March 16th 2022
Chapter 75
Our Bonds With Music
"You know, this room is very you…"
Maya looked around from where she stood, searching for something in the supply closet, to discover she had a visitor in her classroom. Not a student, not a colleague, no, but a sister.
"What are you doing here?" she laughed as Cara moved to join her in the small room with its loaded shelves and overpowering sent of paper, paint, glue, ink, and soap all mixed into one. It was nearly lunch time, but seeing as she had not been expecting her sister to show up…
"Olivia asked if I could meet her," Cara shrugged. "She asked for this afternoon, but I couldn't make it, and since I was free now…" she gestured around. Here I am. "Hopefully I haven't sped things up for her or anything," she contemplated to herself. At her older sister's confused look, she smiled. "Band stuff."
"Band… Oh!" Maya smiled back now, understanding. "You two found people?"
"Sort of…"
"Sort of?"
"I don't know exactly, all she said was that something had come up and she was going to make her pitch, and she wanted me to come around, sort of make a united front, I guess. It's been just me and her all this time, the subs… We never really got around to do any recruiting, or writing, or… anything," Cara admitted. Maya was generally aware of this, of course. They all still had practice together, even as she and Riley had returned to 'active duty.' By now, Cara and Olivia were stepping in to open and close with their reunited lineup, but they were still very dedicated to the idea of their sister band, so…
While they waited for Olivia to come around, Maya continued her search through the supply closet, not so much aided as impeded by her sister. It was not unfamiliar to her to see how people would respond to stepping in here, particularly those who were no longer high school students. They would be so curious, and they'd want to explore, and pick up this thing and that one… With Cara, it really got to feel at some point that she was just doing it to mess with her big sister, and Maya would chide her with the best of Teacher Voice that she could muster. The laughter did sort of break the effect though…
"Hello?" Olivia's voice brought them both back to reality.
"In here, hang on," Maya called back before whispering to Cara to put down a bottle of paint. The last thing she needed was a spill and splash to clean up. The paint was safely returned, and they emerged from the supply closet to find Olivia Zhu along with her friends and station mates, Kelsey Farrell, and Ava Nash. All three girls had their lunches with them. "Hey!" Maya greeted them all, as though she hadn't just seen them and the other sophomores in mid-morning. Then, recalling what Cara had mentioned as the reason for her presence, she looked to Kelsey and Ava and back to Olivia. "Hey?" she asked without asking.
Having worked with her on both this year's and last year's musicals, she could well see why Olivia might ask best friend Kelsey if she'd be interested to join the band. It could well have been the easiest and most beneficial idea that had been right in front of her the entire time. Who better to recruit than your best friend with a great singing voice? As to instruments, to her knowledge, Kelsey didn't play any, but that could easily be remedied. Now, with Ava… They had made it to a point by now where Maya was fairly certain she could acknowledge that the girl could not carry a tune to save her life and not be met with a great tantrum. For all that though, Maya couldn't say why she was here. Surely, Olivia would be aware of Ava's voice as well, so was she simply tagging along or… Or maybe her secret was finally not so secret anymore?
She'd hit the nail on the head, though as she'd soon learn, it had not been an intentional reveal. What had happened instead was that the trio had met over the weekend, to study together for an upcoming test. Their version of a study group, unless it required some quizzing or questioning, was usually to all just sit at a table together, everyone with earbuds in, focused on their own work but together, which helped with not getting distracted. And this time, as they'd been working away, there had been a moment where Ava had stepped away, leaving her earbuds on the table, and inadvertently forgetting to pause. When Olivia had pulled out one of her own to whisper something to Kelsey, she'd heard the faint sound of the other girl's music and, curious, she'd pulled the other bud to her ear.
She had enough awareness to hear the instrumental tune and recognize it as Maya's work. But she'd never heard it before, so she was intrigued, enough that she was still listening when Ava returned. She was upset at first that Olivia had listened, but then after she explained herself and apologized, Ava let it go. It wasn't until later, in the evening, once they were all back home, that she got more of the story. She'd wanted to apologize again, realizing that with Ava something like this would have been a much bigger thing than for herself, and as they were friends, it was important that she know they were okay. After a bit more of back and forth, Ava had finally explained what it was that Olivia had heard. She told her about the lyrics she'd written and shared with their art teacher, and about the tracks that Maya had composed and recorded and sent back to her. It was the first time, inferred as it was, that Maya realized that Ava had been listening to the music in this way, and it made her smile, looking to her student. Ava wouldn't meet her eye, but it was enough to understand it did all mean that much to her.
Now, with this new bit of information in her head, Olivia had been turning everything over in her mind for the last few days. What she'd concluded, without ever having seen those lyrics of Ava's, was that Maya would have done it because she saw something, because she was inspired. And Olivia had loved what she'd heard, so she had to imagine that, if words and music were brought together, the results would be fantastic. That got her thinking about Cara, and their would-be band. And it got her thinking about the answer that had been right there the entire time. Kelsey. Kelsey! It wasn't that she'd never thought about it. If anything, she'd been one step away from it the whole time, like in her mind the logic was 'well, of course, Kelsey,' but because neither she nor Cara were really discussing recruitment, it had just stayed that way. Could it be that, finally, they were making things happen?
So, this morning she'd come into school with a plan… sort of. She'd texted Cara, hoping to bring her in that afternoon. Instead, she was told lunch time. Alright… She could work with that; she'd have to work with that. She asked Kelsey first, when they met up at their lockers and, as Kelsey told their teacher now, she was soon on board. Maya was very happy to hear this. She could still picture her, the year before, when auditions for the musical had opened up. She'd had reservations about doing it, not because she didn't want to, far from that, but because she worried about how she would be perceived, going up there in her wheelchair, with a half-dose of insecurity and one of not wanting to deal with any potential rudeness to sew doubt in her. But she'd done it, and she'd been so wonderful as to return this year, bolder and just as eager. And now here was another opportunity for her and the stage, and she was ready to take it.
Olivia's approach of Ava had thus become two-strong. Kelsey had been briefed on what she'd learned only so far as their having a potential songwriter for their band. Here Olivia called back the note that Maya had left in her diary a few months back, and Ava turned to her, surprised and just slightly humbled. She'd seen this coming before any of them did, hadn't she? When her friends had come and asked her if she might permit them to sing her songs, Ava had been initially skeptic, as she'd readily admit. What they meant to her exactly, no one knew, not even Maya, who'd been the only other person to read her words, to even know that she'd written them.
The only part that was certain, just for having been in contact with her efforts, was that they meant a great deal. They were the heart and the mind that lived underneath the shell-hard mask she carried into the world; they were personal. When she walked into the art classroom with her friends to meet Cara, as they now learned, she still hadn't made up her mind. She'd only agreed to come and sit with them, to consider. It didn't mean she'd decide anything today, and Olivia and Kelsey both understood. The important part right now was that she was willing to be there at all. They would never make her do anything she wasn't ready to do.
"I mean, I guess… There might be some… We could try…" Ava spoke, after they'd sat down and set up their lunches. The others looked at her, not having expected a turn this fast. "Just try," Ava added, with a pointed look. They could work with try. "Only some of them," she repeated. She'd never acknowledged her work directly with her teacher, and now Maya looked at her, guessing that her student was just a bit self-conscious to think of how she'd not only read some of her texts but existed with them long enough to compose the tracks she'd sent. Maya hoped that the look she sent back was as good as a vow. She would never let it get beyond the two of them, not without her permission.
"We can start with one," Cara offered, and the trio agreed. Maya bit back a smirk, looking from her sister to her new bandmates, all of them a good six years younger than her. She'd gladly count them for little sisters any day.
"Is this going to be all of you?" Maya asked, to deflect from the image. "Three singers and musicians, one writer?"
"For now," Olivia shrugged. "We're still figuring things out, but… Step in the right direction, yeah?" she pointed out. It sounded good to all of them. "We'd definitely want one or two more, I think."
"We'll keep our ears open," Kelsey assured her, holding her hands behind her ears and smiling, to indicate additional listening power. Olivia and Cara laughed and nodded, agreeing to do the same. Even Ava laughed, though she sounded like she was trying not to let it out.
When she saw it, Kelsey took it as a challenge, making her hands flap behind her ears like she was catching a sound that piqued her interest. With that, Ava's laughter had nowhere to go but out, and Kelsey nodded to a job well done. It had been just the kind of silly to break through, or maybe the right kind of silly from the right person. Either way, it was amazing to see and hear, especially for the girls' teacher. Ever since the notion of seating Ava Nash as the sister band's songwriter had come to her, she knew that, more than anything, she'd wanted to feed into her sense of belonging, eroded as it had been. Born Curious, Backstage Ready, now this… Ava was finding her place, and Maya felt privileged to get to be a part of it.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
