Lin knew he needed to get Mariele back into preschool. It wasn't good for her to be home all day with a sitter with barely any interaction with kids her age. When they'd tried it in the fall it had gone horribly, but Lin thought enough time had passed to try again.

The next morning Lin made the girls pancakes which was a rarity. Elana was still suspended so he decided to use the situation to the family's advantage. Mariele adored her big sister so he would use Elana to help coax her there.

He'd spoken with the preschool and they'd agreed to a visit today. Lin would bring her in and they'd stay an hour or so. The next day they'd try out staying for the morning by herself.

The pancakes had put Mari in a good mood so she got dressed without a hassle. They all got dressed and put on coats to head up the street. The preschool was close by within walking distance.

"My favorite part of preschool was always finger painting," Elana told her little sister as they walked holding hands. "But now I think it would be nap time."

"Nap time?!" Mari asked incredulously. "I hate naps!"

"When you're older you may think differently," Lin told her. Some days he'd do anything for a nap. He was definitely overworked.

They arrived at the school and checked in. The building was filled with the sounds of happy children, playing and singing and learning.

"Let's go find Ms. Goldman's room," Lin told her. The halls were filled with students' artwork and the kids in classrooms looked happy and engaged. They reached the four year old classroom where Mari would be assigned. She hesitated as they reached the door.

Lin knelt down next to his daughter. "We're just gonna go in for a visit today," he reminded her. "Me and Elana are staying with you."

"The whole time?" She checked.

"The whole time," he assured her. "Should we go see what they're doing?"

Mariele nodded and took her dad's hand. They walked in to find about fifteen children on the rug as the teacher read a story.

"Good morning, Mariele!" Ms. Goodman greeted her new student. "You're just in time for a story."

Mari was not about to let Lin or Elana out of her sight. All three of them sat on the rug with the class. As the story went on, she climbed into her dad's lap.

Lin wrapped his arms around her, with Elana at his side. Baby steps. They were making baby steps.

—-

A few days later, Elana finally had her phone back and was back at school. She truly wanted to homeschool so she wouldn't have to deal with all the jerks at school. Plus, since her mother had died, all the adults started treating her differently. Like they were afraid they would break her. They were way too forgiving with late assignments and didn't call home for some of her school transgressions.

It was finally the end of the school day, and she was anxious to get back together with her band mates for a long overdue practice. Senor Ramirez was out, so they were free to jam at Audrey's apartment basement. Elana set up her iPhone to record them performing "Dance, Dance" by Fallout Boy, one of her favorites.

They had decided to enter a Battle of the Bands competition, put on by a neighborhood center in Washington Heights. It was open to all ages. They'd been practicing a lot and everyone who heard them thought they sounded great. It would be a long shot to win, but the first step would be getting experience performing for crowds.

As the last chord reverberated, Elana pressed stop on her iPhone. The girls all gathered around to watch it, and agreed it was one of their best.

"We should totally post it," Mikayla suggested. Audrey agreed, nodding her head excitedly.

"But my dad would kill me," Elana told them. They all knew how private he was about the girls' faces on the internet. He wanted them to have private lives, not the life in the spotlight he had chosen. It hadn't been such a big deal up until now, but with Hamilton's success, he had quickly become an A-list star.

She looked at her bandmates, who were all incredibly eager to make this work and go as far as they could. They all knew they needed exposure and to get their band's music out there. It wasn't fair to them to hold them back because of some stupid rule. Elana only hesitated a second before opening her Twitter account and pressing post.

___

Lin had arrived at the Richard Rodgers early for a quick run-through of "Helpless", which had some very complicated blocking. There had been a near-snafu the night before and the cast had agreed to come in early to rehearse.

Tommy Kail announced a ten minute break so they could all recharge. Lin walked off stage and found a seat in third row of the audience so he could check his phone. All kinds of people were hitting him up nowadays and he didn't want to miss anything. People he greatly admired came to the show and he liked to know beforehand who would be there.

After checking his email, he opened his Twitter. He'd been tagged a lot as usual, so he spent a few moment scrolling through his feed. That's when he came across a video of his twelve year old daughter and her little rock band.

He watched a few moments and they ran through a rendition of some rock song. Elana was fronting, her head covered in a maroon beanie. She had a real stage presence. It made him proud, but it also greatly concerned him that she had posted a video without obscuring her face. They'd talked about this.

He sighed and pulled up her contact. After a couple rings, his daughter picked up. "Hey, Dad."

"Hi," he told her. "I was just scrolling through my Twitter and guess what I found?"

"My performance?!" She asked excitedly. "Really?"

Lin could hear her tell her friends that the video had now gotten a couple thousand views. Someone had now tagged Lin, so millions more were about to see it.

"Elana," he called out to her. "I'm sorry, but you need to take it down. Now."

"Why?" She asked him, already defensive.

"Your face is in it," he told her bluntly. "We've talked about this, sweetheart."

"But Dad, this is what we want," she tried to explain to her father. "We're doing Battle of the Bands and no one knows who we are. We have to get our music out there."

Lin wanted his daughters to live as normal a life as possible, and that meant being able to do something like participate in Battle of the Bands. Even though she was a preteen and probably wanted a bit of online fame, Lin had the bigger picture in mind. No matter how much she thought she wanted fame, she deserved a childhood in peace and out of the public eye.

"I know, mija, but you need to do it without your face on camera," he reminded her, his voice even. "Can you record it again and face away?"

"No!" she told him, incredulous. "That would look stupid. Dad, I know you want to protect me, but this is what I want. We need people to know who we are."

"Elana, take it down," he told her, his voice more serious. "Right now."

"No," she told him, then hung up. Lin was baffled. His kid had hung up on him? Had he really reached the point in their relationship when she would hang up on him?

Lin called her back multiple times but she hit decline each time. Irked, Lin knew there wasn't much he could do. When he got home that night, they'd have words and he'd take her phone again. But that wouldn't solve the bigger issue, he knew. Elana wanted to be a normal teen and post videos of her and her friends jamming.

Was that so bad?