January 19th 2023

Chapter 19
We Haunt the Day

"Hey, where's your hat?" Maya asked when Marianne came hurrying along, costume all in order save for the very important headpiece. Without it, the costume just didn't make sense, or so she'd claimed, in all seriousness, while she had fabricated it with some assistance from her mother, her aunts Eliza and Emma, and her Grangie.

In response, Marianne stopped on the stairs and pointed up. Maya moved in to see past the banister and smirked. There stood Mackenzie, wearing the missing headpiece. It was gigantic on top of her, so much that it made it look as though she'd surely topple and fall, or it would, if she attempted to climb down the stairs while wearing it. Even at her age, she seemed concerned with this very idea as she approached with great caution and a furrow to her brow before abandoning her initial plan and crouching to sit on the top step, scooting down to the next… and the next… and the one after, where the headpiece nearly fell and she froze with a gasp, reaching up. Marianne climbed back up to help her at once, not by taking back her hat but supporting it while she got to her feet and continued down, with a smile that told plainly how she felt: she was a magic princess, and all could see it.

"Where's mine?" she asked, once she landed before her mother, who had recorded the whole royal descent.

"Your costume is already in the minivan, remember?" Maya told her. They had returned after breakfast for a quick transformation before heading on to the ranch for the next part of their Hallowannie adventures. They could have done it out at the elder Friars' house, with all the family there, but the kids had gotten it in their heads, days ago, to surprise them in the evening when they'd see each other again, so here they were.

"Mommy!" Mackenzie gasped now, as though she'd only noticed her mother's costume. "You're very pretty," she whispered.

"Well, thank you, Mack Attack," Maya laughed lightly, lifting her up once the hat had been returned to tower over Marianne's head. Mackenzie became entranced with the colors, the textures, the spark, touching this and that and making quiet impressed noises. "You're going to look very pretty, too, when you've got your whole costume on, the hair, the makeup," she pointed here and there, which made Mackenzie squirm and laugh and made Maya laugh right back. "Now where are the rest of your sisters?"

As though in answer to her question, there was a great squeal of complaint from above, followed by Lucas' call that he had it covered. A minute later, he came down with a very clingy Aubrey in his arms and the triplets up ahead of them. As they all explained in turn, the trio had decided that they wanted to help their baby sister with her costume. Lucas allowed it, and it turned out alright in the end, although the girls may have overwhelmed Aubrey just enough that no one would do after that but their dear daddy. She would perk up by the time they reached the ranch for certain.

It could look like an easy out, for them to have Marianne's party with her friends up at the ranch, but that wasn't why she'd chosen it. She just loved the look of the ranch at this time of the year, loved all the decorations, and it would be perfect, she was sure of it. Was she maybe hoping for an opportunity to figure out where those last few figurines she'd yet to track down were hidden? Oh, they were sure of it. Plus, as Lucas had been told time and time again, the staff was eager to host the event. Not all of them had been around since she was born, but many of them had been in Marianne's life since she'd been a baby, and if this girl wanted a party up at Sullivan Stables, then they would pull out all the stops for her, to see that it happened.

And then there were the guests, Marianne's guests. There were a few different groups coming together in this, with the occasional overlap. The rest of the junior turtles would be on hand, as would the soccer team, and kids from the after school program… Most of those were red group, but there were also a few of those who were either still in blue group and not yet graduated up to red or already gone up to yellow. After them, the last group and the largest was that of Marianne's classmates. Only a handful or so of them would be called her friends, her best friends, but many if not most of the others were kids she'd look on to as a friendly connection, and they would do the same with her. None of them had looked to the invitation they would have received for that day and seen it as cursory, as 'well, I have to invite them,' no. They were there because they were wanted there. Alright, maybe less so Adam Gray, but even there Marianne would claim that things weren't nearly so bad. She was willing to give him another chance, and whatever his reasons, he had accepted the invitation, hadn't he?

"My costume, I can put it now, can I?" Mackenzie asked, shimmying around in her car seat as she waited to be let out of it.

"In a minute… two minutes… as soon as possible, alright?" Lucas promised her, trying his best to work around how she moved. "First you have to let me get you out of here, yeah? Please?" She stopped at once, though there was no doubt she was doing so with great personal restraint… and she wasn't going to manage it for very long, so he needed to get on with it. "Thank you," he tipped his head to her, which made her laugh and reach out her hand like she'd seen this kind of gesture enough times to expect an invisible hat and she wanted to try and touch to see if it was really there. Lucas would try and do his best to keep her from finding out for sure that it was only pretend. To look at Mackenzie, they could bet that at this point she enjoyed his dodging and weaving as much as everything else.

The girls were all removed from the minivan and – as promised – those of them who needed help to complete their transformations soon had it. Marianne only had to get her headpiece on, completing her look, which meant that she was free to run around and see if everything else was in order for her party, and visit some of the staff where she'd know to find them… and seek the figurines.

"There's only some places I haven't looked yet, I'm sure that's where they are," she nodded to her mother. "Can I go?"

"Don't you want to be here for when people arrive?" Maya asked her. Marianne looked conflicted. She sighed, teetered from toes, to heel, and back.

"Yeah, but…" she looked around, full of envy. She just had to look. And her reasoning was likely that, if she went and looked now, it would be settled. More than anything, she'd probably drive herself even crazier if she didn't complete her search by scouring those spots, but could they even stop her?

"Alright. You've got… twenty minutes," Maya looked at her watch. "After that, I'm sending Thor after you to get you back. Deal?"

"Deal!" Marianne barely let her finish that she was already sprinting off, holding on to her hat with both hands.

"What a weirdo," Maya laughed in the best way to indicate that there could not have been a greater compliment to her birthday girl.

Twenty was closer to twenty-five, but words were kept. When the big dog was called upon, he soon sped off and, within a minute, Marianne came walking in his wake. She wasn't disappointed, no. She'd found three more figurines, which meant that there would only be two left out there which she'd yet to locate, even if what she'd find would be the placeholders that told people a figurine had been retrieved already. Oh, she really wanted to find those final figurines before the end of the day, before they left the ranch and wouldn't return to it until after her birthday had passed. It would be all too easy, having seen her photos and having access to the log list from when they'd buried and hidden the figurines, to figure out which ones she was missing and where she could find them, so they might direct her search, but she'd gotten so far on her own…

"You so want to tell her," Maya 'accused' Lucas, and his look said something like 'and you don't?' "Hey, we're talking about you here, focus," Maya rebutted, making him chuckle. "We'll just have to wait and see how it goes."

"Hey, check it out," Lucas nodded a moment later, and Maya turned her head to see where he was looking. Rosa and Jenna had arrived, and the former was clearly basking in whatever her brain was experiencing, going into six months of her surrogate pregnancy for their friends. Just now, it made her the most eager to be around the junior turtles and those of the other kids who'd arrived already, to welcome them into the party. It wasn't as though she never was around children like this, but there was definitely a heightened quality to her behavior with them. She couldn't help it, and even she had enough self awareness to see what she was doing; if she caught any of them looking, she'd try and come off like she wasn't doing exactly what she was doing; it wouldn't work.

The children were arriving, and they were soon milling around, coming up to Marianne to wish her a happy birthday and being overall very happy to be here for this party. Her best friends were never far behind. Tori, Winnie, June, Harper, Lily, Mosi Okafor… They'd known the most, coming in, about what this day would be like, and now that they were here, they just wanted to see and do everything right away.

"Ella! Come with us!" Marianne came to tug at her big sister's hand. "You have to come, right?" she asked of the young woman who in fact wore a costume that matched her to her little sister/birthday girl. In Marianne's eyes then, they belonged together. Ella thought the same, they knew, but she wasn't above letting her sister think that she hadn't made up her mind yet, not until she'd asked. Then, she could go along with the idea, happily so.

If they all looked to this day, to Marianne's birthday, in their own way, Ella was not immune. They knew so well how much her little sister, the one she had first gained, in being adopted by the Friars, meant to Ella, and this was a big day for her, huge. Eight years old! So, Ella counted herself as part of the group, like the others, even as she was led off, hand in hand.

The whole party, once it was in full swing, was as chaotic as they would have expected it to be. The joke would then be that this was exactly why they had decided to hold the party here and not at home: the cleanup. But for those few hours as they flew by, they not only got to see their birthday girl have a blast but also her sisters, and her friends and classmates and teammates, so that was all the success they could want. They would help with the cleanup if they could.

"Well?" Lucas asked of Marianne when the time came to start and think of heading home for the next part of their big Hallowannie day. "Did you find them all?"

"All except one!" Marianne informed him, mildly frustrated, as she showed her pictures. Lucas chuckled, thinking of how she had once been the one to find a long-lost, final figurine, and she hadn't even been trying. Now when it was what she wanted…

"I'm sure you'll find it," Lucas told her. She didn't look ready to go, not when it was just one… "Can I help you?" he asked, offering his hand. Marianne smiled.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners