Let the Flames Begin

((Mondays are a super great time...let me tell you....Time of my life right there.
And the posts are getting longer, it's because we both just try to make sure not to be shorter than the other.
Miss Hutcherson can be doting on the kids since she dumped kitchen duty on Bess forever.
And Cass....oh Cass....I'd have to say Lucas, although she might be a bit miffed on the matter of not getting to go out and help because that's Cass. I don't know why she hasn't been allowed to go out yet. It could be because they don't want her to, don't think she's responsible enough, are waiting until Hans is ready, whatever you think is suitable. Although, I kinda want to smush Cass together with Mark just to see what might happen. Chaos.
Also note that Cass is better trained than I wrote in that first post becuase I was writing her at twelve instead of sixteen. Just noticed that little bit.))

Kim scowled at the prospect of doing dishes. That meant that she would be stuck staying afterwards to wash the dishes. That always felt like hours and her fingers always felt gross afterwards. Although, Kim did not mind splashing around in the water too terribly. Water was more fun than hot food. After all, hot food was dangerous and could burn her hands, whereas water would only make her hands look silly for a little bit. In the end, Kim kind of preferred it this way. She liked working with Cass and Bess more than Mark and Greg. Mostly Mark, not really Greg. Mark always teased them and antagonized them about how they did not belong. He always insisted that they never contributed to the chores at all, even though they all helped out. Usually. Kim mentally edited her statement, he berated everyone in the group except for Bess and Jack. Obviously because he had no grounds to say that they did not help out. After all, Jack was constantly helping with the ship’s engines and Bess nearly lived in the kitchen. Kim was still looking for the bed in the kitchen, she knew it must be hidden somewhere. Most of Kim did not really believed that Bess slept in the kitchen, but a small part of her liked to imagine it that way. She never really looked very hard for fear of shattering the illusion. That still left her with the thought of Mark hating on their group, especially Cass. He never seemed to do that to any of the other new orphans. Just their group. Kim had yet to figure out why. Maybe she should pose that riddle for Mark and actually get the answer. He would know the answer to that riddle, instead of being confused as per his usual.
Kim stuck her tongue out at Greg. She retorted, “I’m not the one worth less than the chicken.” She didn’t really mean that he was worth less than chicken. She was pretty sure Greg was used to her by now. If not, well, it would thicken his skin a bit. He had started it after all.
Still, Kim moved to the side of the kitchen. Just because she was not helping did not mean she did not know how to stay out of the way. Suddenly, Kim remembered a particularly good riddle about fences. Kim chirped, “So there’s three guys who are trying to contain the biggest area ever, but they want to use the littlest amount of face. One guy makes a circle and says it’s good. Another guy, who was a sassy smart guy made a line of fence that would go around half the earth and that would be biggest. But the third guy had the best idea. What did he do to win?” Kim rocked back and forth on her heels, pretty proud of this riddle. She had read it in a book somewhere, but she still thought it was a really good one. And she had figured out the answer (well half of it) on her own when she read it. That made her nearly as clever as the riddler.
Cass shrugged at his comment about her being crud. Well, that was certainly not the way to make friends. Not that they would ever be friends. Not after this long. Besides, they were far past the stage of making nice. Cass struggled to remember at which point his criticism had stopped being comprehensibly youthful to petty and rude. It was reasonable for a little kid to be cruel to newcomers and a bit irksome, but it had been years now. There hardly seemed to be a true reason behind his rudeness. At least none Cass had figured out yet.
Cass teased, “But you’re here now. Shirking the duties that you could be doing in the kitchen.” Cass noted that he suddenly had the urge to walk in front of her. It seemed he was a bit more irritated about their speed than he might have let on. Cass skipped a few steps forward, matching his pace and walking alongside him. Cass added tartly, “You know, you could quit talking about us as if we’re not part of the group. Hate to break it to you, but we’ve been here plenty long and we’re not going to leave. Everyone’s getting tired of you acting like we’re some horrible plague.” That settled that. It had been long enough for them to earn their keep. While Kim was notorious for complaining and whining, she got the job done relatively well for someone her age. Greg often managed his tasks pretty well too, with a bit less complaining than Kim to boot. Hans somehow managed his duties on top of his training. That was rather admirable in itself. He was generally pretty sweet to everyone, a disposition he had pretty much held on to from their youth. Cass did not know what to say about herself. She generally showed up to help out where she was supposed to. Usually closer to being on time than today. Usually only a few minutes late instead of nearly a half an hour. These were reason enough for Mark to grow up about their place on the airship.
Anna smirked at Hans’ cool acceptance of her sudden appearance. Well, she had tried to be sudden, but she knew her surprise attempts never had much of an effect on Hans. He seemed to sense when she was on her way. Come to think of it, she always seemed to know when he was arriving as well. It seemed their bond ran a bit deeper than just sharing their powers. Still, it was amazing to see Hans’ progress. He had been a jumpy little kid, afraid of his own two hands. Now he was clever enough to use some sort of bond they shared to keep from being anything more than blasé about her appearance. Anna generally felt pretty proud of Hans, but she added this as a special feather in his cap.
Anna smiled, “All good questions.” She pondered the thoughts for a moment. Hans really knew how to get at the heart of the matter, asking many of the questions she had been thinking of herself. Anna shrugged, “I suppose it’s because he is not very pleased with himself if he does like her. After all, he seems to have some sort of vendetta against your little band. Although, maybe that was always a front for his feelings towards Cass. Hm. Mark’s a tough one. Perhaps he does not understand himself either.” Anna added, “As for the second part, that I can explain. Presuming Mark does in fact like Cass, you would be rather jealous of you. After all, if Cass had her way, she’d be at your side constantly. And you’d probably go on all sorts of marvelous adventures. So Mark’s just jealous because Cass actually gets along with you. And she would rather hang around with you than Mark. At least that aspect of him is a bit easier to comprehend.” Oh Mark, what an interesting topic of discussion he was proving to be.
Upon seeing Hans stand up, Anna also moved her cup over to the table. If he was ready to train, she did not want to be caught unawares. But then, she heard his stomach growl. Apparently, he had been readier for lunch than she had thought. Well, she was pretty hungry as well, and starting training this late in the game would not be very helpful. Anna agreed, “Fine, we’ll break for lunch. Sounds good. But I would not advise going over there early. With Cass being quite so late, I would not want to show up early and upset Bess. We’ll just dawdle then?” Hopefully, they could dawdle just enough to get to the kitchen just in time for lunch, not to be early or late. That was really the ideal. Especially with everybody who was scheduled to be in the kitchen running late as it would seem.