Hidden Burdens (working title)

Chapter Forty-Five

Thanksgiving morning was just as busy as any school day. Kayla got the kids up and dressed while Ben worked on making his stuffing dish. Since it was the day of the year everyone ate a lot of food, they told the kids to eat something small like cereal. Most of them were fine with it, but Kimmy chose to have Pop-Tarts instead. It was also the closest he'd seen her eat fruit without being asked, even though the filling was probably not made from real fruit.

Ben had been right. The only kid they would have that day was Kimmy. It took a while, but Claudia's caseworker got back to him to approve her spending the day with her grandmother. For Mary and Miguel, Jennifer and the rest of the team felt things were going so well, they moved things further by allowing them to spend the entire four-day weekend with their aunt. Which meant it was also the first weekend without the siblings since they were dropped off, something they would all have to get used to. Not only for weekends, either.

Having Mary and Miguel gone the whole weekend also meant Ben and Kayla had to call a family meeting the night before to have the kids go through the Black Friday deals catalogs to circle ideas of what the kids wanted for Christmas.

"It won't necessarily mean you'll get it," Kayla was the one to point out while passing out the permanent markers, making sure each kid had a different color from the rest. "But it will give us an idea of what you want."

Claudia took a blue marker. "Christmas isn't for another month."

"Yes, but we do most of the shopping during this weekend to save money since it's gotten so expensive this time of year and there are four of you right now."

"What if we leave before then?" Miguel asked. Even he knew how fast things were progressing with his aunt. She reassured him they would send the presents with them.

Kimmy got the last marker.

She grabbed the nearest catalog and began flipping through it, mostly looking for games for her Switch. The catalog she had grabbed was mostly clothes and searched for the Wal-Mart catalog, knowing they had games. It turned out Mary had it when she lightly tossed it back into the pile. Kimmy grabbed it before anyone else could and flipped to the electronics section. The first thing to catch her eye was the new Pokemon games that had recently been released.

Being the only kid who played a Switch in her family, Kimmy never actively went out of her way to ask for multiplayer games. But since Miguel had been watching her on a few occasions and had seen him play Wii Sports as well, she circled the new game that was released on the Switch, as well. For a pain in the butt he was, Miguel really was a good friend. Whether she admitted it or not, especially after the many times she ditched him to do something else, he would still ask Kimmy to play with him the next time.

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With Ben busy with cooking, Kayla took Mary, Miguel, and Claudia to their families once Mary and Miguel were packed for the weekend and all of them were ready to go.

He also used the time to sit with Kimmy and warn her about what to expect from his family. If at any time Kimmy felt uncomfortable or needed alone time, there would be a guest room she could go in and watch TV, and if that didn't help, they would leave.

"My family can be loud and they can get excited and vocal about things they're passionate about, especially when sports are involved. But they always mean well and are very nice people."

He hesitated but added, "All of them." Which was true, even if it wasn't always shown. Maybe that's what made this difficult. His mom had a whole lot of love to give. Maybe more so than Grandma Joy. If only she would open her mind and heart to these kids who needed it.