MIDDLE GRADES FICTION — SCIENCE FICTION
Don’t Mess With Anyone In My Squad!
Space Cadet Academy — Chapter 11
‘At least it isn’t Arne,’ Sam thought to herself. ‘I don’t like him. He’s so full of himself.’ Sam’s natural reaction to Benji was as a protector. He was obviously someone who was seen as weak by bullies. The other kid was Dirk. Her first impression of him was that he was okay, a pleaser if she ever saw one.
“To the morning crew,” she repeated raising her mug. Sam saw Benji hesitate and gave him a questioning look which resulted in Benji finally adding his voice.
“I like this idea,” Sam confirmed, taking charge. “Something tells me that the others will stay in their beds until they have to wake up. The morning crew. Good call, Dirk.”
Benji and Dirk nodded in agreement, then the three of them sat back in silence to sip their mugs of hot chocolate. Sam studied the two boys and liked what she saw. Of the nine cadets who shared this bunkhouse, these two were the ones with whom she had instantly felt the most comfortable.
With the last of her chocolate swallowed, she said, “I’m going to hit the shower before the others wake up. There’s no point in waiting for the others. Besides, it won’t be much longer before they will have to get up as well.”
Each shower room had three shower stalls. The stalls were big enough to let them hang their towels and clothes with the shower partitioned off from their clothes with a plastic curtain. The stalls allowed everyone to have privacy, just like the showers found in most campground shower buildings.
Sam chose the stall furthest from the door into the room, grabbing one of the large towels that sat on an open shelf by the sinks. As expected, body wash and shampoo were already in each of the shower stalls.
Seeing Sam disappear into the girl’s shower room, Dirk hesitated on a few moments before he encouraged Benji to follow him. “She’s right. If we wait, we may end up being the last to get to use the showers. And, who knows if the water will still be hot by then.”
A loud horn sounded out while the three of them were still taking showers. Almost as soon as that blast of noise ended, a musical reveille had begun to play in the bunkhouse. It was officially time to get out of bed. At the moment the reveille had begun, the Lieutenant entered the bunkhouse.
She knew that three of her charges were already up. She was very glad that three of the five she was most concerned with, appeared to have struck up a friendship. Since it was the first morning for them at the academy in Reykjavik, she intended to spend most of the day with her new squadron. She didn’t want to have them be alone too much, too early early in the process. Before conflicts arose, the kids needed time to work together, to learn to be a team.
“Rise and shine!” she called out. “Breakfast in thirty minutes.”
The four remaining girls emerged from their dorm, just as Sam, Benji and Dirk emerged from their shower rooms with large towels draped around them, carrying their pyjamas. The three other boys were only a minute behind the girls, who were already heading to the shower room.
“Don’t even think about it,” Susan warned as Astrid moved to enter the last of the three shower stalls. “You’ll just have to wait until one of us are done.”
Lieutenant Cruse decided that she needed to interrupt and take control.
“Astrid, in you go. It’s first come and first serve. Since you were there before Susan, you get to go in for a shower before her. Towels are there. Soap and shampoo are in each stall. Just make sure that when you leave your stall that you are wearing your towel.”
“But,” Susan began to protest, not used to having anyone contradict her.
“No buts, Susan. I am in charge here. Consider me your mother, your confessor, and your jailer. For the next year, the ten of you belong to me. You’ll do as I command, without complaint. Or else, you will find yourself at one of our affiliate schools. Remember what the General said, only forty-eight of you will make the cut.”
Looking around at all who were now in the common room, as Dirk, Sam and Benji had returned from their dorm wearing fatigues, the Lieutenant added, “Are there any questions?”
A mumbled chorus of no’s told Cruse that all had heard.
“Say again?”
“No, Ma’am.”
Less than fifteen minutes later, all ten of them sat quietly in the common room, looking expectantly at their squadron leader. Pleased with the way they had responded, she proudly led them out towards the mess hall.
Stopping before entering the into the building, she reminded them, “Remember, the honour of our squadron and my reputation is in your hands. Don’t say or do anything to tarnish that honour. If I have my say, you will become the best squadron at the academy. We are all in this together.”
It was just what they needed to hear, especially after the warnings they had been hearing almost since the moment they had arrived at the campus. When they entered the mess hall, they saw that they were the first to arrive.
They didn’t have to wait too long before other squadrons filed into the hall. There were three squadrons of second year cadets and five more squadrons of first year cadets. When everyone was settled, Cruse’s squadron was the first to go through the line for breakfast.
As they made their way with full trays, back to their table, a foot appeared just as Benji was passing, almost tripping him. Gathering himself together enough to avoid dropping his food, Benji was shaking as he made his way back to the table.
Sam had seen the foot as she walked behind Benji, and decided she needed to do something about it. Without being obvious, she veered slightly and allowed her heel to crush the offending foot. No one was going to harass one of her team and get away with it.
Lieutenant Cruse witnessed the incident, as had several of the other squadron leaders. She said nothing and would say nothing, at least for now. She saw her counterpart, who was the squadron leader for the boy who had tried to trip up Benji, Lieutenant Aimée Arnaud frown at the boy. Cruse knew that the boy would face the considerable wrath of Arnaud. It would be unlikely that he would try to repeat his behaviour.
Cruse was caught by surprise when Arne stopped in front of the boy who had tried to trip Benji. ‘What’s he going to do?’ raced through her mind. She immediately began to move towards the scene, as did Arnaud. Then, having given the boy a hard stare, Arne delivered a threat.
“You try that again, on any kid here, you’re going home in a box.”
Then he smiled at everyone who had stopped eating to see what was going to happen, before continuing on his way to his squadron’s table.
Lieutenant Cruse gave a sigh of relief. She’d have to deal with the threat Arne had spoken, a threat heard by almost everyone in the room. However, that would be done in private.
Previously
Thanks to the people who read and interacted to the beginning of this story. Hopefully, this chapter will keep your interest.
Melissa Coffey, Brian Lageose, K.B. Silver, Jo Letke, Carrie, Chris O.
