Pranked

Seven

"Pull the string back, all the way to your cheek, Leighanne," Evelyn told me. We were at our archery lessons and after only an hour or two, I was still struggling to handle the bow. I pulled my left arm back that was holding the bowstring back close to my cheek.
"There you go," Evelyn said, "Now release it." I slid my fingers off. The arrow sailed and landed in the bottom of the target.
"Not bad," Evelyn said, "We will touch up on your accuracy until the loading part is more constant."
I held the bow in my hand and watched Jojo who would always release it before aiming.
"Hold on, Jojo. It's not a race. Just relax. Load. Aim. Release. You can't aim your arrow before loading it. You can't successfully release your arrow without aiming it. You can't release your arrow before loading it. You just have to slow down. It's just a target, not a wild animal."
"I know. It's just more fun to do it this way," Jojo protested,
"Well we can have fun when you get better," Evelyn said, "Now show me your load, aim, release." Jojo sighed and loaded in the arrow. She pulled it back to her cheek and pointed it at the target. She let it slip out of her fingers and it hit the target in the middle of the second ring from the edge of the target.
"There. Good job, Jojo. See how much better you do when you take your time?" Evelyn asked.
"Uh-huh," Jojo nodded.
"Good for you," Evelyn said, "That's very, very good. We are running out of time, so go retrieve everyone and we will shoot one more time."
"Can we do a competition?" Kenny asked.
"Sure," Evelyn said, "Whoever can get the most accurate shot wins."
"Wins what?" Martin asked.
"Bragging rights?" Evelyn said.
"No can do," Jojo said.
"We'll discuss that at the end," Evelyn said.
"Okay," Martin said.
"Let's have Kenny start," Evelyn said.
Kenny walked to the fourth target space and picked up his bow.
"Best shot out of two," Evelyn said, pulling a ruler out of her backpack.
Kenny loaded the arrow and pulled it back to his cheek. He aimed it and slipped out his fingers. The arrow landed in the first ring from the inside.
"Nice," Evelyn said. Kenny loaded the arrow and shot it again. It landed on the very edge ring.
"Yah jinxed it!" Jojo said and everyone laughed.
"Martin's turn," Evelyn said. Martin stepped up to the next target space. He shot the arrow forward and it shot into the ground.
"Shame," I said. Martin shot the next arrow and it landed on the very edge of the center mark.
"We jinxed it again, guys," Kenny declared. We all laughed.
"Jojo. You're up!" Evelyn said.
Jojo stepped up to the next target and shot the first arrow into the edge of the target and the second one a few inches away from the last one.
"Remember what I told you?" Evelyn asked.
"I forgot," Jojo said.
"And finally Leighanne," Evelyn said.
I stepped forward and picked up the bow. I took my sweet time to pull the arrow as close to my cheek as I could. I released it and it landed a few inches away from the very center. I grabbed my next arrow and shot it. It landed right next to the previous arrow, closer to the target.
"Ooh! Stiff competition between Martin and Leighanne," said Kenny. Evelyn walked to my target.
"The closest arrow on Leighanne's target is 3 centimeters away from the very center," she announced.
"Nice," Jojo said. Evelyn measured the distance between Martin's closest arrow and the middle.
"Martin's arrow is 2.5 centimeters away from the very center. So, Martin wins by 0.5 centimeters! Prize ideas anyone?"
Jojo raised her hand.
"Human throne," Jojo said.
"Human throne?" Evelyn asked. I smiled.
"What are you smiling about, Leighanne?" Evelyn asked.
"My cousin Timothy had gotten a text from his girlfriend during a family reunion and she had told him she was breaking up with him. He was totally devastated and so to cheer him up, Jojo organized all of our teenage cousins to lock our hands together and we made Timothy a human throne," I said, "We carried Timothy to the forest where we had a picnic set up. We cheered him up so much that he called his ex and they had a long chat. He pretty much just annoyed her a lot and it was really funny. Then, he gathered the courage to call a girl that he liked at his school and they have been dating since then."
"Wow. I'll do that then," Martin said, "I was going to give you all nicknames just for fun, but I like this better."
"We were going to do a nickname activity anyway in a couple of weeks," Evelyn said.
"So how do we do the human throne?" Kenny asked.
"I'll show you," Jojo said. The three of us stood in a semi circle. Jojo took my left hand in hers and took Kenny's left hand in her right hand. I used my right hand to grab Kenny's left hand and we all let Martin sit on our crossed arms. We all lifted him up together as we followed Evelyn to lunch.