First Day of School, Don't Shoot Anyone

"Welcome to class. My name is Mr. Turner, I can shoot an apple off your head with a bow and disarm you about three hundred different ways using a sword. I can also do trigonometry, so my other talents will have to be set aside for the moment. Unless however, you are being disrespectful and not listening, and in that case I will have the pleasure of exercising multiple talents at once."

Mr. Turner whipped around quickly and something flew out of his hand. Miles turned around to see a dart implanted in the back wall, an inch away from Caspar's left ear. Caspar had stopped talking to Kane, who was sitting in the back beside him, and was now looking at Mr. Turner, eyes wide. It was only a split second, though, because seconds later Caspar wore his standard grin once more.

"That was wicked!"

Miles could see the corners of Mr. Turner's mouth turn up slightly at Caspar's comment, an almost smile.

In this class," continued Mr. Turner. "You will learn to add, subtract, multiply, and divide polynomials, graph rational functions, and other stuff that you will never need to know after the moment that you pass this class."

Out of the corner of his eye, Miles could see the guy named Ian scribbling everything Mr. Turner said down on a piece of paper. An Indian girl sat beside him. Every desk in the classroom was in pairs, so Miles had sat down beside Jason since Caspar was already sitting beside Kane. The girl Miles had met yesterday, Lilly, was sitting beside another blonde girl. The red-haired, slender girl that arrived with them, Dawn, sat with a girl who seemed to have a permanent scowl on her face.

"Do not ask me why you have to take this class when you should be spending more time training to defend against the people looking for you. I do not know," Mr. Turner said, looking at each one of them individually. "If it were up to me, you would be taking charms class and drinking pumpkin juice."

Ian and a few of the other students laughed, but Miles didn't see what was funny. Pumpkin juice sounded awful.

"After this class, I will lead you to the archery range and show you how to properly use a bow."

Mr. Turner then began to talk about math, losing all the students' attention with words like asymptote and parallelogram. Wow, Miles thought, this is actually pretty boring... nice. It wasn't too bad, though. It was normal, and normal was something that Miles and the rest of the kids there could use. He wanted to get in and out of the academy quickly, but a return to normal wasn't the worst thing that could happen. They listened, took notes, did work, and groaned while writing down the homework. Normal.

Next was archery, which wasn't as normal of a school activity. Miles could see that the academy was trying to mix work with training, but he wasn't sure how well that would work out. The group walked together out of the academy, following Mr. Turner. Caspar and Kane were laughing about something and Lilly and her deskmate were gossiping. Everyone seemed to fit in, except for Miles. So it was nice for him to have Jason around. He didn't know him that well, but he figured that Jason was in the same boat as him. He had told Miles that he felt like an odd one out when hanging with Caspar and Kane. He'd said that Caspar had tried including him, but he and Kane just didn't hit it off too well. So they had each other, at least for the trend of hanging out in pairs. Miles had never had a problem with being alone, but he did know that it was better if you found at least one person to rely on. Maybe more. Or hey, maybe he'd even make a friend at this new school. He hadn't had much success in the past, but he could already tell that his future was going to be much different.

They arrived at the archery range, which wasn't anything special. Just several lined up bow stations that looked out upon a big target. Mr. Turner picked up a bow and started to speak.

"Pick up a bow and notch an arrow into it. Watch me for the position to slide the arrow into, but after a few tries it should come naturally. After that, you'll never lose it. For your first shot, aim it the best you can. Then adjust your aim for the second shot. Do not, I repeat do not go and fetch your arrow until everyone is clear and no one is shooting. There are separate lanes, but all it takes is one stray arrow. Got it? These aren't children's toys. Do not treat them as such. This is a privilege."

Everyone was listening intently, even Caspar.

"I am required to say all of that, and more, by the way. You'd be surprised by all the terms and conditions we have when teaching here. Anyway, get into partners and choose a lane."

As Miles had predicted, a partner came in handy. By default, everyone ended up paired with their desk partner.

"Have you ever shot a bow before?" Jason asked.

Miles shook his head. "You?"

"Nah," replied Jason.

They stand in the bow station to the back. Once everyone had found a proper lane, Mr. Turner continued.

"Which of you has shot before?"

Miles looked around and saw that Caspar was the only one with a raised hand.

"Caspar, right?" Mr. Turner asked. Caspar nodded. "Okay, Caspar, let's see what you've got."

Caspar grabbed a bow and stood in the middle of the lane, with one foot over each side of the middle line that runs through on the ground over to the target. He stood straight up and adjusted his shoulders a little. He tenderly grabbed an arrow and brought it over into the bow, keeping the fletching pointed towards himself. He drew the bow carefully, using his whole arm while keeping his shoulder down. His eyes were fixated on the target the whole time. Miles could see him take a breath in, as if he didn't really want to let the arrow go. But then the moment was over. Caspar exhaled and released the arrow, which flew in a straight line. It hit the target very close to, if not right on, the bulls-eye.

"Yes!" cried Mr. Turner. "That was perfect!"

Caspar didn't smile. He examined the position of the arrow for a moment longer, as if he felt like he could have done better, and then put the bow back down and stepped back.

"I could not have done that better myself," said Mr. Turner. "I hope you were watching closely, class. Caspar went through all the perfect motions, then added some skill to it, and that's the result. All of you will be able to do the same thing if you listen, watch, and learn from the mistakes that you will inevitably have. I will walk you through the steps Caspar took. First, he put himself in the proper stance, each foot on either side of the center of the line that you have. He put himself in an almost comfortable, yet still alert position. He then knocked the arrow, set his draw and bow hand, drew the arrow, anchored, aimed, set-up his shot, and released it. I want all of you to try the same."

They did try the same. They did not, however, hit the bulls-eye, or get anywhere close. The closest to Caspar's shot was probably Dawn or the Indian girl (Miles still didn't know her name). Kane also came pretty close, and Jason and Lilly weren't bad either. Miles thought he did decently at first—he at least hit the target first try, but then missed the target completely later on. Overall, it was actually pretty fun. He wondered if they would be doing this every day. That wouldn't be bad, Miles thought. He had enjoyed shooting a bow in the nice outdoors of Oregon. Fandomania was turning out to be pretty nice. But the day wasn't over yet.