Kat Fighter
   [complete version, contains 1-5/5]
   Jacobin
   jacobin_11111794@hotmail.com
   
   
   Boring Stuff
   
   Standard disclaimers regarding sexually explicit material apply. The good reader is reminded in particular that works of fiction often neglect real-world risks and consequences which should be taken into consideration in any re-creation or work-inspired acts.
   
   This is my sixth work of this kind. It's also likely to change substantially as I re-write it, so feedback or requests to continue (or stop, even) are particularly appreciated at jacobin_11111794@hotmail.com
   
   You can find my other stories at http://www.asstr.org/~jacobin
   
   This work is copyright (c) 2002 by the author. You may download and keep copies for your personal use as long as the author's byline, disclaimer, e-mail address, and these four paragraphs remain on the copies. Posting to newsgroups or on websites (with the specific exception of www.ASSTR.org) is not permitted unless you have my express written or email consent, and then only as long as no money is charged for access and the author's byline, disclaimer, e-mail address, and these four paragraphs remain on the story. Please respect my work as much as I've tried to respect the reader.
   
   -- Jacobin
   
   
   Part One: Re-Enter the Kat
   
   Katherine Connors was tall, lean, and a fighter. She competed on her high school's Open Style Martial Arts team. No one called it anything but fighting. It had seemed weird to Katherine when she'd first moved to View a decade ago, a town of maybe 4,000 in northeast Oregon among national park reserves and farms. Moving from suburban softball and soccer leagues to find a set of unpopulated counties in the rural Northwest participating in organized, ranked brawling had been disconcerting, but after nearly two years participating, it was just another turn in the year, with softball, track, volleyball. Fighting, like Judo (but not Rifle) wasn't NCAA sanctioned, wouldn't win her scholarships, but Katherine took to it early and had been ranked 15th in the county before she tore a ligament and broke her kneecap badly when an opponent swept Kat's left leg as Kat attempted an ill-advised crescent kick.
   
   Katherine was starting to stretch her knee for herself for the first time coming out of rehab, skipping rope in her garage. Katherine felt like celebrating, the hits of the plastic rope firecrackers in the empty garage, tools and shelves around her as she worked. Kat stood six feet under the rafters as she caught the rope on one foot, stumbling. She was a striker, her face a lean parabola from blunt chin to thin, curving cheeks and her tall forehead, her black hair in a pony tail, her lips thin and level, her blue eyes light and unimpressed.
   
   The day before school started and the first practices, her knee felt great, and when she started to relax, easily bouncing on the balls of her feet, it felt good to grin, the muscle movements coming back to her after months of frowning. In the mirror, she looked good, her blue eyes alive again, flashing in the sun beaming through the side windows, sweat on her forehead, the deepening wet stain on the grey sports bra, and with each hot, dusty breath Katherine felt stronger. She started to work double-time, feeling warm joy spread from her quick heart.
   
   Mike (unrated, not a fighter) stood in the doorway to the house, taller than Katherine and strikingly handsome in a manufactured, chain-clothing store way, square-jawed, dimpled, short nosed, easy to imagine in his baseball jersey, his minor-league contract already signed. His smile revealed his perfect teeth.
   "Don't push it too far," he said.
   "Let yourself in, Mike," Katherine replied. "Parents aren't home."
   Mike raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
   "Yup," Katherine replied, coming back to normal time. "This feels so good, I can't believe it." She started to do cross-overs.
   "You know what else would feel good?"
   Katherine stopped jumping, and looked at Mike, hands on hips, rope dangling. She sighed. "All right, come on, then."
   They almost skipped down the hall to Kat's bedroom, where Kat sat down on the bed, facing Mike, undid his shorts and let them drop to his ankles, exposing his hairy thighs and his gravity-defying erection. Kat started to stroke it. It was, as Katherine had once told Lisa, a perfect blow-me size, like a particularly long sucker, with an in-line head, not much of a lip between shaft and head at all. It wasn't large, but Kat had grown particularly fond of it. She put a hand around the base and ran it up slowly.
   "What'd you want, exactly?" she asked, grinning up at him.
   "That's just fine," Mike said. 
   Katherine stroked him slowly, amused at his growing and obvious discomfort.
   "That's it?"
   "Keep going," Mike said.
   Kat managed to shrug while she kept moving her hand up and down, finally taking a firm grasp to jerk him harder.
   "Better that way?"
   Mike nodded. Katherine worked him harder, leaning forward to get close to the deep red head of his penis, holding there.
   "Nothing else?" She stuck out her tongue to lick, barely, the underside of his head, causing his whole length to jump in response. Katherine returned to stroking.
   "You're cute when you're anxious," she said.
   "Please?" Mike asked.
   Katherine smiled and took just the head of his penis across her lips, out, and then back.
   "Yeah?" she asked.
   He just moaned.
   Katherine kept on, moving farther and farther down with each bob of her head. Mike started to push further in, and Katherine regained her grip at the base of his dick, slowing him down. He was already breathing hard, tossing his head back, and Kat decided not to prolong things, moving her lips over his head quickly while stroking him in time. He groaned loudly and pushed against Katherine's restraining grip, twitching as he came in her mouth. Katherine kept on him a little, gentler, getting the last string, and then looked up at Mike's satisfied face and licked her lips.
   "That better?" she asked.
   He nodded, dumbly. "Do you, uh, want me to...?"
   Katherine smiled and shook her head. "No, not now. Later, maybe." She pulled his shorts back up and patted the bed next to her. "Sit."
   Mike sat cross-legged next to her.
   "We going out later?" Katherine asked.
   "I don't know."
   "You got work?"
   "Yeah. And stuff."
   Katherine watched his eyes dart around her. "What's going on?"
   "We should talk about something," Mike said.
   "Talk about what?" Katherine asked, wary.
   "Well, here's the thing. I'm going to be doing two sports when school starts, and I'm going to have to be studying real hard to get a decent score on the SATs or I won't get a scholarship, and I'm going to be working, too, so I don't know if I'm going to have time--"
   Katherine went cold and she looked away from him at the Run Lola Run poster over his right shoulder. When she looked back, Mike was still there.
   "What?" she said. "What the hell?"
   "I just mean I don't know that I can give you the time a relationship needs, okay?"
   Katherine stared at him.
   "I can't even believe this. You are.. this is... Get out, get out of my room."
   "It's not that--"
   "Would you fucking get out already?"
   "You know, that's part of your problem -- you're a real bitch sometimes." Mike sneered as he walked out of the room, as if this had all been Katherine's fault. 
   Katherine stared at the wall straight ahead of her. Her parents would be home in a couple of hours. It would probably be best to fess up that Mike had dumped her, because bringing it up right afterwards would allow her to cut short conversation. She would not, of course, mention that Mike had gotten off one last time before he'd dumped her. Katherine would need to brush her teeth before then, too, and the nausea came over her suddenly and Kat threw up into the bed-side thrash can, over and over, tears running down her face as she kept on vomiting until there was nothing left to push back out. Katherine was still heaving as she walked the plastic sack of trash and stomach contents out to the cans, as if her body would not accept that there was nothing left of him to reject anymore. Katherine used the nastiest mouthwash in the house, her dad's straight Listerine, and as she brushed her teeth between rinses she started to plan again.
   Kat's face in the mirror was hard and red again, the same way she'd looked when she'd been told how long it would be before the knee brace came off.
   
   The next day, Katherine stopped on her way to school to pick up her best friend, Lisa, ranked #8, who was dressed for practice in dumpy Whitman College sweats. Lisa was a good sidekick to Katherine, shorter, her build stockier, breasts defining the sweatshirt, her fair Finnish face open and honest, framed by stringy, long blonde hair of eight shades. Where Kat looked like a swimmer, a volleyball player, Lisa gave the impression she might be looking forward to state trials in weight lifting. And where Katherine was weak with people, Lisa was observant, empathetic, and strong.
   On the step of her house, Lisa stopped, regarding Katherine oddly in the pale pre-dawn light.
   "You look down, Kat," Lisa said.
   "Mike dumped me."
   "Oh, I'm sorry," Lisa said. "You okay?"
   "He made sure we had sex before he told me."
   Lisa rolled her eyes and stamped her foot loudly. "Fuck!" She shook her head. "Oh, Kat, I am so sorry." She stepped up and gave Katherine a tight hug and let go. "Come on, walk and talk."
   Katherine told her everything, and Lisa listened, made sympathetic noises, and swore at the right time. By the time they arrived at school barely ten minutes later, Katherine had already started to feel better.
   
   The dead soccer field still gleamed with dew as they walked out from the locker rooms. The Women's Open instructor, Ms. Atin, stood in the morning sun, smiling as the girls walked out.
   "Good to see you again, Kat," Atin said.
   "And it's good to see you again, Ms. Atin," Katherine said, walking onto the field.
   Due to the nature of the sport, Atin ran a style-neutral program for the whole team, short conditioning practices and drills before school and longer scrimmage matches in the afternoon. The girls were expected to pick styles on their own or take straight karate from Atin herself two nights a week and weekends. Lisa was her prize student, and Atin smiled at her as the two walked by.
   
   Kat felt good on the field, doing their stretches, their long tae kwon do drills. She could feel the moves start to return to her, muscle memory stirring as she warmed in the cool air.
   
   Even in the half-speed practice, Katherine was overmatched. Her partner, Terry Mendoza, #50, put a straight punch into Katherine's right eye as Katherine missed an easy block. Terry apologized, fussed over it, and they resumed. Katherine missed the same block, stepping straight forward into Terry's fist again, same eye, same glancing blow off the orbital bone, and Katherine had to go back to the locker room to have the school nurse, a nervous student teacher of 27, cut the bruise open with wobbly hands and drain it.
   
   When the squad started to trickle back in, Katherine was still icing her eye with a gigantic cold pack, sitting on the cloth director's chair in the locker room office. Terry was first in, finding Katherine almost immediately, apologizing all at once, Katherine waving her off.
   "I didn't think you'd come forward, I tried to pull it," Terry said, looking like she might cry. "I'm sorry, and on your first day back..."
   Katherine shook her head slowly.
   "My fault," Katherine said. "I'm out of practice, is all." She held out a hand for Terry, who shook. There was an elaborate snake tattooed on the inside of Terry's right wrist. "You're faster than I remember."
   Terry smiled. "Let me know if you want to practice to catch up or anything, okay? It's great to see you back."
   Katherine nodded, and Terry walked off for the lockers. 
   "Lemme see," Lisa asked, an evil grin on her face. Kelley pulled the cold pack off for a moment.
   "Holy shit, Kat, that's the nastiest shiner I've ever seen." Lisa blinked. "Wow!" She started to laugh. "It's so bad."
   "Leave me to my misery, please," Kat said. "Or shoot me."
   "It's not that bad," Lisa said, trying to maintain a straight face. "No one will notice." She giggled and walked off, looking back to laugh again. 
   Lisa was bumped aside as she was distracted by women coming towards the office, concern thin on their tan faces. They ignored Lisa and stopped just short of the office.
   It was Suzette, ranked #2, and her friends. Suzette was a warm smile and a cold, calculating girl, her athletic build concealing a political mind and keen sense for weakness. She wore short skirts, all the better to manipulate with, and tight, stomach-revealing tops. She had once been suspended for a week for a series of illegal neck punches that had knocked Kat down, taking her out before that week's meet. Katherine had accepted Suzette's apology at the time. Katherine's low-varsity slot for the next match had gone to one of Suzette's friends, who in turn got to put a letter on her jacket.
   "Oh, Katy, I heard about Mike. Look, this is going to sound weird, but do you mind if I go out with him?"
   Katherine stopped and tried to remain composed.
   One of the advantages to a populace well trained to beat on each other is that it rarely occurs - both sides are well aware of the potential damage a real fight could do.
   "Be my guest," Katherine replied. "I think you'll find his calendar's all booked up, though."
   Suzette gave Katherine a look of mock shock. "Really? I just saw him with the freshman Simmons girl last night!" She almost lost her composure, barely stifling a laugh. "Must have been someone else who looked just like Mike. Oh well. See you around?"
   She didn't wait for a response but flounced off, her friends giggling behind her.
   
   Katherine put her casuals on alone and, holding the pack to her eye, lurched down the halls to her first class, through the packs of the Latino children, sons and daughters of farm laborers, many skirting the school dress code prohibiting gang colors (the tract housing of the laborers was rife with corner-to-corner gangs at night, Lisa's dad and grandfather both fighting losing battles against poverty, today's arrest next month's absent parent), the little clumps of white farm and store-owner children, the progressive mixed ethnic spread of the government fish, wildlife, and forest workers, and the goat-ropers of all walks, wearing their cowboy hats and boots as they stepped gingerly around the poorer kids who looked at them with an eye on resale value.
   They all stared at Kat.
   Her 20th Century History teacher did a double-take but made no comment, instead passing out the syllabus and class policy packet. Katherine paid him no mind, instead replaying the hits over and over in her mind. Terry was fast, but not so fast that she should have gotten through. Katherine had reacted clumsily, her reactions not even the simple, fast karate Mrs. Atin had taught her last year. 
   Katherine set it up in her head again, watched the blow come. What was the correct reaction? She mapped out two, saw two more, sketched them out on her notepad. Her stick figures were terrible.
   "We'll be exploring the time leading up to the 20th Century," the teacher said. "And then we'll move from there."
   Katherine tuned him back out. There was no need to pay attention: 20th Century History would be the same material as Western Civilization, as United States History, as World History. Katherine started to play out the four moves, looking for the advantage. Her eye hurt behind the numbing cold, her arm hurt from holding the ice pack up. Katherine could feel the bruise still, trying to swell up, the ache starting already. Four responses, and she'd stepped right into the blow like a fool. Twice.
   
   "You know what the worst part about today is?" Katherine asked Lisa. Lisa sat on the bed with Katherine, paging idly through the sheaf of first-day handouts. In the background, a CD played.
   "What's that?"
   Katherine sighed. "Normally after a day like this, I'd call Mike up and see if he could come over, or I could come over there, and then later, I'd feel like I was valued, and even if he forgot to compliment me, or hold me afterwards, I'd have let go of all this tension. Now what?"
   Lisa looked over her handouts. "Kat, if you haven't figured this out yourself, you can always just help yourself."
   Katherine waved her off. "It's not the same. It's nice enough, but if getting laid one way or the other gets me to no stress, then doing it myself only gets me to half-stress. If that. It's so much better with someone. Right?"
   Lisa put down her handouts. "Sure, Kat. So for chrissake, Kat, go out and pick up some guy."
   "No," Katherine said. "No way. I don't want to think about what I'd catch in this town."
   "All right, then, I'll help you out."
   Katherine started and blinked. "What?"
   "One time," Lisa said. "I'll help you get off, because I feel sorry for you today." Lisa was smiling.
   "Are you serious?" Katherine asked.
   "Do you seriously need the relief?"
   Katherine felt the ache of her deep bruise, the tension on her skin, the tightness of nipples against the cotton t-shirt, the warmth across her chest, her thighs.
   "Yes," Katherine said. Lisa nodded and got her feet out from under her. "I do. But I don't..."
   "Does it make a difference if it's my hands or some guy's? My mouth or some guy's?" Lisa shrugged. "It's like it doesn't matter if it's a guy or a girl giving some guy head, right? Only difference is that we're just more practical, not as hung up."
   Lisa crawled on all fours up the bed. "More adaptable. Now relax, this'll take no time at all."
   "I'm worried," Katherine said, but she lifted her hips off the sheets at Lisa's touch so her shorts could be slipped off. Lisa laid down on her side next to Katherine and rubbed Katherine's stomach gently, the lightest touch.
   "It's just between friends," Lisa said, slipping her hand down Katherine's stomach to her pubic mound. Katherine jumped.
   "Relax, just relax," Lisa soothed. She slipped two fingers down along Katherine's damp lips. "You are dying for this, aren't you? Here." Lisa pushed both fingers in, curling them back.
   "Ah," Katherine said.
   "Yeah? Good." Lisa pulled them out, ran the tips of fingers up again, not touching skin at all, just brushing hairs, and Katherine trembled under her. Lisa ran a slow circle around the clit, Katherine breathing hard next to her, and then tweaked it softly and moved down to push both fingers back in.
   "Yes," Katherine said. 
   "Yeah?" Lisa worked them in and out. They were both well-lubricated with Katherine's juice, and as Katherine moaned Lisa increased the pace until, barely a minute later, Katherine bit her lip to stifle a yell and her whole body jumped once, twice, and then again. Katherine looked as if she was about to cry or cry out and then released a great sigh of relief and smiled. Lisa withdrew her fingers and set her hand on Katherine's stomach.
   "You feel better?" Lisa asked.
   "Yes."
   "More relaxed?"
   "Definitely." Katherine turned her head to face Lisa. "You're pretty good at that."
   Lisa smiled. "Plenty of practice with myself." She shifted on the bed. "Speaking of which, can you help me out now, or..."
   Katherine started. "Oh! I... I don't know."
   "It's okay," Lisa said, rolling onto her back and pulling her own shorts down. She put her right hand - the one she'd been using on Katherine - to her own pussy and started to grind her soft clit against her palm. Lisa groaned, eyes closed. Katherine watched, still breathing hard. Lisa's other hand pulled her shirt and bra up, baring her taunt, apple-like breasts, and then holding onto an erect nipple as she started to work herself faster.
   Katherine leaned over slowly and kissed Lisa's open, tense right nipple. Lisa moaned and put her hand on Katherine's cheek. Watching Lisa's fingers work, Kat ran her hand down, her touch not as subtle but the effect not lost, and Lisa took it and guided it down to take her own hand's place.
   Lisa started to come almost immediately, squeaking into Katherine's shoulder, trying not to make too much noise. When she'd stopped squeaking, she put her arm around Katherine and awkwardly hugged her.
   "I'm sorry about Mike, Katherine," she said. "I'm sorry about your eye and your knee and about everything."
   "I'm all right," Kat replied.
   Lisa stood up, smoothly hopped back into her shorts, pulled her bra forward and back down, adjusted her shirt, and looked into the full-length mirror on the door.
   "I look okay?"
   "You do that before?" Katherine asked, looking at Lisa appraisingly.
   "Here's the thing," Lisa said. "I'm lazy. Finding a guy who's not carrying crabs or something, not a jerk, it's hard, or maybe you're just between guys -- you can reach an understanding, find a way to get what you need the other way. It's necessity, like."
   "Uh huh." Katherine arched an eyebrow. "So you have, then."
   "Yes," Lisa sighed. "One girl, for a while. But not in a long time." She looked at Katherine, head to one side, imploringly. "Look, it's just between us, I understand where you coming from, there's no need to do a lot of soul-searching and hand-wringing and whatever now, okay? Now what do you want to do tonight?"
   "Something bad," Katherine said.
   "Are you on time delay or what?"
   "No, I want to steal something."
   Lisa's eyes lit up. "You don't say."
   
   Lisa's dad had once told her as he slumped at the dinner table with a beer in hand that the hardest crimes to solve were the fast ones, where there's no planning, no prep work, and no one talks before or after because no one knows anything -- all there is is the crime, by itself: a missing car, a shot Papa bleeding on someone's lawn, a store on fire.
   Katherine, wearing a baseball cap with her hair tied back, gloves on both hands, walked up to the back door of Mike's house, tore the screen door open, the flimsy lock breaking off and dropping onto the step, twisted. Katherine turned the doorknob and they both were standing inside the house.
   "Nicely done," Lisa said. "Let's hurry."
   Katherine jogged down yesterday's manufactured home to Mike's room, to his bookcase, filled with taped copies of NFL Films and a complete ten-year archive of Sports Illustrated filed by date, and stole his good videos: all the Bruce Lee, all the Jet Li, Jackie Chan, dropped into Lisa's backpack, and they were back out the door in under a minute, walking calmly back along the alley.
   Lisa started to whistle merrily.
   "I think that's pushing it," Katherine said. Lisa stopped.
   "Sorry."
   They returned to Kat's and dumped the videos out onto the still-a-little-damp bed, both keeping away from incidental bed-or-each-other contact, and Kat picked one from the pile. They sat out in the living room, watching Bruce Lee mess stupid motherfuckers up something good. Katherine watched intently, her eyes trying to follow Lee's hands.
   "I've always wanted to be that quick."
   "You are that quick," Lisa said. "I've seen you do that. But mostly you just stand there and get socked." Lisa started to laugh, and Katherine socked her in the face with a pillow. Lisa took the pillow away. "So what are you going to do for training? You going to come back to me and Mrs. Atin? Study a killing style?"
   "No," Katherine said. "I think I'm going to do something different."
   "Yeah, what's that?"
   "I'm going to see Jack," Katherine said. Lisa made a low whistle. Katherine smiled. "Oh, yes, that Jack."
   
   
   Part Two: Last Cat Stance
   
   Kat looked at the door on the Creek Tavern. "All-smoking" was carved into the wood by a knife, all scratches and straight angles. There was also a black-on-white warning sign about legal consequences for entering while under 21. It was speckled with dark red flecks of blood. Katherine was eighteen. She pushed open the door and walked on in..
   The Creek Tavern was a converted garage, two trucks wide and four trucks deep, dartboards dangerously next to one end of the bar and an atmosphere of gritty gray haze that did little to conceal the underage Creek students Kat knew from high school. The air tasted terrible in her mouth and seemed to be adhering to her skin already.
   "You seen Jack?" she asked one of the underage boys she knew. He nodded towards the two pool tables in the back.
   Kat started through nasty Marlboro smoke like fighting a curtain. Among the bearded and fat and leathered was a kid, shaved head stubbled with black hair, his ears so close to his skull they appeared pinned back. He turned as she approached, cued by something. He was shorter than Kat by inches and carrying another twenty pounds of muscle. His smile was bright and his brown eyes lit up seeing her.
   "You Jack Connor of the Oregon Connors?"
   "Kat! Nice shiner."
   "You should have seen it a couple days ago."
   "I'll bet. What can I do for you?"
   "This smoke is bad for me. Can we go outside?"
   "I would, but I'm in the middle of a game."
   "You're losing." Jack finished his beer. "I need you to teach me fighting."
   "What's in it for me?"
   "Help the clan. No?" Katherine watched him closely as she started to reel off reasons. "Satisfaction? Pay me back for favors owed? Community service time? Shit, Jack what is it you want?"
   Jack broke out a sheepish grin and looked around. "I could use a girlfriend."
   Katherine sighed loudly, which forced her to inhale the smoke again. She coughed. "Gee Jack, as attractive as you are and all, I just broke up with Mike and I'm a little depressed about it. Besides which you are my cousin and all. Can we go outside now?"
   "Can you find someone for me?"
   "Why does every guy seem to think women have some kind of backup? It's not like voice mail, Jack."
   Jack frowned at her, looking suddenly ugly and sullen. He sighed. "Fine, Kat, be that way." He looked at her and turned it over in his head once, twice. "I'll do it but-we need to work out some sort of payment plan and, frankly, I'm up to-my eyeballs in sperm. You sure? Not even just a ting like this. Shouldn't you at least pretend to not be interested and turn into a slimeball later?"
   "Sure, but seriously, Kat, the girls out here just aren't getting it done for me. But we can talk about this later. Come on, then, let's go to my place and I'll see if I can help you."
   "Also," Katherine said, not moving as Jack set his cue back up, "I think it'd be bad to have a sexual relationship with my teacher."
   "That's never as big of a deal," Jack said, "as people think it is."
   
   
   Jack dug through the piles of crap on his floor to find his workout clothes. There were forestry manuals all over the place, the binders spilling pages of fine-print regulation everywhere.
   "I'm surprised to see you. What made you think of me?"
   "I've been getting my ass kicked and I need to get better fast. I don't have money for a school and I don't think it would suit me. I know you, I trust you -- or, I did until you started to hit on me," Kat said, and stopped. Jack shugged. "I know you won, and you trained in different styles, so it's a good bet you can help me suit my style."
   Jack smiled. "You've given this some thought." He pulled a pair of soccer shorts out and, after hesitating for a moment, sniffed them to ensure freshness. Kat couldn't tell if he was kidding or not.
   "Yes."
   "So you're looking to switch styles, then? Which style is best?"
   Kat shook her head. "I don't know. I would like something fast. Atin was teaching a real simple karate and that was okay. I never felt comfortable."
   "No style is best. Understand that first. No style is better than its best student. You will need to become better. Styles and schools are tools. You need to improve the craftsman."
   "Okay," Kat said. Jack found a fresh T-shirt with a poorly-done 'Earth First!' silkscreen logo on it.
   "Here's what I'll do. If you'll follow my instructions on training, I'll teach you a style that will suit you, because it's good, and because I will make you suit it."
   "What style?"
   "Jeet kun do. Bruce Lee's style."
   "Okay."
   "I'm not done. You or a reasonable facsimile will need to find me an agreeable way to keep me nice and relaxed."
   Katherine laughed. "Jack... if I win All-County I'll lay you myself."
   Jack looked surprised and pleased.  "That's good but in the meantime-"
   "I'll try. Can we start?"
   "Hang on, let me change. We'll spar for a minute and I'll assign homework. I have a disastrous blind date tonight my mom set me up on." Jack shuddered.
   Jack pulled off his cigarette - stinking shirt and Kat, unwilling to be forced from the room, looked at his ropy arms, narrow, strong shoulders, barely defined abdominal muscles. He looked better than when she'd seen him compete.
   He grinned at her. "Change your mind? No?" he pulled his shorts off and looked down. He had a wide erection and Kat's heart skipped.  "You see what I have to cope with all the time? It's terrible. Sure you don't want to give me a hand with it?"
   "That's not really the point," Kat said. Jack sighed and pulled his shorts and T-shirt on. "I want the path to competition to be clear of emotional roadblocks, and being involved with a relative and an instructor would be bad."
   "You talk like you should be the sensei. Let's go outside."
   They walked out into the vast green lawn of Jack's parents.
   "Show me your stance," Jack said, stretching out.
   Katherine did the salutation and moved almost instantly into her stance, both legs bent, right arm straight out, palm up, left arm across her plexus, palm down, and Jack started to laugh.
   "Cute. Seriously, now."
   "What?" Katherine said, staring at him evenly.
   "The cat stance. That's funny. You said they were teaching you karate. Where'd you pick that up?"
   "Mrs. Atin," Katherine said. "I don't understand."
   "She always had a sense of humor, that woman. It's not a karate stance. It's not karate. I think she's teaching you mixed styles and telling the parents it's something even the hicks recognize." He seemed to consider this. "Could be part of your problem, you've been taught moves and not integrated techniques." Jack shrugged. "Won't matter. Which knee did you tear up?"
   "Left," she said.
   "Okay, I'm going to do some real simple strikes, I want you to defend."
   Jack did some blows Kat batted away easily, and then he started to come in harder and harder, until Kat was grunting trying to deflect his slaps. Jack began to come through blocks easily, working off her rhythm, until he was touching her almost at will, and Kat shuffled back, arms waving at him.
   Jack stood up at ease. "Tough to defend against a stronger opponent, isn't it?"
   Kat nodded.
   "I'll talk about that later. Remind me. Come at me now." Jack stepped back to present his right side to Kat. His chin was down, his right arm down and then up, fist waving at biceps height, left fist the same height, back. Katherine started with straight blows in, which Jack deflected easily using only his left. He seemed as fast as Kat, and Kat sped up, until she was putting all her energy into moving as quickly as she could, and through sheer speed broke through his block patterns, slapping him across the cheeks once and then twice, three times, until he ducked out and back, fat red hand marks on his face.
   He nodded. "Okay. Let's do a couple of things. First, I want you to start working out with weights."
   "Which ones?"
   "All of them. Find out how much you can do six times on each machine or press or whatever. I want you to be fighting to get it up that last time. Move up to the next highest weight as soon as you can. I don't want you to strain yourself -- don't figure out what your max possible is and then do that until you snap a ligament -- but I want this to be as hard as possible."
   Katherine nodded.
   "And don't start taking supplements or anything. Next, you have a heavy bag?"
   "Course."
   "I'm just asking. I want you to practice your strikes against it. Hard as you can, backfist, bottomfist, topfist, palm, and, uh, do some forearm smashes, elbow strikes. Use a neutral boxing stance. 100 of each, every day. I'll teach you stance next time. When would you meet with Atin?"
   "Tuesdays and Thursdays."
   "Come over here instead, I'll work with you for a couple of hours. Drills -- I want you to do speed drills, jump rope. You have a wing chun dummy?"
   "Yeah."
   "Work on that. Here's the thing -- your weakness is not your technique, though you'll get much better when you work on one unified style." Jack ran his hand over his stubble. "I hope."
   "What is my weakness?"
   "I don't know how to offer it to you yet. Let me think about it," Jack said, nodding his head slowly and looking wise, and Kat started as she remembered he'd been waving his schlong around not a half-hour ago. "When's your next meet?"
   "First meet's in Cold Springs, two weeks from today," Katherine said, thinking of rushing Jack again.
   "So slot matchups are this coming week." Katherine nodded. "I want you to throw them," he said. "Atin already knows who she's got slotted for both teams, if I know her. I want you to work on being slow and deliberate in your matches, really try to think about what your opponent's doing, what they're trying to do. I think you'll find that some of your opponents are out there striking at you and taking openings as they happen, while others will set up opportunities, even if they're not as fast or strong at this point in the season. Remember them, remember what they do."
   Katherine nodded. 
   "And protect your off knee. I want you to let your opponents wear down on your defense, which is good, but don't let them just beat on you. This is going to be hard for you, I know, but it will be valuable."
   "Okay. Thanks, Jack."
   "No problem." He shuffled and looked at his sneakers for a second before taking a breath and facing Katherine again. "Look, I'm sorry I've been really aggressive, but this internship out here is killing me. I thought it would be great, you know, a quarter off back home, doing field work, but it's not. In college, I was hitting parties, had girlfriends, you know, and out here I'm stuck looking at women who've had herpes since they were in high school with me, bored girls with drug habits... it's been coming out funny."
   "Isn't self-deprivation the path to enlightenment?"
   "Be honest, I never bought into that," Jack said with a smile. "But seriously, ask around, see if you know anyone interested in just hanging around, maybe having a good time. You know me, I'm a decent enough guy."
   Kat smiled. "I'll talk to you Tuesday, then."
   
   
   
   Katherine stopped at Lisa's on her way back and Lisa listened wide-eyed as Katherine went over the story.
   "Seriously, he just whipped it out in front of you like that?"
   "Honest truth."
   "Was it..."
   "I didn't stare it at," Kat said, and smiled. "There was some size on Mike, though Jack was really itching for it. I don't know. I'll be honest -- if Mike hadn't been so into blowjobs, either because they were degrading or whatever, I would at least have thought about it. I've always thought Jack was hot, and he's smart, too. His hair, though -- he's got this shaved stubble thing going, it's just bad."
   "I always liked him," Lisa said.
   Katherine hesitated. "He is looking for someone to go out with."
   Lisa blushed. "He's not going to just expose himself, is he?"
   "No, I think he was goofing because he knew I wouldn't."
   "Maybe I will. You have his number?"
   "Sure." Katherine pulled the scrap of paper out of her pocket, and then stopped. "Um, just so this doesn't come up later, one of the things Jack wanted me to do was try to set him up with someone. So if you're uncomfortable, tell me now."
   "No. So what about you? You doing okay?"
   "I'm a little flustered," Kat admitted. "He's even more Jack than I remembered him, and he used to be pretty intense."
   Lisa sat silently.
   "So look, I don't want to make this a habit or anything," Kat said, and Lisa didn't seem to react at all. "But I'll be honest, if I try and work this off myself, I'll be at it all night."
   "You want help working that off, then?"
   "Yes, if you want to, you know."
   "I don't know. You seemed weird after last time."
   "I wasn't weird," Kat said. "I didn't know what to do... I mean, are you supposed to cuddle afterwards?"
   "Yes," Lisa said. 
   "Then I'm sorry. Look, I'm already squirming around, please?"
   Lisa frowned. "I don't know."
   "Please?"
   Lisa's frown disappeared. "Maybe if you took off your top."
   Kat sighed and stood up from Lisa's desk chair, and took off her light-gray still damp sports bra. Her little lemon-sized breasts stood out in the room.
   "I don't know if that's going to help," Katherine said, depressed.
   "You've got nice breasts," Lisa said. "I don't know what you're all twisted up over. You've got no body fat, that's the deal."
   Kat looked around the room, shifting on her feet. "Okay."
   "Would you rather have some big breasts and back problems and weigh 220?"
   "No. Does this help?"
   Lisa considered this for a long minute. "Maybe if you took off your shorts."
   Katherine took them off, dragging her panties down with them, and stepped out completely naked, all tall, narrow, and muscle.
   "You should trim your pubes," Lisa said. "It'd help."
   "I do," Kat said, anxiously. "I'll do it again later. Now please?"
   "To be totally honest," Lisa said slowly, "I only wanted to see how badly you needed it." She slid off the bed to her knees in front of Kat. "Now spread your legs a little... good."
   Lisa put both hands up to spread Katherine's lips and ran her tongue up Kat's wrinkled lips to her exposed clit. Kat groaned softly.
   "You did need this," Lisa said. 
   She ran her tongue around Katherine's clitoris, gently nudging it as she went, and Katherine kept on groaning, her breath coming faster. Lisa started to just lick, up and down, and Kat's legs started to shake, her knees buckling, and Lisa had to move her hands around for support as she went faster, up and down and then around the bud. Katherine ran a hand through Lisa's blonde hair, pressing her in, and Kat began to shake, caught herself from crying out, and then as her breath came ragged, Lisa slowed. Kat found her legs again, stroked Lisa's head, and sunk to sit in front of her, sweating again.
   "You're such a good friend to me," Kat said.
   "Was all right, then?" Lisa asked. "I haven't done much of that."
   "Oh, it was so nice," Kat replied, dreamily, shifting her position. "I've never gotten that before. Not like that, anyway." She ran a hand across her sweaty chest. "I am never clean. Let me try."
   Lisa smiled. "Well, okay." She stood up, pulled her shirt off, her sweet apple breasts out in the air, her tiny nipples out and up. She started to take off her denim shorts.
   "See, you have nice breasts," Katherine said. "You've got no more body fat than I do, and look at that."
   Lisa cupped them with both hands and ran her fingers up. "You like, huh?" She sat down on the bed.
   Katherine got up and crawled up on the bed. "Yes," Katherine said, "I do."
   Kat kissed one nipple and then the other as Lisa held them for her, and then Kat licked around the nipples, and then gently sucked one as Lisa started to make little noises, and moved to the other. Then, kissing her way softly down, Katherine slipped her middle finger into Lisa, hot and wet. 
   Katherine kissed Lisa's nub and looked up, slowly working the finger.
   "Now, you're going to have to help me out here, I've never--"
   "Just lick," Lisa whispered hoarsely.
   Kat tried to imitate what Lisa had done, only she kept going down to penetrate with her tongue, tasting Lisa's juice, much tastier, more delicious than her own, only leaving to work Lisa's clitoris and use fingers when Lisa said "Up! Up!" and squirmed her hips. Katherine did as instructed and soon Lisa was coming, too, a long groan as Kat licked at her clit while moving two fingers quickly in and out. Lisa grunted once, twitching.
   "Stop now," she said. Katherine frowned and let off. 
   "Okay now, come up here," Lisa said.
   Katherine scooted up the sheets to face Lisa. Surprising herself, she put both her fingers in her mouth and sucked on them slowly.
   "How'd I do?" Kat asked.
   "Good, really good." Lisa leaned forward and kissed Kat softly, tenderly. "You did great." They kissed again. "You taste good, too."
   "So do you," Kat said, and when they kissed again, they opened their mouths and touched tongues.
   "The problem I've had," Lisa said, as they kept kissing, quicker and deeper, "is that when you do it like this, you only get hornier and hornier." She reached down and put her hand on Katherine's pubic mound, rubbing softly. Katherine moaned, pressing against her. Katherine's arm flopped around for a moment and then found Lisa's wet labia again. They kept on kissing, rubbing each other, grinding against each other's hands, moaning as they kissed, until they both came again, together, kissing harder and deeper than Katherine had ever before, and then it was over. They kissed softly, Lisa cuddled up to Kat, head against her shoulder, and Kat put her arms around Lisa's shoulder.
   "That was crazy," Katherine said softly.
   "You feel better?" Lisa asked, eyes closed.
   "Much," Kat said. "Wow."
   "Yes," Lisa said. "I wish you'd broken up with Mike earlier. I wouldn't have gone out with Paul just for the rubbing."
   "Sorry," Kat said. "It wasn't my fault."
   
   
   The weight room was almost empty in the morning before Katherine went to drills, and the guys that were there, football types mostly, fell silent at her entrance, watched her from the corner of their eyes as she tested the equipment, did her reps, and as she left they started to talk again. She would ask Lisa to come with her next time.
   
   
   Katherine looked at Suzette across the mat. They did the shaolin salutation and Kat stepped back into her cat stance, watching Suzette drop into her waving forward foot thing. Kat ground her teeth against her mouth piece. Suzette's eyes watched Katherine's stance. Kat blocked a straight right, a cross left, and Suzette came low with a kick that left Kat's right calf dead. As Kat drooped a little, adjusting to having no feedback, Suzette took a step forward and pummeled Kat's stomach and ribs until finally Kat wobbled in pain and dropped. Suzette laughed, laughed in front of the whole team, dusted her hands together, and then walked back to her friends standing at the end of the sideline. Kat looked up to see Mrs. Atin offering her a hand up.
   "Jess and Amy, you're next," she said. She stepped back, clipboard in hand, and made a couple of notes on her roster sheet (Suzette: great instinct for attack. Katherine: vulnerable after hit).
   "I'll be honest with you," Mrs. Atin told Katherine in a low voice, as they watched the next challenge match. Amy, one of Suzette's best friends, was thrashing Jessica left and right across the mat. "Even though you lost yesterday, badly, I was hoping you'd rise to the match and beat her, make me reconsider leaving you off the list."
   "I will," Kat said.
   "I'm going to keep you out of the next meet. I think you'll be back, Kat, but it's going to take longer than I thought."
   "I understand."
   Atin looked at her. "Really? Last time I kept you out of a meet you ended up calling me a cunt in front of my biology class."
   "Yes," Katherine said, "and I'm still sorry about that. I'm getting better."
   Her coach nodded. "I know." In front of them, Amy knocked Jessica down with a beautiful roundhouse kick. Amy helped Jessica up and they walked to Mrs Atin, bowed.
   "Terry and Laura," Mrs Atin yelled. She made marks on her clipboard. "Who're you going to now?"
   "My cousin Jack," Katherine replied.
   Mrs Atin did a double-take and actually looked away from the match to Katherine.
   "Jack Connor's your cousin?"
   Kat nodded. Mrs Atin gave a low whistle and returned to watching the match.
   "Well, this should be an interesting year for you, then."
   
   
   Katherine unwrapped herself in the locker room and stood before her locker, wearing only her panties, and poked her bruises. Her calf was shooting pain up her leg; she had limped back into the locker room, her eyes watering but holding back tears through shear force of will. Standing, she could see that her flat stomach was red and bruised so badly she could nearly see Suzette's fist-prints in her skin. Kat poked herself. It hurt.
   "You okay, Kat?" Lisa asked, sitting next to her on the cold concrete ledge. Lisa had won her second scrimmage in a row unscratched, and would likely be seated on varsity again.
   Katherine coughed and winced in pain. She closed her eyes and tried to keep the tears back.
   "You remember what that feels like," Suzette said, passing on her way to the shower for her walkthrough.
   Katherine took a long breath. Her hands closed into fists, opened.
   "You can always forfeit matches," Suzette called.
   Katherine turned on her good leg and launched right at Suzette, who was just removing her towel to shower, knocking her flat onto the slick shower tile. They slid back into one of the stainless steel shower poles, the hot water spraying them. Katherine pinned Suzette's arms with her knees and started to work on her sweet, well-balanced face, trying to turn it bloody and asymetrical. Kat was pulled off by Amy, who threw her back against a porcelain wall and Suzette screamed in anger, getting to her feet, restrained in the mist by cooler heads, and started to cuss like a stub-toed sailor at the top of her lungs, her face red from the heat and anger, streaked with diluted blood.
   
   
   
   Within an hour, Katherine was suspended for the rest of the week. She headed to see Jack for her first lesson later, having already done her drills for the day, ready to learn stance and style, her leg making it difficult to push the clutch in and shift, her ribs making every breath a hurtful thing.
   "Lisa called," Jack said, rising from his parents' doorstep to greet her. "Thanks."
   "Sure,"
   Jack smiled slowly as Katherine took off her heavy Gonzaga sweats, standing in his backyard in her black top and fighting shorts.
   "What?" Kat asked him, hands on hips.
   "Did you get hit by a car?"
   "No," she said. "Suzette. She set me up with high strikes, kicked my right calf, and then stepped in and played paddy-cakes without my participation."
   "It looks brutal."
   "It was brutal."
   "You okay?"
   Kat shook her head. "But I will be. Teach me stance."
   "Take the cat stance." 
   Kat did the salutation, stepped back into her stance.
   "Here's your problem. The cat stance keeps you from moving freely. Your strikes are also weaker, because you're kind of crouched and your weight's badly distributed. Are you with me?"
   "Yeah," Katherine said. She stood. "That's weird, I'd sort of thought that, but the other ones Atin taught were worse."
   "Here's the on-guard stance, then." Jack stood, bending his knees slightly, right shoulder up a touch, chin down slightly, right hand up and shoulder-height, a foot away, left forearm almost touching his chest, his whole body slightly angled to Kat. Kat looked at him closely and took the stance up.
   "See, you're a natural. Except--" he approached her and gently moved her arm a little, tapped her legs into place with his foot, gently offering positioning advice as he went, until he stepped back and laughed. "Perfect. How's that feel?"
   "Awkward," Kat said.
   Jack nodded. "Try and move."
   Without telegraphing the move at all Kat punched straight at Jack with her lead hand and caught his forehead as he tried to dodge.
   "Ow," Jack said, reaching up to rub it slowly. "Don't hurt the teacher." He laughed, nodded. "Nice."
   "I like this," Kat said, smiling. She moved her guard hand easily from shoulder down, bobbing on her feet.
   "Bend your back knee a little. There. Do your drills like this from now on. You'll feel weird, working out of it at first, but you won't feel awkward. Try and keep the position. You'll find it comes naturally after you understand how to strike out of it."
   Grinning, Kat punched Jack in the chest, pulling the blow late and barely tapping him.
   "I'm aware you're that fast, thank you," Jack said. "Now I'm going to show you some strikes and some blocks from that position. We'll do a couple slow, get the form down, then a couple fast."
   Jack had promised to spend two hours with Katherine twice a week. It was four hours later, the night already come, lit by the porch light, when Jack finally let Kat leave. Kat was flush red with the effort, her sweats heavy with sweat, her hair slick and wet, her muscles complaining about the unfamiliar movements. Jack looked proud and exhausted.
   "I think we may get the Connor clan another County plaque," he said. "I'm exhausted. Spend your suspension well. Do speed work. Jump rope. Run intervals. Work on the dummy. And keep lifting."
   "Can I start winning now?" Katherine asked. Jack started to say something and Kat silenced him with a glare. "Because I'm already tired of getting beaten into the mats every day."
   Jack, his chest still heaving with the effort, nodded.
   "You still do slots based on challenges?"
   "Same as your day, except Atin sort of keeps tabs on the all-county rankings and past performance, so if you're the number one and scrimmage like crap, you'll still get the chance to lose in the next match."
   "Do you know what you're ranked now?"
   Katherine stared at him, color rising in her cheeks.
   "I'm not."
   Jack blinked. "You're coming off an injury, that's not unusual. This could be to your advantage."
   "I want to get back on the board, Jack, that's why I'm here, it's why I've set you up, it's why I follow your fucking instructions when I'm at home, in the hot and dusty garage, beating the crap out of the heavy bag. I want to be ranked, and I don't care if it's #100."
   Jack nodded. "Have you been watching the matches? Seeing what people do against you?"
   "Yeah."
   Jack smiled. "Who's the highest ranking person on your team you think is just out there swinging?"
   Katherine thought about this. "Amy."
   "What's her slot?" Jack looked at Kat eagerly.
   "She's varsity. She's third or fourth on the varsity squad. Big girl, very powerful, fast."
   Jack's smile widened, and he nodded. His eyes bright, he looked like the smile might crack his face open. He spoke slowly, so Katherine had to hang on each syllable, annoyed. "On what -- Tuesday? -- when you return, I want you to challenge Amy for her spot, and beat her into unconsciousness."
   
   Kat snuck into the gym to work out in the morning with the footballers, who still tried to pretend they weren't staring at her, or getting aroused when she worked certain machines that involved showing her ass to the room. She smiled to herself, thinking of the guys trying to find excuses not to hit the shower so they wouldn't have to show their erections to each other.
   
   Part Three: Rise of the Kat
   
   Lisa was much faster on the path, keeping a steady pace. Katherine wore high, stiff hiking boots, a stiff knee brace, and picked her steps carefully, trying even then not to twist her ankle or risk a fall. Lisa stopped and waited at each turn of the trail as Kat worked to catch up.
   "I wanted to thank you for setting me up with Jack," Lisa said, as Katherine stepped past her. Kat grunted. "Seriously, it's cool going out with an older guy."
   "He's twenty-one," Katherine said, annoyed. Lisa didn't catch her tone.
   "It does make a difference. It's cool not talking about high school, you know, and it's cool not having to see him all the time, but like a couple times a week."
   Katherine rolled her eyes and looked back. "So it's cool."
   "Jack is so funny, and he's smart, and he really likes me, I think."
   "That's always good."
   "And I gotta tell you, he's a great lay. Sort of lazy, but he makes sure I'm taken care of, you know?"
   "No, I don't know," Katherine said.
   "But you know what I mean?"
   Kat ground her teeth together as she approached two logs over a stream. She stopped to let Lisa take the lead again.
   "No," Kat said. "I have never been out with a guy like that."
   Lisa didn't move on, but stopped and set down her pack. "I guess not. I'm sorry." She sat down against a tree and dug out a water bottle. "I sort of thought that Mike--"
   "Nope," Kat said. "I don't think I realized it at the time, but every time I think back on our time together I get angrier, and I wonder why I was happy."
   Lisa smiled. "You were in love, Kat."
   Kat blinked. "I was? Why?"
   "I don't know. Mike's nice enough."
   "Not really my point, Lisa." Kat kicked at a tree trunk gently. "I miss having him, but I don't miss him. You know?"
   "Not really."
   "Never mind. It's not important. I don't need anybody."
   Lisa shuffled her feet. "I was going to talk to you about that."
   "Huh?"
   "Now that I'm going out with Jack seriously, I don't think we should..." Lisa sighed. "You know what I'm trying to say."
   Katherine nodded. "I do."
   "You understand?"
   "Sure."
   Lisa smiled. "I'm so glad. It's not that it's not fun and all, you know, you're great, it's just..."
   "No, Lisa, I understand. It's not a big deal."
   "Good. Because you're a great friend, and I was afraid we might have gone..."
   "No. No, I'm fine."
   Lisa sighed, and turned back to start up the trail. Kat felt weirdly empty, but as she picked her way through the rooted trail she felt anger start to rise across her back, her neck heating, and she started to push harder, keeping Lisa moving and not looking back.
   
   Kat pushed the heavy bag in the garage back, working combos out of her new stance. She was sweating hard, breathing the hot dust as she shook the rafter, but she was keeping the bag from swinging back. Her gloved knuckles spiked pain with each blow, and her tan forearms were dark with bruising from her forearm smashes, and Katherine only moved in closer, trying to drive the bag off its hook, biting into her cheap, bitter plastic mouthpiece until it split in two and she stepped back to spit it across the garage into the cat litter that absorbed the 10-40w from her dad's pickup.
   "God dammit," Kat yelled.
   
   "I want to challenge," Katherine told her coach.
   "Let me tell you something about the optimization of resources," Atin replied, looking at Kat over her desk. "You see, what we want to do is win the meet. That means that once I've come up with a lineup, I want to keep them healthy."
   "Don't you also want to field the best team?"
   "Katherine, I'm not convinced that team includes you right now. Now who were you thinking of challenging?"
   "Amy."
   Atin's head bobbed slightly as she choked back a laugh.
   "Well, now I'm concerned about your health, not Amy's."
   "I'm serious."
   "I have to answer to the parents if we have a bad season, Katherine, but I also get to answer questions if their little babies get put in the hospital, and as much as you've been a pain in my ass, I do honestly like you, I don't want to see you hurt, because if your parents are anything like you, they're going to be a huge pain in my ass if you get injured again."
   Katherine stared at Atin, and Atin stared back at her. Outside the classroom, lockers opened and closed, and people talked.
   Atin shook her head. "Fine," she said. "But I'll tell you this, Katherine, you're not winning any points with me."
   
   Amy was a big girl, six-four and a power forward on the women's basketball team, prone to giving the elbow on the move to the rim, flagrant fouls, and was on controlled substances for bulk and energy. She bounced a little on the mat as she grinned at Kat, stretching her long, strong arms. She wore a white tank top and black shorts tight so Kat could see the defined lines of her stomach as well as the minor bulge of the breasts Amy tolerated.
   Kat stood across from Amy, perfectly still. Everyone was paying attention to this challenge match, and Kat could feel all eyes on her, wondering what could be on her mind, or wrong with it. Kat was thinking that her new mouthpiece didn't even have a taste yet.
   Amy and Kat saluted and Amy drew back into her elaborate boxing stance. Kat batted with her lead hand and Amy started swinging, Kat leaning way back left, then right, and as she bobbed back in Kat drove her right into Amy's kidney, smiling as Amy gasped in pain. Kat stepped back again, raising her lead, dropping it. Amy led with an easily-blocked kick and then came in swinging. Kat deflected each blow as Amy flurried, and then, as Amy started a long hook, socked her in the ear. Amy moved back, guard up. 
   
   Amy tried to use her long reach on Katherine, extending her hands far in front of her body, batting at Katherine, looking for an opening to drive. Katherine deflected the blows out as she stood her ground, and with pleasure watched Amy's cheeks flush red and her breath come ragged, until Amy stepped back, slouching in her stance, a dumb cloud of confusion in her face.
   
   Katherine felt her breath come to her easily, in long, slow takes, and Amy, frustrated, came in again. Amy's left arm came up for another power strike. Kat kicked high and hard, and Amy took the blow out on the forearm. The snap was sharp and low as Amy's forearm seemed to fold around Kat's foot, horribly broken. Kat stepped back and watched neutrally as Amy screamed in pain, holding her arm against her chest, bent crazily. There was no other sound in the gym except for Amy's cry as the crowd stared, all open-mouthed, pale. Amy looked at each of them in turn, still wailing, and when she looked at Ms. Atin, who snapped to.
   "Jessica, get Amy to the doctor."
   Jessica stepped forward and helped Amy on out. The gym rang with the low silence again.
   "Practice is over," Atin said. "I'll see everyone tomorrow."
   Kat stood on the mat as the team shuffled out, starting to whisper. Atin stared angrily at Katherine.
   "Do you remember what I said about my obligation to keep my team healthy?"
   Katherine nodded.
   "Kat, I'm going to give you the last slot on the varsity team. You'd better be better than Amy for the rest of the season, or I'm going to see you not only don't letter but you won't graduate and you'll have to go from school to school, G.E.D. in hand, begging for admission."
   Kat sighed. "I'll be honest, Ms. Atin, that's a pretty lame threat."
   "It's all I have right now. I'll come up with something better later. Go home. Think about what happened today, if you ended Amy's sports career, intentionally or not."
   Katherine nodded and walked to the locker room, where arguments were loud through the doors and stopped as she entered.
   
   
   Walking to Physics, Mike walked arm in arm with Suzette in the other direction, and as they passed Suzette kicked Kat's books across the floor.
   Kat stood as people walked around her, turning to glare at Suzette, who gave her a wave as she walked on down the hall.
   Kat picked up her books.
   
   Jack laughed when Katherine told him, a sort of ha-ha weird laugh, and Kat waited for him to give up the pretense.
   "I'm surprised," he said. "I thought you were going to get your ass kicked."
   Katherine struck him on the forehead on his last word, not even thinking, knocking Jack flat on his ass, cigarette flying up. She batted it to one side with the back of her hand.
   "Christ, Kat!" he yelled, angry.
   "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that."
   "I thought you'd put up a good fight, but she'd still be too strong, and you'd see that your strength work was starting to pay off, that you'd gained power without losing quickness. That's all. You'd see where you were."
   "Jack, I broke her arm."
   Jack blinked. He sat up slowly, cross-legged, and reached for his still-burning cigarette.
   "Really?" he said, exhaling. "Tell me about it."
   "She was moving her arm up for another downward strike and I kicked it," Katherine said. "Got her hard in the forearm, broke it."
   "Jesus fucking Christ, Kat, that's impressive. How's your foot?"
   Katherine sat down against the opposite wall of Jack's bedroom. "You're the first person to ask, Jack. It's bruised but I feel okay. I hit it perfectly, like I was working the bag or something."
   "Broke her damn arm, huh? Holy crap. That's awesome. Here, do it, hit my hand."
   Jack held his left hand up and Kat rose into the kick, pulling it back to smack his hand lightly.
   "See, that is some sweet technique, you're doing well coming out of the new stance. You going to the next meet?"
   "Varsity. Atin gave me the last slot, though, instead of Amy's #4."
   "That's not unexpected."
   "She's really pissed at me. I forced her to put on the challenge, and then..."
   "Atin will come around. Fight well, and you'll win her back over. How do you feel?"
   "I'm tired and sore, Jack."
   Jack nodded. "We'll do some half-speed work, okay? Give you a light day. I know I've been working you hard."
   Kat sighed, looked off, nodded. "Yeah, that'd be nice. I want to work on my low blocks, that's where I keep opening up."
   "That the only place you've been opening up?" Jack put his hand on Kat's stomach, his touch cool, looking at the faint bruising.
   "Jack, would you please shut the fuck up?"
   "You're a quick healer," he said. He moved his hand up to grab a breast and Kat yelped, knocked his hand away.
   "You better be a quick healer."
   Jack smiled. "I recover pretty quickly," he said.
   "What?" Kat said, and then saw, low in her vision, his shorts. "Oh fucking Christ, Jack, are we going to have to go through this every time I come over?"
   Jack reached down to adjust himself, laughed. "Nah, I was just thinking about what happens when you win All County."
   "I'm not double-teaming you, Jack. Give it up."
   "We all need to have dreams."
   His erection was obvious now. "Knock it off already."
   "What, you think there's an on-off switch on these things? You should wear baggier clothes when you come over."
   "Oh, blame the victim."
   "Come on, let's work on the blocks, then."
   Jack walked out to the back lawn in his bare feet, yawning, reaching down to grab himself again.
   "Knock it off!" Kat yelled at him again.
   Jack shrugged. "Okay, let's say I come at you like this --" and he moved into a slow lead kick.
   Kat moved to block.
   "No, no," Jack said. "See, then you're forward too, and if I'm fast --" he moved inside her block in a flash, had both hands on her stomach. Kat pushed him off. "An easy lead, take it and counter with something while they're moving, or dodge it. Don't commit."
   He slowed a lead in again, Kat moved back. "Good, now if I do two," and as Kat moved back he came around with an open hand, landed it on top of her breast. "See?" Kat stepped in and punched Jack in the stomach and as he grunted in pain and leaned forward, grabbed at his shorts, catching his shaft in hand.
   "You know you can sprain your dick?" Kat said. "Tear some ligaments something awful."
   "Is this supposed to be a deterrent?" Jack said, straightening, going up on his toes to drive into her hand. "Because it's not. That is a nice grip."
   Kat dropped her hand and tried to punch him again. Jack caught the blow in his hand as he windmilled the other to grab her crotch.
   "See, Kat, you're still not thinking your moves through."
   Kat took her free hand and hit his shoulder, moving back, and stared at him.
   "You shouldn't take that personally. Look at me!" Jack looked down at his shorts, the obvious pressing need.
   "Okay, how do you handle it?" Kat asked.
   Jack shrugged, ran a hand over the stubble on his dome. "You don't really know until it comes."
   Kat gave him the same short kick lead and as he moved back, came in to punch, and he had her turned around before she blinked, the hardness between her cheeks, her sports bra up, his hands on her breasts, cupping them in his cool hands.
   Kat didn't move. Jack started a chuckle and she drove her left elbow into his side and at the same time came up to put his head in the crook of her right arm and, moving back and down into him, flipping him flat on his shoulders, rolling out on the grass.
   She glared at him as he craned his head up to look at her. "You through?" Kat asked. "You over this now?"
   Jack kept staring, snaking his hand down. "Not really," he said.
   "I'm not going to stand here while you jerk off."
   "Okay," Jack said, resting his right hand on his erection. "You should probably put your..."
   Kat took it off and tossed it away. "I'm tired of this, Jack. Let's settle this and move on."
   Jack scrambled to his feet. "What, are you kidding?"
   Kat walked at him, snagged the collar of his shirt, and pulled quickly, tossing Jack with a loud ripping, sending him sprawling. Kat kicked him in the ass.
   "Get up."
   Jack stood, his T-shirt's neck badly torn on the seams to the shoulders. He peeled it off and stood in the grass, balling it in his hands in front of his six-pack, smile gone from his face, the muscles on his forearms coming out as he twisted the fabric in his hands. "Okay," Jack said, and tossed it aside.
   Kat rolled her head on her neck.
   "Try not to kick me in the dick," Jack said.
   "Hard to hit a small target like that anyway."
   Jack snorted. "You've got eyes, why you gotta be lying?"
   He feinted half-heartedly and Kat took a swing, missed. They circled each other.
   "This is stupid for you," Jack said. "You don't know what you're doing yet."
   Kat made like she would kick and didn't, and Jack didn't react, then as she moved he came in to smack her jaw high and with the other hand grab the waistband of her shorts and whip her around twice and toss her hard to the ground.
   "Should have played more football," Jack said.
   Kat stood up, long dark green stains across her knees and forearms. Her shorts hung loose on her hips, long elastic threads dangling from where it had ripped. She pulled them down and stepped out, naked in the summer heat, her skin red and flushed with anger openly on the patches of untanned skin.
   "You're really pissing me off, Jack," Kat said.
   Jack reached down and gave himself a quick pull. "Yeah? You shouldn't have started this if you couldn't finish it."
   Kat sneered and took her stance as she came forward, Jack trying not to look her up and down, and as his eyes flicked she clocked him with straight punches to each side of the head and then drove him straight back with a hand on his throat, driving him down to the turf as she levered him down. Jack gasped for breath and Kat sat on his sweat-slick stomach.
   "Yeah, pretty fucking funny now, isn't it, you fucking idiot?" with her free hand she reached back and pulled Jack's shorts down, catching his head in the waistband and causing him to jump. She tightened her grip on his throat and freed his member. Jack wheezed, and Kat slid down a little, the tip of his erection touching her tailbone, jumping with his frantic pulse.
   Jack shook his head, his eyes jumping around the yard, hoping for a neighbor, a gas meter-reader, anything. Kat leaned her hips forward, set her wet lips against his head, moved down enough to put some pressure.
   "I was going to torture you a while, Jack, but fuck it." Kat drove down on him, feeling Jack's pulse in her, and Jack's back arched and he groaned. Kat ignored him, ground herself back and forth on his pubic symphysis, feeling the rush build quickly, her breath as ragged as Jack's. Kat came, pulling up and clamping down on Jack's hardness in her, and she felt him jerk inside and he shuddered beneath her.
   Kat pushed back down and with her free hand punched Jack in the jaw. He yelped as his dick kept jerking inside her, coming over and over. "Did I fucking tell you to do that?"
   Jack made a gurgling noise. She relaxed her grip, hit him again.
   "Did I fucking tell you to do that?"
   Jack groaned and tried to push farther in, his convulsions finished. "No," he said, his voice faint and painful.
   "You are such an asshole," Kat said, and stood, smiling while he couldn't see her face. She pulled Jack's shorts off his ankles and put them on. Kat found her sports bra and put it back on. . Jack laid on the lawn, propped up on one elbow, rubbing his neck. He looked at Kat with fear and something else in his eyes.
   Kat walked over. "I think today's lesson is over."
   Jack nodded.
   "You remember that, Jack. If you need to jerk it, do it before I come over, you got it? I'm tired of this bullshit from you?"
   Jack nodded again, rubbing his jaw. "I, uh, I don't think you're really my type after all."
   "Good for fucking me," Kat said. "I'm going to go do some training. I'll see you Thursday, and if you so much --"
   "I've got it," Jack said, getting to his feet, his dick dangling stupidly in the air.
   "And if I don't win county, I'm going to come back and beat that fuck out of you," Kat said.
   "All right."
   Kat turned and walked around the house and to her car, cracking a wide grin.
   "Holy crap, I have got to get a hold of myself," she said as she started her car. She giggled all the way back to her house.
   
   
   Lisa did her beauty queen stretch easily, the move causing a man her dad's age to trip and fall on the gravel path. Lisa gave Katherine an arched eyebrow and Kat laughed. The man blushed and hurried on, keeping his skinned palms close to his chest.
   "It's good to see I've still got it," Lisa said, moving to do the other side, facing Katherine, who was stretching out her quads. Lisa's tank top, stretched, showed the top of her breasts, and Katherine immediately thought of how it looked flushed when Lisa was aroused. Kat caught herself, moved into another stretch.
   "Yeah, you've got it," Kat said. She stood, rolled her head on her shoulders. "You ready?"
   "Hold on already, you're worse than Jack."
   Katherine stopped stretching and looked down. "Oh yeah?"
   Lisa laughed. "He gets so anxious, it's cute. I held out on him a while, but it was so long since I got properly serviced, you know." She looked around the empty park. "By a guy."
   "It's going well, then?"
   Lisa stood up, pulled her arms back. "I'll bring him around on foreplay, but once he gets going, hold on to the bedposts, it's a wild ride."
   Katherine nodded, cracked her knuckles.
   Lisa moved to pull her arm across her chest, stretching her shoulder and triceps. "He gets so hard, Kat, and I get sooo wet.."
   "Yes, I know," Kat said. Lisa grinned.
   "You okay with this?"
   "I'm fine."
   Lisa stared.
   "I'm not fine, no," Katherine said. "Look, I'll be honest. As much fun as I had blowing Mike at his convenience, I don't think I had better sex than uh, we did, when you were helping me out. And now you're seeing Jack, you're all glow-y and relaxed, and so is he, and you're talking about getting properly fucked, and me? I don't know I've ever got properly fucked, and I'm... I'm pissed. And jealous."
   "At least you're honest," Lisa said. She put a hand on Kat's shoulder. "We'll get you taken care of."
   "Will you?"
   "Well, I won't. Because--"
   "We already had that conversation, yeah," Katherine said. "Let's run."
   Lisa looked at Kat's face for a long minute, and then nodded. "Okay."
   
   They ran in silence, taking the harder trails in the foothills, such as they were, Kat pushing the pace faster as they went, suffering and still moving, until they'd stumbled the last half-mile of the loop, soaked in sweat.
   "You feel better now?" Lisa gasped as they walked circles in the park, hands on heads.
   "Yeah."
   "You trying to hurt me, or hurt yourself?"
   "Fuck off."
   "Doesn't matter either way, I guess."
   Kat turned away, took a couple of steps, turned back.
   "I'm off to go fuck your cousin," Lisa said. Kat's face broke into a smile and resigned laugh. "There you go. Look Kat, I went without a guy for six months and I'm hornier than anybody. You can manage."
   "You had help," Kat said. "I don't have help, anymore."
   "I'm sorry," Lisa said. "I'd give you a referral, but..."
   Kat waved her hand. "No, go. Go see Jack."
   Lisa stepped in and gave Katherine a tight hug, sweat on sweat, Lisa's arms slick around Kat's neck. Kat had been this slipper with Lisa before, in bed, sliding -- a warm ache fought her sore legs for notice.
   "Bye." Lisa walked way to her car, and Katherine stood in the park, watching her leave. One of her friend's dads jogged by, trying not to stare at Kat. She gave him the finger and went to dunk her head in the lake.
   
   Mike's truck sat in front of Katherine's house. Mike sat in the living room with her parents. Katherine's parents were all smiles, Mike relaxed. He stood as she came in. Kat's heavy sweat was heavy on her skin, salt crystals and trail grime.
   "Hi, Katherine, I thought I'd see how you--"
   Kat stepped right up to him, leaned into his ear. "You hear what happened to Amy?"
   "Yeah," Mike said, too loud, and Kat winced at his stupidity.
   "You know how I broke her arm? I pretended it was you. Get the fuck out of my house and don't come back."
   Katherine stepped back. His face was pale and a little green. Stupid and gullible. Kat wondered how she'd ever dated him for so long. "Mike, aren't you going to be late for practice?"
   He started. "Oh, you're right. Sorry we couldn't talk, uh. Bye, Mr. and Mrs. Connors."
   They waved.
   "Does this mean you two are getting back together?" Katherine's mom asked, with a wink and a knowing smile.
   "Oh fuck no," Kat said, and stomped down the hall.
   She stepped into the shower, cranked the water up, the cold shock startling and welcome, the taste of salt in her mouth as the water came down. The water came around and Kat started to wash her hair, and then, section by section, scrub the layer of grime off her. Clean, she started to think of the shower, and reached down.
   She was still horny. She leaned her back against the wall of the shower, the water washing across her chest, and as she started to rub herself she thought of Jack, and smiling as he showed off the erection, that little touch of desperation in his eyes, taking him inside her on his unkempt bed, his lithe body over her, and Kat came, clamping her legs on her hand as the waves of heat ran across her and the water down her body.
   "Wow," Kat said, blinking in the steam. "That was quick."
   She turned the water off, still warm and fuzzy, toweled herself dry, and walked across the hall to her room where she dug some mostly-clean sweats off the floor. Her mom knocked, and Kat opened the door.
   "You feel better?"
   "Yeah, a little," Kat said.
   "Dinner's ready if you're hungry."
   
   
   The week before the meet went quickly, Kat walking through her classes, doing her drills, seeing Jack, listening to Lisa talk about Jack, working out, and one day out running by herself she met Terry on the paths and they jogged back to Terry's house as they talked.
   
   
   Terry sat on the porch of her double-wide, listening to Kat intently as beads of condensation ran down her glass of water. Katherine stood, waving her arms around as she talked, until she ran out of things to complain about, and looked out across the packed-dirt road at the other mobiles in different states of collapse.
   "You finished?" Terry asked, and took a sip of her water.
   Kat turned, nodded. "Sorry, I've been building up to that rant for a while."
   Terry waved her concern off with her glass. "What you need to do, Katherine," Terry said, "is find yourself a guy. You're thinking about this too much. Just go find some guy and give it up. It's not that big of a deal."
   "But I don't want to," Katherine said. "That's not the point. I mean, I need that, but I don't want to be talk of the town, or catch herpes, or.. you know?"
   Terry nodded. "I don't know what to tell you, Kat," she said. "You need to find some nice guy who'll treat you well, tie him down, and have your way with him."
   Kat nodded.
   "What about all the other stuff?" Katherine asked.
   "That'll all work itself out."
   "You think?"
   Terry nodded, took a long drink of her cool water. "I know."
   "Okay, then," Kat said. "Thanks for listening."
   Terry smiled. "Happy to help."
   
   
   Dan was Katherine's height, with wild, spiky black hair, metal blue eyes, and a runner's build. Katherine stopped him in the hall. He looked at her for a second, confused.
   "Hey, Katherine, long time. How've you been?"
   Katherine looked at him, glanced at his friend, who stared at her.
   "Can you I talk to you alone for a minute, Dan?"
   "Okay," he said. "Later, Tom." He walked out in front of the school, leading Katherine. "What's up, Katherine?"
   "You've always seemed like a good guy, Dan. When I blew out my knee, you were really sweet to help me out, even though you didn't have to, and you had a girlfriend and everything."
   "Uh, okay."
   "So here's the deal." She took a breath. "This is hard."
   "Take your time," Dan said. "What can I do for you?"
   "I'm lonely," Kat blurted. "Mike dumped me, my best friend's found someone she really likes screwing, and I need someone to hang out with, hug me when I need it, and tell me everything's okay when maybe it's not." She looked up at him. "There was a time last year when I tried to get up at the end of class and I just toppled, and you caught me, and I started to just cry, and you stayed there until I could go on. You remember that?"
   "Yes."
   "And you shut your mouth, nobody knew."
   "Yeah."
   "So ask me out, Dan, that's what you can do for me."
   Dan smiled, and nodded. "You want to go out, Katherine? I was thinking we could go for a movie or something tonight."
   "Sure," Kat said. "Here's the deal, and I'm going to be quick because we need to get back to class. If you want to drink some, smoke some dope, no big deal, nothing worse. I expect you to answer my calls if you're there, check up on me, make sure I'm doing well, and it'd be nice if I got a surprise out of you once in a while."
   "Got it, okay."
   "I'll put out if you're a good boy, but there are restrictions. I do it, you do it, get it? You don't know how, I'll give you directions."
   "Sure thing."
   "Anything else you think you need to know?"
   "I think that about covers it."
   "You going to be okay with this?"
   "I think so," Dan said. "We should talk more later."
   "We can talk on the date. It's a deal?"
   "Sure."
   Katherine stuck out her hand and Dan shook it firmly.
   "You been working out, Dan?"
   Dan smiled. "Little. Doing some rock climbing."
   "Aight, I'll see you in Vigg's class."
   Dan's grin got wider as he nodded, and it seemed he might burst into song. He turned and jogged down the emptying hall.
   "What have I done?" Katherine asked no one.
   
   
   Part Four: Fist of the Kat
   
   
   Katherine spent the remaining two days drilling, pushing weights, and dating.
   Dan stood on her doorstop that first day, having spent two hours working out how they might work out a relationship, and returned her home safe and sound.
   "I should tell you something, though," Dan said, kicking one of his feet against the concrete step.
   "What's that?"
   Dan looked up at her and Kat smiled at her own reflection in his blue eyes.
   "I've always liked you," he said. "I'm sorry you spent all that time with Mike. I wish I'd done something."
   "No harm done," Kat said. "You going to kiss me good-night?"
   Dan shrank back, his face all mock-surprise. "On a first date?"
   Katherine laughed. "Second date then. Thanks, Daniel."
   "I'll see you tomorrow," he said, waved, and walked down the driveway, looking back at her twice on his way to his car.
   
   
   "Do I know this Dan guy?" Jack asked.
   "No," Kat said. "After your time."
   "You want me to ask around, see if he's a good guy?"
   "Jack, I've lived in a town with four thousand people for ten years. There aren't a lot of secrets."
   Jack frowned.
   "But this protective side of you is so cute," Kat said, and pinched his cheek. "Look at you. You'd think I was related to you somehow, instead of some hot piece of ass you're after."
   "I don't think you're a hot piece of ass."
   "Yeah you do."
   "I do not."
   "We both know you think I'm a hot piece of ass, Jack, even if that's not why you're all protective."
   Jack sighed.
   "Okay, you're a red-hot piece of ass and I would love, love to get a crack at it."
   "Too bad," Kat said. "You should learn to be content with what you have."
   "You should learn to get back in position after you parry."
   Kat rolled her eyes.
   
   
   Katherine was loading books she hadn't read into her locker on her way to classes where she hadn't done the reading when Dan stopped by, smiling.
   "What do you want to do for a second date?" Dan asked
   "We've got a match against AR tomorrow," Katherine said. "How's uh... later?"
   "I'll drive out to the match," Dan said. "Support my girl."
   "You think this thing is really funny, don't you?"
   "No," Dan said, still smiling.
   "Don't be whipped," Kat said, rolling her eyes. "Don't drive out there to kiss my ass."
   "I don't have to drive out there to kiss your ass," Dan said. "I've never seen you fight, I want to go, get a feel for what you're into."
   Katherine stared at him for a moment.
   "I've either made a really good decision with you, or a really, really bad one."
   "You'll have to trust me, I guess. I'll see you there."
   
   
   Lisa's head bobbed as she listened to speed metal on her headphones, psyching herself up for the night's matches. Kat would have it easy, taking on the other team's #10, probably someone unranked, but Lisa was going to have to take someone serious on, and had told Kat she wanted to "have my blood-adrenaline percentage up to like 50."
   Suzette walked up the aisle and slapped the back of Kat's head as she went by. Kat lept up, left arm under Suzette's chin, pushing her over into Jessica's seat. Suzette got her left arm around Kat's head and held it tight to her shoulder as she rabbit-punched Kat in the stomach and Jessica screamed at them both to get up. Lisa grabbed a hold of Kat's shirt with both hands and dead-lifted them both straight up into the aisle. 
   Kat drove her right knee up into Suzette's kidney as they staggered back into the back emergency door. Atin was up and trying to push through the aisle. Kat gave Suzette the knee over and over as Suzette tried to keep Kat's arms pinned back. Gwen charged for Kat's back, Lisa kicked her leg out from under her. Gwen spun, her legs down and tangled in seat post, and ran her forehead straight into the hard plastic floor.
   "Knock it off!" Atin roared, stepping on the unconscious Gwen's back and putting Kat in a brutal headlock. Kat stepped back, Suzette released, Atin hauled Kat backwards all the way to the front of the bus and shoved her into a seat.
   "I cannot fucking believe you two," Atin said. "Sit down!" she yelled to the back, where Lisa and Suzette were staring at each other.
   "She started it," Katherine said.
   "Shut the fuck up. If I hear anything from you before we get to this shithole, I will cut you."
   Kat shut up.
   Katherine looked at the stores as the school bus came in: they had a Domino's instead of View's local pizza shop, and conversely their grocery store wasn't something she recognized, where at least her town merited a Safeway. Able Magruder was a shithole, another public works project of the 1960s, all concrete block buildings painted white.
   Kat's stomach hurt. She lifted her shirt and looked. It was hard to tell in the faint fading bruises how bad the damage was. Kat poked with two fingers, and it was tender.
   "Don't say anything," Atin said. "I don't want to hear it."
   Kat started and then swallowed her response.
   
   Matches were quick and went from lowest rung on up, so the last match of the night would be Suzette against the top Magruder fighter. Suzette was ranked way ahead of the Magruder girl, but all nine counted a point against the win, so Kat's match on the undercard was in a way as important as the last one.
   Not that school matches were important anyway: for the girls, they could get out of conference with a title, but it was the All County Invitational, seeded by individual rankings, that was the season. The crowd was all AM: it was a long weeknight drive to see View beat up a minor high school, and not late enough in the season where people would come out to see high-ranked matchups. The AM crowd wanted an upset, though. 
   Kat took the mat nervously, dancing on the balls of her feet, bobbing.
   "Wooooooooo!" Daniel yelled from the stands. 
   "Booooooooo!" the AM crowd screamed.
   As Kat's opponent approached the mat, Kat thought she recognized her from last year. The girl was bad news, fluid, swift, and with more snap to her blows than Kat had anticipated. Kat looked over to Lisa, who shrugged. Kat held up a hand, one finger two fingers, along with a baffled look. Lisa's face brightened and she turned to Atin, who looked at her clipboard, and then snapped her head back up. Her response to Lisa was one word. Lisa held up five fingers and four fingers at once.
   "Nine?" Kat mouthed. 
   Lisa nodded, gave a hopeful look.
   "Fuck," Kat said around her mouthpiece.
   "Match 1 is Katherine Connor versus Elena Rodriguez," the announcer read.
   "Go Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!" Daniel screamed, before the AM crowd reacted. One them smacked him on the back of his head. 
   Elena was shorter than Kat by a good two inches, but bounced on her feet as she stood, regarding Kat with an amused look. They did the salute and Kat took her stance. Elena shuffled towards her and as Kat went to feint with her lead hand, Elena hit her three times in the jaw and then swept Kat's legs out with an off-rhythm left kick that came from nowhere. Kat managed to take the bump across her shoulders as the crowd roared. Kat got up slowly, her calves singing in pain.
   "Weren't you ranked fifteen last year?" Elena asked.
   Kat nodded.
   "That's a fucking joke," Elena said, and shook her head.
   "Point Rodriguez. 1-0 Rodriguez."
   Kat focused, letting everything around her opponent drop away. There was only Elena, and Kat. They saluted, and Elena came in again with the punch combination, but Kat saw it telegraphed on Elena's shoulders and drew back, throwing a short hook to the small of Elena's back. They circled, Elena nodding. Elena started a kick and Kat bought it, moving her own leg up to parry, but Elena impossibly broke it off and drove a right hand around her chest and into Kat's stomach, where Suzette had beaten her blue on the bus, and Kat screamed in pain and doubled onto the mat, crying. The crowd chanted her name as she held her arms up and walked a long circle around Kat, who coughed in pain.
   "Point Rodriguez. Match 2-0 Rodriguez. Able Magruder leads View 1-0." The crowd's cheer broke into wild applause. Lisa and Terry picked Kat up off the mat, hauled her to the bench.
   "See what that fucking silliness gets you?" Mrs. Atin said, banging her clipboard on Kat's head. "You moron. They'll probably kidney-punch Suzette, too, and then what am I going to do?"
   "Who's Elena Rodriguez?" Kat managed.
   Atin sighed. "They're fucking us. They're running their team 10-1, hoping they'll steal the lower matches and get out of here with a draw. Fucking cunts."
   "Can they do that?" Lisa said.
   "No reason not to," Mrs. Atin said. "No one does it because a fucking cheap move, and it's not competitive Open Fighting, God fucking dammit!"
   The other coach gave Atin a shit-eating grin from across the floor.
   "It's not my fault," Kat said.
   "It's your fault you lost," Suzette said. She stood and walked off towards the water fountain, leaving her water bottle on the bench.
   "So wait," Terry said. "Does this mean --"
   Atin nodded.
   "Oh fuck me."
   "Match 2 is Terry Mendoza versus Penny Hobard."
   Kat taped an ice pack to her stomach and cheered as Terry beat the crap out of Penny. Penny kept leaving herself open and Terry would feed her a brutal combination of punches, wait half a second for Penny to feel the pain, and then move back in to pummel her again. When she walked back to the bench, all business with blood across her hands, the bench was up and clapping, patting Terry on the shoulders.
   Daniel cheered loudly from the stands, and Kat saw him take a hit in the ear. She winced in sympathy.
   It didn't matter. Lisa lost 2-1 against a girl who was slower and weaker but seemed able to lure Lisa into hits, all the way to Suzette who, as Atin had predicted, was dropped in the first point by a kidney punch and never got back up. 
   
   The bus ride back was silent.
   "We'll talk about this tomorrow," Mrs. Atin said as they filed off the bus. "Get some rest."
   
   Kat called Daniel's on her cell phone from the parking lot, next to Lisa's car. Lisa rolled her eyes and tapped her feet, but she was smiling.
   "Hey, you make it out alive?"
   "Yeah," Daniel said. "You okay?"
   "Oh, I'm fine. I get beat up like that before breakfast some days."
   Daniel laughed. "What's up?"
   "Hey, come over, hang out."
   "I have to be back by eleven."
   "So we'll have an hour. You don't want to hang out with for an hour?"
   "I wanted to make sure--"
   "Just come over!"
   "I'm going! Bye!" he hung up.
   "Men," Kat said.
   "To your date, ma'am."
   "Don't you start with me, too."
   
   Daniel sat on top of his crappy Mazda pickup ("BUY US" keyed into the tailgate) and hopped down when Lisa pulled up. He had a thin cut on his forehead and his left eye was puffy and swollen. Lisa waved and left.
   "What happened?" Kat asked him, reaching up to poke his eye.
   "Thanks, it's not like that's really tender and painful.
   "Sorry. What happened?" She pushed around his ear, finding another bump.
   "Knock it off, jeezus, Kat."
   "Sorry."
   "I got roughed up a little during the match."
   "No shit, you look worse than I do."
   "Enh."
   "Come on in," Katherine said, and took his hand as they walked to the door and inside.
   "How was the meet?" her dad called. Kat put her finger to her lips, then turned to look down the hall.
   "I lost, we lost," Kat said. "I'm going to go downstairs and watch SportsCenter, k?"
   "Sorry you lost."
   "Not your fault."
   Kat led Dan downstairs, where the TV, computer, and the old couches were.
   "What is this, the den?" Daniel asked, looking around.
   "I guess."
   "My house is a rambler, we don't have a downstairs." He sat down. "We don't have a nice TV, either."
   "What do your parents do?" Kat turned on ESPN and muted it, sat down on the couch, patted the next cushion. Dan crossed the room and sat.
   "My dad works for the Department of Fish and Wildlife, my mom teaches at Creek Elementary."
   "Huh. I didn't know that." Kat pulled her bare legs up and laid them across the couch and Dan's lap. She leaned her back against the couch arm and stretched her arms across it. "Christ, Detroit got creamed."
   "Your leg okay?"
   "Yeah," Kat said, wincing. "My calf hurts like hell."
   "Here," Dan said, and reached under to rub it.
   "Ahhhhh." Kat laid her head all the way back. "You're pretty good at that."
   "I'm telling you, it's the climbing, it's good for the hands."
   "Now don't get excited while you're down there." Dan didn't say anything and Kat put her head back up, looked at him blushing. "What? What?"
   "Katherine, there's a time to tell me something like that, and that time is way before you sit down next to me, throw your legs across me, and I start rubbing your calves."
   Kat laughed. "No big deal. Well, it might be, I don't know yet."
   Dan rolled his eyes. "Oh boy, see, now I'm blushing and nervous, why you gotta do this to me?"
   "Because it's funny," Kat said, and she held herself up and he caught it, turned and leaned in and kissed her, firm and slow, and after a couple seconds they leaned back.
   "Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm," Kat said, and laid back again as Dan started to massage her legs again. "Don't take advantage of me in my relaxed state."
   "Not on a second date," Daniel said.
   "Third date, then," Kat said, and leaned back, eyes closed.
   
   At practice the next day Atin had them do light stretching and exercises, and then went through some drills and called it day. Kat wrapped a heat pad around her stomach while Suzette and Jessica sat down the aisle and talked loudly for her benefit.
   "He came and came and came," Suzette said, smiling at Jessica and over Jessica's shoulder, Kat.
   "Oh my god."
   "I couldn't swallow, it dripped all over the place. It was really sexy."
   "I know!" Jessica exclaimed, leaning in.
   "He said he'd never come that much before."
   "Wow," Jessica said. "Nice work."
   "Suzette!" Kat yelled.
   "I'm sorry, what?" Suzette called back.
   "I don't care about Mike any more. You want to piss me off, that's not going to work."
   Suzette studied Kat while Jessica muttered and glared.
   "Okay," Suzette said. "I'll go back to beating the shit out of you."
   Kat sighed, and stood. "Do you want to this again?"
   "Not right now," Suzette said, and stood. "But I will."
   "No, Suzette, no," Jessica said.
   Kat set the heating pad on the concrete bench that ran in front of the lockers.
   "Matter of fact, I'm going to beat you with just my lead hand," Suzette said, making a show of putting her right arm behind her back as she walked forward.
   Kat tried not to show anything. Could she? Why would she say that? In front of everyone?
   Suzette moved her lead hand as she came in, dropping it, side-to-side, and Kat took her stance, thinking "what the fuck?"
   Suzette feinted, feinted, and Kat moved to parry, and then on the next feint over committed, and Suzette knocked Kat's blocking hand down in front of her off hand and popped her in the cheek, then kept the lead hand in Kat's face, easily dodging Kat's flailing attempts to knock it away, slapping Kat at will.
   Around them, the looks of confusion on the other girls' faces went to smiles and then they started laughing as Kat got angrier and more helpless, and Suzette patted Kat on the head and turned her back to walk away.
   "It was fun playing with you. Bye-bye now."
   Kat's face smarted and she shook with anger, the adrenaline still running in her blood and there was nothing to do with it. Girls were still chuckling, looking at her out of the corner of their eyes. Kat sat back down in front of her locker and started to wrap the heating pad around her leg.
   "You beat yourself," Lisa said in a low voice, sitting next to her.
   "You don't fucking say," Kat replied, not looking over.
   
   "What are you going to do this weekend?" Daniel asked Kat the next morning.
   "I'm going to think about how Suzette beat me up with one arm," Kat said.
   "Uh, okay."
   "What are you doing?"
   "Going climbing Saturday. Other than that, if you want to go out..."
   "Let's go climbing Saturday."
   Dan blinked. "Okay."
   
   And in a day they were deep in the woods facing a fairly steep hundred-foot exposed rock face. Dan had climbed up easily with the rope, hooked it to a serious metal loop, and come back down to hook her up to the harness.
   "How does this work, then," Kat said, looking at the rope, the rock face.
   "Pretty much as you'd expect it to. You get a toe hold, a finger hold, you pull yourself up. If can't go any further, you lean back, and we'll walk you back down backwards, real easy. If you slip, try to push back from the face, keep your legs out and towards the face, uh, 'cause you might bang your chin, or slam back into the rock..."
   "Oh, I get it."
   "Yeah, it'll make more sense as you get up there, too."
   Kat nodded, pulled at the rope harness he'd tied off for her, which had required him to crawl her thighs and then her chest, which he did in a businesslike, though perhaps lingering, manner. He'd found her climbing shoes in her size. She didn't ask where they came from.
   "You ready?" she asked.
   "Clip the rope onto the harness, and you say 'belay'," Dan said.
   Katherine clipped the rope onto her harness. "Uh, belay."
   Dan tightened the rope. "Belay on."
   "You ready now?"
   "You say 'climb', " Dan said.
   "Climb," Kat said. "Duhhhh."
   "Climb on," Dan said.
   "Can I go now?"
   "Yes."
   "I don't have to yell 'rock on' or anything?"
   "Not unless you want me to start singing some Metallica for you."
   "Er, no," Kat said. "I'll be fine."
   Kat started to pick her way up a crack, powering her way up with her legs.
   "This is hard," she called back down to Dan.
   "Yes," he said, watching her closely, 
   "This thing really brings out my butt," Kat said, looking around. "You wanted to get me up here to look at my butt, didn't you?"
   "No," Dan said, intent on holding the rope and watching her holds.
   "You're looking at my butt now."
   "It's sort of hard not to," Dan said, smiling. "You going to keep going?"
   "How is it?"
   "It's nice," Dan said. "It's really nice."
   Kat reached for a handhold and pulled herself up, then swung her leg out to brace her position for the next reach. "How nice is it?"
   "It's fantastic," Dan said. "Best ever. There's a handhold right above your head."
   "You should see how this thing's pushing up my tits." She reached up and snagged the handhold. "Wait, now what?"
   "Pull up on the handhold, then put your left hand--"
   "Yeah, I see it," Kat said, leaning back. She pulled up -- "I'm not going to be able to make it," she said. "My arm's too tired."
   "Okay, then, just lean back, we'll get you back down." Kat got the hang of it quickly, and was on the ground after a minute.
   "That was fun," Kat said, unhooking herself. "Uh, belay off."
   "Belay off."
   Kat hopped towards Dan as he coiled. He was wearing a ratty T-shirt but she could see across his arms and shoulders the muscles he'd been working lowering her down.
   "Well look at you."
   "Uh yeah?"
   Kat walked up to him and rubbed his shoulder. "You've got some meat on you."
   "That's not all the meat I've got on me."
   "What is this, the third date?"
   "Sure," Daniel said, leaning towards her. They kissed slowly, then again, slower, and Dan broke off. "Hold on a second." He leaned over, tied the rope off, and then came back to wrap his arms around Kat. "Gotta have my hands free."
   "What are you going to do with 'em?"
   Daniel ran them down her back and then cupped her cheeks and brought her forward to rub the crotch of her long shorts against his hard erection.
   "You feel as good as you look," he said, and they started to kiss again, and then with the kisses they were rubbing, and as they rubbed together they kissed harder and faster, and Daniel lifted her up by her ass, Kat wrapping her legs around him.
   "Daniel, I did you bring--" she managed between kisses.
   "No, I--"
   Kat squeezed with all her legs, trying to push herself through the four layers that separated them, quivering. "Oh, Daniel, oh--" and Kat bit off a scream, and then spasmed again, and let it go. She left Daniel under her jerking hard. It was too much, she ground on him, leaning back, screaming each time it came over her, and he kept coming too, moaning. Kat gasped for breath and kissed his neck, his face, and then put her legs underneath her, the shift in position revealing her shorts were widely soaked, but not as obviously as Daniel's grey shorts, where a dinner-plate sized wet spot was slowly taking over.
   Daniel blushed as she looked.
   "That's sort of impressive, Daniel." Kat grabbed the front of his shorts and looked down to see his half-limp penis and everywhere inside, cum. "Wow. You save up for this?"
   "Uh, yeah, sort of," he said. The blush came, his already red face growing pinker.
   "Really?"
   "Well, uh, here's the thing. Now that we're sort of hanging out, and I get to see you a lot, if I was whacking off, I'd never leave my room."
   Kat sat down in front of a tree and laid out. "I'm exhausted. Really?"
   "What, are you surprised? You drive me crazy."
   Kat smiled. Dan sat back against the next tree to face her.
   "I don't know. I've never really thought of myself as sexy."
   "Then you're stupid."
   "You took a girl into the woods alone and didn't bring condoms. You're the dumbest guy I ever went out with."
   "It's the third date!" Dan said, waving arms around. "Come on!"
   "I did!" Katherine said, mocking his arm-waving. "Hey, um, are you clean?"
   "Yeah," Dan said.
   "You ever done this before?"
   "Yeah, I did a lot when I was out with Andrea, and I went all the way at a party with, uh, Amy."
   "Amy?"
   "Yeah. It was as bad as you'd imagine."
   "Wow." She waited, but Dan didn't say anything. She waited, crawled over and laid her head on his lap, her body out perpendicular.
   "You don't have anything to ask me?" Kat asked, as Dan ran his fingers through her hair.
   "I figured you'd tell me," Dan said.
   "My last physical was clean," Kat said. "I figured Mike might have cheated on me, I got the full battery."
   "Didn't you say I was the dumbest guy you'd ever gone out with?"
   "I was joking. It's not even close." Kat smiled up at him, and saw he'd actually been a little annoyed. "And if you're clean, I'm on the pill..."
   "Huh," Dan said, running his hands through her hair, touching her cheek. "I'm a little tender right now, you know, I don't think..."
   "Oh my God, I'm so sorry," Kat said, reaching up to pat his groin.
   "I'm not saying it wasn't worth it," Daniel said, laying his hand on her shoulder. "I'm saying."
   
   
   Part Four: Fury of the Kat
   
   
   Katherine took to calling Daniel late, while she watched an early broadcast of the Late Show via satellite as her parents settled into bed.
   "I heard once it wasn't polite to call after ten," he said when he picked up.
   "It's two minutes after ten, fucking Christ, Dan. Come over," she said, putting her bare feet up on the antique coffee table. "You didn't come over last night because you had work to catch up on, and if you didn't do it, I'm going to be pissed."
   "Hey, Katherine, nice to talk to you again. Yeah, I'll be out in a minute."
   "Aight," she said, and hung up on him, turned the sound back up on the TV, and waited. After five minutes he tapped on the window and Kat got up to open the backyard door for him and smuggle Dan downstairs.
   He set his backpack on the coffee table and turned around to put a hand to Kat's cheek and kiss her softly. Kat kissed him in return, looking him evenly in the eye.
   "Hi," Dan said.
   "Hi there," Kat said, and they kissed again. "You want to sit down?"
   "Not really." Dan put his other hand up to take her head in his hands and kiss her. "I missed you."
   Kat butted foreheads with him, shaking off his hands. "What, since we got out of school?"
   Dan shrugged and sat on the couch.
   Kat upended his bag. "What'd you bring me?" CDs, a DVD, their physics textbook -- "Dan, I'm not going to study Physics, our test isn't for a week."
   "It's my excuse if I get caught," Dan said. "Would you haul that book around if you didn't have to?"
   And a sandwitch baggie containing four plump rolled joints and a stainless steel zippo lighter.
   "Uh," Dan said. "About that."
   "Whatever," Kat said. "You'll get bored of it eventually. Or I'll get you to stop."
   "So the movie's this crazy Jet Li flick," Dan said, ignoring her baggie-waving.
   "Wire work bores me."
   "Nah, you'll like this."
   Kat sat down next to Dan.
   "Dan, you know what I really like about you?"
   "Really?"
   Kat nodded.
   "No."
   Kat kissed him. "See, there's this back-and-forth with us. You're getting into watching crazy kung fu films, I'm listening to these bizarre CDs you bring me. I go climbing, you run with me."
   "Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that. My shins --"
   "Shut up all ready. You're the only guy I've ever been with that's really seen me as somebody who's attractive, and smart--"
   Dan leaned in and kissed her again, quickly. "Other people are stupid," he said.
   "Would you shut up, I'm trying to tell you--"
   Dan kissed her again, their mouths opening, their kisses long and deep, and when they broke off Kat smiled.
   "I know," Dan said, touching her shoulder, running his hand down her arm. They started to kiss again, and they laid out, Kat beneath him. She pulled his shirt off, and then he pulled hers off, and then fumbled with her bra for a moment before the hook was off and it got tossed behind the couch with his shirt. Kat laid under him, her breasts pressed against his chest, Daniel on his elbows, weight off her, leaning up to kiss him.
   "You're such a gentleman," Kat said.
   "This is so sexy," Dan whispered, moving up, Kat feeling the press of the zipper, Dan's hardness behind it as he pressed his hips in. Kat smiled and wiggled under him.
   "You're sexy," Kat whispered back, biting his earlobe. She reached down to grab Dan's ass and pull him closer, his warmth against hers.
   The toilet flushed upstairs.
   "Holy fuck," Kat said, and rolled Dan off the couch.
   "What?" Dan whispered.
   "Fuck fuck fuck," Kat said. Footsteps came down the hall from the master bedroom to the kitchen.
   Dan handed Kat her shirt and swung his legs under the couch.
   "You won't fit," Kat hissed, pulling the shirt over her head. Her nipples seemed to hold the lettering forward an extra inch off her chest.
   "Trust me here," Daniel said, and sucked his breath in, wiggled halfway into the eight-inch clearance, exhaled, sucked his breath in, and disappeared. The footsteps started again, kitchen to stairwell.
   Dan coughed. "Fuck it's dusty down here. Don't you ever vacuum?"
   "Oh fuck, it smells like horny boy and hot girl in here," Kat said. She grabbed the baggy, pulled out a joint, and lit the Zippo as she opened it.
   "What are you doing with my--"
   "Shut the fuck up!" Kat whispered, and took a huge drag, exhaled, dragged, exhaled. The steps came down the first half-flight. Kat dragged, exhaled, dragged, blew the smoke left, right, dragged--
   "Katherine?" her dad called, coming down the steps.
   "Yeah?" Kat dragged the last of the joint down, blew it straight up. The joint was nearly gone.
   "You going to bed soon?" he walked into the den, bags under his eyes, yawning, in his ridiculous golf pajamas.
   "Yeah, I just wanted to relax, watch the Top Ten list."
   He squinted at the TV, nodded. "Sure, sure." His eyes came all the way open as he sniffed. He looked around the room, the slight haze, and sniffed. His eyes went to the coffee table, the CDs, the movie, the baggie with three joints and the zippo, Kat with one almost done in her hand.
   "Oh, Katherine." He sat down in the armchair.
   Kat smiled nervously.
   "How often are you smoking out?"
   "Hardly ever, dad."
   "Oh, Katherine, please be honest. We've talked about marijuana before."
   Katherine stubbed out the ember with her finger and set the butt on a CD case. This was going to take a while.
   
   "We'll talk more tomorrow," Kat's dad said, when he finally stood up and shuffled over, leaning to kiss her forehead. "I love you, Katherine, I just want the best for you."
   "I know, dad," Kat replied, and smiled.
   "Get to bed now."
   Kat nodded, and her dad shuffled on out. As he got to the stairs, Daniel started to cough.
   "And it messes up your respiratory system," Kat's dad called. "You're an athlete--"
   "Dad!"
   "Okay, okay." 
   She listened to him head all the way back to the bedroom and ran to the bathroom, filled a glass with water and hurried back to the den, where Daniel, red-eyed and his face tear-streaked, sat up and coughed. His arms and jeans were coated in gray dust, and his chest was little better. He took the water and drank the whole glass, then gasped.
   "You have no idea how hard that was," he said finally.
   "Oh, baby," Kat said.
   "Bleah," Dan said. "Did you have a dog? Gerbil? Ferret? Help me out here."
   Kat kissed him to shut him up, and Dan leaned in.
   "I'm so sorry."
   "I'm fine," Dan said. "Help me up."
   Kat offered him a hand and pulled him to his feet.
   "I am cramping up something awful," Dan said. He walked stiff-legged to the bathroom and Kat could, even through the door, hear him take a monster piss. There was a long pause, the sink ran, and he came back out. "What is it, two?"
   Kat nodded.
   "I have to leave." Dan went to grab his backpack, but Kat put herself in the way and kissed him again. She took her shirt off, still bare underneath, and wiped his arms, his chest, and then regarded his jeans.
   "These are going to have to come off," Kat said, shaking her head.
   "I have to go."
   "I didn't listen to my dad give me a drug talk for four hours so you could leave," Kat said. She undid the button and zipper on his jeans with some struggle and pulled them down to his feet. "You're already in as much trouble as you're going to get into. You might as well get something out of it."
   Kat put her hand under the bulge in his boxer briefs, cupping his balls, and Dan smiled.
   "Okay."
   He leaned straight forward to kiss her, hands running up to catch her breasts, running thumbs around nipples, and Kat sighed, sagging into him, and with a hand at the small of her back Dan laid her down and followed her, their chests still touching.
   "I've been thinking about this for hours," Kat said, pulling his shorts down to expose Dan's big, hanging erection. "And it was worth the wait." Kat reached down to start rubbing its length as Dan tugged her sweats off, moving out of reach for a moment and hurrying back.
   Kat pulled him in, eager even though she wasn't quite ready, moving slowly, working the lubrication out, the anticipation making Kat moan softly until finally she asked nicely and Dan obliged, driving all the way in.
   "Oh, that's good," Kat gasped, as he moved back. "I've been waiting for that for hours. Hours."
   "I've been waiting for that for years," Daniel said, and Kat put her arms around him and pulled him close as his breath came heavier, his pace quickening, and with each move everything became more distant until there was only the space where they touched, her skin electric, and she came in long waves, a jerk and time for a deep breath then another, and Kat bit her lip and rode them out until she opened her eyes to see Dan looking back at her, sweat dripping across his forehead.
   "Wow," Kat said. "You.. you okay, then?"
   Dan nodded, blinking, breath short.
   Kat flopped her arms, out exhausted. "That was so nice," she said. "I didn't even notice you---"
   Dan shook his head. 
   "Well," Kat said, "then I'm not done either."
   And then she turned him over and went at him again from the top, building momentum again until he came in her, and that brought her off, and that in turn, kept him coming over and over.
   "Ah Kat," Dan sighed, "I love you."
   "Oh it's fine for you to say it, sure, but when I try..."
   "I know we're not supposed to know, and puppy love, but..."
   Kat smiled, kissed him, rolled off, snuggled up, and pulled a blanket off the couch back over them.
   
   "Daniel, do you remember I told you you were in as much trouble as you were going to get into?"
   "Yeah," Daniel said, eyes closed, his breaths growing longer.
   "I lied. It's four in the morning, and you're probably in a lot of trouble."
   Daniel's head snapped up. "Oh fuck," he said, and he was out the back door, pulling his clothes on as he hustled down the street
   
   The season went on. Kat trained, she lost and sometimes she won, she picked fights Suzette won, she nursed her bruises, twice a week Jack would teach her how to get less-badly beaten, she was dropped off Varsity and worked her way back on as she started to win more and more of her matches, passing technique-perfect Lisa for the second spot on the team, got up past last year's ranking and never beat Suzette. And outside the season, she hung out with Daniel, went climbing when they could, stole chances to make each him say her name while she bit his shoulder, and when they couldn't they'd hang out anyway, and he'd hold her and Kat would talk in circles, and he'd wait her out.
   
   
   
   "Why do you like me, Dan? Seriously, I'm sort of a bitch."
   Dan grinned. "Ever since I came out here, you've sort of done your own thing. You've read different books, you've seen some movies... I don't know, you're not the other girls."
   "Lisa's not the other girls."
   "No, you know what I mean. You've got character. You've got that spark, you know?"
   Kat sighed. She was going to have to drill that habit out of him.
   "Side note, Dan?"
   "Uh, yeah?"
   "Don't say 'you know' any more when we're having serious conversations when you're nervous. It's like I've got to talk to you when you're really relaxed after hot sex if I don't want to hear it. It makes you sound like a moron."
   "Fine, I won't."
   "And you're not a moron, so don't take that like it's an insult, but we've got an honest relationship, I'm liking it, so I thought I'd tell you."
   Dan shook his head, looked off.
   "What?" Kat asked.
   "You kn-- you're right, you are sort of a bitch, Kat."
   Kat sighed. "Yeah."
   "What's that about?"
   "I'll give you the short version."
   Dan shrugged. "I've got time."
   "No, the long version's long and I don't like telling it. When I was 15, all the girls sort of ran together, and Suzette and I were best friends. And after her birthday party that year, she turned on me. Started making fun of me all the time, the way I dressed, the jokes I told."
   "Oh."
   "Booted me out. I lost all my friends. I couldn't move. Even the guys wouldn't talk to me, because they'd make fun of them, and you know, fuck, Dan, there's only five hundred people at school."
   Dan nodded. "Yeah. When I moved out here, my junior high was a thousand kids."
   "Shit."
   "Yeah."
   "So after they'd gotten enough of that, they turned on Lisa, because she'd started to come around and talk to me again."
   "Snapped out of it."
   "Yeah, felt really bad. And that was the start of it. Eventually Suzette was down to what, her twenty friends, and there were enough exiles that we could hang out."
   "But even then it's like you're settling for friends, sort of?"
   Kat sighed. "Holy shit," she said.
   "Kat?" Dan leaned in. "Kat, what is it?"
   "I just realized something," Kat said. "I have to go. I'm sorry. I shouldn't be long, if you want to hang around." She stood up, kissed him on the forehead, turned, and ran from the house.
   Dan's whole face came together, forehead and eyebrows down, cheeks in as his eyes flashed confusion and he went into a slow "Whaaaa?"
   Kat was in the driveway before it came out. 
   
   Suzette and Amy sat on Suzette's wide, comfortable leather couch, watching MTV.
   "I don't understand why they're always re-running Beach Party stuff," Amy said. She scratched her cast.
   "Cheap, I guess," Suzette said. "You know what bugs me?"
   "No."
   "It's always cloudy, and they try and pretend it's not. They get the worst weather for these things, and they try and ignore it, but you can tell the sun's not out because no one has a shadow."
   "I never noticed that," Amy said, leaning in. "But you're right."
   
   Amy's little Neon was parked behind Suzette's Jeep, which left space for another four cars in the massive driveway. Kat ran her Corolla up and skidded to a stop under the basketball hoop. She was out of the car in a flash, the door slamming shut behind her with a massive metal-on-metal bang.
   
   "What was that?" Suzette said, looking towards the kitchen.
   "Huh?"
   The front door cracked against the wall.
   "Mom?" Suzette called.
   There was Kat, her shoulder muscles defined under the tank top, her ponytail waving as she looked right to left and--
   "You should lock that," Kat said. "You never know what kind of person might come walking in."
   "Ohmygod," Amy said, starting to take short quick gasps.
   "On the other hand, I probably would have kicked it in, or gone around back to break the patio door, so maybe that was the smart move after all."
   "What the fuck?" Suzette asked, not moving. MTV went to commercials, loud cosmetics ads.
   Amy's breath grew steadier, and she stood up.
   "Get out," Amy said.
   "You should," Kat said. "Or I'm going to break your other fucking arm."
   Amy stared.
   "Yeah, look at me, Amy. Look closely. One arm, it's an inconvenience. Two arms, you're going to have a hard time jerking guys off, and then what's that going to do to your social life? Look at me, Amy, you know I'm serious."
   Amy started to cry.
   "If you leave, and you don't tell anyone, nothing happens. So leave, Amy."
   The first tear hit the carpet.
   "Leave."
   Amy ran.
   Suzette turned off the TV without taking her eyes off Kat.
   "At last, some time alone," Kat said. She took a slow step into the room, looking around. "Wasn't this the dining room last time I was here?"
   Suzette stood with an equal lack of concern, as if she might go get some chips.
   Kat nodded. "I like the new furniture, it's nice. Probably pretty expensive, huh?"
   "I wouldn't know," Suzette said. She rolled her shoulders one by one.
   Kat continued to walk into the room, stretching her neck right, then left.
   "I think you do," Kat said. "I think you've got a very good idea."
   She was only a couple feet away from Suzette now, and one corner of her mouth kept twitching into a smile.
   "You come by to talk about furniture?" Suzette asked, her voice cracking for the first time as Kat got nose to nose. Their shirts touched, and goose bumps rose on Kat's arm.
   "We're not talking about furniture," Kat said, her head moving in, lips brushing, and Suzette didn't move, trembling. Kat let her smile go, and kissed Suzette softly.
   Suzette moaned so softly Kat could only feel it.
   "Yes," Kat said. She put her left hand on Suzette's defined stomach, ran it up as she kissed her again, under Suzette's bra, and found the areola already bumped, the nipple already hard. Kat took it between thumb and index finger as Suzette moaned again, knees giving a little, leaning into Kat more.
   Kat put her right hand on Suzette's stomach, sliding her fingertips under the band of her shorts.
   "You like this, huh?"
   "Unh," Suzette squeaked. Kat moved her right down a little, feeling the line of Suzette's short hairs, the panties moist against the back of her hand. As Suzette sagged into her, Kat put her mouth to Suzette's ear.
   "You've wanted this for years, haven't you?" Kat asked, pinching Suzette's nipple harder. Suzette shuddered, and Kat moved her hand down further to find Suzette was soaking wet and hot, and pressing into her palm. 
   "Please," Suzette whispered.
   "Haven't you?"
   "Yes."
   Suzette was starting to grind on Kat's hand, and Kat brought it back up, spread the fingers to either side of her clit.
   "No," Suzette said softly, and bit her lip. "Nooo."
   "It was that party, when we were up, and we were kissing, cause I didn't know how, wasn't it?" Kat slid the hand back down.
   "Yes, oh, oh, yes," Suzette muttered.
   "We did that for a while," Kat said, slipping a finger inside Suzette and back out. "A long time."
   "No."
   "We didn't?" Kat rolled Suzette's nipple between thumb and finger, drew her hand back.
   "Yes, we did," Suzette said. "Yes."
   Kat pushed the finger back in, and Suzette moved against Kat's hand, her breath ragged. "There was some touching, too, wasn't there?"
   "Yes, oh, yes."
   "Uh huh. And then we went to sleep, and when I woke up, you didn't like me any more."
   "Unh," Suzette gasped, and her whole body trembled, her legs shaking, and she put her chin into Kat's shoulder and moaned. "Oh, Kat. Oh."
   "But you did, didn't you?" Kat worked another finger in, started to move them both in and out.
   "I did, I did." Suzette gasped for breath, kissed Kat's neck.
   "You were scared, weren't you?"
   "Oh, Kat. Yes, yes."
   "And when you couldn't stop thinking about it, you got Lisa to help you out a little, huh?"
   "How?"
   Kat drove her fingers in to the third knuckle, twisted the nipple again. "Didn't help, did it?"
   "No! Please." Suzette rocked her hips, trying to get some motion, but Kat kept her in place. Slowly, she let loose, moved her fingers out, let Suzette rock on them, her pace quickening.
   "It must have been hard, these years."
   "Yes," Suzette said, and put her head up to kiss Kat on the lips, and Kat could see she was crying. "It was, oh, it was bad, unh, unh." Suzette drove her hips forward into Kat's hand and kissed her hard, open mouthed this time, touching their tongues again for the first time in three years, and Kat had to hold Suzette up with two fingers as Suzette came again and again, her knees barely supporting her. "No one's like you, Kat," Suzette said and kissed her again. "No one, oh Kat. Oh Kat, I love you, oh Kat."
   Kat tried to keep Suzette standing, her left hand now around Suzette's back so Kat could take more of her weight across the chest, and Suzette's tears were hot smeared across Kat's cheeks, Kat's hand hot and slick with Suzette's juice.
   "All that hate, all those guys," Kat whispered. "Everything you put me through..."
   Suzette kissed Kat tenderly, and then tried to say something and nothing came out. She started to put her legs back under her, and Kat ran her supporting hand back to Suzette's breast.
   "Who's here?" Suzette's mom called. Suzette jumped, and Kat, fingers freed, used both hands to shove Suzette back to the couch as the woman came into the kitchen to look over the counter.
   "Katherine?" she asked, confusion and wonder in her eyes. She looked to Suzette, and Kat followed her gaze.
   Suzette stared off, her face flushed bright red and tear-streaked, sitting open legged, the same flush on her face across her arms, her thighs, her tanned stomach, a blissful smile on her lips. She licked her lips.
   "I haven't seen you in ages," Suzette's mom said, setting her handbag on the beautiful bronze countertop. She looked at Kat, Suzette, Kat.
   "You know Mike?" Kat asked her.
   "Of course," Suzette's mom said, leaning into the counter but keeping it between her and Kat.
   "You know he and Suzette have been going out, right?"
   "Sure."
   "I found out he's seeing this other girl in Creek," Kat said. "Back when I was going out with him, too." Kat sighed, shuffled her feet. "I thought I should tell Suzette, even though..."
   Her mom nodded.
   "So we've had a good cry."
   "Oh, Suzette, I'm so sorry," Suzette's mom said, finally coming out into the living room, arms wide. Kat gagged on the cloud of perfume the woman wore -- she'd been worried she might smell something, but Kat would be surprised if she'd smell a sulfur fire.
   "I have to leave," Kat said. Suzette and her mom embraced quickly, and Kat started for the door.
   "Kat," Suzette said, in a tone Kat had never heard before. She stopped, looked back.
   "It was nice to see you around again, Katherine," Suzette's mom said. Kat was looking past her, at Suzette' face, filled with need and confusion, and then Kat smiled at the mom.
   "Take a shower, go work out," Kat told Suzette. "You'll feel better. I do have to get to lessons. I'll see you tomorrow, Suzette?"
   Suzette nodded.
   "Nice to see you too, Mrs. Field."
   Kat walked out to her car, drove a block, stopped, picked her cell phone off the back seat and called Dan's house, the car still idling in the long private drive to Suzette's house.
   "Hey," Dan said. "What's up?"
   "I see you didn't wait around for me."
   "No," Dan said. "I didn't know when you'd be back, and I'm not going to just sit around waiting--"
   "I know, and that's good. Dan, I'm going to need to see you tonight."
   "That's cool, what do you want to do? Lisa was saying today she wanted to go bowling."
   "Fuck bowling, Daniel."
   "Uh, okay."
   "When I say I want to see you --"
   "Oh! Um, great, yeah, I'm sure we can go to the movies and --"
   "There's no fucking way I'm going to have sex in a movie theater, Daniel."
   Long pause as Dan came around to processing that one. "I'll figure something out," he stammered at last.
   "Okay, I've got to go to my lessons, I'll call you later."
   "Aight, Kat. I'll see you then."
   "I really love you, Daniel."
   Kat waited on the road, feeling the electricity on her skin, Suzette's still-slickness on the fingers holding the phone, and could see him start to smile.
   "Yeah, well, I love you too."
   Kat sighed. "Bye," she said, and hung up. 
   
   She drove the state highway to Creek without thinking, drumming her thumbs against the battered steering wheel to the beat of a CD Dan'd given her. Lisa's car was parked in the dirt in front of the place.
   "Well I'll be damned, this is just my lucky day," Kat said, and got out. She walked around the side of the house, already hearing Lisa's sharp bleats and the slapping of flesh. Lisa was bent over the cheap picnic table, hands out grabbing the edges, breasts pressed against the beveled glass, shorts down, Jack totally naked, fucking her from behind, his hands on Lisa's hips, driving into her as she tossed her head back and forth and barked.
   "Hey, how you folks doing?" Kat asked, walking out into the yard and to the table.
   "Hi, Kat," Lisa gasped. "Oh fuck, yeah."
   Kat pulled a chair out, sat down. Jack nodded, sweat rolling down his face.
   "You two about done here?"
   "Close," Jack said. "I'm real close."
   Kat put her feet up on the table. "Because I'm supposed to do some training here, you see."
   Jack pushed the table forward, pulling Lisa to him, and she gave a low moan.
   "Ungh, ungh, ungh," Jack grunted as his torso tipped back and forth. He blinked and looked around. "Oh, that was nice."
   He pulled back, his still-stiff dick hanging out in the air, and Lisa pushed herself up off the table and turned around to him to kiss him quickly, working his slick member gently with both hands. Kat sighed softly and licked her lips before she caught herself. "Ah come on, I don't have time for a second round," Kat said. "You've proven your point already."
   "It wouldn't take long if you helped," Lisa said. "Since you're obviously pretty comfortable already."
   "I'm getting jaded in my old age. Come here for a second."
   Lisa looked back at Kat, and Jack kept looking down at Lisa.
   "Seriously, come over here. I want you to taste something."
   Lisa didn't get it, took the two steps, leaving a butterfly wet spot where she's been sitting. Feet still on the table, Kat offered Lisa her ring finger. Lisa sniffed it.
   "Were you just--"
   "No. Come on."
   Lisa looked at her, at Jack. Jack had found his shorts, pulled them on, and shrugged at Lisa.
   Lisa sucked on Kat's finger for a moment and stood back.
   "I don't get it. It's not you -- why am I---?
   "You should recognize it."
   Lisa blinked, confused, and then her expression fell to sheepish embarrassment, and then she looked at Kat with only a question:
   "What?"
   Kat smiled. "You think your day's been interesting."
   Lisa gaped.
   "You should get some clothes on, Lisa, I've got to think the mosquitoes just love you."
   Lisa stood, staring. Semen dribbled down one of her thighs.
   "I don't understand."
   "We'll talk later," Kat said, and stood. "Okay, Jack, last practice before County. What do I need to do tonight?"
   Jack worked his head through a T-shirt that had once been white.
   "Nothing serious. I want you to go through your combinations with me, and we'll talk about what to expect in a competition this big."
   "Wow," Lisa said. "You know, Kat, I never ever would have thought..."
   "Later," Kat said. 
   She stood before Jack.
   "High," Jack said, and Kat had to will herself to slow down, moving lead hand to feint to cut, and then when Jack said "Mids", she came straight across, mixing in kicks, all slow, concentrating on her balance and form.
   "Nice," Jack said. "You're smooth and controlled today."
   "Thank you," Kat said. It felt good, concentrating on slowing her blows as they reached out without thought.
   
   "You want to talk now, or..." Lisa asked as they walked out to their cars.
   "No, I've got something to go do," Kat said.
   "Is it a girl?"
   "No," Kat said.
   "Are you mad I didn't tell you when..."
   "No," Kat said. "Don't worry about it."
   
   Dan sat on the porch of his house, reading a book and drinking a Sprite. He looked up and smiled as Kat came up the walk to stoop down and kiss him.
   "Dan, don't take this the wrong way, but I need a good lay like nobody's business."
   "I'd say it's my business."
   Kat laughed. "What's your plan?"
   "Okay, you're in a hurry, I can't get my parents out of the house, so--"
   "Did you try?"
   Dan stared at Kat, shook his head. "Yeah, I tried a little, but then I gave up. I said 'Is this really worth the effort?'"
   Kat rolled her eyes.
   "Here's what we do. I've got a blanket and a pickup."
   "This is so romantic."
   "Is that what you want? Because it can wait."
   "No," Kat said. "I'll take what I can get, but Dan, I'm dying for us to go to college so we'll at least have beds we can sleep on together."
   "We're going to college together now?" Dan asked, setting his book down. "When did this happen."
   "Oh stop playing dumb and let's drive out somewhere quiet and shaded," Kat said, hands on hips, tapping her feet.
   Dan got up and smiled.
   
   
   Part Five: Kat and County
   
   
   All County's first day was easy. Relaxed, Kat beat her way through ranked faces she'd seen throughout the season, many of her draws beat before they walked on the mat, remembering the speed that had crossed them up before, waiting for it, and Kat obliged.
   
   The second day was the semi-finals, all on the same central ring, and Kat barely remembered the first two rounds, fingering an angry purple bruise on her shoulder and trying to figure which of the girls had put it there.
   
   With only four contestants left, Kat found herself drawn against Terry, who had used brutal leg strikes to cripple her way to the semi-final.
   Kat saluted Terry and stepped back. She felt cold, instead of her normal hot match blood. She didn't want to beat down Terry. Terry took a couple of weak feints that fooled no one. They moved in a little, and exchanged hand strikes, circled again, and then started to spar, more technically than for real.
   At last, Terry reached in for a cross and Kat caught her shoulder as Terry came in, spoiling the blow, and Terry moved back, nodding. Kat threw a high kick and, as Terry deflected it, moving to strike, Kat's foot slipped out on a sweat spot and she dropped hard onto the mat.
   "Point, Mendoza," the judge said.
   "She slipped," Terry said. "It wasn't a hit."
   "Score is 1-0 Mendoza."
   Terry held her arms out. "It wasn't a hit," she said. "She slipped. Look, there's the spot. See?"
   The judge regarded Terry without sympathy. "Please continue with the match."
   Terry scowled at the judge.
   "Proceed," the judge said.
   Kat and Terry faced each other at the center of the mat again. The saluted, and as Katherine moved back into her stance, Terry took a knee.
   "Point, Connors," the judge said. "Warning, Ms. Mendoza."
   Terry stood up, not smiling, and they did the salute again. 
   
   They went back into it, for real on match point, and Kat, worried about the leg strikes, let Terry smash a forearm into Kat's head, seeing the snake on the inside of Terry's wrist flash past before Kat's vision rocked, and she started to dance, setting up a long series of fakes, dancing in and then out, and Terry kept still, shuffling to keep oriented, and the instant Kat sensed Terry wondering when the attack would come she launched into it, off the cadence she'd been running her fakes on, faster and stronger, and Terry broke, took hit after hit and finally dropped on her side.
   "Yeah!" Jack screamed from the sideline in the moment before the crowd came up to cheer, and as Kat helped Terry to her feet, he could distantly hear his voice "I taught her that, yeah! Just like that, too."
   Kat was exhausted. The match had gone almost half an hour, and she hadn't noticed. The crowd kept screaming, and Terry waved in acknowledgement and the gym got louder, shaking on its foundation.
   "Good show," Terry yelled, and Kat hugged her tightly before they were shooed out to make room for the other quarter-finalist matchup. Kat walked outside and stood in the sun, breathing hard, pacing along the gym wall, training a hand against the rough concrete, ten steps and then ten steps, and when she felt ready Atin was leaning on the wall as Kat turned to walk back, smiling, waving her back in for the final match.
   
   Suzette was the other finalist. Atin, beside herself with joy that three students had made it to the top eight, grinning at Kat only a minute ago, now looked neutral, dead.
   "I don't have anything to tell you," Atin told Katherine as Kat stretched. Kat didn't reply. Atin stood next to her for a long minute, sighed, and moved on. Kat looked into the stands. Dan was smiling at her, and she turned back around, trying to concentrate on the match ahead. Katherine closed her eyes and saw the Suzette she'd seen this year, faster, stronger, and smarter even than she'd been when she'd broken Kat and taken months from her. Suzette's easy first strike, her slowest. Kat watched it again, and again. It was time for the match.
   Kat and Suzette faced each other. Kat looked at Suzette, who showed no emotion at all, her eyes dead. Kat swallowed despite herself. They put their hands together for the Shaolin salute and stepped back to take their stances.
   Suzette went into her first strike. Kat moved her lead hand up to parry and in to throw a left-hand hook, but Suzette left her strike up, stepped in past the hook and brought her right knee into Kat's stomach and then beat down on Kat's shoulders with both hands. Kat shoved her away, and they squared off again. Kat's shoulders burned with pain. She faked a lead Suzette didn't bite on.
   "I fed you that all year. You thought you were saving it," Suzette said.
   Suzette led with her hand again, so fast Kat barely turned it. The flurry behind it left her open and before Kat could close up, Suzette put a hook kick into Kat's breast, knocking her back but letting her find her stance again.
   Suzette came in jabbing again, and Kat snapped her body back, gave Suzette two inside punches to her stomach for her trouble. Suzette, already forward, drove off her lead foot and put a knee to Kat's kidney, and Kat staggered, her vision stars of pain. Kat knew what was next, and started to jump as Suzette went for the knee sweep, and managed to get up enough that her knee wasn't planted under her. The sweep pushed her legs out from under her and Kat took a header into the mat. But she'd saved her knee.
   "Point, Field," the judge said.
   Suzette reached down to take Kat's hand and pull her to her feet, brushing against each other.
   It would have been a year, maybe more this time. Suzette had gone for her knee, again, had set her up to be crippled. Kat's hair stood up on end. Her breast stung faintly, pain shot up her side, and her shoulders burned in agony.
   They did the salute, stepped back. Suzette had gone for the knee.
   Kat whipped forward with her lead hand and struck Suzette in the cheek, and even as her jaw turned, hit her again, shuffling forward, banging her again and again with the short leads in the fast combination that had been Kat's weakness for so long. Suzette moved her guard up, trying to deflect the blows, and Kat slapped her right hand on Suzette's stomach, spun behind her, almost perfectly crotch-to-ass, and pulled Suzette down around Kat's left leg. Suzette dropped on her shoulder, her eyes wide with shock. She regained her composure and stood up, dusted her hands together.
   "That was cheap," Suzette said. 
   "Point, Connors," the judge announced.
   "That all you got?" Suzette said. She smiled again, confident as ever. They bowed in the salute, and as they came back, Kat worked around her mouthpiece.
   "I love you," Kat said. As Suzette stepped back, her expression clouding, Kat nailed her in the nose with the lead again, faster even than the last time, and the cartilage cracked, Kat already tagging her with the right again, almost speed-bagging Suzette's head. Suzette wobbled, dazed, and Kat drilled the back of her knee with a low kick. Suzette dropped right onto her back, blood spurting freely from her nose all across her chest. 
   "Point, Connors," the judge said. "Match, Connors. The All-County Women's Open Martial Arts Winner is Katherine Connors, of View High School."
   Kat wasn't listening, staring at Suzette, who was refusing to cry, her face covered in blood, swelling up everywhere, looking back at Katherine with hatred blazing in her pretty eyes. 
   
   Kat walked away towards the stands, where Daniel had trampled innocents to come out and hug her.
   "You were amazing," he said. "I couldn't see your hands move! I've never seen anything like it!" He kissed her softly on the lips, and looked at her with concern. "You don't look happy, Kat, what's wrong?"
   "I can't believe it was that quick," Katherine said. "I expected more, like lightning or something."
   Jack clapped her lightly on the shoulder. "That's the payoff for all that training, it comes easy when you need it. Nice work, you were flawless after that first one. You feel okay?"
   Kat nodded.
   "So you want to come over tonight, then?" Jack said, serious but smiling it off like a joke for Dan's benefit.
   "No," Kat said.
   "You did promise," Jack said, the smile starting to fade.
   "Promise what?" Dan asked.
   "Hang on," Kat said, and pushed Jack away, leaning in to talk in low tones.
   "Look here, I already delivered on that, and if you weren't satisfied..."
   "Not really, now."
   "I might under normal circumstances meet you halfway, but no, Jack, I'm not cheating, so you're out of luck."
   "This sucks."
   "It's what you're getting. If I ever break up with Dan, I'll tell you what -- full day, that's 24 hours, if you can manage it."
   "Yeah, I can manage it." Jack sneered.
   "That's the new deal, you'll take it. And I'll tell you what, Jack, if it comes to that you would not last the full day."
   Jack shook his head. "I would. You'll dump this asshole eventually." He laughed. "But I'll have fun thinking about it in the meantime."
   "I don't want to know," Kat said, and turned to walk back to her friends.
   Mike stood there, his dumb anticipation look back.
   "Hey, um, Suzette's going to be a while, so, uh, congratulations, I guess."
   Kat shook his hand. "Thanks. Have you met Dan?"
   "Yeah, yeah," Mike said, turning to shake Dan's hand. Kat saw Mike's hand tense as he squeezed Dan's hand.
   "Hey, that's a firm grip you've got there," Dan said, smiling, not letting go. Mike grinned back, putting his arm into it.
   "I work out," Mike said.
   Jack looked from Dan to Mike to Kat to Lisa.
   "You know what was really shitty, Mike? That breakup with Katherine."
   The stupid pride washed out of Mike's face an instant before Dan crushed his fingers, the cracking of knuckle and bone loud and gruesome. Dan's eyes went wide.
   "Oh my God!" he yelled. "I'm sorry, Mike! Holy shit!" Dan leaned in as the tears streamed down Mike's face, his mouth open but no sounds coming. "Going to be pretty hard to throw a baseball with a broken hand, huh, motherfucker? You're lucky Kat didn't kill you. Go find a doctor, huh?"
   Mike ran to find a coach.
   "Nice," Jack said, extending his hand to Mike. "Nice."
   Mike shook Jack's hand. "I don't know what you mean."
   
   
   
   The next morning, she and Daniel went climbing, Kat nursing her injuries, Daniel showing off, and they rolled in the pine needles, and as they drove back, Kat changed out of her sweat-and-sex-saturated climbing clothes, Daniel trying to look at her exposed and concealed body and not drive off the long, winding state highway that ran back to View. 
   "I'm giving up fighting," Kat said. She pulled a T-shirt over her bare chest and buckled herself back in. "I'm going to turn my swords into plowshares."
   "You're giving up fencing?" Daniel asked.
   "Oh shut up."
   "Why?"
   "I'm not as angry as I was," she said, looking out the window. "It's your fault. I don't know, I feel like doing something cooperative now, like soccer. Or volleyball."
   "Or red-hot sex."
   "That's not a sport."
   "I've got five reasons you're wrong," Dan said. "First, it involves exertion. Two, it has a goal. Three--"
   "I want to talk to Suzette," Kat said. "Where would you be if you were Suzette and just lost All County your senior year?"
   "As far away from View as I could get."
   "No, she'll be around. She'll want comfort, familiarity."
   "All right, if you want to waste our Saturday driving around, that's fine with me."
   "Go to Amy's," Kat said. "She won't be there, but we'll figure it out."
   
   As the sun went down, Kat found Suzette at the park, her long legs dangling off a rock, shoetips just on the water. Her nose had been set and pinned, and she wore a clear plastic guard held in place by an ugly elastic strap.
   "Hey," Kat said.
   "You took advantage of me," Suzette said.
   Kat sat down next to her, her hand almost touching.
   "No," Kat said. "If you'd been at peace with yourself, it wouldn't have affected you."
   "You knew it would."
   "Yeah," Kat said.
   "You're a real bitch sometimes, Kat."
   "Yeah."
   "This whole thing, with us," Suzette said, tapping her shoes in the water, sending ripples out on the still water. "You did that to set me up for county."
   "No," Kat said, and took Suzette's hand.
   Suzette held Kat's hand and waited. "What was it, then?"
   "It was what it is. Suzette, I'm not going to come over and tear your clothes off again. I'm not going to fight this war with you. We're not going to be what you want, though."
   Suzette stopped tapping the water and hung her head.
   "We spent years at this, fighting each other, turning your friends against me, my friends against you, because you couldn't stand to see me, and you turned love into hate and they're all mixed up for you now."
   "I've been thinking of throwing you in the lake," Suzette said.
   Kat smiled, squeezed her hand.
   "You need to deal with it. You need to become a better person. Let this cruelty go. Get some help, there's this woman I was seeing when we... when we were fighting, at first. She'll see you on weekends..."
   Suzette nodded, brought her head back up to look at Kat. "And what if I do, Kat? If I become the better woman, what then?"
   "I'll be around for you, whenever that is. And what that'll be like, I don't know, maybe I'll be your friend, and maybe... and then maybe it won't be me for you, it'll be someone else." Kat shrugged. "Maybe it'll turn out Mike's the right guy for you after all."
   Suzette laughed, turning to look out over the lake, dipping her shoes into the water. "That guy is such a moron I have a hard time believing it sometimes. I don't know why I thought it was a good idea to steal him. What did you ever see in Mike?"
   "I don't know anymore," Kat said. "He had this sort of clueless charm. I guess I was in love." She chucked Suzette on the shoulder. "People do strange things--"
   "Oh shut up already," Suzette said, and she smiled. "I'm going to head back. You want to come?"
   "I've got to go see Daniel," Kat said. "Sorry."
   Suzette picked herself up and stood, then pulled Kat up to her feet with both hands, kissed her on the lips, and then, still holding hands, stood there for a minute.
   "I didn't figure I'd get to do that again for a while," Suzette said at last.
   "Nah, that's fine," Kat said, and smiled, and Suzette shoved Kat off the rocks into the water.
   "Oh fuck!" Kat screamed as she came back up, treading in the cold, murky water. Suzette's stupid grin showed all her teeth and the rosy balls of her cheeks.
   "Sorry," Suzette said. "That's for my nose. I tried to resist, I really did."
   "You're a real bitch sometimes, Suzette," Kat said, and started to laugh.
   "Yeah, we're a fine pair, aren't we? Call me later with that woman's number."
   Kat gave her the finger with one hand.
   Suzette nodded. "I'll talk to you then, Kat." She disappeared into the trees as she picked her way back to the path and Kat had to swim her way across the lake to the beach as the sun went down and the bugs came out, looking for her.
   
   And on the beach, Daniel sat, waiting, and he didn't laugh as Kat walked up from the lake, dirty and wet, covered in bits of green and brown. Katherine stopped next to him and offered him a grubby hand, which he took, and pulled him up.
   "So that didn't go well, then," Daniel said.
   "Went really well," Kat said. "Come on, I've got to go shower, and you're invited."
   "My day's just taken a turn for the better," Daniel said.
   And he drove her home.