,1942

Before I knew it Daniel and I were already on the back of an army truck, on the way to Camp Taccoa, Georgia to train to be paratroopers of the 101st Airborne.

For the past months Daniel had trained me in the arts of being a man. He didn't have to teach me much however because I sure am no lady as we had learnt on our trip to San Francisco. I had been practicing the best manly voice that my voice box would allow. I had on my head a dark brown wig which was pinned to my head by at least fifty bobby pins. I had been wearing the wig for months now so that I could get used to wearing the bugger. It was awfully itchy and uncomfortable. I wanted to just cut off my hair to save the pain but Daniel wouldn't allow me too because he said my hair was 'beautiful'. Seriously, he has no idea what it is like to live with crazy curls like mine. But in a way of compromising I only cut my hair to my shoulders so that it was easier to hide under this god awful itchy wig.

By the time it was time to pack up and leave for the army I became quite proud of my new established manliness. Although I did look about five years younger as a boy than my actual age so I was prepared to be a target for the other men with their jokes. I can just see it now...

Daniel and I had decided that it would be best to pretend that I was an Italian American because of my ethnicity. I was in fact part Spanish, French, Native American and English but we thought that it would just be easier to pretend to be an Italian American considering there were a lot of them back in New York.

We were tightly packed into the trucks amongst many from all around the states. I scratched at my wig uncomfortably whilst inspecting the men around me. I wasn't the only one doing this however...minus the head scratching. Almost every man was seizing one another up like wrestlers in the ring before the fight and introducing themselves. I decided that it would be best if I just tried to keep myself to myself to avoid getting caught. I kept my eyes down and fiddled with my hands to try and not draw attention to myself...I obviously wasn't doing a good job.

"Hey!" a bright cheerful voice called out to me "Nice to meet you, I am The George Luz" The man sat across from me introduced himself and shook my hand firmly. He had thick dark hair and great big brown eyes. Just from the first half an hour of the drive I could already tell that this guy was going to be the 'class clown' as he had told numerous amounts of jokes and had all the men in stitches countless times throughout the journey so far including me.

"Hi I am Ro- uh Dan, Dan Wilson" I said hesitatingly almost revealing my real name. I had decided on this male name because after all my middle name was Daniela.

George beamed a great big smile at me "Well it is a pleasure to meet you Ro-Dan" he said mockingly "I am going to call you Daniel or Danny or...hmm I don't think there are anymore nicknames yet, but we have got a long time together to figure a few more" He winked at me and turned to talk to the man beside him who I understood to be Donald Malarkey. He had short ginger hair and seemed to be a really down to earth guy. Sat beside Malarkey were Muck then Penkala, Talbert, Perconte and Guarnere. Then from the front of the truck all the way up to Daniel were sat Hoobler, Liebgott, Lipton, Roe and Wynn who had already been given the nickname 'Popeye' because of his remarkable resemblance.

"Ay! Dan?" called a voice from down the other end of the truck. He had a question in his voice because he was clearly unsure on my name. The voice distracted me from my thoughts about what the hell I had gotten myself into.

"Um Yeah?" I retorted turning to look down the truck to see who had called me.

It was Liebgott, the skinny yet devilishly handsome man.

"Hey! Lieb!" George called him. He had a huge grin on his face. From what I had already figured out about 'The George Luz' was that his naughty little school boy smile usually meant trouble...but never the less, funny trouble. "His name isn't Dan, Its Daniel or Danny...I don't mind which one, take a pick. Knock yourself out, or maybe you can think of another one? Although, if I can't I'm sure no one else can because I am The George Luz?" George beat on his chest like a gorilla.

The men chuckled lightly at George's little scene.

"Hey ermm how about Daniela" Muck retorted 'cleverly'. I gulped loudly. Webster could sense my unnerving behaviour and gave me a comforting nudge.

Oh if only they knew the irony of what Muck just said...

"No one asked you" George said defeated. Skip sniggered and George slapped him on the back of the head and he too started to laugh.

"Not being funny Danny..." Liebgott shouted from down the end of the truck "But are you even old enough to be in the army?" Well he had completely gone against his 'not being funny' part and erupting into fits of laughter and simultaneously all the other men joined in including Web. I threw Liebgott a look telling him that I was NOT amused and he replied with a rather seductive wink. Oh hot damn.

I decided to play him at his own game.

"Yes, thank you Liebgott I am old enough to be here but clearly by the looks of things the both of us aren't as 'ripped' as the other men so our mutual lack of muscles does affect others opinions on our age" I said rather smugly desperately trying to get my own back. Liebgott stared at me in shock. He clearly just thought that I was a quiet weedy little boy "So, don't worry Lieb. I understand how you feel. However, I'm not quite sure what it's like to have a small dick but maybe you could tell me all about that?" I winked at him after I had finished showing him up like he had done to me and just like before all the men erupted into fits of laughter again but this time however the laughing was much louder. I had won.

Luz's laughter was by far the loudest and he snorted a couple of times before he slapped me across the knees playfully "Geezus Danny boy" he snorted loudly "You are one funny kid. I think we will get along just fine"

"Thanks Luz, I think so to" I said feeling really proud of myself. I wasn't hiding my pride either because I had a huge grin on my face. Hopefully no one will pick on me again now about my 'un manliness'.

I glanced over at Liebgott and he looked pretty annoyed because his joke back fired on him. His teeth were clenched and his hands were shaking as he ran them through his hair on his hot-headed head. He caught me looking at him.

"What you looking at?" he said angrily. He sure was a hot-headed guy.

"It was just a joke, Lieb" I said feeling a little bad for showing him up like that. I had already insulted someone and we hadn't even arrived at the camp yet. I have a bad habit of taking jokes too far.

He didn't reply. He pulled out a pack of smokes from his breast pocket with his shaky hand. He was trying so hard to just ignore me otherwise he would probably give me a broken nose.

"Hey! Give us one" Muck said to Liebgott gesturing to the stick of nicotine between his lips.

Liebgott took the smoke from out of his lips and blew a cloud of smoke into Muck's face and said tauntingly "No. Get your own" he was still bitter towards everyone for laughing.

"Geez fine I will" Muck reached into his trouser pocket or should I say pants and pulled out a pack of smokes.

The smell of smoke filled the truck as many of the men pulled out their smokes. I too lit up my smoke.

I found myself drawn to Liebgott. He couldn't possibly smoke that goddamn stick of nicotine anymore seductively if he tried. He slid his tongue along the bottom of the smoke then it retreated slowly back into his mouth. He took in a long drag then parted his lips slightly and a gush of smoke came out from his mouth and nose like a glorious fountain and polluted the air.

The longer I stared at him the more I got a strange feeling inside of me. I couldn't put my finger on what it was. I mean of course I was majorly turned on by the way he made out with his smoke but that wasn't all I was feeling. It was kind of like I was having déjà vu.

And then it finally hit me.

I grabbed Webster's arm tightly still staring at Liebgott with wide eyes.

"Ow!" Daniel shouted but luckily no one turned to see what he was protesting about.

I leaned in close to Daniel and whispered in his ear "Fuck! Liebgott is the Cab driver from San Francisco!" I said in a panic. What if he recognised Daniel? Then he might eventually recognise me and then my secret would be out! What if I was shot for pretending to be a man?! NO! This can't happen I am not going to arrive to just be sent back.

Daniel leaned over me to take a long hard stare at Liebgott. His eyes widened as he eventually recognised him too. "Oh, yes that is him" he said whilst exhaling.

"What should we do?!" I asked begging for a suggestion.

"There is nothing we can do Rose" he whispered so that the other men wouldn't hear him calling me by my name.

I sighed heavily. Daniel was right there was nothing we could do. I just had to pray that I wouldn't get found out.

...

When we eventually arrived at Camp Taccoa we were sent straight to our barracks and straight to bed.

Our beds...well if you could even call them beds felt like wooden boards. The irritating stiff boards stuck into my back like a lump of lead up my tired and sore ass from the wretched bumpy truck drive.

All the men had fallen asleep in only about an hour of hitting the hay but I tossed and turned.

"Urgh, fuck" I groaned into the darkness. Boy did I miss that couch back home now.

"Oi" a stubborn voice called out from the bed beside me "Shut up!"

"Sorry" I whispered turning to face the voice.

Liebgott rolled over in his bed. His perfectly shaped eyebrows were knitted together in anger, showing his complete discontent that I was keeping him from having naughty little dreams about the many women who wanted him.

"I can't sleep" I said reaching under my pillow for a smoke and my lighter.

"Yeah?" Liebgott retorted "I don't give a shit"

I held my smoke between my lips and lit the beautiful stick of nicotine. Liebgott's eyes stared longingly at my smoke as I drew in a long drag. "Here" I said reaching over to Lieb's bed. Our fingers touched as I handed him a smoke and I felt a jolt of warmth tingle through me.

There was silence. He wasn't expecting me to be so kind to him and give him one of my precious smokes.

"Thanks" he said, still a little confused by my unnecessary kindness.

I chucked him the lighter but, me being a rubbish shot it completely missed Lieb's bed and landed on the bed beside him.

Eugene Roe steered in his bed and released a quiet sigh. He was the unfortunate one who had a lighter chucked at his head.

Liebgott sniggered quietly, he clutched at his mouth trying desperately to contain his laughter. At first I wasn't sure if he was laughing because I had such a rubbish shot or because I had waked Roe in the back of the head. It was probably a mixture of both since this was probably the funniest thing that had happened since we arrived at camp Taccoa, that and George's jokes of course. "Shit, Dan, you sure can't throw"

"Sorry, Roe" I whispered into the dark trying also to contain my laughter.

Roe mumbled something along the lines of 'is sokay'. He was a very quiet man. He hardly spoke to anyone the entire truck journey to this goddamn place. He was gorgeous looking though. His eyes are dark as night and they ooze sexiness but at the same time a bit of sadness. I couldn't quite figure him out. Why did he hide away?

The room fell quiet again and Lieb and I smoked our cigarettes silently.

Once I had finished sucking my precious smoke I snuggled up into my bed. Lieb flicked his finished smoke onto the ground and nestled down into his bed.

"Hey, Lieb?" I called again into the darkness.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry about earlier" I lifted my head off of my pillow "You know, earlier in the truck"

He exhaled "Don't worry about it, short ass" He sniggered violently and disturbed the peace once again. It was a miracle that no one woke up.

"Oi!" I said loudly. I lowered my voice to avoid waking anymore men "Now that's just plain rude" I stuck my tongue out at him. I didn't think he would be able to see me in the dark but he did. There must have been a diminutive crack in the door letting in the moonlight.

"Wow, childish" he said smugly.

"Shut up, Lieb"

"Shutting up...Shorty"

I snuggled back down into my bed. I was exhausted now so I shouldn't have much trouble getting to sleep even though I was practically sleeping on wood.

...

I didn't get much sleep because someone was snoring like a rusty old foghorn all that night. I wasn't sure exactly who the culprit was but boy he could snore.

We were awoken at 4am and instructed by our shithead of a Captain, Sobel, to report to the mess hall at 5:00 hours for breakfast before the day began.

We soon learned that Sobel was a horrible son of a bitch. He made us run this stupid mountain called Currahee all the time! He always had us on our toes all the time. We never had nothing to do. Constantly busy. If we didn't have any duties there was always cleaning our boots. I had probably cleaned those boots about a hundred times and we hadn't even been there very long.

We the men of Easy Company were stood at attention in full kit in front of our CO Sobel. The hot Georgian sun was beaming down on us and so was Sobel's fat head. He shouted loudly as he spoke...does he think we are deaf our something? I thought to myself as he passed by me.

"You people are at the position of attention!" Sobel shouted walking down the formatted line of his men. His eyes were scanning every single one of us as he walked. We all stood tall to avoid getting screamed at.

"Private Perconte. Have you been blousing your trousers like a paratrooper?" Sobel got right up in the little Italian's face...well I say face...Perconte's helmet only reached to about Sobel's chin.

"No, Sir"

"Then explain the creases at the bottom" there was dead silence. Perconte knew there was no use arguing with the man. A week back one of the privates argued back at Sobel and he got his ass kicked and was sent up Currahee just because Sobel said that he was 'disobeying orders'. Yeah because saying he had already cleaned his boots was really 'disobeying orders'. Geezus.

"No excuse, Sir" Perconte said, defeated.

"Volunteering for the parachuting infantry is one thing, Perconte. But you've got a long way to prove that you belong here. Your weekend pass is revoked" Perconte shuffled with his gun as stupid shithead Sobel moved on to George Luz and asked for his name and with no surprises there he too got his pass revoked and so did Sergeant Lipton...

Sobel marched over to Malarkey "Name"

"Malarkey, Donald G."

"Malarkey...Isn't 'Malarkey' slang for bullshit?"

"Yes, Sir"

And of course Malarkey got his pace revoked too...

Sobel was getting tired of our 'screw ups' by now. He walked over to Lieb "Name"

"Liebgott, Joseph D., sir."

Sobel pulled out Liebgott's bayonet and held it in front of his face "Rusty bayonet, Liebgott. You wanna kill Germans?"

I turned slowly to see Liebgott's reaction to Sobel's stupid question. I was half expecting Lieb to bite that shithead's head off!

"Yes, sir." He said.

Sobel smacked Lieb's bayonet down on to his helmet "Not with this" then started towards the front pushing past Tahlbert in the process.

A mosquito landed on the bad of my neck.

Sobel raised Liebgott's bayonet in the air and shouted "I will not take this rusty piece of shit to war and I will not take you in your condition" he threw Lieb's bayonet down on the ground the blade landing point down in the Georgian soil.

I couldn't take it anymore, that stupid man or that little bugger that had latched onto my skin. I swatted the mosquito. Sobel noticed me moving and came marching over to me and got right up in my face. I could see every last bead of sweat on his face glistening in the hot sun.

"Name!"

"Wilson, Dan R., Sir" I retorted whilst standing up straight to attention.

"You are at the position of attention, Private" he drawled spitting on my face slightly as he spoke.

"Yes, Sir. I know, Sir!"

Sobel edged back away from me and looked me up and down with disgust, his eyebrows knitted together as he frowned. He had noticed my complete lack in height although I was slightly taller than Perconte. But only slightly. Lieb's nickname for me 'short ass' or 'Shorty' had stuck and now all the men were using it. Ugh.

"Pass revoked" he marched back up to the front again and shouted "Thanks to these men and their infractions, every man in the company who had a weekend pass has lost it!" he stared us all down "Change into your P.T gear we're running Currahee".

No. No. Not that bloody mountain again. Sobel was obsessed with making us run that goddamn thing. Three miles up...three miles down. On top of all that the entire company had lost their weekend passes. GEEZUS ALL WE WANTED WAS A BEER! We had to run Currahee all the time and we were the only company in the goddamn battalion who had to. Ugh stupid Shithead Captain Sobel.

...

In our tight little PT shorts, we swaggered out of our barracks and headed back to find Captain Shithead. The cute shorts bunched up around the guys' asses and the thin white shirt on their perfectly sculpted muscles clung to their godly bodies. Ahh bliss.

Liebgott was at the front of the pack. His floppy hair bounced as he swaggered across the Georgian earth. He was the only man who made the ladies swoon every time without fail. He knew it. They knew it and everyone else knew it.

I was in heaven. From the back of the pack I could see every cute butt bounce as the men of easy company strolled towards our ever impending fait of doom. Running Currahee. But right at that moment I didn't give a flying fuck about Currahee or Captain Shithead because Liebgott's ass was too beautiful to pry my eyes away from. I could have kissed whoever designed our PT gear, I really could have. I'm sorry but Peter who? He was just a distant memory. I now lived only for my comrades and Peter no longer had a place in my life.

Before I could go any deeper into my daydreams, my fantasies were interrupted by a gaggle of men from another company.

"Ahhh, Easy Company" one of them exclaimed and they all looked us up and down "Hey while you're running, don't worry we will take your dames to the movie for ya"

Liebgott retorted "Yeahhh, good they need some female company!" Skip Muck raised his fist in the air and pretended to punch them.

I charged at the gaggle of men and Lieb, Tahlbert, Skip, Malarkey, Luz and Grant followed.

"Have fun fellas!" I pretended to flash my knickers like a prostitute and we all knocked off their hats.

The monstrous mountain, Currahee, stood tall and proud over, Camp Taccoa. Its demonic presence shuddered uncontrollable fear through my tired body. It was almost like my body knew exactly of the pain it would cause me. Three miles up, three miles down... more like six hundred and sixty six miles to hell and back.

"Wilson!?" Captain Sobel screeched in my ear as we waited in formation at the bottom of Currahee.

"Sir?" I retorted standing up straight. I had been focusing on the mountain so much that I completely forgot that I was in the presence of Captain Shithead.

"You are at the position of attention!" he scowled at me, his big bushy brows came together to create a stern line on his furious face.

"Yes, Sir" I drawled.

Sobel gave us the order to start running and simultaneously, we obeyed and set off to follow him up the dreaded Currahee like little lost puppies.

Every inch of my body throbbed in pain as I speedily forced my exhausted legs to continue to power me up the steep sloops. Webster, who I was running alongside, noticed my struggle and pulled his arm around my shoulders to help me keep going. I looked around in a flustered panic to make sure that Sobel hadn't witnessed Webster's kind act. To my surprise Webster wasn't the only one helping out a friend. Malarkey and Skip Muck weren't so lucky though. Skip tripped and stumbled so Malarkey, one of his closest friends, helped him to regain his balance.

"Don't help that man!" Sobel protested. Many of the men thought Shithead was shouting at them so one by one arms fell and we all continued to struggle our way up Curra-fucking-hee.

Sobel's constant demands to run faster started to piss me off. He scowled at me as I slowly trudged past him, overtaking. I clutched at my chest in agony as my boobs began to throb with pain. Men will never understand the pain of running with saw tits.

I tried desperately to awkwardly tighten my chest wrap through my shirt. Checking that no one was looking, I forced my hand up my shirt and quickly sorted out the problem. Or at least I thought I did...after taking three strides the whole thing completely fell off. The wrap came tumbling down my stomach. I clutched at my torso in a panic grabbing the wrap before it fell out the bottom of my shirt. I fussed around, still running, fixing my wrap back up my shirt.

Liebgott threw me an inquisitive glance. My usual blushed crimson cheeks drained of all its bright colour. SHIT. I stared wide eyed at Lieb as I tried to discreetly sort out my wrap. I could feel bile rising in the back of my throat. The same question spiralled around in my head 'Has he noticed?' stared.

His brown smouldering eyes were transfixed for what seemed like hours but were probably only fifteen or so seconds. Trust fucking Lieb to spot the boobs first...

Luckily, Lieb drew his eyes away from me and continued to look ahead. I remained undiscovered.

...

I threw myself onto my bed. Every inch of my body sunk into every crevice of the sheets. Ahh relaxation. After running Currahee my bed was the best thing since sliced bread. Literally.

"Don't even bother getting too comfortable, Shorty" Sgt. Lipton, tapped my leg lightly and cracked a smile.

I rolled over on my bed and let out an exhausted moan. "Fuck"

Martin jumped onto the edge of my bed and tipped it up. I plummeted to the ground and whacked my head against the hard wooden floor. "Now, now Short Ass that is no way to talk to a Sergeant" Martin protested.

"Sorry, Lip" I proclaimed as I dusted myself off and re arranged my bed. Martin grinned mischievously. I threw him back a disapproving look and moaned sarcastically "Thank you for that. I really wanted to further induce pain on my already aching muscles".

"Muscles, what Muscles?" George Luz interjected. The whole barrack erupted into laughter on my expense. George giggled mischievously like a little school boy.

"Fuck off, Luz" I raised my middle finger in the air and casted George a cheeky wink. His face contorted up into a childish shocked expression before he seductively winked back.

Lieutenant Winters marched into our barrack. His amiable presence illuminated the room. His gingerbread hair radiated an intense feeling of comfort and warmth. Winters was everyone's favourite guy so we were always pleased to see him.

"Hello everyone" he nodded a smile then exhaled heavily "As usual Sobel has asked me to 'find' some infractions"

Everyone rolled their eyes. Sobel was always making Winters pull random names out of his ass to have punished.

"Ugh, Geezus" Shifty moaned slumping himself down onto his bed.

"Too right, Shift" Wynn retorted.

Winters cleared his throat and the room feel silent. "Anyway...It's your turn, Luz, Webster, Shifty, Perconte-"

I jabbed Perconte in the side "Ha!"

Winters heard my outburst "I don't know what you're laughing at Wilson" he smirked "Your on the list too"

Shit.