RIVER'S UNGODLY LUCK

16 FEBRUARY, TUESDAY, CONTINUED

"I NEVER hit the gold." River told me.

Like seriously? Never? We must have shot a bow more than a hundred times by now. How could he never have hit the gold? Maybe I should've said, "hit in the red?"

Now I was worried too.

"Hey, you have an alpha wolf. You can tell if someone is bluffing right?" River asked me, "By any chance was Keanu just... You know, bluffing?"

I shook my head.

"Oh no." River panicked.

"Okay, just calm down, River. Panicking is just going to make it worse. I'll shoot first. Then you follow. Keep your eye on the target and your right arm straight, like Coach taught us. You can't give up until the arrow hits the target." I told him firmly.

"It'll be nice if I could just hit the board..." River bemoaned.

Seriously? I felt sure to the depths of my wolf that River had some kind of luck, but now I'm seriously begining to wonder what kind.

"If it hadn't hit the target, you can't give up." I decided to stick to my guns, even if it stopped making sense.

Due to the lack of time, we all got three arrows. And our final score would be the total of whatever your partner and you got. There was no individual score.

River needed time to calm down, so we lined up somewhere at the back with Keanu. He was partnered with a girl named Fiona.

"My friends call me Fifi." Fiona added when Keanu introduced her. 

I nodded politely and made sure not to lol at her nickname. Yeah, I know. I'm not the mature kind.

"I hope we run out of time." River mumbled to himself.

Poor River. I patted him on his shoulder, "No worries, just relax and give it your best shot. I can shoot for the both of us."

"But I'll tell Alph Gunter." Keanu grinned mischievously.

Keanu was the kind of friend who could be devious. I think every well-adjusted idiot came with one attached.

I mean, take me for example, all the wolves closest to me were devious. I mean, name one person in my inner circle who was less devious than me.

River. Yeah. River was probably the world's least selfish and manipulative human. He should get an award. Or we needed to enshrine him under the endangered species protection act.

Maybe stressing him out to test his luck wasn't such a good idea.

It didn't help that it was now Ralph and Horio's turn. Everytime Horio shot, Ralph would get madder. At Horio's third shot, Ralph threw the bow onto the floor.

Coach Roberts blew her whistle and Ralph was sent to run laps.

River swallowed. I guess he was lucky he wasn't with Ralph... See! River was lucky like that.

"Just hit the gold, and you'd be safe." I reminded River.

River looked hopelessly at his hands and shook his head. I punched him lightly on the shoulder, "Come on, River. You can do this."

Which turned out to have the opposite effect and River looked even more pressurised. I decided to stop trying to encourage him.

Anyway, eventually it was our turn. As promised, I went first. I was the alpha. I will protect those who followed me. Particularly endangered species of humans called River.

Naturally it was a perfect 10x3 points. I always did best when someone was counting on me. Ralph had finished his laps in time to see it for himself.

Then it was River's turn. I could see his hands shaking. He could barely hook on his first arrow. And then after that, he couldn't keep from shaking the entire bow. Some of the kids snickered.

"Hn, we probably went a little too far." Keanu thought aloud next to me.

We? It was you!

River released the shot. The next second, the arrow was neatly in the gold.

"9 points." Coach Roberts said, "This time try keeping your eyes open, River."

Oh... Oh... I was right. River's luck was ungodly.

"10 points."

I blinked and missed River's second shot entirely. From the shocked look on River's face, it looked like he hadn't meant to shoot at all.

We were now on the last shot. Wow. I think River was probably the most exciting archer to watch. Could he possibly hit the gold by accident three times in a row?

"I'm really going to tell your dad!" Keanu shouted just as River hooked on the arrow.

River turned his head to us, "No, don't..."

"River! Focus!" Coach Roberts shouted warning.

But her shout only startled River who pretty much let go of everything, bow and all. We all heard him yelp, the arrow swhoop and the bow clattered on the ground.

"River!" Coach Roberts ran over the few steps to him, "Are you hurt?"

As usual, River was uninjured. I'm not sure about the bow, but the arrow... It was dead centre of the gold... in the next lane. Wrong target!

Note to self, next time I needed to be more specific. Safe was only the gold of the target in your lane! Hahaha.

I suspected it before, but I knew it for sure now. River had ungodly luck. If there was anyone luckier than me in this world, it was this guy. Except unlike my kind of luck, River's one had a wicked sense of humour.

Once everything settled down, Coach Roberts read the top three score and gave us peanut butter cups.

49/60! We won.

Second place, 40/60, Roan and Horio.

Third place was 39/60 to two guys I didn't know.

"Awww... We were so close to third." Keanu told Fifi, "38 points."

The proof of Coach Roberts ability had to be the fact that none of the teams got anything less than 34 points, which meant that all of us beginners now had the ability to land the arrow in the blue ring, whether by luck or skill.

Coach Roberts was so pleased she gave all of us peanut butter cups.

I was happy. I liked peanut butter cups.

But I guess a prize that everyone got wasn't worth anything to Ralph. He tossed it to me in passing, "You can have this."

Yes! Two peanut butter cups are always better than one, "Thanks, Shortstuff."

"Whatever."

After that, we took down all the equipment and carried it down to storage. River tripped and fell again. We had to help him pick up all the arrows. Coach Roberts decided he wasn't allowed to carry the arrows anymore, or bows either. So the poor human had to move the heavy target boards and other unbreakable things like that.

Keanu tried to help him, but Keanu was a weak human too. So I ended up helping them with it. 

"Thanks, Sam." River said, "You're so strong."

Keanu laughed, "I have to agree. Even though that's usually the girl's line."

Yeah, it's like we were singing the wrong parts of A Whole New World, but it wouldn't be the first time for me.

"I'm just normal." I said, I remembered Ben and Jonah, "The guys in my pack are even stronger."

"That's true." River thought about it, "Your wolves, they're really scary. They're worse than our pack's elite warriors."

I laughed at that. River had to be exaggerating, "They're just normal warriors."

Now it was Keanu's turn to be surprised, "Those aren't your elite warriors, Sam?"

I blinked, "Why would we send elites to guard a school gate?"

Keanu looked at me and considered this, and then he laughed at whatever conclusion he formed in his head, "I guess it's true, Night Leaf warriors are OP."

"OP?" I asked.

"Overpowered." Keanu grinned, "Is the water there really that different?"

I laughed at that.

"Oh right! You're from Night Leaf!" River said as if suddenly remembering.

Whenever I was with River, I always wondered if that's how my friends feel when they called me "slow".

"You know Wilhelm, ah, my friend who lost his little sister?" River asked.

I nodded.

"He says she's being taken care of by a very nice family in Night Leaf." River told me, "Do you think it'll be okay if I brought him over to visit her?"

"Sure." I shrugged, "Why doesn't he just come himself?"

I did tell him he could.

"I don't know." River frowned, "He keeps making excuses."

"He's worried about upsetting her." Keanu tried to explain.

"How could he think that?" I asked. Why wouldn't Sabre want to see her brother? She clearly loved him dearly.

"That's what I don't understand either." River admitted.

Keanu sighed, "The two of you are cut from the same cloth."

I shook my head, "I'm wolf cloth. He's human cloth."

"But what other difference is there besides that?" Keanu asked.

I regarded River carefully - you mean if I were human and male, I would be a weak guy like River? Omo.

"Don't talk nonsense Keanu." River scolded, "Sam is super strong and smart. I'm nothing like that."

No I'm not.

Well maybe the strong part. But I was quite sure I wasn't in the smart category.

"Anyway, just apply for the visas and bring him over. I'm sure Sabre will be happy to see her brother." I decided to change the subject.

"Sabre?" River asked.

"Greta." I corrected, and then I decided to inform him, "She runs by the name Sabrina now."

"Oh." Said River, "Okay. Wow. Even the nicknames of the wolves in Night Leaf are scary."

Lol. I guess it was pretty bada**. But better a bada** wolf name than a cute doggy name like Fifi. Hahaha. Fifi.

Talking about cute doggy names, Fluffy was at the hall entrance. EJ too. I knew, not just because my wolf radar noted their proximity, but because all the other students were whispering and pointing.

I think it was a shock to some of the girls that their bright and cute EJ, and their beautiful golden Fluffy turned out to be blue demon warriors.

It totally didn't help that they had their dark blue gear on right now. 

"The car is here, Alpha!" EJ announced cheerfully.

"Yeah, hang on. I need to put the equipment away first." I said.

Next thing I knew, Fluffy took the poles out of my hands. EJ hoisted up one of the target boards, "Hoi, hoi! Leave it to us Alpha!"

I shook my head, "It's okay. Just wait downstairs."

But EJ had already bounded off.

Maybe I could just ignore them? Yeah, just pretend they aren't there. I went over to help River untangle some of the poles. I'm not sure how he managed to tangle perfectly straight poles together, but he did, and Keanu was too busy offering help to Fifi to notice.

Two minutes later, River and I sorted out the poles and were ready to move them downstairs.

"Anyone called for backup?" Neil asked.

I flared at the appearance of Neil and Jax, "No! Go back downstairs!"

I looked around for Coach Roberts or some responsible teacher to come over and tell my warriors they weren't allowed to interfere with student activities. But it was like they conveniently vanished. 

"I called." Fluffly reappeared to collect another load, "Alpha wants to store away all the equipment before leaving."

Then he smiled at a couple of girls, "Please allow me, pretty princesses."

They quickly handed over the netting they were carrying.

"Are you sure that's okay?" One girl asked.

Fluffy's smiling mask never wavered, "Of course." 

"Alright then. Give it here, Jax!" Neil decided he wasn't going to left out of the action.

Jax picked up both sets of poles that River and I had sorted and dumped them into Neil's arms. Then he added two more target boards on top of that.

Neil left with his load.

"Take this down too." Ralph pointed out more stuff to Jax. And then EJ came back up from the storeroom so he ordered, "You over there - come dismantle this."

Wait... Wth. Who gave Ralph permission to boss my wolves? I mean, hello, blue demon warriors? Shouldn't it be striking fear in your heart? But maybe Ralph was the heartless type of brat, because he went on to tell EJ to make sure he folded the nettings neater.

By now everyone had stopped work on the cleaning up and were just standing around.

"No, stop!" I flared all over again when all four of them got back and divided out the rest of the clean up by four, "This is our job, not yours."

"But you're the Alpha!" EJ argued.

"Then do what I say and go back downstairs and wait!" I argued back.

EJ made a face.

"Come on, EJ. Our Alpha clearly doesn't want us around." Fluffy said, "We shouldn't get in her way."

Yeah, I mean no. I mean you're not in my way, but I want you to go downstairs. Grrr... I hate it when Fluffy did that.

EJ made some kind of sad puppy dog eyes at me, "Why? Does she hate us?"

No! Don't give me that look!

I really hated when the both of them combined forces like that. I should smack them both. That's what I should do!

"Then who's going to move all this down?" Neil tried the sensible, practical approach.

"My friends and I can do it." I answered.

"Aren't we friends?" EJ asked.  Sad puppy dog eyes now shining with renewed hope.

Wth. And of course, it had to get worse.

"What's going on here?" It was Captain returning with all the other seniors just a few steps behind him.

Grrr!