Cascadia's Fault

Culture Shock

The dining room was packed with teenagers and camp counselors either already sitting shoulder to shoulder at the long tables or lining up at the buffet to fill their trays. Caz scanned the room to find her little brother. He tended to sit in the quiet, self-contained way so specific to their father and grandparents.

And there.

Caz felt like she should have realized that his hero-worship of Johnny wouldn't have worn off in a single night.

They were sitting at the same table as The Cheerleader – the new name Caz had given Noa – and who she assumed had to be her sister. Lulu? Was it possible for the older girl to have an even bigger smile? With dimples?

Yeesh.

As they made their way through the buffet, Caz felt torn: sit with their brothers or pretend there wasn't room and sit somewhere else.

She sighed. Okay, there was really only one choice as she followed Jem in the bob and weave to sit next to CJ who was sitting next to

Noa and Lulu.

She took her first life-saving gulp of bad coffee. Really, should humans be required to talk to other humans before coffee? Even bad coffee?

She thought not.

Caz tuned into the conversations buzzing around her. Noa was flirting unabashedly with Johnny, who – she admitted – really was just being the charming guy – he said he was, anyway - she'd met on the bus yesterday. Caz imagined Noa found that aggravating. Johnny smiled, answered whatever she was talking about, but kept going back to his food and conversation with CJ. It was oddly satisfying.

She hid her smile behind her mug.

"So, what do you think about starting our day beating the crap out of ourselves?"

Caz stopped mid-sip, "What makes you think we'll only beat ourselves up?"

The smirk made Caz think that was the whole reason Noa was so transparent in her bid to get his attention.

"Whose butt are you planning on kicking?"

CJ piped in, "You may not want to mess her. We've both trained practically since we could walk with our dad. She could probably take someone down in four moves."

Noa leaned across the table, "Really? What kind of training?"

Caz could tell CJ was warming up to his subject by how carefully he placed his cup at the top of this tray and angled himself toward the other girl. She might have wished he'd shut up, but he so rarely let himself just talk that she wasn't going to stop him. "Our father taught us Aikijujitsu, including the weaponry, since we were three. It's one of the oldest forms of martial arts known, and since we have the ranch, we spent time learning Taido and Yabusami, so we got to shoot the yumi from horseback, gymnastics, and the different weaponry for each. He wouldn't let us work with anything but the practice ones... well, we used real bows and throwing knives, but yeah. It can't be that different from the archery and daggers and what all here?"

Jem slouched back on the bench and elbowed her brother, "It looks like the butts that are going to get beat are ours, brother mine."

"Yeesh, Minion, you could have told me you were capable of killing me in my sleep."

Caz chuckled when she saw CJ pale, "What? No! I'm shutting up now," CJ hunched his shoulders, concentrating on his mostly empty tray.

"Relax, Minion, I'm giving you a bad time." Johnny reached across the table to give CJ's shoulder a friendly shove.

Noa, on the other hand, watched the entire exchange with her lips pursed and a contemplative expression. She looked anything but friendly.

Jem swiped up her tray, "Well, I, for one, can't wait to have my butt kicked by a kid half my size, so let's get to this. I'm not stuck with kitchen duty until lunch, what about you guys?"

It turned out CJ and Lulu also had lunch duty, Noa had breakfast, and Caz and Johnny were stuck with dinner. Everyone except Noa headed out. Apparently, more chores would be added as the summer went on, but the camp started out easy with campers only helping out with the kitchen and dining room cleanup the first week. Caz wasn't looking forward to what else they might find for them to do; she supposed they would find out soon enough.

She also knew that martial arts and archery workshops were offered throughout the day, as were all workshops, but from what she understood some were more advanced, which meant that everyone at their table was all experienced in some way. Caz thought it was good that CJ could build a little confidence. He wasn't one to come out of his shell or talk about things other than gaming. Sure, he'd talk to her, but she didn't count.

Really, he was the whole reason she was at the camp. Their parents had told him it was for them, but their mom had confided in her that she was worried about CJ. He didn't seem to make friends – other than the few he gamed with – but she worried that it wasn't the same.

Caz didn't care. She felt like she was pretty indiscriminate – She disliked everybody.

As they came up to the building where they would begin their workout, she sighed. She supposed she couldn't even say that anymore.

Within a day, Jem and Johnny had become part of the small and exclusive people she actually wanted to be around.

How strange.

Caz examined the room. The walls were really nothing more than a series of sliding doors except for the one side that led down a hall.

The middle of the floor was covered in thick mats, much like she remembered from her early martial arts and gymnastics training.

The room began to fill up.

CJ was shifting from one foot to the other, his earlier excitement blending with nerves. Caz understood. They were both going to have to "forget" everything they knew and be willing to try something completely different.

She resisted looking at the wall clock and instead leaned against a door so she couldn't see it. She wasn't going to t*****e herself anymore since it felt inhumanly early.

Johnny elbowed her, and she scowled back, craning her neck to see if he meant to do that. He was grinning at her, holding out his hand and wiggling his fingers. "Give over, let's see."

Caz scowled harder, "See what?"

"Your hands."

"My hands?"

"Yup," Johnny reached down and took her wrist, flipping it palm up then running his own hand over the top. She realized she could feel his own callused palms and fingers and wondered how he got his. Her own were rough from working with various practice weapons, climbing trees, working in the barn and field, and through her gymnastics training.

"Good Lord, girl, do you even have any feeling left in your fingertips with those calluses?"

She tried pulling free from his grip, but Johnny tightened his hold. "I work hard. I live on a ranch. What does that have to do with this?"

"Really?" Johnny ran his thumb over the particularly thick skin of her palm, making her breath catch, "So, what was that you were doing last night on the beach? It didn't look like the Tai Chi I've seen at the park?"

"It was just a kata, a series of movements that when sped up can be used in offense or defense. They're not used too often in the disciplines our father taught us, but he always believed that we would be more in touch with ourselves and surroundings if we remembered to move with the elements and earth. It's a foundational principle from his island."

"I thought you said he was Japanese?"

"He is. He's actually from an indigenous culture in Japan. He just happens to be from one of the lesser-known ones. Can I have my hand back now?"

The door next to them slid open, bringing with it the mists and Noa. Caz caught the lightning quick frown before it was replaced by what she was beginning to think of as her signature cheerleader smile. "Did I miss anything? They usually give us extra time on the first day since nobody knows where they're going."

Caz was finally able to snatch her hand away, "Not even a camp counselor yet."

Jem nudged Johnny, who bumped into me, "That's gotta be him."