Talking to the Moon

Chapter 10

There Are No Words

Knock. Knock. The door opened and out popped Ruby.

"Ruby, you're still here? I thought you were only here for that one day."

"Yeah, well, I asked my daddy to let me stay for a while and he let me so."

"That's awesome. Hey, is Yang here?" Ruby looked inside and that back towards Blake.

"Sorry, my mom asked her to do some chores and other things so she's out for the day."

"Oh okay. Well, I just wanted to let her know that the individual tournament is going on today and wanted to know if she wanted to come with me. But since she's not here, would you mind giving her that message?" Ruby nodded her head. Blake smiled and knelt down to kiss her on the cheek. "Bye Ruby, I'll see you later."

"Okay bye!" Ruby closed the door and right behind it was Yang. She was standing there with open ears and a sad face. "Why did you make me do that? Blake looked so sad."

"I don't know. I just can't face her right now." All of a sudden, Ruby wrapped her arms around Yang and held her tight.

"I love you Yang."

"I love you too Ruby."

…

The archery team arrived at the tournament and saw everyone else crowding around the sign-in booth. Once they got through with the boring stuff, they set up their picnic area and warmed up together. They all stretched out their bodies and made sure that everyone was ready to go. After a couple of minutes, the announcer told the event that the schedule of the tournament was now posted so everyone made their way to the official's booth.

There were two different shooting areas. Since their team placed first, they were placed in the winner's bracket. The tournament was structured into three parts. 30m, 45m, and 75m shooting events. Immediately, everyone's become huge. 75m was something that not a lot of people see. However, Weiss reassured them that they were going to be alright.

Weiss was first on the list, Neptune was near the middle, and Blake was near the end of the day. When the tournament started, everyone crowded around to watch Weiss. It was always a sight to watch Weiss because she was an incredible archer. She always managed to make these incredible shots that seemed almost impossible. At 30m, she swept the floor with her competitors. All three shots were bull's eyes. At 45m, things were a little closer than anticipated. She only got one bull's eye with the other on the outer part of the yellow. At 75m, the crowds went nuts. Through some act of God, she managed to get three bull's eyes. When she finished, her whole team swarmed her with hugs and cheers. She was just happy that she did her absolute best.

After Weiss, a couple more of her teammates shot next. They shot nowhere near the level of Weiss, but they definitely made a showing. There were a couple of bull's eyes with everything else within the yellow region. After every round, they frantically looked at the scoreboard to see how they fared. It was a struggle, but they were maintaining 1st place for the time being.

When it was time for Neptune to take to the floor, everyone cheered. They all wanted to maintain their lead and they were hoping he would be able to do. However, Blake was completely quiet. She had her phone in her hand and was constantly checking to make sure that Yang didn't call her when she was shooting. Unfortunately, there were no bull's eyes for Neptune, just a lot of yellow. The team looked up and saw that they got demoted to second by quite a big margin. There were only 3 people left to shoot, which put a lot of pressure on them.

The next two girls shot decently, but were unable to move them back into 1st place. Before it was time for Blake to compete, she left the area and called Yang on the phone. She was hoping to hear her voice before she had to compete, but there was no response. It was just an answering machine. She hung up the phone and sighed.

Is this how things have already turned out? She turned around and was immediately intercepted by Weiss.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing. I was just calling my mom to let her know that I'm about to shoot."

"I know this won't make up for what's been going on, but if you want, you may use this." Weiss lifted her arms and Blake saw Weiss' bow in her hands. "I know you snapped your bow, and I was hoping you'd be able to do us the honors of taking this thing."

"Thank you Weiss." She grabbed the bow from Weiss' hand and hugged her as tight as she could. All of a sudden, the bell sounded, calling the last group of competitors to the line. Blake took a deep breath and made her way to the shooting line.

Before she got there, she looked up at the scoreboard and examined her team's deficit. They were down 87 points. This meant that her their best chance of winning meant that she had to get a bull's eye on each of her nine shots. She also had to make sure that she shoots better than the person who was on the winning team.

However, she immediately forgot about everything she was thinking about. If she were too busy her mind with these thoughts, she wouldn't be able to concentrate on her shooting. She just took a deep breath and continued to walk towards the shooting line.

When she got there, she took a good look at her competitors and they were all focused on the targets right in front of them. Blake looked up to see where each other targets was. The 75m was definitely far from where she was, which made her a little nervous. The red light turned on and everyone took their places. It then switched to yellow as everyone pulled out their arrows and readied to fire. When the green light came on, there was some hesitation, but eventually everyone fired off their three shots.

When the arrows cracked the targets, everyone went crazy, especially Blake's team. Three bull's eyes. Her main competition only got two, meaning she only had to miss once to make this thing a tie. Next was the 45m. The same procedure went down and everyone fired off their shots. This time, things started to get tense. Blake only got two bull's eyes while her opponent nailed all three. She couldn't mess up now. She tried to keep her mind calm even though the crowds were screaming, constantly wanting more.

At the 75m target, the whole event grew silent. Everyone was tense. The sound of their strings being pulled back could be heard from across the event. Once all of the shots were fired, the crowd didn't know how to react. The target was too far away and there was no camera that eyed that target so they had to rely on the competitors reactions.

When Blake finally made it to her targets, her heart dropped. She then looked at her opponent's targets and couldn't believe her eyes. She got two bull's eyes and one yellow. Her opponent had three bull's eyes. She didn't do it.

All of a sudden, her opponent raised her arms in the air as she ran back to his team. They all cheered as they threw him into the air. On the other hand, Blake grabbed her arrows and walked back to her team, completely silent. They tried to console her, but she didn't care. She just walked right past them. She sat Weiss' bow on the ground and immediately ran off until she found some place nice and quiet where it was just her.

I blew it. I can't believe I blew! I'm better than this. How can this be? I did everything right. I did not miss a single step in my procedures. What happened?

Blake dropped onto her butt and started to cry. Her hands were covering her face as the tears continued to flood. She didn't hold anything back. She yelled out in pain. She let her team down and there was no taking it back now.

Why? Why can't I do anything right? What is wrong with me?! Out of nowhere, Neptune crept around the corner and saw Blake crying on the ground. He knelt down beside her and tried to do something about this.

"Blake, what's wrong?" She quickly wiped away her tears and stood up from the ground.

"Nothing. I'm fine. Just leave me alone."

"No, you were crying. What's up?" She didn't respond. She just turned her head so she didn't have to look at him. "Come on, you can talk to me."

"No, just go away." She tried to push Neptune out of the way, but he wouldn't budge. "Neptune please, just go away." Her hand pushed towards his face, but was immediately grabbed out of the air by him.

"I'm your friend, aren't I? And friends are supposed to be there for each other when they need help."

"Not me. I just want to be alone right now. So please, let go of my hand."

"You know Blake, why do you neglect me? I've been trying to be so nice to you and all you do is shun me away. Why is that?" His face inched closer to hers.

"Because I have a lot on my mind to have to worry about things such as you."

"Oh come on, that was a little harsh, don't you think?" She didn't answer him. Suddenly, he slammed her hand against the wall, causing her to look at him.

"What the heck is your problem?" She suddenly widened her eyes.

"You know Blake, you're really fine. Did you know that?"

"Get away from me." She used her other hand to slap him away, but he managed to grab that on too and pin it against her chest.

"I've always like you Blake. Ever since I first met you." She gasped.

"What are you talking about? You've always like Yang."

"Oh, don't be stupid. I was just using her to get closer to you." She couldn't believe it. All of this was just a lie. She did everything she could to get away, but he pinned his body against hers, preventing her from escaping.

"Let me go! HELP! Ah." Neptune pressed his lips against hers. She was squirming all over the place to try and get away, but it was no use. He had her under his control and she was going nowhere. After a few seconds, he finally pulled away; Blake, nearly out of breath, was unable to do anything.

All of a sudden, something not too far away crashed into ground, causing Blake to look over. She gasped as a tear rolled down her face. It was Yang.

"Yang, I…" She stormed off. "Yang!" Blake kneed Neptune right in the crotch, sending him to the ground. Blake grabbed Yang's phone off the ground and ran after her. "Yang, please wait!"

End of Chapter 10