"NEW CADET, ABOUT FACE" screamed the Cadet in the Red Sash, and the new cadet turned around.
Immediately he was accosted with:
"step up to my line, not on my line, not over my line, not behind my line, step up to my line,"
in such a blurred stream of words that the new cadet had a hard time distinguishing what was being said, let alone comprehending the meaning. But he knew what to do, after all it was tradition, perhaps the most famous tradition on a day full of traditions at a place practically built on tradition.
The sun was hot, beating down on the new cadet, he had long since sweated through the grey pt shirt. The mugginess was unbearable, sticky New York heat that felt so very different from home. It had been a long day for this particular new cadet, although he was not alone in this. After all, reception day, or R-day, for the United States Military Academy was never supposed to be easy. Of the approximately 1250 candidates who stepped foot on the hallowed grounds of West Point, 20 or so would not even make it past the first day. Already, several members of the class of 2018 had fallen, tearfully quitting and giving up a slot so many had sought, that would now never be filled.
It had certainly been a long day though. Being a foreign cadet, he had started his day early processing through with the other foreign cadets before the first group of Americans arrived. He had heard the shouts and screams of the upperclassmen as they picked up all the necessary items to begin the 6 week long Cadet Basic Training event known as BEAST. While they had skipped the official oath binding them to service in the United States Army, the rest of the events were still the same for the international cadets.
The cadre seemed to understand that some of the international new cadets didn't speak English all that well (the Asian and African new cadets in particular), but unfortunately he had no such excuse. The southern accents may have been a little challenging, but he understood perfectly what he was doing wrong, and it was pretty much everything. He couldn't walk right, stand right, read right, or even eat right. The hurried lunch in the mess hall was scarfing down a sandwich before he went to get his hair shaven, all of it, gone. He had stood in line for hours reading his knowledge book and trying to memorize the definition of leadership and the basic rank structure here. He had already called 2 female firsties (seniors) Sir, and 3 other firsties sergeant, the rank of the cows (juniors). It was a little confusing.
But on and on it went, and now here he stood, facing the infamous cadet in the red sash. Of course he hadn't been able to think of all this in the time it took him to walk up to the piece of masking tape on the ground that was "the line." About all that went through his mind was "don't mess up again don't mess up again, don't…"
"NEW CADET, YOU ARE ON MY LINE, WHY ARE YOU ON MY LINE"
"NO EXCUSE SIR"
"New Cadet, report"
"SIR, NEW CADET PEVENSIE REPORTS TO THE CADET IN THE RED SASH FOR THE 7TH TIME AS ORDERED, READY TO STRIKE SIR"
Authors Note 1 SUMMARY: I feel like a lot of people talk about the reign of the kings and queens while in Narnia, but less is centered on their lives after Narnia. I am focusing on Peter, who I cannot imagine adapted easily to life in this World. As far as setting and plot go I know exactly what Peter would do: join the military and become an officer. Essentially this story will be what happened if Peter was placed in my world. The dates are off he would have gone to Narnia around 2009, I am going to stay as true as possible to the books (not the movies, which I do like a lot but there will certainly be no Suspian or foolish assaults on Miraz's castle, or green mist. This is my first fan fiction, and any advice would be greatly appreciated. Any questions y'all have about the novel shoot em my way.
Authors Note 2:Big shout out to wildhorses1492 and BladesN'Knives for reviewing.
Also, if anything I say doesn't make sense about West Point please review and ask.
Also if you want to know what the Cadet in the Red Sash is like follow this url: watch?v=IwFWV9rqStw , to see a good example. I promise I will explain how we get to this point in the upcoming chapters.
Thank y'all for reading, my song for this chapter is Centuries by Fall out boy
God Bless
ShadowlandRefugee
