A/N: Two days behind...

August 27th 2023

Chapter 239
We Look For A Note

Marianne Friar now had two local musical productions under her ten-year-old belt, and it was enough that her parents knew to expect that she'd want to try again if there was any space at all for her in the next one, and the one after that, and so on. They were connected enough with the Silvan Hughes Theater that they'd know to expect the announcements for new titles about to be cast, which did not shape up the way they had expected in this spring. Their next musical did not feature any child role that she might have filled. It was disappointing, but she handled it well.

The announcement had barely been made however that Siobhan Hughes had turned around and presented the young performer with a new opportunity. This opportunity had been run by her parents first, as it would be putting them in the position of having to drive her back and forth, further out than to the Silvan, but they were auditioning for a production of Mary Poppins at another theater, and she believed that Marianne would be perfect for it. Maya and Lucas were both fully willing, if she wanted to give it a go, so they told her about it.

They barely had to say the words that they knew the answer. They saw her eyes light up, and in the next moment, she was running to start preparing to audition. She had already seen this musical, and maybe especially because it featured a child roughly similar in look and age to her, she had it on repeat for weeks on end. She had always been a quick learner, and the constant exposure had done its work. She had developed a very convincing English accent for it, which had entertained her little sisters for the length of her fixation on the show and the role of Jane Banks.

Now, as she looked forward to her audition, the accent was back, and it stayed on so long as she wasn't at school, at soccer, or with her group at the ranch. It was important to her that she'd get it right, because now it wasn't just about her enjoying this thing for herself, now it was about a role, so it had to be flawless. And beyond the accent, she would be putting a lot of work into her dancing. She only wished that Donna could have lived to see it, so now she knew that if she did get cast, she would dedicate each and every one of her performances to her friend and mentor, the late great Donna Devereaux.

This role was somewhere between her previous roles of Young Cosette and Annie. She wasn't the lead, but she'd still have plenty to do. Anyway, she'd been raised under her Nana's counsel, which meant that she fully understood the rule of there being no small parts. She didn't always need to be the lead to have a great time.

When time came to drive out for the audition, it was Lucas, Marianne, and Mackenzie together. They always looked forward to drives like these, where it wasn't so long that they'd get bored but long enough that they could really get into it, singing, or taking in the view, playing games... Lucas and Maya also liked to have opportunities for their daughters to spend time together like this, in smaller groups. Having Mackenzie there to accompany Marianne felt easy, with how close the two of them were, but that was what they wanted, so that was what they got.

It would have been easy for them to spend the drive out to the theater singing through the Mary Poppins soundtrack, but Marianne wanted to put it aside as she headed in, her way of expressing that she wasn't overthinking anything, that she would go and impress them, not just for having listened to the songs until the very last second before she made it to the stage. It wasn't as though she'd be singing one of them for her audition anyway, right? She knew what she was doing, she'd done this before, a couple of times.

Once they arrived, Marianne was very quickly moved off to join the rest of the young performers vying for a role, which left Lucas to take Mackenzie and go wait with her. Seeing his firstborn go, taller than the others, as usual, he knew that she would worry over this, thinking that maybe they wouldn't want her, that like way too many people, they would assume that she was older, too old here, and she wouldn't get the part. She knew that she had been lucky so far, that she couldn't get them all, but that wouldn't stop her wanting them.

Now it was just the two of them, Lucas and his funny little Macaroni, and he could not have had a better partner in this bit of waiting. His second youngest daughter was all of days away from turning five years old, and that right there was just so impossible for him to think about. Never mind the fact that she was taking after her big sister in height milestones, the older she got, enough that people would believe her older than she was, same as they did Marianne, but also...

Oh, he just remembered when she'd been his baby girl, this tiny thing... She'd been the youngest of all of them, the day she'd given them her first genuine smile, and if that didn't tell them exactly what they were in for... There was a reason why all her nicknames suited her so well, none of them near so well as the funny Macaroni.

"Daddy?" she turned her head around to look at him - upside down, her favorite.

"Yeah, Mack Attack?" he asked, crossing his eyes and knowing he'd get a giggle out of her, which he did. She turned herself around, sitting in his lap, putting her long, thin arms around his shoulders.

"I want ice cream," Mackenzie declared. Lucas raised a brow.

"We can go when we leave here, sure," he told her, to which she shook her head. "You don't want that?" he asked, puzzled, especially as she seemed to reconsider his offer. "We can't go now, your sister has..."

"For my birthday," Mackenzie finally clarified, and Lucas understood. He could think of plenty of reasons why any one of his daughters would want ice cream - it was delicious and they loved it - but then in conjunction to a birthday, he had to know why it was important to her. She knew that her father got ice cream with Nicky Orlando on their shared birthday, something that she and her sisters had not been doing, not like this, and she wanted it.

"Alright, that sounds like a plan," Lucas smiled at her, and the way she smiled back... He couldn't get enough of it.

"Really?" she asked, barely containing her giddiness.

"Yeah, really," he pulled her into a hug, which she merrily returned. "Nowhere else I'd rather be, and anyway, it's your birthday, that means you get to choose, yeah?" She knew that was true, so now... Ooh, she was excited.

"Daddy, it's her!" Mackenzie sat up all at once and nearly slipped off her father's lap before he caught her, allowing them both to look to the stage as Marianne came along for her turn.

She had worked hard to pick a song that felt as though it would show exactly why she'd be the perfect Jane, and as she took up her place and started to sing, it very much felt as though she'd picked the right one. Lucas was partially aware of how deeply fascinated his younger daughter was, in his arms and leaning against him, but he was right there with her, truly. No matter how many times he saw her out there, and he'd had several opportunities to do so already, he would feel a mighty tug at his heart, watching his baby girl take to the spotlight as though she'd been born for it. Oh, there was a whole lot of Maya in her there, and she could not have had a better source. Her mother would point out that she'd spent of her 'cooking' on stage most every night for several weeks, on tour with Ree. Whatever was responsible, Marianne Christine Friar owned the stage.

The drive back was a mix of singing again, this time basking in the musical soundtrack - for luck - and Marianne telling her little sister all about her audition from her own perspective. She particularly went on a while about one of the other prospective Janes who she hoped would get to hold the role with her. She insisted that she had a really good feeling about her, both as someone who would play the role well and as someone who would match with her.

"She attends one of the other Stage Ready programs," Lucas relayed to Maya, later on, as they got to talk about the day. Maya smiled at this, always happy to hear about how the program she'd created continued to thrive and connect with performers.

"Here's to them both being cast then," she raised an invisible glass. The undertone was clear here in that it would be better if both or neither got to be Jane rather than only the one, for the sake of their budding friendship.

"Oh, by the way, Mackenzie and I are going out for ice cream for her birthday," Lucas informed his wife, raising a new smile to her face. "She asked," he explained, and she nodded slowly. "I figured one of them would want to do the same eventually," Lucas laughed at the look on her face.

"Well, it was always yours and Nicky's thing, but yeah, it was only a matter of time before the girls got in on it. It won't just be her now."

"No, I figured as much," Lucas smiled even as Maya reached up to poke his cheeks, a gesture that he fully understood as her playfully calling him on his girl dad heart. She wasn't wrong, was she? Just now, he was seeing himself on birthday ice cream dates with all their daughters, from the eldest to the youngest... and their baby boy... their granddaughters...

The wait for news about the musical was as 'agonizing' to Marianne as it ever was. She was constantly checking in with fellow hopeful Erica to see if she had heard anything, and vice versa, and each day that ended with no news was only making things worse.

When the call finally came, Marianne looked plain spooked. Not knowing was one thing, but now she'd be halfway there. She'd get it or she wouldn't, but what about Erica? There was getting away from this now though, so she had to hear the news. She was so calm as she spoke to the woman on the phone that her parents felt like the antsy ones, waiting for some sign, one way or the other. When she hung up and looked at them, they had to resist urging an answer out of her.

She didn't want to tell them, not until she heard from Erica, not until she knew her side of it. It was only a bit silly for them all to just stand there, but thankfully the wait was not long. The phone rang again, and Marianne pounced on it. Her parents looked on, and when their girl squealed and hopped around they let out a breath of relief. She'd gotten the part, they both had. As the call ended, they closed in around her with hugs and congratulations. They didn't get to hold on long, as Marianne now needed to go and tell her little sisters and brother, her big sister, her brother-in-law, her nieces, her grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, friends, dogs, Micro the bird, and just about anyone else that she could think of.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners