He's Not Perfect {Hayes Grier Fanfic}

-2- General Grier

Hayes POV

I walked down the line of newbies saluting my presence and it took all of me to not grin at the fact that these people actually respected me. I remember 4 years ago, this was me trembling while saluting the general. Guess what? I'm the general now bitches.

"At ease!" I shout, my voice powerful and strong as the new soldiers remove their saluted hands and go back to rest position.

"Now! These 4 years will be some of the hardest years of your life!" I start walking down the line, making sure to look all of them in the eye as intimidatingly as possible. Oh how the roles have changed. This is fun. "Some of you will not survive! Some will crack under pressure! This is where we separate the real men," I drop my voice. "From the boys." Literally best part, I've practiced this speech so many times.

"Are you willing to train, to feel some pain, to fight? To fight for your country?" I ask standing in front of the line of about 30 young men, all of them fresh out of high school. It was like looking at me 4 years ago.

"Yes sir!" They responded in unison.

"Well alright then." I continue my voice a little calmer, but still strong and deep. "Drop down and give me twenty." And they proceed with dropping to their hands and giving me twenty push ups. I love power.

I walked along the line observing the new troops we had this year. All sturdy, well built young men, ready to fight. But as I neared the end of the line, one of them caught my eye.

Everyone had finished the push ups by now except for this guy, who stayed struggling on the ground trying to push up his body weight. I walked over to him and stood there for a second watching him struggle. He didn't seem to notice me standing over him as he continued to work on pushing up and down. He had managed four when I cleared my throat.

He looked up at me and I saw he looked only about 16 even when you had to be 18 for the program.

"General Grier." He stood up quickly and saluted. I nodded and he let his hand hang back down. The other boys down the line looked at me as I still stood in front of him, snickering at the weaker link.

"What's your name?" I wondered, quite loudly actually since no one else was talking.

"Ryan." He responded gulping. He had to be about 5'2" and was way shorter than the other guys in the line. He didn't have much muscle, he was quite scrawny in fact, and I knew that he would struggle through out this whole program.

"Ryan...Ryan what?" I pressed while the others continued to snicker under their breath.

"Ryan Mason."

"Ryan Mason," I started walking away from him as my voice grew louder. I wanted to call him out, to get him to do better. That's what my general had done to me, when I struggled, made me feel even weaker. And now I had the power to do just that.

He looked nervous as I paced back and forth, ready to command him to do 12 laps. I spun around and turned to him again tapping my foot firmly.

"Ryan Mason," I repeated staring at him. "You are one of the smallest enlisters we've had." I start and the other guys laughed as I continued my speech. Ryan hung his head and stared at the ground.

"But I like you." I finish surprising everyone. I decided to cut some slack on the poor guy, I know why he joined here. He wanted to be stronger, probably to prove to himself and to others that he could be strong. And I didn't want to push him down. Even if that's what my general did to me 4 years ago.

"You're a true trooper, I can tell already. Great work Mason." He nodded, his face already brightening at my compliment.

"Alright, break for lunch. Back out here, 13 o'clock on the dot. Am I clear?" I shout to the rest of the group after I've finished talking to Ryan.