Practice Makes Perfect?

It was after school, and many students had already set off for home, but not Archie.  SAFE classes would be starting up for the day soon, so he decided to spend his time practicing.  He set up outside, behind the gym, with the teachers permission of course.  He had a target rolled out, and a bright green compound bow suited for school practice, along with five metal practice arrows with blue and yellow fletching.  Archie walked to roughly ten meters from the target and notched an arrow.  He fervently tried to position his feet properly as his instructors informed his that was important for balancing and keeping the bow steady.  Satisfied enough, he eyed the target and brought the bow up, pulling the string back.  

After a couple seconds of eyeing the target he let the arrow loose and felt a sting on his forearm.  He pulled back his right arm with the bow and began rubbing the inside with his left hand.  It was a bit red from the string snapping at him because he wasn't holding the bow properly.  Again.  He had been told he couldn't lock his elbow or this would happen, but it seemed he always needed a physical reminder to recall that.  The arrow that had flown had clearly missed the target.  

After swearing internally he readied another arrow, this time keeping his elbow bent slightly so his forearm wasn't in the way.  The arrow flew, this time hitting the target, but on the outer ring.  After loosing the rest of the arrows the results were one miss and two in the middle rings.  Archie sighed in mild frustration, though not as much as the first few times since he began practicing.  He walked to the target and began retrieving his arrows for another round.

Another day was over and somehow, Jeremy had gone a day without a fight. It was relaxing to not be fighting people every day. Maybe things were starting to change? He hoped so, it'd mean he'd be doing something right with his methods of keeping the bullying down. He made his way through the halls, grabbing the books he needed and heading out to get ready for his SAFE classes. It'd be a little while though, so he was going to just wander the school grounds while waiting.

Eventually, he saw a very poorly shot arrow wiz across his field of vision and past some target. Looks interesting enough to investigate, also more fun than just walking around aimlessly. As he approached the area, another arrow actually hit the target. Barely. He turned the corner to see some student wielding a bow and shooting at a target. He looked around to see if anyone else was around, curious to see if anyone was even watching him. After that, he offered a wave, "Hello!" He made sure to get out of the target area of this rookie archer, just to be safe.

Archie picked up the last of his arrows when he heard a voice, "Hello!"  He turned to see some guy there he didn't recognize.  Most likely he was a student at the school.  It was no surprise that Archie didn't recognize the boy, as he stopped paying attention long ago.  No one else was around.  It was just the two of them.  "Hello."  Archie replied flatly and immediately turned away to retake his position.  He didn't try acknowledging the boy any more than that in hopes he would be satisfied and go away.  Once he was back in position he spent a bit fumbling to position himself right before finally readying another arrow.  He pulled back the string and took aim, letting it loose when he felt appropriate.  The arrow hit the circle right next to the bulls-eye to his surprise.  He got another arrow and shot it as well, but it hit the outer edges again.  Just a coincidence, huh...  Archie sighed and continued the round.

Jeremy leaned against the wall, watching the guy fire his arrows, he had a pretty good shot! Then the next one was quite a ways off... Maybe he had some ways to go... Jeremy wiped that thought from his head and decided to continue with introductions, "Anyways, I'm Jeremy. Nice to meet you." He didn't know at all what to say, or what to do. This guy seems so serious, more than Jeremy was when he was fighting. "Uhh... So what're you doing with the archery practice?"

The boy spoke again just as Archie loosed another arrow.  The arrow just barely hit the target and swung out in a way that made it look like it was shot at a diagonal from the target.  It seemed like the boy wasn't going to leave him alone after all.  He'd probably keep pestering if Archie tried to ignore him further.  There was no helping it.  Archie lowered his bow and made a half turn to look at the boy.  "The name's Arc.  I'm practicing archery to try and make my power actually worth something.  As it is, it's borderline useless."  Archie sighed and muttered to himself, "Why couldn't it have been something more useful, or something I'm better at..."  Archie tried to ready his shooting position again and nocked an arrow.

Jeremy listened silently as Arc said his name and explained what he was doing. So the guy was practicing archery due to it being related to his powers, that makes sense. Arc then mumbled something, though he didn't really catch what it was. "So what actually is your power? Clearly it's related to archery, but is that all of it?" Based on the sighing earlier, he clearly was troubled about it or something close to that.

Archie loosed the last two arrows, hitting the targets outer and second outermost rings respectively. He turned towards Jeremy and sighed. "It's easier to show you." Archie gently set down his bow on the ground and held out his right fist towards Jeremy. A moment of awkward silence passed before two streams of bright blue light erupted from Archie's clenched hand, forming the crude shape of a bow with the occasional flicker of blue electricity running across the arch. Jeremy would also notice Archie's left hand was now glowing that same blue hue up to just passed his wrist. Archie flicked his wrist and a glowing blue arrow appeared like a bolt of lightning. He shifted his body and nocked the lightning clad arrow, aiming at the target. After a few seconds of aiming he let go and the arrow flew. The arrow hit the target in one of the white circles before immediately dissipating, leaving no hole or any trace that it had been there. Archie lowered his right hand and unclenched his fist. As he did, the bow dissipated and the glow of his left hand faded back to his pale skin color. "That is my power. Problem is, it doesn't actually make me a good shooter, and I've never been good at any sort of athletics."

Jeremy didn't exactly have much of a response to this.  He put stood there for a moment to collect his thoughts, then had an idea.  "Have you ever thought about putting your power through stress?  Whenever I do so, it gets stronger, sometimes even expands my capabilities.  So you can get some neat results."  It was true though, ever since he got his powers, it's gone from being just him able to alter the temperature from a distance rapidly, to now being a useful tool for both in-combat, and out-of-combat situations.

Archie gave a cynical laugh at Jeremy's response, "If I'm not dealing with enough stress having to deal with this thing and my life in general, this thing isn't going to be even worth it.  Besides, So what if I use the power and it gets more powerful.  Lets say that at some point my arrow can actually put a hole in that target.  If I can't hit the broad side of a barn, whats the point?  My power actually requires another skill outside of actually just using it.  Sure, I can make it, but I can hardly control what I'm hitting.  You mentioned you have a power to?  Well, what is it?'

"I can manipulate water." Jeremy kept it very simple as he pulled out a jug of water and opened the cap. Then he raised the water out of the bottle and flowed it around the area. After a moment, he returned it to the jug and closed the cap. After that, he put the jug away and then put his pack over his back once more. "It's a lot easier to use, and has expanded greatly, but it never would if I didn't put it under the stress of using it in a more emergency-like scenario."

Archie watched, intrigued as Jeremy moved the water in arcs through the air before returning it to its container.  "Emergency stress huh?  Maybe if I'm attacked or something I'll actually be able to do something."  Archie became thoughtful, and a silence hung between the two.  Suddenly a school bell rang, breaking Archie from his reverie.  He furrowed his brow and shrugged.  "Well guess that means we should get over to the SAFE classes.  They'll be starting soon."  Archie moved to the target and began collecting the arrows he had shot.  Once gathered, he began rolling the target back to the storage.

Jeremy nodded to Archie, then said, "Get beat up a few times and you'll eventually get progress, also you might become a better shot since an immobile target doesn't help much." He gave a salute and walked away towards the SAFE classes.

Archie gave a small sarcastic laugh.  "Yes, cuz I'd love to get beat up.  I'll try my best to avoid that, but I'll see if I can't figure something out."  As Archie got to the storage unit and rolled in the target, he saw Jeremy give him a salute and head out.  Hmm, well lets hope that works better than my practice sessions.