May 7th 2021

Chapter 127
Our Wonders For Challenge

The morning the cast list went up, Maya wished she could have been right there at the bulletin board to see everyone's reactions. Sure, not everyone who had auditioned had made it, and some of those kids would meet the list with disappointment, but then the others… Possibly some of them who had made it would be a bit disappointed, too, if they didn't get the roles that they had been going after, but the fact that they were in the musical would have to count for something, wouldn't it? The ones she wished to see the most were those she knew would be most pleased, probably.

It might have been said that Lea's getting the lead role would have gone 'to no one's surprise,' but as confidently as she presented herself day in and day out, Lucas' young cousin had stopped over in the art room to get her teacher before she went to the list at all, because she was nervous at what she'd find.

"Please? Will you come?" she'd asked, showing a tremor of humility as she'd caught up Maya's hand and stared at her with big brown eyes.

Maya had needed to pull in her reaction as she accepted to follow. She had known about the castings, as it had all been decided between the three Muses. So, they'd gone, with Lea clearly averting her eyes until they were standing just in front of the sheet, so she wouldn't see anything until they got there. She went so far as to raise her hand so that she'd get to scan the list from the bottom and go up. The further she'd go, not yet finding her name, it would be a battle between thinking she hadn't made it and wondering if maybe… maybe… Finally, there she'd been, top of the list, and her hand had fallen away, and then she'd gone to sit down on the floor.

"You okay?" Maya had asked, looking down at her.

"Yeah… Just didn't want to fall if I passed out…" Lea had explained, with a bewildered little smile.

Maya wished she could have seen when Deanna Frazier had gone up there and found her own name, right there under Lea's. Even though she'd accepted the delay, she'd sat in on the Friday afternoon auditions, and then the following Monday morning, as agreed, she'd shown up bright and early, her face not exactly healed up completely but enough so that she could hide what remained under makeup. More importantly, it no longer impeded her from going up and giving her audition performance and proving how worth the wait she'd been.

Most of all, she wished she could have been with Stella when she went, but she allowed the moment to be shared between her and her best friend. She at least got to see the near immediate aftermath, as she and Phoebe came into their art period for the day all of three minutes after they'd gone to the list. Phoebe had that very giddy and proud best friend smile going as she came up, as though Stella's reaction had been broken between the two of them, with Phoebe holding on to the happiness for the time being, while Stella dealt with the immediate panic it induced.

"I don't think she believes it," Phoebe informed Maya with a light chuckle.

"I can see that," Maya kept a smile as she approached the senior girls and stopped in front of Stella.

"Was I… Was I really…" she slowly asked, staring up with uncertain eyes.

"Of course, you were," Maya beamed, tapping Stella's arm as she guessed the end of that sentence would go along the lines of 'was I really good enough for that?' "We wouldn't have cast you if you weren't," she insisted, holding her gaze so her student would know the truth of it. They wouldn't just have given it to her because she'd gone up there.

To be sure, when she had gone up on stage at the very end of the auditions, there'd been a moment of uncertainty among those remaining in the audience, the three muses, Sam, Dora, and Phoebe. Only the last of these was likely to ever have heard Stella sing, and even there they weren't entirely sure whether even Phoebe had been allowed to hear her ahead of this moment. And when she'd gone up, there'd been a serious concern like she might have remained rooted to the spot, unmoving, her throat refusing to surrender a single note. She had kept her eyes closed, as the piano player – Miranda's daughter, Lupe – started the song. She'd kept them closed even as she sang, the whole time.

She wanted to challenge herself, and for having been her teacher for over three years, Maya could understand it very well. Little by little, her shy bird had been learning to fly, and before she could wander out of the nest of this high school, she wanted just a bit more momentum. And the musical was her solution, presented unexpectedly. Maya got all that, but she did worry about what would happen if she couldn't sing, if she had nothing they could work with. Miranda and Morgan both were like her in how they could recognize and work with potential, but the potential had to be there. They wouldn't give someone a role if they hadn't earned it, or if they didn't deserve it.

Stella Buckley was not a powerhouse, a great belter of the likes of Lea or Deanna, but her voice rang true, the way one could when it had nothing of training, only pure talent. And because it was her, she sang almost like she painted. They could understand emotion and a story in her words, and she held them captivated. Would they be working with her a lot to help pull her further out of her shell by the night of their first performance? Oh, very much so, all three of them. But she had earned her spot. It would have been doing the musical a disservice to set her aside.

Once she managed to convince her that it was all true, that she was in and she had earned it, Maya was treated to such a smile. Stella turned to Phoebe, who took this as her cue to ring in a proper celebration and hug her best friend until her feet didn't touch the ground.

"Easy, easy," Maya laughed. Last thing they needed was for her to be dropped or to fall and hurt herself. Phoebe finally – safely – set Stella down.

"Can I go call my parents and tell them?" she asked.

"You've still got a few minutes before class starts," Maya gave her a nod. "Want to step into my phone booth?" she indicated the supply closet, and Stella disappeared there, shutting the door. As she went back to finishing her set up for the first class of the morning, Maya sensed something in the silence that followed. Normally, Phoebe would be talking her ear off right about now, so the fact that she wasn't… "Hey, Munroe, you awake in there?" she called back to the girl, as she found her just standing there, off in her own head. Phoebe blinked at the sound of her name, looked at her.

"Huh?" she asked, before understanding she'd been distracted. "I'm here."

"What's the matter?" Maya moved back up to her. Phoebe's eyes flicked to the open door into the hallway, the students passing by, so Maya moved past her and shut the door. "Everything okay at home?"

"Yeah… yeah…" Phoebe promised, though her voice trailed off some, which suggested a 'but.' "Mom and Dad started talking about what Taylor and I wanted to do over the Christmas break. They want to take us skiing."

"You ski?" Maya couldn't help but ask, recalling how accident prone she'd been when they'd first met.

"Not really, but Taylor wants to try snowboarding, and… I don't know, I might try it, too. It's just…" The way she bowed her head, it felt like her brain was so full of reasons why the trip worried her that she could no longer support it upright. Maya could have filled in the blanks, but she gave Phoebe the time to sort out her thoughts and express herself. "Sometimes, I want to say something, to my mom, or my dad, but… I need to wait."

"After the holidays," Maya recalled, and Phoebe nodded.

"It's easier here, but out there… What if I mess everything up out there? And then we'll be sad at a ski resort, far from home…"

"Would your parents be okay with you bringing Stella along?" Maya offered. "Taylor could bring Lambert, maybe? Strength in numbers and all that." Phoebe considered this, and it had promise, but at the same time it made her think of something else.

"Dylan asked if I wanted to come over, not on Christmas or Christmas Eve, maybe a day or two before that, but it'd be like we were celebrating it together, you know?" she revealed, and she could hardly contain how much she appreciated the invitation and the prospect of going. She would get to meet her nephew in person for the first time. She'd seen pictures, and videos, but never the boy in person. Dylan might have brought him over to the school one day, so she could see him, but it would have felt like the wrong time, the wrong way. She was so excited to meet Nicky though, and they all knew it.

"Yeah, that sounds great," Maya smiled.

"It does," Phoebe agreed, trailing again. "I just don't know if I should go."

"Why wouldn't you?" Maya asked. Phoebe shrugged. "Are you worried about your parents finding out, or…"

"I just… I hate lying," Phoebe explained. "To my parents, but mostly to Taylor. It's not fair that he doesn't get to go with me… if I do go. It'd be a great thing, for us to be with our brother, our nephew… but what about everyone else? And I'd have to tell Taylor first, and the whole reason I'm waiting to talk to Mom and Dad is so that he'll have a great Christmas…"

"Phoebe, listen," Maya finally had to cut in, as Stella returned from her call and quietly rejoined them. "You're not going to tell them now, and that's your call, probably the right call. That is… handled, okay?" She nodded. "You have nothing to feel guilty about if you choose to go to Dylan and Riley's. After everything that happened, you and Dylan, you've earned this, I think. And, yeah, Taylor should get to be there, too. But he won't, and it is what it is. There'll be other times later, times for him, and Kyle, too, once he knows. I've known him as long as I've known Dylan, and I know that he'll be as happy to know you as Dylan is. Whether that's in a few weeks at Christmas or in a month or two, or longer… The big picture, you're not there yet, but it doesn't mean you don't get to enjoy where you are now."

Phoebe took this all in, and she seemed to accept it. She looked relieved. A moment later, she turned to Stella and asked if she'd like to go skiing with her and her family. Possibly, she'd overheard some of the conversation in the supply closet, or she'd been told about the trip earlier, which made it so that she'd already slipped the possibility by her own mother and father while she'd had them on the line. They had accepted. By the time when the freshmen would come along after lunch, Maya would learn that Lambert Day had been extended an invitation to join the Munroes on their trip, and that the whole Day family would be looking to make the journey as well. Just like that, Phoebe's 'buffer' had been secured. She just might have the Christmas break she'd been hoping to get, for her family, for her little brother most of all.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners