Ruby loses the first round

The starting buzzer sounds and the two girls quickly begin to hit as many targets as they could in a minute as accurately as possible. Ruby went through the range as fast as she could, blasting a training round into one target before quickly finding the next and shooting a round right into the center. She paid no attention to May or the crowd, focusing only on hitting her targets.

At last the ending buzzer sounds and scores were tallied up. Ruby came back to reality and heard the cheering crowd. She smiled because she thought she had done pretty good. Then she looked at the scoreboard.

Her total was 301 points. But her heart sank as she saw May's total right next to hers displaying 305.

She had lost by four points. With a difference that small she would only have had to shoot one more target in order to win. Or maybe shoot a few targets a bit better. It had been a game that came down to a split second to decide the winner.

"Yes! I won!" May cried as she looked amazed at the scoreboard. "In your face Beacon! Now fork over some clothes!"

Ruby was pretty stunned at the development. She hadn't lost to someone around her age in a head to head shooting challenge in years. Maybe she'd gotten a bit complainant.

But, for now she had to follow through with the rules. It was pretty obvious which part of her clothing she choose to take off first.

Ruby felt a bit embarrassed as a whole crowd of people, some of whom were her classmates, watched her pull off her shoes and carefully pull her thigh high stockings down her legs. A few members of the crowd chanted 'STRIP!' as she did so, but it was half-hearted at best. Very few people would get excited about a girl taking off her stockings. (Though secretly a few members of the crowd actually did enjoy watching Ruby do that, very much.)

Lightly blushing, Ruby picked up her stockings and shoes and handed them to May. May smirked as she placed the items down next to her right next to the pile of Velvet's clothes.

"I have to admit, nobody has come that close to beating me before. One mistake and I would have been the one handing you my shoes." May said.

"Don't expect it to happen again." Ruby shot back. "And don't expect me to get flustered just from having bare legs and feet."

"I'd be disappointed if you were. But that bit of fun will come when I win the next round. Can't wait to see you trembling with embarrassment." May declared.

A bit angry, the now bare legged Ruby picked her rifle back up and prepared for the second round. May did the same. The buzzer sounded and both girls started shooting.