A/N: My apologies about Sarah- I didn't mean to make her sound like a psycho beast in the last chapter. I honestly have nothing against her character. And as for Spot… well he had it coming. Anyway, thanks for the feedback! I'm happy to read that you seem to be enjoying this, so I'll do my best to update often. Enough with the jabbering- enjoy the next chapter!
It had already been three weeks into training, and Jack was starting to lose all hope for him and Sarah. He had written her five letters, and there was still no response. Putting a stamp on his sixth letter, he sighed in discontent. "Dave, why doesn't your sister know how to reply to letters?" he asked, frowning at his friend on the bunk next to him.
"It's not that she doesn't know how to reply," David told Jack. "She just doesn't want to say anything that she'll regret later. Or at least that's what she's told me."
"She writes to you? And you haven't told me? Some friend you are." Jack teased.
"Jack, you know that my loyalties are to my family first, and then friends. Although, I do consider you a brother so I'll add in that she's been asking about you." He smiled, knowing that he had just made his best friends week with that tid-bit of information. He then went back to writing a letter to his family, while Jack got up to go mail his own letter.
David was only alone for a brief moment before one of his bunkmates came strolling in with a dazed grin on his face. David knew what was on the boy's mind, without even asking. Apparently someone had a date for that evening.
"Been to the nurses' station lately, Mike?" he asked, knowingly.
"Bridget Carrel would turn you to mush too, if you got to know her like how I did.
"Well, 'Mush,' care to elaborate on how you got to know her?" came another voice from behind Michael. It was his best friend from home, Christopher Thompson. Christopher was commonly known to his friends as "Kid Blink" on account of his eyes. When Christopher was a child, his father was less than supportive of his family, and had a harsh temper. One day, he took it out on his son's face. Since then, Christopher has worn an eye-patch over his left eye to hide the scar. How he managed to get into the air-force with this handicap still remains a mystery (a/n- even to me as the author, haha.)
"Did you just call me 'Mush'?" Mike asked, slightly confused. Kid Blink merely nodded, and waited for an answer to his question. The boys all sat down on their bunks, to make themselves more comfortable for an intriguing story. "Alright then," the newly named Mush said, going along with the conversation. "We met when we had to get our physicals done. Remember that day? If you don't, ask Spot. I'm sure he remembers it well."
"Don't call me Spot!" sneered a voice from the doorway.
"Alright, Spotty, that's enough. Sit down, you're going to miss the story," David joked.
"I've heard enough out of you, Mouth," Spot lashed back to his roommate. "You, continue the story. I want to hear this," he ordered Mush. He jumped onto the bed next to Kid Blink, listening intently.
"Like I said, we met at my physical. She was taking my pulse, and I couldn't get my heart rate to go down, because she made me so nervous. So I told her that the only reason my heart was beating to quickly was because it wanted to make music for her. She ate it all up! Since then, I've seen her three times. The first time was just when I was walking past the nurses' station, and we stopped and made some small talk. The second time was when Race dragged me over there so that he could see his girl. And finally, today, the third time, I went there on my own, and now I have a date for tonight!" The boys all applauded Mush for his "heroic" story, until Spot cut them off.
"Hey! Wait a second! Hold the phone!" Spot yelled. The boys looked at him, puzzled. "You can't go out tonight, Mush."
"I can't? Why not? I thought that we had weekends off. And it is a Saturday…"
"It's not that. We do have weekends off, my friend. And you're correct in saying that today is a Saturday. The thing is… you can't go out without letting your buddies in on some of the fun. Right, fellas?" David and Kid Blink put in their agreeing remarks, leaving Mush in a tight position.
"What exactly are you suggesting?" Mush asked, feeling slightly nervous. "Oh no! No way! I am not sharing her! She is mine, I found her on my own. There will be none of that ménage trois stuff!"
"Calm down! What do you take us for? And who in their right mind would want to do something like that with you? We just wanted you to get us some dates too. You know, hook us up with some of her friends," Spot explained. The other four occupants of the room- Racetrack, Jack, Crutchy, and Skittery- entered, and joined the group.
"Heya gang. What going on?" Race greeted his friends.
"Race, go get that girl of yours, we're all going out tonight! Mush here is going to find the rest of us some nice dolls!" Spot happily yelled.
"Now, Brian, I never agreed to that, "Mush stammered nervously.
"Mush, I just said that we're all going out. Are you suggesting that I'm a liar, or something?" And without a thought, Mush rushed out of the room in the direction of the nurses' station, for his fourth visit to his sweetheart.
To say that Bridget Carrel was nervous for her date would be an understatement. If it were just her and Michael, she would have been fine. Now she had to worry about her seven friends getting along with their blind dates. Still, she was glad that she didn't have to go through the first date jitters alone. Sitting at her vanity table, she applied a light amount of rouge to her cheeks, and finishedpenciling in her eye-brows to make them darker. Being blessed with auburn locks also came with the curse of having thin light eyebrows. Giving herself one final glance over in the mirror, she applied her lipstick, and pinned back her curls.
Her roommates were just finishing their own makeovers, when she heard a knock at their door, indicating that their dates had arrived. There was a large burst of nervous giggling, and whispers among the girls as they grabbed their purses and gathered around the door.
"So what exactly is the courteous way to approach our dates? Do we just give them a glance over and grab the one we want, or do we pick them like we're picking teams?" Maggie asked, half joking and half serious.
"Maggie, you're already going with Anthony. Why are you asking something like that?" replied Grace, the sternest nurse out of the girls that had surprisingly agreed to their group date. Bridget slightly felt pity to the man that got stuck with courting her for the evening.
"I honestly don't know…" Bridget fidgeted with her handbag. "Maybe it would be best if you all just chose your own date, and that no one goes to the same guy. Please don't fight over any of them. I want this to go well for me, too, you know." And with that she opened the door to be greeted by eight eager lieutenants, dressed sharply in their formal military uniforms.
"Hello, Bridget," greeted Mush, with a sappy grin on his face. She shyly returned the greeting with a wave. "I'd like all of you to meet my friends. This is Chris, and Jack, and David, and Anthony, and Danny, and Charlie, and Brian." The boys all gave a friendly wave to the girls, who walked towards them.
"My name is Iris Wilson, I am 20 years old, and I look forward to your company for this evening, Daniel," Iris told her chosen date, locking her hazel eyes with his brown ones. Skittery smiled, and offered her his arm. "Please, call me Skittery. It's what all my friends do." She giggled, and linked elbows with him.
Kid Blink approached the shy girl in the back of the room. She wore thick framed glasses, and had straight mousey blonde hair that hung just past her shoulders, hiding her eyes, as she looked nervously at the ground. "Miss?" he gently spoke to her, earning her attention. "Would you mind accompanying me tonight? I know I might look intimidating, because of obvious reasons, but I promise, I'm one of the nicest guys around." She nodded to him, and gave a small smile, indicating that she would like to be his date for that evening.
Helen McHugh set her eyes on the tall boy with chestnut brown hair. He seemed slightly depressed, and she knew that her outgoing personality would be able to break him from his bad mood. "You're with me. You need some fun, and as a nurse, I feel that it is my duty to make sure that you have the time of your life, tonight, whether your like it or not." His face broke into a smile as he chuckled. "I don't think that a girl has been that forward with me since… ever. I'm Jack. It's nice to meet you."
Since Charlie and Anthony met their dates already, and Grace had latched herself onto David, there was just one more couple that hadn't been introduced. Audrey looked around at all the couples, trying to figure out who her date was going to be. Brian detected the certain brunette, with a sinking heart. 'Anyone but her,' he thought to himself as she walked towards him with a smirk on her face.
"So, Spot Conlon, we meet again."
"Why do you insist on calling me 'Spot'?"
"I think it's cute; it suites you." There was an awkward pause, as both of them didn't know what to say. "So are we going to be adults about this, and make the most out of tonight, because if not, I have some reading that I could catch up on, inside," Audrey said, straight forwardly.
"No. Let's put our first impressions behind us, and have a good time tonight. I'll get even with you tomorrow." They joined their friends, and started their evening painting the town.
