March 24th 2022
Chapter 83
Our Look Back on a Series
It felt so good to head into this summer with her bandmates. The previous summer had seen both Maya and Riley sidelined with advanced pregnancies, bringing in Cara and Olivia to replace them. This year, they were all five of them available and eager to make as much of a push as they could. Maya had quietly been amassing some new songs throughout the past year, where inspiration old and new struck her, all with the aim of releasing a new album at the start of summer and following it up with a series of shows and appearances. Everyone was looking forward to it; they missed those big pushes, as a band. Always, there would be this beat where they'd be amazed that the demand was still there, after all these years, but then they would be reminded of how their audience had grown and evolved with them. So long as they were true to themselves as they moved forward, the others would carry on with them, wherever they went.
Oh, it was different in plenty of ways now, but how could it not? Never mind the fact that three of them were mothers to three or four small children each, with careers that could only permit so much leeway on top of it… Once they accounted for all that, the energy that remained, coupled with the fact that they were now in their thirties… They were all in shape, sure, but compared to when they'd be doing shows in high school, and in college, this was a whole other game. But they loved it just as much… so here they were.
The album was out now, as of a week ago, and they were pleased to see just how well people were responding to it. Existing fans were calling it their best outing in years, comparing it to the likes of the album Maya had composed for Ree Forster five years back. And new fans were finding them, many of them, locally and far into the world beyond. Still on her trip, Ella had been sending pictures and videos with fans as her trip carried on. When the album had been released, she'd started wearing the band shirts she'd packed, curious to see if she might find people who'd know them, and she had. She hadn't set out to identify herself as being part of the family, but then more than once, Tori had pointed to her mother's shirt and declared that it was 'Nana's band.' The two of them had never been a secret, though for privacy's sake she'd never put out pictures of them or Marianne or the triplets, same as Riley and Nadine with their own kids. The fans, the true fans, were so receptive to them, and Maya was thrilled to see it.
They'd had their first two shows, on two consecutive nights, followed by one well earned night off. Tonight, they had another show, but this one was very different. First of all, it was to take place at Sullivan Stables, for an audience comprised of the cast and crew of Katy's series and the staff of the ranch, to celebrate the success and completion of the first season and the upcoming start of filming on the second. The momentum they had picked up in the beginning had not fallen short in the slightest, and it was wonderful to see it, being so close to the production as they were, but even without that proximity, the part that Lucas and Maya loved most was what it meant for their own little family.
Every week, while that first season had aired, they'd sat together on the couch, the two of them, Marianne, Ella, Tori… They'd be there at dinner more often than not and head home after, but on show night they would be there into later in the evening, and Lucas would drive them home after the episode. They'd have Lucy, Kacey, and Remy there, too, though especially in the beginning they'd always slept through it. The important part was to have them there, part of the family experience. The more they'd grown, if they happened to wake again, they would occasionally end up staring at the screen, sitting with their parents or on the floor. They knew a lot of those people, they knew their Nana especially, and they would react when they saw her. Maya had sent videos of this to her mother, and they made her day every time.
It had become part of their family life, week to week, so much so that, when the season had ended and they'd rounded to the next week, Marianne had been disappointed that there wasn't a new one. So, they'd been watching the reruns. She didn't remember everything, so it was just as enjoyable to her and her little sisters. The things she did remember would often lead to her turning to the triplets and going 'wait, look!' The girls would follow her pointing finger with curious noises and watch. Whatever they babbled in response, she would take in stride as though they had said exactly what she'd been thinking.
The other difference about that night's TXNY show was that they would have some very special guests in attendance who had nothing to do with the series in any way. For weeks already, Maya and her bandmates had been sort of on the sidelines, witnessing the formation and development of their sister band, and tonight, the quartet and its songwriter would be there to perform their first song. It had been a request of Cara's, casting herself essentially as big sister, looking out for the younger girls. They only had the one song they'd really worked on as their own composition, though they'd been practicing with other songs, some of them from TXNY, and they wanted to get some 'outside opinions' on their debut but they were also just a bit nervous at the thought of shooting their shot. The ranch gig would be the perfect set-up, Cara felt, for them to have a sort of… soft start.
For having heard this first song, personally, Maya felt they were more than ready to let everyone hear, but she wasn't about to push them beyond their comfort zone if they weren't ready. She did however point out that, if they were going to make this brief debut, then they should commit to it. They needed to find their style, not just in music but in appearance… and they needed a name. Just like Maya and her friends back in the day, there'd been some struggle in landing on 'the right one.' In their case, they wanted to show that they were absolutely born as an offshoot of TXNY but also that they were a band in their own right. Did they want to use abbreviations, too? An acronym? What about their own initials? Oh, but what if the lineup changed? They didn't want to think that way when they were just starting out, but then just looking at TXNY, which had gone through several departures and additions over time… Maybe they could go that route, because then no matter how far they went, they would always remember who they were when they started…
There was nothing to stop them from changing their name after a few weeks or months, even after a year or more, if they felt that the original name didn't reflect them anymore. They just needed to have one right now, to have their debut. They knew enough to see the potential for word of mouth to be the thing to carry them into the wider world beyond Sullivan Stables and a single song at a private party.
"Yeah, we don't have it…" Cara had finally told her big sister with a sigh when she'd shown up, the first to arrive. She looked like she'd gone out of her way to make sure of that, even as she'd been swamped with pre-wedding 'madness.' It was right around the corner, and she was looking like she was ready to drop everything and just go to sleep for a whole week.
"You don't have…"
"A name, for the band. Believe me, we've tried. I have a whole thread of messages going back and forth between the five of us, and if I didn't say anything, the whole thing would have fallen apart and we wouldn't have been able to do the performance today, which I know I would have been disappointed about later, but right now I don't have even a bit of the energy to bother…"
"Okay, okay, hey, slow down," Maya chuckled, pulling her sister in what felt like a very motherly way, usually reserved for the occasional tantrum out of Marianne. Cara seemed to recognize it, which helped break her stress spiral and make her laugh along. "Still need to call you guys something…" Maya reminded her after a beat. Cara sighed.
"Sisters, I guess," she shrugged. That was what they'd been nicknamed at first, the sister band, so… it would have to do.
In the end, what was to be their name, their proper name, came along by accident. When they were brought out on stage, there was a miscommunication as to their introduction, so even as Maya started to tell the audience to 'say hello to…' Olivia, who led the vocals on this song, had spoken into the microphone she held.
"We are Sisters!" And by the next day, as the predicted word of mouth – and a video – started to spread, the consensus seemed to be that they'd been told to 'Say hello to We Are Sisters.' And so that was who they were.
"I wish we could have been there…" Ella told her mother and father, the next time they had a call. "Tori's watched the video so many times since we got it, she asks for it all the time, just does her little dance and tries to sing along…" The grandparents smiled as they pictured the toddler. They knew 'the little dance' very well. Tori took lessons with Donna, just like Marianne did, but she definitely did not pick things up nearly as well as her aunt did. She didn't look too bothered by it. On the whole, she was happy with the way she danced, and that was what mattered. "So, it went alright? I mean, I know they must have been nervous…"
They definitely were, some more than others. Even though she wasn't one of those going on stage, Ava was displaying some very Ava-like behavior in trying to mask how unsure she was at people hearing one of her songs. Cara and Olivia had jitters only as they could, having already performed with TXNY so many times but now stepping out in this new venture. Then there was Kelsey, who had been growing so confident as she participated in the school musicals for the past two years but seemed understandably uncertain to now go out there, as herself, to a much different and larger audience than whatever a high school production could bring in.
And then there was their latest recruit, Nika… Nika, who had never stood on a stage in her life, not for anything close to this. Nika, who was still feeling the occasional reminder of her 'shame' in and out of school thanks to Ronnie the jerk and his type. After Ava had told Maya about how she'd heard her sing, the band had discussed it, and she'd finally been elected to make the pitch. Nika had started off by saying no. The very idea of putting herself out there felt like too much. If it wasn't that she could sense something in her, a part of her that was vaguely curious, Maya would have abandoned the idea then and there. But her gut said to gently try again. She'd put the task to Theo Petrelis, knowing that if anyone could help the girl look into her heart and make the choice, be it another no or a yes, it would be her big brother.
He'd been there, front and center, with such a proud smile as his little sister stood up there along with Cara, Olivia, and Kelsey… The road ahead was brand new, not so defined yet, but it showed promise, for all those who'd walk it. And they'd taken their first step.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
