“You’re doing laundry again?” Kara asked Heidi.
“Well, we leave tomorrow and I didn’t bring a steamer trunk full of clothes from the cabin.” Heidi replied.
“Shoot, I didn’t even think about that.” Kara said. She started thinking on the issue. A few moments later she remembered something. “I might have a solution. Once you get that load started, come with me.”
Heidi wasn’t sure what Kara had up her sleeve.
Not long after, Kara and Heidi were walking round the connexes down at the training building.
“So, you were saying there’s a stash of clothes my size down here.” Heidi asked once again.
“Yeah, I didn’t think about it earlier. There should be at least some stuff you and Emilia can fit into.” Kara said as she opened the connex she was looking for.
The first thing they saw when Kara opened the door was a full-sized carousel horse. There were stacks of boxes and more clutter in the connex. Kara knew Garen had swept through here at least twice looking for stuff, but that was before Christmas and he had no reason to make note of clothes no one here at the time could wear.
Kara also remembered going connex to connex collecting any box marked toys when they put together gifts for Larrissa’s kids.
“Alright, we are looking for boxes marked ‘Brooke’. There should be some in here with her clothes. I’ll go through the bags over here by the door.” Kara pointed at some bags of stuff thrown haphazardly just inside the connex under the horse. She knew Garen tossed them here when they put away some of the stuff from Terry’s Suburban. They should have clothes and stuff Terry, Kelly and Brooke had with them on their escape trip.
For some time, all that was heard was the shuffling of boxes as one then another were opened and rummaged. After Kara had a small pile of things, she swapped places with Heidi so Heidi could go through the pile Kara had made. She started checking sizes and holding things up to herself to see about fit.
Kara was towards the back of the connex now, her headlamp throwing crazy shadows. She came across one box marked ‘shower’. This intrigued her. Opening it up, it seemed to be stuff from a bridal shower and other assorted naughty bits. She made a mental note of its location for another project she had in mind for later. She kept digging.
Heidi was finishing sorting the pile when she heard a triumphant ‘aha’ from Kara in the back. Kara came up towards the front, a box in her hands and a Cheshire cat grin on her face.
“Hang on, I found just the thing for you.” Kara said as she put the box down and opened the lid.
“What did you find?” Heidi asked apprehensively.
Kara opened the box and pulled out a t-shirt. Heidi tried to read the writing on it.
St Elizabeth Jr High
Varsity
Cheerleading
“Ha Ha, very funny!” Heidi shook her head at Kara’s joke.
“I’m not kidding. It’s the right size to fit both of you. There are at least a dozen in here, along with a couple of full uniforms and sweatshirts.” Kara said, her grin still in place. Her grin was both disarming and infectious. Kara continued. “Now, if I could only find the pom-poms” she mused.
Heidi was giggling now in spite of herself.
“OK, you win. T-shirts and sweatshirts, I can deal with. I am not wearing the cheerleading uniform though.” Heidi said with mock seriousness.
Kara thought for a second. She hadn’t thought about the uniform. An image of Heidi in it flashed in her head. To defuse the thought she started talking again.
“Maybe we give the uniform to Emilia.” She posed to Heidi.
“NO! Poor Brody would have a stroke!” Heidi burst out laughing followed by Kara. Both could picture Brody vapor locked and drooling on the front step with Emilia, pigtails, pom-poms and all standing in front of him.
When they had recovered from their laughing fit, they boxed up what they were taking back up to the house. They still had a lot to do before they left tomorrow.