Chapter Twenty - Gift Giving

Maple was nervous, which wasn't unusual for her, but it was a whole new sort of nervous she'd never felt before. She was happy-nervous. Or maybe it was more that she was nervous that what she was going to do wasn't going to make others as happy as she hoped?

In any case, she'd asked Big Sister Emily to take her and her sisters out to somewhere where she could give them their gifts, and Big Sister Emily had more than provided.

They were about an hour's drive out of the centre of the city, in a nice, wooded area with a few huge rocky hills and a large clearing.

Big sister Emily had said that her family came here to camp once or twice. It was between Eauclaire and where she'd grown up with Grandma Boss and Grandpa Boss.

They parked Sam's van next to a clearing, and everyone stumbled out of the car in a rush.

Maple loved her sisters a lot, but she didn't love them so much when Trinity and Teddy had a fart-off in the back and when Athena spent the entire trip sitting on Maple since, while Athena was Maple's second-favourite sister, she did have a very bony butt and hair that whipped into Maple's face.

Still, they were here now, and Maple found herself immediately liking the place. It was open, but there were trees, and there was a small creak nearby that she really wanted to explore, and rocks, and dirt, and it smelled much nicer than the city did.

The best part was that there was no one else around, just her and her sisters and Sam.

She decided that the next time Big Sister Emily decided to make a super secret base, they should make one out here.

But then it would be hard to get to the city...

Unless she built a secret underground tunnel from here to the city? She had the plans in her head already! Though she'd need a few machines to make the machines to make the tunnel boring machine, and then she'd need lots of tracks, and a train to put on them, but she was sure she could manage it all given about a year.

Then she could start building a cool forest base! Maybe in one of the trees? Tree houses seemed like a nice idea. Especially if the tree was on its side, and blocking the flow from that little creek.

"Maple?" Emily asked, and Maple jumped. Her big sister was looking at her, curious. "Did you want to get the things out?"

"Yes, Um, I was, uh." Maple said, hesitating. She wanted to ask something, but it was a bit strange, and she wasn't sure how her sisters would react to it, or if they'd think it was weird or something.

But Big Sister Emily patted her on the head between the ears in the way that Maple liked. "What is it?"

"I kinda wanted everyone to be sitting and waiting so that they could all see the gifts I made for them," Maple said while focusing on her sneakers.

Emily laughed. "Sure, give me a minute to round everyone up."

Maple nodded, then ran to the back of the van while the heat in her cheeks burned away. She opened up the trunk, which was kind of scary because the trunk's door had hissy hydraulic pistons and she was always afraid that if she didn't let go of the door, it would lift her right off the ground.

The gifts were all there, she'd counted them twice before leaving home.

Maple now had to decide which one to give out first, which was very hard.

She chewed on her lip for a bit with her buck teeth (Emily said they were cute, even if Athena made fun of her for them) and then decided that she'd just start with whatever was easiest to grab. Which, at the moment, was the thing at the very top of the pile.

It was in a small box, with some gift-wrapping paper taped to it, but the contents of the box still clattered a bit as she moved around the van.

Teddy and Trinity had gone off running when they arrived, but Emily had wrangled them back closer, and now everyone was sitting on a big grassy patch nearby, even Sam, who had laid down a big blanket and who had flopped back in the sun.

Emily saw Maple, and she smiled and nodded. "Alright everyone, this is why we're here, so pay attention, please."

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Maple nodded back and then took in a deep breath. These were just her sisters, her annoying sisters that she loved a lot, and who were annoying. She could do this.

"What'ch'a got?" Teddy asked as she sat up.

"Um. So, to help everyone fight that other villain, Rattles--" she paused for her sisters to finish booing the other villain. "Big sister Emily asked me to make everyone some new gear. Uh, I couldn't make too many big things, because there was really not that much time, but I made everyone at least one thing that I think will help you bunches. Ah, Athena, this is yours." She pushed the box towards her sister. "I hope you like it."

Athena got up and took the box, but then she was crowded by Trinity and Teddy until Big Sister Emily stepped in and had everyone sit down.

Somehow, having everyone sitting down and watching Athena open the package up was worse for Maple. "Oh," Athena said. "Are these binoculars?" she asked as she lifted Maple's creation from the box.

"Um, no! They're monoculars."

"But it has two tubes," Athena said as she lifted the device up. It did have two tubes, with a bunch of wires running from one to the other. There were a bunch of straps too, so that the binoculars could be mounted onto Athena's head and all she had to do to put them on was flip them down.

"Only one of them works. The other has all the parts. Um, it's a power range-extender. And if it works right, then you won't need to see someone's eyes to read their minds!"

Athena grinned. "Oh, that's neat! What else can they do?"

"They allow you to see things that are far away," Maple said.

That had been really tricky to make, after she broke all the stuff inside the binoculars to make space for her gizmos.

Maple was happy that Athena was happy, so she ran back to the car and grabbed the next gift. This one was in one longer box, and she gave it to the nearest Trinity whose other bodies jumped for joy. "You made three?" she asked.

"I did," Maple said.

The packaging was opened very carefully. Trinity was going to save the wrapping for latter, she knew, so she hadn't used too much tape. Within the box were three bright yellow ponchos. Trinity immediately started to fumble all three of them on at the same time, then, all at once, she pressed on the button on the edge of the poncho, and all of a sudden the only part of her that was visible was her face, the ends of her hands, and her legs sticking out beneath.

Trinity cheered, then started to run around the field, which was fun to see when there was only a bit of her showing.

"That's... going to be something," Big Sister Emily said.

"It uses double-A batteries," Maple said. "I don't think they'll last very long."

"What'd you make me?" Teddy asked.

Maple smiled, then ran back to the van and returned with a small box which Teddy tore apart with ferocity. It revealed a hammer, with a small box taped to the handle and a bunch of wires leading to the head.

"Whoa," Teddy said as she lifted it up. "A hammer!"

"Yeah!" Maple said. "See that little box. It has lights, and when you hit things enough, the green light will go on, and when you press that little trigger, it'll take all the energy you made smacking things and fire it all off at once."

"Cool!" Teddy said. "I don't know what you mean though."

Maple blinked. "Try hitting something," she said.

"Not someone," Emily said right away.

Teddy went and found a rock, and soon she was banging her hammer against it with wild abandon until, finally, she figured out how the hammer worked and the entire rock exploded.

And so did Teddy. She flew away from the rock and came crashing down to roll across the grass.

"Teddy!" Emily shouted.

But Teddy just climbed to her feet, then grinned. "That was awesome!" she said.

Maple grinned. She had one last gift to give, and this one she'd been hiding in her pocket this whole time. She fished it out, then gave it to Big Sister Emily.

Emily smiled, then shook the little box. "What is it?" she asked.

"A cane!" Maple said. "So that you can look cool while villain-ing!"

***