Chapter Eighteen - Beaver Shopping

Maple wandered through the aisles of the hardware store, her head tilted so far back that she was developing a crick in her neck.

There was so much stuff here. Big power tools, hundreds of pieces of wood, furniture, plumbing parts by the buckets full, actual buckets, paints in can and spray bottles, gardening supplies and one section was nothing but lights, all of them lit up so that it created a dazzling tunnel of light with dozens of chandeliers hanging from above.

Maple had a budget though, and she didn't want to spend it all here.

So she focused very hard, and pushed the intrusive thoughts away.

Yes, she could turn that chandelier into a spinning strobe light machine if she combined it with that drill over there. And sure, she could make that power washing machine that was on sale be able to cut through cement with some of those plumbing things, but that wasn't what she was here for.

Her brain felt like a confluence of little streams, all pouring together to form a larger, untamed river, but she was working hard to dam all the thoughts and keep things nice and focused.

Big Sister Emily and Sam were behind her, pushing a cart along, and Maple knew that her flitting around from rack to rack was probably a bit embarrassing. She suppressed that too. She could be humiliated about her pitter-pattering heart later.

"So, what are we looking for?" Emily asked.

"Hammer," Maple said.

Emily nodded and they both pretended not to hear Sam's snort.

She found a hammer. Unfortunately, it was next to other, cooler-looking hammers. There were mallets, and sledge hammers, and rabbit-eared hammers with wooden shafts and rubber shafts and some that were vibration-absorbant.

Maple looked at all of them, her power leaking out and telling her all sorts of things that could be done with these. "I don't know which one to pick," she admitted.

Emily came closer, then squatted down next to Maple. "Hmm. How about that one?" She pointed to a smaller hammer, with a wooden shaft. The back of it was angled slightly, without any ears for nail-pulling. "It looks nice?"

Maple bobbed her head and took the hammer, then she got onto her tippy-toes and dropped it into the basket.

She'd need more than a hammer to make what she wanted to make, of course, but it was the big part for Teddy's... weapon? Gift? Tool? For what she wanted to make for Teddy. "Okay," she said. "I need some springs and dials and a small pressure gauge too."

They ended up walking through the store for well over an hour, Maple picking up a thing here or there, always aware of the rather big numbers tied to some of the stuff she was getting. She could feel her budget shrink with each purchase.

It was a whole new kind of anxiety, but she was determined to push through.

In the end, the cart wasn't even a quarter full as they paid up and left, and still, it cost over half of the $500 Emily had given her.

"O-okay," Maple said. "I still need more stuff." A lot more.

Fortunately, the next stop was a dollar store. Unfortunately, nothing was a dollar there. She still picked up a couple of clocks, some simple wind-up toys, and a few cleaning supplies. Another chunk of her money disappeared into two bags that Sam lugged around for her.

They started the long trek to an electronic hobby shop, and Maple was worried that things there would be the most expensive.

Maple decided to push her stress aside for the moment, and the best way to do that was to allow herself to be distracted. She was walking between Big Sister Emily and Sam, so she tilted her head back a bit and listened in on their conversation.

They'd moved on from talking about their plans for the charity thing and were now chattering about training, of all things.

"It's really not a bad idea," Emily was saying. "We keep running into these situations, and then I have to think of what to do on the spot. It's hard, it's stressful, and I never know if I'm doing the right thing. Sometimes I lay in bed and come up with these wild scenarios and try to think of what I'll do in them, but that's never been too helpful."

Stolen novel; please report.

"Is that normal for you?" Sam asked.

"Laying in bed and stressing?" Maple's big sister shrugged. "Yes? I used to dream all the time about talking to new friends or whatever. I'd have entire conversations planned out. Surprisingly, I don't do that as much anymore. Being a... hero is so much more stressful that I don't have as much time for my old social anxiety, you know?"

"I really don't," Sam said. "But I can see what you mean. It's an interesting solution to having difficulties with talking to people."

"I don't think it's a good solution by any means," Emily said. "Anyway, training. I think if we make a game of it, they'll all join in with no problems."

"Depends on what you're training for," Sam said. "But yeah, I think most things could be turned into games. Hide and sneak for stealth training, tag for cardio and to learn how to run better. I think one of the new minions is really into fitness. He could do a crash course on muscle training."

"Is that good for, uh, kids?" Emily asked.

"I have no idea," Sam said. "There's jungle gyms at the park. Could be good for learning basic parkour."

Emily shook her head. "Do you think we'd need parkour?"

Sam glanced at Emily. "Obviously. You'll want to participate too, you know. I saw how winded you were the other day."

Big Sister Emily groaned, but she didn't deny it. Maple thought that Sam's idea of training sounded like fun. She wasn't sure what a parkour was, but the rest seemed nice.

"I think I could get your entire group signed up to a martial arts class for fairly cheap," Sam said. "There's a few for girls around the college. Self-defence stuff. It's not exactly martial arts, but like, very basic self defence stuff. I think they're free? Or at least pretty cheap. And if that works out, you might want to do grapple training and stuff like that."

Emily nodded slowly. "Yeah, that makes plenty of sense. I'm just not sure I want to subject myself to that, but... yeah, I also don't want to get hurt. And the girls will love it."

"Hey, on the plus side, they'll tire them right out," Sam said. "Maybe. Fifty-fifty odds that if they get tired enough, they'll go right to sleep once you get back."

"Oh, that does sound nice," Emily agreed.

"I could make something to make people fall asleep," Maple said.

Emily blinked, then smiled, shifted her bags around to free a hand, then she patted Maple on the head. "Thanks, Maple. But I think we're alright. I don't think your sisters need help sleeping. Though one of these days it'd be nice to not wake up to everyone piled up on my bed."

Maple didn't understand. Sleeping while cuddled with her sisters was the best way to sleep. It was warm and safe.

Unless she woke up and had to pee, then it was the worst because there were so many sisters to climb over. Especially if Teddy was hugging her, then it was almost impossible to get out because it was impossible to wake Teddy up, and she was very strong.

Also, if she woke up one of Trinity, then all of Trinity woke up, and that was kind of annoying.

But it was worth it.

"Hey, let's stop and grab something to drink, for the road," Sam said with a gesture to a smoothie place.

Maple wasn't going to disagree with that. So the three of them slipped into the smoothie place, and she got a medium strawberry thing that was very cold and sweet, and it made her head hurt a lot when she sipped it until Big Sister Emily told her she needed to slow down, but that was nice too.

The electronics store was a lot less stressful after that, even if nothing had really changed. She picked out a few things, then winced at the register as they went five dollars past her budget. But Big Sister Emily didn't even blink as she paid that little bit more.

Maple held onto her drink with one hand, and Emily with the other as they left the store. Part of her mind was on all the stuff she'd get to make once they got back home, but another part was just happy.

Today might have been a little stressful, but it was also very nice.

She bet her sisters would be so envious when they found out, but then Maple was going to make them some awesome gifts and that would make it all better!

***