Cascadia's Fault

Shaken, Not Stirred

Caz adjusted her cuffs again. They were beginning to chafe, meaning it was time to have her father make new ones again. That wasn't surprising considering she'd had this set since she was thirteen, but he usually replaced them every three years on her birthday, which was only a few weeks away on the solstice. Caz felt a twinge of disappointment; however, she was also beginning to wonder if anything about this trip was going to be comfortable.

"Whsihi soidhoit?"

Sighing and questioning all of her life choices, Caz yanked out her buds again and clicked off her music, "What?"

"I asked, 'What language is that?'."

"You're pretty nosy for a guy I haven't even met."

He laughed, "Good point, and my mother raised me better, I swear. I'm Johnny, Johnny de Fuca, nice to meet you. My twin, Jemima, is off being a social butterfly somewhere up there," he gestured vaguely toward the front of the bus.

....and now she didn't have an excuse to blow him off.

Ugh.

"Caz Okami."

"Okami."

"Yeah."

"Huh," Johnny grunted, then nodded his head toward my wrist, "so what's the language on your bracelet?"

"It's not a bracelet and it's Japanese."

"Really? What does it say?"

"Godai."

"Go die?"

"More or less, but as irritating as this is, I still don't want you to kick the bucket or anything."

"So...?"

"So what?"

It was Johnny's turn to roll his eyes, apparently, "So, what does it mean?"

Accepting that she wasn't going to get any more peace, Caz leveraged herself up to point at the symbols on the cuff, "It's Japanese with go meaning "five" and dai meaning "great." The square is chi or "earth," the circle is sui for "water," the triangle is ka for "fire, and the crescent is fu for "wind." The empty space in the center represents ku for "void." The character for each is stamped within its symbol. My father made it for me."

"Yeah, that's actually really cool."

"Thanks."

"Do you speak Japanese, because that all sounded really natural."

Before she could answer, the bus didn't just bounce this time but felt like it was being shoved by an enormous hand. The whole world jittered and shifted, tossing everyone around like they were nothing. Caz felt her breath – and maybe a piece of her soul – leave her body as she first slammed into Johnny then pancaked against the side of the bus. She was a little surprised she didn't c***k the window. The screaming didn't stop as she lurched forward again, tumbling over Johnny even as she felt him yank her back. They were a tangle of limbs barely on the seat by the time the driver pulled over, but at least they weren't on the floor like some of the other campers. They were scattered across the aisle and in the seats like forgotten dolls.

Caz shoved her way clear, ignoring Johnny's grunt of pain, to look behind their seat. CJ was blinking owlishly, but at least he'd had the good sense to zip most of his books into his backpack so there were only a few strewn around him. She hopped over the seat to help him shove the rest into his bag and did her best to see if there were any injuries they should be worried about.

She didn't know why she bothered.

For all of CJ's nerdiness, somehow he always landed on his feet.