In My Blood (Completed)

CHAPTER 5: Target Practice

Beca pretended to be asleep when Jesse and Amy drunkenly barreled into the living room, shushing each other louder than their “quiet” tiptoes so as to not wake Beca. Again, she felt like a dick--but she didn’t feel like having a conversation with a drunk Jesse, much less at all, and she never really knew how to console him when he got emotional on her. She woke shortly before sunrise and she wasn’t surprised when Jesse woke soon after, asking if they could go for a walk. They talked. Well--Jesse talked, and talked, and talked, and Beca nodded and chimed in when Jesse’s sad face became too much to bear. By the time they reached the porch again, they hugged and Beca reassured him she didn’t hate him for what felt like the 500th time.

She was grateful for others up and about in the house, and after a communal breakfast, Beca offered target practice support for anyone who wanted help. The warmth of the Georgia summer had Beca leave her leather jacket draped across the couch, but she made sure to shove her sunglasses on her face after strapping all her weapons to her body. Jesse helped carry the extra ammo across the settlement to the annexed wooded area still within their boundaries that had been designated for target practice. Beca knew not all of the girls were following (some had other duties to attend to), but she had more than she expected traveling in a small pack behind her.

Luckily, they found the spot empty, and Beca noted the different sized targets painted (and repainted several times over), empty cans (some propped on horizontal logs and others dangling from trees). “Huh,” Beca said, her brow shooting up when she spotted the bow propped against a tree. She picked it up and tested the give on the bowstring. She hadn’t expected they’d be set up like this. “Not a bad setup you’ve got here. Let’s get started with showing you how to work your way around your new best friend.” Beca pulled her spare shotgun dangling from her hip and offered it out to Chloe. “It’s cool. Safety’s on.”

*

It was easier to return to the party, knowing that Beca was feeling at least somewhat better after the unexpected tension with Jesse. Of course, Jesse and Amy were some of the first people to approach her once she returned, but after plenty of reassurances that Beca was okay and she'd turned in for the night, the two of them had seemed appeased and returned to the festivities with everyone else. With that taken care of, Chloe mostly stuck close to the girls that she could find in the fray of singing and dancing people, although Tom did approach her at one point (she could practically picture Beca's smirk at that, but whatever). By the time the impromptu party was finally winding down, Chloe did her best to wrangle the girls together and usher them back to the house, with plenty of whispered reminders along the way to stay quiet and not disturb the people who were already asleep in the house. It was only once everyone was safely returned to their rooms for the night that Chloe gratefully collapsed on her own mattress, but it only took minutes after her head hit the pillow for sleep to claim her.

When the first rays of sunlight through the window stirred her into consciousness the next morning, Chloe decided to get a jump on the day. She made her first rounds to start rousing the girls who were still stubbornly burrowed beneath their blankets, with some of them undoubtedly regretting their levels of indulgence the night before. The girls slowly filtered towards the living room of the house one or two at a time, but most of them were up and about by the time Beca and Jesse slipped back through the front door. The impulse to satisfy her curiosity by observing the two of them was strong, but she distracted herself by ushering the mildly grumbling girls out the door to breakfast. Food seemed to revive most of them much better, and she was pleased by the number of them that made the trek across the settlement to the designated shooting range at Beca's prompting.

The girls filtered around the area as Beca scoped out the situation, clearly awaiting instructions for whatever her teaching style might be. Aubrey had been diligent about training them back during the initial outbreak before they'd all made it to the settlement, when handling a gun had been a much more pressing requirement of daily life. She had even coached them through several sessions at this shooting range after they'd gotten settled with the Barden community, but different responsibilities around the settlement had made it a much less frequent occurrence the longer they'd been there. Still, it was always good to keep their skills fresh or to learn new techniques, so having a fresh perspective from Beca could only be a positive, if you asked Chloe. There was a only a beat of hesitation when Beca offered her the shotgun before she reached to accept the weapon from her. "What, the spare doesn't get a cool name like Fiona?" She mustered a hint of a smile, but she kept the barrel of the gun pointed at the ground away from anyone in the vicinity (Aubrey had scolded them plenty of times about that). Just as she'd confided to Beca, she was less comfortable with a shotgun than with other weapons, but she wanted to set a good, positive example for the other girls who wanted to learn as well.