June 27th 2021

Chapter 178
Our Wind of Music

"Now, what are you two doing here?" Maya stopped and turned when she thought she spotted a couple of familiar faces in the lobby of the theater.

"Isn't it obvious? We're getting stage ready…" Rochelle McNeil declared, throwing on a flourish with her arm which came a whole… few seconds too late. At the very least, it got her boyfriend laughing before turning a nod and semi confident face to their art teacher.

"You want to try that again?" Maya squinted at them, turning to Lucas to see what he thought. His face could almost match hers, except then Marianne – perched in his arms – looked at him and tried to imitate him, and he just broke and laughed.

"Lea's been busy with this and Ro… We needed to talk about the quiz team," Bodhi Thompson confessed. Rochelle couldn't even come off like she'd been busted, no, that wouldn't be her style. She would assume her actions now that they were known.

"Breaking in that new captain badge already?" Lucas asked the girl.

"There isn't a badge," Bodhi told him.

"But there could be," Maya and Rochelle spoke at once. They blinked and looked at each other, smiling, while Lucas and Bodhi looked mildly startled.

"I can definitely have one of those made…" Maya started.

"We can pass it on at the end of the year!" Rochelle added.

"Maybe get some sort of… graduated captain ones made, too, to keep after the 'official' one's been passed on," Maya doubled down.

"Oh, hey! You're here!" Everyone turned to find Lea Sullivan-Reyes headed their way, a clipboard in one hand.

"What, we had to see you in action," Lucas told his cousin as he put Marianne down. She'd gone active on him the moment she spotted her, and she dashed over at once. Lea crouched and set the clipboard down so she could pick up her cousin's daughter.

"Hi, Marianne!" she beamed.

"Hi!" Marianne gave a little wave.

"And, you know, in case you were nervous, she's good for dealing with that," Maya added, indicating the toddler.

"Why would I be nervous?" Lea shrugged.

"Stranger things have happened," Maya gave her a look. Of course, they would assume that she'd just show up here and be on top of everything, but would they be doing anyone any favors if they didn't at least pretend otherwise?

Today was to be Lea's first day of running her workshop at the Silvan Hughes Theater's Stage Ready summer camp. It was going to occupy the better part of the rest of her summer, and the way she spoke about it in the last weeks coming up on her 'debut,' she could not have asked for a better use of her time. The only thing that would have topped it would have been if by some miracle she got her big break and got cast in some equally big production that would conveniently last only until the start of sophomore year in the fall, but the camp would more than suffice.

"She was sitting out here when I arrived this morning. I haven't had the nerve to ask her what time she showed up." This new voice brought along Siobhan Hughes, and Maya beamed at the sight of her.

In many ways, Siobhan stood as the turning point in her life. She'd been the one, all those years ago, to hire Katy Hart and cause her to pack up her life and her daughter's life and move them almost clear across the country from New York. If not for her, for that event, their lives would have been so different as to be unrecognizable. And Marianne, oh… She wouldn't even exist at all, would she?

"I'm so happy to see you," Siobhan told Maya as she hugged her.

She had always supported her choices in life, even when they had taken her away from the theater, little by little. That didn't mean she couldn't express how much she missed having her as part of the team, especially when she had to know how Maya felt the same way. She could have been satisfied working here all her life, but then her calling was elsewhere.

"And this young lady," she turned to Marianne after having greeted and hugged Lucas. Lea had only just put her down, and now she looked up at the woman leaning down toward her, and she was in awe. Not even two years old and even she could grasp how Siobhan Hughes made an impression wherever she went, with a style much more simple than extravagant. It wasn't the first time she met Siobhan, not by a long shot, and every time she would get this sort of wide eyed expression on her face. It didn't matter if she'd be standing in front of her, or sitting nearby, or if Siobhan would hold her, as she soon would do. Marianne would stare at her with that same look.

"You know, I bet they wish they'd picked any other day now," Lucas whispered at Maya's ear when they finally all sat in the auditorium, looking on as Lea collected her people for the workshop and counted them off from her clipboard.

Rochelle and Bodhi were there, too, and for knowing what they'd said earlier, and seeing their faces now, the idea became that they weren't signed up for the camp or the workshop at all. They'd been here today to talk to their friend and teammate about plans for the quiz team, both over the summer and in the fall when they'd go back to school seeking one freshman to join their ranks. And then, because they figured maybe they would have been seen as overdoing anything, they'd told their teacher and her husband that they were here for the workshop. And Rochelle, because she did her best not to lie, would go and see an opportunity right there in front of her, to turn the lie into a truth, and she would take it… whether it meant doing something that would make both her and Bodhi look awkward or not.

"Maybe we shouldn't be here to watch then? Right?" Maya asked Lucas, uncertain. She didn't want to make her students feel bad.

"Well, I don't think they're going to back out if we're gone, so they might as well be doing it for a reason. Plus, we're here to root for Lea."

"And spy for your uncles because they can't show up here without looking like they're hovering…" Maya added.

"Yes, that, too," Lucas nodded. "But also, the baby is due any day now, and they're maybe a bit on edge." Maya bit back the urge to laugh. As funny as it was, they understood where this came from, with what had happened the last time, with baby Levi. Even if there was nothing to indicate there'd be the same issue this time around, they couldn't help but be rightfully stressed out.

"They are not going to make it through the party this weekend, are they?" Maya shook her head sympathetically. She could easily picture Michael and Keith doing their best to be good guests of honor out there, but all the while checking their phones every five seconds, in case they got The Call and they had to go immediately.

"We can probably think of something to distract them from that, can't we?" Lucas wondered hopefully.

"Well… we can try…." Maya slowly nodded. She didn't believe they could, he could hear it in her voice, but they'd have to try anyway.

Watching Lea on stage with her students, a lot of people could have been fooled into thinking she'd done this before, that this wasn't her first time. No doubt she had been preparing for this, the way she would prepare herself for anything. Once she did that, well… She could do just about anything, couldn't she? Still, once they got past that part, there was still just this fact of how they'd known her, whether it was all her life as a cousin, or a few years as the fiancée and then wife to her cousin before becoming her teacher. They remembered a much smaller girl with those great big dreams in her. And what was most wonderful was that they got to see her grow into them, like she'd been too little at first, but she'd grown, and grown, and the dreams stayed the same size, so she was getting that much closer to catching up.

"She's really good up there," Lucas stated, watching his cousin. He wasn't exactly surprised, but then again… It was one thing to have confidence while leading this workshop. It was a whole other one for her to bring things that would be genuinely helpful and relevant. But Lea knew what she was doing, and they could tell.

"If they stick with it, she might even get her teammates somewhere," Maya nodded.

"Do you think they will?"

"I don't know, maybe we just need to keep showing up, so they won't have a choice," she grinned almost too mischievously.

They hadn't planned to stay for the whole thing, just figured they'd sit there about twenty minutes and then continue on with their day out and about on errands with Marianne, but it was kind of hard to step away. The little pumpkin was having a great time out here, too, from the looks of it. She was standing with her feet planted on her father's legs while he held her hands to support her. The image had to be so funny, seen from the stage, this small girl standing in the middle of the seats. She was very calm about the whole thing at least, didn't start crying or making loud noises in any way. She just stood and looked on.

"Is it too early for her to get the stage bite?" Lucas wondered, looking to Maya and nodding to Marianne. Oh, she was watching her, too, and she was wondering the same thing.

"Maybe we're getting just a bit ahead of ourselves though…"

"Maybe a little," Lucas nodded along.

When the music started on the stage for a demonstration, Marianne started wiggling around, doing her own brand of dancing. It never failed to make people happy if they ever saw her go, and it did its thing for her parents now, enough so that she almost slipped off her 'floor' and Lucas worked quick to catch her up, as much to stop her from falling as to ensure that her feet wouldn't go and land somewhere in the middle…

After the workshop ended, Maya, Lucas, and Marianne ended up at the front of the theater, just below the stage, chatting with Lea and her teammates/students. They invited the trio for celebratory ice cream. They didn't have to wait long for a response, and soon they were off. There was a lot of talk about the workshop as they went, of course, with Lea telling everyone her point of view of the session, what had worked, what hadn't, what could be fixed… And then next thing they knew, they were back to talking about the quiz team.

The pin idea was shared with Lea, who loved it immediately and said that the rest of the team should get to have some, too, some non-captain pins. As much as they tried to pretend like it wasn't, Maya and Lucas both could guess that what they were really after was some information about any potential new recruits among the incoming freshmen. Maya reminded them that she didn't have her lists yet, and even if she did…

Just like last year though, she knew at least some of the people who would be coming along into the freshman class, though not because of any list. She knew because of who they were connected to. For instance, this year she had two of those. She had Henry Hillard, and she had Stephanie Brett, both cases qualifying under the 'what even is time?' heading in their own way. The idea that Henry was fifteen, that he wasn't a kid anymore, or that the second of the science teacher's girls was coming along…

The new member of the team could be anyone, really, a complete stranger. If it ended up being one of those two though, she could see how either one could end up getting the spot. Henry was also one of Lucas' cousins, just as Lea was, if from the other side. Friar or Sullivan though, the two of them had known each other ever since the Hillards had come back into the fold and they'd become part of family gatherings. By that line of thought, they could see Lea pulling him in. And then there was Stephanie Brett, Daphne's little sister. If she was anything like her, and Maya could guess that she very much was… It was a good thing she didn't have to choose yet.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners