I slowly exhaled the air I had been holding in my lungs. This was it. If I missed, all of my dreams would be shattered. A few moments later, a gunshot echoed through the valley, making my ears ring.
“Bullseye.” I thought in my head. The valley soon filled with the cheers and hollers from the crowd behind me. I stood up and faced the crowd with the biggest smile on my face.
“And we have a winner!!! Grace Fields is not only the youngest, but the first girl to win first place in the annual Louis Shooting Competition!” I set the butt of my Tikka T3X UPR on the ground and searched the crowd for my best friend. My eyes soon locked with Mia. She was smiling so big you could barely see her bright brown eyes. She jumped over the barrier and plowed into me with the biggest hug.
“GEE-GEE!!!!! YOU DID IT!!!” she exclaimed jumping around me. I started laughing at the sight of a 5’ 8", sixteen-year-old girl acting like a toddler, dancing around me.
“I can’t believe it! You beat all of the men and teens! You even beat Bryant!!!” she said grabbing my shoulders and shaking me. I laughed and released her grip from me and shrugged my shoulders.
“I mean it wasn’t too hard. The wind was barely blowing, which made the shot stay straight. And-”
“Grace. Stop. You’re literally the best shooter in this town!” Mia said cupping my face with her hands. I rolled my eyes but soon smiled back. As we continued talking, Mia’s fourteen-year-old brother Josh walked up accompanied by Bryant.
“Hey, big little bro!” I called out to Josh. Just like Mia, Josh towered over me to. I only came up to right below his shoulder. Bryant on the other hand, thankfully, wasn’t much taller than me, since he was only sixteen. Bryant lifted up his aviators and just looked at me with a blank face. I watched his eyes, trying to see if he was angry or not. A smile soon spread across his face and he gently shoved me in the shoulder with his fist.
“Now I’ve got to give that to you. That was some pretty sharp shooting. Bullseye from 100 yards. Impressive.” He said slowly nodding his head. I adjusted my ball cap and brushed some of the stray hair away from my face.
“Oh shush. You shot right outside of the middle. Barely an inch, Bry! Honestly, you should have won!”
“You still deserve it, Grace. I wouldn’t want anyone else to have it.”
“Besides me!” Josh butted in. Our group died laughing and headed over to pavilion to the awards ceremony. Once everyone had been awarded for their achievements, myself and the others met under the big oak tree. As we stood and chatted, Mia elbowed me in the side and glanced off to the left. I turned and saw her older brother David walking up. I quickly turned around and gave her a shut-up-look.
“Hey, G!” David called from behind me. I turned around and smiled at the 6’ 1” lean giant standing in front of me.
“Hey, David! How’s it goin’?” I replied. He leaned up against the tree and smiled his flashy grin. The blue shirt he had on made his bright blue eyes pop, which made my heart skip a beat. I quickly shook my head and reminded myself that we were only friends.
“I’m doing just fine. Nice shooting by the way.”
“Wait!” I exclaimed, “You saw it? I thought you were still at work!” He shook his head and said,
“Yup, I saw you hit the bullseye. Right dead center too. Also, I was able to get off a little early. I wanted to see how the competition was going.” I smiled back at him and expressed my appreciation.
“Can I see the trophy?” he asked looking down at the golden cup I was holding in my hand. I held it up for him to see. He took it out of my hand and held it up to the bright sunlight.
“Grace Esther Fields. Eighteen years old. The youngest and first girl to win first place in the Louis Shooting Competition.” he read aloud for the group to hear. He handed it back to me and started clapping, and soon all four of my friends were clapping. Josh started chanting,
“Speech! Speech! Speech!” I started laughing and from behind Mia threw her arms around my shoulder.
“Come on, guys, give her a break. Hey! Let’s all go to my house and get some ice cream!!” We all agreed and headed to our cars. Mia and I got in my blue 1968 Chevrolet truck and I followed behind David, Josh, and Bryant. As we continued down the highway, I soon saw brake lights and heard the boys’ truck screech to a halt. I slammed on my brakes to not rear end them. I felt my phone start buzzing in my back pocket. I pulled it out and handed it to Mia to answer.
“Hello?” she asked, putting it on speaker.
“G, Mia. You’ve gotta see this.” David said over the phone. I looked up and saw all three of them getting out of the car and quickly heading down the road. I shut my truck off and pulled out the keys. Mia and I slowly got out of the front seats, and followed after them. After a few steps past their truck I stopped dead in my tracts. Mia gasped and grabbed my hand. There in front of us were dozens of police cars and in the middle…the smoking remains of a crashed plane.
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