Passage [Ty Simpkins]

Thirty-Six

After talking to her parents, Maya gave her two-week notice to her boss and started her YouTube channel. It took her a week to edit and upload her first video. As soon as she uploaded her first video, which was a vlog, she promoted it on her Instagram story. 

When her friends saw that she posted about it, they turned to their Instagram stories and started promoting the video. Peter, like Maya's friends, did the same.

Maya greatly appreciated it. They didn't have to help her, but they did. 

Maya didn't want people to think that she was using her famous brother and some of her famous friends to promote her YouTube channel, but she still appreciated the support.

She was still trying to figure out her schedule. She knew she would have one figured out soon.

When Monday rolled around, everyone at school was talking about how Maya Taylor started a YouTube channel. Some of her school friends congratulated her and told her that they had subscribed. Some weren't thrilled that she started one.

She knew that people talking about her behind her back came with the territory. She was used to it. She wasn't happy about it, but this was part of the game.

Everyone supportive of her made suggestions for her. They told her to make more vlogs, videos with her brother, fashion-related videos, and others.

She wasn't sure if she wanted to record videos with Peter. She loved her brother, but she didn't want to use him.

She didn't want to use her brother for views. He was already going through enough having to balance being an actor, being a normal kid, going to school, and other things. She didn't want to add to it.

Maya began thinking about her next video and just thought she should do a Q&A video and use her Instagram story to ask people to send in questions for her to answer. She also thought she could use her Instagram story to ask for video suggestions. 

She already had a list of video ideas on her phone. All she needs to do is record the videos and edit and upload them.

"How many subscribers and views do you have?" Mason asked Monday morning.

"Let me check," Maya said. 

The moment she uploaded the video and turned to Instagram to promote the video, she hadn't checked. There was a part of her that was terrified to check.

"Wow," she said when she checked. "Nearly ninety thousand videos and nearly ten thousand subscribers."

"Damn," Mason said, surprised. "That's..."

"Unbelievable," Madison said.

"Uh - huh," Maya said. "Some of them are people from school and others... they either subscribers for me or because my brother or Ty, Chase, and Finn promoted it."

"What about Brie Larson and some of the Wonder cast?" Mason said.

"Oh, they did too," Maya remembered.

Maya and her family are really good friends with Brie Larson after she and Peter worked on a movie a couple of years ago. She remembered that Brie came over a few times to babysit Peter. Even though Maya was there to babysit him, Brie still came to help out. 

The Wonder cast... Maya became good friends with Danielle Rose Russel and Izabela Vidovic, who starred in the movie with Peter. Izabela played Peter's older sister and Danielle played the sister's best friend. 

The kids in the cast also helped promote it, who were friends with Peter. 

All their help was greatly appreciated. 

After school on Monday, Maya went to work. She really wanted to go home rather than be at the bakery.

A part of her considered just leaving in the middle of her shift and letting someone cover for her, but the guilt of her stopped her from leaving.

When her shift ended, Maya went home and started working on her homework.

She got on FaceTime with Madison as they worked on homework. Having someone on FaceTime helped motivate her to continue doing homework. 

***

Maya finally finished her last week at the bakery and she was relieved. She decided to vlog that day for her YouTube channel. Might as well vlog her last day so she'd be able to look back on it in the future.

Despite no longer enjoying her job and everything, it felt bittersweet. She's worked with these people for nearly three years and was leaving.

Will she see them again? Hopefully, but she wasn't sure. 

She hoped she would see them again soon. She can visit from time to time if she can.

Most of them were high school or college students and the rest were adults. Despite the age range, they were all able to bond over working at the bakery and dealing with different types of people.

Maya and the high school-age students hung out from time to time outside of work. Some of them were some of Maya's classmates at her school so she saw them more often.

"I can't believe you're leaving," Rachel, one of the girls working the shift with Maya, said.

She hugged Maya tightly. 

"You're leaving me."

"I'm sorry," Maya said. 

"I know," Rachel said, sadly.

Maya's shift was over and was saying goodbye to everyone. 

Maya had to hold back tears several times as she said goodbye to everyone. She didn't want to leave them, but she had to do what was best for her. She was going to leave eventually, but she wasn't prepared to leave as soon as she did.

She was fully prepared to turn in her two-week notice before she went to college, wherever she was going to go, but not in November. 

After saying all of her goodbyes, Maya grabbed her things and left. 

She said goodbye one last time as she walked out of the door.

They waved and said goodbye as she left.

Maya felt a sense of relief when she got into the car. 

She's finally done working here. She no longer had to come here.

It might take Maya a while before she can begin to come back here, but she knew would visit the bakery soon.

She started recording and set the camera on the car dashboard.

She felt awkward and weird talking to the camera.

It's only the beginning, Maya reminded herself.

She'll only feel weird and awkward talking to a camera now, but she'll get used to it. 

"So," she said to the camera, "I just left work. It's my last day here at the bakery. I've been working here for..."

Maya kept messing up but eventually got it right. 

She went up to her bedroom when she got home and started to record the ending of the vlog. She knew she wasn't going to do anything else for the rest of the day and spend the day at home.

Once she got the clip she wanted, she stopped recording and imported everything into her laptop. 

She bought herself a camera earlier in the week. It was expensive, but it was worth it.