Chapter 16
"Alright, the basics." April said, standing in front of her five friends with a bow in her hand. "Since I am still under the 4-H rules, I have to go over the safety and what everything is called. Catch me if I get my French and my English mixed."
April went over the limbs and knocks of a bow and then went to the arrow, explaining about the pointer fletching and why it is a different color.
"Do any of you know the whistle commands?" April asked, sitting down her equipment and picking up the whistle attached to a green 4-H lantern.
"It's backwards, isn't it?" Odd asked. "Two means to get to the line, one is to start firing and three is to retrieve the arrows."
"Have you taken a class before?" April asked, looking at him, surprised.
"Back when I lived in New Zealand with my grandparents." Odd said, smiling.
"Well, yes. And four whistles?"
"Oh, I know that. Everyone stops because of an emergency." Ulrich said. "And anyone can call it."
"Nice." April said. She put her hands on her hips and looked at the two boys. "Now, what about safety gear, smarty-pants?"
"Safety gear?" Odd and Ulrich asked, as if they had never heard of the two words.
"You need at least two things." Aélita said, rolling her eyes at her friends with a smile on her face. "An arm guard and finger tabs."
"Thanks Aélita, at least somebody knows about safety gear." April said, looking towards Odd and Ulrich. "Does anyone know the proper way of holding a bow to fire?"
"I do!" Odd said, raising his hand as if in class.
"Anyone who was not in a class in a while?" April asked.
"Ya, I do." Yumi said, picking up a bow. She stood where her left hand was holding the handle of the bow and her right hand was "holding" the string at her chin to form a T.
"If you cannot see it, in America, we call this the T formation because it looks like a T." April looked at Yumi and saw that her chest was pointed out as if she had been taught by a man. "Oh, Yumi, just a note. Since we are girls, we have more to worry about, chest wise. You were taught by a man, were you not?" April said, lowering her voice incase Yumi felt awkward about talking about that type of stuff.
Yumi dropped the bow and looked towards her. "Yes, back in Japan."
"You might want to watch it, though." April said. "This come from firsthand experience, it hurts."
"Thanks for the tidbit." Yumi said, sitting the bow back down with the others.
"Any question?" April said, turning back towards the others.
"Ya, can we start shooting?" Odd asked.
April smiled at Odd as they got their gear on and distributed bows and arrows.
TTWWEEETTT! TTWWEEETTT!
"To the line." April called, taking her spot as range safety officer.
The five went to the line and stood to get ready to shoot.
-.-.-.-
"Oh Odd, I am so sorry!" April said for the hundredth time as she wiped the scratch with the antiseptent-covered swab.
"It's ok." Odd said, smiling before she dabbed it again, sending him into pain. "How could anyone predict that the arrow would fly like that?"
"But it cut you on your forehead." April said.
"It's ok. It doesn't hurt all that much." Odd said.
April sat down the bottle and threw away the swab before sitting on her bed next to Odd. "But you like it? Shooting, that is."
"Yes!" Odd said, smiling at her. "And it'll help us on Lyoko. But who would've guessed Sissi would join us."
"At least she was better than me, and I am the teacher!" April said.
"But you took care of me." Odd said, looking at her.
April smiled back at him before realizing how he meant that. "Well, you're welcome."
"I wish you weren't dating." Odd admitted.
"I know you do." April said, hugging Odd. Odd smiled as he hugged her back. He glance out the window and saw a red moon.
"I never knew the moon could go red." Odd said as April let go of him.
"In the last book of the Bible, they say it is a sign of the end of the world." April said, getting up and walking over to her light switch to turn off the light so that the red light of the moon would shine in. "It is called a blood moon."
"It's nice." Odd said, putting his arm around her waist.