July 27th 2023

Chapter 208
We Open in Nighttime

They had long felt secure in the idea that as hard as separations were there would be the reward of a reunion on the other side. They still believed it, they did, but oh how the last decade had showed them that there was a slight exception to the rule, which was that the separations felt a lot different when the ones they were parted from were their own children. They'd been off for the weekend, all of them, to sleepovers of their own, at their friends' house, which had in turn set the wheels in motion for their parents to hold one of their adults' sleepover while they were gone, receiving their fellow turtles, their closest friends.

Now they were all gone, and their pack of blondes was back, crowding around and talking all at once in the most welcome overwhelming that their parents could ever receive. They could well have all just decided to sit in a circle on the ground, just inside the door, but they finally at least made it to the couch, where the girls merrily climbed all over their parents, the better to share tales of their time away.

Both the little sisters had been received in the home of Alia Song. The vice-principal's daughter could be said to be Mackenzie's friend, but as she and her little sister were very much a packaged deal at preschool, the same went in friendships. That was more than fine here, as Alia cared very much for the two sisters. Mackenzie and Aubrey had had a wonderful weekend for that. Mackenzie couldn't stop going on and on about how much she loved being at the Song house, how nice Alia's parents were, and most of all how sweet and cuddly the old family cat was. The suggestion was clear for all to see, every time Mackenzie brought up Cece the cat, but whether it would lead to anything or not, only time would tell.

Aubrey had loved her sleepover, too. She'd been plastered to her father since they'd gone to sit down, but she'd loved it. The hardest part, as she said it, had been that she didn't have her big sister Annie right there to tell her a story if she couldn't sleep, or her mother to sing her a song, or her father to give her those big hugs like he did now. But then Alia's daddy could sing very well, as she revealed to her mother's great surprise, and he had helped her and the others to go to sleep.

While the little sisters had been at the Song house, Kacey, Remy, and Lucy had been at the Kendall house, with Kacey's best friend, Sammie, older sister and newest member of the Critically Bookish quiz team Susan, and their family, there joined by Remy's best friend Barry and Lucy's best friend, Felicity. Seeing them all go around, the five girls and the one boy together, it reminded the triplets' parents of either their firstborn and her group or of either of their first ever groups of friends, one holding two girls and one boy, the other four boys and one girl.

Either way, the distinction had never been an issue among the kids or their families, and the sleepovers would happen regularly, rotating between the houses of the four families involved, the Friars in equal measure despite having half the members of their group of six among them. For having had them all in the house already as often as they had, they had no trouble picturing what their daughters told them now, about the weekend they'd just spent with their friends. The Kendalls had a store, just up the street from their house, where Susan, Sammie, and their brothers, Stewart and Stanley, spent a lot of their time ever since they'd all moved to Texas and opened their doors. Even when they'd be playing at one another's homes, the triplets and their friends would often pretend as though they were working or shopping at Kendall Sporting Goods, pretending to be an athlete of one sport or another… It was all ridiculous and also very amusing to watch, like they were putting on a play.

Marianne had been over at the Abernathy house for the weekend as she, Winnie, Harper, and Mosi had been hosted by June and her family. To hear her tell it, as she did each time she went out there, she loved going to June's because it felt to her reminiscent of when her Granny Mel had been around. She couldn't explain it, but the house reminded her of her grandparents' house back when Melinda had been alive. She felt bad saying it, they knew, as it implied that it wasn't the same now that she was gone and it was just her grandfather and her great grandparents, but then she wasn't wrong, was she?

Either way, they had all gotten to talking about how the holidays were getting closer, which meant that the school break would be coming up fast, too. They all wanted to do something special this year, and according to Marianne they had all come to the conclusion that if they started thinking about it now, they might have a better chance of making something happen. There was some sense to that, Maya and Lucas agreed. The question now was what kind of special something did the kids have in mind?

"We want to go somewhere with a lot of snow," Marianne informed her parents, very quickly gaining her sisters' curiosity in the process. They looked back at their parents, the blue eyed brigade remaining as convincing as ever. It wasn't as though it had ever been out of the question, and they could see merit in doing things differently, not just doing the usual camp here, trip to Arkansas there… They had wanted to go back to New York to look at houses, and there could for sure be 'a lot of snow' there.

"What did you do, Daddy?" Aubrey asked, looking up at her father.

"What did I do?" Lucas asked her, in a matching tone that had Maya snorting. "Oh, well, you know, your mom and I had friends out here, too, for our own sleepover," he told her, and she nodded. Yes, she was aware. She'd been sort of torn between going on to Alia's house with Mackenzie and staying home with her parents, where some of her favorite aunts and uncles were going to be, before finally agreeing to go with her big sister.

"Oh, you know us, just boring adult stuff," Maya scrunched her face at Remy, standing crouched next to her on the sofa as she was. Remy responded by matching her face, which was always that much funnier to Maya because she looked just like her father, and he'd do the same to her.

"I don't believe that for a second," Marianne cut in with a decisive shake of the head.

"You don't, huh?" Maya asked, and she shook her head again. "What about you guys, what do you think?" she looked around to the others. They didn't believe it either. "You're so smart," she smirked.

"Alright, you get two stories, one from each of us. Deal?" Lucas offered. The girls looked at each other, looked at their big sister, who'd always be the one to know best in a situation like this, for sure. Marianne agreed. Two stories was a good deal. Maya nodded to her husband: him first. "Okay, well…" he thought for a moment, trying not to get distracted by her staring at him with a curious smirk. It wasn't as though they had spent the entire weekend doing things or talking about things that were inappropriate for the ten and under crowd, but there were definitely some parts that he couldn't have aired with his daughters.

Finally, he thought of breakfast, just that morning, before everyone had gone home. It was just inevitable, with all of them there, that breakfast time would bring about a bit of their… shenanigans. That was always the time where things got kind of strange, and funny, no matter who was there. Maybe it came down to the food, which was so many of their favorites. Either way, with all of them there, the turtles, so many of them having grown up together for the better part of their lives, the breakfast table was the ideal place for all of them to forget that they were adults, professionals, parents. Out there, they could well have still been a bunch of kids, teenagers… It made for a lot of laughter, so much that some of them would be red in the face. They'd have to wait until they had it all under control again before they'd be able to eat, which would only get the others going again… Dylan would be the worst at it, and that was a compliment.

"I love Uncle Dylan," Lucy declared, smiling.

"And he loves you, bun," Maya promised, leaning to kiss the top of her head. Lucy looked up and pointed at her. "Me now?" she guessed, and Lucy nodded. "Okay, me now," Maya agreed. She'd had some time to consider what she might say while Lucas told his part, so she didn't take too long to get into it with her curious daughters.

There were a few things that would come up again and again, whenever they all got together. They could count on memories from years past, at least one trip to the basketball hoop, some songs, talk of their children… This one had been no exception, and her favorite thing had been when they'd gone outside and played, squaring off Coach Orlando with the newly instated Coach Friar. They both went about putting their teams together, and Maya really felt as though the picking was as fun as if not more fun than the actual game, with all the teasing that went on, back and forth between the teams.

"Did you do girls against boys?" Marianne asked with a smile. She'd heard plenty about games like these from her parents over the years.

"No, we decided to give everyone a chance," Lucas declared, getting a snort out of his wife before being reminded that this was her story time, not his.

"We split everything fairly," she promised the girls, though with enough of a telling smirk that they all grinned, understanding that she had been on their father's side, and they had won. Whether or not anyone had contested this win, it hardly mattered. They'd had a great time, all of them under the leadership of Coach Friar.

Later on, when it would be just the two of them, they would have the same thought in mind, primarily the parts that they would have kept to themselves during 'story time.' Just as breakfast would have a way of making them regress to their younger selves, the night, the time before they all went off to sleep, would leave them in a state of wanting to exchange stories they would never share in the light of day. Once upon a time, they might have gone red in the face at the idea of mentioning anything of the kind to one another, but that really wasn't the case anymore, oh no. Maya and Lucas had absolutely no qualms, for instance, about painting the picture of their escapade back home on their anniversary, especially their trip into the closet. It always ended up in a round of random questions and observations that would have them all laughing all over again.

"I'm really glad that we have these nights now, too," Maya stated as they climbed into bed. Lucas knew just what she meant. They all were grown now, yes, many of them were parents, yes, but they had never lost the people they had been in the past, and they all would continue holding on to those versions of themselves for as long as they could.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners