May 14th 2022
Chapter 134
Our Needs to Grow
The little Friar sisters had another chance to sneak into their parents' room just as they had done on Christmas morning, only this time they had help in ensuring that they would actually get to surprise their target… They had an accomplice in the form of their father. How could he not jump in, after all, when it was their mother's birthday? Oh, it was not easy to surprise the likes of Maya Friar, and even Lucas knew that he would run the chance of missing his mark. But he had a better chance at it than a quartet of girls who did not all understand the concept of being covert just yet. So, when the morning came, Maya awoke to her thirty-third birthday with Marianne, Kacey, Lucy, and Remy all there, sitting in wait along with their father, and her smile said all there was to say about how happy she was for their presence.
The 'celebrations' didn't end there, no. It wasn't as though she made some kind of great secret out of her birth date at school. Those of the faculty she was close to would know, and some students might recall that she had her birthday in January, while only a select few would remember the exact date. Those would usually make sure to wish her a happy one when they'd show up, bringing her a card, or something they'd made – art teacher perks – and it would be just as wonderful as she needed it to be. This year though… This year was a game changer, because this year her little sisters were on the premises, and oh did they ever have a plan in mind for a day such as this…
It wasn't just them either, oh no. They had their friends and classmates, which included the Davises and Desi, yes, but also Tre and Rolly, and between the seven of them, they not only had two very determined little sisters but a pipeline to the 'Born Curious network' in the form of its freshman member. Once they had their plan worked out, Rolly made sure to pass it on to Nika, and Ava, and Rosemary, and they could then work things out with their own classes. What a wild day that was… It was a wonder she'd managed to run those four periods as she'd set out to do, with the overwhelming sense of warmth and appreciation she'd received from her students.
Now, her actual birthday had come and gone, but it wasn't over yet. The following Saturday, there was the party…
"Why do I feel like it's going to turn into some birthday party/baby shower hybrid?" Maya wondered aloud as she browsed through her selection of dresses for the day. "All I hear in my head is MJ, when he complains about how some people just combine his birthday and Christmas in one go because they're so close together. Not that this is where I'm at today, but you get the picture."
"Oh, I'm getting a picture, alright," Lucas replied from across the room, and even without turning around she had a good feeling of where he was, observing her in her contemplations.
"Don't even think about it," she smirked while she finally made her decision and went about slipping her chosen dress on.
"Well, I'm not in charge of any showers, only birthdays, and I think I can safely say everyone's been set on the right track about what today was," Lucas promised, now coming into view over her shoulder in the mirror.
"Well, if you promise it, then I trust you," she smiled as she turned to look at him, pulling her hair free from the back of her dress. "What do you think? This one good, or maybe…" she gestured to herself and then to her second choice where it still hung on display. To his credit – as there really would not have been any wrong answers in his mind – Lucas took the time to look at the second dress, then at the one Maya had already put on. He very much had a look like he clearly loved them both on her equally, so it made his opinion hard to lock in, but finally he smiled.
"What if you swapped to that one later, around dinner?" he suggested.
"Ooh…" Maya considered this with intrigue in her eyes. "I do like a wardrobe change…" she slowly nodded before setting a hand to his chest, fingers drumming over his heart. "Well done," she grinned, and he laughed, tipping his invisible hat before leaning in to kiss her.
"Moooommyyyy! Nana and Grandpa are here!" Marianne called from downstairs.
"They're early…" Lucas commented as he and Maya looked back.
"Well, get out there, Party Guy, I need to finish getting ready," she lightly nudged him out toward the door, and he went.
As they would soon learn, if there was any other theme to the day beyond 'Maya's birthday,' it was not 'shower for Baby Friar.' It would be more along the lines of 'awkward behaviors.' One of those, as they had expected it to be, revolved around the ever evolving Ella-Lea-Theo situation.
Lea had been true to her word. When she and her best friend had gone back to Houston after they'd made it back from Arkansas, she had told Ella about her kiss with Theo. She'd been about as upfront about it as she could be, explaining at least her side of things, everything she'd told Lucas that morning outside the Olsens' house. She couldn't speak for Theo's point of view, only her own, but she made a vow: If Ella asked her to, this would be as far as it ever went. It would never happen again because their friendship mattered much more to her than any guy.
Ella hadn't exactly been mad at her. She hadn't yelled or shown any angry response to this event. If anything, for a few days, she'd been very quiet, barely saying a word to her friend and roommate. As far as they heard from Theo, when they spoke to one another, she didn't bring up what she'd been told in any way, though he might have guessed that she'd found out, for how brief her words would be. It took four days in all before she finally hit the road and came out to Austin to see her parents, to talk to them and call on their counsel. When she realized they already knew about the kiss, she was momentarily thrown off, but once Lucas explained how they'd come to know, Ella relaxed. She could be open with them on this, in ways she just didn't know to be with anyone else. Her parents suspected she might have been able to talk it out with Taylor if he'd been in town, but even then, because Lea was his friend, too…
"I don't know why it feels so weird to me…" she told them. "It's not like I still have feelings for him that way, or like suddenly finding out about them kissing made me feel it again. If anything, it proved to me that I don't see him as anything more than a friend anymore. So why does it still feel weird that way?"
"You two went through so much together…" Lucas pointed out. "And for a while he was someone that terrified you, for what he represented."
"But he doesn't, not anymore. I let him back into our lives, in Tori's life. We're good now."
"You knew something was going on, didn't you?" Maya chimed in, observing her daughter as she spoke, sitting before her. Ella looked at her.
"I didn't know that they'd been getting closer to one another, but… Yeah, I knew something had changed with them, didn't know what it was, just that…" She didn't tell them what she'd been feeling from them, but her face said plenty. They'd been happy about something. "What do I do?" she finally asked her parents. "I let it get so weird back at the house, and I don't want Lea to feel like she did anything wrong…"
"You'll figure it out," Lucas confidently assured her. He believed it, as did Maya. The rest had to be up to her.
Well, by now, the day of the party, it didn't look as though they had resolved things. Ella and Lea were talking again, but always with a sense of there being 'an elephant in the room,' and today they'd brought him along with them. Theo had this look like he realized what was going on between the two girls, and he didn't know what to do to make it better except to stay out of it. All the while, the three of them would do their best so that Tori didn't notice anything being amiss.
That was the awkward beat they had expected to find today, but there was another, and this one they had not been aware of, not until it landed under their roof. This one involved Phoebe Munroe and Khalil and Desi Russell. The three of them arrived for the party and there was an air to them like something had erupted not too long ago. Desi immediately split off from her brother and his girlfriend and went to find Nellie and Gracie, not even stopping to greet her teacher/family friend as she went, and the three girls soon disappeared down the steps into the basement, there to remain for a while. Phoebe looked like there was great conflict in her mind, keeping her from finding solid ground and clarity, though she was doing her best to be party-ready. Khalil had the look of someone caught between regret and determination, but also worry. Maya wondered, especially once she found out what was going on, how close they'd come to simply excusing themselves from the party and staying home.
"Is everything alright?" she finally had to confront her former students, unable to simply stay quiet about what she was seeing. Khalil and Phoebe exchanged a look, and it seemed as though he wanted to defer to her, but she wanted him to be the one to say it; she couldn't do it, not now. So, he turned back to their host and told her that he was enlisting.
Even growing up, he'd had this thought in his head about following in his parents' footsteps. They had always been proud of the work they both did, and he had been proud of them in return. It had been part of his world, his family, for as long as he could remember, and it sort of made sense to him. He'd gone back and forth on it at times, but that was fine, because he'd still been too young to do anything about it at the time. Then after his mother had died, the shock of it all had definitely buried those plans deep in his mind. They had been climbing back up into the foreground though, steadily over the past year or so, until finally he'd come to make his decision. He needed to do this; he just did. Of course, it was all fine for him, but there was more to it than him now. There was Phoebe, who meant the world to him, and his little sister, who had been and would always be his great priority. He loved them both so much, and he knew it would be hard for them to hear, but he had to do it.
Well, he hadn't planned it that way, but they'd found out about it… that morning, as they were getting ready to leave for Maya's party. So, they had arrived here with this fresh burn, still in need of soothing. It was a great shock to Maya, too, but all the same… She would look at Khalil, and she would just see it all, just as he'd said. He needed to honor his mother's memory and, even if their relationship was not what it used to be, his father's legacy as well. In the end, Maya had been the one to pardon the trio from sticking around. She suggested that they all go somewhere together and talk. She suggested Ma Maggie's, and whether they chose it or not, they collected Desi and soon went on their way.
"Everything alright?" Lucas asked, moving toward Maya after he watched them go. She looked at him, decided to lean in to the happy feeling his presence always gave her, and smiled.
"I'll tell you later."
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
