A/N: Happy 2023 everyone! Today marks the start of my eighth year of this Lucaya Project, and the seventh within the Texas series. This year's project will be a sequel to last year's story, carrying along with the narrative of the past six years, and like previous years, there will be a new chapter every day. Hope you enjoy it!

Texas Series
1. A Hart in Texas (2017)
2. Our Brand New Years (2018)
3. Endings, Beginnings, and the Journey in Between (2019)
4. Firsts of Many (2020)
5. (One Day You'll Have) Children of Your Own (2021)
6. Many Hearts As One (2022)
7...

AND ONWARDS, AND ONWARDS

January 1st 2023

Chapter 1
We Discover a New Year

Mornings were loud. Mornings had no choice but to be loud, especially as the Friar girls would all wake and settle into a new day. They were awake, they had energy, and they had each other to spend it with. Some days could make that noise feel sort of… weighty. Other days though – most days, if they were lucky – to hear their girls shouting, laughing, running…

"How much of that energy is thanks to school starting today?" Maya quietly asked as she listened, standing alongside her husband at the kitchen counter. Lucas was listening, too, his attention divided between the rumble and his growing pile of pancakes.

"I'd say most if not all of it…"

"Mackenzie wants to come with me today," Marianne came bounding in, halfway done getting dressed by the looks of her. "Can she? Please?"

"She doesn't want to go with Granny Mel and Aubrey? Are you sure?" Maya asked, suspiciously smiling. The look on her firstborn's face, as guarded as she presumed it to be, told too much of the story.

As little as Mackenzie Friar still was, she wasn't so little anymore that she couldn't latch on to a story when she was told it, especially when it came from the right teller. As storytellers went, there could not have been one as captivating to the toddler as her big sister and roommate 'Annie.' And in recent days, more than once, both Maya and Lucas had at one time or another come upon their funny girl sitting up on said sister's bed, her baby sister sat up against her, as she heard Marianne talk about school and how thrilled she was at the idea of starting the second grade in less than a week.

For all that, their parents saw this request not so much as Mackenzie's deciding that she wanted to see this 'school' for herself but a lot more for Marianne. They could believe far better that, in telling her little sisters all about her eagerness to return, she had fabricated a story and an image of her own. Wouldn't it be great if Mackenzie got to come?

"I don't know how your new teacher would feel about having to look after a two-year-old all day," Lucas started to tell her, then as she opened her mouth to give a rebuttal, "And you couldn't watch her and concentrate on what you'll have to do on top of that." Marianne's argument had no space to expand, and so Lucas gave it the final nudge. "Plus, Granny Mel is really looking forward to today with Mack and Aubrey…" Oh, now, she couldn't do that to her…

"I bet you could at least show her the class when we drop you off," Maya offered, and up came the smile again as Marianne whipped around and dashed away. "Put some pants on, please?" Maya called after her.

"Okay!" Marianne called back.

Stories aside, the weekend had been memorable enough on its own. All of them were hyperaware of how the start of the new year at school was about to change everything for them. The last couple of months, summer, with so much time together as a family? Couldn't that be all the time? Last weekend had been deemed the perfect occasion for a big pre-school family… short vacation. They took inspiration from their previous basement camping trip. All they really needed was each other, right? They could go and make themselves tourists within their hometown. They could make memories and have all the fun that one family could cram into forty-eight hours.

The girls all sounded as though they'd bounced right back from that whirlwind of a weekend. As to their parents, now… They could have done with a day to themselves, to relax, rather than heading into work. This was not a new experience, not for having been working parents for nearly eight years already. So, they were up, they were getting things done. Soon, they found themselves sitting around the kitchen table with six of their seven daughters, plus…

"Morning, little brother," Maya smirked as Wyatt Hart-Lane shuffled into the kitchen. He had that same logically awake but seemingly asleep look that had been very familiar to mornings back when Cara was the one living with the Friars. The difference that years had made between then and now was a pack of small girls, eager to greet their uncle and new roommate. Mackenzie scrambled to get down and was distressed at being unable, even as Lucy and then Remy and Kacey went to hug at the young man's legs.

"Hey… hey… hey…" Wyatt mumbled, startled but quietly aware and responsive. He'd only been among them for a short while, but he knew how much his nieces loved that he was here, and no exhaustion could make it so that he didn't reciprocate. He'd basked in his role as big brother when Maisie had come along; as uncle, he couldn't have been happier.

"Juice?" Maya called to him, and Wyatt nodded even as he guided the triplets back to sit and leaned for some cheering little kisses for Mackenzie. He didn't 'do coffee' apparently, started his mornings with oranges instead. That might have earned him points with his nieces; he had what they had.

Spending the day with their uncle would have sounded like a pretty good alternative to school, too, but as Lucas had guessed, the girls were looking forward to going back to class. They would have so many new things to tell Mommy, Daddy, and Uncle Wy…

So, with everyone fed, and dressed, hair done, and bags collected, they set off for their first drop-offs of the year. The first stop would be the triplets' preschool. It was their second year there, so they didn't have nearly as many worries about any of them being afraid. They knew the place, the people, especially Miss Alma. A lot of the time they still tended to turn to one another, to focus on their sisters more than the other children, but they had gotten around to playing with their classmates, too.

It wasn't until this day that it dawned on Maya and Lucas that they didn't have any friends. They were only four, it wasn't as though they were expected to have developed and maintained an entourage of tiny best friends. Marianne had had Winnie by this point when she'd gone here, but that was Marianne for you, right? Today, looking at the girls as they returned to their classroom, they just saw one cluster, and another, and another, and… them, doing their own thing. That was how they functioned, and maybe, as the day progressed, they would open up again, but for now… They had no one they would invite over, no one who invited them either…

"It'll be fine," Lucas quietly told Maya after they left to get back in the minivan, watching as Marianne pushed Aubrey's stroller, aided by Mackenzie.

"Look me in the eye and tell me you didn't hate seeing it," Maya whispered back, and he could only tip his head to her. She had a point. They both wanted nothing but the best for their daughters, wanted them to flourish, to thrive, and this all weighed on them like they were somehow letting them down.

"Hey, they're starting green group today, aren't they? They'll be at the ranch," Lucas pointed out, and Maya couldn't help but smile, looking ahead to Marianne and recalling her, not so long ago, donning the green. It was still mind-blowing to think that the triplets were now that age themselves. And Lucas had a point. As much as they'd grown more at ease, being at preschool over the past year, it was so far from how they'd be when at the ranch. And that could go a long way in getting them to ease up... and to find some little friends.

"You make an excellent point," Maya smiled back to her husband, who nodded in humble agreement, making her laugh. "First things first though..." she nodded ahead to their firstborn. Yes, they had to get her to school. And they had to honor their compromise from earlier…

"That was my class last year," Marianne told Mackenzie as they walked up to the open door, big and little sister hand in hand while their parents followed, their father holding their baby sister in his arms where she was freshly awakened from their latest drive. "That was my desk. That was Winnie's desk, that was Harper's, that was June's, that was Mosi's…"

Mackenzie hurried into the room, forcing her sister to follow if she wanted to hang on. Marianne was led back to her old desk, there to first watch and then assist as the two-year-old moved to climb into the empty seat. Her feet were far from touching the ground, but that just left them more room to swing back and forth while she stretched her little arms over the top of the desk. Her whole face said that, while it had not been her idea to come into school that day, the stories had left an impression. She was playing the role of student, just as she'd heard Marianne talk about it. After a few seconds, she made as though she was holding a pencil and writing. If she was trying to play it straight, she didn't exactly have her acting chops down. She pretended to write for a few seconds, only to immediately burst into bells of giggles.

"You've got a few years to get the hang of this, Macaw," Lucas told her while Maya motioned to both girls to follow them back out of the classroom.

"Which one's mine now?" Marianne asked when they continued down the hall. She scanned the doors as they passed. She found the ones belonging to the second graders easily enough, Mackenzie trailing along with her as she peered through one door and the other.

"You'll find out soon, promise," Maya told her. Marianne looked back at her now and she understood. It was time to say goodbye to the little sisters until the afternoon, and Mackenzie was catching on, too. She clasped on to Marianne's one hand with both of hers and looked to her.

The new second grader looked at her, then to their parents. She had big 'what do I do?' eyes for a second, but maybe for looking at them, she found what she needed to do. Sheriff Annie, their little empath… She bent to catch her little sister in her arms and spoke quietly at her ear. Mackenzie still looked a bit unsure when they separated, but she smiled at Marianne and hurried back to their mother, took her hand.

"Granny time?" Maya asked, and Mackenzie's smile brightened at once. "Alright, last hugs before we go?"

"Annie!" Mackenzie reached out her other hand, and Marianne came over, putting her arms around her parents and little sisters where she could.

"See you this afternoon at pick-up?" Lucas asked, and Marianne nodded. She stretched up for kisses from her father and mother, and from Mackenzie and Aubrey, before being seen off to join the other kids. She had her friends back, and they were as eager as she was to get started. The way they were going, that first day would be done in no time.

"Granny time, Granny time!" Mackenzie squeaked when they got back to the minivan. Aubrey understood what those words meant just fine, and they didn't miss how it brightened her face, same as it did her big sister. The best part was knowing that, even now, as she waited for them to arrive, Melinda Friar was in much the same mood as her little granddaughters. She'd missed their days together, too.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners