December 5th 2020

Chapter 340
Their Secret in Home

Maya and her group had arrived before the others, as was to be expected. When they pulled up to the house and got out of the minivan, Desi was in awe and the twins were eager to show her around the inside, especially the attic, which would have to be all decked out for Sleepster mode. Before they could go, she'd gone and gathered her things once again from the back and carried them inside, leaving them where Nellie and Gracie indicated she could, before looking to Maya with eyes that asked if it was okay for her to go around the place like her friends wanted.

"Make yourself at home," Maya smiled, waving the girls off. With no need for an extra prompt, the trio took off in a rumble up the stairs. This brought the dogs out in full barking force, of course, which in turn got MJ and Haley to go around and chase them.

Not two minutes later, Sam came along, him and Cecilia both driven by Dora. Admittedly, as much as they had all been making this new situation between the three of them work, there was something just on the edge of strange at the thought of Sam's former girlfriend and his… who knew what they were exactly at this point besides being very… Well, anyway, Sam wouldn't be here tonight, he'd be off with the guys, up at the Orlando/Matthews house, but that didn't so much lessen the weirdness so much as crank it up a notch. He was probably imagining so many things that could go wrong in this scenario, as though Dora and Cecilia had never hung out by themselves since the breakup, which they definitely had.

"Are they all here yet?" Sam asked, eager to see his siblings as expected.

"Not yet, no, but they're on their way," Maya told him. "My half is running around… somewhere," she gestured behind herself.

"We'll go drop off our things and find them," Dora offered, confirming with Cecilia before the two of them went toward the stairs. When Archer and Crowley came running along, MJ on their tails, the girls stopped in the stairs, Cecilia passed her bags to Dora, and while she continued up the stairs, Cecilia went back down to follow MJ and see where this would lead her.

"Your face right now is hilarious," Maya whispered, grinning at her brother, tapping his cheek.

"I don't know why you're coming at me like this, you're the one with the huge secret," he whispered back, dodging her hand.

"It is not huge," Maya insisted, then, "It's this big," she pinched her fingers together about the size of a fig and smiled.

"Oh? Fine, then, let's go tell them about the fig," Sam nodded and started toward the stairs before being stopped by his sister's grabbing arms.

"Okay, okay, let's just try and pull it together, Samuel, there are too many people in this house right now, and someone sooner or later is going to hear something, especially after the others get here, so knock it off," she couldn't keep from chuckling, watching him fail to extricate himself from her hold, short as she was compared to him. Almost to prove her point, he now nodded his head and Maya turned to find Haley stood there, with two halves of a cookie split between her hands, watching them as she chewed. Maya let her brother go, and they tried to act as natural as possible. "Where'd you get that?" she asked, indicating the cookie.

"Cece," Haley replied happily before holding out the untouched half to her big sister.

"Thanks, Shutterbug," Maya went and took it. She'd made this new batch of GiGi cookies for the Sleepster, and in doing so she had been amused to discover the cookies agreed very well with her stomach, where other things had already become unwelcome anywhere near her for the next several months. If this was the case, she might possibly be making many more of them in the future. Wherever GiGi's spirit may have gone off to, right now it almost felt like she was here with her, looking out for her, and she liked the idea.

Next to arrive still, before Lucas and the Tucson contingent, was Riley. Of the many people who would be spending the weekend here, Maya had to say this was possibly the one that worried her the most as far as holding down the secret of her 'tenant.' She had known her… longer than any other of those would attend either end of the sleepover, longer than her husband still, and given enough time, it didn't seem possible that Riley wouldn't figure out that her best friend was pregnant.

Maya would do everything in her power to keep that from happening, but her fear was that, with so many people to keep her eyes on, she could slip and say or do something that would give her away. She didn't want to keep it from Riley, from anyone at all really, but that was the way it had to be, until June. This year has been going so fast, we'll be there in no time…

"Hey!" Riley came and hugged her as soon as she walked into the house. Secrets aside, Maya was so very happy to have her here. It would seem almost criminal for her to have a sleepover for sisters and not have Riley Matthews as one of them when she had been the first of all in her life. As soon as the definitions had widened on just who could and should attend Sleepster, it had been a no-brainer. "I might have brought something for after the little kids have gone to bed," she whispered with conspiracy in her eyes, and Maya could only give her best smile and nod while her best friend went off toward the kitchen.

Maya didn't even need to turn around to know that Sam was resisting the urge to laugh. She pointed her finger at him without looking.

"Don't. Just don't," she sighed, checking her phone for any updates from Lucas and the Hart-Lanes and Chens. Now, not only would she have to walk around and guard herself against giving away her secret, she would also need to find a way not to share a drink with Riley without making her suspicious.

Cara: Almost there! Lucas wanted me to tell you, since he's driving.

By the timestamp, she was led to peer out the window for the coming of her parents' minivan, and squinting up the road… Yeah, there it was.

"Hey, Sammy, look," she turned a smile to him and he came up behind her, seeing what she saw. "The others are here!" Maya called up as loud as she could before she and Sam stepped out on to the porch in wait of the approaching vehicle. It stopped, and the back door slid open before Teddy hopped out and grabbed his littlest sister, the almost two-year-old Maisie, from her seat before the others could take their turn climbing out of the back and Lucas and Cara stepped out of the front on either side, heading to unload the bags.

"Hi," Teddy came up, grinning at the sight of his older brother and sister and holding Maisie out to the latter. "Here, I'll go help," he nodded back to the minivan.

Maya blinked, receiving little Maisie with what bordered on panic. It had nothing to do with handling the tiny girl, not specifically. No, the issue here was how desperately she'd been inhabited with the desire to hold tiny children lately, and how it would be yet one more challenge. Not helping – aside from Sam's ever rising mirth over his sister's discomfort – was how happy and sweet Maisie was, giving a spirited 'Ya!' toward Maya.

"Oh, yes, that's me," she almost cooed in response, holding her properly now and pressing a kiss to the side of her head as she danced her about. As the girl grew, she definitely had something of both her parents, and in turn her resemblance to her half-siblings could be picked out more and more. At the same time, she'd see her and find herself thinking about Rochelle McNeil, both of them with a white mother, and a black father, and herself left in the middle, standing out among her siblings. Maya was left to admit she had not considered before how this might affect Maisie, but then she was still so small… Right now, her life looked like her life, and no one could tell her or suggest otherwise, but how long would it stay that way?

"You know, sometimes Mom or James will show her a picture of the family, and point to everyone and ask 'who's this?' 'who's that?' And she'll say all the names as best she can. Then when they point to you, she gets all giddy and shouts 'Ya!'" Cara imitated, which prompted little Maisie to do it again.

"Smart girl," Maya laughed, giving her smallest sibling a kiss on the cheek. They could just as easily have left her to Abigail and James, but then it had been decided that she was just about old enough to be part of their weekend. If she wasn't, then it would feel like they'd left her out. With her lips still pressed to the toddler's cheek, Maya could see the eldest of her sisters looking at her, almost like she was trying to figure something out. "What?" Maya asked her.

"I don't know, I just… Something… It's fine," Cara shrugged before moving to embrace her in greeting, realizing she'd forgotten.

"Are you sure?" Maya asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I just… Did you do something to your hair? Or…" Oh… Maya wouldn't say that she'd changed all that much if at all over the last few weeks, but maybe because Cara had not seen her for longer than everybody who lived out here had done… It had been more evident to her from the start.

"No, I don't think so…" Maya played into this, thinking for a moment. "Tried a new shampoo, I guess…" she shrugged, passing her Maisie. "Here, you take her, I'll go see if they need a hand out there."

Advancing to the back of the minivan, she was met with one hug after another, from Eliza and Emma, and Sadie and Ginny, and Wyatt… Captain of the Tucson Attic ship… After Teddy had taken off with a load of bags, leaving the two of them alone for a short beat, Maya tapped Lucas arm and signed as discreetly as she could.

"I am freaking out a little. There's too many of them. Someone is going to know." Lucas gave her shoulders a squeeze, trying to instill what calm he was able to even before giving response.

Only by then the girls' things had left the minivan, and now they'd brought Lucas, Sam, and MJ's things out, them along with Teddy and Wyatt all set to leave the girls to their thing while they went and did their own. So, all Maya could do now was take a breath and turn back into her best sister/host self.

"Hey, you guys have a good night, yeah? I'll see you tomorrow?" she asked, looking around. They all nodded in agreement, though she could definitely see Wyatt's nod felt like it had more to it, something like 'okay, but what about our thing?' Maya could only hug him once more, smiling down at him. Tomorrow… It would have to be… "Love you, Cap," she told him, and it made him smile back. He did not play in his 'ship' nearly as much as he used to, if at all, but he remembered plenty. With his other siblings, he hated to be reminded, like that was baby stuff and he was a grown boy now, but with her it was still permitted, almost encouraged, and Maya never disappointed.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners