Shingi and Eddie waved Xin and Gary off, giving the two ‘lovebirds’ the rest of the afternoon to do whatever they wanted. The only problem was that neither one of them really knew what they were supposed to do due to the lack of their dating experience and neither one having been told about this date beforehand. It didn’t help that the AFA students had to apply for leave beforehand, so they were unable to do anything exciting outside the academy.
As the two of them were thinking about what they should do together, each one was just following the other in silence, resulting in the two of them heading straight towards the large field. It was more or less a track field that had multiple pieces of equipment for the debut students to train outside. It wasn’t utilised a lot because most of the students in the AFA were aiming for the AFC, making them prefer practising indoors, specifically in the cages where real fights would occur.
“I’m sorry.” Xin eventually broke the silence that was starting to get awkward. “About zapping you before, I mean. However, in my defence you did seem like you were out of it.”
Gary tried to laugh it off, trying to come up with a good excuse, but he couldn't think of any. “No, no, you were totally right to do that. I just got bit too hungry that day, I guess.”
“That was all from you being hungry?” Xin asked with a raised eyebrow. “In that case, I should probably be happy that you must have eaten before you came over to meet my parents.”
Hearing Xin tease him like this, Gary felt that the awkwardness of the whole situation had lessened. His crush always seemed up for anything and was quite forward, not hard to read either, making her all the more charming in his eyes.
“Yeah, we should avoid dates at restaurants in the future… assuming you want to have another one, of course. … oh God, I’m messing up already, aren’I?” Gary cursed his own tongue for being faster than his brain. However, to his surprise, Xin just chuckled at his antics. “Relax, let’s just enjoy the time together and play it by ear.”
Eventually, the two of them approached what looked like an archery field with a large round board at the very back. Strangely, there were neither bows nor arrows in the vicinity, rather a row of heavy metal looking balls at the side. It was a condensed weight, and picking it up, one was meant to practise throwing them at the target from around fifty metres away.
“How about we start our date with this?” Xin suggested. “It’s easy, each of us gets five balls, and the one to score the most points wins. Hmmm, let’s make it a bit more fun. Usually we play this with some ante, so why don’t we do the same? Is there anything that you want if you win?”
Looking at her from head to toe, the teenage boy blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “A kid!”
Xin dropped the heavy ball into the ground as she heard those words. “Don’t you think you're moving a little too fast, casanovva?”
Gary’s head was turning a bright red colour, due to his nervousness he had misspoken. “KISS! I meant to say KISS, I swear!”
“Oh, yeah, that seems reasonable. Alright, but if I win, I’m gonna ask something from you, but I have to warn you, I’m pretty good at this.” Xin replied as she went first and threw the ball. It went flying through the air and hit the target right in the centre, scoring her the maximum amount of 100 points.
‘I guess since this is next to the other training place she has done this a few times, but it doesn't look too hard.’ Gary thought as he picked up the weight. It turned out heavier than he had expected and he imagined there were a few people that would be unable to throw the ball without transforming, but since Xin didn’t transform, he wasn’t going to either.
Gary then hurled the ball as hard and as fast as he could. It had gone through the air faster than Xin’s had, hitting the inner middle ring scoring him 75 points.
‘That's pretty good for his first try… it's hard to imagine Gary was really the same person as that lunatic I had to knock out.’ Xin thought.
“I guess we didn’t really get to talk since that time, huh?” Xin suddenly realised. “I’m sorry I didn’t even look after you. Say, when did you even become an Altered? It had to be after I left, right? What made you join the AFA?”
While she asked her questions, the teenage girl was still concentrating on their game, focusing her aim. Gary was looking at everything she was doing so he could initiate her form.
“It was pretty much after you left. A company called the Howlers decided to invest a lot of money into Slough and they had a trial run, looking for candidates to join them, going around schools and scouting. In the end, I was lucky enough to get selected, so I’m now a representative of their company. Since I was very compatible with my Altered, they let me try out with the AFA, and here I am.” Gary answered confidently.
It was a lie prepared for him by Kai in case anyone ever asked him. Xin also believed it since she had seen how talented he had been, though she was mistaken in that she had seen him before his turning. The only hard part to believe in was the story about a new corporation investing in Slough of all places, especially seemingly out of nowhere. Then again, Slough was neither the first nor the last town that a company might choose to invest in, in case they saw some potential.
Honestly, Gary was quite nervous, after all as the mayor’s daughter, Xin might have been told by her father about the Howlers, although it might just have been a comment in passing.
“Although, if I’m honest, I also asked for the chance to get here. … Jayden was the one who recommended I do so.”
Xin was just about to throw the ball, but this sudden piece of news, made her flinch, resulting in her throw being off by a bit. Nevertheless, her second throw ended up giving her 75 points.
“Jayden? As in my brother? He told you to come here?”
******
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