“Archery?” Lily actually heard herself squeak. “I know the definition, but not much more than that. I certainly know nothing educational about it.”

Sarah looped an arm around her waist as they walked. “All you have to do is make sure they don’t shoot each other with arrows.”

“I can do that,” Lily said.

At least, she sincerely hoped she could.

* * *

Marty nocked the arrow with a single fletching pointing away from the bow, sighted to the target, drew back until the bowstring was maximally taut, and released. Their arrow hit the edge of the center orange spot at the junction of the next ring out. They’d misjudged the wind and needed to correct for that. They stepped back so the next camper could move up to the shooting line to take their shot.

“You know,” Ford muttered, “that right there? One of the reasons I hate you.”

Marty chuckled. They were getting used to Ford’s peculiar form of friendly banter. “I thought it was because I was just weird.”

“Oh no,” Ford said, “weirdness is not necessarily a negative. But being good at everything? That rises to the seriously not-to-be-tolerated level.”

“I’m not good at everything,” Marty said. “I can’t cook anything that doesn’t come in a foil packet, I’m really crappy at math, and I don’t know how to talk to strangers.” They paused. “Or anyone, really.”

“You’ve been talking to me,” Ford pointed out as the line shuffled forward, those who’d taken their shot moving to the back to rotate through again.

“Only because you started it.”

“No, I didn’t!” Ford said indignantly.

Marty shook their head. “You pretty much did. That night you came outside—when you were looking for Shannon.”

Ford grimaced. “You mean covering her ass with Alisha?”

Marty looked away. They’d noticed Ford and Shannon weren’t tight any longer, and Shannon had even laid off taunting them. “She’s your friend. I get it.”

“No she isn’t.” Ford snorted. “She just likes to have someone around who tells her everything she thinks is great. I didn’t measure up.”

“Because you disagreed?” Marty said.

Ford shrugged. “Because I didn’t say yes to everything.” She shrugged again. “You know what? It’s fine. As to your list of things you’re not good at, I don’t see that any of those are lethal failings. Although, if you loosened up a little, you’d probably be better at the social thing.”

“Loosen up?”

“Yeah. You’re pretty funny and you have opinions about stuff, but nobody knows that. Put it out there more.”

Marty looked away.

“What, which part of that freaked you out?”

Marty sighed. “The more visible you are, the bigger a target you make.”

Ford snorted. “Okay, that’s one of those things your dad taught you, right?”

Marty stared. “What’re you talking about?”