Together

Chapter 24★Amy

I walk in to Sim 2 with Wolf beside me and the others following. Since it's only 0645, no one is here yet. We wait around for thirty seconds and then an adult walks in. Major Jameson. We all snap to attention. A look of shock passes over his face for a split second before his features return to his monotonous scowl.

"At ease," he orders. "Why are you in here so early, Ingall?" Sam and Lou look at each other and then back at Jameson in obvious confusion. "Ummmm.... You. The green one." He's not very professional, for a major in the IF.

"Early is on time, on time is late, and late is death," Lou replies coolly. Jameson looks a tad bit shocked, or concerned, or both, I can't tell which.

"That's, umm, that's.... a good motto to go by? Anyway, pick a seat," he says, gesturing to an amphitheater like seating arrangement to both the left and right of the platform we're standing on. Allie shrugs and walks to a hidden set of stairs near the door. Sam and Lou follow her. Wolf looks at me. She gestures for me to go ahead of her in a way that screams ladies first. I reply with as much of a curtsy I can muster, considering that I'm wearing pants, and walk as daintily as possible to the staircase and down the stairs. Wolf chuckles and follows.

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My face hurts. In my daintyness, I tripped and fell off of the last step and face planted, not daintily in any way, shape, or form. The other four are still chuckling about it. Face planting must be a thing among the girls today. I'll now call it face plant Friday.

The other recruits started coming in at about 0655, but only half of our transfer group has shown up. The clock just hit 0659, and five more people came running in, out of breath.

"Good morning recruits," Major Jameson called.

"Good morning, sir," we reply in unison.

"Glad to see you all made it in today, some of the others must have forgotten to set their alarms." Some people chuckle, but I realize what this is. A warning. Set your alarms early enough so that you won't be late, because we won't set them for you.

"Of course, we'll wake you up if there's a battle, but your day to day alarm is your problem." The others nod in understanding.

"We've just received word that your commander is en route and will be here in two months." Wait. They told us just last night that they didn't know when Ender would get here. Whoever is escorting Ender would have let Eros know the moment they took off. This doesn't add up.

"Until then, your typical six to 24 month course will be accelerated. Two weeks of basic, and the rest in whichever course you are placed into. Route to your next class is on screen. You have five minutes. Go." The route pops up and I note that it takes a minimum of twelve minutes walking to get there. Wolf's screen has a different, longer route. So does everyone else surrounding me. No time to get lost. I grab the others whispering, "follow me."

"To the end of the universe, commander," Wolf says. Sam, Lou and Allie nod. I take off running up the stairs and down the hall, with the others close behind. Golly, they're in better shape than I am.