Royal Guardship

Chapter 3

At 6:00 a.m. in the morning, Jamie woke and slipped on a long-sleeved shirt, and some comfortable, Dark blue jeans, a pair of Avia tennis shoes. He rode to school in the front seat of his dad's car. Fighting to stay awake. They reached the school .

"Well, see you Saturday. Love you" said his dad.

"You to." said Jamie.

He walked into the Gymnasium. Then a 16 or 17 year with a four-stripe badge on his sleeve, which Jamie knew to be a Cheif Sergeant. He directed the five to a bus. It already had ten kids inside. About half of them asleep. Jamie took a seat in the very back, and drifted to sleep. About eight hours later, The bus reached its last of many stops. They reached the 17th Royal guards training Camp, of which there were 51. This one was in Bristol. By now there was a whole of 60 people on the bus. About half of them seemed to have lost interest by now.

Upon arrival, The First Sergeant Stood up. He shouted to get the loud bus to settle down. "At ease!"

Most of the nominees, rather embarrassingly, stood up and put their hands behind their backs. The more educated ones, Like Jamie, sat quietly.

"Ok, when your sitting down, at ease just means be quiet." said the Sergeant. "Now: Squadron, Attent-ion! Column files to center. Move out front seat first, and move back."

When the emptiness got to Jamie, he walked out with agitation. Very last, was the First Sergeant. When everyone was in a horde outside, he yelled, "I'm First Sergeant Creery. I'll be showing you around. So, Fall in!"

This time Jamie was unlucky enough to be closest to the Sergeant. So he paced off of him, and did an about hace, as he was taught to. Then the rest of the nominees fell in at perfect bearings.

"Ok, to start' you'll go over there, to those tables, and get a pair of camo pants, a belt, and a shirt."

Some of the nominees began to walk over to the table.

"I didn't say to fall out!" said Creery. "Come to me, present arms, request permission to fall into the Detail, and order arms. We don't need to take all day!"

Some of the nominees sarcastically murmured, "Permission to fall in to the detail, First Sergeant?"

"Granted." He answered reluctantly to them all. "Detail, fall out!"

They moved to the classroom, and spent minutes trying on pants, combat boots, and shirts. After five minutes, they all lined up outside the door.

"You guys done?" asked Creery.

"Yes First Sergeant!" They answered.

"Outstanding." he said with delight, "Alpha Company took twice that long. You guys did very well."

"Thank you First Sergeant!" They responded.

"Ok, I've gotta go help out with another Company, so Sergeant Hammond and Chief Louis will come take care of you."

The Sergeant and Chief came down the hall. They told the nominees to follow them to the barracks.

"Ok, I want all of you to pick up one of these little peaces of paper" Said the Sergeant as he pointed to a desk just inside the door. "Write your name, and put it here if you want a top bunk," He gestured to the left of the desk. "The other side if you want the bottom, and the middle if you don't care."

Jamie wanted the top, but put his card in the middle to appear low-maintenance. He was lucky enough to get top anyway. The bunks were descent, comfortable, and the olive-drab color that all military fabrics were. The mattress was some sort of firm memory foam. Jamie had a feeling that this would be the only comfortable thing in the entire camp.

"If you could all follow me now, we'll start getting you all settled in. We'll start with haircuts." The Sergeant led the nominees to the room marked: Grooming And Infirmary. "Ok, single file, Sit down when I tell you, then I'll cut your hair according to regulation."

First was a boy from Jamie's school. He sat down, and the Sergeant asked: "Crew cut or flat top?" "Crew." He answered. The Sergeant scraped the clippers across his head. After a few more, the girl in front of Jamie was up. The Sergeant pulled out a ruler, and measured her hair, he ran the scissors across her hair near the bottom of her head, and told Jamie to sit. "Crew or flat top?" he asked. "Flat top." Jamie said without even thinking. He did the job quickly, and Jamie got up.

A few more were cut, and they proceeded to the mess hall. They lined up, and slop was put on their trays. They were each given a small carton of milk, an apple, and two orange slices. Jamie quickly relized that the horrible food was part of their plan to strain out the stragglers, and slurped up the, whatever it was. He could identify chicken and green beans, and some sort of thick broth. The only good thing on the plate was the cinnamon sweet potatoes, which could have used butter. When the clock struck 13:00, They all went to the gymnasium. What seemed like nearly a hundred cadets followed.

Then first Sergeant Creery gave the command. "Battalion, fall in!"
The Sergeants paced off of him, and the Chiefs paced off the Sergeants, then the Element leaders, and the rest of the nominees fell in.

"Battallion!" Yelled Creery as the squad Sergeants all yelled "Company!" "Attent-ion!"

The nominees stood, proud and tall.

"You will begin your training with drill, and physical and mental fitness." said Creery. "You will not receive combat training until next year, so don't you trigger happy maggots ask when we start combat training! Is that understood?"

"Yes First Sergeant!" Yelled the cadets.

"Outstanding! Your mental fitness training will begin as soon as you fall out!"

Just then, Colonel Feild, and his two senior officers walked in. Another, 16-year old, a Chief Sergeant, walked on the right of them. He called as they stopped next to the first Sergeant. Detail, attent-ion." They all sharpened up.

Then, Lieutenant Colonel Jones did her job. "First Sergeant, on me."

"Company Commanders, Post!" Yelled Creery. He did an about hace, and marched forwards one step. "Chief Master Sergeant Creery reporting, Mam." He said with a salute.

Meanwhile, the Company Sergeants and Commanders all walked in a perfectly choreographed pattern.

"Collect a tally of the cadets and report to me." Whispered Jones, returning the salute.

"Yes, Mam." Creery responded.

"About hace." Said Jones.

Creery ordered arms and turned around. Then yelled once more, "Battalion, Report!" They returned to their original positions, Yelled "Re-port!"

"First element reports, five cadets present and accounted for, Sergeant!" This repeated, Number different for each element of the three squads. After each element said their peace. The Sergeants returned the salutes and did an about hace.

"Rep-ort!" Yelled Creery." The Three Sergeants each gave the report. Alpha had 22, Jamie's Company, Bravo, Had 22, and Charlie had 21. Then The first Sergeant turned around, and said the total to Jones, who reported to Field.

Then the next orders came. "Battalion,"
"Company!"
"Fall out!"

They obeyed. Now was the time for training to begin.