Adventures With Kate and The Sitter
Chapter Two – Meeting Angela and Constance
Before Maura went to bed, she made a note to herself to call the schools and add Kelly to the pickup list for all of the children. She also needed to tell Angela and Constance. She knew Angela might be a little upset. She had bent over backwards trying to make her schedule work so she could take care of her grandbabies when Jane and Maura were not available.
Angela worked and whether she liked it or not, she couldn't always be available to watch the children. Jane was going to talk with Kelly about late nights and early mornings for when they were on call. They wanted to offer up the guest house for her to stay in during those times so if they were called out, she would already be there.
Jane had made plans with Kelly to meet in time to pick the children up so she could see how the pickup went at each of the schools. Jane knew that the first time picking up from a school was a little bit of a hectic feeling and she wanted Kelly to feel comfortable.
Maura had given Kelly the printouts from the school but Jane said it would be better for her to experience the pickup process first-hand with one of them. Jane volunteered, well it was her day for pickup anyways.
Kelly was all set to meet Jane at their house but at 2 PM Jane and Maura were both called to a crime scene. Kelly would have to do the pickups on her own because Angela was out of town with her job and would not be back until around 6 PM and Constance's flight didn't land until 5:30.
Kelly was a little nervous but she had picked up her niece and nephew before in Georgia. Her real task was staying clear of the gossipy mothers who would be eyeing her and wondering who she belonged to and why hadn't she been in the pickup line before.
Because it was her first time, she had to go into the school to pick up the children. Maura had called the school to let them know that Kelly would be picking them up today in addition to adding her to the pickup list. Kelly would have to show her ID before they would release the children to her.
She picked up Kate first. Kate was excited to see her. But then got concerned, "Where's mama? I thought you were coming with her."
"Your mama had to work, she asked for me to come by myself. Is that okay?" Kelly replied as they walked out to the car. The next time she picked Kate up she could go through the car pickup lane.
"Yes, can we get an ice cream after we pick up MJ, AJ and Lilly?" Kate asked as Kelly helped her get buckled up so they could pick up the others.
When Kelly climbed in the driver's seat and buckled up, she told her, "Kate, let's wait to see if the others are interested, okay?"
"Okay." Kate said as she frowned a little. Kelly drove to the next school to pick up the other three children. When they arrived, Kelly had to go through the same process. She had to take Kate in with her. Kate would start at this school when she started Kindergarten next year. She couldn't wait. She wanted to go to the big kid's school just like her siblings. Jane and Maura were just happy that she liked to go to school. All four of their children liked school. They all loved to read and learn.
Kate was skipping as they walked into the school. Kelly started skipping along with her and Kate laughed, she liked Kelly. Kelly was like a big kid doing what she was doing, Kate liked that. Her mama did that with her also. Some older ladies gave them strange looks and they just smiled and kept skipping. Once Kelly had all four children on the way out to the car, Kate asked, "Do you guys want to go for ice cream?"
Kelly just laughed to herself. It sounded like from the loud 'yes' from everybody that they were going for ice cream. Jane and Maura had warned her that the children liked to go for ice cream. They told her where they kept some spare money for such occasions. She hadn't had an opportunity to get any spare money so she would just use her money and then reimburse herself from the fund when they got to the house.
When they walked into the ice cream parlor, Kate smiled, she loved ice cream and there were so many flavors to choose from. She wanted to sample all of them. She looked at Kelly and asked, "Can I have some samples?"
"Yes, Kate you may sample a few and then you must choose what type of ice cream you would like. You each can have one scoop. We don't want to ruin our dinner." Kelly kindly told all of the children. She already knew what flavor was each of the children's favorites as it was written down on the list that Maura had provided. Maura's list was pretty thorough.
They each sampled the Cotton Candy flavored ice cream. They all made funny faces, they didn't care for it. MJ asked if he could have a scoop of mint chocolate chip. AJ said, "Me too, please." The other attendant started getting the scoops together for MJ and AJ.
Lilly asked, "Can I try the Banana Split?" Kate nodded and they were each handed a sample of that flavor. Lilly smiled and said, "I would like a scoop of that please."
Kate walked around and looked at all the flavors. She stood in front of the Rocky Road, "Kelly, have you had this flavor before?"
Kelly knelt down to Kate's level and replied, "No, but I will try it with you if you would like me to."
"I would like that." They both had a sample and when they finished, Kate took Kelly's hand and walked around again looking at all the ice cream. "I would like to try the Birthday Cake flavor. Would you try it with me?"
"Yes, Kate, I will." Kelly replied as the attendant passed her two sample spoons of Birthday Cake flavored ice cream. Kelly didn't like it but she didn't want to share that with Kate and influence her decision about it. She wanted to hear what Kate thought about it. "Do you like it?"
"No, can I just have a scoop of Vanilla please." Kate asked the attendant.
He replied, "Yes ma'am." And started getting her scoop ready. He then turned to Kelly and asked and "What flavor would you like?"
Kelly smiled and replied, "I think I will have a scoop of Cookies and Cream, please."
He immediately scooped that up for her and handed it to her. She said, "Thank you" and walked over to the cash register. All the children were sitting at a table eating their ice cream. Kelly took her phone out and snapped a picture and sent it to Maura. Kelly paid the bill and tucked the receipt into her pocket and then walked over and sat with the children. Kate had managed to get ice cream all over her face. Kelly dipped her napkin in the glass of water that she had asked for and wiped Kate's face off. Kate squirmed a little but Kelly managed to get all of the mess off of her face.
After everyone's face and hands were free of any residue of ice cream they walked out to the car. It was almost 5 PM by the time they got back to the house. As soon as they walked in the door, she received a text from Angela, 'I will be over about 6:30 to fix dinner.'
Kelly was a little taken aback by that but she replied nicely, "Okay, thank you. We will see you then." Kelly had never met Angela but had been told briefly about her from Jane and Maura.
Angela arrived promptly at 6:30 PM. She introduced herself to Kelly. The children all ran to the door when they heard their nonna. "Children, do you want to go see Grand mére?"
"Yes" they all replied and then Kate looked sad and said, "Nonna, Kelly is coming with us, right?"
"Sure, baby, if she would like to come that would be fine. She can meet your grand mére."
Angela called Constance and Constance said, "Oh, Angela that is nice but it would be better if I came there. I can be there in an hour. Have you guys eaten yet?"
"No, I was just going to start making dinner." Angela replied. Angela had a lasagna in the freezer that she could take out and heat up.
"Well, why don't you make dinner and I will come over and have dinner with all of you. I would like to meet Kate's new best friend, Kelly."
"Yes, Kate really seems to like her. That makes this whole arrangement nicer. I know I can't be here every minute for the children so it is nice to have someone reliable to fill in. The children really seem to like her, especially Kate."
"I will see you soon, Angela." Constance said as she disconnected the call so she could get ready to go over and see her grandchildren. She had missed them and knew the children would want to tell her all about what they had learned in school. It was the highlight of her day when she got to spend time with her grandchildren. They were the reason that she and Arthur had moved back to Boston.
By 7:30 PM Constance had arrived and everyone was sitting down to eat. Angela and Constance were both asking Kelly questions during dinner. She felt like she was being interviewed all over again for the job. By the time dinner was over they were all fast friends and Kelly was happy. It seemed that she passed the grandma test.
Jane had called and said that Maura should be home by 9 PM and that she would be home sometime after that. She spoke with all the children on the speakerphone. Kate told her about trying the different ice cream flavors and how much fun she had with Kelly. She told her that some old ladies looked at her and Kelly funny when they were skipping at school to pick up the others. Jane told her not to worry about what those old ladies thought just keep having fun.
Constance took the phone off of speaker and took the call to the office. "Jane, I really like this new sitter. Kate is so animated with her. I thought you two were joking that Kelly was Kate's new best friend. After seeing them together I think you are right. Kate loves her."
"Kate went up to her right away in the interview. She had never done that with anybody so I knew right then that we needed to finish vetting her and hire her." Jane told Constance before she had to go back to work. She might be a few more hours chasing down leads and she needed to get back to it if she wanted to make it home at a decent hour tonight.
MJ took a quick shower and got himself ready for bed. He was allowed to use his parent's bathroom so that Constance could give Kate a bath. Kate had wanted Kelly to give her a bath but Constance wanted to do it as she wanted to spend some time with Kate. Kate finally gave in as long as Kelly could read her a bedtime story.
The children were tucked in by the time Maura got home at 9 PM. Maura went and gave each of the children a goodnight kiss and then came downstairs to talk with Kelly, Angela and Constance. After a few minutes, Angela and Constance went home and then Maura and Kelly started talking. "How did school pick up go today?" Maura asked.
"It went well. Kate got a little upset when some old ladies made faces at us when we were skipping at the other school." Kelly explained. Then she went on to tell her about Kate wanting to try so many different flavors of ice cream and then to settle on vanilla. She thought that was so funny at the time. Vanilla was not listed as her favorite flavor.
Maura explained to Kelly, "You are going to have some adventures with Kate. We never know what she is going to do when we take her some places."
"She is fun. I had fun with all the children. Kate seemed to stick to me like glue."
"Well, she already told us that you are her new best friend, so I guess she wants to keep you around. Jane and I were talking. Have you signed a lease yet for an apartment?"
"No, I haven't really found anything I liked yet." Kelly offered.
"What would you say to staying in our guest house, rent free and being available for when we get called out early in the morning or have to stay late?"
"Oh, I couldn't possibly. That is too generous of an offer." Kelly was shocked that Maura had offered up the guest house rent free.
"Please, you would be doing us a favor. We are delayed arriving at crime scenes because we have to wait for Angela or Constance to get over here before we can leave. With you being in the guest house we could arrive at the crime scene faster and get home faster. Please consider it."
"Okay, I will consider it. When do you want an answer?" Kelly asked.
"How about in two days? Otherwise, we have to come up with another plan. The children really like you and that is a luxury right now. They are great children, but they are a little picky about who they spend time with and they like to spend time with you."
"I will think about it. Thank you." Kelly then walked with Maura as she left for the evening. She had quite a bit to think about. She went back to her skimpy little hotel room and told herself she would sleep on it and give Maura an answer in the morning.
