May 10th 2023

Chapter 130
We Remember Our Songs

Dear Mrs. Friar,

I've been thinking a lot lately about the fact that I should be graduating this year. If things had happened differently and I hadn't been forced to repeat freshman year, I would be a senior now, along with Maia, and we would both be looking into colleges together, making plans for our future after high school. Instead, I'm on my way to finishing junior year, and while Maia will be going off in the fall to whatever school she chooses, I'll have one more year to go before I can maybe follow her. I thought I would be more upset about it than I actually am. I am upset about it, obviously, but I'm okay, too. I'm not in the same place as I was when I started out, my first time around as a freshman, in so many ways.

I would love to get to go with Maia next fall, but I know I won't, and so does she, and we're okay. We talked about it a lot over the holidays. I don't want her to have to settle for anything just because she has to wait for me. It wouldn't be fair to her, and I could never be okay with myself if I did that to her. Right now, she's debating the possibility of going on an internship for a year, or just going abroad, to see a few places she's wanted to see, so we can start college together. She might decide to start there in the fall instead, and if that's what happens then I'll support her no matter what. Nothing's been decided yet, not about all of that, though we have been talking about other things, about what the two of us will do as a couple in that year, but it will be hard to take any steps until we're both in the same place again.

I've still got plenty of time until I'm there, but thinking about it has made me think about other things. The Hexes… I don't want to think about having to step away from the band, but I wouldn't have a choice, would I, not if I left Austin for school, or if I ended up moving to another city to stay… or another state… or another country… I'm getting so ahead of myself, but the band means a lot to me, more than I ever thought it would. The same goes for the musical at school. I think that's one of the reasons why I'm not as upset about sticking around for another year. I got that part of my life back and I really want to get the chance to explore it for as long as possible. I'd sort of forgotten how much I loved all of it for a while, and I'm here now, I'm getting to find it all over again. I think I might actually want to pursue it after high school. Would that be strange? I don't know what I would want to do, but whatever it would be, so long as it had music… That would be where I'd want to be.

See you at school… or in the Hex,
Ash Bell

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Dear Ash,

I personally will be very glad to have you in my class and around the school for another year. Having to repeat a year was not what you had in mind, but I'm thinking that you would agree with me in saying that, in the long run, this was for the best. The Ash who first started out with the class of 2039 is not the same as the one who will be graduating with the class of 2040. This version of you is in a much better place than the old one, and I for one can't wait to see what comes next. You're going to be amazing in this year's musical and in whatever production will follow it next year. You say the word, I have some contacts in New York, one of them a very big fan of yours already since her days as a muse.

About the band, you don't need to worry yourself just yet, if ever. As you know, back when we were starting out, one of our members was all the way in New York while the rest of us were in Texas, hence the name, and we made it work. None of us knows what will happen for you once you graduate, but we will find that out when it happens, alright? As for your music beyond high school, now, you know that you only have to say the word and I will do whatever I can to help you reach your goals, whatever they end up being.

Your teacher and a big fan,
Mrs. Maya Friar

P.S.: I won't know until later, but please let me know once you can. This afternoon, as I'm writing this, I'm staying late at school on quiz team business. I saw you and Maia talking earlier and I have a sneaking suspicion that you're at my house right now on some covert birthday business. Am I right? I'm right, aren't I?

X

"Do you think she knows?" Ash Bell asked as they sat in the Friars' living room. Lucas turned to them, then to the others gathered around. Olivia Zhu, Kelsey Farrell, Jenny Marshall, Ava Nash… Nadine, Riley, Morgan… Cara was there, with baby Sara asleep in her arms, because it didn't matter that she'd given birth less than a week ago, she had to be there for this, especially as she'd been invited by one of her nieces.

"That you're all here?" Lucas asked the junior. They nodded, and he considered. He wanted to say that she had no idea, that she hadn't said anything to suggest that she knew, but then he also knew his wife very well, and he knew enough not to put it past her to have pieced some things together and just not said a thing. "I'm not sure," he finally said, and that felt like an appropriate thing to say.

"Well, the easiest way to make sure she doesn't find out, if she hasn't figured it out, is to get started so we can be done before she gets back, right?" Ava pointed out before turning to Marianne. "What do you have for us?" she asked with a nod that made it clear: this was Marianne's show and the rest of them were there to follow her lead. That made her smile, and she stood up straighter. Her sisters had been dropped off across the road, with Abigail, after everyone had been picked up from school, the better to keep the secret as secret as could be, but she knew, as well as the others did, that they were all on borrowed time.

"I need your help for my present for Mom's birthday," she informed the two bands. "I want to make something for her, and I want it to be music."

"Are you writing her a song, Annie?" Riley asked, beaming at her niece.

"I'm not. I wanted to do some of her songs, the ones she made, for the band. I could sing her parts, and then I thought… you could sing them with me, not just one band, both the bands," she turned to the members of the Hexes. They were all giving her smiles and nods, showing their support. "Then I had a better idea," Marianne surged onward, with new excitement, and everyone jumped from surprise, which made her grin in such a way that they only saw Maya in her. "What if we made videos?"

It wasn't going to be done that day, and with how many days they had left until Maya's birthday – not so many by now – it would be a very tall order in very little time, but that wasn't going to stop them, not one bit. Maybe they wouldn't be able to present this to Maya on her actual birthday, but if her firstborn came to her, days, even weeks after her birthday and said 'here, Mom, I made this for your birthday,' Maya would not even acknowledge that there was any delay at all. That didn't mean that they wouldn't do their very best to get it all done in time, but it did mean that they wouldn't go overboard, wouldn't overdo things or stress over a deadline.

Lucas was more than happy to do whatever he could while Maya wasn't around in order to help their daughter and friends to get this present done for her. Marianne would be the one piecing the 'big plan' together, which would require her to decide what songs she wanted to include and what performances she wanted to emulate. His job would be to look into getting his hands on any pieces of costume or decoration they would need, all without allowing things to get too out of hand.

"You know, it's been a while since I helped your mom make videos like this," Lucas told Marianne after their guests had gone on their way or 'run off unseen' as Nadine had called it. Now it was just the two of them, and they were heading out together in order to collect the triplets and little sisters from the Hart-Lane house. Even on such a short walk, it made Lucas immensely happy to be going along like this, hand in hand with his baby girl. Oh, she was so much taller than she'd been… not so long ago… but when they would be just like this, him, and her, it wouldn't matter how she was getting tall, or how she was going to have double digits on her next birthday. She was his Hucklebucket, his Sheriff, him Pumpkin.

"I know," she smiled up at him. "I love those," she added, with just the touch of laughter in her voice, enough to make him look down at her and catch her biting back on the urge to giggle.

"You love them, huh?" he asked, and she nodded. "What do you love about them?" The restraint was failing, so much that she twisted her head about, not looking at him as they moved slowly along. "It's because they're silly, isn't it?" he challenged, and the hiding continued, though he also caught a bit more of the escaping giggles. "Or because we're silly?" he asked, giving her hand a light squeeze, and shaking her arm around to get her to break and laugh outright, which she did.

"You're so silly," she finally informed him, and he pressed a hand to his heart as though she'd struck his bullseye and knocked him down.

"I would never have guessed," he declared, and she scrunched her face at him. "I know, it's shocking."

"It's not just that you're silly though," Marianne went on, in a tone like she meant to reassure him. He raised his eyebrow, curious. "It's that… you and Mom… you love each other. I can see it." He smiled. "Even when you weren't boyfriend and girlfriend yet."

"Even then," Lucas nodded with complete agreement. "I don't think there was even a second, for as long as I knew that she existed in the world, when I didn't love her."

"I know," Marianne smiled.

"Of course, you do, you know everything," Lucas squinted at her. She nodded, and now he was the one who had to laugh.

The hardest part was really going to have to keep the triplets and little sisters from not mentioning how, for some reason, they went off to their grandparents' house for a while, but their father and older sister didn't go, and maybe they'd also spotted their aunties' cars outside their house. But they could pull this off, and they would. They were very good when they needed to be sneaky… most of the time… It was in all those girls' blood, given over by both their mother and father.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners