Hidden Burdens (working title)

More Progress

Even though things seemed to smooth over between Kimmy and everyone in the house, there was still a hesitancy to get close. She was glad to have that time again when John let her keep him company in his room some evenings. Kimmy was especially relieved Claudia decided to stay instead of running away. It still took a lot for her to work up the courage to ask Ben if he would play Spyro again. It had been fun playing a game with someone and sharing the controller. Like the way Stephen would pass the controller each episode with Mal.

It helped to continue the writing notes thing with Ben, but it was still a gamble whenever Kimmy held the paper out to him. Ben was always kind and patient, though, even if he was busy cooking dinner or something, and promised they could play later. He still let her help him outside in the yard and even took Kimmy with him to fill the gas container, showing her how in the process. 

“I finally ordered a new blower,” he said while holding the nozzle to the container’s open cap. “So, we won’t have to keep buying gas and I can return the gas blower to my dad.” She noticed him subtly taking a deep breath like something was making him nervous. It took a minute for Kimmy to remember what happened that day when Ben had to take his leaf blower for his dad to look over. It made her want to wrap her arms around Ben, but Kimmy held back. 

Even though Kimmy did not mind doing yard work with Ben, playing video games together was more of a fun hobby they could do, just the two of them, since John did not have a huge interest in video games and never wanted to jump in whenever he watched Ben and Kimmy playing. 

However, Kimmy finally blurted out, “No,” when John asked to play basketball with them one afternoon. She could feel herself turning red in the face as Kimmy froze up on the spot and kept her gaze on the driveway. 

To her relief, John let them be while Ben had a talk with her after their game to encourage Kimmy about letting others join. When she went to apologize to John, he shrugged it off. 

“You have nothing to apologize for.” John understood that was their game and he could challenge Ben to a game once they were done. “When you're ready, then maybe the three of us could play a game sometime. Sound good?”

Kimmy gave a timid nod. 

Besides spending time with the guys, Kimmy also squeezed in time with the girls. With Kayla, their time was usually Sunday afternoons, to and from Kimmy’s visit with her mom and brother. With John helping with Mother’s day this year, she tried to ask her mom what Stella would like. 

“Don’t you usually make something in school?” Stella asked. 

Kimmy shrugged. “Maybe, but Mr. O’Reilly hasn’t said anything yet.”

“Well then, wait until then,” she insisted as if it should have been obvious to the kid. 

“John wants to get a head start now,” she shrugged some more. 

“Who’s John?”

Kimmy hesitated. She knew, though, if Kimmy didn’t answer there would be a chance Stella would get the wrong idea, especially since John was a guy. 

“Who’s John, Kimmy?” Stella continued to insist. 

“M-my fos-ter brother,” she finally answered, nervously. 

“Your, what?”

“M-my foster brother,” Kimmy said, with less of a stutter this time. 

“You only have one brother,” Stella pointed out.