Kimmy went to bed that night with not only Chester, but all three of her stuffed animals clutched securely in her arms. Her favorite action figures, Edward Elric and his brother, Al, were standing on her nightstand to "watch over her while she slept."
She still wore the headphones, even though it got uncomfortable whenever she turned over on her side. As long as Kimmy stayed on her back, they weren't too bad. Despite having more of her toys back, Kimmy still struggled to fall asleep. While rinsing the toothpaste out of her mouth, she overheard Ben yell, like he was upset over something. It wasn't long before she realized it was about her. Kimmy didn't mean to eavesdrop, but ever since she heard her parents arguing, Kimmy felt drawn to listen despite hating it and worried if Kayla would be okay. Sometimes the arguments escalated to assaults, with either her mom or her dad making the first move. A few times, Stella would even taunt her dad.
She suddenly felt someone shake her upper arm.
Kimmy shot up like a bullet. So fast, the force knocked her headphones back onto her pillow. She quickly looked up to see Claudia standing there.
"You were tossing in your sleep," she said, standing up straighter. "You okay, kid?"
Kimmy continued to stare up at her, trying to stop her racing heart.
"Bad dream?" Claudia eventually guessed.
She managed a nod.
Claudia backed up to sit on her bed. "You wanna talk about it?"
Kimmy searched for her stuffed animals to focus her attention on something else. Truthfully, she barely remembered what she was dreaming about. She didn't even remember falling asleep. She remembered worrying about Ben and Kayla. As for the dream, there were bits and pieces of them, and her own parents, but it was a puzzle trying to fit it all together. Usually, her dreams shifted from one to another without her knowledge.
After a minute, Claudia told her, "Well, if you ever need to talk, I'm here," heading over to the door.
Kimmy stole a peek out of the corner of her eye, watching Claudia turn off the light and got back in bed. Her eyes had just adjusted to the light being on when the room went dark again. She sat there for a moment before dropping back on her pillow. For a spilt second, that is. The back of her head collided with her headphones, causing Kimmy to shoot up again, holding her hand to the spot that was now hurting.
It was loud enough for Claudia to hear it. "You okay?" she asked again. Why did Claudia keep asking questions Kimmy could not respond to?
Kimmy rubbed her head for a moment before using the same hand to search around for the headphones and slipped them back on. She then laid back on her pillow and stared up at the ceiling. Some more time passed before Kimmy realized she had to pee. So, throwing back the comforter, she got up and quietly made her way across the dark hallway.
Getting up during the night had gotten easier over the last month.
Stella was a hard sleeper, so once she was asleep, Kimmy could easily slip to the bathroom. But if Stella woke up or was still awake, watching TV or playing games, she questioned why Kimmy was out of bed. Even if Kimmy said she was using the bathroom, Stella would tell her to go back to bed. In her mom's defense, when she was little, Kimmy would try to stay up past her bedtime and use any excuse she could. As she got older, Stella got stricter and wouldn't even allow her to use the bathroom and make her go before going to bed. So, Kimmy had to wait until after she went to bed.
With Ben and Kayla, she never had to wait long since they went to bed shortly after the kids did. Kimmy still continued to walk cautiously across the hallway. There was one night when Samson decided to lie in the middle of the hallway for some reason. Though, their dog did that, too, or anywhere that seemed inconvenient to the humans. Samson even has multiple beds: one in Ben and Kayla's room, a bed downstairs, and a bed outside on the back patio in case it was a nice night out. Archie had a dog bed out in the living room and in his crate they always left open, plus a bed Kimmy had made for him in her room. But, for some reason, dogs still choose to sleep on the floor.
So when Samson chose to sleep in the middle of the hallway, Kimmy did not see him when she randomly stepped on his paw. He yelped as Kimmy stumbled backwards.
The commotion woke Ben, who came out to check what happened. He turned on his bedroom light to see. Kimmy froze when she heard Ben call out first and remained frozen when she saw him standing in the doorway with the light on behind him. Ben asked why Kimmy was up like Stella, but also asked if she was using the bathroom.
She had managed a timid nod.
To her relief, he didn't get mad and let her proceed. A night light was always kept in the bathroom, but since that night, another night light was put out in the hallway to help the kids see not only the way to the bathroom, but downstairs as well, in case they needed a drink of water or midnight snack.
Even after that night, Kimmy remained cautious as to not wake anyone up, including the other kids and after what she had overheard earlier, she definitely remained on high alert.
She didn't even turn on the bathroom light. Kimmy tiptoed to the bathroom, slowly shut the door, making sure to hold the doorknob down until it was shut all the way, and carefully lifted the knob to lock it.
Once Kimmy was finished and pulled her shorts back up, it took her a while to work up the courage to press the flush valve down. She had tried not flushing a few times before. But having to share the bathroom with Claudia, who wasn't happy having to wake up to someone else's bodily fluids and requested Kimmy remember to flush.
She tried counting to five, but chickened out before starting over. Eventually, she just went for it to get it over with, forcing her hand to press the valve before chickening out again.
Kimmy froze, listening for anybody to wake up. Thankfully, the toilet wasn't as loud as those public toilets that can get really loud. This one wasn't loud enough to wake anyone. To Kimmy's knowledge, anyway.
Now with that was over and done, she moved over to the sink.
Before, Kimmy never really washed her hands except in school when she was still young enough for her teachers to take the entire class for a restroom break. They would stand outside to make sure each kid washed their hands. Other than that, she never had anyone remind her. Until Kayla started getting on her about proper hygiene, and that included washing her hands, as well. She had even put a checklist on the back of the bathroom door to remind Kimmy and any other future kids, on what to do before leaving the bathroom.
Kimmy carefully turned the faucet so a small stream of water ran down. Enough to not make a lot of noise. She learned even the smallest stream made a pretty decent noise, just like it did on full blast. So Kimmy found a balance that seemed to make the least noise and was enough to wet her hands and while she got some soap and lathered them.
Miguel had taught her to sing Happy Birthday while washing her hands, but that was too long, in her opinion. At least during the night. So Kimmy sped through the process as quickly as possible before shutting the water off.
She then dried her hands on the towel hanging by the sink, before carefully unlocking and opening the door to tiptoe back to her room. Once she was back in bed, Kimmy was able to relax, relieved no one had woken up.
It took a while to fall back to sleep, especially while trying not to think about anything but that. Unless she was extremely tired, falling asleep never came easy, and it took a good bit just laying there with her stuffed animals with her eyes closed. For a while she gave up and flew her Ender Dragon in the air above her and even grabbed the Elric brothers from their post to "fight" the dragon before trying again.
-- & --
The next morning, only Kayla was up making breakfast this time. She was also the one driving the kids to school when she came by to make sure Kimmy and Claudia got up for school.
Kimmy felt a little tired having missed out on some sleep last night. She pushed herself out of bed and got ready for school. When she headed downstairs, Kimmy took her Switch to plug it back into its dock to charge while she was at school and headed to the kitchen.
Breakfast was scrambled eggs with an English muffin and jelly. Kimmy spread the jelly herself since it was the squeezable bottle, using her finger as a butter knife. Kayla had to remind her what was too much jelly, though.
Once all the kids were downstairs and had eaten, they piled into Kayla's jeep and headed for Claudia's school first. It was Miguel who asked why Ben wasn't taking them to school, thinking they were getting another kid.
"Ben just needed some extra time to sleep, that's all," Kayla reassured, pointing out Ben was always working hard for all of them.
"Does he ever sleep?" Mary asked with a laugh. "It seems like he gets less sleep than we do, and he's the one who gets to stay home a lot."
"He's not always home either, sweetheart," Kayla said gently.
Kimmy listened from the back seat while staring out her window. She couldn't help yawn a few times and rubbed at her eye, still trying to fully wake up.
She and Mary were the next ones to be dropped off.
This time, Kimmy took her time getting to her classroom and sat at the picnic table, laying her head on her folded arms.
When Mr. O'Reilly noticed she was out there, he offered to let her come in early, as he usually did. Kimmy declined his offer this time, wanting to stay outside, at least until the bell rang. He didn't go back inside, though. Instead, Mr. O'Reilly came over and knelt beside where she was sitting.
"Hey, is everything okay?" he asked gently.
Kimmy turned her head away from him, hoping he would leave.
Mr. O'Reilly did leave, but he returned with a bottle of water for her. "If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here for ya. You can leave me a note and we can speak that way." He also left a granola bar beside the bottle of water.
When school started, Kimmy dragged herself inside and over to her desk. She was expecting Lucy to stop by to chat, but noticed the other girl walk straight to her desk instead. Lucy didn't even walk with her in line when they headed for the gym for P.E., and Kimmy had to pair up with another girl to play a catch and throw game with a foam kickball.
The class had played the game before. Usually, both Kimmy and Lucy would fumble for the ball. So it helped Kimmy feel better whenever she fumbled with it, but this girl seemed like she played sports outside of school and caught the ball every time. She was nice to Kimmy, at least.
During lunch, Kimmy sat alone. She looked down the lunch table to see Lucy talking to a few other girls and even laughed a couple of times. Kimmy couldn't help wonder why Lucy was ignoring her all of a sudden. Though the peace of quiet was nice considering, she was still tired and her mind still drifted to last night. But now, it shifted between last night and Lucy.
Had Kimmy finally blown things with Lucy?
-- & --
Kimmy was one of the last kids to finish eating and get released outside until lunch was over. She headed straight for the swings and grabbed an empty one, dropping like a stone. This time, though, she didn't twist or swing high. Just enough to get lost in her thoughts where the playground attendant had to come over and get her attention when it was time to line up.
After school, Kimmy waited by the flagpole alone. Mary and her friends didn't even show up. Occasionally, Mary stayed after to get help with a class. This time, she was staying after to help prepare for a fall assembly happening in November for the entire school.
Like that morning, Kayla also picked the kids up from school, having worked from home that day to continue giving Ben a break. Despite only Miguel having been picked up, Kimmy still climbed into the very back.
At home, Kimmy saved her one hour for later after dinner and chores. Instead, she watched Stephen's latest videos from his vlog channel. Watching him interact with his friends helped her to laugh a little.
When the time on her tablet said the time Quiet Hour started, she searched for a video that played music from Animal Crossing. She grabbed her backpack to pull out her homework for the day.
She tensed up when Kayla came upstairs to make sure everyone was doing their homework, but relaxed when Kayla left without saying a word about the music.
Claudia was working on homework from her bed, with headphones, also playing music. Her music had people singing, of course. Kimmy seemed to be the only one she knew that listened to music without singing. Music just helped her to relax, especially when things were stressful.
Kayla made Cheeseburger Helper for dinner with peas and a salad. Kimmy didn't mind salad since she could pour ranch dressing over it. As much as she liked ranch, Kimmy didn't dip her pizza in the stuff. However, ranch at least made vegetables tolerable, which was how broccoli grew on her. Any kind of sauce, really.
Ben joined them for dinner.
It was the first time that day Kimmy had seen him, though she did spend the afternoon in her room. He was still in an undershirt and pajama pants he usually wore to bed. He was quiet, but still spoke whenever someone asked him a question. Of course, most of the questions came from Miguel. Mary also asked how he was feeling. He kept the answers brief and told them he was okay and not to worry about him.
Kimmy could see a sadness to him, with how he was slouched over his plate and the slow way he was eating. His eyes also looked sad, but Kimmy couldn't understand why. She could just tell.
After dinner, Kimmy took the trash out to the trash bin and brought it in from the curb. She then grabbed her Switch to take back up to her room. As much as she wanted to play Minecraft, Kimmy knew she could get lost in that game and continued to play Animal Crossing instead, since it had an in-game clock. The game was one of those games that followed the real-world passage of time and some days had events. Like Saturdays, K.K., the singing dog would come to the island to sing and play his guitar all day in the plaza. Unless there was an event like a bug or fish catching game, then he came on Sunday.
Today was a normal day, so Kimmy did her usual routine of digging up fossils, finding the hidden bag of bells; the currency on the island, and talking to her animal friends.
However, Kimmy did not realize just how tired she was, because the next thing she knew, the house was dark and a blanket had been draped over her. Her Switch was nowhere in sight, even by the dim light through the window.
Part of her wondered if the day had only been a dream and it was still Monday night and Tuesday hadn't happened yet. Like before, she got out of bed and tiptoed to the bathroom and carefully made her way back to bed.
This time, it took less time to fall back to sleep, waking up again when Kayla came in to wake her.
Wednesday was one of Kimmy's favorite days since she got out of school a couple of hours earlier than the rest of the week. Though it would be better if the early release day was Friday.
Kayla was still working from home, so she picked Kimmy up from school while Mary was still helping out with the assembly prep. With just the two of them, Kayla offered a lunch date, before she had to continue with her work stuff, at one of those sandwich and soup restaurants. Kimmy just ordered a sandwich, which came with a bag of chips that were too plain and hard to her liking, and let Kayla finish them off. She ate the chocolate chip cookie that also came with her sandwich, of course.
While they ate, Kayla asked how school was and how she was feeling as a whole. Apparently, Mr. O'Reilly had informed them both in email and on the daily progress report Kimmy took home yesterday, "she seemed down about something".
"I'm sure you feel overwhelmed from your visit with your mom and brother, and what Ben had told you the other day," she said while eating her soup.
Kimmy just shrugged at her sandwich. She took a bite when Kayla hadn't said anything more.
Like Claudia and Mr. O'Reilly had said, Kayla also reassured she could talk to her any time she needed to. Or ask her anything, reminding Kimmy she may not have an answer, but Kayla would do the best she could to give her something.
Kimmy swallowed and immediately took another bite.
"I called Leonard myself yesterday," she said, after taking a drink of her iced tea. "I wanted to talk with you about it last night, but you were asleep when I came up."
Kimmy took another bite, keeping her gaze on her sandwich. Kayla was probably the one who draped the blanket over her and took her Switch downstairs.
"While it is true Leonard and Wilma would like to see you move away from the video games, it is still only a suggestion. We understand you and your mom are a small family of nerd culture, especially video games. As I figured, they just want to help instill healthy screen time habits," she explained. "No one is trying to take away your games, I promise. Okay?"
Kimmy lifted her gaze to look up at Kayla.
"I have also explained to your mom, some girls are just not into things like make-up and stuff like that," she also explained. "My mom didn't let me wear make-up until I was in high school and taught me, make-up was only an enhancement. How I was beautiful without it. So now, as an adult, I wear very little of it. Maybe lipstick and a little mascara, but nothing more."
Kayla chuckled. "We did have fun painting our nails when I was a kid. My mom even talked my brother into letting her paint his nails as long as it wasn't pink."
Kimmy listened while continuing to eat her sandwich. She glanced at her stubby fingernails. The thought of having paint on them wasn't high on her priority list. Kimmy didn't even like having her face painted. And Zach probably wouldn't hold still long enough to let anybody paint his nails.
"You can like anything you want to like, sweetheart. Though it's great to step out of your comfort zone and try new things every once in a while. No one should be forcing you to change and I have explained that to your mom when we talked through text."
Stella probably heard Kayla and does allow Kimmy to be her own person. It did not mean she wouldn't voice her opinion on the matter and make comments about how she wished Kimmy was a certain way. She would sometimes try to play with her hair for as long as Kimmy could remember, twisting and tying it into different kinds of pigtails. Had she at least done a ponytail, maybe Stella would be satisfied. Ever since Kayla had suggested it, having her hair up in just a simple ponytail had grown on Kimmy, having her hair out of her face and out of the way. Even a single piece of hair touching her face was enough to bother Kimmy. She didn't wear her hair in one for the visit, though, in case Stella said anything about it.
Kayla took a bite of her sandwich, using a napkin to wipe around her mouth immediately after. "And don't worry about Ben," she said once Kayla swallowed. "He really is a kind soul. He can be a little sensitive at times."
She quickly added, "Not that there is anything wrong with being overly sensitive. In fact, that's what I've always loved about him. Even though I grew up hearing about inner beauty, even I still managed to befriend a few jerks in my time, who were not willing to put others before themselves. Not that we should always put others before ourselves. Sometimes it's nice to do something for others."
Kimmy looked from Kayla back to her sandwich.
What Kayla was saying reminded Kimmy of what she had overheard that guy Ben was watching the other day say about being generous.
Was this what that guy was referring to? If so, then guess Kimmy could call herself generous.