You’re Welcome, Purdy High!

from ARCHERY CHAMP CHALLENGE -----

One glorious day Miss Corey informed us that we were done with basketball. Good! There'd been way too much running and sweating for my liking. Instead we were going to learn the difficult, yet wonderful, skill of archery. I, personally, was thrilled beyond words! I'd been developing my archery skills since fifth grade, at which time I'd received a little bow and arrow set for Christmas from my favorite uncle, Uncle Chester. I figured I was unbeatable, having shot arrows into the pine tree on the side of our house on many occasions. One time I missed the tree and hit the kitchen window instead, which caused my mom to overreact. But that was just once and my mom had been a good two inches away from where the arrow hit. However, Kitty Shrub, my friend since junior high, bragged that one of her uncles, who went by the unattractive (in my opinion) name of Otis, was a competitive archer and had taught her everything he knew. Humph!

"So you think you're better than me, huh, Kitty? Well, let's just see about that. How 'bout we have a little contest, just the two of us, to find out who the better archer is!"

"Oh, you don't scare me, Trixie. I'll gladly compete with you. Uncle Otis says I'm the best he's ever seen for a girl my age."

How unseemly. All that boasting. You'd never catch me talking like that.

"Well, Kitty Cat, my uncle Chester who's a plumber ---- and a darn good one at that ----says I'm the best he's ever seen for a girl my age. And he's the one who gave me that bow and arrow set for Christmas, so he ought to know! Not only that, but Uncle Chester can wiggle his ears. Can you wiggle your ears, Kitty? I can! I stand in front of the mirror practicing, but the only way I can get them to wiggle is to keep my emerald green eyes closed good and tight, so I never actually see them wiggling. I can just tell by the way the inside of my head feels. Can you do that, Kitty?"

Kitty refused to acknowledge when she'd been beaten. Her stubbornness was turning into a very undesirable quality. "Trixie, since you seem to think you're as good an archer as me, even though I always hit the tiny center circle, whereas you can't hit any part of the target, let alone the bullseye, let's do this. Let's each get one of our friends to put an apple on her head and we can shoot it off, just like William Tell. You do know who William Tell is, don't you, Trixie?"

"Yes, I know who William Tell is, Kitty. Any nitwit knows William Tell invented the bow and arrow so he could steal from the rich and give to the poor! Now, who wants to be my helper?" Several girls scattered behind the trees bordering McNultie Field, the area where we were honing our archery skills.