Nora Kane was drowning on dry land. All her life, she'd been thrown from foster home to foster home. Some of them were at least okay. Others...not so much.
When Nora has decided that she'd seen enough cornfields to last her the rest of her life, she...
Nora walked into the house after grabbing milk from the grocery store for Mouse, and gasped in surprise. Already, Jules, Harries, Deano, and Jesse had arrived. They were standing in the living room, talking with each other, and the tree was stashed with piles upon piles of presents.
"Hi guys!" Nora said as she closed the door behind her with her foot. She carried the gallons of milk to the fridge and set them down on the top shelf.
"Hey Nora!" Jules gave Nora a hug and grinned at her. She held up her glass, "Punch?"
"Sure," Nora took a cup from Jesse and sipped it. She hadn't had punch for a while, it was better than she'd remembered.
"Ready to open presents?" Mouse clapped his hands together excitedly.
Jules laughed, "You look more excited than Nora!" She teased. Her phone dinged and she pulled it out, "Uber's dropping off food in like ten minutes, so we might as well start sorting."
Mouse hopped over to the tree and began to sort presents out to people. He handed Harries the pink bag, as well as a pile of smaller things that Nora figured were probably also gag gifts.
"Come sit down," Jesse told Nora.
"Okay," Nora sat down on the floor next to Harries. Jesse flopped on the couch behind her.
Her eyes widened in surprise when Mouse dropped a massive box at her feet. Nora felt her curiousity spike. What could be in the box?
The presents in front of her continued to pile up long after everyone else had finished receiving theirs.
"Uh, was there a mistake with some of the tags?" Nora asked in surprise.
Every other person burst out laughing, "I think every lifeguard on the service wanted to get you at least one thing," Mouse told her after her caught his breath.
Nora didn't understand why that was so hilarious, but she smiled politely anyway and said, "That was very kind of them. They didn't have to do that."
"We wanted to," Deano said from where he was star-fished across the chair.
Nora blushed and looked down.
"Alright, everybody start opening in 3!" Mouse announced.
Nora stared at her pile of presents. She wondered which one she was going to open first.
"2!"
The one on top looked fun. It was a little one, shaped like a box. But, she decided to set it aside. She didn't want to love the smaller presents in the wrapping paper, so she would open it last.
"1!"
Nora reached for the smaller present and tucked it between her legs. She grabbed a bigger one from a different side of the stack and opened it quickly, feeling giddy with excitement.
The wrapping tore off to reveal a beautiful jewelry box.
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It was wooden, and carved with beautiful mandalas. Nora loved it immediately. She opened the top to reveal soft white felt with a spot for rings, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings.
"Do you like it?" Jules asked from beside the couch.
"I love it!" Nora got up from her spot to hug Jules tightly, "Thank you," She whispered.
"You're very welcome. I thought you might like it. Great minds think alike," She responded.
Nora grinned at her.
She sat back down and opened her next package, which was a beautiful necklace that said Surfer Girl on it. It was from Harries, who also received a hug from Nora.
Nora stopped opening her gifts to look at Harries as he opened hers. He laughed at the bag, and then laughed harder at the bobble head inside. "I'll put it on the lifeguard counter," He told Nora with a smile.
Nora blushed.
She opened the rest of her presents, laughing when Maxi gave her a stuffed felt corn with a smiley face and a John Deere tractor. Harrison had given her another squish mallow, and Jesse a cool armillary ring and a pack of running socks to replace her old, torn ones. Deano gave her a book on meditation and self reflection, and a nice foam roller. Harries, a set of calligraphy pens and the necklace.
Mouse gave her a book on crocheting as well as crocheting supplies, and knitting supplies as well as a book on it. He just shrugged at Nora when she gave him a questioning look, but she also found herself enjoying the idea of knitting and crocheting.
The last present she opened was an embroidery set, also from Mouse.
"I thought you might like to have something to do at night, since all you do is sit on the patio," Mouse said, "And I didn't know what you would like, so I got a bunch of stuff that I thought would be fun-"
Nora cut him off, "I love it all, Mouse, thank you so, so much!" And then she hugged him.
Mouse chuckled at her, "I'm glad," he said.
"Well," Harries stood from his spot on the couch and said, "The food is here."
