SHOOTING WITH MY HEART

It turned out that having the target board further back than what I was used to made a difference. Who knew? I had no idea the same target board would look this much smaller so far away. I just hope Lala, this silly girl, had the upper body strength to pull the bow back all the way all three times. It'll be embarrassing if the arrow didn't even make it to the other end.

So I had just these two things to overcome - the distance, and actually hitting the correct target board on my lane from this distance. Everything else would be down to luck.

Right… for some reason, right at this moment, I had to wonder, what if like the rest of me, my luck was weakened in this life? Omo. Suddenly, I was remembering all the times Mum warned me about relying too much on my luck.

But I also had some skill, right? I mean, I had been in the archery club for one term, I knew how to notch an arrow, how to hold it… as I did so, it felt natural. Good, I was doing well. Even though Lala had never done this before, it wasn't too complicated. I checked my elbow. I know it made me look noob, but Lala was a noob.

So what if the target was three times the distance I was used to?

One must loose and arrow the way one reads ancient lycan, from the heart. Well, heart this! I'm getting into the archery club!

I mean, I know I sort of got into the archery club in the last life by chance, and Coach Em literally begged me to join the Lorent Girls' School team. It was ironic how desperately I wanted to join now.

I let go of the arrow and felt its release extremely satisfying in every way. The sound of it, the feeling of it, the way the wind picked up my hair… wait, what wind?

Gah! The arrow was pushed. It was the wind, dammit! We had always trained in the hall, not outdoors like we were now! I did not factor this in.

"It hit!" One of the seniors yelled.

"I can't believe she hit it!" Another said.

Like wth was with that level of expectation?

But hitting wasn't enough. I had promised to hit three golds. This first arrow had landed on the blue. So close though!

Grrrr…. I blew it. Well actually the wind blew it.

Oh well, I shot the second and third in succession, might as well enjoy it before Coach Em yelled at me to stop and disappear. Goodbye archery team! If we ended up staying in this timeline, you can look me up at the Princess Club. T.T

In hindsight, boasting that I'd get all three on the gold was kind of overkill.

"Gold! They're both golds!" The seniors yelled. They cheered and clapped like they were on the Wheel of Fortune and it had landed on the big money… or like Mr Beast showed up and left me a bag of free money. Maybe they were just messing around because I was a cute girl.

I remembered how in New Leaf, sometimes we would have to take turns to try different sports, like javelin throwing. The boys would go first, and when they were done, they'd gather around to watch the girls take their turns. And then no matter how badly we threw, they would hoot and cheer and clap.

"Good try! You almost got further than the omega." And then they'd laugh and clap.

I'm not sure why, but Dean almost always did the worst, and only Haylee would throw worse than him. But when it was Haylee, because she was a cute girl, they'd all give tips like, "Point it up!/"Aim at the horizon!" and then no matter how badly she did, they'd clap after the throw, "Good try."

Because we were just girls. (And also because she was Harvey's little sister and nobody wanted to get on the good beta's bad side.)

I guess they were the same to me, maybe more so, since Fluffy was still in highschool too. And he was far worse than Harvey when it came to petty vengence. I think even if I stabbed my own toe with the javelin, no one would dare laugh, but Lala the silly girl would always stress out about messing up in front of everyone. Luckily, I had black wolf genes, so Lala never did badly enough for her lack of sporting ability to be notable. Lala always did okay - for a girl anyway.

I handed the bow back to the nice senior and turned to go, "Thanks. I'll go now."

No point hanging around anymore.

"Wait, girl. What was your name again?" Coach Em shouted.

Eh? Was I going to get in trouble for this? I shook my head, "My name doesn't matter."

Please don't ever find out who I am? Last thing I needed was for the school to hear about my desperate and epic fail in front of the entire boy's archery club!

Sigh, maybe Lala had it right from the start. Stay out of the public scrutiny, don't offend anyone, don't cause anyone trouble - stay in the Okay Zone. What made me think this life would play out exactly like my last one just because I stepped up my game? Maybe I stepped out too far, even for Sam… I had been pretty daring today.

"Who is your coach?" Coach Em asked, "How long have you been training?"

I would have left but Coach Em somehow caught my arm in a pincer grip.

"Not long." I said, and then I realized I couldn't say Coach Roberts because I never met her in this life, "I don't have a coach, I just wanted to try it."

"What?" Coach Em yelled, "You've never… never… how…"

"I mean, I kind of learned… sort of… this year…" I tried to explain.

"This year?" Coach Em was still yelling, "It's only March!"

I winced at his volume.

"Girl, don't lie." Coach Em growled.

"Coach, you're scaring her." The nice senior tried to help.

"You're being creepy, Old Man." Roan deadpanned.

Coach Em realized that he was shaking me by the arm and yelling in my face, so he let me go, "Ah, come tomorrow. You're invited."

Lala, the silly girl, started leaking tears… I was just so relieved and happy, but blinked it back so it didn't come out.

"I didn't hit all three." I said shakily.

"What are you talking about?" Coach Em scolded, "Most of the guys in this team wouldn't be able to hit two!"

Eh?

"Just make sure to come tomorrow." Coach Em ordered.

The tears started streaming down now, "Yes, Coach!"

And then I turned and ran back into the bush and out of sight, I only stopped when I got back to the path in the Orange Grove.

That was embarrassing. I roughly rubbed the tears away. I did it! It didn't happen the way I wanted it to, but I got into the girl's archery team. I won! Ah, my face felt hot. It must look a mess. I stepped off the path and took refuge behind a nearby tree. I'm just going to let my face cool off for a bit before returning back to civilization (where all the girls were).

It seemed that the Orange Grove was not the usual way to get to the Sports Complex. I wondered if there was a quicker way or because Monday was when the boys had their sports clubs activities, so no one from the girl's school would be going over.

I guess if I was still around tomorrow, I could follow some of the other girls in sports clubs over to the sports complex.

Oh, someone was coming! I quickly ducked further back behind the treeline. I hoped the redness around my eyes would have faded by now. A girl's footsteps pattered down the pavement. I took a peek, she was someone vaguely familiar. Someone from my class maybe? Or the Princess Club? She didn't look like one of the theatre club girls… Why was she here? What should I do? Did my face look puffy? Would I be able to just walk out and calmly pass her? Would I need to say hi? No, maybe I should just wait for her to pass me, or better still, make my way back from behind the trees. Yeah, I should just sneak back. It would be best if no one knew I was at the sports center when it was the boy's turn to use. Yeah, let me just sneak away…

"It's you." A guy's voice.

I froze in my tracks. Deja vu? Why did I suddenly think of Fluffy?

"Were you the one who wrote this letter?" It was a boy… he looked familiar. Wait, I know him! That's Howl! I mean Howard - one of the Lorent idiots I beat up in my last life. He was Principal Holden's son. I've never met him before in this life either, but I felt quite sure it was the same guy as the one I beat up at the Lorents in my previous life. He wasn't talking to me though. He was talking to the girl who just came.

She nodded, "Yes. May I know your reply?"

Wait, what was going on?

"I'm sorry. There's already someone I like." The boy returned the letter. And then he said apologetically, "I have to go."

And he was gone.

The girl held the letter to her face, "Howl's smell."

She continued to mummer into the letter, "You knew this would happen. You just wanted to meet him and hear his voice…"

Okay… I don't know wth was going on, but I didn't want anything to do with it. I quietly slipped away and found myself happily back by the side of the girl's building.

Deep breath. Nothing happened. I adjusted my bag, and strolled over to join the girls leaving the school. To ease traffic congestions, there was a pick up point further down the pathway by the plaza where both the boys and girls can be picked up by their parents. The plaza was the only mix space that girls could go to without looking desperate for guys, because there were lots of valid reasons for a girl to go there. For example, to go home.

The pick up point was right next to the Plaza. This made it much more convenient for the Lorent parents of siblings in either school. There was even a roundabout for all the cars to take their turn to pick up their charges and leave in an orderly fashion.

Further down the road from there would the shared main gate to the Lorent Schools and the bus stop.

"Labear!" I turned around at my name being called. It was Robear and Charbear.

"Why are you still in school?" Robear asked when they caught up to me.

"Club stuff… What are YOU still in school?" I decided to turn the question back at them. I mean, I wasn't going to tell them about whatever that happened beyond the Orange Grove.

"I was waiting to get a lift home with Charbear." Robear said.

"I had cleaning duties today." Charbear said.

I nodded. Even princesses had to do cleaning duties here.

"Did you know, someone saw Annie go into the Orange Grove just now." Robear told me.

I felt my hands turn cold. Please no one see me go in!

"So what if she went?" I tried to play it cool.

"Don't you know?" Robear said, "The Orange Grove is where all the confessions happen! Like if you ever get a letter that tells you to meet a boy in the Orange Grove after school, that means he is going to confess to you."

Oh, well, all the more I should never let anyone know I had been there today.

"I wonder who Annie confessed to?" Robear wondered.

We reached the Plaza. This was a mixed space just before the pick up point. There were some cafes here, and a few shops, including the school book shop and a uniform shop. It was the only space that parents could wait at or hang out in without registering with the security.

"Such a long line of cars…" Robear looked out towards the queue.

Charbear took out her phone and frowned, "My Dad is running late. There's a traffic jam…"

Charbear was in a bad mood today.

"Don't mind Charbear." Robear said, "She's still upset at the LNC reports."

Oh, right. I forgot about that.

"I'm not." Charbear argued, "I know it has to be a misunderstanding. Henry loves me!"

Ah… I was not so certain about it being a misunderstanding, but okay. It's amazing how much more laidback I was about Hen's indiscretions now that I was too weak to beat anyone up.

"Is your brother coming to pick you up today?" Charbear changed the subject.

"Oh, which one?" Robear craned her neck to the line of cars, "If it's the hot one from this morning, I'm glad Charbear's Dad is late."

"I prefer her older brother." Charbear said, "I'm not into pretty boys."

Hahahaha, she called Fluffy a pretty boy… oh wait! What was red! And what time was it? I checked my phone. It was a good thing I told Fluffy to come at 3.30, and not 3!

3:45pm. Opps.

I looked out for my Dad's car, weird… its not anywhere.

"Is he here?" Robear asked, "So which one came?"

"Fluf-… Kai." I answered.

"Oooohhh, ask him to park and meet you at the café." Robear ordered, "Come on, Charbear, let's go wait at the café!"

I checked my phone. I had a few missed calls and a message from Fluffy.

"Sorry La, I've got Wolfie but we're stuck in a jam."

Jam was red right?