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Chapter Two

It's been two weeks since Patrick and I left. Any chance I got, I called my dad and updated him on what it's like here. The boot camp was cold and damp when I first arrived. I was shown around by the commander and was put in a building with ten other females. They all had different stories about why they joined, some of them were about being thrown out and some were because people said that they couldn't do it and one person said it's because they would rather join then go to jail. We became close during these two weeks and it feels nice to finally be around people who aren't going to judge me. I haven't seen Patrick yet and I'm worried that we won't be able to see each other for awhile. The males eat meals in the cafeteria and the rest of us eat in the small room. The room was made for at least three people, but they managed to fit five bunk beds. All the beds they gave us were broken so we got rid of them for the most part and made a gigantic bed with all the mattresses. The mattresses were broken as well, but it provided some cushion from the hardwood floor and the cold nights. We lived in Indiana and it was starting to get to winter time, everyone knew that it would start to get colder.
"Carrie, time to wake up, it's five thirty." I hear someone say while shaking me. I get up and start to do my hair. Everyone fell into a routine, Melissa would wake everyone up and get our boot-camp uniforms together, then after we would wake up we turn our backs to each other and get dressed, when everyone's dressed we all do our hair. Most of the girls decided to cut their hair while we were here. I decided to cut mine as well, one of the commanding officers were walking around and saw I was having trouble trying to get it even. He grabbed the scissors from me and pulled out one of the razors that was in the bathroom and cut my hair for me, I haven't seen him since he gave me the buzz-cut so I wasn't able to give him a card I made.
"Carrie. Carrie!" I looked towards Max, she had flaming red hair that was up to her shoulders, she was small in size, but she could lift a hundred and sixty pounds.
"What's up?"
"Stop drooling over Officer Beckett and get your stuff together." She laughs, I know she's joking but I start to blush red. I don't want to do that, it would be inappropriate.
"I'm not drooling over him, that would be inappropriate and we're in a formal setting. He's basically our boss."
"Yeah, but normal people tell their 'co-workers', who would be female, about their crush. Not you though, you keep it to yourself and pretty much made a shrine in your head for him!" Yelled Ava from the other side of the small room, she really shouldn't have yelled. The other girls start to snicker at what she said.
"Ladies, that's enough," We turn around to see Officer Beckett standing at the door. We gather the rest of our things and get into line. He walks down the line and notes about what we're doing. I don't dare to look in his eyes.
"Alright ladies, good job." He stops right in front of me. I glance up to look at his eyes and they looked desperate to see mine. I might as well forget about it because I'm going to die anyway, so why should I care about having a boyfriend. We exit our room to start training. We were each given thirty pounds to start off with at the beginning of boot camp, now we're carrying seventy on our backs. We do push ups, at least eighty-two of them.
Our day is done, Mia threw up at least five times from dehydration and we haven't seen her since noon. We have free time to do whatever we want for a few hours to relax from training.
We run down the hallway, our shoes making thud noises, we're on our way to the infirmary to visit Mia. We open the door and see Mia and other soldiers. Amanda walks up to the desk for us, she's the nicest out of all of us.
"Excuse me?" The nurse looks up, she's old, but not the, hunched-over-I'll-beat-you-with-my-cane old, she's the I'll-bake-you-brownies-and-give-you-mints old lady. We all stand huddled around the desk as she looks at us individually.
"You must be friends with Mia, she's been telling me about how you guys are different, but can work together," We all nod our heads yes to answer her, hoping that she would let all of us visit her.
"Follow me." She states as she gets off the desk chair.
"All of us?" Questioned Max with a confused look.
"You're all her friends, correct?" We don't question anything else and follow her to Mias' bed. She's sleeping and has water next to her on the stand.
"Mia! Wake up! We came to visit you!" Max started to yell in a made up accent. Mia woke up and covered Maxs' mouth.
"Shut up. I'm awake." Mia tells Max. We visit with her for an hour and tell her to feel better, she said that she would be back tomorrow sometime. Before we left I looked around to see if Patrick was here at all.
"Is there something wrong dear?" I turn around and see the nurse, her tag said her name was Allison.
"I was just trying to see if my friend was anywhere in here." I stated truthfully.
"What's his name dear?" She asked while leading me to her desk.
"Uh, Patrick Brown." Allison looks through the files and I can tell something isn't right. I look up and my friends are at the door waiting, anxiety can be seen in their eyes.
"Oh, dear. He's been deployed already. He finished boot camp early and decided to go overseas." She looks up to me. I can tell she's searching for an answer.
"Thank you, that's what I wanted to know. I'll see you later." I go to the door and tell them what happened. We all walk back in silence.