Leadership [Short Story] ✅

Part 1

A/N (backstory)

Because one of my phriends insisted that I post this (you know who you are, you Canel/Rolton trash) after reading one of my English essays. So here goes.

Ranel Fleming is not a weak boy - I know that for certain.

As a leader of this troop, I shouldn't keep a blind eye towards everyone and overlook them just like that. After all, we are all humans with feelings that break and repair themselves over time, just like our skin. I tend to not show emotions, however, especially towards Ranel. If he sees me show the slightest change of expression rather than my impassive face, he will think I am just like everyone else in this troop; so emotionally unstable and unable to mask emotions, despite the fact that I happen to be only a year older than him.

I am not saying that I am out of the ordinary. In fact, I am fathomably stern and always yelling for the sake of everyone, because that is what they call "leadership", and plainly, that is what I do, after Sergeant Jackson saw my potential and resolved to make me the leader of Squad Four. "You'll be taking my place soon, soldier." he'd said to me the previous year, during one of our summer drills. Unlike me, he is a relatively nice bloke, despite being a sergeant. And until now, I can only cling onto that hope.

Though, now that I think of it, I don't know whether he really meant what he said, or whether the words were simply for the sake of motivation. Either way, I have other techniques to push motivation to my troop.

Ranel gets taunted by some of the troops because he always tends to choose the rather frail side of him for reasons I've been - and still trying - to unmask. At times, especially during drills, he will slow down and break away from the rest of us to solely lie on the ground - even during thunderstorms, much to my vexation. The way to encourage him to move on is to holler words of motivation right in his ear. And apparently, the only person who has effects on him is me.

"You're not weak!" I'd barked at him during one of our midnight drills, as Ranel shuffled along the thick, slippery mud, panting heavily and looking up at him under his eyelashes. I shone and waved the torchlight into his eyes, and I could clearly see his pupils constricting; dots of black against the sea of olive green orbs. "You choose to be weak - why don't you choose to make me weak?"

That fired him up; he'd taken a deep breath and exhaled, sending mists from his mouth and nostrils, before taking a long stride forward, his boot making a slapping sound as soon as it had left the mud. Though, I'd known for certain that his spirits would simply drop back, shutting out any lights of hope I'd had for him.

Ranel is difficult. When I talked to Sergeant Jackson about this, he said he did notice Ranel's slight oddity, and reasoned out that Ranel didn't have a "decent childhood" when the unit first took him in. And I thought I could relate.

I always try my finest to keep him on track. Sometimes, I try to gather up the courage to ask him - because even I respect people's personal spaces - whether he has some internal conflicts that battle on inside his head, for I have been noticing that his is always the odd one out in the whole troop. It isn't because he has that appearance of a fifteen-year-old boy who's fresh out of puberty, despite being twenty-one. He simply shuts himself out, as if the most crucial thing in his life is to breathe and walk, and talks only when addressed to - in this case, he receives taunts, which he can do nothing about than to ignore. As a result, his life is mostly about breathing and walking. And, of course, eating.

I know I am not some sort of a counsellor, but I have experience with different kinds of emotions. When Ranel was first assigned to Squad Four, I thought he was going to be as spirited and ardent as the others - vigorous even. Evidently, I had been wrong; even on the first day of his training, he was already at the bottom of the chart. Some new troops made it to top ten of higher, but Ranel Fleming had just had to break the record. I tried to stay calm by telling myself that not all things go the way you always wanted it. Still, it was quite infuriating. And that was when I started yelling at him. He used to yell back out of exasperation, but now he just keeps it to himself.