A/N: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available!
October 7th 2022
Chapter 280
Our Flight Through Summer
They were going to tell her today. Tell… Ask? She was five years old now, and part of them would go and think 'she's getting older, maybe she should have a say in this decision?' But then they knew that this was just going to be one of those things where they had to act as her parents, to do what would be best for her in the long run, whether she could see it or not. Then again, maybe they were worrying for nothing. Maybe she would be okay with it, excited about it. For Tori to leave Houston would mean that she no longer lived at Sophie and Chiara's, some nights at Asher and Ray's. It meant she would no longer be sharing her day to day with the four of them, or with their children, wouldn't be with Lea either. And she would be without her mother. That was always, always going to be the biggest obstacle to this plan, they knew. Tori's relationship with her mother was such a deep and true bond that, parted from it, even if they would still get to talk every day, and see each other on weekends, they would expect her to struggle.
But on the other side… On the other side there would be the house where she'd lived, since she was a baby, the house where her grandparents lived, and her aunts… There would be her great grandparents, and her great great grandparents… There would be more of the turtles and junior turtles, all the places she'd come to know and love out there… And there would be her father. Theo may not have been in her life from the start, but once he had come into it, oh… They had more than made up for it, at every chance they got. It hadn't taken long before Tori had grasped on to the fact that she finally had her father, and she was always so happy to go and see him, so sad when she had to leave him. Now, she would get to see so much more of him, live with him longer than she ever had, him and her aunt Nika. It would be a good thing… if she could see past the 'less of Mom' hurdle. And it would only be for the next two years. Then, Ella would be coming back to Austin, and they would figure things out again.
They weren't sure when exactly in the day they would tell her. They were all headed to the Babineaux party at Zay and Nadine's and, setting aside the fact that it would be the last proper, full day that Ella and Taylor had before he returned to Indiana, maybe it would be best to wait until after the party to talk to Tori, so not to cause a scene out there if she reacted badly.
"This is for at your house," GiGi Babineaux greeted them with a stern look as she presented the Friars with their welcome batch of GiGi cookies. This year, they'd set the three and a half-year-old up with a table, stacked with the small boxes, so she wouldn't have to run back and forth for another one each time a guest showed up. She also had a coloring book and some crayons for while she waited.
"Thank you," Lucas grinned. He made as though he was about to open the box and the girl at once stepped up and reached out her hands to stop him.
"For at your house," she insisted, and Lucas gave a respectful tip of the head.
"Of course, sorry," he told her. "Does that mean there's none that we can have here?" he added in a quiet voice, and now there was that smile… They would never distinguish Mia and Izzy from her because they were adopted and she wasn't, but then she'd give them this smile, or a look, and it would be impossible not to think about how she was so like her parents, how she looked like them both. Now as to her older siblings…
"You're here!" Mia came dashing down the stairs so fast that her aunt and uncle both tensed like she was bound to fall. But the seven-year-old arrived without incident and almost in the same breath as greeting everyone else, she got hold of Maya's hand. "I have to show you something," she insisted, and there was absolutely no room for delay, so Maya followed her back up the stairs.
Even as they were going up, four-year-old Isaiah Babineaux III came from the kitchen with a funny sort of smile on his face. Not that it was difficult to figure out where his mind was at. He was still so little that he didn't know any other way. The fact was that he had – to the best of his four and a half years – something of a crush on little Tori Friar. It was as adorable as it would sound, to imagine how he would be when she was around. His parents would always say that he had been biding his time before he'd had the operations on his legs, before he'd gotten his prosthetics, and now that he had them, all he wanted to do was run and run and run. But then there would be the sneaky raven-haired girl, and he would be stalled where he stood, and he would want to be where she was, and do what she was doing… On the flipside, Tori may only have seen him and found a friend, but he was a very good friend, so he was always welcome at her side.
"Hi, Tori," he waved at her.
"Hi, Izzy," she waved back.
"I have something for you, for your birthday," he pointed into the living room, and that was all she needed to hear. They ran off together so she could see what this 'something' was.
By the time Maya came back down from seeing what Mia had wanted to show her, the rest of the family had dispersed, and she figured they were now anywhere, like the kitchen, or the yard, or they had been sent down to the basement to bring up some thing or another from the second refrigerator. The first new person she encountered as she reached the ground floor was one of her students… former student now.
"Hey," Maya automatically went up and embraced Olivia Zhu. "How's the apartment? You guys all settled in?"
From all that she'd heard over the summer, it had been rough going for the recent graduates in finding the right place for them to live as they ventured out on their own. They had plenty to factor in for what would be The Right Place, from proximity to school for Ava, Kelsey and Britt, to accessibility for Kelsey and her wheelchair… Between the four of them girls, they figured they could afford something decent, and they were hopeful. Except it took weeks for them to actually lock down an apartment and make it officially theirs. Even once they'd gotten that far, they'd had to have some minor work done on the place, even as everyone was getting packed up and ready to move in as soon as they could. They had finally had their moving day less than a week ago, with the start of classes for three of them right around the corner. The only one not in this situation was Olivia.
"Getting there," she nodded. "It's been complicated to figure out some of it, with everyone's things…"
"Yeah, been there," Maya chuckled, recalling the early days in Houston.
She didn't have to ask about how things were going with Olivia and her parents. Up until moving day, she had been living right here, at her big sister's house, and from all that Maya had seen and heard from her friend and bandmate, there had been zero contact between them all summer. Nadine was still as frustrated with the entire situation as she'd been from the start. She knew that this didn't have to be the way between them, and that her parents needed to suck it up and apologize to Olivia. They missed her, and deep down they had to know it was all on them. But they were too proud, and so they were stuck, and the longer this went on, Nadine was afraid they would have to climb much, much higher in order to rejoin their youngest. Because of that, on top of everything, they weren't coming to the party today. They claimed that they had a prior engagement, but Nadine didn't believe a word of it, and by the look on her face now, neither did Olivia.
"You should come by… sometime… I'm sure the others would love to show you around," she told her former teacher, and Maya smiled.
"Just tell me when and I'll be there."
Where Lucas had disappeared off to when Maya had come down was the back yard. Knowing it would really only be a matter of time before they wanted to go, once they arrived, the whole family had their bathing suits on under their clothes, and even as he'd been amused by the sight of Tori opening her present while Izzy looked on, he'd soon been compelled to go outside so they could go to the pool. Remy was the first to reach to strip off her top layer, revealing her bathing suit, and it didn't take long before Kacey and Lucy did the same, and Mackenzie tried and struggled to do the same until Marianne helped her. Before they knew it, they were in the pool, many a water wing working to keep the triplets afloat, even as their big sister swam circles around them. Lucas had Mackenzie in one arm as he kept an eye on them, standing with the water to his waist. Sometimes he'd dip in until she had water to her waist, and he would laugh at the way she'd react, screeching and kicking her feet about, tapping at the surface with her hands.
"You alright there, Mackerel?" he asked, dipping his free hand in the water so he could bring it up and let droplets of it rain over her head, making her laugh and move about.
"Dada!" she blinked and shook her head around.
"Do you want me to stop or do it again?" he wondered, grinning. He dipped his hand, letting her see what he was doing. She squealed, held her arms close to herself, bracing but also waiting. She knew it would be cold, but she wanted it anyway, so he gave her another shot, and she was thrilled.
"Mama!" she called now, and he turned to find that she was coming up to join them, having reclaimed baby Aubrey from where she'd ended up in the arms of Isaiah the first.
"Ah, this takes me back, it's just like camping," she joked, and Lucas laughed. Very carefully, she sat down with the baby on one of the steps headed into the water, low enough so her legs were submerged, but the baby was for now still dry in her little bathing suit. Mackenzie wanted to come nearer to them, so Lucas helped and brought her along. She'd started lessons with Keith Reyes, like her sisters, over the summer, and being all of sixteen months old, she was doing pretty well for herself, but nowhere near to when her father wouldn't be right there, ready to catch her. She didn't like having her head completely underwater yet, was kind of scared whenever they'd try, but she'd get there in time. "Hey, Mackerel, you made it," Maya smiled, more so at the proud look on that little face she loved so. Mackenzie took hold of her mother's knees for support even as she tried to get a look at her baby sister's face.
"Hi… Hi…" she quietly spoke. Aubrey, who had been barely awake, turned her head, looking for the source of the sound, so Maya turned her about, careful to shield her eyes from the sun. They'd tried to put a hat on her, same as they'd done with Mackenzie, but she wouldn't have it. "Hi!" Mackenzie spoke again, a little louder now. She reached up and touched the baby's foot with her wet hand, but that made Aubrey cry, and Mackenzie pulled back at once, nearly losing her balance but immediately being caught up by Lucas.
"It's okay, she was just surprised," he told Mackenzie, seeing that look of 'oh, no, what did I do?' concern grow on her face. Maya quickly had the baby calmed again, and when Mackenzie touched her again, she didn't flinch. If anything, when Lucas encouraged her to play the 'rain game' with her, Aubrey just sort of blinked, and looked startled in a good, almost curious way. The two of them were the closest in age to one another, and it was hard to see Mackenzie as anyone's big anything, but she was starting to come into her own, slowly but surely.
TXNY might have played for the party that day, but Maya was still on leave from work, and the same went for the band. She would regain the stage before the end of the year, but not yet. Instead, the party stage welcomed a performance from the reunited We Are Sisters. Cara and her family were back from New York, back to stay, at least for now. Everything was progressing very nicely out there for the musical, and she could safely return here, flying back to New York if needed, which was what she'd wanted. As much as the last few months had been a great experience for her and Mateo and Felix, being in her hometown, Austin had just become that in its own right. It was the hometown of this new chapter in her life, and she was where she needed and wanted to be.
The big news for Tori would be revealed near the end of the day. By that point, several of the guests would have already left, leaving it down to more 'core' family and friends. There had been no plan, but it had come up, and so they'd told her, about how they wanted to bring her to live with her father, so she could go to school in Austin already instead of in two years. They explained it as simply but clearly and honestly as they could. She didn't take it badly, though it did take several reassurances, from her father, and from her mother, her grandparents… It would be really good for her, they were certain, but they also wanted her to tell them if something wasn't working well for her. They would listen to her in what ways they could in order to make this the best experience it could be. And just like that, it was decided. Tori would be living with Theo and Nika. They had very little time to work out some details, but there was nothing to worry about. They would get her all set for the start of fall and the new school year.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
