Since it was close to the kids getting out of school for the day, Ben and Kayla decided not to take Kimmy shopping and left her alone for now. Eventually, Ben left to pick up the other kids and asked Kimmy if she wanted to go for the ride, which she declined. He assured Kayla was downstairs in the kitchen if she needed anything.
Kimmy continued to watch YouTube videos in her room over the next couple of hours, still sitting in the same spot on the bed.
Once the current video finished, she set the tablet on the bed beside her, having caught up on the videos on Stephen's gaming channel she missed these last few weeks. It was nice having something familiar again after enduring the nightmare her life seemed to be. She missed the hilarity of Stephen and the random stuff that comes out of his mouth. In fact, her cheeks were sore from laughing so much, causing her to rub at them.
While gazing around the room, she noticed the window behind her and crawled across the bed to look out at the backyard.
The group home was the first house Kimmy ever lived in. Their family always lived in apartments, moving from one to another every few years. So, looking outside and not seeing a parking lot with cars parked under those shade covers or dumpsters was different. In a good way, anyway.
Though, her gaze caught sight of the neighbor's trash bins around the corner. The black bin's lid was open and Kimmy could see leaves and sticks coming out of the top. Beside the bins was a lawnmower, and a weed whacker leaning against the gray cement brick wall. It was something the guys, who came once a week at their current apartments to mow the small spots of grass and blow the leaves and stuff, used back at their apartments.
Kimmy scanned the neighbor's backyard. On the other side were a bunch of lawn chairs surrounding one of those fire pits. Even from there she could tell it probably hasn't been used in almost a year from the coat of dust from the recent monsoon season.
She sat back on her legs while taking in the new and unknown sights.
Kimmy sat there, staring out the window for a while until she heard someone come into the room, causing her to flinch in their direction.
"You must be the new kid," Claudia said, unfazed by the response. She headed for her side of the room and dropped her backpack on the bed. She introduced herself, assuring Kimmy she did not mind kids.
Kimmy stared back, not saying a word.
Claudia sat on her bed and tried to make small talk, hoping to get the kid talking. Everyone has tried to get her to talk. They go on and on and ask her questions, but usually give up when Kimmy never responds. Not that she never tried. Sometimes Kimmy responded inside her head. But she could never get the words to escape her mouth.
After a while, Kimmy turned her gaze away, unable to hold eye contact any longer. Instead, she stared down at the bed. When things got too much for her, Kimmy reached for the tablet and returned to watching Stephen and Mal play Pokemon Let's Go.
"What's that you're watching?" she heard Claudia ask, curious.
Kimmy continued watching without acknowledging the older girl. It wasn't like she was trying to ignore the older girl. Hearing question after question can get a bit overwhelming.
Soon, the other two kids were standing in the open doorway to say hello to Kimmy.
Mary came in, heading over to sit on Claudia's bed, with Miguel sprinting over and leaping behind her before crawling between the girls. She introduced herself and her brother, who waved as he said hello.
Kimmy glanced up for a moment, but continued watching the video.
Thankfully, Ben came to Kimmy's rescue. "Alright, you three. Give Kimmy some space," he told them.
"I want to show Kimmy the loft," Miguel said, jumping up from the bed towards Ben, then turned towards Kimmy where he leaned his small hands on the bed. "Want to see it? It's where all the toys we share are."
She looked up at the boy at least, but returned to her video.
Ben insisted on leaving Kimmy alone for now, pointing out she had seen the loft during the tour.
Miguel skipped out of the room.
"You too, Mary."
"I'm talking to Claudia," she said.
Ben let the girls be. Before he left, he turned to Kimmy to let her know at four, all electronics go off for at least an hour for homework and studying. "If you don't have any, we'd prefer if you read a book or something." He added there was a bookshelf in the front living room with books of all reading levels to choose from. Afterwards, Ben left the girls alone.
Kimmy tried to focus on the video, but the two older girls were chit-chatting so much that it made trouble focusing and wished she had headphones. When Kimmy turned it up, the girls asked her to turn it down.
"Didn't Ben or Kayla give you headphones?" Mary asked.
Kimmy continued watching the video.
"Hey!" Mary raised her voice that time, causing Kimmy to flinch, and repeated her question. When Kimmy shook her head, she explained everyone gets a pair specifically for road trips. "That way, you don't annoy everyone else with what you're watching."
Kimmy then got up to leave, but not to go ask Ben or Kayla for headphones. Instead, she stepped out into the hall and headed towards the stairs where the loft was. There were several toy boxes full of toys, dolls, blocks, Legos of both the small pieces and the Duplo blocks, and a dollhouse in the corner, sitting on a small children's folding table.
For now, Kimmy went over to a far corner and dropped onto an oversized bean bag chair twice her size to continue watching her favorite people. After a few minutes of lying there, she turned over on her side and curled into a ball. She was so engrossed in watching the couple play the game; she hadn't heard Ben come upstairs and nearly jumped out of her skin once more.
"I'm sorry, kiddo. I didn't mean to startle ya," he assured her. "I thought you heard me. Did the girls kick you out?"
She stared up at him for a moment before shaking her head.
Ben stood a few feet from the beanbag chair, with his hands on his sides. "Well, we're starting Quiet Hour, so the tablet has to go off for an hour. Okay?"
Kimmy pointed her finger at the screen to pause the video and lock the screen.
"We also have stuff for arts and crafts and some coloring books if you're not a reader."
Kimmy stared at the blank screen on the tablet.
She saw him kneel where he was standing, out of her side view, catching himself with his hand on the light gray carpet. "So, we usually let the kids decide on what to eat for dinner on their first night. Do you have a favorite food or any cravings?"
Kimmy glanced up at him, but could not hold eye contact for long and gave a quick shrug.
"Whatever you want. I can order food if there's a certain place you like to eat. We can do pizza, or we have spaghetti, or even chicken nuggets and tater tots."
Kimmy continued to shrug.
"Was there anything that caught your eye when I was showing you the kitchen earlier?" he asked.
Pizza was one of her favorites and something her mom usually got them on the weekend. Kimmy loved curling up on the couch with her mom's laptop to watch Stephen and Mal live and a couple slices of pepperoni pizza on a Friday night after a long, tough week of school. It was a highlight she always looked forward to. She wished she could say this to Ben, but her lips were sealed.
After a minute, Ben offered to show her again. But, first, he had to remind the older girls it was Quiet Time and ask if they needed any help with homework. When neither said they needed help, he left them alone and came back to the loft, motioning for Kimmy to follow.
Kimmy left the tablet on the beanbag chair for now and slowly got up to follow him down the stairs.
Ben showed her the pantry and freezer once more. He reminded Kimmy dinner was her choice for her first night.
The guy seemed nice so far. Kimmy wasn't used to many guys around except for her brother, who was only a couple of years older than she was. It was just her mom, Zack, and Kimmy, so seeing a married couple was new for the kid and wasn't quite sure yet what she thought of Ben.
She moved her gaze as Ben pointed everything out. There were some good choices to choose from she liked: frozen pizza, spaghetti, fish sticks. There wasn't any meat thawed, so they couldn't really make any particular meals. But if there was a meal she liked, they could order it from somewhere.
Kimmy stood rooted to the spot, staring at the freezer. Her mind was blank as she panned over the choices in front of her. All she could do was timidly shrug.
Ben gave her plenty of time to decide, reassuring if she could have any meal, what would it be?
But her shoulders kept going up as she held onto the graphic T-shirt with her favorite Anime characters, Edward and Alphonso, on the front.
Even though he was being kind, Kimmy eventually felt her face glow warm and her eyes water. She tried to hold them back, but the tears fought to the surface and won.
Kimmy dropped her gaze on the tile floor, squeezing the bottom hem of her shirt in her hands.
Ben shut the freezer door and dropped to her level. "Hey, hey. It's okay. Don't cry." The tone sounded comforting, but the words still stung, just as they had done before.
When the tears continued, followed by a period of silence, Ben said, "How about pizza? You like pizza?"
Kimmy forced a glance his way to nod her head a little.
He smiled. "No problem, kiddo." Ben stood up right as Miguel came into the kitchen, his small arms full of the arts and crafts box and a stack of coloring books on top. He was walking carefully, trying not to drop anything.
"Looks like you got your hands full there, bud." Ben grabbed the coloring books for the boy.
Miguel thanked him and turned to Kimmy. "Would you like to color with me?"
Kimmy looked over at him and shrugged.
Miguel walked past her over to the kitchen table and set the box down. He then pulled out the chair closest to him and climbed onto it, standing on his knees.
Kimmy stalled at first. She watched Ben head over and set the stack of coloring books in the middle of the table, which Miguel scattered and scanned each coloring book before choosing one to color in. After a minute, her feet unglued itself from the floor and wandered over to sit across from him.
She, too, scanned the coloring books. Like the dinner choices, there were several to choose from. There were Disney characters. The Disney Princess one did not pique her interest at all. They never did.
There was a coloring book with the Crayola logo and one for unicorns. There were also coloring books of animals and trucks, and Spiderman.
Kimmy chose the coloring book of animals and skimmed through it to find a page to color.
Miguel had got out the crayons and dumped the Ziploc bag out between them so both could share. "Don't use markers," he warned her. "Markers go through the back and no one else will be able to color the picture." He reached over to select the blue crayon and began coloring a page from a Paw Patrol coloring book.
Eventually, after flipping through the coloring book she chose, Kimmy settled on a picture of puppies playing together and grabbed a brown crayon. The two of them sat there the entire hour while Miguel asked her question after question. Since it was a one-sided conversation, he filled Kimmy in on how she'll like living there with them and how nice Ben and Kayla were, and how they'll let Kimmy take her time.
Once Quiet Time was over, Miguel asked if Kimmy wanted to go jump on the trampoline, pointing out they have to clean up first.
"Oh, yeah," Miguel said, as if picking up the crayons and coloring books reminded him of something. "Soon, you'll have to do a chore. We all do." He explained his chores were making his bed and helping feed Samson at night. "They won't give you something you can't do, though."
They stacked the coloring books and closed the crayon bag. Miguel showed Kimmy where the arts and crafts stuff goes before hurrying off to the backyard, turning back to make sure she was following. Kimmy walked at a slower pace right behind him with her hands in her shorts pockets.
Miguel yanked the sliding glass door open, alerting Samson, who swooshed passed the kids first. Once Kimmy was out, he slid it closed with his hands and dashed over to climb up the metal ladder up to the trampoline.
"No shoes," he also warned her, stopping Kimmy at a sudden halt.
She sat on a nearby patio chair to untie her shoelaces and take her shoes off, leaving them there before finally following Miguel inside the netted trampoline.
Miguel zipped the net closed. "No one can jump when this is open." Once it was closed, the boy began to bounce around.
Kimmy tried to remain stable, but that was no simple task when the surface below the feet was unstable and someone was shaking it. She held her arms out, wobbling around, trying to balance. She stepped back whenever Miguel bounced too close.
"Come on, Kimmy. Jump!" Miguel bounced from one side of the trampoline to the next, using the net to stop himself.
Kimmy stumbled back from the aftershock, falling backwards on her bottom.
Miguel came over to offer her a hand back up, despite him being half her size. He tried, but Kimmy did most of the work getting up. He helped keep her balanced, at least until she was back on her feet.
It turned out Miguel thought falling looked fun. "Look, Kimmy." The boy bounced into the air and dropped onto his back, getting back up to fall again.
"You try," he said, between squeals of laughter.
But Kimmy remained standing, just watching the boy bounce.
Eventually, she turned and hobbled over to the exit and scooted on her bottom until her sock feet were on the top step of the ladder. She carefully climbed down each step in a sitting position until her feet were touching grass and headed over to retrieve her shoes.
Miguel had closed the net once more. "You don't like to jump?"
Kimmy sat on the patio chair, pulling her worn-out tennis shoe back on her right foot.
"You don't have to be scared. The net is strong enough that you can't fall off. That's why we have to keep this closed." He pointed at the vertical zipper.
Kimmy got both shoes back on and headed inside.
Ben was putting the pizza in the oven when she came in. "Having fun out there, kiddo?"
Kimmy stared at him for a moment before heading down the short hallway and up the stairs where she had left the tablet, dropping back down on the beanbag chair to watch more YouTube videos.
About halfway through the third video, which each was about nine minutes-ish, Kayla came up to alert everyone that dinner was ready.
Like with Ben, Kimmy was startled when Kayla called out to her. She apologized for scaring her, but warned the tablet can be taken away if not listening becomes an issue.
Kimmy stared up at the lady without blinking.
"Pizza's ready if you're hungry." Kayla then headed down the hallway, stopping in the doorway to let the older girls know before coming back. She stopped to look over at her when Kimmy hadn't moved. "Not hungry?"
She shrugged a little.
"Well, we won't make you eat if you're not hungry."
At that moment, the older girls came charging by and made a beeline for the stairs.
Kayla motioned her head in the older girls' direction. "I can't guarantee there will be pizza left. That's usually our most popular meal around here." She encouraged Kimmy to come down with them.
Kimmy timidly stood to her feet, this time taking the tablet with her. Until Kayla told her, there wasn't electronics at the dinner table.
"Ben and I don't even bring our phones to the table," she said afterwards.
So, Kimmy left the tablet there on the beanbag chair once again, and followed Kayla downstairs and into the kitchen.
Everyone already got their slices and was sitting at the table when Kimmy returned to the kitchen. Kayla passed her a plate from the cupboard and used a spatula to scoop up the pizza, asking which kind Kimmy wanted between pepperoni and plain cheese.
Kimmy pointed to the pepperoni. Once she got her pizza, Kimmy stared over at everyone. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed there were chairs on the other side of the middle counter. She pulled one out and climbed onto one of the high, bar stool-like chairs.
Kayla offered her something to drink when Ben noticed Kimmy sitting over by herself.
"You don't want to sit with us?" he asked, inviting her over.
Kimmy picked up a pizza slice to take a bite. The two older girls also invited her to sit with them, but Kimmy remained where she was.
Kayla set a glass of milk near her plate. "Did everyone say what they're thankful for?" She asked the others while getting a glass of water for herself.
Miguel perked up. "We were waiting for you and Kimmy." He immediately went first. "I'm thankful for..." His little mind went into thinking mode and began rubbing his chin.
"Sometime today, bro," Mary said, teasing him, which he insisted he was thinking.
"I'm thankful I got to play with Bailey at school today," he finally said and insisted Kayla take the empty seat next to him.
Kayla brought her plate and water over, setting them down before taking a seat.
"What are you thankful for?" He asked her.
She smiled back at him. "Well, I am thankful for all of you, and for the hard work Ben put in today for Kimmy's arrival." Kayla beamed over at Ben like those lovesick grown-ups in those romance movies Kimmy's mom watched all the time.
Mary went next. "I am thankful my project got an A," she said, which Kayla congratulated her.
"You must be proud of yourself, huh?"
She gave a short laugh. "Yeah."
"What about you, Claudia?" Ben asked once Mary was finished.
She shrugged. "I don't know."
"Your new roomie?" He smiled over at Kimmy.
"Sure."
Ben and Kayla exchanged a look with each other, which Kayla pointed out, "That's what you wanted, right?"
"I mean, I didn't want Mary to have to move," Claudia continued to persist. "But the kid seems cool, so far. She doesn't seem annoying." She flashed a grin over at Kimmy.
Kimmy stole a glance, but quickly looked away when their gaze met.
"Well," Ben said, rubbing his hands together, "I am thankful for our newest addition, which means we'll have a full house for a while." He then asked Kimmy if she was thankful for anything, explaining that was part of their dinner routine when not everyone was comfortable praying.
She just shrugged, shrinking into herself at the eyes all watching her.
Kayla took the attention away, reassuring Kimmy can say, "pass," if she didn't want to answer and asked how everyone's day was.
After Kimmy finished eating, she took her plate and cup over to drop in the sink and slipped back upstairs without anyone noticing.
Author's Note:
I decided to open this story more than just Ben and have the story follow both him and Kimmy.