19. Kiera
Kiera
T he following Friday afternoon, Kiera invited Hunter’s family to meet her at the teen center. She had a surprise for them, and she wanted to show the place to Josh and Andrew because she thought they might like coming here after school from time to time.
"I hope you like it," she said as she led everyone through the gravel parking lot at the back of the building. She had her hand linked in Hunter’s, and Piper, Andrew and Josh walked beside them. “There’s an afternoon snack and an activity every single day, and we do events on the weekends, too. The kids have a lot of fun.”
“I think she’s trying to drop a hint,” Piper teased Andrew, putting her arm around his shoulder as they walked. “Have you two been raising hell at Abby’s house?”
“Not at all,” Kiera said quickly. “They’re great kids and they’re always welcome at home. I just wanted them to see what the teen center is all about. And I wanted to give you and Hunter the tour as well.”
“I’m excited to see it,” Hunter said. “It’ll be nice to put some faces to the names you’ve mentioned.”
“Well,” Kiera said, glancing at the empty parking spot beside the door where Garrett’s blue Subaru was almost always parked, “it doesn’t look like Garrett’s here right now.
That’s pretty uncommon, but I think he was going to the store this afternoon to pick up supplies for movie night.
We get a ton of snacks and the kids bring their blankets, bean bag chairs and things like that.
They spread out on the floor and we project the movie on the wall. ”
“Sounds like a good time,” Hunter said, kissing Kiera’s temple.
Kiera opened the door, then stepped aside to hold it while the rest of them entered the building.
She smiled as the boys took in the activity room.
It was set up for the afternoon snack and there were quite a few kids sitting at folding tables eating apple slices with a variety of toppings, like peanut butter, chocolate chips and caramel.
“I think today’s activity is painting,” Kiera said. “We have a volunteer who’s also an artist and she likes to teach the kids different techniques. She’s really great with them.”
“That sounds like fun,” Josh said.
“Do you guys want to paint?” Kiera asked. “I could introduce you to a couple of kids your age.”
“Yes!” Josh exclaimed, his eyes lighting up. Andrew smiled and nodded politely, as if to say, I’m too old for this but I’ll humor my little brother.
Kiera led Josh and Andrew over to a group of middle school kids, then encouraged them to have a snack. While they were helping themselves to the variety of toppings on the snack table, Kiera, Hunter and Piper stood nearby and Maggie came over to ask, “Is this the infamous Hunter?”
Kiera blushed and said, “You make it sound like I talk about her a lot.”
“You do,” Maggie said with a wink.
“This is Hunter,” Kiera confirmed, “and her sister, Piper. This is Maggie, our artist-in-residence.”
“I don’t know about all that,” Maggie said modestly. “Today we’re painting sea turtles, but if you want to call that high art, I won’t stop you.”
“Remember when I told you about Hunter’s nephews?” Kiera asked. She pointed Josh and Andrew out - they’d joined the boys she introduced them to and were making themselves right at home. “They’re going to do the afternoon activity while I give Hunter and Piper the tour.”
“Be prepared to go home with all the sea turtle art you can handle,” Maggie said with a grin. “I’ll go to introduce myself. Enjoy the tour.”
Piper waved goodbye to the boys and then Kiera led her and Hunter down the little hallway that went to the offices, kitchen and staff area. While they walked, Piper asked, “You’re really active here, aren’t you?”
“As much as I can be with a full class schedule,” Kiera said.
As she led them past Garrett’s closed door, she told Piper a little about how she’d begun volunteering here after a Kappa charity event.
Then she paused in front of the second office - the communal one that all the volunteers shared - and said, “The idea is to work here full-time after I graduate. We currently only have one full-timer – that’s Garrett – and the rest of us are volunteers.
Over the summer, I applied for grant money that would help us expand the center’s services and pay for two additional full-time employees. ”
“Is it hard to get that kind of funding?” Piper asked.
“It is competitive,” Kiera said. “And it took far longer than I would have hoped to hear back.”
“Took?” Hunter asked. She’d caught Kiera’s past tense and a little smile was already beginning to form on her lips.
Kiera grinned. She’d been bursting to tell Hunter since the moment she’d opened her email, and she couldn’t wait any longer. She said, “I heard back this morning. We got the money!”
“Wow, that’s great,” Hunter said, beaming as she scooped Kiera up in a bear hug. “I’m so proud of you!”
Pride swelled in Kiera’s chest and she didn’t want to let Hunter go. She had to eventually, and Piper was smiling at her. She said, “Congratulations. So you’ll be able to hire yourself?”
“Yeah,” Kiera said, stepping into the little concrete block room and beckoning them to join her. “This will be my office.”
It was barely big enough to hold all three of them. Kiera stepped behind the desk while Hunter and Piper stood on the other side of it and they all looked at the gray, uninspiring walls.
“It’s not much to look at right now,” Kiera said.
“But the kids did a lot of the murals that are on the walls in the activity room under Maggie’s guidance.
I was thinking they could paint something for me on the walls in here, too.
We’ll have enough money in the budget to upgrade the technology, too.
I’m pretty sure this computer is one of Steve Jobs’ own prototypes.
And the best part is that we’ll have enough left over to hire another employee, maybe even full time. ”
She paused after this statement and looked at Piper.
This was the surprise Kiera had up her sleeve.
Not even Hunter knew about this idea, but Kiera knew all about their financial troubles over the last few years, including how much Piper hated working at The Magic Bean and how difficult it was for the two of them to coordinate their work schedules to be home in time to look after the boys and make sure Josh always got his insulin shot on time.
If Piper worked here, she could quit her job at the café and the boys could come to the center every day after school. It would take some of the burden off Hunter’s shoulders, too.
Kiera looked hopefully at Piper, but she didn’t take the hint. Instead, she asked, “How much grant money was it, again?”