The Story of Tonight

Chapter Thirty Five

Things were starting to become more and more hectic in the Miranda-Nadal household. July 9th was fast approaching and Lin was getting an abundance of requests from the media.

At the beginning of June, the family had decided to hire on a bit of extra help. School was winding down for Lia, but it wasn't fair to expect a fifteen year old to wait on her mother, who still had six weeks to go before her due date. She was signed up for summer school to get PE out of the way and had also signed up for chess camp after her dad taught her to play. Lin asked around and they hired a 20-something Puerto Rican woman to be at home during the day.

Lia was definitely enjoying the homemade Puerto Rican cooking. After a hot late June PE class, she came home sweaty and exhausted. Beatriz was taking some empanadas out of the oven.

"Buenas tardes," Beatriz greeted her with a smile, her long dark hair draping over her left shoulder in a braid. "Que tal escuala?"

One of the other reasons they'd hired her was so Lia could get better at Spanish. Vanessa hadn't insisted on using it at home growing up, but Lin was adamant that his kids would be bilingual and able to communicate with their Puerto Rican family.

"Estuvo bien," she said, going for a Gatorade from the fridge. "Eso huele muy bien."

"Gracias," she smiled. "Tu madre esta durmiendo."

Lia nodded and took her Gatorade back to her room, being sure to be quiet so she didn't wake her mother. She sat on her desk chair and let out an exhausted breath, then chugged back a big gulp as she powered up her computer. Her browser was set to open to news highlights. With her father's last performance as Hamilton in just a couple weeks, plus the multitude of Tony awards the show had just won, people were getting desperate to see it before he left. Lin had long insisted that he was not the star of the show, but that didn't stop his throngs of fans from rushing after him every show and tickets going for obscene prices.

Once again, a picture of her father appeared with an article about how he'd changed Broadway forever and wondered what he'd do next. It wasn't public yet, but they were well into making arrangements for the Fall. They'd live in London for several months while he filmed the sequel to Mary Poppins. He'd already started working on his accent.

She'd mostly managed to stay out of the spotlight that spring, though there had been a few photos and articles about her quinceanera. Lia had to admit she hadn't minded that - she'd looked amazing in her gown and the way her dad gloated was adorable. Plus she was pretty sure it made her haters jealous.

She texted her cousin, Hunter, who was coming that weekend to hang out. Since her dad had come into her life, she'd been what turned out to be her only true friend on the East Coast. She still kept in touch with Kylie, but it wasn't the same as having someone to actually hang out with. She guessed that's what cousins were for. They were making plans about what to do.

I think I want to see Tio Lin as Hamilton one more time, she'd texted. Like Lia, she was super proud of Lin and thought he deserved every accolade he'd earned.

It might be hard, but I think I can convince him. Lia texted back. With tickets being in high demand, the cast had been limited in the amount of tickets they had access to. There were perks though when you lived with the guy who not only starred in the show, but wrote it. I'll let you know what he says. I'll text you the movie times for that new Blake Lively movie after I get out the shower!

Sounds like a plan, cuz!

Emilia smiled at the nickname before setting her phone to the side and getting into the shower to get rid of the grossness of the day. When she got back into her room, in much comfier attire, she browsed the internet for some new strategies she could work on before starting chess camp the following Monday. She could laugh at herself when she thought about it: the girl who had spent the majority of the year trying so hard to be popular was spending the first half of her summer in chess camp. But she'd enjoyed it, and if there was anything she had learned from her dad it was to follow wherever your passion takes you.