February 14th 2020

Chapter 45
Their Careers to Grow

Recently, as they'd kicked off the new year, it had come to all of their attention that their group of friends had all gotten to see much less of one another than they would have liked since their return to Austin. Oh, they still saw each other a lot, once a week at least, but then for having been so used to seeing each other every day, or in some cases having been geographically parted for four long years… It didn't feel like nearly enough. They had thus made a resolution for 2026, to make efforts to change all that. The first of those involved a standing 'lunch date,' for any of them who were able to make it. They had chosen a day where they knew their various schedules – barring their being unexpectedly occupied – would have a shot at aligning and allowing for this.

Maya left the theater when the time came, making her way over to the diner. Sitting in those large booths was like hitting pause on the progress of time. Here, they were in a sort of constant and unending loop of just The Diner. She could be thirteen and new to Austin like she could be on the verge of turning twenty-four, as she was now, back in town again after being away at college, and this place would always give her that same feeling like she was home. It was one of the first places in Austin where she had felt at home, back when the move from New York was like an open wound in her.

"You're expected, over there," she was greeted by a smiling Fernando Garcia, who just looked like an older, larger version of his nephews, Asher and Joey.

"Thanks," she smiled back, veering toward those back booths to find her friends. Already arrived and chatting away were Riley, Rosa, Nadine, Kayla, and Rebecca. This would turn out to be all of them for the day, as the guys hadn't been able to make it. This was more than fine. She could do with a girls' lunch.

"Hey!" Riley was the first to spot her, waving at her as though she hadn't seen them already. "I wasn't sure you'd make it."

"Yeah, sorry, I was helping my mother with her audition, and then I had to get a couple things done and…"

"Wait, what audition?" Rosa cut in. Maya blinked, realizing she'd said it without thinking. Was she supposed to keep it a secret? Would she jinx her because of that? She could tell herself she didn't believe in jinxes all she liked, but then something like this would happen and immediately her brain would go 'oh, crap…'

"Uh, she's sort of going out for a part, for a new production that's coming up," she explained, scratching at the back of her neck.

"You told me she used to be an actress?" Kayla asked.

"Yes," Maya signed back, though with an accompanying expression that read more like 'sort of.' "She wanted to be an actress, wanted to be… a big star," she signed and spoke at once. "It just never really worked out for her. And then we moved out here because she got the job at the theater, and she wanted to give the both of us a better life, and then there were my sisters and my brother…"

"I remember the first time we had a sleepover at your place," Nadine smiled. "We read some of her old scripts she had. She wanted Zay to become an actor," she laughed, and the girls laughed, the three of them who'd been there especially.

It all seemed like so long ago all of a sudden. A whole decade of their lives, and even though it had felt like an eternity away from the other end of those ten years, too, now… All those years were packed to the gills with memories, with living… Putting down those markers, year one, year ten… One couldn't be blamed for turning a look the other way, to think about what it might be like when they hit year twenty… They'd be in their thirties by then, and it might have felt so odd to think about as it would have before, but it was still just… odd…

All through lunch, it felt like that whole line of thought was prodding at the back of her mind, like a sharp little finger digging deep into her brain she couldn't stop. The further it would dig, it would get closer and closer to cascading into other lines she really didn't need it to reach. The most unexpected one of those was this little insecurity she had been discovering and trying to ignore in the past few months.

She wasn't struggling. She had enabled her own success in coming up with Stage Ready and getting it off the ground… mostly off the ground… Everyone who would hear about it would look at her like they were so impressed and proud, and she was that, too, of course she was. But…

But she had spent the last four years studying to become a teacher. She was a teacher, by degree if not by an actual posting, an actual classroom, with students. After going around, not knowing what she wanted to make of herself in life, she'd discovered her way, just there in front of her, and it had meant the world. She wanted to be an art teacher. She had done the work, she was ready. But she wasn't teaching.

She knew it was going to be tricky. She was going after a very specific post, and it might be that it would take a while before she found an opening. And then she had to get hired once that happened, didn't she…

It was still the first year after she'd finished college, it wasn't so bad. And she was getting work experience in the meantime, wasn't she, work that just might be useful for her in the long run… for her and for others, too. Now wasn't the time to start panicking and wonder how long it would take or… if it would happen at all. A year might go by, and another, and another… She might end up sticking with the theater, which wouldn't have to be a bad thing. But…

She didn't want it to get to the point where she decided to settle for a backup. She felt it too deeply, she needed to be doing what she'd been preparing to be throughout those years in Houston. She couldn't give it up.

"Hey," Nadine tapped her arm. Maya looked up. She was vaguely aware that the others had taken off already, back to their jobs, or school… Now it was just her and her returned bandmate. "Walk you back to the theater?"

"Isn't it out of your way a bit?" Maya stood from the booth and followed her out of the diner.

"Maybe a little, but a bus is a bus. I'll get where I need to be eventually. We didn't really get to talk much over lunch… Mostly because you were off in your own bubble, but hey, I don't judge."

"Sorry about that," Maya sighed. The whole point of these lunches was for all of them to get to hang out and talk, and she'd just sat there, eating her food and giving the odd nod of approval.

"I swear, it's like I watched you decline and decline the whole time we were in there. You came in like you were having the best day and now it's like…" Nadine mimed something hitting the ground and imploding.

"It is a good day," Maya nodded. "Sam is currently swooning away about Cecilia. She left a note for him this morning, asking him out on a date. I drove him to her school, and he told her yes, and now he's all bubbly and smiling and it's just so good."

"Wow," Nadine laughed. "That's amazing."

"Yeah, and then this whole audition thing with my mother, I mean you know how she was, I showed you videos. But today, when I was helping her prepare… I don't know how she made that turn, but she's just so good." Maya's voice trailed off, turned into a short sigh. "She put her dream aside for all these years, to look after me and my siblings when they came, but she never forgot. She couldn't. It was what she was meant to do."

"That's great… Right?" Nadine asked her.

"It is," Maya assured her. "It really is, I just… You know how I get sometimes. Stuck in my own head, spinning out." Nadine replied with a sympathetic nod.

"What's got you there now?"

"Wondering how long it's going to take before I get to do what I've been wanting to do all these years… Feeling ungrateful for what I've been doing at the theater because of it… You know, fun stuff."

"Maya…"

"I know, okay? You don't even have to tell me. At this point, I'm not sure I'd want you to anyway."

"I get that," Nadine promised.

"Why did it have to happen now though? We're just coming out from under that cloud of teenage triangle of doom, things are supposed to be good now, just in time for Stage Ready to kick off, and then my birthday's coming up, and… oh, if Lucas gets a whiff of this he's going to start giving me those worried eyes of his…"

"Oh, yeah, those…" Nadine had to chuckle just a bit, which she immediately apologized about.

"No, please, laugh away. It is laughable, I'm just not… there… yet."

"Can I at least give you like… a patch… to get you through the day?"

"Sure," Maya smiled.

"Okay," Nadine paused on the sidewalk, reaching over to stop Maya, too, and have her turn to face her. "You have pulled together this great program out of your giant goofy brain. You've already helped… a bunch of kids with those Christmas shows at their schools. You are not just an artist that paints, and draws, and wants to start sculpting, apparently. You are an artist that sings, and plays music, and writes music, and dances… When you get back to the theater, you should go look at Stage Ready's Facebook page again. You showed me all those messages, the photos, the videos, from the students, the teachers, the parents… You are an art teacher, Maya, even if it's not exactly the kind you set out to teach."

"Wow…" Maya blinked a sting from her eyes, letting out a shaky laugh.

"Yeah, that went way bigger than I thought it would…" Nadine replied, like she was concerned she might have overstepped some bound. Maya just reached out and hugged her. "Oh, good, okay," Nadine hugged her back. "Better?"

"So much," Maya nodded. "I don't know that it rooted out everything, but you… you did good."

"Anytime," Nadine proudly smiled.

"I think we need a do-over for lunch today. You and Zay want to come over for dinner tonight? You'll get to tease Sam while he gushes over Cecilia…"

"My favorite sport," Nadine grinned as they started walking toward the theater.

"We're such great big sisters…"

"Right?" They shared a laugh, safely away from their younger siblings. "I'll write to Zay, but yeah, we should be good for it. I'll let you know as soon as I can."

They parted ways in front of the theater. Nadine walked off to her bus stop as Maya headed inside and back to her office. Sitting at her desk, as 'prescribed' by Dr. Zhu, she pulled up the page on her computer, reading and watching her way through those messages until Lily returned from her lunch break and they got back to work. She had some of these printed and stuck to the walls already, and she'd replied to just about every single one. Maya breathed deep… Her patch was holding.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners