Lin-Manuel Miranda opened the Facebook app on his phone for at least the fifth time that morning. He was in between press obligations and was obsessively checking the status of his friend request to his old flame, Vanessa Nadal. It had been a whirlwind spotting her the night before after not seeing her for almost fifteen years.

Request Denied.

His heart sunk. She wouldn't even be Facebook friends with him? Everyone was Facebook friends! He felt a sting as he navigated to his news feed, only mildly interested in his updates. Sighing, he tucked his phone away as a makeup person came to touch him up.

He had to admit that his heart leapt a bit when he saw his ex-girlfriend. She was beautiful before, but now she was a full-fledged woman. He'd Googled her and found she had her own law firm, which was very impressive. Adulthood looked good on her. And she had an adorable daughter who the boys would be chasing after. He'd let her father worry about that.

Maybe that was why she'd been so stand-offish. If she was already married, she might think it was inappropriate to be Facebook friends. He sighed and tried to put it out of his mind. As usual, he had a busy day ahead.

One of his good friends from high school texted him later in the day and he had an idea. Hunter was a relatively small school with connected alumni. With a bit of digging, maybe he could get her number from a former classmate. Lin pitched the idea and his friend started texting a few other classmates. Within five minutes, he had her digits.

Before he typed in a text he stopped. Would she think of this as an invasion of privacy? Would it freak her out? And what was the big deal anyway? Maybe he should take the hint and move on.

He was a guy, so he started typing. His tongue poked at the inside of his cheek and his brows furrowed. He let out a deep breath before pressing send.

_________

Vanessa was knee-deep in paperwork when her phone buzzed. It was after 3:00 so she figured it was Lia texting with an update.

She found her phone buried under a pile and glanced at it. An unknown number. The preview said Hi Vanessa it's Lin. I hope you don't mind...

"That mother-" she stood up in anger, staring at the words on her phone.

"Mom?" Her eyes shot up to find her daughter in the doorway, looking confused. Vanessa figured she probably looked like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar. "What's wrong?"

She cleared her throat and put her phone in the drawer. "Nothing, baby. Just some...surprising news from a colleague."

"Oh," she said. "Um, there's this girl from school and she-"

"Yes!" Vanessa answered excitedly before her daughter even finished asking the question.

"Huh?"

"I mean - go ahead."

Lia shook her head. "Can I go to her place for a while to study for our algebra test?"

Vanessa composed herself. A potential friend? "Of course, sweetheart. Will you be back for dinner?"

"Probably not," she said. "Her mom's cooking."

A night to herself. She usually dreaded these because it reminded her she was an unmarried old maid. "Great. Remember your manners. Thank her for dinner."

"I will," she promised.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Lia mumbled under her breath, as she walked through the streets, her backpack weighing her down slightly as she tried to navigate the directions on her phone. In between sidestepping tourists and following her phone's directions closely, she couldn't stop looking over her shoulder. She didn't think anyone was following her, she had grown up in New York, afterall. But she was still terrified at the thought that her mother was going to pop up behind a tree or garbage can. She had never done anything like this before.

Since the previous night at Hamilton, the wheels in her head couldn't stop spinning. In between catching up on her homework, she spent a good portion of the early morning continuing her research on Lin and, more specifically, his time Hunter. The internet wasn't the most useful, other than some old newspaper articles and yearbook photos.

When Lia had tried to broach the topic of Lin with her mom that morning before school, she was immediately shut down. Her mom went on about how they "had already discussed the topic on the subway" and she wasn't going to answer one hundred questions about Lin before she had had a full cup of coffee. Lia had debated asking her if she'd answer after she finished it, but figured she wouldn't like the answer.

As her maps indicated she had to make a turn, Lia was still going over what she was actually doing. Normally, there was no way she would have thought this was a good idea. A Broadway star to boost her history grade? But he was also a Hunter alum who loved history. He also, regardless of what her mom had said, seemed happy to see her which, by extension, could make him even moreso willing to help her. She figured if she could just get five minutes with him to talk about history, there was no way that Mr. Martin could fail her.

She made it outside of the Richard Rodgers theatre for the second time in less than twenty-four hours. This time, rather than being crowded by a herd of people at night, the atmosphere was a lot more serene. It was the city so there would always be a lot of people, by nature, but she actually could stop and take in the scenery. She couldn't imagine coming to a place like this everyday, a stark contrast to the brick prison she went to for school everyday. The arches were angelic, and Lia was convinced she wouldn't grow tired of the view.

"Emilia?"

She nearly jumped when she heard her name, partly because she had been so focused on the structure that she wasn't aware of her surroundings, the other part being she immediately recognized the voice.

Lin, sporting a baseball cap and aviators, approached her, "Emilia, right?"

Emilia nodded slowly as Lin came closer to her, a wide grin on his face. She wasn't sure if she was more in awe of the fact that she was in such close proximity to him or that he remembered her name. If she was being honest, it was a mixture of both.

"Hey. Back so soon?" Lin spotted the young girl when he came out of the theatre, having to do a double take before he walked up to the random teenager on the streets. He had only stopped by the theatre for a quick meeting before his plans of solitude on his night off.  He certainly wasn't expecting to run into Vanessa's daughter.

"I just wanted to come and...and," If Lia could sink into the ground right now, she would. When she thought of this plan this morning during her English class she imagined she would somehow find a way into the theatre, figure out where Lin's dressing room was, easily strike up a conversation and she'd be on her way to a high GPA. She realized her plan was crap.

"Is your mom with you?"

"No" Lia said quickly, "Actually, because we rushed out so fast last night, she wanted to make sure you knew she was happy to see you." Lia lied through her strained smile.

"Really?" Lin's mood instantly perked up. Maybe the denial of his friend request had been a mistake, "So, she got my text?"

Lia nodded, again, not having any clue what he was talking about. But he seemed to be happy so she'd go with it.

"Everything was just so chaotic; I don't know how you do it every night."

"It's one of the perks," Lin said with a light chuckle, he shifted back and forth on his heels. "So, she sent you down here just to let me know that?"

"Yeah. She got held up by work meetings or else she would have joined." The teenager chewed the inside of her mouth, a nervous habit of hers as she was sure there was no way he was believing any of this.

"Really?" Lin furrowed his eyebrows in. He knew it had been over a decade since he had seen Vanessa, much less spoken to her, however, he also wouldn't have pegged her as a mom who'd send their teenage daughter across town because she couldn't reply to a text message to an ex.

"Okay, look what happened was," Lia's shoulders dropped. She knew she had gotten herself into a mess, more of one than she had intended.  As she was about to speak up, the loop of her backpack came undone resulting in her books falling to the ground.

"Crap!" Lia quickly bent down and gathered her books up, feeling the heat rise in her cheeks due to her anxiety over lying and now her embarrassment. When she looked up, she hadn't expected Lin to be inches away from her, helping her gather her things. "Oh, you don't have to do that."

"It's no problem," Lin held the bag open for her and she put the books back in, "I remember the same days at Hunter. Who needs weight training when you have a hundred pounds worth of books to carry every day." He tried bringing a bit of levity to the clearly uneasy teen. It wasn't his first time around kids. He had been a teacher right out of undergrad and was often told he was a pretty cool uncle. He had also been a kid, and could tell when one was lying.

Lia laughed, as she took the bag from him, "Yeah, it's like an extra form of torture to teach posture control."

Lin gave a hearty laugh. The kid shared Vanessa's sense of humor. "Look, I'm not too sure what the full story is, but I can't leave V's daughter stranded alone in the middle of the city. Why don't we go to the coffee shop down the street, you call your mom, and then I get to hear your thoughts about the show last night."

"Are you serious?" Lia's jaw dropped a bit, as she held her backpack in both of her arms like a security blanket. Sure, the offer also included calling her mom, which would no doubt lead to her untimely death, but she was also sure she could die happy after this conversation. "That would be amazing!"

"Cool. So, why don't you give me some of those books so you don't topple over and follow me?"

Lia reluctantly handed him two of her textbooks and followed as he led the way to a local shoppe a block over.

She was admittedly still quite star-struck. Lia practically worshipped him because of Hamilton and has started listening to the In the Heights soundtrack. He was quite simply the coolest adult in town.

Lin treated the teen to a caramel latte and he got a coffee. They found a spot in the corner and started to chat. Lia still couldn't believe he was actually taking time to talk to her one on one.

"So what classes are you taking at Hunter?" he asked, taking a sip of his coffee.

"Oh, the usual," she told him. "Algebra, biology. History is killing me right now."

"Oh yeah? What are you studying?"

"The Roman Empire," she winced and he did as well. "Could you write a musical about it to make it easier?"

He laughed and Lia loved how his whole face seemed to light up. He seemed like such a happy person.

"Well, before we get too distracted, we better call your mom," Lin decided, pulling out his iPhone.

"No!" She panicked, causing Lin to furrow his eyebrows. "I mean, I already texted her. She knows."

Just then, Lin's phone rang. He glanced down and saw it was Vanessa. His heart leapt and he immediately answered. Lia looked nervous.

"Vanessa?"

"How did you get my phone number?" she asked, her tone icy cold.

"Ummm uhhh," he stumbled. "I asked an old classmate."

She sighed and rubbed at her temple. "Lin, it was great to see you last night but I'm really not interested in getting involved again."

His ego bruised a bit. "Oh. Well, I mean, I was just hoping to reconnect and be friends again. But if you want me to back off I can."

"I'm just really busy at work and what we had before," she stumbled. "It's just - it got too complicated and I just don't want to bring up hurt feelings again."

"I understand," he said. "Hey, I could drop Emilia back off at home in a few. I've got a car so she doesn't have to take the subway."

"You have Emilia?" She asked, surprised. Lin looked at the teenager, who now had her head in her hands. Looks like she'd been caught in a lie.

"Yea, she said she texted you," he said.

"Did she?" She laughed humorlessly. "She said she was meeting a friend to study. Can I talk to her please?"

Lin passed Emilia his phone and she took it, cringing. "Hi, Mom."

"Care to explain?" She cut right to the chase.

She sighed, hating that she'd lied to her mother. She never lied, but this was Lin-Manuel Miranda.  "I'm sorry, Mom. It's just that I've been so inspired and I wanted to talk to him more and since you know him I thought maybe he'd like to talk to me..."

"Lia," she stopped her daughter. "I really don't appreciate you lying but I get what you're talking about. Next time just talk to me?"

"But you got so annoyed when I brought it up," she pointed out.

"I know," she conceded. "It's just...it's a hairy subject."

Before her daughter could ask why she asked to speak to Lin again. Lia passed the phone back and finished off her drink. Lin agreed to take Lia home.

They hung up and Lin looked at the teenager, who knew she was in trouble. "Ready to face the executioner?"