The Queen Of Spades

Chapter 6, Continued, Again

After collecting the money from the announcer I ran back to school just in time for JROTC. I put my bag down and lined up in my squad for roll call and pledge of allegiance. Before we were seated, Sergeant Callows called me to the front of the Platoon. As one does, I fell out, marched to the front of the Platoon and took my place at attention to the right and behind the Platoon leader. Sergeant Callows announced to the Platoon that I was getting a ribbon (which are like trophies, the more you have the better you are), and put out his hand for me to take it.
"Permission to speak, Sergeant?" I asked.
"What is it, Everhart?" He replied.
"What's the ribbon for?"
"The Army has given us a ribbon to give to you for your act of bravery on Friday night." Again he put out his hand for me to take the ribbon.
"I don't want it. Give it back to Attorney General Rush."
"Pardon me?"
"I. Don't. Want. The. Stupid. Ribbon. I shouldn't be rewarded for doing my job. I should be in trouble for not doing it quicker. And no offense, but why aren't you getting one? Why didn't you do your job as military personnel and protect civilians? Why did I have to do it?"
Sergeant Callows cleared his throat, obviously at a loss for words. I kept going, "So far, I've seen that group of people kill twelve people and put two in critical condition on account of one person and you didn't stop to think: "Oi, maybe I should not let them kill six kids"? That's great, real top notch work from the person who is actually active in the military." My voice had gotten louder sometime during my rant but I didn't know when. Sergeant Callows only had one response to what I said, "They only killed six on Friday and one is in critical condition. Who are the other seven casualties?"
"That's classified information as far as you're concerned. Sorry." I wasn't really sorry, and he knew that by my voice. He wrote a slip and sent me to the office for misconduct and I gave a small two finger salute as I left the room. When I got to the office, I sat in one of the chairs along the wall and waited for the administrator to bring me back to his office.