Heather's got a task on her mind...

Zack had already opened the cabin's front door and was ushering Ashley inside when they heard Heather's voice.

"Ash! Can you do something for me, por favor?"

"Whatever you need," Ashley said, walking past Zack into the living room. "Where are you at, anyway?"

"Not that way. Come back outside!"

"Oh, yeah, yeah. Why are you back here at the cabin still? We've been waiting for you at the lake." Ashley backpedalled, retracing her steps past Zack and down the cobblestone walkway that tracked back down to the three cars that the friends had driven up to the cabin earlier in the afternoon. She peered around to the back of the Audi that Heather and Kurt had piloted out from Azure Rocks, expecting to find her friend fishing something out of the backseat or the trunk, but - nothing.

"Not there, Ashley!"

"Where the hell are you, then, girl?"

"Up!"

"What?" Instinctively, Ashley tilted her face to look directly overhead, and for her trouble, found herself looking directly at the sun. Cursing, she pressed her eyes shut and averted her gaze, the glow of the sun's rays still imprinted on her vision.

"Goddammit, Heather!"

"Not that far up! Jesus, Ash."

"Hey, she's on the roof," Zack pointed, and Ashley followed his finger to see Heather Ravers, sure enough, perched on top of the cabin. She was glaring at a set of solar panels, which Zack had failed to notice while taking his original impression of his temporary home away from home. He saw Heather's left leg twitch a little bit, as if she was about to kick one of the solar cells in frustration, but if that had actually been her intent, Heather's composure luckily got the best of her.

"Wonderful. I am the great and terrible Queen Heather of Ravers Cabin, where I harness the power of the sun to command the dread mystery of electricity for my own sinister purposes. Except I don't. Because this fucking thing isn't working."

Um, what the hell was she just saying about her sinister electricity? That sounded like Gavin talking, not Heather. Realizing this was far from the right time - if there would ever be a good time - to call Heather Ravers a weirdo, Zack decided to take a different tack in voicing his own confusions. "Wait, but I know I turned on the lights when we got here, and the fridge was running, and - well, everything seemed fine."

"Of course they are. It's not like we're off the grid here, or something - we just get some supplementary power, and daddy feels good about how he's saving the Earth. But the thing is, we're not drawing any power from these fucking things, and we haven't been for months, apparently." Heather crouched down to get a closer look at the offending solar panels, and Zack had to stifle the warning he felt compelled to shout up at her. Clearly she knew what she was doing, but he wasn't anxious to have their spring break trip begin with a fall and several broken limbs.

"You said you needed a favor," Ashley reminded.

"Oh, those little shits."

"What?"

Heather sighed. "It's like I figured. Some squirrels must have tried to nest here over the winter - there's a little bit of space between the panels and the roof itself, and they like to burrow in there and fuck up all the wiring. I need to throw some more mesh in here to try and keep them from going back. We've got some in the cellar, I'm sure of it. Sometime later in the week I'll get back up here, make sure there aren't any critters still hiding under the panels, and install the mesh."

Ashley pursed her lips. This was a new side of Heather to both her and Zack - the girl had never seemed especially handy or hands-on in school, but apparently, she'd been brought up by a father who believed in a very DIY ethos and communicated it to his only daughter. It did make Ashley feel a bit better to know that if anything went wrong during the week, Heather could probably be counted on for a solution without having to bring outside adults into it. "How did you even get up to the roof, anyway?"

"There's a tree pressed up against the back of the cabin. Climbed it, hopped over. Easy. And I can just jump off when I'm done, it's only, what, eight, ten feet down?"

"You sure?"

"Yeah, yeah," Heather scoffed. "But just now, can one of you help me out?"

"Whatever you need," Zack offered.

"There have got to still be a few cans of Coors Light in the fridge from the last time my dad was here. And it's a gorgeous day out, I've got a nice view of the lake and the woods from up here, and I feel like chilling out up here and drinking a beer before I get back on the ground. You get me?"

"I'll just be one minute," Zack affirmed, and proceeded into the cabin.

He didn't head directly to the fridge, though. Figuring it was better to be safe than sorry, Zack jogged down the basement stairs to search for one more thing he was sure the Ravers must have in their vacation home, and sure enough, tucked against one of the walls of the cavernous cellar he found a decently-sized metal ladder. Grasping it in both hands, he muscled the ladder back up the stairs, made a quick pit stop into the kitchen to get a beer tucked under one arm as well, and walked back through the still propped open front door.

"Oh, Zack, you didn't need to drag that heavy thing outside too."

"It's no problem for me," he waved off Heather's protest. "And I wanted to give you a easier way down from up there, just in case."

"You're nice. But I really doubt one beer'll make any difference in me climbing down from here."

Ashley came over to take one side of the ladder in her hands, and with her extra pair of hands, Zack was easily able to get the contraption upright and tilted securely against the front wall of the cabin. As he took a step back, Ashley picked up the can of beer that he'd momentarily discarded by the door and handed it back to him.

"Hey, so was there a lot of beer left where you found this?"

"Uh," Zack considered. "I really don't think so. Maybe another few cans - less than a six-pack."

"That's too bad. But I think I can help with that."

"Wait, you can? How?"

Ashley grinned cheekily. "Don't you remember? My sister Hannah's been 21 for a few months now. So when she came home for spring break, I inherited her fake. Guess who's now twenty-five years old, named Abigail, and from Salt Lake City?"

"Wait, do they sell **** in Salt Lake City?"

"Does it matter, as long as they sell it here?"

Zack conceded the point. Taking the beer from Ashley, he shimmied up the ladder with his free hand, and clambered up to sit down next to Heather on the roof.

"One cold beer, your majesty," he handed over.

"Aw, you're keeping the bit going. I like you, Bishop." Heather fixed her clear blue eyes on Zack as he handed over the Coors. Seeing him meet her gaze, she smirked - that classic, well known Heather Ravers smirk that was heavily scrutinized and analyzed by a great many Azure Rocks boys - and as she grabbed the beer, she leaned over to give Zack a quick, light kiss, right on his cheekbone. Just for good measure.

"Hey," Zack said, managing to **** back the stammer threatening to creep into his response. "Happy to help."

"Mm-hm. So - you want to stay up here, since you've already climbed up to make your delivery? I'd be happy to share the beer with you if you want to keep me company. Or were you and Ashley just passing through?"