July 17th 2023

Chapter 198
We Light the Eve

To look at what was involved in weekends for them as a family, it might not have felt to some as though either Maya or Lucas got to relax much. Maya wasn't in school, but she did have diaries, and plans for the coming week, and then of course the children, something Lucas also had to see to, even as he would have regular expectations up at the ranch. Sure, it all got to be very hectic, there was no denying that. But if that was the life you had sought to have, how could it give you anything but great satisfaction?

Just now, on Sunday, the second to last day of October, for the parents, that meant getting their girls to and from their activities. Lucas had done the 'getting to' before heading to the ranch, and now Maya had set aside her diary boxes to go and collect six young blondes. Her first stop took her to the pool, to find the great swimming bunny.

The more she grew, the ways in which she resembled and differed from her mother would complement themselves so well in Lucy. She absolutely still looked like Maya at whatever age she was, but then it all started to diverge in temperament, in personality, and no one liked to notice it more than Maya herself. She looked at her littlest triplet - who would likely be the shortest of her daughters in the end, with how the little sisters were growing - and she saw not difference but complement. They completed each other. She knew it in her heart, whether or not she knew how to explain it. She just saw that smile on her daughter when she spotted her and her heart felt 'the Lucy feelings.' She scooped her up for a big hug, wet hair and all, and they left the pool together. She'd pick her up first, knowing it would make for special conversations, just the two of them.

Then it was off to collect Remy from karate, and she knew that no matter how early or late she was in arriving, as far as her second born triplet would be concerned, it would be too early. A lot of it went to her involvement in the class, and the things she got to learn, but Maya also knew that there was another part – equal, greater, lesser, they honestly couldn't say – that had to do with her just being in that space, in that room, with those people, whether it was her teacher, his assistants, or the other students. She'd been attending and participating long enough now that it was so deeply familiar to her, something that was hers apart from her sisters, and it meant a lot to her to have it, whether she realized this was part of the reason or not. When they'd arrive to pick her up, she'd get this alarmed little look, realizing she'd have to leave.

If it wasn't for having Lucy there, wanting to talk, or the knowledge that they would be on their way to pick up Kacey, Remy would have spent the entire ride either moping or being generally annoyed at anything. Instead, she and Lucy talked about their classes and how much they looked forward to having their sisters back, so on they went toward the skating rink. Maya could be certain here of finding a similar scene as she'd had on the previous stop. Kacey was very like her twin in her devotion to her activity. Sure, on the whole, that could be said about all of them, and maybe it was the fact that the two of them were identical that made it feel particular in their case. One way or the other, when Kacey would be out there and she'd see that they had arrived, her immediate response would be a great big smile… followed by realization of what this meant… and then disappointment. She had to hang up her skates for another day and that was as upsetting as things got. Oh, how she couldn't wait for the rink near their house to open for the year again. Having them so close to home? How perfect was that?

With their trio reunited, Maya didn't worry about any sadness lingering very long over anyone having had to leave a place they didn't want to leave. The six-year-olds would not let silence gain the slightest edge on them in the time it would take for them to reach the soccer field and collect their big sister.

Marianne didn't have games every single week. Those they would attend, naturally, and as far as practices, it would depend on the weeks. This time around, they hadn't stuck by the field, but that wasn't a problem. When she came bounding over to them – almost literally hopping as she went – she carried her excitement like she couldn't wait to hold it out and share it with them. Maya could easily guess why. She was one day shy of ten, and there was no way that this fact would have gone unmentioned within her team. So, it went without saying that they would have used the day's practice to be the first ones to ring in her birthday, one day early.

"They're going to come to the games tomorrow!" she informed her mother and the triplets.

"All of them?" Kacey asked, smiling along with Remy and Lucy

"All of them, yeah!" Marianne nodded at them before turning to their mother. "We're going to have enough candy and everything, right?"

"You do know who you're talking to, don't you?" Maya teased, playing shocked despite the very clear grin on her face. She'd have her teammates, and she'd have her fellow yellow group members, and she'd have her classmates… Her circle went as wide as they could imagine it and beyond, and they were always happy to recognize it.

And now they could see other circles getting wider, and fuller… After they'd picked up Marianne, their next stop took them to see what one Mackenzie Abigail Friar was up to. It hadn't been very long since she'd started on her own path, and certainly it hadn't been long since they'd started leaving her out there with neither her mother nor her father there to look after her. But they were at that point now and, to no surprise, it really felt as though Maya and Lucas were having a much harder go of it than their four-year-old.

Each time, they would help her get ready, load her up with her sisters to head to gymnastics day, and she would just be all over the place with giddiness. This would go on through the drive, and once they'd parked, too, waiting to get out. And then they'd be inside, and she'd just want to go and be out there with her little friends so much that they could barely get a quick hug and a kiss before she'd bolt away. She wouldn't be worried at all about being away from them, and they knew that it was a good thing... It was, right? Their hearts feeling a little twisted wasn't bad if she was getting to be well-adjusted and independent, right? Even if she was just their funny little macaroni?

Oh, once she saw them when they came to get her, their hearts would soon untwist, because she'd show the same excitement for them as she'd done the gym. She'd run right out to whoever was there to pick her up, and if they weren't done for the day yet, they'd point back to her class and she'd get this look like 'oh, right,' and run back, but the whole time her attention would be divided, and no one would be immune to getting the chuckles for it.

The parting was trickier when it came to their youngest, as they'd figured it would be. At three - almost three and a half, they could not forget - Aubrey Juliet Friar might say that she wanted one thing, but then when she'd be given that thing, well... So, for instance, they'd started her on ballet lessons, and like with her older sisters, they'd have someone always nearby, whether it was one of her parents, her eldest sister, aunts, uncles, grandparents or great grandparents... She'd be so happy in her class, maybe most of all with her outfit, which required spares for home if they wanted to make sure she'd have what she needed for class.

So, when they mentioned the idea that there might not be anyone sticking around sometimes, that they'd leave her and come back for her when it was time to go home, she'd been all for it. They knew better than to take this at face value, so those first times they had left her they had been just outside, and it hadn't taken long that they'd gone back inside with her. They couldn't keep doing that, they knew, or else she'd always assume that they'd be there. It'd be the nights and the crying all over again from any of their girls' baby days.

The first times had gone about as well as expected, which was to say not very, but things were going better now, in no small part thanks to the outfit, yes, but also the intervention of her dance teacher, Midori Yasuda. She would be assisted by her daughter, Hazel, an eighth grader this year. Aubrey had told her all about how her mom could be her teacher very soon, and that small association somehow helped calm her down.

But now she was back with her mother, and her sisters, soon with her father and the rest of the home crew for the evening. And it wasn't a regular evening, not to them. It was Hallowannie Eve, or so they called it. They knew to expect the girls to want to jump right into all the fun, especially to jump into their costumes, and the last thing they wanted was to bring out any bad mood among the pack of them. For that, the solution had been clear. They just drew out the costume creation, making sure that they wouldn't be completely finished, all of them, so that they could finish it now, on this evening. They'd get to wear much of it for a little while, if not the whole thing, and then they'd get out of it, go to bed, before finally putting it on for the morning of the thirty-first.

"Mackerel, I need you to stand still, okay?" Maya hummed as she worked on the girl's hem. She wasn't so worried about keeping the line straight and a lot more about accidentally pricking her leg.

"Okay, Mommy," Mackenzie promised, and she did stop, though there was still enough of a tension in her to suggest that she wanted to keep going, and Maya could hardly blame her. If anything, it was on her and Lucas for their choice of movie playing in the background while the costumes were being worked on by them, and Wyatt, Nellie, and Gracie.

"Tell you what," Maya whispered as she leaned her head over her daughter's shoulder. "You just stand still for... three more minutes, and then you can go all out and dance all you want, deal?"

"I can do that!" Mackenzie declared.

"Okay, good, here we go," Maya laughed and got to work.

The more her three minutes wore on, she could see the other girls looking on, too, showing that they were well aware of the promised dance break... and they wanted in on it. Everyone else was working as fast as they could all of a sudden, knowing very well what would happen when one of the sisters was let loose. They were all nearly done, so it wasn't too big of an ask. Some may have sped up or slowed down in an effort for them to finish at roughly the same time, but what mattered was that they got there... and so the Friar sisters let loose, a pack of monsters and magical creatures, dancing around their big sister, on the eve of her tenth birthday.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners