Army Way of Life

Chapter Six

Sometime earlier in the semester, my mother had signed me up to volunteer with a clothing drive for the post. I was going to help collect clothes and sort them for a yard sale type thing they were having at the end of May. The day the drive was happening turned out to be the day after we got back from New York. Begrudgingly, I was up at 7 am to get myself and Ryker ready. I had to drop him off at daycare before being back at the tarmac at 9.

When I was ready, I hurriedly put him in the car and took off. Because Mom chose this morning to be a pain and not give Ryker up, I was running behind. I almost just went off and left him with her, as she wanted to spend oh so much time with him.

I pulled onto the tarmac at 8:55 and hurried out of the car and over to the building. When I got inside, all of the volunteers were standing around waiting for instructions to be given.

When I noticed Haley standing there next to her mother, I cringed and groaned inwardly. I went to school with her until we graduated, then she went off to some fancy school on the West Coast, too good to stay around here. Her father was a Lieutenant, but by her attitude, you'd think he was the Post Commander. She made every girl feel inferior because she had to be better than everyone. Despite her beliefs, she couldn't keep hold of a guy. She said they just weren't her type, but we all knew it was because none of them could stand her once they got what they wanted.

She had an extra special grudge against me because my brother was the one person who absolutely refused to be seen with her, and because Jeremy was my boyfriend, and that meant he didn't look in her direction, either. Thankfully, I had not seen her since we graduated, though I was sure her mother wasted no time spilling the beans that I had had a child.

My suspicions were confirmed when she trotted up to me and said, "I heard you got knocked up after we graduated. Leave it to you..." she sneered. I ignored her, knowing it wasn't worth it. When she saw that she wasn't going to get a response out of me, she turned and moved back over by her mother, who looked my way with a disgusted expression.

The lady in charge, Denise Cornell, assigned us all sections and surprise surprise, I was assigned to the same section as Haley. There was another girl; who was two years ahead of us in school. She introduced herself as Tiffany. I felt bad for Tiffany having to be in this group. She was going to have to listen to all of Haley's nonsense that was sure to come.

At 9:30, people started flowing in with boxes upon boxes of clothes. When we emptied three cars, my little group and I set to unpacking the clothes, sorting them, and putting them back in boxes before moving them to the designated area. We worked in silence for a while before Haley opened her dreaded mouth. "This would fit your illegitimate child, I bet," she said, holding up a newborn outfit.

"My son is 14 months old," I said. "That would have fit him a year ago. But you wouldn't know that because you don't know how any of that stuff works. You probably think you get pregnant by hugging a guy." She wore a shocked expression and probably didn't know what to say. "It's surprising, really, considering how many guys you've slept with." She was stunned, and I was proud. I wasn't normally a catty girl, but there was something about Haley, and I wasn't going to put up with her shit anymore.

I turned back to work on my current box of clothes, totally unaffected by the scene that just played out.

A while later, she decided to try again. "You know, it's a surprise you even had the opportunity to get pregnant. I can't believe someone would sleep with you."

"You're petty. The reality of this whole situation is that Jeremy had sex with me and you don't like that. It irritates you that I had something you wanted. But newsflash, he was my boyfriend for 4 years. You never stood a chance."