Cascadia's Fault

Butt Kicking

Caz dashed back to the bunkhouse once Grant released them. She was grateful she knew how to shoot both the long and short bow after Johnny's little truth bomb. But right now? She was soaked to the skin and only wanted out of the drenched clothes. They slurped and slopped away from her rain-swollen skin, and she hung them hastily from her pegs, dropping her soaked socks into her laundry bag. Toweling off with the chatter of the other girls in the background didn't even register as she wiggled back into dry clothes before rushing off to her next class. Traditional cedar carving? Maybe? She yanked the folded schedule from the damp pants hanging on the wall.

Nope.

Weaving.

Carving was after lunch.

Her braid flipped over her shoulder when she bent to tie her boots. Her sigh was audible when she saw it was green again. All the way green. She had to take it on faith that her eyes were blue. There wasn't time to check in the mirror.

"So, Caz, where did you learn to fight like that?"

Really, God? She couldn't somewhere – anywhere – else? Caz looked up at Noa, appearing every bit like an REI commercial leaning against the bedpost. "My father is Japanese, he wanted to teach us the things his parents taught him."

"Your mom let him do that?" She sounded shocked.

Caz rolled her eyes, "Well, they might have gotten out the axes and swords to settle it, but I was too young to remember it."

More irritated than she probably should have been, Caz pushed past Noa, yanking her cap down further and checking the color of her braid. Why was she everywhere? Caz took a breath. She was actually looking forward to this class, and she wasn't going to let yet another interaction with that witch ruin it for her. Noa really did have a gift for getting under her skin it seemed, and this was going to be a long summer if she was already this pissed off.

Breathing deep again, Caz reminded herself that this was the one thing she wanted to try. She had no idea what she was doing, and that was the best part. They were supposed to learn dying methods, patterns, spinning, and weaving... a beginner's class, so just right.

Working on the ranch, they were pretty self-sufficient, especially with things like canning and butchering, Caz even felt pretty confident with leatherwork since her dad had shown her how every time he remade her cuffs. But weaving wasn't something they did, so this was just for her, something maybe even a little silly since she'd probably never do it again.

Her parents had told her that she should try to have some fun, too, and this was it.

The room was already packed with a variety of teenagers from the oldest to the youngest. It was jammed with yarns, lined with shelves of strange apparatuses and jars, and stuffed with bizarre devices that looked like they had a bright future as instruments of t*****e.

She saw Tal and debated if it was better to sit with someone she sorta knew, or if she felt better off alone. With another look at possible t*****e devices – was that a floating head in the jar? – she picked her way through the bodies to wedge herself between him and a basket full of wool.

"Hey."

"Hey back. Didn't expect to see you here."

Tal's ears turned pink. With his long, damp hair pulled back into a ponytail, the embarrassment was obvious. "Well, I've been coming for so many years, this is kinda the only class I've never taken. I figured I should try something new for my last year."

"Weaving not manly enough for you?"

Tal huffed out a laugh, "No. No, so many other things to do, I guess; I just never got around to it."

The instructor came in and the real t*****e began.

She and Tal teamed up to try hand-spinning a length of raw wool into yarn. It didn't go the way the instructor described with them ending up in a tangle of their own making and laughing like loons. Everyone else did, too, so they weren't alone, but Tal's great height to Caz's shrimpy-ness had them just about tied together.

The rest of the class went downhill quickly from here. Caz felt a little sorry for the tiny woman who had introduced herself as Mary because the giggle-fest by the end of class was out of control. The stampede at the end was almost as bad as when Grant had excused them from the pouring rain. At least the workshop had been warm and dry – even if Caz wasn't completely convinced that wasn't a floating head in the jar. She and Tal walked companionably toward the mess hall where everyone was beginning to converge.

After the morning they'd had, she was starving!

"Nothing like going to a weaving class and ending it in bondage."

Caz snorted, "That poor woman. She had to have been seventy. I don't know what they were thinking, putting her in with us, a bunch of know-nothings."

"I don't know, but she should get combat pay."

"And therapy."

Tal laughed as they started up the steps and held the door open for Caz to go through. "I thought that was a given?"

"Then maybe an extra bottle of wine... or five," Caz smirked. "My parents joke that it's the one thing that's kept my brother and I alive this long: the promise of an occasional adult beverage."

"You sound like you have a great family. Not many of us do, too many divorces, too many who can't make it."

Caz stopped and really looked at him while he focused on slopping food into the little compartments of his tray. "I am lucky. And I'm sorry because it sounds like you weren't. You still turned out to be a nice guy, anyway."

Tal didn't lift his head, but after a moment he said, "Thanks, we'll see. I don't know." He stood for another moment then finally grinned, "Especially after I tried to tie you up."

It broke the tension, broke the intensity as he'd meant it to, so Caz let it go. Returning his grin instead as she took her seat and said,

"Been reading Fifty Shades of Grey again?"

"Caught me. Don't tell the guys."

"You romantic fool, you," she said, nudging him with her elbow.

"Nothing says love like handcuffs."

"Do I want to know?"

She turned toward Johnny and Jem, choking on the bite she'd just taken, "No, you really don't. It would take waaaaay too long to explain. What did you guys do?"

Johnny plunked his try down beside her as Jem took the seat across, ensuring that there would be space for CJ if he ever got around to joining them. "Beginning horseback riding. I'm positive we'll have pneumonia before the end of the day. So, what were you doing that required handcuffs?"