November 30th 2022

Chapter 334
Our Pride For Family

Maya and Lucas both had been wondering how Marianne would do, the closer they got to premiere night. Would it all get to be too much? What if she got stage fright? Everyone at the theater had been wonderful about helping her and the other children for this exact possibility, and all in all it did look like they were in good hands. But now it was the eve of premiere, and the frenzy was right there as much for the seven-year-old as for her parents… maybe them more than her. They had to realize that once she started telling them that everything would be okay.

"You know, the older they all get, the more new things happen with them, I am getting to see… so many things from a new perspective now?" Maya reflected that evening, as they were getting ready to receive their parents for dinner. Out in the hall, they could hear – and feel – five of their girls running after one another with loud squeals that made it hard to figure out who were the chasers and who was the chased. Either way, they were having fun, zooming from the green room to the nursery and back, so the impulse was to let them carry on, but at the same time they knew from experience that this bit of fun could all come to a screeching halt the second someone tripped or ran into something and they got hurt. Even as he chuckled at Maya's comment, Lucas went and tipped his head out the door, with Aubrey balanced in one arm.

"Hey, hey," he reached out and stalled the current leader of the pack, Remy, which thankfully did not end in a pile-up. Everyone came to a safe stop, a little breathless and still laughing. "Everyone will be here soon, want to go keep an eye out for them?" he asked. That was good enough for them, and off they went, climbing down the stairs. Lucas could just hear Mackenzie calling 'Nana! Grampa!' in her squeaky little voice and Marianne telling her they weren't actually here yet, and he laughed when Mackenzie just kept on calling for the people she knew would soon be here. "Do you know what your big sisters are?" he turned back to Aubrey, who smiled as soon as he was looking at her. "Bunch of little weirdos," he whispered and kissed her cheek.

Just days off from ten months, she may only have had so much context, but the voice and the face were enough to get her laughing, grasping at her father's cheeks. Her fingers had a way of hooking right past his cheeks and into his ears after a while, and he would try and get her to let go, but that would only amuse her some more and then he'd have no chance.

"Those are some very nice earrings we made, huh?" Maya teased him when she saw. Lucas opened his mouth to reply, only to catch a whiff and feel…

"Yes, pooping earrings, they're all the rage in Paris," he sighed, looking down to confirm his suspicions. There it is… "Be right back," he moved out of the room and down the hall just as, coming from below…

"They're here! They're here!" several voices informed the house at large, which got several of the dogs barking. Maya hurried out and climbed down the stairs. Having already seen that it was indeed the Hunters and Clutterbuckets, which gave her permission, Marianne had gotten the door open to let her grandparents, aunts, uncle, and great grandparents into the house. Greetings were expectedly a bit of a mess with so many people on both sides talking all at once, but they kind of loved the mess.

It was kind of funny, from this side of it, to see that they weren't the only ones to be fretting, on the eve of Marianne's debut, especially as the girl continued to be a voice of reason against this front of adult panicking. She was ready, more than ready. She could do the whole show for them, start to finish, on her own if she had to. She was just as comic in her maturity toward the subject matter, especially when there were certain words that they would never want any of their children from the seven-year-old on down to speak while out and about or surrounded by strangers. They'd had a good talk with her, guessing from previous situations that she would be able to handle it, about the story, and what was going on in all those parts that did or didn't involve her. And once she'd known, whenever she would go around singing those other songs, for her little sisters or not, they could see her conscientiously mumbling 'the bad words.' The three and under crowd never noticed a thing.

"Where's the ear puller?" Shawn asked when he and Maya got to greet one another.

"Oh, her?" Maya chuckled. "Ran into a bit of a diaper emergency, but she'll be right down, then she can cling on to yours for a change."

"Grampa!" a chirp drew their attention down.

"Fleetwood!" Shawn matched Mackenzie's tone as he hoisted her up and kissed her cheek. "I almost didn't see you down there. Better stick with me, huh? Yeah."

It only took the time of Lucas getting Aubrey all sorted out and coming down to join everyone for his own parents to arrive, along with his grandparents. Pappy Joe and Patty were spending the next couple of nights in Austin, all the better to guarantee that they would not run into any issues getting to Marianne's premiere performance.

"Pappy Tom!" Marianne bolted to hug him as soon as she saw him, and oh how he very happily returned the favor, topping it off with a kiss to the golden crown of her hair. They all had their own way of showing how dearly they loved this girl, her and all her sisters, but Lucas had to say, maybe because she'd been the first of all of them, how special both of his parents' relationships to Marianne had always been to him. The more she grew, that love grew with her. Before Tom even got the chance to speak to her, there were the triplets, weaving in, and Marianne turned to hug her Granny Mel, her soulmate from day one. As was to be expected, Melinda Friar was… a little emotional… on the eve of her granddaughter's big night.

"How are you feeling, sweetheart? Excited?" she asked, even as they could see that she was trying not to cry, holding the girl's face cupped in her hands.

"Very excited," Marianne reported, herself the picture of fierce strength and determination. She could not be shaken, and for her sake, her parents hoped that this would remain the same once she stood in front of the audience, under the lights… "Oh, I have to show you!" she gasped, breaking from the hold to dash into the living room and locate something. She brought it back now and held it up for her grandparents and all the others to see. It was a tin box, nothing overly fancy or expensive but nonetheless meaningful. The print on the top showed locations in France. "Nadia got it for me," she told them.

"That's the one who plays the grown up Cosette, yeah?" Katy smiled and Marianne nodded. She had been the one Marianne got closest to, not even because of the link between them, though it definitely made it amusing, too.

"It's for my memories, from the show," she told the guests, and they all appreciated the gesture.

"She was a freshman in my class, some years back," Maya informed them. "But then she moved across town, so she switched schools." It had been a delight for Maya to see her again and find out what had become of her, especially as Nadia had met her with excitement. To this day, she remembered that one year of art class the most, and she'd been thrilled to see her again. It had likely also played into her connection to Marianne, though by now it had moved well beyond.

"You're going to sign my program, yeah?" MJ asked his niece when she'd shown how she had a little notebook inside the tin box, for notes and autographs from the rest of the cast. Marianne had a momentarily surprised look and she almost pointed to herself as though to say 'who, me?' "You have to know how you're going to sign your name," MJ went on, and this introduced another curiosity into her mind.

"Show me," she grabbed hold of her uncle's arm and pulled him toward the living room. They soon sat together at the coffee table, where MJ showed her the 'finer points of celebrity autographs' and they practiced with markers and scrap paper for coloring.

"Now, what about you three? Going to become big musical stars like your big sister?" Pappy Joe inquired of the triplets soon after, as they were getting settled around the dinner table. Ella was on her way to join them, picking Tori up from Theo's on the way, but she'd told them to get started without them if everyone was too hungry, especially the kids. They would do their best to hold out for the two of them. Pappy Joe was sitting down, as Kacey, Remy, and Lucy hovered near him. He would be teased by his wife, his son, and his grandson that this was the Santa effect, still working for him.

As to his question, the triplets looked three different shades of confused, whether it was to wonder if that was really possible, or why no one had told them before, or why they would ever under any circumstances want to do a thing like that. It made Pappy Joe laugh, even as Patty motioned for the girls to come toward her, so she could help them get settled into their seats.

"Got that thing figured out yet?" Maya quietly asked as she spied Marianne ever so secretly scribbling at something under the table while they waited. She showed her attempts at some 'fancy signature.' Considering how she was still overall new at writing, it had potential. Marianne would point out that it wasn't unlike drawing, and Maya had to agree.

"Do you have a fancy autograph?" Marianne asked, like it had only occurred to her. Maya smiled, motioned for her to hand the marker over and put the paper on the table.

"This is what I do when I'm just me," she explained, signing out Maya Friar in a very legible hand with some style to it, because she couldn't help herself, as she would say. Marianne smiled; she'd seen this plenty of times. "But if anyone wants the other kind, then I'm…"

"Hart," Marianne filled in, and Maya nodded before giving her alternative signature. It wasn't as though she used it all the time, especially here in Austin, but it had happened over the years, especially the year of the tour and the album with Ree Forster, the year where this girl right here was still in her belly… That only made her realize how long it had been.

"Which one do you like best?" Maya asked, and Marianne considered them. She clearly liked them both for their own qualities, but actually picking one seemed impossible. She was saved from picking at the sound of the doorbell, followed by the door opening and…

"Hello?"

"Ella!" Marianne bolted from her chair, kicking off a brand new race, as Mackenzie, Remy, Lucy, and Kacey also ran to go and find their big sister. Even Aubrey, presently in Gracie's arms, started shifting around like she wanted to get to her, so her aunt got up to bring her out.

"Pappy Luke!" Tori appeared a moment later. Lucas had expected this and was already on his way to find her, so he picked her up. "I'm hungry," she informed him as they hugged.

"Well, that's good, because dinner is ready. We were just waiting for you."

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners