Trigger Warning:

Abi's POV

School was finally out. I was home for two hours before the concert which started at 6:30. Lin was taking a personal day from the show to come. I was changing into my black choir dress, the hem of which brushed my lower thigh. I fastened a gold bracelet onto my wrist. I looked myself over in the mirror, I was wearing little heeled booties, they were a part of my required choir uniform, but they didn't come up high enough on my leg to cover the scars that were beginning to form there. I pressed some gauze onto the cuts, and taped it there, after liberally applying foundation I pulled skin colored tights on over it. I looked myself over again, and I realized that if you didn't look directly at my ankle, you wouldn't notice a thing.

"Mijita!" Lin knocked on my door.

"Yep?" I asked, opening it.

"Oh sweetie, you're so adorable." He smiled, pulling bits of my hair forward and fixed it, "I'll drive you to school, then I'll be back in a half hour for the concert." He took my hand and led me out to the car. He drove me out to my school, and dropped me off. "I'll be back soon Peanut. Love you!" He waved at me, then drove back to the apartment.

I was sitting in the choir room we were running  through our set. We finished our run through, and my teacher started talking.

"And of course, Abigail?" She looked at me, "your dads coming?" She asked.

"Uh, yeah." I shrugged, "my mom and brother and my grandparents."

"Wait, seriously?" A kid in another choir turned and looked at me, "Lin-Manuel Miranda's coming to our choir concert?" He asked.

"Yeah, he's, he's my dad." I said softly.

"Yeah, I know, everyone knows, just, is he actually coming to our concert?"

"Is your dad going?" I asked.

"Yeah, but--" I cut him off.

"Then what's so surprising that mines coming?"

"Okay okay Miss Miranda, Mr. Hickey, calm down," my teacher started, "now, we're all very excited that Lin's coming, so, just, sing good." She advised, as it was 6:30. "Okay, Freshman choirs up first." She started to shuffle the Freshmen out of the choir room to go onstage.

I sat down with Josie to wait, our choir was last, we had a while.

Dad:
Hey, we can video these things right?

Dad:
Because, I don't want to be a bootlegger

Mija:
Yeah, go ahead.

Dad:
Thanks! The small ones are going to start singing soon, break a leg in advance

I smiled, then tucked my phone into my pocket. Eventually, my choir was called up to sing. While my teacher gave a short speech about 'this year in choir with these students' I managed to find my family in the audience. Lin had his phone out, held sideways to video, and he was sitting next to Vanessa who was beaming, alongside my grandparents.

We ran through our classical, non-English set first, which, I would say, we did very well. The first musical theatre song we decided on was 'Do You Hear The People Sing' from Les Miserables. I could tell mi abuelo really enjoyed it, I know he was a Les Mis fan, well, as Lin, but, he just seemed ecstatic through the whole thing. The song eventually ended, the Soprano section on a high G, and as soon as it did, I snuck out of the risers in my section, to go to the microphone.

Our pianist started to play the intro to the song, and I smiled, took a deep breath and sang the first line.

"Kiss today goodbye, the sweetness and the sorrow, wish me luck the same to you, but I can't regret what I did for love, what I did for love." I smiled a bit at the lyrics, this song was so important to every musician, it's about the sacrifices and risks we take to make it. "Look my eyes are dry." I continued, smiling at Lin, "the gift was ours to borrow, we did what we had to do, and I won't forget what I did for love, what I did for love." The rest of the choir came in behind me, and I was grateful, because I was on the verge of being on the verge of tears, "gone, love is never gone, as we travel on, loves what we'll remember. Kiss today goodbye, and point me towards tomorrow, we did what we had to do." I drew the note out, "won't forget, can't regret, what I did for love." I instilled as much power as I could safely into that last word, and held it, the choir came in behind me, singing what I did for love melodically.

We finished the song, going back to my solo, just me simply singing, "what I did, for love." I held the last note at piano, until the pianist played the final chord. I gave a little smile, and a slight bow to the applause. My teacher thanked everyone for coming, and released us to head home, and said she'll see us next year. I smiled, and ran off the stage.

"Peanut!" I heard Lin yell, and I hurried towards them, "oh Mijita!" He hugged me, "you did great." He tousled my curled hair. "These are for you." He said, handing me a large bouquet of roses. He gently set the large bouquet in my arms. "Really peanut, you were fantastic." He kissed my forehead.

"Mija," I felt another pair of arms wrap around me, "darling you did amazingly."

"Thank you Abuela." I smiled.

"You're welcome cutie, we should probably get out of the auditorium though."

"Yeah." My abuelo put his hands on my shoulders and steered me out of the room, until the six of us were standing in the common area with the majority of the other families.

"Great job sweetie." Vanessa said, hugging me.

I was caught up, talking with my grandparents and parents, until everyone else got caught up talking to my dad. I was standing with my mom, her arms around my middle, I was standing sort of in front of her, my back to her chest. Every couple of seconds it seemed like someone was coming up to Lin

"Dad?" I asked, after another one of my classmates walked away, "can we go home? Or like, somewhere else?"

"Sure peanut, I'm sorry." He said.

"It's okay, it's just..." I trailed off, as another kid tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and started talking to the kid.

"I'm sorry Mija." Vanessa whispered, "it's just, he wants to talk to you."

"I know." I sighed, as he started to sign autographs. I pulled away from them, sort of dejected and walked away, to sit in one of the benches by the door. I pulled my phone out and scrolled through Twitter.

@Lin_Manuel - It's Peanut's (@Abi_Miranda's) choir concert today, and I'm playing the role of proud parent.

Attached to this was a picture of the program that read:

What I Did For Love - Marvin Hamlisch (A Chorus Line)
Soloist: Abigail Miranda

@VAMNit - @Abi_Miranda followed in her fathers (@Lin_Manuel's) footsteps and killed it.

Attached to that tweet was a picture from after, which was me with my flowers.

"Sweetheart?" I looked up to see Lin walk up to me, "honey I'm sorry." He sat next to me.

"It's fine." I sighed, turning my phone off and laying it in my lap. He pulled me into his side.

"I love you so much, you were great, darling I'm sorry." Another kid came up to him, and he quickly signed something for him, and I gave another little sigh. "Peanut." He somewhat whined, "I'm sorry, we can go home."

"No no, it's not, it's not you. I just, did I only get the solo so you'd come?"

"Oh Peanut, no, that's not a thing, okay? You were great, and I was going to come regardless, they must know that."

"No," I protested, "my teacher kept asking me if you were gonna be here, I just, it's silly, I'll get over it." I sighed.

"It's not silly, I'm sorry, come on, let's go home." He kissed the top of my head.

"Okay." I smiled a little.

"And theres my little girl." He smiled at me. "You did such a great job, I'm really proud of you Peanut. Can I post the video?" He asked.

"Of course." I gave him another little smile.

"Let's go home, tomorrow's a big day!" He had a huge smile on his face.

"Yep. First day of summer." I smiled as well.

"And other things." He added.

"Yeah," I started, "Leslie and Daveed are on Fallon and Colbert." He laughed a little.

"Okay, let's get you home." He pulled me up, and handed me my flowers, he wrapped his arms around me, and walked me out the car.

•••

Look!

A second update!

Yay!

Thanks for reading!

- Abi