January 18th 2023

Chapter 18
We Haunt For Annie

It would have been just a bit strange to wake up at school, at four in the morning, to then head home for all of a few hours before returning for classes. She would have done it, yes, but thankfully, it was Saturday. All she had to do was get home to Lucas, their girls, her brother… and the birthday girl.

Morgan had volunteered to come in very early on that Saturday morning, the better to see the five sophomores through to waking and leaving the school. She had also committed to getting them breakfast; she had 'connections' at Ma Maggie's…

"You are a wonderful human," Maya hugged Morgan, and the woman laughed, hugged her back. "See you in a bit?" she asked.

"Oh, you will. Wouldn't miss it."

Maya texted Lucas to let him know she was on her way. He was up already, as she she'd expected he would be, and he let her know he'd be waiting. When she pulled up to the house, he was sitting outside, waiting with two cups steaming, one in either hand. He held one out as she joined him.

"You know it's things like this that feed the Huckleberry Jar," Maya smirked. She sat next to him, took the cup, and kissed him. "All went well, no ghosts sighted… teenage drama got spiked, but I'll tell you later," she rattled off, as good as telling him that she'd rather hear his side of things.

"Well," Lucas chuckled, "Marianne's story time didn't exactly go the way she would have wanted it to go, but it more or less went the way we figured it might." Maya gave a sympathetic laugh. "Got sorted out in the end, everyone slept okay, though they of course missed you," he went on, giving a tip of the head to tell her he'd missed her, too; she could have guessed. Instead, she held up a finger, to inquire…

"And where did you sleep?" she raised a brow. Off the telltale look on his face, she snorted. Now she only wished that she had a picture of him, with their baby girls all around and over him. "How ever did you extract yourself from there?"

"Slowly," Lucas nodded. "Pumpkins time?"

"Pumpkins time."

Eight small pumpkins painted this year and – as promised one year prior – they had been marked with each of the eight letters of the birthday girl's name. As proud as she was of the result, all that would really matter to Maya in the end would be Marianne's reaction.

They had very little to do until the girls actually woke up. Breakfast would be made and served at the elder Friars' house, where the various branches of Marianne's family tree would join up. It had been her wish this year that her birthday dinner with the family be a birthday breakfast instead, and who were they to tell her no, on this day of all days?

Maya chuckled to find her kid brother asleep on the couch. The temptation was there to startle Wyatt awake, but it would have ruined the surprise upstairs, wouldn't it?

"You got off easy," she whispered at his ear. Wyatt didn't bat an eye, just kept breathing evenly.

"Two trips, two each?" Lucas asked when they got hold of the pumpkins. Maya signed in approval.

Up they went, MA and RI and then AN and NE, to the second floor where they could get them all lined up properly. Maya had to be reminded of what they were trying to do once she got a look of the girls in their snooze pile. Marianne was on the outside, on the left, with Mackenzie stuck to her, and then tiny Aubrey in the middle, her buddy Lucy with her, and then Remy spooned with her, as Kacey was with her. the last on the right. Maya could just guess that, not too long ago, Lucas had been in the middle, the two halves bridged in his absence.

They fully expected that the moment one of the girls woke up, the others would not take long to do the same, and they were right. Today, the toppling domino was Remy, though it did feel as though she and Kacey had opened their eyes at nearly the exact same time. Whether or not they did, their movement woke Lucy, then Aubrey, then Mackenzie, then finally…

"Annie, it's your birthday!" Lucy gasped, beaming, even as Mackenzie tackle hugged her big sister. Smallest or not, Aubrey saw this and took it in stride by trying to toss herself over them, too, her mighty squeak startling the two even as it invited the triplets to go and join them. All Maya and Lucas could see of their firstborn for a minute or so were her legs and arms, but they could hear her laughter in the madness, which was really all they needed.

Marianne was finally released with her parents' assistance. They plucked away each of the girls and brought them to stand on their feet until, from among them, the brand new eight-year-old could climb to her feet, too, red in the cheeks with glee. Maya was the first between the two parents who was able to open her arms and close them around the birthday girl, and did she ever make the most of it, teetering her this way and that, kissing the top of her head…

"Did you get taller again? Is this some kind of upgrade for being eight now? Huh?" she teased, and Marianne laughed.

"Mommy, you can't get taller in one night," she shook her head, then paused. "Can you?" her head whipped to look at her father and back again to her mother. Maybe she had gotten taller? Could she tell?

"We can measure you every morning and find out," Lucas joked, though he got a feeling as well as Maya did that introducing this notion was a sure fire way for Marianne to latch on and want to do exactly that… and for her little sisters to want to do the exact same thing. They knew Marianne loved keeping track of things already, and it was mostly basketball stats just now, but hey…

"Hey, we better go and get ready, huh? Breakfast at Granny and Pappy's house," Maya reminded the small blondes in a tone that was almost unnecessary. She could have spoken in a total deadpan voice, and they would have run squealing in anticipation. They loved going to their grandparents' house so, so much. "And we gotta wake up Uncle Wy," Maya reminded them. That did it even better. The triplets scrambled away, and Mackenzie followed.

"Wait! I'm coming! I'm coming!" she called, perhaps doing the job of waking Wyatt for all of them already. Aubrey looked ready to run down the stairs with them, too, but Maya went and scooped her up.

"Where do you think you're going, Miss Friar? Huh? You just stick with me," she told her and pressed a kiss at her cheek before moving to catch up with the others… and to hopefully see her brother's waking. Marianne looked ready to follow after them, too, a huge grin at her face, but Lucas caught her before she could go. There was that laughter again, even as she made no effort to remove herself, instead returning the embrace she was given.

"Happy birthday, pumpkin," he told her, and she turned her smile up to him. She was so like her mother for how she could take his breath away. One was a romantic love, the other paternal, but each was a connection all its own… They took him by surprise, day by day, and his girl right here… It wasn't as though the rest of them didn't bowl him over with everything they did, with their mere existence, but it couldn't be helped when it came to Marianne. She was the eldest of their little ones and so the first, always, to reach new milestones that would make both him and Maya sit back in awe. And this right here, looking at her and knowing she was eight years old already…

"You've got Dad Eyes," Marianne informed him, with the lilt of a laugh in her voice. Lucas smirked, tipped his head.

"I've got what now?" he asked.

"That's what Mommy calls it. She told me. You look at us like… like your heart feels really big all of a sudden, because you love us so much."

"That's… that's a very good definition," Lucas agreed, laughing along.

"I like when you have Dad Eyes," Marianne reflected merrily, and Lucas bent to kiss her head again, staring deep into her eyes with the best of his 'Dad Eyes.'

"So do I."

There was no time for them to wait around, not when they were expected at Melinda Friar's table, no, so before long Maya, Lucas, the six girls, and Wyatt were all dressed up and driving off. The car ride, as it would be, was a wild mess of singing and laughing, especially so today. They had to make it special for Marianne's birthday, didn't they? It was enough so that, when they pulled up to the house in the middle of a song, they had to wait and finish it before they could turn off the radio and get out of the minivan. This gave enough time for Melinda to realize they had arrived and make her way out to meet them.

"Granny's here! Granny Mel!" Kacey called out, summoning her sisters' voices to loudly call out to her. Sure, the windows were closed, but that wouldn't stop her hearing them and jogging over with a grin. Oh, how she held such a power over her granddaughters... how they held that same power over her, too. They filled her life and her heart with so much joy. And it had all started with one little blonde...

"Happy birthday, sweetheart..." Melinda caught Marianne in a hug. Her first grandchild, her mother's namesake, her soul mate... There were days where that distinction, as it had done with Lucas and with Maya earlier, could only shine brighter than anything.

"Happy Hallowannie, Granny," Marianne grinned, laughed along with her, and got some kisses in return.

"You're going to be as tall as I am someday, aren't you?"

"Taller!" Marianne declared, and her grandmother laughed some more, squeezed her into a new hug. Maya would tell Lucas how she loved getting hugs from her taller grandparents and great grandparents best. They made her feel smaller than she was. Lucas would meet these statements in asking how long Maya thought it would be before their first born girl stood as tall as her and taller. The glances he got in return, if not for the fact that she loved him, could have burned. Instead, she'd laugh, and give a pitiable pout, to which he would give hugs and a promise that she would always be their little girl... even if she could be the one to scoop up her mother instead of the other way around.

Marianne and her little sisters were soon reunited with their big sister, as Ella had already arrived, along with Tori, the better to surprise the birthday girl. The Hunters and Clutterbuckets were there, too, and most excitingly the Hart-Lanes, having left earlier than them. It was so rare an occasion to have them there for this day, but now they weren't just in town, they lived here, they were involved! Two houses working together, that evening, with the games, the maze, the contest... It would be their grandest Hallowannie yet, but for now, breakfast.

"I'm ready!" Marianne reappeared, now donning her headband with its bouncing pumpkins on springs. It wouldn't have felt right not to have them, would it?

"Yeah, you are," Maya nodded as Marianne reached up and touched the guitar pick around her mother's neck. "What's that for?" she asked.

"Grandpa," Marianne told her with a nod. It caught Maya by surprise, but then she understood. Marianne and her ghosts... they would say. She had not known him, but she believed he was with them, and on a day like this, why wouldn't he be?

"Yeah..." Maya breathed through the tremor in her heart. "Here," she reached to undo the clasp and refixed it at her daughter's neck. "You wear it today."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners