March 19th 2024

Chapter 79
The Love in Show Nights

Their plans for show nights changing at the last minute was in no way unexpected. If anything, it was the norm. So after the kids had come home the day before and Marianne had let them know how bummed out Mackenzie had been at recess, the solution was an easy one for them to achieve. All it took was one phone call from Maya to Rachel Song, and it was settled. They turned to Mackenzie and informed her that Alia would not only be joining them to watch the new episodes, but she would also stay the night. The way her face brightened up at the news… It was everything. Now, the kids arrived from school, with their young guest in tow, and Maya was fairly certain that the bulk of the conversation from departure to arrival was an unending stream of information about the two series, about their grandmother, and the ranch, and about how show nights went down at the Friar house. They had probably talked about these things before, but it would be the first one where Alia would be in attendance, and it made it more important than ever for her to feel ready for what was coming.

It had been one of the best things in the change of administration, almost five years ago now, that Alistair Song had come into the picture. Despite having the looming presence of Sandra Davenport overhead, complicating so many things, the vice-principal and the art teacher had become fast friends, allies in the school, something they'd both done their best not to air out so obviously around the now former principal, so not to give her ammunition or to allow her to see the weak link in her plans. He was on the side of the school, they both were, but where the principal was concerned, this couldn't be obvious.

This had become harder to achieve when their daughters had met and become fast friends. They'd been so little when they'd met that they might as well have been in each other's lives from day one. They were in tune all along. Alia was maybe not as all over the place as the Friars' funny macaroni could be, but that was part of what made the girls' relationship into what it was. They balanced each other, and where they were on equal footing, they were unstoppable. When Mackenzie had broken her leg and ended up home bound, Alia had been right there, always visiting when she got the chance. And when she'd be at school with her best friends' sisters, she would often send them home with drawings, with short notes… Her goal would always be to make Mackenzie happy, and that would be achieved, every time.

Mackenzie's return to school had been something they'd both looked forward to, and now that it had happened, Alia sometimes struggled, caught in the middle, but they were always okay in the end. This sleepover was to help cheer Mackenzie up, but it would be a wonderful night for both of the six-year-old girls.

Marianne was right there to give her little sister the night she needed, so she lifted her onto her back and took her wherever she wanted to go as she led her best friend around, in anticipation of the episodes. Mackenzie wanted to take Alia through the steps of show night in their house, so she'd point the way, and Marianne would go. While they got everything ready ahead of dinner, Maya and Lucas could hear the kids zooming through the house, upstairs, downstairs, wherever they needed to go, they went. Whenever they'd come back in sight, there'd be this reflex to check with Marianne to make sure that she was not exhausting herself out, carrying her sister around, but she looked like she was right where she wanted to be, so they let her go on.

Show night or not, homework was still a thing, but it always went a long way for them to have each other for this. They all sat together, and they did their work, and if any of them ever needed help, they always had someone right there to step in. Alia fit right in, and Mackenzie never smiled so much about doing her little bit of first grade work as she did now.

"Check out my guy's new cut," Wyatt grinned when he arrived home, his son perched against his side. The pride really just glowed in his face as he looked at the small boy. Their smiles were just identical, and it would be great to see on any day, but here it made them laugh. Finneas had gotten a haircut since they'd last seen him, yes, but so had his father. It was a simple clean up for Wyatt, while Finneas' hair had been reaching mane status. The change was notable, and Finn looked happy. He kept reaching to touch his hair like 'oh, this is new, this is wonderful!'

"Look at you, Finny! You like it?" Lucas grinned, and he nodded, pausing like he'd just noticed the way this was different, too, with the change to his hair.

Now that he'd graduated college, Wyatt's focus on his son had shifted. He had always been the most important thing in his life, from the moment he'd become part of it, but it was one thing to balance school and work with looking after Finn, raising him on his own, and taking away one of those things from the opposing side. Plus, Finn wasn't so little as he used to be, when he wouldn't notice so much. Now he was growing, and Wyatt wanted him to see that, even though he did not have his mother, he absolutely had his father, one hundred percent. Anyone who'd look at the way he was with his father, there was absolutely no doubt that Finneas looked to his father like he made the world turn under his feet, day by day.

Next to arrive, as the guests they had already been expecting for the evening, were Freddie Jacek and Agnes Killian. Maya had invited them, via Freddie at school, after the topic of show nights had come up. She'd ended up telling him about how Ezra would experience those nights, and in almost the same line of thought had found herself suggesting that he and Agnes come by and watch 'the show' - Ezra's show - for themselves. She'd made that invitation a few weeks ago, and it wasn't until this week that they'd accepted it.

When they arrived, the kids were all so excited to see them. They needed to be prepared, too, and not a moment was wasted. The kids wanted to know everything, if they already watched either of the shows - they did, though they had only started over the last couple of years and had caught up since then - and who their favorite characters were… They were reminded, many times over, that Nana Katy was in there, that she had started it all from their father's book, the first one. The most amusing part to Maya and Lucas was watching Ezra look from his sisters to their guests, nodding along, repeating some of the words…

They also loved seeing the way Freddie and Agnes had been acclimating to the family. They remembered how shy and uncertain the pair had been at first, understandably, as they were welcomed into the home where they had left their baby boy, their identity known to very few. But they'd had time now to become part of the picture. They weren't strangers anymore, though the big secret remained that, and it could be difficult to navigate with it, but they were here now, they were welcome guests, and they looked forward to this evening with the Friars.

Conversation at the dinner table was a volley of stories thrown from one seat to another, as everyone shared their day. It had been a better one for the Friar girls at school than the one before had been, possibly thanks to this night being on the horizon, and they had a captive and amused audience before them, ready to laugh at the right moments, ask questions and fuel the stories to expand. Maya and Lucas could see very well the way Ezra would listen to their guests whenever they spoke, almost as though the cadence of their voices was somewhere in him. They doubted Freddie or Agnes even realized it.

When it was time for them to settle into the living room, the presence of those added guests went a long way to make the kids extra giddy for the start of the episodes. Ezra began the night in Lucas' lap, where he liked to be, but he was also not too far from where Freddie and Agnes sat, and when the first episode started, he set about naming the characters when they came up on the screen, looking at them when he did so, confirming that it was very much for their benefit, and they smiled and thanked him each time. As he always did, eventually, he scooted and climbed down so he could stand and watch, though he kept on turning to name the new people when they showed up. He couldn't let their guests be lost, obviously.

Mackenzie was still in her current favored spot on the couch, with her little sister by her side, but this time she was sandwiched in between Aubrey and her sleepover best friend, Alia, and she was having the absolute best time with them there. Aubrey didn't stay awake until the end, to no surprise, but Mackenzie and Alia stuck it out - just barely - and they looked like they were both very glad to have gotten to do this together. They would be carried up to bed, both of them, conserving what bit of energy they'd have left for giggling whispers when they'd be settled into bed for the night.

"You girls all good?" Lucas asked them quietly once they'd maneuvered the presence of the leg in its cast while the best friends shared the bed. They nodded in unison. "Alright, don't stay up too late, yeah?" he joked, as though they wouldn't be asleep by the time he started heading back down the stairs.

Freddie and Agnes left not long after the second episode had ended, thanking the Friars for inviting them. They were both assured that they were more than welcome to come and join them on future show nights if they felt like it, and they both looked like they were strongly considering it. When they were gone, Maya and Lucas were left with only Wyatt in the living room with them, holding his sleeping son in his arms. He didn't say anything out loud, but it was there in his eyes that he had been left to think about the young couple and their presence among them. Sure, the connections were clear, but it went beyond the obvious, and given enough opportunities, how could he not pick up on some of it? Whatever he thought, it stayed with him. He wished his sister and her husband a good night and carried Finneas up the stairs.

"You know, I was thinking earlier… We don't have many more of these nights left before this guy is here with us," Lucas smiled, setting his hand against his wife's belly. Maya smiled brightly at the notion.

"Sometimes it feels like he already is. I think he can almost read my mind. When something good happens, or sad, or… infuriating…" she squinted, remembering a scene, which made Lucas chuckle. "My mom already said she wanted to be there, the first time he's there," she added, and he was not surprised. She had been on hand for all her grandchildren's first 'experience' of her series if she could, and this was going to be so for their new boy, and for Nellie's boy not too long after, all the better to welcome them into the tradition.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners