Should Have Known Better

Testing Guns And Friendship

*Sang**

My roommate was only gone one day. I don't know what happened at camp, but the next day Raven brought Scott back to camp. Apparently, they knew each other. Scott told me that the Toma team was the team that got the kids out of that awful camp.  Scott has star's in his eyes every time he looks at Raven. 

I was just finishing up with one assessment when they showed up. They stomped their boots on the way up the porch. Sara immediately took them to her office. Maisy came and asked me to help her with dinner. I was cutting up vegetables for the special meatloaf Maisy wanted to make when Raven, Sara, and Scott came laughing into the kitchen. 

“Little bird, you no more cook. You come with me and ice bear to learn gun.” 

“Ice bear? Gun?” I push my lip with my finger. 

“Polar bear Raven it's fuc...fricken polar, not ice.” Scott slaps his hand on the island top.

“I said same. I know. Now guns.” Raven counters. 

“I've never held a gun. I don't think it's a good idea Raven.” I try to get out of going.

“Best idea. I show. Take apart, clean, shoot.”

“It's just best to go with him. He will make sure we are safe.” Scott offers me his hand to follow behind Raven who was already walking back to the door.

Raven led us to his SUV and grabbed two small cases out. He then turned and led us down another path I had never been down. We came to an open area with a large bank of dirt across the field from us. A small table was sitting on our side of the field. Raven put the cases on the table and opened them. Both cases held shiny black and silver guns.

“These only nine millimeter and tiny twenty-two. We start twenty-two. No kick. Easy,  dah.” 

If he says so. I just shrug my shoulders. 

“Little bird do this.” Raven held up his arms in front of him and made a triangle with his thumbs and first fingers. 

“Now make tiny.” He moved his hands together making the triangle smaller. I follow his directions making my finger triangle smaller. 
“look over there to box on fence. Put box in triangle. Both eye open.” 

I moved my hands a bit and found the box. 

“Now close left eye. Box still in triangle?”

“No” I whisper.

“Closed right eye, box in triangle?” 

I smile. “Yes, it is.” 

“Good shoot close right eye.” 

Raven took the next two hours showing me the names of each piece of the gun. He showed me how to line the sight up on the muzzle of the gun to the piece on the back to make sure my shot was aimed perfectly. He showed me how to stand, how to hold the gun. He then took the gun from me and put it back in the case. 

“Next time. You show you remember.” I kind of felt let down that after two hours of holding the gun I didn't get to shoot it, but I also felt relieved. I was still a little scared, to be honest. 

The next few days passed uneventfully. The other people came back from camp.  Stan told me all of the great things he got to learn. I spent days doing assessments and talking with Maisy and Sara. Scott and I learned more about living with each other. 

Raven and Axel came out to see me on my last day of assessments.
Raven quizzed me on everything he taught me before. When I answered everything and demonstrated to him and Axel how to stand, how to load the gun.  How to hold and aim the gun, Raven finally let me shoot. 

The twenty-two was great. The handle fits perfectly in my hand. When I fired the gun, the bullet flew to the target and hit it. Raven had me do this until the clip was empty. He then told me that we were switching to the nine millimeter. It was a little heavier and it didn't fit so perfectly in my hands. Axel stopped us and spoke with Raven off to the side. They decided that next week they would come back with a different nine millimeter. One that would fit me better.
 
Doc came the day after Axel and Raven. I think he was more interested in seeing Sara than me, but we ate lunch together and I told him about all the assessments and shooting I had done. 

The next week when Raven came out he brought Corey and Brandon. 
They watched me struggle a little bit with the nine millimeter, but I eventually didn't let my arm fly up every time I pulled the trigger. My arm and hand still hurt a lot the next day. 
I started all kinds of counseling sessions. Some in groups, some on my own, some with Sara, but mostly with the staff who were here to help us. 

I started training for different things too. They made me learn how to defend myself. They taught me tricks to remember things better than I ever did before. 

I worked on subjects for school that I wanted to continue and some subjects I didn't want to but knew I might need in the future. 

As the weeks flew by, I had fewer and fewer nightmares. I felt surer of myself and felt stronger mentally and physically. 

I still missed my guys and thought about them every day. When I fell asleep at night Scott and I would listen to the music on the thumb drive my prince sent me. I wore the jewelry they sent and every morning I held the Keychain from North, the shirt from Luke, the origami from Sean and the Rubik's cube from Kota. 

Raven came twice a week, usually bringing someone else from his team. Every time he came we shot or he taught me to fight. He helped me improve each week. When he thought I was ready after enough strength training he taught me how to use the rifle and the shotgun. They were not my favorite. The first time I shot the shotgun I couldn't lift my arm for two days and the bruise stayed almost a week. 

Every morning Maisy gave me the glass of honey, and at night she started to give me coconut oil. I had to drink a tablespoon of that every night. Maisy was right of course. My throat and voice were getting better. I could talk for longer periods of time and I could get loud when I wanted to. I don't usually want to get loud though. I still liked being quiet. 

The weeks turned into three months. Sooner than I even realized it was April. 

Doc also came to see me a lot. I knew he would sometimes get called into the hospital so he couldn't come, but I cherished his visits when he came. 

Sara eventually called me to her office and offered me a tiny mission with Riker's team. They were fun to work with, but they always talked about things that went over my head. They were just too much older for me to understand. The job they had me do was really easy, I just had to go to a park and jog the trails. One of them jogged a little further back from me and kept an eye on me.  I knew they were using me for bait. Female joggers were getting mugged in the park and they were trying to stop it. We caught the guy on my third morning with them. That was my first favor I earned. 

Brooklyn, my social skills guru, as she liked to call herself, started working with me when my counseling sessions started to get less.  She had to work with me a lot. I knew that I didn't understand social cues, but I had no idea how much I had missed picking up on. She would make me blush every five minutes just talking about things that she said were everyday things. 

She started taking me with her out to do ‘common girl things’ as she put it. We would go to the beach, or the movies, sometimes the mall far away from Ashley Waters. She taught me how to do my makeup, sort of. I still couldn't grasp the whole contour thing. She took me out to a club a few times. She said that I had to be prepared for anything. Between her and Scott, I learned more about being a normal teenager than from anyone else. 

Brooklyn and Scott taught me what sexual innuendos were. It seemed every day they came up with new ones. Some had me blushing so bad I thought my face was going to catch on fire. 

By the time May came around I had earned a few more favors and had gotten some credits and cash to my name. I earned the most being bait. 

Doc and Sara sat me down on the fifteen of May. They said I had proven that I could be very valuable and that the academy wanted to make our relationship official so to speak. 
They told me that I could have a few days to think about what I wanted for joining. 
The sixteenth of May, Sara called Scott and me into her office. I don't want to remember the sixteenth of May, but I don't think I'll ever forget it.