The day ended and, as Y/n had finished her homework during the breaks, she headed for the sports field, near which the archery targets were supposed to be.
She was passing the bleachers when she noticed some commotion. There was Jay in front of a gate, celebrating something, while the rest of the players lay on the ground. Y/n chuckled, stopping for a moment to see what would happen next.
A whistle blew. "You!" the coach yelled, pointing at Jay. "Get over here!"
Jay jogged over, giving Y/n time to look at the cheerleaders and realize how right she had been not to join the group. In her opinion they were too happy, squealy and annoyingly loud, to list a few things.
"What do you call that?" the coach asked Jay, pointing back to the field. Jay looked back, his brows furrowed. The coach chuckled at his expression. "I call that raw talent."
Y/n smiled. She wasn't exactly friends with the boy but, considering what she knew about life on the Isle, it must've been quite the thing for someone to say something like that.
"Come find me later, I'll show you something you haven't seen before," the coach went on. "It's called a rule book." He laughed, slapping Jay's shoulder. "Welcome to the team, son."
The coach's eyes then sought out Carlos, who seemed tiny compared to the other players. "You ever thought about band?"
"I'll work with him, coach," Ben offered, placing a hand on Carlos' back.
"All right," the coach agreed. "Let's run that again!"
"Carlos maybe—" Ben started.
"Yeah, I'll sit this one out," Carlos nodded, grateful to get that off his chest. He started walking towards the bleachers, stopping when he noticed a familiar figure beside them. He smiled, giving a little wave.
Y/n smiled, returning the wave. She then started to walk but heard Carlos call out to her. "Where are you going?"
Y/n lifted her bow a bit. "Practice." She tilted her head in thought. "Wanna tag along?"
"Uh, yeah, sure, just," Carlos stammered. "Give me a moment..." He hauled the yellow vest over his shoulders, dragging his gloves off in the process. "I'll go put these away."
"Yeah, sure," Y/n nodded, leaning against the bleachers as Carlos went to the changing rooms. A minute later he returned, now wearing his own red-white-black clothes.
"Shall we?" he beamed.
Y/n nodded to the treeline where about three targets stood with nobody in front of them. "Yeah, let's go."
Carlos trailed Y/n to the targets, wordlessly watching as she nocked an arrow and drew the bow string back before letting it go. The arrow dove itself into the board a centimeter from bullseye.
Carlos gaped at the girl who was clicking her tongue. I've gotten sloppier, she thought, remembering that it was quite a while ago that she last trained.
"Can you teach me?" the boy blurted, his cheeks heating when Y/n turned to him with a raised brow.
"What?"
"I— I—" Carlos stammered, sighing as he cast his eyes to the ground. "I was wondering if you could teach me to..." He gestured to the bow vaguely.
Y/n beamed. "Of course. I've wanted to teach someone for a while since Asher, a friend back home, thought he had enough."
Carlos smiled. "Thank you. So how do I..."
"Right, come over here," Y/n said, waving him over before handing him her bow and an arrow. She went to stand behind him. "So you gotta put it like this so it doesn't change course," she instructed, moving Carlos' hand with the arrow. "A bit up, a bit up. Perfect." She stepped away, failing to notice the light blush on the boy's cheeks. "Now draw your arm back."
Carlos did as he was told.
"Now aim. Look at the tip of the arrow and where you want it to land and make sure they're more or less parallel."
Carlos shifted his body a bit, the arrow now pointing to the target.
"Good. Draw back as far as you can and let go."
The boy let go and the bow string vibrated, the sound filling the air. Carlos stared at the arrow, which had landed next to Y/n's. Both teens then broke into smiles.
"I did it!"
"You did it!"
They then high-fived, beaming at each other.
"You wanna go again?" Y/n asked.
"If that's okay with you."
"Yeah, just, let me retrieve the arrows."
Y/n walked away, Carlos staring at her as she skillfully pulled the arrows out of the fabric. He smiled, his heart swelling with the feeling of accomplishment and gratefulness.
Y/n came back, paying no mind to the boy's cheerfulness, for she knew the euphoria hitting a target always gave her. "There, you can go now."
Carlos nodded, this time firing the arrows himself. They didn't get as close to bullseye as before and only one out of the eight he managed to shoot missed. Then the school bell rang through the whole campus, signaling the end of the last lesson, and Carlos looked away guiltily. "I should probably go, the others might start searching for me if I don't."
Y/n nodded. "I'll come with you, let's just get the arrows."
The two walked back to the dorms together, stopping when they reached Y/n's room.
"So I'll see you tomorrow?" Carlos asked, a hopeful glint in his eyes. In front of him stood his first non-Isle friend, the first person who'd complimented him on something that wasn't illegal.
Y/n smiled. "Or during dinner."
Carlos chuckled, shaking his head in a right, that exists manner. "Or during dinner."