October 12th 2020

Chapter 286
Their Celebration of Family

After Riley and Dylan had been pronounced as married, and after they'd disappeared off into the house, most everyone outside was allowed to wander off a while, mingling and chatting amongst themselves. Maya and Lucas, on the other hand, had work to do, and that was what they had to focus on before any amount of mingling could occur on their part. They had to transform the Oswalds' land from an altar with rows upon rows of chairs to a tent, and a floor, and tables, and chairs, and table settings, a stage, instruments… They had help.

"This is the worst part right here. Taking all the chairs away when we'll just be bringing them back again in a bit," Zay huffed as he carried a stack of chairs aside, even as Lucas carried one of his own.

"Please, this is the easy part," Lucas chuckled.

"Don't think I haven't noticed you're carrying almost twice as many in one go as I am. I'd call that showing off if it didn't mean less for me to carry," Zay went on, and Lucas just grinned. Alright, maybe, maybe he was showing off a little… but it was definitely not for his best friend's benefit, at least not the one from Texas. His best friend from New York on the other hand…

"Maya," Sam called to his sister, and she blinked, turning back to look at him with a face which felt much too intent on appearing innocent.

"What? What?" she asked. Sam looked to where she'd been looking for a moment before turning back to his sister with a roll of the eyes. "Don't judge me, I'm allowed," Maya lifted her chin. Remembering the task at hand, she continued stacking the chairs.

As was to be expected, clearing out of 'ceremony mode' took significantly less time and effort than setting up 'reception mode.' The floor came together first, the better for the tables to start being moved in and placed where they belonged according to the seating chart while the tent was being raised. By the time they had gotten everything ready to welcome guests and receive the day's most honored couple, ninety minutes had gone by. Finally, after everyone had been called to take their seats, Riley and Dylan had made their return, to rousing cheers from their people. Having taken Maya's advice, after the dress had been selected back in Arizona, Riley had changed into a second, more party manageable dress. This one had been bought for her from her future mother-in-law, Dylan's stepmother.

Even after all these years, Lucas and Maya would look upon the woman in different ways. To Lucas, it was difficult not to look at her and remember how she had shown discomfort over having him at the Orlando house after his suspension from school. Over time, she had changed her tune, of course, and she had expressed this regret to him personally. Still, he couldn't shake those memories of her standing at the window, looking out at him and the others whenever they'd be playing basketball, like she was making sure he wouldn't act out.

Meanwhile, Maya remembered something else entirely. For her, the thing she'd recall every time she looked at the woman was the night, New Year's Eve, when Dylan had injured himself and they'd all had to take him to the hospital. She remembered coming across her in a hall and seeing how concerned she was for her stepson. She'd tried to reassure her, and it had worked. From then on, Maya had always been held in good standings with her. Sometimes she had to wonder if her presence had helped sway the woman's opinions of Lucas.

There was no division in any feelings toward Mr. Orlando. Dylan's father was basically an older, taller, barely more serious version of his younger son. One could suspect he had been even more like Dylan back in the day, but then being left to look after two boys on his own when his first wife had gone away had forced him to surrender some of his natural joy. Dylan would say that he hadn't noticed it so much himself back then, but looking back on it with the mind of an adult, everything had been forced into sharp detail. He could not have admired his father more than he did now.

No one appeared to have taken a shine to him more than Hunter Matthews. Once he'd been told that Dylan marrying his big sister meant that the two of them were basically going to be brothers, the four-year-old had taken the next logical step and decided that this meant Kyle Orlando was also his brother, and Mr. and Mrs. Orlando were like another set of parents for him. When he'd asked them, all four mothers and fathers, if this was true, at a dinner one night when they'd all been at the Matthews house, none of them had had the heart to question his logic, so that was that. Hunter particularly loved his other dad, who in turn seemed to regain some of that lost jolliness whenever he was around the boy. Riley and Dylan would look at the two of them together, and anyone looking at them would see dreams of grandchildren for the man to cherish as he did the Matthews boy.

"Alright, where are you sitting?" Mr. Orlando was asking as he went by, with the small tuxedoed boy sitting confidently on his shoulders. Hunter scanned the room before proclaiming he had no idea. "Right, we'll have to see about those name cards," Mr. Orlando lifted his hands to secure the boy on his shoulders while he tipped forward and back again to read some of them. This made Hunter giggle every time. It also made Lucas and Maya laugh, though maybe for their unseen tail. The other four-year-old, three months Hunter's junior, Haley, was seeing this whole maneuver like some sort of game, and she looked keen on getting to play it, too.

"Maybe we should get her," Lucas suggested. Off Maya's look, he went on. "If that was Dylan up there, what would he do the moment he saw Haley?"

"He'd pick her up, too," Maya replied at once, which was as good as answering her previous question. As well as he faired with one small child balanced up there, Mr. Orlando – or specifically Mr. Orlando's back – would not respond so well. He had been a basketball player, like both of his sons, had been on his way to a professional career up until a major injury had sidelined him and killed any future prospects. But then he'd met the woman he would marry, who would give him his sons, his pride and joy, so on the whole he'd come out on top. It wouldn't feel like that if he found himself holding up but Hunter and Haley at once, neither child understanding the concept of old injuries flaring up. "Okay, go, go, go," Maya practically pushed Lucas off, and he went at once, snatching Haley into the air. The girl squealed from surprise, only to smile at the sight of her brother-in-law.

"Do you remember when me and her got married?" Lucas asked as he carried her back to Maya, nodding to his wife. Haley looked from one to the other, and she beamed all at once, like she'd just remembered how she would crawl under their table, present Maya with a bread roll, and be lifted over the table into Hank Hillard's ready arms, a maneuver she then repeated several times over the night. "I think maybe this year we'll need a different game, yeah?"

"What game?" Haley asked at once. Lucas turned to Maya for assistance.

"Well, later, when people start to dance out there, I'm going to be on the stage, with the band, so I won't be able to dance. I would love it if you could take my spot," Maya nodded back to Lucas, who beamed at once. "If that's okay with you, of course," she asked him, for Haley's benefit.

"It would be my honor, Miss Hunter," he told the girl, with his most hat-tipping voice. Haley was sold, and as they'd come to hear from them, she'd spend the better part of the dinner asking Shawn and Katy if it was time to go dance yet.

Meanwhile, the two of them were sitting at the large table, with the bride and groom, and their families, and Asher and Ray. It was weird – a good weird – to consider how many of them had gotten married over the last three years. It made it all feel as though the events were one big night, loosely connected across time, from Zay and Nadine on one end down to Riley and Dylan on this one. They had to venture Kayla and Will would be next.

"Hey," Maya nudged at Cory's arm. He was sitting next to her, two seats away from Riley. Ever since they'd taken their seats here, he'd been stealing looks over to his daughter and his new son-in-law so often as to make it feel like he might as well have just kept on staring uninterrupted. Now, he turned to look back at his colleague/daughter's childhood best friend. "Doing alright there?" she asked him, nodding over to Riley and Dylan.

"Oh, yeah, of course," he nodded at once, one might say confidently.

In the last year, with them seeing each other practically every day up at the high school, seeing each other not as teacher and student but teacher and fellow teacher, it really felt as though she had gotten to know him better than she'd ever known him before. For years he had just been her friend's father, and then he'd become her teacher, and her former teacher. Each of those titles had continued to keep them on two different levels, one above and one below. To now find herself sharing that higher level with him, she was not surprised for his silliness – she'd known about that long ago – or any of the qualities she'd known in him from sitting in his class. But she'd found that he had earned every single accolade she'd given him, back when she used to look up to him. He had taught her so much, had even set her on the path to becoming a teacher herself, and underneath it all his humanity shone through like nothing else. Now, after being Riley's father, and her teacher, and her former teacher, and her colleague, she was finding he might also have been her friend. And he might have seen it, too.

"One day, you'll have children of your own," Cory told her with a humble smile. "And if you find yourself at a table like this, watching them in this moment in their lives…"

"I know," Maya nodded, chuckled. "I honestly don't know which one of us will have it harder," she looked back to Lucas, who was busy helping August with his speech.

"I don't see it being an either/or sort of thing," Cory pointed out, discreetly tipping his head to Topanga, who was busy with Hunter after he'd come inquiring after a vegetable in his plate which he did not know and wouldn't dare taste until she told him what it was.

"Alright, that's fair," Maya laughed.

Topanga Matthews could be the most level-headed in her household like she could be queen of the frenzy, depending on the occasion. That morning, when Maya had first seen her back at the house, she had definitely been locked firmly on the latter side. She'd become convinced for a moment that she'd found a fault in Riley's dress and had been ready to rain litigation on whoever had been in charge of alterations and had either missed it or caused it. It had taken Morgan Matthews stepping in and pointing out that there was in fact no fault before Topanga allowed the storm clouds to part again.

For a moment, Maya tried to think what it would be like, some twenty-something years in the future, when she would find herself as a mother of a bride or groom. She knew herself well enough to guess how this might end, so it was just as well that it would be a long, long time before she had to find out for certain.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners