Liona was excited to see her grandfather Lionel's charity organization had delivered the package of electronics so quickly. Leave it to her parents to get the ball rolling for that when she had come to them with the idea of giving Erik's family her unneeded new electronics that had been gifted during her birthday. This charity organization originally started out as simply a scholarship program, but had steadily turned into an organization that was responsible for guiding not only those that slipped through the cracks for education, but society as a whole. They were local and their reach only encompassed the Northwest area, but it was enough. It helped so many people get the opportunities they needed to get a leg up in life.
"What's inside?" Asked Kylee.
"I wanna open it!" Chimed in Sarah.
"No, me first!" Heather proclaimed.
Soon, each of Erik's sisters started to fight over who was going to open the large box, but the stern voice of Julie, coming from the kitchen, put a halt to the argument.
"Girls! I don't know where that box came from, but it's not ours. No one opens it, until I can look at it and see if I need to return it to the sender. They probably intended it for the previous people living here and not us."
Liona was going to speak up, since Julie was mistaken, but Nikki read off the label to her mom. "Mom, it's clearly addressed to the Norman family. That's us! It's our package, so why can't we open it?!" She whined a bit.
"I don't care that it says the Norman Family on it or not. I won't have you kids opening strange packages sent to us. For all I know, it contains something harmful!" Julie called from the kitchen as she poked her head out from a cupboard.
This time, Liona did speak up, especially since she could see the crestfallen faces of the girls, who had been excited about the package.
"Um, Julie? Actually, that box is from me. I asked my parents to help me get in touch with a charity they work with frequently to help your family. I know the charity operator personally, and I packed that box myself, so nothing that's in it is harmful." Liona wasn't sure how Julie would take it if she said that the operators of the charity were her grandparents.
"When Erik described the problems that he's been having with his phone not working and given how old the ones that he and Nikki have, I did a little research. I found out that the OS of the phones they're using stopped being supported years ago. A couple of years ago, most phone companies switched over to a new type of tech, so now nothing over a certain age will even communicate with newer technology. The package contains some hand-me down tech ranging from phones, to tablet computers for everyone. And thanks to the charity, it includes the cost of a year's subscription to the latest phone service for everything that needs one to function properly." Liona went on to explain. She hoped that this would pass Julie's radar and not be perceived as pity.
"Oh! Is that the surprise you were telling me about, earlier, Lia?" Erik asked.
"Yeah, I wanted it to be a surprise, but I didn't think your mom wouldn't recognize the charity name and think this was a strange package. Usually, these kinds of things need to be signed for so the charity can be assured that the appropriate recipient gets the things being given. I asked my Dad to make sure that this was the best way to give you guys some things I didn't need. You remember that giant pile of gifts sitting in the living room during my party? Yeah, most of those things were electronics that I didn't need. Almost everyone ignores my little disclaimer on the invite every year about not gifting me things like this because they end up being donated every year. It's such a waste to give them to me since I won't use them." Liona explained further.
"Really? You have to tell people not to give you things for your birthday?" Nikki asked.
"Yeah, I do. If it's something I need, my parents get it for me, but if it's something I want, I tend to just buy it myself. Very few things I'm given for my birthday, I actually keep. Most of the things I keep are all things that my family gives me because they know I prefer things that are given from the heart rather than just a gift for the sake of a gift. Personal thought into gifts makes them more meaningful, which is why I absolutely love the gift Erik gave me."
Liona smiled at Erik. She had displayed that pressed four-leaf clover on the same shelf that had her unicorn plushy sitting on it. It was where she kept her extra special treasures.
Erik blushed a little. He had spent a fair bit of time looking for that clover in the park across the street.
"Ooh! Erik's blushing!" Heather teased her brother.
"Stuff it, Heather!" Erik grumped as continued to try to head off a cranky Tyler. He was probably hungry as well as tired, but they tried their best to stretch out his formula as much as possible to make it last.
"Children! What have I said about fighting?!" There was an edge to Julie's voice that sounded frustrated.
"We weren't fighting, Mom!" Heather whined.
"Girls? Did any of you eat the ingredients I had set aside for tonight's dinner by chance?"
The slightly frazzled and panicked voice of his mother, alerted Erik that something was wrong. Since he needed to get Tyler's bottle made anyway, he headed into the kitchen to find out what was missing from their meager stores. He knew why she only asked the girls, since they were home more often than he was. The younger ones sometimes had the tendency to raid the cabinets for a late night snack.
"What's wrong, Mom?" Erik asked quietly as he expertly started making a bottle for Tyler while he was on his hip. He had done this action a million times over the years with each of his sisters from the time he could understand enough to help.
"It seems one or more of your sisters may have raided the cupboards again, and now we're short on the ingredients I had planned on for tonight's dinner. Besides the ground beef, I have nothing to serve." Julie was frustrated.
She couldn't blame her girls. They were growing, and she struggled to give them enough food to fill them up, so sometimes the younger ones snuck food from the kitchen late at night. It was her fault for not counting on this fact. So now she was embarrassed to admit that she now had to go back into town to shop for things to feed her son's girlfriend after she had made a big show of making sure she came for dinner.
Admittedly, she had started out wanting to show the rich little tramp that her son was unable to provide the lifestyle she expected. But after getting to know her a little and seeing all her kids so taken with the girl, she was starting to feel like she was the bad guy. Especially after this girl had gone out of her way to take into account that they needed a little help and tried to find a way to indirectly provide them with access to services they couldn't otherwise afford.
"Is everything alright, Julie? Did you need a hand after all?" Liona was curious and sensitive to Erik's pheromones, that said that he was a bit stressed too. So she came to the kitchen entrance and inquired.
"I guess my little sisters raided the cupboards, and now we're short on things to make for dinner. Dinner is ruined, I'm sorry, Lia…" Erik apologized but was cut off.
"Erik, you don't need to keep apologizing. You've done nothing wrong, nor has anyone. If you're short of specific ingredients, that doesn't mean that dinner is ruined, it just means that you need to be a bit more creative with what you have on hand!"
Liona went over to where Julie was standing. She took stock of what was set out in the way of food, and she quickly did a mental tally of the things that could be made with those ingredients off the top of her head. After she had a few ideas, she made her suggestion.
"Julie, I know you turned down my offer to help earlier, but with what you have here, you can make a few different dishes easily! Do you mind if I show you what I have in mind?"
Julie sighed. It wasn't as if dinner weren't already ruined, so she caved, "Alright, what do you think I can make with so little here. As you can see, we live off very little…"