#bergen_county

"Thanks, Mrs. King."

"No problem, most of them are pepperoni flavored, but the ones on this third area are sausage and extra cheese"

Sam chews on her cuticles, hanging back.

Jaymes puts a hand on his daughter's shoulder, trying to reassure

"Uh, thanks." Adam offers again.

Sam slinks to get plates, handing one to Adam, another to Jaymes.

"You're welcome" TOve says

Adam takes his plate, and a few rolls. He eats one.

"Tove makes them from scratch."

"Yeah? I only ever had them out of the freezer. These are better."

"Yeah. She's a great cook." Dag manages to eat one.

"It's not that tricky" Tove says "But thank you"

Adam eats another one.

Sam pushes hers around.

Tove looks at her daughter with concern, "Are you feeling okay, Sam? "

"I guess I'm not hungry. I'll have these later?"

"of course" Tove says gently

Jaymes raises a brow but leaves it be.

Adam sets his down. "Yeah, they're really good but I should save some room for dinner, I guess."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Yeah."

"Of..course." Tove says

Both parents try to mask their confusion at Sam's withdraw

well, her emotional withdrawing.

"I'll... I'll go find that practice staff, I guess."

She tromps off for the shed.

Adam trails after her.

She's rummaging, cheeks flushed and jaw set.

Adam leans against the shed doorframe, waiting.

She emerges with two practice staves.

Adam pushes off the frame and steps back while offering to take one.

She holds it out, not quite making eye contact.

Adam takes it. "So... warm-ups or....?"

She bites on her lip and nods. "And I thought... since you don't have juice... maybe we could spar? I don't... the strong thing, we're more matched, this way..."

"Yeah, if you want." Adam sets the staff down to stretch out.

"..we don't have to..."

"Up to you, Sam. I'm here to work, if that's what you think is the best idea. Or we can go eat pizza rolls. That's cool too."

A shrug. " Warm up, I guess."

"Ok." He goes back to stretching and warming up.

Sam fidgets a little, shoulders rounded

When ready, he nods to Sam and takes up the staff. "So, how do we do this?"

"I strike, you try to block."

Adam nods. "Ok. Let's do this."

He takes the ready stance she showed him.

She takes a similar stance... then... swing!

He lifts the staff to block; might have been smarter to dodge or....

He seems to remember her being stronger. Now, no doubt - she IS strong, strong for a guy even, let alone a teenage girl...

But this is human strength, not supernatural.

He gets the staff up and blocks it, but takes the jarring impact with a grunt.

"Good!"