Smuggler

Chapter 7

I wake up the next morning to someone jumping on me. My reaction is immediate. Before I have even opened my eyes, I grab their shoulders and bring my knee up into their chest. By the time my eyes have opened, they are on the floor.

Jason looks up at me, incredibly startled. I suddenly realize what happened and relax my muscles.

"Shit. I am so sorry. I didn't-"

He laughs. "Don't wake you up suddenly. Got it." He sits up, rubbing his stomach. "Where did you learn moves like that?"

I shrug. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry about me." I hold my hand out and help him up from the ground. He sits on m y bed next to me. "You ready for work?"

I run my hand through my hair. "Yeah, yeah. Sorry I'm up so late." I notice that Sarah isn't in her bed. "Where's Sarah?"

"You're not up late. Henry got me up really early. For kitchen work, they had to get up really early so that they could help make breakfast. We didn't have to get up as early, but Sarah let me in before she left so that I could wake you up."

"Oh. Ok." I get up from the bed. He gets up as well. He turns to the door.

"Go ahead and change, I'll wait for you outside. We have time for breakfast before work." He grins. "Maybe we can catch Sarah or Henry and give them a hard time." He walks out the door.

After I join him outside my door, we walk to the kitchens.

"So what exactly are we doing today? Building a house?"

"Yeah, we're just on the construction crew. I'm not sure what we'll be doing specifically, they'll tell us when we get there. We're just extra muscle." We walk into the kitchens and take food, looking out for Henry or Sarah, but we don't see either of them. Jason looks disappointed. As we sit down, He looks at his watch.

"Shoot! We need to eat quickly, we're running later than I thought."

We scarf down our food and walk quickly out, heading towards what I remembered as the "family homes" that Jason pointed out the first day. I can tell when we get there, because this house looks like it's falling apart. It's made of old bricks, but some of the walls are supported by large, new logs. Scattered on the ground are more bricks, logs, and planks. As we walk up, a large man calls out to us to help him with the beam that he is holding. We jump in and begin to work.

We work for a few hours, then break for lunch. Someone has brought us sandwiches, and we have another picnic. We keep working after lunch, but at around 4:00 we've run out of materials. The other workers tell us that we're free for the rest of the day, and we wander off.

"When do Sarah and Henry get off?"

He looks at his watch. "Not for a couple hours. Then we'll probably meet up at the practice field to do some sparring." He looks over at me. "You want to head over there and get some practice in? You were saying yesterday that it looked fun."

"Yeah, sure."

He grins at me. "If this morning was anything to go off of, I would say you're pretty good, huh?"

I shrug. "I'm okay. Will we have the pads like you guys did yesterday?"

"Probably not, so we just have to make sure we don't hit too hard."

I nod. "I can do that, and it sounds like you have lots of practice."

We get to the practice field. There are a few other people there, leaving after training or coming after work, like us. We walk into the field and square up. Jason puts up his hands, once again keeping them too high. I get into my stance, keeping my muscles loose.