Romeo and Juliet Gone Bad.

9. Three Years Later.

Juliet's POV:

I stood in front of my mirror and put my cap on my now wavy hair.

It's been a whole three years since I've been here and I had changed a lot.

Not only in the looks department, but in attitude too.

I was a lot more prone to follow the rules now and be more respectful.

Even if I was still only a Sergeant. It was still something to be proud of.

If someone had told me that I'd be here three years ago, I would've laughed.

I had finished my final year exams here as well and had passed with flying colours.

Today however, was the annual gathering in North Ridge with the air force and navy officers from the other nearby states.

It was basically just where we discussed new training matters and other boring things.

It was like a meeting of the minds.

It was apparently a great three day retreat for some of the older soldiers.

I wondered if Lily had stayed in the air force or if she'd quit after the year.

Or if Theresa had stayed in the navy after her year.

When my year was up, I had loved being in the military so much, that I'd decided to stay on.

After my one month deal with Brown, I had found that the military really wasn't that bad.

Junior officers weren't allowed to go to this gatherings, so this was my first year there.

I was technically still a junior as well, but since I already had the rank of Sergeant, it was mandatory.

I was shocked at first when I got told of my promotion last year.

I had quickly grown into the position though.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts.

I had to focus on the gathering instead. The job always came first.

I straightened my uniform and made sure my boots were tied tightly.

When I was satisfied with myself, I walked out to the bus.

My duffel bag was already loaded with the others.

There were groups of soldiers just standing around and talking, as I reached the bus.

I went up to where I saw Kayla, Freddie and Braydon standing.

As soon as they saw me, they waved.

"Hey, Sergeant.", Kayla greeted easily.

"Hello, Kayla, Freddie.", I greeted them and turned to Braydon.

Braydon Matthews was my boyfriend.

We met at the summer festival where we patrolled and we got to know each other while on duty that night.

We started to date about a year ago, a few months before my promotion.

We were living here on base in our own little home.

It was a nice cozy place. It had everything that we needed. Which wasn't much.

"Morning, Serge. Ready for the meeting?", he asked, kindly.

"Of course, Petty Officer Matthews.", I said with my usual smirk.

It wasn't really a secret that we were dating, but we preferred to keep our private lives away from work.

"Alright, Troops. Climb on in. Let's get moving.", the Corporal shouted from the bus.

We all got on board and I decided to sit at the back with Kayla, Freddie and Braydon.

The only reason they were going along to this gathering was, because Kayla and Freddie were transferring bases and Braydon was my second in command.

He hadn't taken it well in the beginning to being second to a girl, but he got over it soon enough.

I looked out of the window as the bus left base.

My life here had been nothing short of amazing.

Sure, at the start I rebelled against it, but once I stopped, it was great.

But it still left like something was constantly missing.

I missed home and my dad sometimes.

Since I came here three years ago, no one from home has ever called, written or visited me.

The only person that had kept contact with me was Justin.

Well, up until about a week ago. Then all the contact had stopped altogether.

But none of my family had ever contacted me.

At first, I played it off as more tough love, but after a while I realized that they probably just forgot about me.

It made a lot of sense. I mean they were busy people with busy lives.

I sighed and watched as the landscape passed me by.

If I had to be honest, I kind of missed school.

Weird, I know, but I missed Romeo and Justin and Miss Long with her stupid Shakespeare.

I still wore Justin's charm bracelet. It was my good luck charm.

I wondered how the rest of them had turned out after school.

Maybe, I should enroll for university, I thought.

I threw that idea away as I thought about everything.

My home and my life was here now.

In the military with Braydon and my cadets.

Besides, universities were filled with teenagers behaving badly.

Drinking, partying until late, drugs, skipping classes, the list goes on.

I couldn't live in such an environment anymore, I would go crazy.

Plus, I had turned my life around. I didn't want to go back to bad habits.

The bus stopped at it's destination and pulled me from my thoughts.

The gathering of this year was being held at a local resort.

The military had booked the whole resort for the three days we were staying here.

So it was basically going to be like a base camp for us for three days.

I could see through the window that the navy and air forces were already here.

There were five large camouflaged busses with navy insignias and four with air force insignias.

There was an additional five busses with our kind of insignias.

Four of the busses were from different bases and then one was ours.

Everyone got off the bus and got their baggage.

After that, the corporal assigned us our rooms that we shared with the other bases.

I threw my bag over my shoulder and walked into the resort.

I went straight to the elevator and took it to the fourth floor where my room was.