Day 2

"Ugh, archery? Really?" Heather complained.

Chris had gotten the protesting campers up and out of bed at eight in the morning. Whatever their view on being at camp was, none of them were happy about an early morning. After breakfast, he and Chef led them all out to the field where four archery targets had been set up and plenty of bows and arrows were laid out on the ground.

"Aw, come on!" Cody said, "Archery's cool!"

"Yeah yeah!" Izzy yelled, "Bow and arrow! So cool! I'm so great at this, just wait!"

"Whatever. Are we supposed to do this all day?"

"More or less," Chris said. "You'll each grab a bow and follow along while Chef Hatchet gives you an archery tutorial. Then you'll all line up in front of a target. You'll take turns shooting at the targets and practicing your aim. Maybe if you all get good enough we'll hide some targets around camp."

"What if we already have archery skills?" Harold asked.

Chris stared blankly at Harold for a moment before speaking. "Yeah, I'm gonna have you go through the tutorials anyway. Just to be sure."

Harold sighed. "Fine."

"All right, listen up ya little punks," Chef said, getting in front of the group. "Pay attention!"

The campers ran to each grab a bow as Chef began shouting instructions at them.

About half an hour later, everyone stood in four rows of six, taking turns shooting at the targets. For the most part, they weren't too good. They mostly managed to hit somewhere on the target, but most of them got nowhere near the bullseye. There were a few exceptions, of course; Alejandro, Sierra, Trent, Ezekiel, and Eva were doing pretty well, but the others were a bit of a mess and Tyler was particularly bad. Izzy somehow managed to get a bullseye every time she took a shot, which seemed a bit concerning.

Trent took a shot and hit the ring just outside the center of the target.

"Wow, you're pretty good at this," Gwen said, surprised.

"I guess I am," Trent responded. He was pleasantly surprised at how well he was picking this up. "I'll bet you're pretty great at this, too, though."

"As if. I can barely manage to hit the target." Gwen held up her bow and readied her shot.

"Try spreading your feet out a little more," Trent said, "It'll help steady you."

Gwen widened her stance and took her shot. It landed in one of the middle rungs, a lot closer than she had been getting. "Wow. Thanks," She said, smiling at Trent. The two walked to the back of their line.

A few lines down, Alejandro hit a bullseye.

"Well! That wasn't so hard," He said, smiling mischievously "Isn't this easy, Heather?"

Behind him, Heather was fuming. As soon as Alejandro stepped out of the way Heather quickly shot at the target, missing it completely.

"Oh, what a shame!" Alejandro said with a condescending overtone to his voice, "You should really slow down. Take your time to align your shot. Then maybe after awhile you could get to be as good as I am." Alejandro walked to the back of the line.

As Heather glared after Alejandro, Lindsay stepped up, aligned her shot, and hit the target just barely on the bullseye.

"Hey! Look Heather! I got an eye-shot thingy! Alejandro was right, this is easy!" Lindsay said as Heather gasped. She threw her bow down in frustration and stormed off the field.

"Hey!" Chris called after her, "Where do you think you're going? This activity is mandatory."

"It's stupid is what it is. I'm going to the cabins."

"Oh no, you don't. Chef!"

As Chef started towards Heather a panicked look crossed her face and she started to run. Chef chased after her, determined to bring her back to the targets.

"Uh, yeah, Chris?" Duncan said, "Can we call it a day? This is seriously lame."

"Yeah, dude, my arms are getting tired," Geoff added.

"Well then suck it up. This is mandatory," Chris said.

"You can't seriously expect us to do this all day," Courtney said, crossing her arms.

"Yes, I can. And I do."

"There is no way I'm doing this all day," Gwen said, dropping her bow. A few other campers followed suit.

Chris sighed in frustration. "Okay, fine! If you take all this stuff back to the shed you can break for lunch and have the rest of the day off."

The campers cheered and quickly cleared the equipment. Chef came back from chasing Heather.

"I told you this was a bad idea," He said quietly to Chris.

"What are you talking about? They're all fine."

"Yeah, but we got lucky. They got bored before any of the testier ones snapped. These kids are too dangerous to be given weapons like that. What if it hadn't been that girl that snapped? What if it had been-"

"Okay, fine! You're right! We won't do anything like this again."

The two walked off the field and towards the mess hall. Harold peered around the leaves that had concealed him from sight. He had climbed up the tree to gather a few stray arrows and ended up hearing the whole exchange between Chris and Chef Hatchet. He jumped to the ground and glanced wearily at the arrows in his hand then looked up to where the two men had walked off. He shook the exchange out of his head and went to return the arrows to the shed.

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