October 27th 2022
Chapter 300
Our Spookies in Gameland
With Marianne being off at blue group's haunted afternoon – as well she should be – everyone was already there that would be expected to be there for her birthday dinner save for her and Lucas and the others who'd been at the ranch. They had gotten the house ready, the games out front… The maze had already been assembled on the Oswalds' land, so all they had to do was add finishing touches so they could open it to the public later on. Now they just needed their birthday girl, and at last she came, already looking like she'd been having a fantastic day, and wearing a smile that said she was very eager for whatever would come next. She ran to find her mother as soon as she spotted her and there proceeded to unleash a torrent of words as she recounted her day. It was the most that Maya could recall hearing her firstborn speak in so short a time, and she hung on to her every word with a grin.
"Alright, well that seems like a lot for one day, are you sure you don't just want to go to bed now?" Maya casually asked, hooking her thumb over her shoulder. Marianne laughed and shook her head. "No? You sure? Fine, just don't overdo it, okay?" Maya teased, and Marianne promised. She saw her grandmother – miraculously back among the living and no longer a ghost haunting Juliet's old house – and ran over to her next, to hug her as she'd wanted to do back at the ranch.
As they got through dinner and were soon getting ready for their first outdoor guests to start gathering, it was very clear that the birthday girl did not lack for energy after her day as it had been up to that point. She'd been looking forward to this as much as the rest, and she had already been told that she could stay up past her bedtime, so she was going to make the most of it. Meanwhile, the kids started to arrive, as usual a mix of people who'd been there before and were returning for more, and some people who were attending for the first time, either because they'd meant to in the past but never got around to it or because they'd heard about it for the first time. The number of people who would come along to play the games and walk the maze and participate in the costume contest only increased from year to year, and this might have been the first one where it felt like they'd have to rethink a few things to ensure that there weren't too many of them showing up at once, blocking the road… They were going to manage for this year at least.
"Oh boy, here comes trouble," Maya breathed out. Lucas looked up from where he stood at Aubrey's crib, checking in on her before they went down. Dora had already volunteered to be on baby duty tonight while Sam was outside with Francesca. Maya was standing at the window in their bedroom, looking out and Lucas moved to join her, to see what 'trouble' there was. He soon found it, or at least guessed where she was looking.
He could see MJ out there, not far from Maia Bennett and Ash Bell, looking like they'd all just arrived, the three of them… and Lamar Whitley. MJ's friend who also might have been… something more. He looked back to Maya, knowing she'd understand far better than he ever could. Like her, once he'd found out about this joke the two friends had going between them, he'd been amused, more or less. They were not letting those bullies get the best of them, fine. But, also like Maya, he'd figured that it would be this brief thing, a day or two, maybe a week…
Instead, it had been nearly two months. In all that time, the two boys had continued on with this charade through the halls of their school. They'd continued to pretend and be boyfriends, nothing too out there… and it had been fine. MJ didn't have a boyfriend of his own or anyone he secretly liked in that way, and if Lamar was cool with it, then so was he. Only now things had been changing. As Maya had shared with Lucas, there had been the kiss, which had raised some questions in MJ, as it would. It had forced him to consider whether there might have been something more to this than what he'd assumed all along. Was it possible that Lamar had some genuine feelings for him? Whether he was aware of it or not? MJ was a good friend, and he didn't want to lead Lamar down a path that he might regret in the future or mislead him in any way. He was scared of losing his friend. He also didn't know what to make of what had happened after the musical auditions. Lamar hadn't tried to kiss him again, but there had definitely been a sense of wondering if he would do it again, and… whether MJ would want him to. He'd told his sister that it had felt different to him, different from the other boy he'd kissed before, like maybe there could be more, but… But he didn't know how to find out one way or the other.
Maybe it was this constant presence of teenage drama at these Halloween nights, but Maya was certain that something would happen, one way or the other, tonight, and this was her kid brother, so… she was concerned for him.
"Let's get back out there, yeah?" Lucas told her, kissing the back of her head. She nodded, and so they went.
There were a lot of clusters of people near the sign-up table for the costume contest, waiting for their information to be entered, whether they were signing up as individuals or groups or both. It created a bit of a blockage by the house, which Lucas worked to loosen up while Maya went on in search of her brother. She'd say that she wanted to stay covert, not to come off like the nosy sister/teacher, but she'd admit that it was hard to be covert in any way with her evening costume this year. For all that, it was hard to imagine that her brother would have seen her just now if she were standing two feet in front of him. At the moment, he had been accosted by a member of the LGBTeam, a sophomore from another school, and there was no mistaking his intents toward the freshman. He found MJ cute and was talking him up with a confident smile. Meanwhile, Lamar stood just a couple of steps away, looking every part like he was trying to act casual but failing all the same. Maya had seen this kind of look too many times not to understand it. He was MJ's friend, not truly his boyfriend, so there was no reason for him to be jealous or envious, and yet…
In the next moment, whether he realized he was doing it or not, Lamar was putting his arm around MJ's shoulders, talking to him with a smile. Whatever he said, before MJ even had time to properly react or respond, the other boy gave an equally familiar look of 'my bad, I didn't know' and walked off after a farewell to MJ. After returning that farewell, MJ stood there for a moment before turning to look at Lamar. Even from a distance, none of their words or their voices able to reach her, Maya could interpret what was being said. MJ wanted to know why Lamar had done that. Lamar claimed that he thought MJ was seeking an out, which he in fact was not. He'd actually kind of liked that boy, too, and now he was gone and thought he had a boyfriend, which he didn't. Maya knew he had said something to that effect just by the pained look on Lamar's face as he tried and failed to act like he knew this, like maybe some part of him had hoped that MJ was seeing that line between real and not real blur before his eyes, too. And then that realization was falling on MJ, too, and he was stunned, left to stand there in surprise long enough for Lamar to give some excuse and try to dash away. Then MJ ran after him, and Maya lost sight of them, didn't try to follow them.
"Hey…" Lucas appeared behind her, and Maya startled. "Sorry, there was just a lineup and… What happened?"
"What do you think?" she sighed, giving him the briefest rundown that she could. He sighed, too. What were they supposed to do about it now? "Nothing, or just… Keep an eye out for them if they need us, I guess," she told him before gesturing around. There was so much going on that demanded their attention still, especially their daughter, the birthday girl. With any luck, nothing more 'dramatic' than this would happen tonight, and they could focus on Marianne and her sisters, and the games, and the contest, all of it.
It became Marianne's privilege, this year and, as they would come to expect it, just about every year to come, to announce the winners of the costume contest. She'd wanted to be a judge this year, and so she got to be out there like the others, with her clipboard, taking notes. When the winners had been announced, the triplets got to do their last thing before heading to bed by handing out the prizes. Not too long after, having helped her parents to put her sisters to bed, Marianne made up her mind.
"I want to make my costume next year," she told her parents. They turned to look at her, intrigued. "Can you show me?" she asked them now. Maya and Lucas exchanged a look, and Lucas tipped his head, deferring to his wife for the answer.
"It might be difficult for you," Maya started with honesty, to which Marianne nodded. She knew. "But that's in a year, so if it's what you want, then we can try and make sure you can learn some skills." Another nod. "You'll probably have to start early, start of October… maybe start of September, or earlier." Another nod. "Well… There's some people you can talk to who'll be able to help you even more than me, depending on what you have in mind. You don't know what you're going to be yet, do you?" Maya presumed, and as expected Marianne shook her head. "Right, well… I can talk to the costume department at the theater, they've helped a lot before," she threw a smile to Lucas, who would be seeing a flash of her in her wedding dress in his head right then and there. "And there's Rosa's friend, Colton… Maybe I can see with Derek Boggs…" she thought of her former student, her second ever graduating class. "We'll figure it out," she finally summarized, and Marianne squealed excitedly before rushing up to embrace her.
"Maya!" Nellie and Gracie's voices echoed together as they were heading back outside. The pair came hurrying to their big sister and brother-in-law with faces that read like 'you'll never believe this.'
"Guess what we saw," Nellie asked. Maya looked at them, then Lucas, then back to her sisters.
"MJ and Lamar?" she pronounced her guess, and the twins' faces were a synchrony of shock. They'd been so sure they would have surprised her, shocked her.
"They're back there, on the side of the house, like full on making out!" Gracie went on, again matching her twin in an expression of baffled and awkward reaction. On the one hand, the connection between their brother and their friends' brother was one they hadn't seen coming, and on the other… well, it was kind of strange to see their younger sibling in that kind of situation. They still remembered when he'd been a tiny boy obsessed with stars. The one to break the tension was Marianne, who looked at her aunts with a deep gasp before speaking…
"You mean, kissing?" she asked, a little too loudly as she blinked at them, which made both of her parents burst out laughing. Marianne looked back at them, even more confused than before. The best thing that they could do right now was pretend like no one had seen anything and carry on with their spooky fun, and so they would.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
