It was the dreaded day. He counted the weeks, which turned into days. It seemed so far away at the time, but now it was here. Cabin Inspection day. Even the name was enough to send a chill through Connie's spine.
"Shut up Jaeger, we all know that it's you who's gonna be on that Wall of Shame". Jean's voice echoed through the pavilion.
"I have to agree with Jean on this one" piped up Armin.
"C'mon! I'm not that messy." argued Eren.
Connie arrived at the table, with nothing but an apple and loaf of bread.
He tried his best to mask his fear.
"H-hey guys".
"Connie? Are you feeling okay? You look ill." Marco was now checking his temperature.
Gotta hand it to Marco, he knew when something was up.
Everyone now looked to Connie.
"I'm fine, just… hungry?"
"Yeah, so hungry that you're only gonna eat an apple and bread." Jean scoffed.
"Will you tell us now?" Armin looked pretty concerned.
"I'm honestly fine, just tired."
Marco was about to say something else but was interrupted by their Instructor, Keith Shadis.
"RECRUITS! WE WILL COMMENCE CABIN INSPECTIONS IN 30 MINUTES." barked Shadis.
As he walked off, Connie could feel his insides knotting up.
"Hey Sasha." the guys said to the food-obsessed girl walking towards them.
"So, what exactly is the Inspection going to be like?" Sasha asked, with her innocent face. All that innocence would be washed away when she knew the truth, Connie thought.
"Well, from what the higher-ups told me, the inspection is just to check each recruit's inventory, and analyze the cabin's cleanliness," Eren said, mouth half-full with a potato.
"There's an order in which what cabin and recruit goes first. How it works is that the inspector will inspect the first recruit in the order. Then he'll take the first recruit to inspect the second recruits stuff, and so on and so forth." Marco concluded.
"Wait, so if you're at the end of the list, then you have to have all of your cabin-mates plus the inspector go through your stuff?"
"Pretty much." Eren gulped down the last of his food.
"I heard some rumors that if they find something interesting, then you're taken over to the 'Wall of Shame'," Jean said with a slight grin.
Connie didn't need reminding.
"Wall of Shame? Wha-"
Connie got up abruptly. He couldn't take it any longer. How could they talk about it as if it was nothing?
"Huh? Connie? Where are you going?" Sasha shouted, running after him.
"Leave him be."
"Is it-?" Armin whispered.
"Manstuff...probably." Jean murmured. The rest of the guys solemnly nodded their heads.
Sasha didn't even want to know.
*Time skip*
"RECRUITS! IN LINE!" Shadis' voice boomed.
Connie gulped. This was it. He'd be lucky if he was the first one up, so he didn't have to have his mates finding that. Oh dear, he'd be in quite the dilemma if that was found.
"Oh, why didn't I just get rid of it before," he thought bitterly.
"I WILL NOW BE ANNOUNCING YOUR ORDER OF INSPECTION"
"UP FIRST IS BRAUN, THEN HOOVER, JAEGER, ARLET, WAGNER, BOTT, KIRSTEIN AND SPRINGER."
"IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?"
"YES!" the recruits echoed back.
Connie blanked. He was...last? Yes, the very last one.
"It hasn't become hell, it already was," Connie thought.
He took a deep breath muttering his last prayers before entering the cabin.
