The Fight for Freedom (Book One in the EDSOR Military Academy Trilogy)

Chapter 6- Shocking Revelations

“What will you do for the war?”, I asked as we trudged toward the main computer room.

The moonlight beamed against Marco's face as he spoke. “I can be placed in the front lines”

My mouth was open. “No…NO! I won’t let you! You’ll die first!”, I shook my head.

“As of now I am useless. I do not know anything about war. Only the War Council and some other trained people are knowledgeable about this adult topic”

“That doesn’t mean I have to put you there. As much as possible, we are putting volunteers in the front line and giving them high insurance payments”

“So I am volunteering then”

“Stop it! Even if you did, I won’t allow it! You are needed as the brains of the revolution”

“If worse comes to worse, I’ll go”

“Marco….”, I forget my words.

“Death is inevitable. This war will determine who will die first. But we’ll all die anyway”

I nod. “Yeah. You’re right. Do you….do you think Thomas and Stephan know a little about wielding a gun?”

Marco grinned. “Ah Thomas! I am closer with Stephan though. Both of them play many war games on their computer in their free time. Stephan loves Prototype and COD MW2”

I wish I knew what those were. “I only know Plants vs Zombies”

We both laughed as we entered the computer room. The two siblings were arguing about something.

“What the heck were you doing to Jesse yesterday? Both of you were on the floor!”, Stephan shouted as he was rapidly typing something. Marco was confused. “You did what?”

“Hey. It was Thomas’ fault. He told me to sit beside him and then he suddenly hugged me”

Marco shook his head and sighed. I don’t know why he would do that considering we’ve been friends for quite some time. I met him in an Intercamp Chemistry class, and beat him in the finals. I think all of the guys were intimidated of me except for him and his cute high pitched buddy, Matthew.

Thomas shut his eyes. “I just hugged her. What’s the big deal about it?”

“Just hugged? You like her”

“I don’t. That’s what I…always do to my friends”

“Dude, get a hold of yourself. You never do that to Alyssa, Lexine or Rani”

Thomas continued to search for his notes. “Have you found anything about plotting the coordinates of the battlefield?”

Stephan got irritated. It was really awkward eavesdropping on their conversation.

“Thomas! You like Jesse! Admit it. You can never keep your eyes off her, right?”

Thomas chuckled. “Stephan, you actually think I could be with her? Nonsense”, he replied as he searched for his notes in a pile of newspapers.

“So you like her?”

“Have you found my notes on parallels?”

Marco bit his lower lip as we crouched behind the pale peach computer door. “Oh my”

I was speechless. “Thomas liked me all along and I never knew”

“You were meant to be with each other”, he smiled then sighed again. He stood up. “I’d better just go”, he solemnly said.

“No wait! Aren’t we going to go inside and chill out? Just like before?”, I whispered.

Marco did not answer anymore. He swiftly ran away from me, leaving the sound of his footsteps echoing in my ear.

I had the urge to catch up with him. We were supposed to be playing computer games with Thomas and Stephan….I don’t feel comfortable being alone with Thomas, especially now because of what he said.

“You actually think I can be with her?”, his firm voice was tormenting my brain!

As I left the computer room and dashed after him, I noticed that the computer door creaked a bit and Thomas peeked out just in time to see my shadow disappear in the night. To me, I had to console Marco. He didn’t have to take out his anger on me. If he liked me, why didn’t he just tell it to me?