January 31st 2024

Chapter 31
The Needs of a Studio

"You are really coming in strong here, kiddo," Rosa shook her head, hands pressed at Maya's belly and making her laugh. "You're sure it's just the one? I mean…" Rosa gestured between the two of them, calling on the fact that they had both carried multiples in the past, the Mantovani twins for the SCAR family for her and the triplets for Maya.

"Just one, we're sure," she promised with a nod. She did not mention the fact that she listened and looked with an overwhelming focus at her last appointment as though her doctor could have missed something, like a whole other baby, because she'd look at herself and think the same thing. She didn't suggest that she was already seeing herself doing the same until the day came when they handed her just the one baby. Rosa would tease her forever.

She'd been the first to arrive for this band practice, but as soon as the others would arrive, they'd be all over her and her belly in much the same way. She really had sort of gone and popped as of late, so she couldn't blame them. Far from blame, their love was one of her favorite things about this new pregnancy, this pack of musical aunties descending, crooning at her unborn bean… Morgan was already her own dedicated nurse at school, checking on her and making sure she was good and had anything she needed, and she did the same here. Nadine and her little sister, Hexes member Olivia, were most known to end up singing at her belly, generally starting with the youngest Zhu until the eldest was convinced to join in. And then Riley, well… Riley was Riley, at any age, and a five-year gap wasn't going to stand in the way of her being all over this, talking to the baby like this was already yet one more extension of her best friend, which made them besties, too. And she had so many plans…

The TXNY aunties carried that same level of affection toward the rest of the Friar kids, and the feeling was mutual. Most of them were part of 'the great turtle bale,' as Lucy had named the friends and their kids. (She'd looked it up, and she would remind them.) The funniest part would be to see how the Friar kids almost saw those fourwomen, Riley, Nadine, Rosa, and Morgan, like they were all two separate entities. There were the four who, like their mother, were part of the band, and then there was Aunt Rosa who was with Aunt Jenna, and Aunt Morgan who was with Uncle Paul, and Aunt Riley who was with Uncle Dylan and mother to Nicky, Emily, Megan, and Aimee, and Aunt Nadine who was with Uncle Zay and mother to Mia, Izzy, and Gigi.

Today, band practice day, they were rock stars, and it was the best thing to get to see them here, to talk music with them. All the girls had been singing about as long as they could speak, maybe as long as they could hum and string sounds together into a tune, recognizable or improvised, and they all had sat at the piano, taught by Ella or Marianne, so on TXNY days, all they wanted was to confer on music with them.

They would have probably loved to go and sit in on practice with them in the Hex, too, but they didn't have that much time available for all of them to be there. They loved bringing the kids in, but that tended to slow things down, and they needed to be able to get out in time for Morgan to take off for dinner at her sister's and Riley to join Dylan and the kids at her father-in-law's home.

The light was on when they arrived at the Hex door, which they expected. The Hexes had arrived a while ago for some as yet unspecified project, and they'd promised to be done for TXNY to get the space. They were always very respectful of the time in times like these, and as proof, the light turned off, allowing entry, within two minutes, when their time was done. Riley opened the door and waved the others in, and the junior band was picking up after themselves.

Olivia Zhu had been working alongside Lucas at the ranch for a while now, she was Nadine's sister… but Maya was never so acutely aware of how she'd been one of her students already several years back now as when she was surrounded by the rest of the Hexes. It made sense, she knew, because all those involved in the junior band were now or had been students at her school.

Not all of them had been in her class, no. Kinsey was already a senior this year, the leader of the Critically Bookish quiz team, and she was back on the cheer squad for one last run… and she was here. She was having to consider her college plans before long, which would understandably challenge her position on the band if she went any further than neighboring cities, but that still needed to be determined, so they didn't really bring it up.

Ash Bell was the next youngest on the band, and they might have been on to their third year of college if they hadn't had to repeat one high school year, but they were very proud to be into their second one at the moment. They had once feared they would never even get that far.

Then there were Olivia's classmates, bandmate Kelsey Farrell and songwriter Ava Nash, and no matter how much their friend's playful teasing would allegedly make them roll their eyes, they couldn't deny that they were as cute of a couple as everyone said they were. Kelsey was as bright eyed as ever, and as much as it had balanced Ava back in school, it still did today. Oh, she had come a long way from the angry girl Maya had known back then, but that didn't mean she didn't get riled up easier than some. But then Kelsey would be there, and they could just see the tension release. Ava was her fiercely loving girlfriend, then and now, and she would almost blush to be perceived in this… state of adoration… but there'd be no jumping out of it, and she sure wouldn't have wanted to if she could.

And last but not least… Jenny Marshall… Looking at the twenty-three-year-old girl, there was barely any trace of the fifteen-year-old boy Maya had first met as a freshman in her class. Plenty of this went to the physical transition that she had undergone, the voice she now spoke with… sang with… but they were just components on their own. The ocean that carried them as one was the soul within, given freedom to sail at last. The boy was what she had been made to be, and they would have given much for her not to have to go through those years, but by now Jenny would say that she had made some peace with the boy, the years he had not known how to understand what he needed, who he was, and done what he could to keep going. Everything she did now was as much for herself as for him. The next part though… that one was for her.

As the Hexes were about to step aside and give the senior band the space of the studio, they all had this look to them like their own practice, while it had involved music, had been sidetracked by conversation, a lot of it. And they were excited, energized. That energy was forged in their friendship, in the bond of Hexes, one that the members of TXNY knew very well. One of them needed something, and the others had it in them to help. All they needed was an idea, a plan. And they had it. Jenny was seeking surgery she could not afford. It had taken time for her to even bring it up, even with people who meant as much to her as the bands did, but in no time Olivia, and Kinsey, and Ash, and Kelsey, and Ava… they had come up with the Jenny Tapes.

"We'll make the album, we'll put it out there, we'll do shows… And everything will be for her," Ava gave a solid nod, turning a smile to her friend that told her and everyone else that she wouldn't abandon the endeavor until they reached their goal. Jenny had never looked so caught up in emotion, barely containing it within herself without it spilling out in tears.

After the group had left, TXNY had only one thing to say as they got settled in, and it was that they would offer any and all assistance the Hexes would accept, collaborations, contacts… They wanted to help Jenny get what she needed. It wasn't even up for debate.

They had barely warmed up when the door light flashed, drawing one and another and all of them to look up or around toward the door to see who it was. The moms among them, whether or not their kids would be reasonably expected to be on the other side of it, would get that same look in them, making the other two laugh when they'd notice, and the trio would look at them with a harmless 'squint.'

It wasn't any of the kids, no spouse, or sibling… It was one of their own, formerly. Isadora walked through the door, free to enter, and instruments were immediately set aside for all of them to go and greet her. It was the first time she actually came to visit them here since she and Ada Marie and Bertie had moved to Austin. They'd invited her to drop in a few times already, and each time she'd responded it had been with some variation on her saying that she would when she'd get the chance. After a while, the feeling this left behind was more that she couldn't do it, that something was holding her back.

But now she was here, and she sat in the big chair, behind the controls, while the rest of them went back into the booth and had their practice. Even after all the years that had gone by, and all the songs that had been written, by Maya, they still performed songs that Isadora had written when it had been her, and Maya, and Nadine and Riley, four teen girls geographically challenged by one of them living in New York while the rest of them were in Texas. To the three of them still performing with the band, when those songs came up, it was like time travel, and as they sang them in the Hex that night, with Isadora there to listen in… she was along with them for that ride back to their beginnings.

"So… I had this wild idea…" Maya hummed, when the others had left and it was only her and Isadora, sitting side by side on the twin chairs.

"You want me to sub for you when you have the baby," Isadora stated, motioning around them to specify this was about the band and not her job at the school. Maya sat up with surprise, asking without asking how she'd guessed. Isadora shrugged. It had just felt easy to piece together. "I haven't done anything like this in years… And the kids are still not completely on their feet… I'm not either…"

"I get it. If you can't, I'm not going to…" Maya shook her head. She could only ask, and whatever answer she'd get, that would be it, but she couldn't not ask, not when it felt like the right thing, to ask her before anyone else now that, for the first time in their lives, they were all living in the same city.

"But I'll do it," Isadora cut in, and Maya's jaw dropped halfway before lifting into a small smile.

"Really?"

"You're my friend. I want to help," she shrugged, matter-of-factly. Maya leaned over, and Isadora met her into a hug. "Besides, I think it'll be fun."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners