July 5th 2022

Chapter 186
Our Evolution of Growth

The closer they were getting to the start of the school year the giddier Marianne was getting. Kindergarten! Oh, she was going to miss her days with Miss Alma very much, but what things were lost were held against the things she would gain in this next step up. For one thing, she would be in the same school where her uncle Zay taught, even if she still had a few years to go before she ever had the chance to land in his class, which Zay insisted he would fight to make happen, rather than have her land in the other fourth grade class. And for another, easily the most important one, she and Winnie would be joined by Harper and June! No longer would they only share the green group: they would be schoolmates now, too! Of course, they weren't green group anymore, not when they had 'graduated' from it at the end of the previous school year.

Starting this fall, they would be moving up into the blue group, the six and seven-year-olds. Sure, some of them had not yet had their sixth birthday, but they would get there soon enough that keeping them in green group for another year would have been little more than making exceptions, and it wouldn't really do them any favors in the end, would it? Most of them were happy to trade in the green for the blue, because it meant that they were getting to be bigger girls, and that was fun. Even Marianne was looking forward to it, because no matter how much she favored the green colors, she loved all colors, and it was a really good blue, according to her. Still, she looked torn about letting go of the green. Lucas had pointed out to her that this didn't mean she had to stop ever wearing the green bandana, that she could continue to have it on whenever she'd like, and that helped. Lucas was moving up with her, monitoring the six and sevens of blue group along with Pedro, while Dylan was sticking with green group, which still counted the likes of Francesca Calahart and both Nicky and Emily Orlando.

So, in a matter of days, Marianne, Winnie, Harper, and June would become kindergartners, and it had been mutually agreed among the young friends that this was a Big Deal and they needed to be ready for that first day. She'd expressed as much to her parents, taking little notice of how much they were both already very aware of this, though maybe from a different, more emotional angle. There was little else that they could do about it though, was there? Their girl was growing up, as she'd always done and would continue to do, whether they wanted her to or not, so they just had to ride along with her, all the way. Today, this meant that she was in need of a school bag, and a lunch box… Maya had also asked her what she intended to wear on that first day, casually extending the possibility that if she wanted to get a new outfit, they could make that happen. This was an important milestone after all.

"Okay, but we gotta hurry, Mommy," Marianne told her as they got in the car and she was helped into her seat, next to Mackenzie, who was along for the ride. The triplets were off at the ranch with their father this morning.

"We do?" Maya curiously asked.

"We gotta come back for when Tori comes," she reminded her, and Maya pointed at her. You make an excellent point.

Victoria Friar, sneaky little Tori, was four years old today. She and her mother may have been staying with them for the last several days, but they hadn't spent this previous night with them, no. They'd stayed over at Theo and Nika's apartment, both of them sharing the room that Tori's father and aunt had made for her for when she stayed with them. It had not been Theo's idea specifically, but then Ella had suggested it. He had never gotten to be right there on their daughter's birthday, right when she woke up, and she'd been willing to let this one go for herself so that he could have the experience, and Tori as well. Theo had invited her right back, saying she could always spend the night out there with her, too. Long gone were the days when the two of them could have any issues about this, so Ella had accepted.

Thinking about them, Maya couldn't help but wonder how they were all doing out there. Ella and Tori, and Nika, and Theo… and Lea. It hadn't been some big announcement, but it had definitely been let known that, while she was staying in Austin like her best friend and roommate, she was not staying with her fathers but with her boyfriend, Theo.

She didn't know why it kept worrying her. They all certainly seemed to have moved past the awkward phase after that New Year's kiss, and the revelation to Ella. Maybe it was just coming from a maternal place, not wanting her eldest to get hurt, or even a grandmotherly place, thinking of little Tori caught in the middle of it all if ever it all blew up in their faces. Whatever it was, she was going to make an effort for it to stop, so she could just be happy for all of them and look to the future as something hopeful and nothing else. Right now, she was going shopping with her daughters, and later on the birthday girl and her parents were coming over to the house. It was as Marianne said, they had to come back in time for that.

That was easier said than done, or at least it felt that way once they got to the store and started their search for Marianne's kindergarten starter. The bag, the box, the dress. Marianne struggled with making decisions, and that was something Maya understood very well. She'd been the same way when she was little, unable to pick just one thing when she was asked to do it. She couldn't ignore the fact that it may all have come from a different place, when the two of them had grown up with very different means, but at the core of it was this same quality that the mother and daughter shared. They had an eye for aesthetic, for colors, and they would be so easily drawn to several options, not pinned down to one thing. That may all have been fine in general, but when it had to do with actually having to select one thing and leaving the others behind, oh… it could just be too much for them to handle. Maya had gotten better at this over the years, as she'd grown, but Marianne was still just five, not quite six yet.

Maya was as understanding and as patient as could be in this. She knew where this indecision was coming from, so they were just going to have to tackle this thing together. She told Marianne as much, and the girl gave a good nod. Yes, they could do this. Process of elimination was their friend, and in due time they had a school bag, and a lunch box, and a dress. Her favorite part was always to grab 'the winner' and hold it up for Mackenzie to see it before it was deposited in the basket.

"Look at you, you did all that," Maya proudly told her, and Marianne responded with a toothy grin that made her mother laugh and even got a smile out of her baby sister when she saw her.

They made it home early enough to be rejoined with Lucas and the triplets, show them all what they'd bought, and then get ready to receive the birthday girl before she came with Ella, Nika, Theo, and Lea. The day had already been off to a great start for them, too, from the looks of it, as Tori came along, good, and giddy and happy to see everyone, receiving all the good birthday hugs from her grandparents. She kept running from one person to another as they spent the day together, and it was to wonder if she didn't have some secret cache of sugar somewhere.

It was all its own bag of emotions, to watch this little one grow. She had come into their lives as a babe, just six weeks old, and there had been no turning back. She was like a mini version of Ella as she grew. She did very much have something of her Petrelis side in her, but it was impossible to see her and her mother side by side and not see which side had the majority. The raven hair, the near turquoise eyes… They'd seen her through all the same steps as they'd done with their little daughters, and even though it would never have been something either of them had planned or imagined, becoming grandparents when they were barely parents to begin with, they wore the title boldly and proudly. Tori Friar was their granddaughter, and today she was a whole four years old.

"Pappy Luke?"

"Yes, sneaky?" he looked down, then back up, as his previous assumption that she was standing behind him was now shown to be off. She had been standing behind him, but then she had climbed on to the couch, the better to be closer to his eye level. She was now trying to go and stand on the armrest, and he quickly reached out both hands to get hold of hers, to steady her. "Hi," he laughed now that she'd arrived. The climb cut most of the distance, though they were still not eye to eye.

"I almost forgot to tell you!" Tori informed him, and he gasped. No! It made her giggle.

"What did you almost forget?" he asked her, and for a moment she seemed to have forgotten again, but then she remembered.

"I got to ride a pony!"

"You did?" Lucas asked, smiling.

"Yeah," she nodded. "When Mommy was at riding lessons, over there." As she'd said she would do, Ella had started taking lessons, first in Austin, when Maya had been on leave, but then also in Houston, so she wouldn't have to drive back and forth all the time. "The man there, he said he knows you."

"The one with the ponies?" Lucas asked, and Tori nodded. "Ah, that'll be Fred, yeah?" It was. "He's really nice, isn't he?" Tori nodded; she thought so, too.

"He said to say hi."

"Thank you for the message," Lucas told her.

"Pappy Luke?"

"Yes, sneaky?" he chuckled, as their conversation 'reset.' She motioned for him to lean in closer, so she could whisper at his ear, so he did as she asked.

She had a question, and possibly she didn't dare to ask it of either of her parents, or she just felt like he'd be the one to be able to tell her. Is Lea my mommy now, too? She was little, but she could see what was happening around her. How could she not? She knew her father and Lea were together now, that their relationship was going strong, so how could she not wonder?

He looked around, at who was within earshot, finally decided to do as she'd done and whispered at her ear. It wasn't his place to give any kind of answer, not when he wasn't the one who had it. This was up to Ella, and Theo, and if she was going to be in this, then Lea, too. So, he told Tori to talk to them, promised her that it would be okay. It was the best he could do, and she was satisfied.

"Sneaky?"

"Yeah, Pappy Luke?"

"Next time you see him, say hi to old Fred for me?" Oh, she would do that. And then she'd get to ride a pony again…

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners