44)

After dinner, my Aunt, with Ami's help since Auntie was very old, ancient even, and unable to use simple technology and needed a small child to help her, hooked up her phone to the TV and showed off my fight with Vest boy.

My Dad laughed almost all of the way through, “Sara, don’t try to teach your opponent. It’s not your job.”

Ami liked his vest. Aran wanted me to show him when the knife turned back into a Naganita.

Mom gave me a sharp look that promised we would be having words about my fight.

At least the dress was fine, the knife had barely even damaged the cardboard. I tried it on again that night because I knew Ami wouldn't stop bothering me about it until she got to see it. Then she had to hear all about my shopping trip followed up with her demanding a promise to take her next time.

I shook my head at her. “They don’t have dances at elementary schools, this was adult shopping. Maybe Aunt Rose could take you to someplace that makes clothes for little kids.” I grinned at her. “You could take Aran with you.”

My little sister glared at me. "You look like a frog in that dress." Then she ran off to her room, slamming the door behind her.

I would have felt bad, but she deserved it. Little sisters always did.

The next day I had to keep dodging questions from the werewolves. The notice at my Dad school had been up for a few days promising to open that afternoon. All I could tell them it that it would be a lot of repetition at first since they had to get the basics down before they got to spar.

At least that's what was normally true, without getting hurt as a safety concern, they might get to skip a few steps. Or not. I guess if I was a teacher I think I would make it a matter of discipline and not developing bad habits to hold off on sparing.

Nicole hesitated at lunch but I gave her a nod to sit down with me. After she settled her book in place, she folded her hands together. “Are baseline humans going to be able to walk into your Dad’s Dojo? I don’t think I could keep up with werewolves, but I would like to see how he gets them started.”

I shrugged at her. “I honestly don’t know. But the worst that I could see him doing is asking you to leave. Do you know anything about the Casarez Cartel?”

She opened her carton of milk while she thought that over. “I don’t know about a Cartel, but there’s a Casarez family that has had a presence in Southern California since the seventeen hundreds. They had an ongoing fight with several vampire lines over control of Los Angeles until they finally got pushed out. From what I remember they avoided shape changing and kept the vampires from figuring out they needed silver to hurt them.”

Then she nodded to herself and asked. “Why do you ask?”

I sipped my mixed fruit drink and winced. I had now tried it once, so now I could skip it for the next five years. “Got into a scuffle with one of them with a grudge against my aunt. If he decides to hold a grudge against me as well I want to know what I’m up against. Also, Werecat. I think.”

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Nicole’s eyes went wide as she nearly began to hop up and down in her seat in excitement. "They're real? I thought it was just Werewolves."

I stared at her. “So did I. I thought you would be more filled in on this sort of thing?”

She rolled her eyes. “The Culper Ring is pretty new as these kinds of groups go, only two and a half hundred years old, they don’t actually know all that much. And I don’t get to see the official files unless and until I become an agent.”

We ended up agreeing to walk over to the Dojo after school instead of me going to the old gym and her heading home.

She didn’t have to call her parents with a change of plans. “They want me to make friends and they don’t want the locals to think they don’t trust me around them. Or at least that what I convinced them was good reason to trust me.”

Of course, by the end of Gym class, Austin and Ryan had invited themselves along.

And as we headed out, roughly half the Werewolves, mostly the ones too young to drive, or at least with no access to their own vehicles, were walking along with us.

With more questions. “Everyone, really, I don’t know. I learned from my Mom and my Uncle, so I don’t know how my Dad does things. And even if I did he would train you guys differently from me. I can’t heal as fast as you guys unless I completely focus on it. That’s the one huge advantage you have over everyone. Change of subject, Werecats are real. Met one. Kicked his butt.”

That got a lot of questions, but at least they were new ones. Neal asked if I was okay rather than trying to get details about the fight. I showed him the back of my hand. “Already healed, although I washed the heck out of it and put antibiotic on before I closed up the wound. Cat claws are supposed to be pretty nasty."

He took my hand in both of his to take a closer look, which got Austin to complain, "We're going to learn how to fight Boy Band, hold hands with her on your own time.”

Both of us blushed bright red and finished our walk about ten feet apart. Nicole asked, “Can somebody smack him in the head, he’s too tall for me to get enough leverage.” Ryan covered it by jumping up high enough to swing down.

The larger boy ignored the hit, other than looking back for a moment at Nicole to see who made the request. He stared at her for a moment. “Pretty.” Then kept walking.

Nicole looked a little started then avoided looking in his direction the rest of the way there.

The place was actually pretty crowded by the time we finally got there. The street had a lot of cars parked around with people standing around outside. who then began funneling towards the old fire station as my grandfather, in a white Gi with a white belt opened up the wide front doors.

“We’re open. Please take a flier for when the classes start and the rates."

All in all, there were about fifty some people crowded into the place. Helping themselves to the platter with sausage and cheeses on crackers.

As well as the freshly baked cookies, and a small sliced vegetable plate which I was fairly certain would end up going home with my Dad by the end of the night. Untouched.

Only about half the crowd was students from my school, some of which were not themselves werewolves. Others were mainly younger people like Dare who was over by his sister Del and her two friends.

Then My Dad dropped down from the hole in the ceiling at the end of the old locker room where the fireman's pool was supposed to go. And wasn't as yet back in place.

“Welcome everyone. I realized that many of you are going to be new to learning martial arts. Which puts us on even footing since I have never formally taught anyone.”

He walked out in the middle of the room. “I will be starting by only teaching a course on the basics of how to fight people without seriously hurting them. From there I will be developing a course of learning that focuses on each student's needs and talents."

“Later, I will be teaching some of you how to fight when your life is on the line, and you may have to end the life of another. Much later.”

Twisting his neck from side to side it gave off a popping sound. Something my Mom refused to let him do at home. He gestured over at my Grandpa. "But first, I think we got some locals who want to take my measure. Please sign the wavers on the clipboard my Dad has. I know which of you don't need to worry about getting hurt, but I want to take all the steps to make this look normal."

A taller guy that resembled a twenty year older version of Neal held out to hand to Grandpa for the clipboard. "I'll sign. I heard you had some shit to say about Marine Martial Arts."

He held up one of his feet and pointed at his boot with a questioning look at my Dad. Asking if he needed to take them off.

My Dad shook his head. "I brought these mats here to get them out of my Dad's house since he won't throw them out. Even though he already got new ones. Feel free to mess them up so bad he won't be able to them home when my new ones get here."

That got a few laughs, and I nudged my Grandfather in the ribs. "Wow, it's like they've known you for years.”