Chapter Six
Afternoon Shade
A/N: Okkkay… so. I'm baaaack… I was writing this, totally uninspired for the latter dialogue, and so I flipped to KEARTH 101 (Los Angeles's Oldies Radio) and listened to a few songs. See if you can name the one I used. ()s will indicate the section.
The sun rose above the nine o'clock mark, beaming down as Nita applied the finishing touches to an antipollutant spell for the river. She looked at the spell matrix, approved it, then passed it to Kit, who looked it over with a careful eye.
"You missed a spot," he told her, pointing to a tiny, empty area in the lower half of the matrix.
Nita looked at it, then at Kit, surprised. "Um, Kit? That's… kinda to let the little organisms in the water live. If I wipe them out along with the pollutants, the whole ecosystem collapses."
Kit flushed, embarrassed. "Sorry," he muttered, kicking aside a dead twig with one sneaker in a shamed manner.
Nita looked sympathetic. "S'okay," she said, feeling somewhat awkward at Kit's display of emotion when he was usually so taciturn.
Kit nodded, still looking embarrassed, then returned to his work on his old Chevy 1500, occasionally popping out of sight to go find some parts.
It was during one of these times that Nita found herself thinking wistfully of him.
Nita paused midway through rechecking her spell matrix as her wandering mind jumped from the topic of school to the topic of Kit. Her Kit file had been there for as long as she could remember, but it was only recently that another subfolder had been added to the file, under the category of romance.
She had found midway through the eleventh grade school year that she had a crush on Kit. She knew he didn't know, but she had thought up the idea of the trip just to be with him, and, hopefully, take the opportunity to tell him she liked him.
Easier said than done.
It was so easy when he was asleep or not around, to hold a conversation with him in her mind. Last night, she'd been so sure she would tell him this morning. But, upon the time she'd set to tell him, she had taken one look at Kit's face as he made a late breakfast for both of them, and found she couldn't say anything at all.
Afraid of rejection, are you? a voice taunted in her head.
No, she's not. She's just being cautious, her practical voice responded.
Cautious? Bull. She's afraid Kit'll tell her he's just friends, and she'll feel really stupid! the fun-loving side of her cried.
This is only her second time telling a guy she likes him. Give her a break!
Why should I? She has to start somewhere. Go kiss him, then. Or at least hug him.
What if Kit doesn't respond the way she wants him to? What if he shrugs her off like she's nothing?
Like I said, afraid of rejection! He put his arm around her not an hour and a half ago! What's there to be worried about?
It was a friendly thing. Hormones, hormones, and hormones. That's what to worry about.
Yeah, yeah, whatever. What harm c…
BAM.
Kit walked back into the campsite with a new carburetor floating beside him and a few new spark plugs. He smiled at Nita, and she blushed furiously, praying he didn't notice, and walked over to his side as he lifted the hood of the 1500.
"Hey, Kit."
"Um… hi, Nita. Whatcha want?"
Nita opened her mouth, and discovered, again, that she couldn't say anything. Her brain froze, and she desperately tried to think fast.
"What're you doing to the truck?"
Kit grinned, still looking at the engine.
"Replacing the spark plugs and all. The carburetor's shot, the spark plugs are shot… I'm just gonna replace them, and, if that doesn't work, the engine goes into tomorrow's refrigerators."
Nita frowned, forgetting her Crush-on-Kit subject for the time.
"But then what about the air filter? Dontcha have to change that, too?"
Kit shook his head, pulling one of the spark plugs out of the engine and looking at its fried head.
"Nope. Air filter's fine. Look at this spark plug."
He handed it to Nita, and she winced. Its cast-aluminum oxide head was rusted, corroding, and about to snap off. She looked at Kit, who nodded. "Scrap this one, too," he said, handing her another totaled plug.
Nita gazed at the spark plugs, then spoke a short syllable. The plugs instantly went though nine million years' time in four seconds, disintegrating into dust, then blowing off into the wind. She dusted her hands off and watched Kit fling the carburetor out into the air, where it similarly disintegrated and blew away on the gentle breeze. He carefully fitted the new carb into position, bolted it in, then put the hood down and climbed into the cab.
Nita shielded.
Kit mock glared at her from inside the cab, minorly amused, his hand halfway to the ignition.
"Ha, ha. Very funny, Nita. Anyways, here goes…"
Kit turned the key, and the engine sputtered to life, then revved as the gas went to the floor.
Kit blinked, surprised, then grinned. "Awright!" he cried, punching the air with one fist.
The engine chose that sweet moment of victory to jam, put a piston through the hood, and send up a cloud of smoke from under the hood.
There was a frustrated swearword from Kit, the slamming of a door, and the smoke, the flying piston, and the entire engine instantly disappeared as Nita spoke another small string of syllables.
Kit sighed, ran a hand through his hair, and dropped a transit circle. He gave Nita a small smile as he altered the coordinates, then stepped onto the circle and vanished.
Nita stared at the spot where he had been, then, with a forlorn sigh, looked at the spell matrix, checking it over one last time. Finding that it satisfied her, she looked at the river, thought for a moment, then spoke a few quiet syllables, and the matrix in her hands shimmered slightly, then leapt from her hands onto the river, conforming to the stream's shape in a millisecond, then went dark, successfully in place.
Breathing hard, Nita wiped the perspiration off her forehead and, with a quiet groan, crouched down on the streambank, watching the effects of the spell take place. The water cleared slightly, and, to Nita, it seemed that the sun sparkled on the undulating surface ripples even more vigorously than before, bathing the whole campsite in water reflections. She smiled, kicked her sandals off, and flung them in the general direction of the tent, preferring to dangle her feet in the cool river water than to blisters on her feet.
She lay back and closed her eyes, listening to the birds chirping and singing in the streamside oaks. A gentle breeze blew through the trees, rustling the leaves in its quiet, conversational way as it blew down towards the river's drainage lake.
A quiet smile played over Nita's face as a feeling of peace and contentment washed over her.
Some might say there was no place like home, Nita thought to herself, and they hate the forest. Frankly, I can't get away from home enough. Maybe you could say this is my home. Surrounded by nature, lying in the shade of an oak tree, and…
She heard someone sit down beside her, and, knowing who it was, didn't bother opening her eyes.
…lying beside Kit.
"Hey, Kit," she said slowly.
Kit blinked, surprised. "Howdja know it was me?" he inquired curiously.
Nita gave a slow shrug. "You're you," she murmured.
She heard Kit laugh, then she caught the sense of him thinking behind the laugh. Seizing the opportunity, she tapped into his thoughts.
…maybe… she heard him think.
What's this maybe stuff? She does!
Think I should ask her?
Nita's heart raced, and she hurriedly slipped out of Kit's mind.
She heard him take a breath, then say somewhat confidently, "Hey, um, Nita? You awake?"
She opened one eye and grinned at him. "How awake do I look? Go ahead, shoot. I won't bite."
Kit flushed, all too aware of how weak his story was going to be, then asked, "I brought my canoe… wanna head on down to the lake for a while?"
Both of Nita's eyes popped open, and for a moment, Kit thought she was going to get up and leave. But she merely rolled over onto her stomach and asked, "What do I need?"
Kit grinned. "Nothing you don't have. A paddle, a life jacket, a water bottle, a fishing pole, and some common sense. That's about it."
He jerked his head toward his Silverado and smiled. "I have everything in the truck… except for the common sense. You need any, Neets?"
She started at him, and he backpedaled toward the truck a few feet, then chuckled and popped the tonneau cover. He heaved out a well-worn, two-person canoe, two paddles, and his backpack. He staggered slightly under the canoe's weight, and Nita reluctantly got up to help him. Together, they set the canoe down on the riverbank, struggled into a life jacket apiece, and Nita slid back into her sandals. She looked at Kit, frowned, then asked, "Aaaand how, exactly, are we going to get in?"
Kit grinned wickedly at her.
"Jump."
He seized Nita around her waist and picked her up bodily. She made a surprised noise, then glared at Kit as he staggered toward the river.
"Remind me to kill you one of these days," she told him.
Kit shrugged, pushed the canoe into the river, and placed Nita gently into the rear of the canoe. Grabbing his tackle box, he clambered in forward of her, and, with Nita's help, pushed the canoe off the rocks and began the journey downstream.
Nita quickly caught on to the idea of paddling, and, as the banks of the river rushed past in a blur, matched Kit stroke for stroke, powering the canoe straight as an arrow downstream.
The afternoon seemed to blur past for Kit and Nita, wholly uneventful except for a good three hours worth of fishing, paddling, and water fighting, and they returned to camp cold, wet, and semi-tired.
( Nita pushed the canoe to the back of the pickup's bed and slammed the tonneau cover down, shivering in the cool of the evening.
"How's the campfire going, Kit?" she called over one shoulder.
Kit had fireproofed an area of the campsite and started a tiny flame in the center of a rock circle. He glanced up from tossing donated twigs and branches onto the fire and nodded. "It's alive," he responded cheerfully, poking the fire with a twig.
Nita joined him, glancing around at the steadily lengthening shadows. "It's getting kind spooky out here, Kit," she grinned. "Think there's any cougars out there?"
A calico blur traveled from the riverbank to the fireside in a few short lopes, pawing water off its slick coat.
Kit chuckled and stroked Emily. "Only this one," he said, ducking as Ponch sailed over his head and into the flickering shadows, where he hunkered down and put his head on his front paws.
Nita stared into the crackling, orange-and-red depths of the fire, then asked suddenly, "Hey, Kit? What was your first date like?"
Kit looked at her like she'd grown a giant mole, and she could feel herself starting to blush.
"Why?" he asked quizzically.
Nita shrugged. "Just out of curiosity," she said nonchalantly, praying that Kit couldn't see her blush.
Kit stared for a few more minutes, then lay back, his expression faintly unhappy.
"Well… let's see. Remember Becca Laneys?"
Nita nodded. "Yeah… go on."
"I… I called her up and asked her 'Hey, Becca? Um, wouldja like you like to meet and maybe see a movie?' First… I remember this pretty clearly…first she said no, she had some plans for the night. And then, all of a sudden, I hear her stop and say 'All right'…" )
Kit finished his narrative, then sighed unhappily.
"Yup. She dumped me a few days later."
Nita watched him flick a glance at her, then back at the ground, his cheeks slowly flushing red.
There was an awkward silence broken only by the crackle of the fire and the twilight serenade of crickets.
Kit sighed. "S'mores sound good?"
Nita nodded, then, abruptly, leaned over and kissed Kit full on the lips. Surprised, Kit was about to pull away instinctively, but then realized just who he was kissing, and instead put his arms around Nita, pulling her close. Kit deepened the kiss, knowing this was going to be one of the moments he would remember for the rest of his life as he gently moved his lips against Nita's, slowly sinking deeper into the kiss. Kit heard Ponch sniff disdainfully beside him, but didn't care any more, he was kissing Nita, and that was all that mattered.
Or so he thought.
"Kit?! Nita?!"
Kit and Nita both felt the same thought simultaneously go through their minds.
Oh…crap…