Side By Side

8

Warnings:
-None

Clay's POV

~ A Week Later ~

Last week I got a lot of training. They taught me how to march, how to stand and how to move myself. I was given a weapon with rubber bullets to practise shooting and how to hold the weapon.

Next to that, I had a lot of classes about what was allowed and what wasn't allowed. I had an hour long class about sexual assault and harassment and if you did something like that, you would immediately have to leave the army. Even if it was just an unwilling hug, you'd have to go.

I got a lot of classes about personal life as well and they had a list of a few things that needed to be deleted. Things such as any kind of non prescribed medication, alcohol and pornographic material on either a phone or in your bags.

I was surprised that a lot of people took alcohol with them, some had cigarettes and half of the people needed to delete pornographic pictures or videos. I just stood still the whole time and eventually they checked my bag and my phone since they wanted to make sure I wasn't lying.

When they realised I genuinely didn't have anything bad, I got complimented which didn't make me stop smiling for the rest of the day.

The week was filled with basic training and classes and now we went on to week two which meant we were going to learn combat better. Ever since I got bullied and knew I wanted to join the army, I took fighting classes to learn and defend myself better.

I was grouped with someone who was around the same height as me, just a bit smaller. He was around the age of twenty-eight so he was at least ten years older than me which worried me at first.

I stood in the right position that I learned in fighting classes and continuously repeated insults in my head to make myself mad and want to prove myself even more.

'GO!' the sergeant next to us said and I immediately started defending while I waited for him. He didn't do anything so eventually I jumped forwards and attacked. He had no idea how to defend himself and I kept going until the sergeant yelled for us to stop.

'Clay?'

'Yes, sergeant!'

'You seem to know all the fighting tactics already,' he asked, looking from me to the man who was looking almost scared of me.

'Yes, sergeant. I do, sergeant,' I answered, looking straight forward.

'Did you take fighting classes?' he asked me.

'I did, sergeant. When I was fifteen, sergeant.'

'Why?'

'To defend myself and to train for the army, sergeant,' I replied as he nodded slowly.

'Why did you need to defend yourself?' he questioned as my heart started beating faster.

I debated on lying or not, but I didn't want to risk it. 'Against the bullies, sergeant.'

He realised he shouldn't ask more and then nodded. 'Alright, Clay. Is it okay if I ask a trained soldier to teach you combat? Because I think you will beat someone up since most people here don't know anything about combat yet.'

'Of course, sergeant,' I answered as I saluted him shortly. He smiled and saluted back, walking away to get me someone who was trained and could teach me small things.

I got introduced to a soldier who served in the army for four years now and he took me somewhere else where I needed to fight him again. It was really even and we both had around the same hits. He stopped fighting after a while and nodded.

'You're motivated,' he smiled as he sat at the side. 'I have a few tips and tricks that most people learn at the advanced stage.'

I nodded. 'I'm here for it, sir.'

'Don't call me sir, I'm just a soldier like you.'

I smiled brightly when he called me a soldier and listened carefully to all the tips he gave me. We tried again and again until I knew all of them and then I noticed a sergeant was watching.

I was sweating a lot so I reached out to grab my towel and my water bottle as the sergeant smiled. 'You just did the test that advanced soldiers pass,' he told me.

'I'm really glad to hear that, sergeant,' I answered with a smile.

He looked at me and then walked closer. 'Clay, did you go through a lot?'

'Yes, sergeant,' I replied, looking away from him.

'Can you tell me more about that?'

'No one thought I could do it, sergeant. This has been my dream since I was six years old and people started bullying me when I turned fourteen or whatever, sergeant.'

'So you want to prove to them that you can in fact do this?' the sergeant questioned.

'Yes, I really do, sergeant,' I nodded. 'Bullying made me stronger, sergeant and I'm here to prove to everyone that I can in fact do what I've always dreamed of, sergeant.'

He smiled and tapped my shoulder softly. 'You're doing good, Clay. Don't lose hope, you can do this.'

'Thank you, sergeant,' I answered, smiling from ear to ear. He pointed to the bench again.

'Sit down, take a break and come back once you're ready.'

'Yes, sergeant!' I immediately walked to the bench and sat down next to the other soldier who smiled at me.

'I've been bullied too,' he started. 'I used to be a really small and weak guy so I started training.'

'And you proved them wrong,' I smiled. 'You're really strong.'

'So are you. I would have mistaken you for a trained soldier who serves in the army for years if I didn't know you've only just started the boot camp,' he answered.

I looked at my feet with a big smile and drank some water. 'I can't wait for the next phases. I'm really looking forward to all the parkour things, I can't wait.'

'Those will be pretty soon,' he replied. 'I think you'll already have some practice.'

'That's epic, I also can't wait to learn how to shoot well. I've already gone to shooting practice with fake weapons and stuff, but my aim was pretty decent,' I told him excitedly.

'I think that's going to be soon too. You'll firstly need a lot of classes about it. I think you'll get those in the next few weeks.'

'Alright,' I smiled, standing up. 'I'm going back now. Thank you for your help!'

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