May 20th 2023

Chapter 210
The Family Songbook

Summer was passing them by at what felt like breakneck speed. Already, it was August, and sure, it had only just started, leaving them a few weeks still before they fell back into school mode, but they weren't even thinking about that, not so much. No, they were much more conscientious of something else that would happen, very shortly before the start of the school year. Just a few days before, Ava Nash would be turning twelve years old, and on that day, she would become Ava Nash Friar, truly and officially. It was officially on the books now, everything had been seen to, and all they really had left to do was count down the days. And they were counting them down, one by one, as their hearts beat like the most persistent of clocks. They were so close to it now and they really wanted to get there already, to be able to go and say that this was who they were now. It wasn't about them feeling like a family; they were already that, and they had been for nearly a year already.

Both Maya and Lucas had been worrying, the closer they were getting to the big day, that Ava might get hesitant, might worry once again about her birth father out there and what he might think of her going through with this. They'd shown her his letter, they knew that she knew he'd said that he supported this choice, but they could very easily see her worrying that he would change his mind if he knew that it was actually happening… Either that, or they were the ones worrying, not Ava, because they just wanted everything to go well. She wasn't worried, or if she was, then she was hiding it very well. What they saw from her instead was… bubbles, building up, rising to the surface, until she could barely stand still anymore., and if they only saw that, then her Mama and Dad had absolutely nothing to worry themselves over.

When August had kicked off, the page of the calendar turned away from July, that was when it had really started to feel real for all of them, and for Ava especially. She'd come to them one morning, wanting to know what the day would be like, what they were going to do on The Day. Obviously, there would be the part where they went in and made things official, but beyond that, nothing had been decided, and from their perspective… It wasn't up to them to decide; it was up to her, on her day.

"Whatever you want to do, we'll do it," Lucas had told her, and having it all wide open like that, she looked at once intrigued and overwhelmed with possibilities. "How would you feel about a party?" he went on to ask, and he had her attention.

Of course, they would have brought up the idea sooner or later, inviting friends, classmates, family, all to celebrate her birthday, and the adoption, too, but they hadn't started making plans yet, not at the time, and when they put the idea on the table for the first time, she'd stood there as though her heart had started drumming and she didn't quite know what to do with herself. It would be her second birthday with them, yes, and they had gotten some people together last year, too. But at the time she'd been there as their guest essentially, their temporary ward until such a time as her father could be home with her again, because they'd figured he would be. It had been something else entirely, it had been about marking the day, making it special for her even as they knew that so much of her life was disrupted and would continue to be for a time.

Now, it was one year later, strange as that could sound, and it was a whole new scenario for Ava. She was a Friar, would be 'officially' so by month's end, and this was her family, her parents, setting the pieces in place to ring in her twelfth birthday. As this started to sink in, she couldn't help but feel emotional over it, because of the step they were all about to take but also, much as they hated to recognize it… She couldn't have had a proper birthday party growing up, with her birth parents. Everything they'd been told about those years gave them as many glimpses as easy guesses of what it would have been like. Her mother would have led the charge and, if there were parties, they would not have been nearly as much for Ava's benefit as they would have been for her mother's, and her father… Her father would have done what he could for her, and she would have appreciated this far, far more. Was an actual party necessary to her getting to enjoy her birthday? Not at all. But this party… It would mean the world to her.

So, she'd been working to plan it alongside her parents, and her grandparents… There was no way they were going to prepare for an event of this magnitude – her words – and not have Melinda Friar involved in it in some way. Whatever they needed, she would ensure that they got it, anything for her granddaughter. This could have been a dangerous power to put in the hands of the near-twelve-year-old, but Ava wasn't one for extravagance. She wanted to make this a great, wonderful day, and she would only ever request what was required.

For their part, while a lot of the planning went toward fulfilling Ava's wishes, Maya and Lucas also had their sights set on a few surprise elements, on presents… One of them had not been entirely within their control, but it so happened to come along at a very opportune time, in more ways than one.

It wasn't as though they didn't believe in what they had to offer, but they wouldn't have believed it possible, not until Lucas got the call, that it could actually happen, but now it was. Their local station was looking to take him and his segments to the next level, to build an entire program around him, to be aired weekly. When they'd first told him this, he'd been left to trust the sensations in his body as proof positive that it was actually happening. This had continued as he'd gone and met with them, discussing what they all wanted and could offer, Lucas included. It would be something great, he could feel it. The format for the segments had some restraints, it couldn't be helped, but those would be lifted by the new format, with their weekly offerings. More than that, he would have a great level of input on what they produced and who was involved, and he knew just who his co-host would have to be. What a great birthday present it would be for her to find this out…

… and it would have been, if she hadn't found out ahead of time.

It had been a fun secret for him and Maya to have to themselves, for a week or so. He'd made certain to wait until it was just him and her, with no chance of any of the kids coming along to hear what he would tell her before he actually told her about the offer, and it still made him chuckle to remember her reaction, the giddy shock of a smile that had come over her. She was just as surprised as he'd been, and he'd kept her in the loop, the only one he could talk to about it all for a while as the first pieces started to fall into place. It had them feeling like a couple of kids at times, called on their long-standing appreciation for shared secrets in others. For a couple with more children than they had fingers on a single hand, they'd found more than a few occasions to let this giddy mood in them lead to banter, and some excellent… one on one time… and everything in between.

None of this had been the reason for Ava's learning about the show. Instead, it had simply happened that one day, while out shopping for back to school, they had run into a woman from the station, one of those who was involved with the segments and who had been instrumental in getting the show greenlit. And when she'd seen Ava, she'd started to talk about it all without realizing that they hadn't told her yet. From there, they'd had no choice but to let it all out in the open for her. As they could have predicted on their own, she'd been immediately thrilled, just as her mother and father had been when they had heard about it for the first time. And as disappointed as both she and Lucas could be that he hadn't been able to spring the surprise on her as he'd meant to, now that it was out in the open between them, Ava was finding herself equally inspired with ideas for her father's show as she was for her party.

"It's not my show," he would tell her. "It's ours, yeah? Wouldn't have happened without you," he'd remind her with a smile, and she would smile back, nod.

"All of us," she'd amend, and without having to indicate anyone, he'd understand what she meant. It was the family's show. She'd been most involved so far, but especially now that they were going to have whole episodes instead of segments, they would just have to bring the boys in, and Maya…

Without it ever being something that they had thought of doing, in the days that had followed Ava's being 'read into' the secret, she had gone and started to work on something and pulled her mother into it. They hadn't known that this was what she'd been doing, had only seen her focused on her notes and imagined it had to do with the party. But then one night, as she'd been helping her mother get the twins dressed after their bath time, Ava had had such a look of… distracted focus about her that Maya had called for her, pointing out the fact that she was putting Simon's foot in a sleeve instead of a pant leg. The nine-month-old hadn't been too bothered by it, amused as he seemed to be with how he had his feet batting in his line of sight, not at all caring that he was still in nothing but his diaper while his brother was now all dressed up and ready to be put down for the night.

"Lots on your mind, huh?" Maya asked Ava with a smirk, especially at her bashful smile.

"Sort of," she replied.

"Are we going to have to get a bigger venue for this party of yours, or…"

"What? Oh, no, that's not… well…" she started to say, then paused, hesitated. Maya was intrigued now, especially as her daughter's pinkening cheeks didn't pale. For a moment, she thought this might have been something else, something to do with Kelsey Farrell. But then she got up, still with her baby brother in her arms. Almost as soon as they were out of sight, Jackson reached out his little arm toward the door with a cry of complaint, and from out of the room they could just hear Simon giving a similar call.

"Don't worry, they'll be back soon," Maya crooned reassuringly to her son, showering him with all the affection he could have asked for in order to distract him from being separated from his twin. It did the trick, enough so that by the time Ava returned with Simon, Jack was good and laughing. "See, there they are, hi!" Maya turned her smile to the pair of them before setting one twin down to reach for the other. Ava passed Simon over and, as their mother went about getting him dressed, she held up a notebook. It was one of the ones they'd bought, the day they'd gotten her school things, one that was supposed to be just for her, not class. That was the one they'd seen her write in again and again since that day, and they had been shown things about the party in there, but clearly that wasn't all of it.

"I need your help with something," she confessed, shy but also determined, and as she sensed to be project related rather than distress, Maya smiled.

"Go for it," she nodded encouragingly. Ava took a deep breath and flipped the notebook open, found a page, and turned the book around so that her mother could see the words she'd written there and read them even as she held one baby sitting on one of her legs and the other on the other.

"I wanted to write something… like a theme song, you know, for Dad's show," Ava simply explained, and Maya looked at her, surprised but also not. "I can do the words part… at least I think I can… but I'm not… I don't know how to do the music part, so I thought… Can you do it? It would be like we both did it, together," she smiled, emboldened by the prospect of putting the finished product before her father, or so Maya could guess, and if that was so, then… Oh, was she ever eager to help her accomplish that goal.

"Is it okay if I hold on to that until tomorrow morning so I can try and come up with something?" she asked. "After your dad goes to work, we'll see what we can put together, yeah?"

"Yeah, okay," Ava nodded. The way she looked down at the notebook in her hands, it was clear that for as much as she trusted her mother – and she trusted her more than just about anyone else in the world, an accolade earned by only a very select few – there were some things on these pages that she wasn't sure she was ready to share even with her.

"How about I just take a picture of this page with my phone?" Maya offered, and Ava managed not to look too relieved as she agreed.

She didn't get to look at it all in earnest until after the kids were all put to bed, and she and Lucas were settling in, too. He was curious about what she was doing, and all she could do was smirk and inform him that he had to wait and see. In her mind, she could now imagine a reversal. Lucas had not gotten to give his surprise to Ava on her birthday, but if they played their cards right, Ava might get to go and give him a surprise, and it would make both of their days.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners