“Fuck, I’m gonna lose,” Ariana says, a slight chuckle in her voice.
“Mia, my love?”
“Not me, babe. I think I’ll go read a book in the tub.” She kisses him and heads upstairs.
In the basement, Marco opens the armory, selects four matching handguns, and sets up the paper targets. Ariana writes our names on a whiteboard while Lil explains the point system.
“Six shots each per round. Headshots are worth fifty for bullseyes, twenty-five otherwise. Center mass is twenty, and anywhere else on the body is ten. White paper is zero, missing completely is negative ten. Perfect score is 300 points. Any questions?” Lil asks me.
“Yes. Who came up with this point system?” I cross my arms over my chest.
“Ariana did. How old were we?” She turns to Ariana.
“Twelve, I think.”
I look at Marco, and he just shrugs with that proud look he gets about his girls, saying, “Luca, you’re up first.”
We put on our hearing protection and I step up to the line. I take aim and fire my six shots. Before coming here two weeks ago, I’d only ever held, loaded, or shot BB guns, but I’ve practiced down here a few times with Marco and Ford in the last couple of weeks. All my shots at least hit within the target, and I make 95 points. Not great, but Marco nods like I did alright.
All of Lil’s shots cancel each other out. She frowns as Ariana writes a zero next to her name. “Sorry, Ari.”
“Well, I know what we’re doing this summer,” Ari replies.
Marco pinches the bridge of his nose, then steps up to take his turn and earns 195 points, bringing our total to 290.
Ariana mutters to herself as she takes her place at the line. She aims and then shoots all six shots in one breath. As the paper comes close, I see there’s one big hole in the center of the bullseye in the head.
“Holy fuck,” I say as we take off our ear protection again. I knew she could shoot. I didn’t know she could dothat.
She grins at me and then adds her score to the board. Round one, girls.
“What are we shooting with next?”
We go through five rounds, each with a different gun. Marco and I win the second and third rounds, and Ariana wins the last two. Lil… well, she’s technically on the winning team, and she gloats like she actually contributed points.
“Next time, we’ll switch up the point system,” Marco tells me when we’re back upstairs.
“Will Ariana still win?”
He smiles. “Always. That one took to guns like a damn duck takes to water.” Then he turns toward where Ariana and Lil are grabbing snacks from the fridge.“Girls, I would like you to start training with Luca a few times a week after classes are finished.”
All three of us stop and stare at him. He looks at Ariana, making a point to zero in on her mostly healed but still visibleinjuries. “You’ve both stopped doing any real self-defense training, and I haven’t fought you on it. But that was a mistake. There’s worse things than random back alley assholes out there.”
Ariana’s eyes dart to mine and then quickly look away. She nods her head.
Lil rolls her eyes and purses her lips. “Fine.”
I follow them up to the living room, wondering what Marco was referring to.
Lil flops down onto the couch. “Ugh.”
“He’s right, though.” Ariana sits and picks up the remote.
“I know. But I’m not happy about it. I hate sweating.”
“Come on, it might be fun.” I keep a straight face as they both turn to glare at me. “You need to get some muscles on those arms.”
“Hey, I’ll have you know I dragged passed-out Ariana away from a burning car once. I really thought the Porsche was going to explode.”
