April 3rd 2020

Chapter 94
Their Fall in Work

The Stage Ready Summer Camp had been over for a few weeks already on the day the boys had started back at school, but as she'd gone in to the theater that morning, sitting in her office, Maya had found herself thinking about it all again. It could have seemed as though her getting her first song recorded by a big, world renowned artist would have effaced any other event's chance of standing out over the summer, but she would definitely remember the camp's inaugural run. As wild as it all was, to witness her creation connect with so many people in so many places, when it came down to it this was Ree's song, and only a certain percentage of people who heard it would actually know that Maya had played any part in this success. That was alright, that was what she'd chosen and she was so very happy with all of it.

On the flipside, there was the camp, which in itself was born of the work she'd done in getting Stage Ready off the ground. She'd been in the thick of it across the last few months, and it still left her feeling so accomplished, so happy. All those kids who'd attended over the summer, she knew their faces, their names, and she knew their voices, their quirks, their tastes. She could imagine herself, years from now, seeing one of them on television or hearing them on the radio, and thinking to herself 'I knew you when you were just a shy ten-year-old with a voice and a dream.'

The camp had been such a success, in Austin and Houston as well, and that success was reflected in the main Stage Ready sessions' registrations. From this, Siobhan had already tasked Maya with ensuring the camp would have another season like this the following summer, which she had been more than happy to put in the books. Siobhan also wanted her to look into expanding the program to more cities across the state in the months to come, and this, too, was something she would do with little to no prompt. This theater stood as the very reason Maya and her mother had found their way in Austin, Texas all those years ago, and even now it continued to make their lives better.

Katy's play had completed its run, and though she was in no way disappointed to resume her regular job, Maya could tell her mother was not the same as she'd been before the play. That acting bug had bitten her for the first time all those years ago, as she was growing up, and it had never really gone anywhere, leaving that bite to heal over. But now that bug had gone and sunk its teeth even deeper. She was finally living that old dream, and she was finally getting to experience the thing she'd wanted to experience when she'd been in high school, when she'd been a young mother after this, struggling to provide for her daughter, with and without Kermit. Back then, maybe deep down it had been about fame more than anything, which might have explained why she'd never gotten anywhere. But now, this time…

After that first performance, she'd told Maya how she'd felt, being on that stage, before the curtain had gone up, and throughout the play, and then in the end, when they'd taken their bow… She'd compared it to craving some dessert she'd seen on display, thinking it would be the best thing she ever ate, only to taste it and discover she had no idea what 'the best thing' even meant, because this had to surpass even that. And now that she'd had something like that once, oh… she needed to have it again, as soon as possible.

There was no telling how long it would be before she did get that opportunity again, but when it did she would absolutely be going for it. And as for Maya… well, she had opportunities of her own, and those were coming up much faster.

After the success of her first creation, Audra and her people were very happy with their new songwriter. About as soon as Ree's song had blown up the charts, they'd started putting feelers out, to see if they might be able to hit that perfect storm all over again. No one but Audra, who wasn't kidding when she'd said she'd done her homework where Maya and her band were concerned, could get how easy of a request that might be, on Maya's end at least. They didn't know her enough to know that the first song and the frenzy of the summer would have pulled her into that groove where she was soon pulling together new songs, products of her inspiration. They wanted a new song? Great, she had three.

Now, one of them was being recorded, and according to Audra they were on the verge of making something happen with that first song she'd written after the contract had happened, the other choice she'd given them along with what had ultimately become Ree's song. Before long she'd have three songs out there, or at least three contracted ones… She didn't want to get to a point where she saw her work with her own band and with Weaver Kings, and Shae, anyone else, to be in any way inferior because it wasn't getting the same kind of play. Not that she could deny the fact that she'd basically struck gold, right place, right time, right song, and now she had… momentum.

It wasn't like the first time, when she hadn't known much of anything except that her song was being recorded and only discovered who was recording it when she heard it on the radio. No, she knew where her second song was going, and if everything went through with the third song she would soon find out what was happening there, too. As of now, only Lucas even knew anything about song two. She knew she had to keep it that way until the song was out, but she had to be able to tell someone, and it would be next to impossible for it to be anyone but her fiancé. Sure, the girls in the band knew the song existed, they'd helped her make all her demos, but they didn't know anything beyond the fact that these songs existed and could someday get recorded. She couldn't have done this without them, and she couldn't wait to see the surprise on them.

"Who is it this time?"

Maya looked up from the document she'd been reading over when her assistant whispered her query. Lily was looking back at her from where she sat at her own desk, on the other end of the office space. She had a curious smile on her face, but it wasn't enough for Maya to grasp what she was getting at.

"Who's what?" she asked.

"Your new song," Lily replied with a nod. Maya hesitated.

"Why do you think I have a new song?" she slowly asked, hoping her face gave nothing away.

"It's just that the last few days you've had the radio on all day, and the way you stop sometimes, it's like you're waiting for something." Alright, she had her there. The whisper made sense now, sort of. It would have made more sense if they weren't in a closed space and alone in that closed space, but either way Lily knew it was all to be kept sort of hush hush. Maya wanted to tell her, wanted to tell anyone she was close to in any way, but it wasn't that simple, not now.

"What can I say, I love music…" she shrugged, looking across her desk, searching for a paper. "Do you have the list with all the… I left it in my mother's office," she answered her own question, rising from her desk.

"I can go get it," Lily offered at once.

"It's fine, I need to run something by her anyway."

Coming up to her mother's office door, she knocked on the frame and Katy looked over from her computer. Maya found it way too amusing sometimes to witness her mother's concentrated 'office face,' but then she'd look at her and smile and she'd just be happy to see her.

"Looking for this?" she held up a thin stack of sheets stapled together. Maya stepped forward and took it.

"Yeah, thanks," she quickly looked it over. She turned back to her mother now, and Katy looked up again.

"Something else?"

"Well, I just sort of… I've been speaking with a lot of people from the theaters that might set up their own Stage Ready," Maya told her mother, who nodded. "I was talking to this one woman and we got to talking about what they were working on at the moment, and she mentioned they had a new production coming up. She told me what it was and I mentioned how you'd done the lead in another one the guy's plays, and she knew who you were. She saw it when she came to visit her brother who lives in Austin. Anyway… she didn't say it outright, but I think she's interested in seeing you audition out there."

She'd been seeing her mother's posture shift in her chair, like she'd gone from Office Katy to Actress Katy as soon as she'd understood where this conversation was going.

"Why does it sound like there's a problem?" she asked.

"Not a problem, not exactly, just kind of a small hitch," Maya admitted.

"What is it?"

"It's just that the theater in question is in Dallas… which might complicate things for you, and Dad, and the kids…" Her mother sighed, nodding to herself in understanding. "But, you know, whatever you decide… we'll find a way to make it work if we can, right?" Maya pushed onward, unable to let the chance float away when they hadn't even looked for ways to anchor it down.

"Right," Katy smiled.

"I'll send you the information, then you just…"

She was cut off by another knock at the door frame, this one from Lily, who now stood just out in the hall.

"Sorry to interrupt. Maya, Siobhan was looking for you. I told her you'd be right over."

"Sending in a bit," Maya amended her statement to her mother, moving into the hall and handing Lily the papers she'd come for. Her assistant headed one way, back toward her office, and Maya went the other way, toward her boss' office. "Hey, heard you wanted to see me?" she stopped at the open door.

"At the risk of putting more on your plate…" Siobhan nodded, motioning for her to come in and sit, which she did.

"Please, my plate can take it," Maya smirked.

"Well, as you might know, the Fall Festival is coming up."

Of course she knew. The event had always held a special place in her heart. It had been coming along right as she'd moved to Texas with her mother, and Lucas and the guys and Nadine, still strangers on the whole at the time, had taken her there. They hadn't missed a single one, all through middle and high school. In college, only those of them who'd still been in Texas had carried on the tradition, but now that they were back, they'd resumed the tradition in full force.

"You'll also know that the theater's been part of the team in charge of the festival. Matilda's been handling it ever since she started here, but she's going through IVF treatments right now, and she really wants to put every chance on her side to make it work, so she asked if someone might be able to take over for her, and I thought…"

"I'm in," Maya told her, needing no more than this. Siobhan gave her a silent 'thank you.'

"The coordinator is on her way, I didn't get the chance to reschedule. I'll send her your way as soon as she arrives."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners