A/N: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available!

October 21st 2020

Chapter 295
Their Work With Festivals

"Hey," Lucas came up behind her, slipping his arms around her waist. Maya smiled.

"You know, that could have been so awkward if you got the wrong person," she teased, looking back at him.

"Then it's a good thing I could pick you out of a crowd anytime," he smiled back even as she stretched up to kiss him. "How was it today, good?"

"It was really good," she nodded, and she had to think he could just sense the nostalgia already inhabiting her, as though it had been more than a few hours since they'd left the studio. There would always be possibilities for more, Ree said so herself and she would always be true to her word, but a part of her would still feel like this little period of time, these five sessions, had been some of her favorite times out there.

After lunch, they had gone back to the Hex, the two of them and Christina, and then because she'd had lunch with them and Ree's daughter already loved having her around so much, Missy came along, too. Christina went and did her duet with her mother first, leaving teacher and student to sit at the console and listen in.

Once again, the eleven-year-old's experience around recording studios showed. She was like a pro, and when she practiced her solo, it was so easy to see how much she resembled her mother, in features as well as talent. Maya watched them, singing together, and to see them so happy together, sharing this, she looked forward to a future where she might get to do the same.

When her turn came to join Ree in the booth, Christina swapped seats with her and the girl joined Missy. Their audience of two watched and listened, while the two singers brought their voices together. It was not the first time they harmonized, but it still felt like a dream to Maya, to experience it all. Whether it was on a stage in front of hundreds of people, or in this small studio outside her home, it felt magical.

"Do you know what I kept thinking about, back in the booth when it was you and me?" Ree asked her, later on, as they'd reached the park. Missy had come along, and so she would show Christina this thing and that, far enough to be out of earshot.

"No, what?" Maya asked.

"I was thinking about the tour. The announcement will be going out soon, over the holidays. Are you ready for that?"

They had finished all their recordings. From here on out, the next few steps were essentially out of her hands, and the tour would be all of eight months away, half a year by the time people found out about it… She only had weeks left before a lot more people would start to know her name, before people she'd kept in the dark about this big project with Ree and about this tour would be finding out. Even now, the one part she thought about the most were her students.

"I wouldn't have agreed if I wasn't," Maya nodded to Ree.

"That'll be one more thing to think about. Rehearsals. I may need you to fly out for that, but we will make it work," Ree assured her. Maya did not worry on that. She had gone and shaped her entire tour to enable her to finish one school year and start the next without batting an eye. "Oh, and costumes," Ree added, grinning all at once. "We will have to look into those, too." Maya could only laugh, seeing how excited the singer got.

"Whatever I end up wearing, we might need to… you know…" she pinched the front of her shirt, over her stomach, pulling it forward to suggest a presence.

"All in due time," Ree smiled, showing she had not forgotten her songwriter's maternal goals.

After Ree and Christina left, Maya stuck around the festival with Missy for a little while before her neighbor and student was picked up by her mother and taken home. Maya waited for Lucas' eventual arrival by walking around the park, taking in the various stalls still open, the games… The stage was empty at the moment, though there was a general sort of open-mic policy at this time of night. It was one of the things she loved the most, seeing people go up there, taking a chance… If she'd brought her guitar, anything, she just might have gone up there. She'd been thinking that, and then Lucas had joined her.

"Come on, they have these burgers out that way, they're still around. I may have eaten two already."

"Two burgers and cotton candy?" Lucas counted off with a smirk.

"See, when you say it like that…" Maya shook her head at him. "You just wait until you have one of those." Soon, they ended up on a bench, with Lucas' order between them, the better for her to snatch up a fry or two. "How was it at the store today?" she asked, always curious for some tales of customer service oddities.

"Good, not too busy," Lucas reported, then off a semi disappointed look on her face, "Cecilia was there." Now she dropped the pout. "She was with her dad and I ran into her."

"How's she doing?" Maya asked.

"Good, I think," Lucas nodded, creating a pause by taking a bite of his burger. "She's still sort of… Well, like him, you know?"

"Yeah," she sighed. Much as he tried to put up a good front, Sam clearly still felt the sting of his breakup. Maya and Lucas would do their best to cheer him up again, without being to obvious about it, but it was not so easy to do.

"She asked if she could still come to Halloween," Lucas went on, to which Maya gave an immediate look which read as 'of course she can.' "I told her that," Lucas replied, reassuring her. "I also suggested she might drop by the house tomorrow, so you two could discuss costumes."

"Good, good," Maya breathed. After a few seconds, reading a new look on her face, Lucas smiled and held out the remainder of his fries. Maya took the cup with a grateful smile.

The next morning, Maya started out her Sunday morning as she generally would. She had a casual breakfast, seeing Lucas and Sam off to their respective days of work. Once they were gone, she took the dogs out for a walk, occasionally stopping to talk to any of her neighbors along the lane if they happened to be outside. Back at the house, she climbed up to the attic to go through her plans for the coming week's classes, along with any other school-related work that needed doing.

She was still up there when she happened to get a glimpse out the window and spotted the familiar figure of Cecilia, her walk further recognizable because of the crutch she leaned to. She must have taken the bus rather than catching a ride from her father. Maya gathered up her papers and her computer and brought it all back to her room on the way down, finally coming out to the front porch as the girl walked up to the porch.

"Can I just say how much I have missed having you around?" Maya smiled. Cecilia climbed up to join her, and in response reached over and hugged her. Maya hugged her back, held her as she might any sister of hers. "The answer is 'so much,'" she added at her ear, and Cecilia nodded in her shoulder.

Going into the house, it was clear that Maya wasn't the only one to have missed Cecilia. The dogs all came scampering out, barking and wagging their tails and crowding around Sam's ex-girlfriend, who laughed and bent to greet them all. Archer especially, who was Sam's dog, would not leave her side for as long as she was at the house that day. He climbed up on the couch and sat with his head in her lap, the better to get some scratches as Cecilia and Maya caught up on the weeks since they'd last seen one another. Maya was happy to hear about Cecilia's father having a girlfriend.

"So, Halloween…" she finally sat up, like she was getting ready to conjure up something out of thin air. It felt very 'fairy godmother' like, and she wasn't mad at it.

"I still feel like maybe I shouldn't come," Cecilia shyly admitted.

"Hey, you want to be here, and we want you here," Maya reminded her.

"No, I know, and it really means a lot to me," Cecilia stated. "But well…" she hesitated. "I don't want it to look like… like I'm desperate and I want to get Sam back. It's not like that," she promised, shaking her head.

"I know," Maya promised back.

"But it's going to be my last chance to be at one of these for a while, if ever, and I was looking forward to it…"

"Hey, listen to me, okay?" Maya reached for her hand and squeezed it. "You don't have to explain yourself. I know that even Sam would say you should come, and I know you know that, too." Cecilia didn't have to say it, of course she knew. Sam was easily one of the best guys out there, and no one could take that from him. It probably played a hand in why it hurt so much to be separated from him all of a sudden. The break had not healed over, was barely starting to close, so it continued to sting.

"It's just… In a weird way, it kind of reminded me of when I lost my mom," Cecilia spoke, sounding so fragile now, and Maya had a feeling she'd been holding on to that, needing to share it for so long, needing to share it with her, because she was the only person she'd ever felt able to say these things to, in the years since her mother's passing. Maya felt her own emotions had taken a hit, and she reached out, placing a comforting hand over the girl's shoulder. "It's not the same, I mean Sam is still alive, obviously, but… I was just going along with my life and I was happy, and it never… it never occurred to me that I could actually lose him. And then I did, and…" She lacked the words, but her hand just hovered over her heart, like it could only indicate where the hurt originated, and how it felt so physical to her, like she could actually touch it and feel its burn under her fingertips.

There was little more for Maya to do in that moment but what felt needed. Her hand at Cecilia's shoulder became the means to draw her into her arms again, and as she'd expected to follow, the girl began to cry, first a little, then a lot more, as the hurt inside her was let out, in what felt like an endless wave. Maya just went on holding her, rubbed her back, feeling an echo of those emotions in herself.

When the tears had started to die out, sensing she'd have trouble just suddenly switching gears back to Halloween parties and costumes, Maya reached for the television remote and hit power, flipping through channels until she found something inoffensive and potentially curious enough to let Cecilia ride out the last of this moment and wake again into herself. Once she could see the girl sitting more independently, Maya went into the kitchen, grabbing them both something to drink and eat along with a pad of paper and a pen.

"Thanks," Cecilia quietly told her when she was offered the water. Maya sat next to her and started to draw. After a few minutes of watching her, Cecilia spoke again. "What's that?"

"Following a hunch, I guess," Maya told her. "I think I have the perfect costume for you. If you don't like it, we can just start over. Sound good?" she asked, and Cecilia nodded.

She went on watching, and Maya kept on drawing. At some point, she could tell that Cecilia figured out what the costume was shaping up to be, and by the look on her face, she was absolutely on board, so Maya kept going. When she was done, she handed the page over to Cecilia, who took it and looked at this image of her potential guise with genuine anticipation.

"We've got a few weeks to put it all together, and I would really love to help you do it," Maya nodded. Cecilia looked like she might cry again, for happiness this time.

"That'd be nice."

"Hey, so, I'm supposed to meet my parents and my siblings at the park in a couple of hours for the talent show. You should come with me if you're not busy," Maya suggested. Cecilia turned a smile to her, until a thought flashed across her face and she became suddenly doubtful. Maya knew what that thought must have been. "Sam probably won't join us until after the show's over, he'll still be at work." Cecilia looked just a bit frustrated with herself that this was where her mind had gone, but then she accepted Maya's invitation. "Great," Maya nodded. "That gives us a little while to look at this," she indicated the drawing.

"What are you going to be this year?" Cecilia wondered.

"We haven't actually decided yet," Maya admitted, in a tone suggesting she was now thinking they needed to get a move on that. "It'll be hard to top last year's, but that's not the point either, so… who knows? What do you think, any suggestions?" Cecilia considered this, observing her.

"I saw this video about turning villains into heroes and heroes into villains the other day," she offered, and Maya smiled at once.

"That… might have some potential…" she nodded, as Cecilia picked up the pad and pen and gave them back to her. "Yes, okay," Maya laughed, clicking the pen. "Which way should we…"

"Heroes into villains," Cecilia firmly nodded. Maya pointed at her.

"Good thinking. Halloween. Spooky."

The hours before they had to leave for the festival were spent coming up with way too many options, which Maya diligently sketched out. These options were posted in a row on the wall underneath the stairs, like a gallery from which Maya and Lucas could choose their winners, once they both came home at the end of the night.

Maya left with Cecilia, and they joined the Hunter Harts at the park, along with Morgan Stewart and Lindsay Alcott. The talent show drew a very impressive crowd, and it became the crown jewel of the 2028 Fall Festival. They were definitely going to have to do it again the following year.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners