Disclaimer: I don't own Trials of Apollo

Day 1 - Missed Target

"Have either of you shot before?" Kayla asked, turning to face her two newest siblings. Perhaps she should have asked that earlier, before leading them to the archery range and putting bows in their hands, but who said she was the best person to be doing this?

Well, she was the best archer in camp, so of course she was.

Kayla steadfastly ignored her spectating brother from where he was pretending not to watch behind the waiting line. Will might be head counsellor, but he was not the best archer in camp.

Yan shrugged. He – they, she corrected herself – held the bow she'd given them up, inspecting it. She hadn't given them anything complicated; camp default was the longbow, which was very much a point and shoot type of bow. Powerful, but easy enough for most demigods to get the hang of. "Once or twice," they said in a dismissive voice that meant either they were lying, or didn't think it was important.

Next to him, Jerry was plucking at the string of his bow – composite recurve, because he was a bit younger and smaller and longbows were tall – absently. "Nope!" he said cheerfully.

Well, Kayla had had worse students – ones that had shot before and thought they were good at it, until she caught sight of their form and realised it was a miracle they hadn't hurt themselves trying to draw their bows. Not used to shooting meant blank slates.

"Okay," she said. "In that case, part one – safety rules at the range, before our big brother yells at me because I forgot to say something and someone gets hurt." She intentionally didn't look towards where Will was sitting with Nico. "This is the waiting line. Don't step past that unless you're about to shoot." She pointed at the line closer to the targets. "That is the shooting line. While doing range shooting, you stand on that line and do not cross it under any circumstances while anyone has a bow in their hand."

"What about non range shooting?" Yan asked, and Kayla shrugged back at them.

"That comes once you can range shoot well enough to not kill anyone," she said. "So, who's first?"

"Me!" Jerry shrieked, throwing his hand in the air at the same time Yan said "age order," and stepped up to the waiting line.

Kayla should have expected that, really.

"Experience first," she decided. "Jerry, stay there and watch." The British boy pouted but Kayla ignored him as she led Yan up to the shooting line.

For demonstration reasons, she'd passed over her own bow in favour of a longbow. The smooth European yew felt different in her hand to her usual carbon fibre, but it was still instinct to raise it and draw back under the close watch of her new siblings.

"Let it settle," she cautioned. "Then one… two… release." Her arrow thudded into the centre of the target, burying itself halfway to the fletching. "And finish like this." She held her position for a moment, letting Yan take it in before relaxing.

"I got it," they said calmly, and before Kayla could even say anything, they had their loaned longbow at full draw, steady and with beautiful form.

Before she came to camp, Kayla would have thought Yan had lied about how little they'd shot before, but she knew better now. Things didn't always follow logical sense for demigods, and being able to perfectly draw back a longbow when they were a child of Apollo was hardly surprising. Yan didn't count out loud, but they didn't need to. Kayla saw the bow settle as the draw weight sat into their back muscles, and the moment it stabilised, they released.

It wasn't a perfect shot – their technique was, but they clearly needed to work on their aim a little – but their arrow buried itself in the inner red ring of the target.

Another archer sibling. Kayla grinned and handed them another arrow. "Again," she encouraged, and they obliged with a grin of their own, smaller than hers but she suspected no less maniac. It was a thrill, feeling the bowstring sing and knowing that the arrow was going to land exactly where it had aimed.

Yan's second shot was closer, breaking the line between inner red and outer gold, and Kayla knew it wouldn't take much more practice before they were hitting gold every time – and once they could do that at greater distances, it would be time to move on to combat archery rather than target archery.

Kayla was delighted, but before she could give Yan another arrow, Jerry made his presence known behind her.

"When's it my turn?" he demanded, and Kayla realised she couldn't expect him to keep waiting. Maybe he would be another archer sibling; she'd like that. Most of their cabin were healers and musicians before they were archers (she carefully didn't think about why) – and if she was honest, she'd like more siblings that could help her support their dad, if he ever came back and brought more enemies with him.

"Now," she said, handing a few more arrows to Yan. "Keep shooting," she told them, confident that they wouldn't hurt themselves if she looked away (anyway, Will was there if something did go wrong).

Jerry bounded over the shooting line, looking eager – more eager now than he had before Yan had shot, and Kayla couldn't quite forget that the two of them had arrived together, had reportedly known each other for some time before discovering they shared a father. He made impatient grabby hands for an arrow, and Kayla gave him one.

Instantly, she could tell that Jerry was not an archer first and foremost. He fumbled the nock against the string a couple of times before it finally caught, and when she had him mirror her at full draw… There were things to work on.

Before she could step closer to him to correct his stance, he let the arrow fly, jerking back awkwardly at the bow's recoil, because he hadn't been stable at all, and the arrow predictably responded in kind.

Kayla didn't see where it landed, because she was too busy looking at Jerry, but she noticed the distinct absence of the thunk of an arrow hitting a boss. Instinctively, she winced. Missing the target entirely was embarrassing, especially as she had them set so close to the shooting line for initial lessons.

Jerry looked like he was about to cry, and Kayla was not equipped to deal with crying younger brothers, so she hurriedly stepped up to him and started nudging his feet with hers.

"Let's fix your stance before you try again," she said, gripping his shoulders and twisting his torso until it was straight, side on to the targets. "Feet wider… wider… wider… okay, that's good. Head…" she put her palms either side of his face and carefully directed it to look straight at the target without twisting the rest of his body. She nocked the next arrow herself. "Draw back… Elbow up. And back more. More… more. Use your back muscles, not your arms, it'll be easier."

After some poking and prodding, she had Jerry standing at full draw in something that looked reasonably like it was supposed to – not perfect, but that was going to take some work, she accepted with some internal dejection. Just because Da was a coach didn't mean she was a good coach. Teaching people to shoot was far harder than shooting. "And release."

There was at least a thud of contact this time, but when Kayla turned to look at where it had gone, it had still landed outside of the target sheet, barely hanging on to the edge of the boss.

Jerry burst into tears.

"It was better!" Kayla tried to reassure him. "It'll just take some practice!" Behind Jerry, she could see Yan approaching, looking distressed at Jerry being upset, and this was way out of Kayla's wheelhouse.

A hand on her shoulder pulled her back slightly and she glanced up to see Will smiling at her gently. "I've got this," he promised. "You take Yan."

"But-" She was the one that was supposed to be teaching them. Will wasn't actually supposed to be there at all, and he certainly wasn't supposed to be taking over teaching when he was the worst archer in cabin seven!

Well. Second worst archer, now.

"I was that bad when I started," Will told her, his voice raised enough that Jerry and Yan could hear him, too. "I've got a few tips and tricks that I was given back then that helped me, so they might help Jerry, too."

Kayla hated that she could probably guess who had given Will those tips and tricks, because she'd noticed that he had a habit of not naming their dead siblings ever if he could help it. He'd mention names she didn't recognise, ones that had left before she'd arrived, but the ones that had died?

Introducing others to the archery range always made her think of Michael and the first time he'd introduced her.

"Go on," Will nudged her. "Go have fun with Yan. I've got Jerry."

It seemed wrong, leaving the two worst archers together, but maybe Will had a point, and Kayla really wasn't equipped to deal with Jerry's tears – or the frustration she was going to feel when Jerry kept struggling, because she could admit she wasn't the most patient demigod in the world. Not even close.

"Okay," she caved, passing the spare quiver to Will and persuading herself that she wasn't giving up, she was just being smart, and Yan still needed some tips on aiming, if nothing else. "Come on, Yan, let's get your aim perfect."

"But-" they protested. Kayla ignored it and grabbed their arm, pulling them back to their place on the shooting line.

"Will's got Jerry," she assured them, and Yan hadn't been in camp long enough to know exactly what that meant, but they knew that Will was head counsellor – and sure enough, already, Kayla couldn't hear any more crying, just a low murmur of reassurance from their big brother.

She tried not to let it get to her when, despite still not managing anything better than the outer black all session, Jerry still looked far happier with Will's tuition than her own.

Will was just like that.

Thanks for reading!
Tsari