Paper Training

Early Bird Shoppers

Annie was still grinning from the Halloween party two days later. Several of the old songs were still stuck in her head when she asked if Kate and K would join her for a little trip into Salem Center. It had been a new unspoken rule among the group to make sure that at least one team member was with Annie when she headed into town, as Scott was understandably paranoid about another Sinister attempt on her — especially with the twins she was carrying.

And Scott had been more protective than usual since the twins news.

Kate had volunteered to drive, of course, and the three of them piled into her little purple car with wide grins. "I've still got to find something nice to wear for Kurt's birthday," she told Annie with a sideways smile.

"Are you sure you're using the right word?" K asked innocently.

"No, no, it's definitely his birthday," Kate replied straight-faced.

"Oh, yeah. I'm sure it's just that you and I have very different definitions of 'nice'."

Kate chuckled quietly. "K has a very dirty mind," she told Annie, who gave them both her best impression of her Kindergarten teacher look.

"You have no idea," K agreed with a smirk.

The three girls spent the entire trip listening to the radio, which Kate controlled with a deep insistence on avoiding the channels that were already playing Christmas music "because it's stupid they start so early."

"Well, that's actually what I want to do," Annie defended. "Get a little Christmas shopping done."

"Yeah, but that's because you're..." Kate gestured at Annie, who was very obviously in the home stretch by then. "No Christmas Eve shopping for you. Not that close to when the mini bosses are due."

"So what is the plan then, shopping queens?" K asked. "You said shopping, which — fine. But I'm sure you have a list."

Annie just laughed. "Oh, I've already got something for Scott. I just need to find a few things for my nieces and nephews. And I wanted to get something for the babies, in case they're early. That's a worry with multiples, I've been told."

"That doesn't sound like the same stores I was thinking about visiting," Kate laughed. "But we'll go there with you first. If you promise to tell me how well the dresses I try on later hug my hips just right," she added with a teasing smile that had Annie laughing.

"Are you getting anything for those little imps of yours?" she asked.

"Coloring books," Kate said with a glance K's way. "They're little artists."

"I had nothing to do with that. It's just smart to encourage any artistic endeavour," K insisted. "Not my fault if they're better than Clint."

Kate snorted, and Annie grinned. "Oh, you should get something for him," she told Kate. "Something for his little boy."

"That's not a bad idea," Kate laughed.

"He needs one of those digital picture frames," K said. "You can load hundreds of pictures on there, and it keeps rotating them."

"Oh, he'd love that." Kate grinned at K in the rearview mirror. "Then he'd stop shoving his phone under everyone's nose every time they come over to his place."

"Yeah, instead he'd just make you stand in front of it the whole time while he waited for the right one to pop up."

"That's entirely true," Kate laughed.

"Oh, give him a break," Annie laughed. "He's so proud. That little boy is his spitting image, you know."

"Yet he still can't accept it," K said with a shake of her head.