Always Army Strong

Prologue

She's running, running as fast as she can. Dodging trees that pass her on the left and right. She stops for a second to see how far away they are. Though the action is regrettable. In the time that took, they managed to catch up to her. She tries to run, but they grab her, throwing her to the ground. She tries to scream, but they slap a hand over her mouth. The men arguing around her speak a foreign tongue. One man cocks his gun, and aims at her head. Before she can even comprehend what will happen, he fires.

She jerks up, out of breath and drenched in a pool of her own sweat. She takes deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself down. Groaning, she rolls out of bed and trudges to the kitchen. Her mom and dad are sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper and eating some fruit. Dodging the island, she heads to the pantry to grab some cereal.

"Lucky Charms? Seriously!?" Her dad asks with a tone flooded with disappointment.

"Yup,"

She gets a bowl out from under the cabinet and some milk from the fridge. She combines the cereal with the milk and heads to the game room. She almost made it out of the kitchen when she heard her dad's voice once again.

"Where do you think you're going?" He growls

"The game room," she responds, annoyed.

"What to watch more tv?" He nags.

"Yeah. Probably." She affirmed, shortly.

"What time did you get up sweetheart?" Her mom asks innocently.

"Around 9:00, what about you?" she adds.

Her mom gives her an answer, and then the conversation is promptly ended. She heads to the game room, with the knowledge of her dad's annoyance. Plopping onto the couch, she grabs the wii remote and summons Netflix to join her. She loves any show with romance and action. Gun fights, face-to-face combat, and explosions are her favorite. She dreams of a life, where she didn't just sit around and watch TV all day. She dreams of doing something important with her life to prove to her parents that they were absolutely wrong about her. Little do her parents know, she has a plan.

Kennedy, her older sister, walks into the room dressed in a tank top and shorts. Her medium brown hair is in a pony tail, her headphones are wrapped around her phone, and she has a water in her hand, obviously she is working out.

"Nicole, tell mom and dad I am going to workout?" Kennedy requests.

"At the YMCA?" She replies

"Yeah," Kennedy answers.

"Can I go with you?" Nicole asks hopeful.

"Sorry, I'm going with some friends," she responds once again shutting Nicole out.

It's not like I don't try to do things, Nicole thinks, it's just that no one ever wants to do anything with me. She spends the rest of the day on the couch watching Netflix.

When it is time for her to get ready for bed, she finds herself rehearsing her plan. She will go to Texas A&M for college. Her parents will think that she is going there because she loves the school, but actually she is going for the military program. She will spend her days in college prepping for military life. Once she graduates, she will enter into the military and do her best to serve her country with honor. She won't tell her parents of her military dream until she is absolutely sure she can do it, and until she absolutely has to. Though with her being a sophomore anything can change.