning. Under the circumstances…"

"Thanks, but I can do it," Deanna informed her with a confident look that was only mildly off center due to her eye and nose. "Wouldn't be fair to everyone else."

"Or to you either," Maya countered. "Look, I get it, alright?" Deanna wouldn't nod, likely for pain, but her gaze said that, yes, she saw how Maya would understand. "It's not like you bailed, you had… an unfortunate encounter," she gestured to the girl's face as she approached and winced with sympathy. It made Deanna laugh, which in turn made her seize up. "There, see? You need your face to work with you. Take the weekend. We'll see you on Monday." Going by the relief that flooded the bruised face, she could guess it had meant so much to her to get this chance, that she would have fought for it regardless, but now that she was restored to giving a proper performance… She wouldn't fight her on the rescheduling anymore.

The first session of auditions, minus one candidate, went by about the way she would have imagined. Some students gave performances worthy of immediate casting, though of course consideration would have to be given as to who got which part. Others were surprises, at least to those who'd never heard them sing. There were those who were just not ready, or downright too far off-key to be let in, without any need of consideration. Maya could see Miranda observe them, and she recognized that glint in her eye. If there was any progress to be gained, any at all, she would see to it that they reached it. Maya herself would do no less.

Switching back to teacher mode after this was aided by the presence of Sam and Dora, and also by the fact that they were about to receive the freshman group, including Taylor Munroe. When the boy walked in and saw what they would be doing that day, oh… No amount of casual, cool teenage boy posturing could have kept him from looking thrilled. His attention was on her and Sam throughout the whole period, he took notes, he asked questions… When the bell rang, he kind of looked disappointed that it was already over. Maya now had a whole new track to take him on with his diary, this year, next year… By the time he'd graduate from here, who knew where he'd be?

Sitting in the auditorium once again, after last period, Maya couldn't help but look around for Stella. She hadn't seen her all day, not since first period, though she'd kept an eye out for her since she'd seen the list. So far, she wasn't around. Had she bailed? There was Phoebe, sitting in one of the back rows, and she wasn't auditioning, so… She caught her eye, made a gesture that could only be 'where is she?' Phoebe held up her phone and shrugged. She was supposed to be there, but she wasn't, and Phoebe was trying to reach her. Every other student got to have his or her turn, including Lambert Day, who displayed a surprising low tone. They were about to pack it in, figuring Stella wouldn't show, but then they heard a whistle and turned. Phoebe was telling them to wait. Here she was.

"You okay?" Maya asked, wondering if nerves may have banished her shy bird to the bathroom. Stella nodded. "Are you sure about this?" Another nod.

"One more challenge," Stella quietly explained. As much progress as she'd done over three years and some, some things didn't leave. Maya gave her very best encouraging smile.

"Go on then, get up there. We're right here with you."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners