Royal Guardship

Chapter One

For Jamie Smith, December of his eighth grade year marks and important time, he can now apply for Royal Guardship. He meets the requirement of a 3.0 GPA, has had less than 5 illness related absences this semester, and by the end of today, he will have filled out the standardized application needed to join. Of all the eighth graders in Britain that apply, only 1,000 are accepted, of those only 500 make it to Royal guardship. And only 1 can be prince (National Commander) at a time. Guards are the best of the best. Chosen to lead all branches of the British military based on a seven-scale strategy test. Not to mention surviving a cut 1,000 nominees, to 600 cadets, to 500 that graduate high school in the program and go on to the OTS phase.. The Guards must have a mind that can do a whole lot with limited resources, and limited people. Leading all special operations in the nation, and out

Every December, the best students age 13-14 in schools all over Britain can apply for Royal Guardship. A five-year program that graduates them from each grade in high school in a semester, rather than a year. Two years after joining, the cadets who don't drop back in to regular school graduate from high school at the age of 15 or 16. While the grades below them continue common core, with the addition of drilling, and standard military training. After graduating, the cadets move to the advanced intellectual and tactical phase. To prepare them for Royal Guardship. This is where the 500 or so that graduated are pushed to the limits of human endurance and dicipline, and cut down to 300. In the final year. They begin Stage 3: Royal Guardship classified training. From here on out there is no turning back. You must keep taking all tests until you pass. If all Guards don't come through, then the best in the lower class is moved up.

He reassured himself that this was happening by asking. "So I am doing this, right."

"Doing what?" His mother replied.

He ran his fingers through his dark, brown hair as though he was very stressed.

"Joining the Royal Guards. I never thought you'd let me.  The cadets, even the ones who don't make it all the way, go on to be great leaders in the military, even in civilian organizations.  It's gonna be so cool, and I hear they started doing defensive underwater combat"

"Yeah, I guess you can join." said his dad.

"You can't join the army." said his older sister.

"Please, don't eavesdrop, and don't call the entire military the army." Jaimie said. "It makes you sound a bit thick."

Jamie had seen enough documentaries about the American and Canadian cadet corps to know roughly what to expect of his first stage. The second and third, however, would be hard to predict. If he even made it that far.

At school the next day, there were red fliers with the flag of the Royal Guards as a background. The flag was red, with a gold trim around the outside, and a gold line coming from the top pole-side corner, to the bottom fray-side corner. The fliers read the words: Semper Valour. Meaning, always brave. On the next line: Excellence in all we do. One of the US. Air Force's core values. And then the advertisement: Fall in and Be excellent. Made to sound like the Banners put up ninety years ago during the London Blitz. "Keep Calm And Carry On."  The posters were very patriotic. Meant to stir up pride, nationalism, and duty.

"You don't actually want to join those kids, do you? You would never come back here. They aren't some little military school, they're the worlds best. Better than SAS, better than the Navy SEALs. They are as disciplined as police dogs. If you can't keep up to perfection, your out. So go ahead and join."

"I'll do fine. If I can get to the first year alone, it will get me ahead by one grade, at the least. Very little harm can possibly come from it."

"Alright, but don't expect sympathy when it all goes wrong, you're not as clever as you think you are." exclaimed Martin. He was a short, stumpy little genius who had more interest in using his mind for sarcastic remarks than getting good grades. They were good, but he barely made the Honor Roll.
"I guess he counts on his test scores to get him to Princeton, one of the most prestigious schools in the world." Thought Jamie.
Moving to America seemed fun to Martin. A place with pretty much every climate within driving distance. No passports necessary. Sure, Europe did to, but with all the paperwork of border crossings.

"So, why are you joining this thing, again?" asked Martin.

"For all the adventure, accelerated education, and the military environment." Jamie said, getting frustrated.

With slight discontent in the air, the to scurried to class. It all seemed like a blur, but hardly because it was exciting.

On the way out, Jaimie picked up the form. At home, he read it aloud to his parents. It said to apply online for a quick and easy registration. So he hopped on his computer, and went to royalguards.co.uk/register. It simply asked for a photo ID, birth year, GPA, Name, a deposit of £50; and to type in some characters, like when you order cinema tickets. The flier said they would announce the nominees in school on January 4. This year, 2019, was when the first Royal Guards graduated. They joined four years ago, In January 2015. Now they would be the best of the best. They were there own branch of the military. Not a part of anything else,  But because of their non-specialized training, they had the ability to assume command of any team or branch where they were needed.

When he got to school, Martin was all too willing to start conversation.  "How was Christmas?" He asked.

"Christmas was great, I was the donkey in the pageant, which was fun, I guess. I think I'm a bit too old to do that." Jamie said to Martin. "How was your Christmas?"

"Great, my grandma came up and we had a huge turkey, goose, and ham dinner." Martin answered, "They announce the Royal Guards today."

"I really hope I make it."

First hour was dreadful and sleepy. But in second hour they announced the five kids that would go on to the first stage, "Allen Codwell, Sean Judd, Bart Penn, Jamie Smith..."

"Yes!" He shouted, he couldn't even here the next name.

Excitement overwhelmed him. He made the initial cut. He had a chance. But he couldn't screw it up. That would be awful.

"Ok, please report to the office to pick up the information."

Jamie jumped and ran to the office, his school uniform was ready to be replaced by a camouflage BDU, and a red dress coat on some days. The form had very few words:

Be at the gymnasium in your school uniform on January 10, 2020 at 17:00.
Bring your £50 deposit, and nothing else.
Come back on the 14th. In the same attire. Bring nothing.
Fairly straight forward. Jamie knew that from there he would be shipped to Bristol.  Where he would begin training.

Upon getting home, Jamie was excited to brag to his family.

"I made it!" He exclamed, "Haha! I made the Squad! On Wednesday, we go to a breifing, On Friday you need to say goodbye, and send me to get trained."

"What time?" asked his father. His blue eyes displayed shock, pride and concern all at once.

"Five o'clock." Jamie said smugly.

"Ok, fine." said his father. "Why don't you go tell your mother."

Jamie obeyed.