“You taking us shopping today, Nick?”

“Yep. You have your canned food?” Nick grimaced as the screen door slammed behind him and scooped up Liz to help her collect all of her siblings for their private back-to-school shopping trip at the center.

“They’re all in the kitchen. Mine are green beans.”

“So giving…you hate green beans.”

“Yep…but kids who don’t have anything won’t mind ‘em.”

“Probably true…where’s everyone else?”

“Jack’s beating Ben’s butt in basketball. Kitty’s putting on make-up.”

“And you’re here with me.”

“Yep…I’m the lucky one.”

Nick shook his head and put her down, making himself at home in their kitchen to find a bag for the canned goods. Kids would get one bag full of clothes in exchange for one canned food item. No matter how little you had, it was a good lesson to learn that someone else had less. They’d receive charity and also give charity.

For the Casey kids, they had a special benefit of getting to go through the donated clothing and school supplies before anyone else. They had all pitched in to help, setting up dressing rooms, sorting clothing by size, distributing and making promotional materials and designing signs to aid in the flow of the room. Solana and Barry agreed that a private shopping day was acceptable payment. Then, Nick would take them to the mall to fill in any gaps they couldn’t find at the center.

Once there, the kids dove right into the shopping. They’d done it before and knew the routine. Nick just stood back with Solana and watched the interaction between the siblings, giggling at Liz’s fashion show, Ben and Jack’s lack of enthusiasm and Kitty’s shyness. They were entertaining to say the least.

“Nick! Look at this one!” Liz stepped out from behind a dressing “room” and twirled around. She’d found a denim mini skirt and a cute purple top to go with it, looking like the princess she always dreamed of being.

“Aw, Liz…that looks good!” He walked over to her and took her hand, letting her twirl under his arm. “Purple’s your color.”

“Yep, lemme throw it in my bag.” She skipped back to her dressing room, sticking her tongue out to Jack who tripped her on the way in.

“I think I’m done already…these jeans okay?”

Nick looked down to Jack and giggled. Floods. Bad. “You goin’ for capris, man?”

Jack looked down and sighed, hoping no one would notice. “No…but…they’re Hilfigger!”

“Jack…they’re floods. Doesn’t matter whose name is on ‘em.” Nick squatted down and tried to adjust the waist, hoping it’d lower them a bit. It didn’t help. “Since when are you looking for labels anyway?”

Jack shrugged and sighed again, ticked he couldn’t once have first run clothes, and if that couldn’t happen, at least some decent stuff his friends had. “I just thought it’d be cool.”

“Go find a pair that fits…we’ll look at Hilfigger at the mall, okay?”

“Really!?”

“Yes, really…now take those fool things off. You look ridiculous.”

“From the man who wears capris…I swear.” Jack bopped Nick on the head before he stood and disappeared behind his dressing area, shouting at Ben who had started chortling when Jack reappeared in his floods.

“K, I’m done…how much longer we gonna be?” Ben tossed his bag at Nick’s feet and tied his bandana back on his head, looking more than bored with the whole ordeal.

“No floods for you?”

“Nope, they all fit, but I still need a few more things.”

“No problem. Go get your supplies. Miss Romero’s got your list at the front of the line.”

Ben took off to get his school things and Solana knocked at the divider covering where Kitty was getting dressed. “You okay in there?”

“Uh, yeah…can, um…you come back here?”

“Sure, sweetie.”

Nick could hear the girls whispering from behind the divider and helped Jack stuff all of his loot into his bag, sending him off to get supplies. Liz came out shortly after, still wearing her purple outfit, and pulled Nick to the next room to help her find just the right box of markers. She was definitely the only one who was excited about school starting again.

As Nick checked off Liz’s list, she plopped the right items in her bag, telling him how she was going to use it, what she was going to make for him that year, and how she was going to get straight A’s…just like always. Forget that it was only her second full year of school. Just as Nick checked off the last item, they heard Solana clearing her throat at the back of the room. All eyes turned to see what she wanted.

Which is what she wanted. All eyes on a very nervous, but wanting-to-be-confident Kitty. She’d found a cute t-shirt in her size that was decorated with a single rose growing through a pile of rocks. Underneath it, were the words, “I can grow anywhere.” Solana helped her find the right jeans and jewelry to dress up the simple, yet poignant outfit. She looked amazing.

“Oh, Kitty…look at you!” Nick kicked Jack to make him say something nice…stupid brothers.

“Dang, Kit…what’s gotten into you? You kinda look almost good!” He tried anyway.

Kitty touched her hair nervously and shifted weight on her feet. “Is it…is it too cheesy?”

Nick walked over to her to get a better look, stepping back and reading the sentiment again. “Where’d you find that?”

“In my box…it’s not stupid, is it?”

“No…no one but you and me knows what that means. And I like cheesy.”

Kitty blushed and pushed her hair back behind her ears. “I just wish my hair wasn’t so ratty.”

“Now, Kit, I told you…I’ll cut it…all of yours. After we’re done, we’ll all go back to my house to get back-to-school trims.” Solana looked up to Nick and ruffled his long bangs. “That includes you, big guy…you look like a girl.”

“Hey! I like my hair!” Nick ran a hand back through it and scruffed, making most of it stand on end. “See? It’s talented.”

Kitty got a fit of the giggles and Solana pushed her back into the dressing room. “You’re no help.” Looking back to Nick, she just shook her head. “And neither are you. Family haircut at my house. No arguments. You need to look nice for your album release anyway.”

“I do have a stylist for that, Lani.”

“Okay…just thought the kids would like it if you joined in.”

“Okay, okay…for the kids.”

“You’re so generous.”

“Don’t I know it. Are we almost done here?”

“Yep. You are anyway. My fun starts tomorrow.”

“How many kids are you expecting now?”

“Couple hundred. I have no idea how we’re going to service them all. I just hope lots of volunteers show up to work.”

“I’d offer, but…”

“You’d cause a scene. Nope. You’d better stay far the hell away.”

“Yep…steering clear.” Looking up to the others collecting their supplies, he grabbed a nearby folding chair and straddled it backwards, sitting down. “This is an amazing thing, Lani.”

“It’s so basic too. And thanks for your help with it. I got a call from someone at the state department. They’re coming out this week to see how it goes.”

“Are they? That’s great…you’ll have a grant in no time then.”

“Hopefully, yeah…I could use the money for all sorts of things.”

“Maybe we should have taken Mr. Spencer’s money for that…and still made Steve work.”

“It’d be nice, but I doubt we’d ever see Steve again. I’ll get my money the right way, thank you very much.”

Nick nodded in agreement and wrapped his arm around Liz when she saddled up next to him with her new goodies. The right way. Always meant more work, waiting, sometimes stress. But in the long run, he knew, it would always pay off. He was seeing it happen right before his eyes.

“Come in here, Buzz. I wanna show you something.”

“Would you quit calling me Buzz!? She cut it too short!” Ben tried to run his hand through his hair, but only sighed as he felt little hair and a lot of scalp. Solana got a little scissor/trimmer happy on Ben’s head. He was not pleased.

“Yes, she did…Buzz. Quit whining and come on.” Nick grabbed Ben’s wrist and pulled him into the hallway of his home, taking him into the studio…where he’d not ever been since the day they discovered Steve and Ron’s artistic ability with vandalism.

“Woah! You’re drums are done! Oh cool!” Ben walked over to the set and slid his hand over the refinished heads, happy to see it looking normal. He knew of all the damage done in the house, Nick’s drum kit was the most frustrating for him.

“Yep. Dude came in yesterday…and the glass guy showed up then too. Got all my mirrors and pictures fixed.” Nick slid around to the stool and picked up a bag of sticks, choosing a pair and starting to lightly tap the heads of the toms and snare, testing their pitch and feel.

“Good. How about your sound equipment?”

“It’ll be done by the time I get back from LA. I should be all set real soon.”

Ben sat down at the keyboard and watched Nick futz around, wondering how you coordinated hands and feet to actually make music like that. Putting one foot in front of the other to walk was becoming a skill beyond his reach lately. Growing pains suck…they make you clumsy.

Nick noticed him staring and stopped, smiling at Ben’s almost bald head. Poor kid. “You wanna try?” He offered him his sticks and stood up, knocking a cymbal one last time.

“You serious?”

“Yeah, dawg…come on. Give it a shot.”

“I don’t think I can.”

“Can you rub your belly and pat your head?”

“Huh?”

Nick did the trick with ease, and just like a pre-programmed doll Ben tried to mimic him. “Oh damn. This isn’t easy.”

“Start with your tummy…just rub it.” Seeing Ben do that, he instructed him to add his hand to his head. “Now pat your head. I just think about the rhythm on my head and ignore my tummy.”

After a few false starts, Ben got it. For a few seconds anyway. “God, I look stupid.”

“Yes, you do. So do I. Now switch hands.”

Ben did and ended up a rubbing, patting mess. He was rubbing his head, patting his tummy, patting his head, patting his tummy still, only in a circular, rubbing pattern. How frustrating. “God…this is hard! How do you do this!?”

“Practice. Gotta add your feet too.” When Ben’s eyes bugged out of his head at the thought, Nick chuckled and gave him a reprieve. “But that’s next lesson. Okay, just start a slow rhythm on the snare.”

“Which one is that?” All Ben could see were a million drum heads and cymbals. Otherwise, he was clueless.

“Right in front of you. That’s the snare…these over here are toms…hit ‘em.”

Ben did and smiled at the different pitch. “Ooh…okay, those are my favorites.”

“Yeah, mine too. And then of course, cymbals, hi-hat and bass. Start with the snare.”

Ben got an even rhythm started on the snare and Nick corrected the way he was holding the sticks and slid another chair over to the set, adding a hi-hat rhythm to add to the sound. “Cool.”

“Okay, now try that pedal down there for the bass. Hit it every other beat of the snare.”

“Gads, okay…” Ben tentatively tapped the pedal, barely making a sound.

“Aw, come on now, Buzz…hit the thing. No pansies on my drum set.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know what I’m doing!”

“Do it loud and wrong then…we’ll fix it later. Hit it, baby!”

To Ben’s surprise, the confidence needed to hit the drum at the right pressure, set his foot right in rhythm. Nick knew this of course, but smiled none-the-less when seeing Ben’s grin bounce all over the room. “I’m doing it!”

“Yep…gimme the other stick and I’ll add cymbals.” Nick got up and stood over Ben, stretching out his leg to reach the hi-hat pedal and playing the cymbals and toms as a supplement to Ben’s basic rhythm.

“Oh we so rock.”

“Hell yeah, we do…he tuned these nice too…sound better than they ever have.” They played for a few more minutes, Ben getting a bit more daring with his bass rhythm and occasionally taking over Nick’s part on the toms, giggling when it flubbed, shocked to silence when it didn’t.

“Okay, big finale….just bang the hell outta the bass there. And duck…I’m dangerous.”

Ben ducked his head down and let Nick go to town…and they did rock. Sounded great and Ben felt like a rock star.

At the final cymbal crash, Ben tossed his stick into the air and Nick caught it, tapping him lightly on the head. “Nice work, dawg. With a little practice…you’ll be kickin’.”

“You think?”

“Sure. Help yourself when you come over to work on the yard while I’m gone. I’ll leave a few pairs of sticks here for you.”

“Oh cool…I’ll be careful.”

“I know you will.” Nick offered Ben his hand and helped him unwrap from the stool without tripping over pedals and cords that were strewn all over the floor from his haphazard attempts at hooking things back up. “Pizza?”

“Pizza. No anchovies.”

“Definitely.”

Nick pulled the truck up to Ben’s house and turned off he ignition. Ben didn’t move and Nick knew why. Tomorrow was the first day of school.

“Ready for tomorrow?”

Nick looked over to Ben, surprised to see total panic written all over his face. “No. What the hell is wrong with me? I’ve never given a shit before.”

“It’s cuz you give a shit now…”

“God. The teachers already hate me…they’re gonna sit me in the front of the room just to save time, give me attitude right from the start…it’s gonna suck.”

“So prove ‘em wrong this year. Shock their socks off.”

Ben looked back out front and silently nodded. Easy for Nick to say. He had no idea how hard it was going to be with all of those temptations luring him at every turn.

“You know…I’m kinda going back to a new school year tomorrow too.”

“Huh?”

“Yep…and I’m nervous too.”

“What for?”

“Same thing. People expect certain things out of me and not a lot of it is something to be proud of.”

Ben looked back to Nick and considered his words. It was similar, wasn’t it? Same old situations with a totally different outlook. They had high expectations for themselves and everyone around them expected nothing but the worst. A lion’s den of evil-wishers.

“Well, if you think I can do it…I know you can, Nick.”

“I hope so, Ben. I like how I feel now. In control, happy…productive.”

“Yeah…like I matter somehow.”

“Exactly.” Nick opened the door to his car, hoping Ben would get out. It was time to quit musing about tomorrow and just start dealing with it. Peeking over the truck as Ben hopped out, Nick added one more thought. “You know…you do matter, Ben.”

Ben stopped in his tracks toward his house and turned back to his friend, scratching his almost bald head and blushing at the tender words. “Yeah, Nick…I matter. And so do you.”