Erik had observed Liona the entire day they had been at the mall. There was something about her that always grabbed his attention and kept it. Watching her was like feeding his usually empty stomach and left him feeling satisfied. He really couldn't explain it, but it was new and interesting to him. When Liona had taken his little sisters to the play place in the center of the mall, she had boldly proclaimed that she wouldn't let anyone harass them while she was there. It made his stomach flutter as she looked so serious and fierce saying that. She was amazing, was his first thought when she had proclaimed that.
As his little sisters and baby brother played happily, with not a single person bothering any of them, he noticed a toddler around Emily's age toddle up to them and stand in front of Liona. She had called her Li-Li and he found that absolutely adorable for some strange reason. Liona had scooped the toddler up and had dangled her in the air as she played with the small child and the one thought that hit him as he observed her easy action was that she was so good with children.
It dawned on him as he watched her play with the little girl, that Liona was really good with not only Nikki and his middle sisters, but the babies of his family as well. Tyler was very attached to her as well as Emily. In fact, Emily had taken to calling her Sis. Kirsten and Heather were both comfortable around her as could be expected, but he noticed that their walls were also slowly being dissolved the more time they spent around her. Of course, they didn't have as much negative to keep those walls up, but still, they were slowly coming to trust her. If he was being honest, so was he.
By the time the day ended at the mall, Liona had respectfully dropped them off at the park where they had met and didn't complain or even mention that it was an inconvenience. She didn't press him for his address, nor did she badger him or Nikki about keeping that part of their lives from her. He had her address since it was printed neatly on her birthday invitation and now that he had lived here for a little while, he realized that she lived in a rather upscale neighborhood. It was an older neighborhood in this city, but it was full of large houses from everything he understood from his questions about the area to his coworkers at the burger place and the coffee shop.
When they got home, the girls were happy and giggling and pulling out all their gifts in the middle of the living room. Tyler was fast asleep as was Emily, but the other girls had woken when they arrived at the park. He and Nikki took it upon themselves to make sure that Tyler and Emily were put in the porta crib and their mom's bed. These had seen better days, but they had been secondhand purchases some time ago as their family kept growing and things were left behind in various moves. After the youngest were safely down for their naps, they returned to the living room to grab their own gifts.
"Alright, let's get everything washed and then hung up to dry. Remember, don't wear any of these outfits to school. If the other kids see you wearing nice things all of the sudden, then they might try to ruin them or hurt you for wearing them." Nikki instructed the younger girls.
"What about the underwear? Can we wear that? No one will know we have it on! Besides, it's so pretty and new!" Heather asked as she helped Kirsten open her multipack of underwear to get it washed with all the rest of the clothes.
Erik watched Nikki hesitate, so he stepped in and made the decision for them. "Yes, you can wear the new underwear, just don't make a big deal about it." He knew that the pathetic state of his sister's undergarments had to have been seen by Liona and it embarrassed him that all their clothes were so shabby.
As he and Nikki were the ones that helped their mom with the laundry, he knew that some of the girls' underwear were threadbare, and these new ones were a big deal for the younger girls. Clothes were a lower priority than food was in this house. When the rare occasion they had extra money occurred, they did get new second-hand clothes, but it was rare that they got new undergarments. With the money that Nikki had made selling the clothes Liona had given her, she had bought a whole new second-hand wardrobe for their sisters with that money. She could have kept that money to herself, but she didn't.
Despite Nikki's sometimes standoffish attitude, she did care about their sisters as much as he did. When she had been allowed to work, it had been her paychecks that usually were put towards newer clothes when their old clothes wore out finally. He usually contributed to groceries and other necessities while their mother's pay went toward things like rent and utilities. Between the three of them, they had made things work somehow. They weren't used to generosity from others, but he could see that Liona was slowly starting to grow on every one of his sisters. Today had probably put a huge crack in Nikki's wall, he could see it the way she talked about her.
Soon all the new clothes had been de-tagged and were put in the tub to be washed. He and Nikki worked as a team to get them all washed and hung up to dry in the bathroom. Since it was now raining outside it wasn't a good idea to hang them up out on the laundry line since they wouldn't dry. When their mom got home and saw the bathroom, she was completely dumbfounded it seemed.
"ERIK! NICOLE! Front and center!" He could hear the sharp voice of his mother as she exited the bathroom. She had a no nonsense look on her face and she looked furious.
"Yeah, Mom?" He and Nikki stood in front of her.
"Where on earth did all those clothes come from?! Don't tell me you stole them?!" His mother was about to lose her shit if he did say that they had.
"No! Momma! We didn't steal anything! They were gifts from Erik's friend!" Nikki thought she was throwing him under the bus, but really, she wasn't. He almost laughed, but his mother's glare shut down that urge right quick.
"Mom, remember how I told you I had made friends with that girl, Liona? The one that invited me to her birthday?" He asked.
"Yes, but what does that have to do with the mountain of new clothes hanging in the bathroom. What on earth are they doing there?!"
"Well, I didn't say how well off she was…" Erik gulped a bit nervously. "She's actually pretty affluent and when she heard that Nikki sold the clothes she gave her, and how I didn't have anything I could wear to her birthday party, she offered to take all of us shopping. Most of the things in there were all from a department store's discount racks, so they really weren't that much more expensive than what we would normally get. I made sure that she didn't spend too much on us, Mom. I have the tags for all of them if you want to check."
His mother sighed. Her glare softened into a look of worry as she looked at both him and Nikki. "I worry about you, that's all. I don't mind that you have friends or how much money your friends have. I only worry that another incident like the one Nicole experienced recently was going on again…"
"Liona's different, Momma!" Erik nearly did a double take as Nikki came to Liona's defense. "She's not like those awful girls at all! She's really nice and genuine! She only does what we are comfortable with, and she doesn't ask or expect anything in return for her generosity like those other girls did. She made sure that we got what we all liked and were comfortable with receiving."
"Mom, she's been making me all those tasty lunches and uses the feedback I give her to improve them each time! All the food that she includes, she makes herself! She even encourages me to share it with the girls since she makes so much that I can't eat it all. She goes out of her way to make sure that not only am I comfortable, but the girls as well. She's so different from others we've had to deal with. In fact, besides how she dresses, she doesn't really act like a snob at all!" Erik added his own opinion.
"Momma? Don't hate Liona!" Erik and Nikki turned around to see Sarah speak. She usually didn't make her opinion known very often, so her coming to Liona's defense was a big surprise to them.
Their mother sighed in defeat. Erik could see that she was happy but sad at the same time seeing her children come to the defense of those above their station in life.