The Tale of Ezra: Book 1

Chapter 3: My Orientation at the North

We had all of summer to train and prepare for the NGO. The orientation would be on August 24th and the first day in the NGO would be on September 5th. It was June 2nd and I had my whole summer planned out. I had planned to work out more and hang out more with the boys and get into online video games. My older brother had also come from holidays. His name was Austin. He was in the NGO and served in the East. Even though Austin wasn't my real older brother, he had taken care of me and been with me for years. After he graduated I had to live by myself for a while at least untilI entered the academy and we had our dorms to stay at. Austin was finally coming back after 6 months. His job wasn't as a shooter or fighter but as a detective. He did a lot of detective work since the East is mostly about that. I planned to ask him to train me and prepare me for what I would be facing. I was excited overall but a little nervous, but I wouldn't have to worry about all that at least until September 5th.

I was sitting in my room playing some video games, even shooting games my aim was bad. I heard the door open and heard Austin's voice. "Yo Ezra, you home?" I got out of my room and rushed down the stairs. "Austin" I said in the most excited tone, "You're back" "Yeah, it was a pretty rough 6 months" he responded. "So you graduated eh?" He seemed a bit surprised, well I mean I was surprised as well. "Yeah I did, and guess what?" "What? You were the number one prospect?" I was pretty disappointed at the fact he already knew, "How'd you know?" I said surprised. "Well the East division is also in charge of looking for new prospects, I actually recommended you to the NGO leaders." I felt really disappointed that it was thanks to my older brother I was the number one prospect and got into the North. Well it does make sense to be honest. Austin is a well known and well respected soldier, so me being his little brother probably has everyone's expectations for me at an all time high. "Well I'm starting this September" I said, acting like he didn't know already. "Well I guess I'm gonna have to teach you some things," he said. "The NGO is all about being smart and wise, if you have those core elements along with skill to tie up the present you're good and set. "But its better if you find some things out on your own, it's how you gain experience" I was filled with a rollercoaster of emotions, but I just wanted to forget everything and enjoy my summer since it would probably be one of the last summers I would get to enjoy. Regalia and the kingdom of Georgia have been fighting for a while, rumors of war have popped up here and there but neither kingdom has shown potentiality starting a war. Both kingdoms have attacked each other here and there but there haven't been any major attacks. But if I'm being honest, war could probably break out within the next few months since Regalia is running out of oil and Georgia has a lot of it. I don't think Regalia is planning to peacefully negotiate and try to get oil.

Of course I still thought a lot about Anna, I mean there isn't a day where I don't think about her. I regretted not asking her for her number or something but it would probably make me look creepy or something. I was trying to first play it cool and become at least friends with her and get to know her more and let her get to know me, but my friends would just say I'm stalling. To a certain degree they're probably right, but I don't wanna take my chances and come off as weird or creepy.
Summer flew by pretty fast, before I knew it, it was July. Austin had taken me to the dentist to get braces, I was surprised he was able to cover the whole payment since my insurance couldn't. The NGO pays their soldiers and workers very well, even if you're in the west you're still going to be making a lot. We've never had this much money in our lives. I'm even sure that Austin was making 6 figures. It was like he was pulling money out of nowhere. There was this one time where we went out for dinner at this really expensive place and he paid for the whole thing without any problem. I was pretty impressed, pretty soon I would be making that money and I could treat myself to expensive fancy dinners, buy lots of cool shoes and clothing and all that stuff.
Me and Austin spent most of July training and preparing me a bit. Austin made me do 50 pushups everyday and increased it by 10 every week. By the time August rolled around I was doing 300 push ups a day. It wasn't easy and it took me a while to get used to it. Austin also told me that the NGO had a band and that I should learn an instrument. I decided to go along with it since Anna could play violin and piano really well. By the end of the month I learned around 5 instruments, guitar, electric, bass, piano, and drums. I liked playing bass and guitar a lot so I played them a lot during my free time. By the time August rolled around I felt well educated. I got better at a lot of games, I binged a lot of shows with Austin, got better at sports like basketball, I even started watching sports, and I got a lot of new shoes thanks to Austin. This summer was a really enjoyable unforgettable summer.