I got to my feet and heard Talley do the same behind me, but was unable to pull my focus off the boys. A knot of conflicted emotions took up my entire chest cavity, turning the normally simple task of breathing into a labor intensive burden.

While shirtless Charlie was the main contributing factor to my emotion-induced asthma, he wasn’t the only one. Jase and I were just starting to learn how to be post-accident Jase and Scout. It was going to be a long process, one that would always have the pain of Alex’s broken body at its center. But I was willing to endure it because, despite everything, Jase was still my brother. I needed him. I needed us to be okay, and we wouldn’t get to that point if he moved off to Lexington in two weeks to get a head start on classes and unofficially train with the rest of the basketball team. So I was happy Dad called the school and used our family’s recent tragedy and my grandfather’s name to ensure Jase could stay home all summer and not lose his place on the team.

Of course, delighting in Jase’s misfortune didn’t exactly get me Best Sister Ever points, hence some of that conflicted emotion.

“Scout, can we be done now?” Talley laid her head on my shoulder, batting her big blue eyes at me.

“I guess that’s enough warming up for one day.”

Her entire face fell. “Warming up?”

“Yep, and the boys are about done, too.”

“You sure about that?”

I could see where her doubt stemmed from, the wooden swords were still whacking against each other in a continued, steady staccato rhythm, but Jase’s feet were moving much slower. Then, as if on cue, Charlie feinted to the left, and when Jase followed, come down on the right side, delivering the killing blow.

“Bob Saget!” Jase cursed, slinging his bokken across the room in an easily anticipated bout of temper. Gracious loser and Jase Donovan were two terms that rarely kept company. “You would never have been able to do that if I wasn’t still sore as hell from yesterday.”

“Keep telling yourself that, pretty boy. Maybe one day you’ll start to believe it.”

“Time out,” I said, sliding between the two. “No ninja monkey attacks. I’ve got a job for you, Jase.”

“Does it involve polyester pants and a neon colored t-shirt bearing an annoying advertising slogan?”

“No.”

“A lawn mower and/or weed eater?”

“No.”

“Soap and car wax?”

“No, Jase…”

“Then your wish is my command, Pack Leader.”

“I prefer Queen Scout or Your Royal Highness.”

“How about Royal Pain?”

“How about you run through some simple drills with Talley before you get yourself in a heap of trouble, Underling?”

“You want me to train Talley?” Jase’s mouth flattened into a straight line. “No.”

“No?” Was he joking? He didn’t sound like he was joking. “But we need to train her to defend herself, remember? We had this whole discussion about how if we were going to do the whole Seer Harriet Tubman thing then she needed to be able to fight just in case some crazy hillbilly really did try to grab her. Surely this sounds familiar. It was your idea.”

“I meant for you to train her. You. Not me.”

“Why not you?” Talley grabbed my arm and said my name in that please-don’t-because-I’m-not-worth-it way of hers, which only managed to transform my confusion into major annoyance. “You’re good with novices.” When Toby made us help out with the younger kids, Jase’s group always managed to actually learn something while Charlie’s group was typically found running around the building like a bunch of wild banshees and my kids sat in a corner crying. “Is it because of that one time her mom sent her to practice with us when we were eight? Because that was nine years ago, and your uncle should have been wearing a cup.”

“She’s not touching me. My thoughts stay in my head.”

I saw Talley discreetly wipe away a tear and had to swallow back a scream of frustration. “For the love of all things shiny, she’s not going to go poking around in your head, Jase. Talley has no need in knowing what half the females at Lake County High look like naked.”

“Whoa!” Jase’s head jerked up, his eyes wide. “Did you just call me a man whore?”

“How is that worse than accusing one of your best friends of being a mental Peeping Tom?”

“She’s a Soul Seer.”

“And she has it under control.”

“She has it under control most of the time.” Talley brushed away another tear and this time Jase saw. It was like someone let all the air out of a balloon. His shoulders sank, his head fell slightly forward, and all the hard lines of his face slid away. “I’m sorry.” He sounded like he really, truly was. “But it’s my head. No one should be able to get in there but me.”

“But—”

“No, he’s right,” Talley said, cutting me off. “My control isn’t absolute, and Jase has a right to privacy. It’s in the Constitution or something.” She gave a watery smile. “Anyways, there was no way this was going to work. I’m the Alfred to your Super Friends. Me and the physical stuff just doesn’t work out well. I mean, look at me.”

“Tal…” Jase gave me a desperate look.

“Don’t be stupid, Talley,” I said, placing my hands on my hips. “You can and will learn to defend yourself. That’s an order.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I thought you didn’t want to be a Pack Leader and give orders.”

“And I thought you wanted to be your own person, free to choose which Pack you belong to.”

There was an uncomfortable silence as Talley and I just stood there, staring each other down. I couldn’t help but think that at one time Charlie would have stepped in at this point to say something clever to lighten the mood and then deftly maneuver us all into doing exactly what it was he wanted, magically convincing us it was our idea in the first place. Instead, he stood off to the side, watching but showing no indication he was affected in the least.

“Okay, you’re right,” Talley finally sighed. “I can at least try.”

“There is no try,” Jase said in a voice more closely resembling Miss Piggy than Yoda. “Do or do not.”