Royal Guardship

Chapter 4: Orientation

The rest of the day was relatively standard, they sat in a classroom, various powerpoints played to kill time in a useful matter, some were funny, some were boring, like the health and safety ones. Occasionally there were popular memes, Jamie's favorite was in the careers section, it showed the Infantry, Rangers, Special Forces, aviation, and Air force. It was made for the Americans, but it worked here. Infantry featured a lerpy solider sitting in a flooded hole saying: "This Sucks!"
Rangers were a solider with an m-16 wading through a pond saying: "I like the way this sucks."
Special Forces was a buff guy in a bandanna biting a snake and read: "I wish it would suck more."
Aviation was a pilot looking out the window of his Chopper who said "It sure sucks down there."
And Air Force: "The cable's out! This sucks!"

At the end of the day, Jamie ate dinner, just as fabulous as the day's earlier meal, and turned in to the male nominee's barracks. Living with two older sisters and a younger brother, he was used to waiting in line to brush his teeth, so this was easy, twenty-two sharing four sinks was about the same as four sharing one. Plus they were all boys, so they never took much time. The girls had it easy, since there were only ten or so in the entire Battalion. Sharing four sinks. After climbing to his bunk, he tried to go to sleep on the flimsy bag of springs he kept sinking in to. After an hour or so, he drifted off.

He woke up at 0600 with reveille blasting through the barracks. Boys stuck their heads under their pillows, their complaints muffled. Eventually they began to rise, Jamie among them.

"You have four minutes to shower, then four to brush you're teeth, and another five to get dressed, you take turns, half of you shower in the first four, half in the second, and get dressed in the last. Move! Move! Move!" Shouted Creery as he peeked his head in the barracks.

Jamie was first to shower, there was a temperature handle and a button that turned the water on for four minutes. The shampoo and conditioner were mixed in a single dispenser, so time was easy to save. Next, he hopped out rapped in an olive drab towel and brushed his teeth at the small sinks. The toothbrush was a small capsule that came apart, paste stored inside. He then moved on to put on his clothing, it was slightly cold out, so he also wore the optional grey sweatshirt in addition to the camo pants, brown shirt, and combat boots. By now he had finished, three minutes ahead of schedule according to the clock digital clock on the bar of his bunk. Now he stood, leaned against the bunk, waiting for a displeased NCO to come in.

Shortly later, a grumpy Sergeant came in. Not mad at anyone, just grumpy. This indicated that the day was about to start. It was once again Creery, "Time for breakfast, head down to the mess hall."
This time the meal was much more bearable, a huge bowl of slightly flavorless cinnamon oatmeal, three sausages, an english muffin with butter and jam, and fresh fruit cups. This was an improvement from the slop they were given the day before. There was little conversation, why would there be any? Nobody knew each other, and they were all afraid of getting chewed out. Jamie scanned the room, seeing three of the four other kids from his public school. They weren't people he would talk to otherwise, so he figured, 'why here?'.

At 0630, First Sergeant Creery came in. He carried a clipboard with the names for the new Teams. After reading them off Jamie got his position. As second team member in Bravo Team. Each Company typically had four Teams, each with five or six Cadets in each element. The Commander behind and to the left, and the Sergeant up front. Together, they made a good Company.

"Follow me to the gym, we're starting in ten minutes." ordered Creery
"Starting what first Sergeant?" One of the nominees asked.
"You'll see,"

Upon entering the gym, they were ordered to fall in. Shortly after, Field, Jones, and two others whom Jaimie couldn't recognize entered. He suspected they wouldn't be introduced, not that it mattered. Next, field issued an order to Creery.