"Wow Noire, you sure you haven't done archery before?" Professor Stahl asks, as the three of us all glare at the target.
"Y-Yeah, this was my first time ever," I say, noticing the arrow in the first ring away from the bull's-eye.
"Dang, just a little bit higher and you'd have had it dead on Noire," Brady says, pulling the arrow out of the target and complimenting my handy work.
"I-It's just beginners luck, I am sure I need a lot of practice," I reply, moving my hair out of my face, not used to being praised, not sure how to respond.
"Yeah right, you're a natural," Brady continues.
"He could be right Noire, I sure look forward to seeing how you do Monday, alright Brady let's see how well you can handle a bow," Professor Stahl says, handing Brady an arrow as I pass him the bow.
"Alright let's see if the target can handle this," Brady moves to where I was standing, he pulls the arrow back and getting into a position similar to mine.
"Whenever you're ready," The Professor says.
Brady takes a deep breath, steadys his aim, and let goes of the arrow.
The arrow then pierces the middle of the black board to the right of the target. There was a long extended silence until someone finally broke through it.
"Well…that is unfortunate," Professor Stahl.
"Um Brady, y-you were pretty close," I didn't know what to say, after my lucky shot, I couldn't imagine how Brady must be feeling.
"Uh, yeah, it must just be my bad shoulder, it's messing up my aim, that's all it is, sorry Professor." Brady explains.
"It's quite alright Brady, this isn't the first time this has happened, once that shoulder is one hundred percent I am sure you will be excellent," Professor Stahl says with a smile as always, picking the arrow out of the board. "Well I need to be going, have a good weekend you two."
Brady and I say our goodbyes to Professor Stahl and we make our way toward the school's exit. We see out the windows that the evening was slowly approaching, the track event really did take much longer than we realized.
"Are you going straight home now Brady?" I ask as we approach the entrance of the school.
"Yeah, nothings keepin' me here, why you gotta stay?" He asks.
"Yeah, I need to wait for the book club to finish so I can go home with Morgan," I expected them to be out before we were considering how long the track event was, makes me wonder how she can be in one place for so long after school, we're lucky to get her to sit still at home.
"Morgan's in the book club? What took you so long to join somethin'?" He asks, truthfully I didn't have an answer.
"No idea," I say with a slight laugh, "To be honest up until recently the idea never crossed my mind." The two of us take a seat on the demonic steps at the entrance.
"Well what made you wanna pick the archery club of all things?" Another question I didn't have an answer to.
"Not sure about that too much either, Nah and I were going through the list, and this one just stuck out to me, and it doesn't hurt to have the same days as Morgan's club." Then the reasoning behind his questions got me somewhat worried, "Do you not want to be in the club after all?"
"Oh not at all, I'm just curious yuh know, matter fact I kind of like being behind the bow, I'm looking forward to Monday," Brady says with a smile, miming using the bow, I laugh a little again.
"Well I'm thankful for that; hopefully we can stay out of the nurse's office long enough to get pretty good," I say, mimicking the motion of the bow alongside of him.
"Heck yeah to that sister!" Brady exclaims, laughing himself.
"What are we yelling about!?" A familiar voice asks from behind us.
The both of us jump and quickly turn around to see Morgan behind us, snickering and holding her book.
"Morgan! Why did you creep up on us like that, and when did you get here?!" I ask, going red-faced in embarrassment.
"I just heard a bunch of excitement and I had to find out what it was, but the last thing I expected to find was two of the gloomiest people I know to be having a good time," Morgan never fails to up lift my self-esteem.
"Well thanks a lot Morgan!" The two of us say in unison, which ends up a surprise to the both of us.
"Well sheesh, I didn't plan on staying this long." Brady says as he looks at his watch, "Well I gotta get going, Ma is going to flip if I don't help her with dinner. I'll catch yuh later Noire," He says as he begins to walk home.
"I-I'll see you Monday Brady," I stutter and wave as he leaves. I turn back to see Morgan with one of her traditional suspicious looks. "Okay I know what you're thinking." I say as we begin to head home.
"I know what I saw sis and what I saw was you with a guy and you were happy!" Morgan exclaims.
"We are just friends Morgan, nothing more." I attempt to explain.
"Trust me Noire, I know these things and it is only a matter of time now," She insists.
"Look I know you are very smart, but I am pretty sure you don't know too much about this either, if I am correct you never had a boyfriend either." I say.
"Semantics! Besides, my time is coming; Owain will be mine soon enough!" I had no doubt that would come eventually; most people just wondered what was taking so long.
I continued arguing against my persistent sister's claims for the entirety of the walk home. Eventually it got quiet and she had put the argument to rest for the time being. Things were quiet up until we reached our front yard, then I heard a large slap sound from the side of me.
"Morgan! Why! For what reason would you feel the need to randomly slap yourself!" I don't know why things she does still surprise me.
Morgan let out a sigh while her hand remained in the face palm position, "We need to go back to the school tomorrow."
"Wait what, why would we need to go the school tomorrow?" I ask.
"I forgot my book club book in our class room," She says.
"Then what are you holding?"
"We have two books Noire, look our supervisor is always at the school Saturday morning, that way we can find him, get the book, and be back in time for the celebration at Nah's house. I have to have this book read by Monday so I don't have a choice here." Morgan explains.
"Well why do I need to tag along?" I ask.
"I'll be bored going by myself," I should have expected an answer like that.
"I guess there is no way out of this one, alright I'll go," I reluctantly give in.
"Ah thanks sis!" She says giving me an unnecessarily big hug; I wonder how I deal with this girl sometimes.
We enter the house and have our noses embraced by an intoxicating aroma. Following the scent we arrive in the kitchen to see our mother cooking in the kitchen, but something was different about her, she seemed much more cheery than usual.
"Ah right on time girls, I am just about done with dinner," Mother said.
"Wow Mom everything seems so radiant in here, including you, and this smells excellent!" Morgan says.
"Yeah Mom what's the occasion?" I ask.
"Oh well you two at your clubs me and your father finally get some alone time, it's nice to spend time with your father like we used too," Mother explains.
Before one of us could respond, suddenly Father flopped out into the door way from the hall. He looked like an absolute mess, his clothes had some ripped parts, his hair was pointing in just about every direction, he was sweating like he was just fighting a war, and he was panting every time he spoke.
"Tharja…please…I need a break…like…10 minutes…I can't…do this…all day," Father said, gasping for air.
"Um Dad, you okay?" Morgan asked.
"Oh thank the heavens above…the girls are home…I'll be out for dinner soon…I just need…to lie down," Father said before stumbling his way back to their room.
"Is he going to be okay?" I ask.
"Your father is just a little low on energy girls, he'll be fine, go put your stuff down, I'll have the table set in about ten minutes." Mother said with a carefree smile as she finished up her cooking.
I go to my room and set down by backpack, finally finished the very long day. Now I know I have to go the school tomorrow morning, fun. I give myself a little stretch and go out to help mother set the table for dinner.
