A/N: Leave it to me to forget to post a chapter until way late because I was so focused on writing a couple other chapters...

February 13th 2020

Chapter 44
Their Careers to Ignite

Lucas: You're joking?

Maya: No! He's really doing it!

Lucas: No, but really.

Maya: I swear on all my siblings, and my parents, and the dogs, and you.

Lucas: Wow.

Maya: I know.

Lucas: How'd he look when he went in there?

Maya: Like he might pass out… or throw up… So nothing I wasn't expecting.

Maya: He's coming back! TTYL

She had tried not to write him just yet, to wait until whatever would happen did or didn't come to pass, but then after watching her little brother jog up from the minivan and toward Cecilia's high school… Her nerves were just not having it with the wait, and the anticipation, and just staying out here. If she didn't do something she would have gone in the building to try and sneak a look. But now Sam was coming back, so she allowed herself to climb out and meet him.

"So?" she asked with a nervous smile. He'd looked all pale and a tiny bit sickly when she'd last seen him, and now he looked… well, still a bit on the woozy side maybe, but…

"I did it," he told her, like he didn't quite believe it himself.

"What did she say? What did you say? Wait, you still need to go to school," she interrupted herself. "Okay, get in, tell me on the way." They climbed back into the minivan and started on their way to the university.

When he'd finally gotten around to telling the story, which took a couple minutes of sitting and processing, Maya had half a mind to pull to the side of the road so she could give him her full attention. She would have done it, too, if it wasn't that both she and he had somewhere to be and they were on a clock. So she went on driving, and he told her what had happened when he'd gone in search of Cecilia.

By some chance, they'd been discussing their class schedules the night before, back at the house, and he remembered seeing the room number for her first period of that day. Her brother was one of a few people she could believe would remember that kind of thing at a glance. He had gone in search of that room, hoping he would find her there. He didn't, but luckily for him her locker was just up the hall from the class, and that was where she'd been standing. She had seen him, and when she'd said his name out of surprise for seeing him in her school, he'd turned and seen her.

"This is going to sound weird, but she kind of looked… different all of a sudden."

"Different how?" Maya asked.

"I mean, she didn't change or anything, but I saw her and it was like… whatever it was that kept fogging my head up was gone, and I could see so much clearer now. I don't know that I'd ever been so happy to see her…" he smiled to himself, and even though she couldn't see it head on, out of the corner of her eye it was one of the best things Maya had ever seen. "She was surprised to see me, of course, and I think she was wondering if I'd found her note or not. I told her that I'd found it, and I'd read it, and that I'd come to find her because I wanted her to know as soon as possible that I did want to go out with her."

"What'd she say?" Maya quickly asked.

"Nothing at first, she just looked kind of shocked, you know? I kept looking to make sure her crutch wasn't going to slip and make her lose her balance or anything."

"Would have been bad, yeah…"

"But then she just kept staring at me, and… she just started to smile, and she laughed… Her laugh's kind of the best, you know?"

"Yeah, it's… it's a good one," Maya agreed, her own face locked in such a smile, listening to her brother's voice and how lifted it felt all of a sudden. "Thank you, red light," she breathed as the car slowed to a stop and she was able to look at Sam, reach for his hand for a good squeeze. "I'm so happy for you, I can't even handle it. Did you guys decide when you would…"

"No, well, her teacher showed up then, and he could tell I didn't go there…"

"Because you weren't wearing the uniform?" Maya teased. "And you're a boy…"

"That, yeah. So I kind of had to leave, but she said she'd write."

"Not bad, first day of school, huh?"

Maya carried her good mood all the way to the university, where she saw Sam off for the day, and then to the coffee shop down the street from the theater and then into the building where she soon ran across Siobhan, and Matilda, and Lily, treating each of them to their preferred drink and pastry combo before taking the last of these to her mother's office.

"I bring caffeine and sugar, how much do you love me?" she declared.

"Well, now, I need to wait and see what the rest of my children bring me," Katy laughed.

"Please, I've got seventeen years on those tiny humans," Maya 'scoffed,' setting her tray and bag on the desk, where her mother gladly served herself.

"Can't argue with that. By the way, you're really chipper this morning, is there a reason for that? Should I be getting balloons?"

"Ooh, balloons…" Maya pondered for a moment, then, shaking her head, "No, too much, too much…"

"I was joking," her mother laughed like she really didn't understand what she was going on about.

"No, yeah, it's all good, it's just… first day of school, for Lucas and Sam," Maya explained, sitting on the edge of her mother's desk with her own cup until she was shooed into sitting in a chair.

"Oh, right!" Katy nodded. "The girls and MJ started again this morning, too." Halfway through the year already, Maya was sure she would have gotten used to the fact that her sisters were now first graders, but nope… it still felt so weird that they could be that age already. "And you've got your big day coming up," Katy went on. "I've said how proud I am, yeah?"

"Only a couple hundred times, but I'm not complaining," Maya smiled.

"If you're not too busy today, I could use your help with something."

"Shoot," Maya nodded at once, feeling energized enough to speed through any of her workload and then someone else's while she was at it.

"Just a quick reading for an audition," her mother casually replied.

"Well, I can get Stanley," she pointed out the door. "He should be around here today…"

"No, no, just you, it'll be fine."

"I'm not the one who does those though," Maya reminded her mother.

"Why, you used to do it all the time," Katy pointed out.

"Yeah, with you, when I was like six and reading things I really shouldn't have been reading about…" It took way too long for her to put two and two together, and when she did she just stared back in awe. "You… You're the one auditioning?"

"Yeah," her mother chuckled.

"But you haven't… I mean, not since we moved out here."

"Well, I always thought I'd get back to it eventually, but you know, I got pregnant with the twins… and then MJ… and Haley… Time just kept on getting away, but that didn't mean I wasn't keeping my options open. And now Haley is one and a half, and she will never be a big sister… It's time, and there's a part, for a play coming on later this year," Katy pulled a folder from her desk and held it out to her daughter. Maya took it, setting her cup down to have a look.

"Oh, yeah, I heard about this one… Woah, lead role?" she looked back up to her mother. "Don't take this the wrong way, but are you sure about this? It has been… ten years and then some."

"Which is why I need your help," Katy nodded, taking her words in the best way.

"This is… this afternoon," Maya blinked.

"If you're busy, you don't…"

"Hang on," she got up, taking her coffee and donut down the hall to her office, where Lily waited, playing on her phone as she ate her muffin. "Hey, what's on for today?"

A few minutes later, she returned to her mother's office, shutting the door before pulling her hair into a ponytail. She was ready to go. Her mother had something not unlike Sam's nervous/excited look from this morning, which only kept the fires burning on Maya's giddy energy. The two of them spent nearly two hours at fine tuning Katy's audition. It had been so long since they'd done anything like this, close to if not half Maya's lifetime ago. But it called back so many memories that it felt like the gap in years would shrink down until it didn't feel so wide.

Still, despite all that, Maya watched her mother, listened to her as she gave her monologue and… If she was entirely honest, which she couldn't say for certain her mother would want her to be, the memories she had of her acting were… Well, they weren't bad, not exactly, but they weren't exactly good either. There was a reason Katy Hart had not been anywhere near a household name, and it wasn't just about rotten luck or undiscovered talent, missing opportunities, anything like that.

She remembered those old auditions her mother had her help to prepare, and if she could tell at the time that her mother needed a lot of work, the Katy she saw now… She couldn't explain it. Maybe the fact that she'd spent the last ten years in a theater, not acting but still in the midst of this world, or maybe that she'd just lived so much in all this time, fuelling her experiences in the world…

She was kind of amazing… captivating… If she saw her on a stage, she would remember her, she'd want to know who this woman was.

"Was it okay?" Katy asked when she was finished. Maya blinked. Her mother had been a completely different person a moment ago, and now she was herself again. When she was little, much as she'd work at it, her mother would still read as… well, her mother, like no matter what name you put to her character, she was just Katy Hart, in whatever situation the scene required her to be in. "Was it bad?" she cringed, when Maya hadn't replied. "It's that last part, I just…" she shook her head.

"No, no, don't do it any other way," Maya insisted, moving to rise from her chair.

"Are you sure? You don't think it was too much?"

"Not at all. It was like… just enough… like Baby Bear level, you know?"

"Four kids six and under, yeah, I'm familiar with Goldilocks," Katy laughed before looking at the time. "Oh, I have to make a call before lunch, and you… I have taken enough of your time, go on, I release you."

"Okay, but only because I'm meeting friends at lunch today and I have check in with the team… Let me know how the audition went, okay?"

"I will," Katy breathed deep.

"Break a leg," Maya hugged her mother. "Both legs, arms…"

"Yeah, alright, get moving while I can still walk," her mother laughed.

Getting back to her office, Maya couldn't help but think of tonight, when she'd be home, and Lucas would come back, and they would all share how their day had gone. Between Sam and Cecilia making a run at it, and Katy's audition, and Lucas and Sam's first days, they would have enough conversation for a six course meal…

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners