August 6th 2022

Chapter 218
Our Magic in Secrets

As bittersweet as it was to see their firstborn travel from one side of the November 30th evening tradition to the other, they really were kind of happy to see it happen. Marianne was made for this kind of thing. She knew it would make her little sisters happy, taking them by surprise when they woke up in the morning, and would continue to do so as the days and weeks progressed, bringing them ever nearer to The Big Day… Christmas was on its way.

Over the week following Thanksgiving, she had taken great delight in sneaking around with her parents, wanting to know things ahead of fairy night. Who would be there? What would they all do, what would she do? Did they need to get anything new? Could she have some say in how to decorate in hers and Mackenzie's room? She had ideas.

There had been some disappointment out of Marianne's friends that they wouldn't do their sleepover on the thirtieth like they'd done last year, to discover the passage of the fairies at the Friar house, but they had dealt with this disappointment by making a plan of how they would remedy this: over the holidays, they would have something like a sleepover crawl. In the days leading up to Christmas, they would have sleepovers at the Friars', yes, but also at the Graysons', Beaumonts', and Abernathys'. They might have had one at Lily's, too, except that she would be away in the days leading up to Christmas, visiting family back in England with her mother… and Teddy. He would be meeting them for the first time as Priya's boyfriend. They would make up for this after Lily came home.

Now here they were, on the night of November 30th, and it was a wonder Marianne didn't give the whole game up with how much she was looking forward to getting started. Both Maya and Lucas had seen her more than once eyeing the basement door, like she was just thinking about going down there to rummage through the containers, boxes, bags… Eventually – finally – the triplets were off to sleep. Mackenzie was already off dozing in her crib, and now that Kacey, Lucy, and Remy were doing the same in their beds, the moment was upon them. While Maya was upstairs, sticking around for a bit to make sure everyone would stay down, Lucas led Marianne into the basement so they could start hauling things upstairs. He gave her everything that was light enough and not so cumbersome as to prevent her from climbing the stairs safely, and little by little everything was stacking up in the living room.

"Got it?"

"Yeah!" Marianne strained.

"Careful, pumpkin."

"I know, Daddy."

This year, as promised, Cara and Mateo were on hand to help with the decorating ahead of their departure with their son as they headed for New York on musical business. Felix was with the Hillards, dozing and entirely unaware of his parents' covert 'fairy schemes.' Ella had wanted to make it, Lea as well, but it just wasn't possible for them to make the drive that evening and make it back with enough sleep in them the next morning for a very important study session. They'd vowed to drop in the next afternoon and see how it all turned out.

In their stead, they had several first time helpers. They had Stella and François, and Phoebe and Desi, and Nellie and Gracie. Understandably, it was very exciting for Maya's young sisters to get to be a part of this after having heard about it for the last few years. They'd never gotten to go before, but now they were here, and they shared in their niece's excitement. They'd gotten Stella and her boyfriend from word of mouth, as the twins had told and invited Desi, who had asked Phoebe to come, too, and from there…

"Where's the tree?" Marianne looked to her father as his latest load from the basement was taken in hand by Nellie and brought to the rest.

"Up the road, with the Sandersons," Lucas bent to her eye level. "Want to come with me to get it?" She smiled; did she ever…

Phoebe accompanied them, along with Mateo. They walked up the road, Marianne perched on her father's shoulders. She could walk to and from the farm just fine, but it was getting late, and there was no reason for her to tire herself out before 'the fun began.' It all worked fine by her. It was very rare for her to be walking the lane at this hour of night. It was dark, quiet, kind of spooky… The pumpkin couldn't get enough of it, though she did break from her reverie when she saw the great big tree all trussed up and ready to be carried back home. The others all took up a grip and started back the way they'd come, and she wasn't satisfied to ride on her father's shoulders anymore. She wanted to be let down so she could help. Did she actually support any of the weight on her six-year-old arms? Not even a little. But she looked satisfied and that was good enough. She sped up ahead, ducking under the tree, as they approached the house, the better to go and knock at the door. Maya opened the door and found her daughter there, giddy, and breathless.

"The tree's coming, we brought it back!"

"Okay, good, good, gotta stay quiet, remember?" Maya whispered, and Marianne's face burst with a look of 'oh, right!' as she looked back to the trio coming along with their load. She stood back with her mother, as instructed, and it was set in its place before the branches were allowed to come down.

"Woah…" Marianne breathed.

"That's what we're going to do now, huh?" Maya tapped her shoulders, and Marianne nodded before looking up at her. Her eyes asked, 'what first?'

Inside and outside the house, the first order of business would be lights. They would go up on the house and they would be strung around the tree. The outside portion was a lot less time consuming than the inside, so even as Lucas, Cara, and Mateo worked on that, the rest of the team was moving along inside. The twins and Desi took it upon themselves to decorate the triplets' room, taking great care not to wake any of them. Meanwhile, Phoebe, Stella and François alternated helping with the tree and seeing to other decorations for the living room, and the kitchen, and wherever they went. The only exceptions were the master bedroom – that was up to Maya and Lucas – and the green room – Marianne had to see to that one herself – and Eliza and Emma's rooms.

"You know this was Aunt Luna's thing before?" Maya confided in Marianne as she sat concentrated on a box of ornaments, those personalized ones they had been gathering over the years. She looked up to her mother, who nodded. "I asked if I could do it with you, too, and she said yes, so that's how the fairies came here…"

"Ginny said that the fairies came to her house, too," Marianne remembered.

The ornaments would go up, slowly but surely. It was the first time that Marianne got to do this, and she looked almost overwhelmed. She wanted to look at each ornament from up close, and when she'd hold them, she'd look like she'd never realized how fragile they were, so she would very carefully bring them to her mother or one of the others helping. She got to hang some of them, either on the branches she could reach with her feet still on the ground or those she was lifted to by François, or Stella, or Phoebe.

"Wow, look at that, we got them all in there," Maya remarked.

"There's no more?" Marianne asked, surprised.

"All gone. Come here, step back," Maya motioned for her to join her. "What do you think? We did good?" Oh, yes… Marianne was as dazzled looking at this tree she'd helped to decorate as she'd been with those decorated by the fairies in past years. Maybe she was magic now, too.

"Now my room?" she finally looked to Maya. Yes, they would do her room now, and then she had to get to bed.

She changed into her PJs while the decorations were brought up the stairs, getting one thing out of the way already. She was looking in on the sleeping Mackenzie when her mother arrived ahead of her father, who'd offered himself to carry the load.

She may have only been six, but she had a good eye for things like this already, as they'd been seeing. Lucas would never miss a chance to point out where she'd gotten that eye; it sure wasn't from him. At one point, Mackenzie woke up, and Maya quickly swept in to collect her before she woke any of the triplets. Their room was all done now, no one walking around to be discovered, but it was still preferable for them to see everything in the morning. At this point, with Mackenzie being a baby and Marianne already knowing and participating… The surprise was all theirs to experience, the first they might have had a chance to hold on to in their memory, if for a little while.

"Guess it's just you and me now, huh?" Lucas looked to Marianne, and she was all smiles again. She was very glad to have him for a partner right here. And with the baby out of the room, being walked up and down the back half of the hallway by her mother, they had a bit more freedom of movement and sound, which sped a few things up.

"Daddy, look," Marianne held up what first looked to him like a picture of a Santa hat. He was going to comment on it until she reached down and picked at a corner of the hat, and it peeled off… a sticker? She took it and went up to the wall, where there had been painted a jolly dog that looked like their old, late dog, Trix. She stuck the sticker over its head, and it was as though the dog wore the hat.

"I see," Lucas laughed as he watched her go and pick up another of these sticker pages. One by one, she adorned the heads of the animals on her walls with the hats, all of them easily removable and reusable the following years, Maya later assured him. Whenever she got to an animal whose head was out of her reach, Marianne would turn to her father, and he would lift her up until she could get it done. "Good to know you're still too short for some things," he joked, kissing her cheek before putting her back down laughing.

Seeing as she'd been out of the room for a while, Maya ended up staying out of the green room with Mackenzie until it was all finished, the better to get surprised by the result. The empty boxes were brought out of the room to be taken down, and finally Marianne came to get her mother and sister. The baby may have been sleeping, but Maya was wide awake, and she smiled brightly as she saw what Lucas and Marianne had been up to.

"Do you like it?" Marianne asked.

"I love it, pumpkin," Maya assured her. "What about you?"

"I wish we could keep it like this all year," Marianne hummed, looking around again.

"You know, there's nothing stopping you from changing things up along the year like this. New Year's… Valentine's Day… you can play matchmaker with your animal friends," Maya pointed to the walls. "All the holidays, or the seasons, and…"

"Hallowannie," Marianne perked up.

"Especially Hallowannie," Maya agreed as she went and set Mackenzie down in her crib. "But that's not going to be for almost a whole other year, so right now, it's time for bed, my Fairykin, let's go."

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners