Pulling into the parking lot, Liona could see that Erik and his siblings were already here. Although she could see them, they couldn't see her with the tinted windows for the privacy of those that this car typically transported. She turned off the car and got out after a moment of observing their behavior at the look of this car pulling into the parking lot. It's not as if this car was a limo, but the looks on their faces made it seem like some celebrity was inside. That made her giggle as she exited the car.
"Hi, Erik! Hi, Nikki! Are you and everyone else ready to go?" She called out as she stepped into their view from behind the car door.
"Whoa! So that was you driving that monstrosity?!" Nikki exclaimed, even as Erik nudged her to be quiet. That made her laugh.
"Yeah! Didn't Erik tell you that I was going to be taking you all to the mall? I couldn't do that in my itty-bitty car, so I borrowed one from dad. He gave me permission to use this one since it could seat everyone. If he didn't let me use the town car then I would have called for a limo for us, but since Erik said you guys don't want flashy, I went with the less ostentatious option after explaining it to my dad." Liona grinned.
"It's still huge and looks way too flashy!" Nikki seemed to be glaring at the car.
"It only looks flashy because it's technically one of my dad's work cars. We don't typically use it for home use, but he made an exception for me, once I explained my plans. He only wants us to get to the mall safely and this car will get us there in style and comfort!"
"I guess it's better than taking the bus…" Nikki seemed to grump. Liona knew that she still had a long way to go to get to know Nikki better and for her to warm up to her, but she wasn't deterred by her attitude. She figured over time she would come to realize that she didn't mean any harm and genuinely wanted to get to know her.
Before Liona could help the younger Norman siblings into the car, both Nikki and Erik were directing the capable children into the car while they both worked on getting the two youngest strapped into the seats since they couldn't fasten the restraints themselves unlike the older of the youngest. Before she knew it, all of the young kids were ready to go. Erik and Nikki seemed to have a system down for traveling with their siblings, and she found it fascinating.
On the way to the mall, the younger Norman siblings were kept occupied by Nikki who had chosen to sit in the back between the booster seats. Erik, on the other hand, chose to sit up front, next to her, which made her happy. He still looked a bit nervous, but he seemed to be making good progress being more comfortable just being around her.
When they finally got to the mall, everyone piled out of the car while again, Liona was left with nothing to do to help since Erik and Nikki had a good system for getting their siblings out of the car. The older ones got out first, then waited somewhat patiently for their oldest siblings to help their youngest ones out.
"Okay, so I had a bit of a game plan in mind to tackle the mall in the most efficient manner, but if you guys see something you want to do or a store that interests you, feel free to let me know." Liona grinned as the Norman siblings stood in front of her in some sort of unspoken arraignment where the older were in the back holding the two youngest, while the older of the youngest were in front of them. They were ordered by height in this unspoken agreement on where they stood, so it looked like they were posing for a picture of some kind.
"We don't want to impose on you any more than we already are, so we'll go wherever you have in mind, Liona." Erik spoke up after looking at Nikki for confirmation.
"Alright then, let's head in." She led the way into her favorite shopping place.
This was practically a historic mall at this point and was one of the very few places that still was around to this day from the peak mall craze in the 20th century. Of course, this wasn't the original building. That had been condemned years and years ago. This was a building that had been built around the time she was born, and she had grown up coming with her parents to shop at. She had fond memories of the food court and the arcade where her dad had taught her how to beat some of his favorite arcade games.
Entering into the main portion of the mall, to the right was the food court, and to the left was the theater entrance. Further in were the kiosk shops of temporary vendors offering their goods for a short time or were too small to warrant a full shop space. After you passed the kiosk shops, were the full shops and the four-way intersection that led to each wing of the mall with anchor stores in each direction. It was to one of these anchor stores that she was planning on taking Erik and his family too.
"This is a mall?" Heather asked as she looked around. Liona smiled at the nine-year-old as she seemed a bit in awe of the colorful storefronts they passed on the way to the biggest clothing store in town.
"Yep! This is the River Valley Mall, and it's been around since before my great-grandparents were little, but this building is only as old as I am. This whole place has the best shopping in town and if you can't find what you're looking for here, then there's a good chance that you won't find it anywhere else except for an online store." Liona could talk about her favorite shopping place forever, but stopped when she noticed the look on the younger kids' faces when they got to the center of the four-way intersection.
"Pwaygwound!" Emily, Erik's two-year-old little sister, pointed out from Nikki's arms. Meanwhile Heather stood staring at the closed in little fun area for little kids to play while their parents shopped. She looked at the posh little playground and seemed to want to play there but when she noticed that she was being observed, she quickly looked away.
"Did you want to play there?" Liona asked with a smile.
"No…" Heather denied too quickly and looked fearful for just a split second, but Liona caught the look. She looked at the rest of the faces of the Norman siblings and saw similar longing and fearfulness on their faces as they tried to not make it look obvious that they were staring with longing at the little enclosed play place.
This year's playground theme was zoo animals with larger than life play equipment in the shape of animals with educational facts about each one presented in a way that young kids would understand and enjoy learning about.
Not wanting to push and potentially do anything to harm the budding relationship with Erik's sisters, Liona dropped it for now, but made a mental note to stop by the play place a bit later with the excuse of taking a break for the younger kids. Moving on, Liona led the way to the anchor store where she frequented, with Erik and his family in tow.
"Liona! This place is too fancy! Everything here will be too much!" Erik seemed to panic the further into the store they got.
"Don't worry about it. I told you that I wouldn't spend an excessive amount on you and your sisters, and I won't. Believe it or not, this store is reasonably priced compared to where I was originally thinking of taking you. If it makes you feel a little better, we can shop in the discounted section for everyone, but I can't guarantee you'll find much in the way of anything good."
Erik seemed appeased by that and soon his sisters were delving into the racks of clothes and searching for things they liked, while Erik headed over to the men's section and looked for his own outfit that would meet her birthday party's dress code.
Liona smiled and encouraged Nikki to get whatever she liked as she saw her light up at a cute shirt that would look good on her. She grabbed it from the rack after looking at the price tag and hesitated for just a moment until she encouraged her. Soon she had a complete outfit picked and they moved on to the children's section for the younger girls.
As they shopped for the younger children, Erik came over with a worried expression as he saw the shopping cart full of clothes already in the few minutes he had been gone.
"Don't worry so much, Erik. Your sisters found things within a reasonable price according to Nikki and as I said, I would stick to reasonable prices when I shopped for you all. This is my gift, so just take a breath and try to let it go…"