WEDNESDAY - DAY 11 - 3 PM

It had been such a good day so far that Mya was just waiting for something to go wrong.

For the first time ever, she had managed to keep up with the rest of the group during their morning run, and it was all because she had paced herself. She was twice as exhausted once they got back, but her newly acquired confidence over her success pushed her through the rest of the day.

They had archery practice for the second day in a row and this time Mya made sure to find the same bow again since she had already (sort of) familiarized herself with it. And also because nobody else dared to use a bow so big.

She managed to get every arrow of hers in the center of the target. Later when the commander had them practice on "moving" targets (dummies), she managed to hit each one as well.

By the time supper was ready, Mya had had a very full, but happy day.

She sat at the end of a table in the dining room with a plate full of potatoes, a large salad with slices of eggs, and a cup of juice. Mya nearly eat the entire thing and was so distracted by the satisfying meal, she didn't even hear the sound of a tray of food being set down across from her.

"So, I hear that you're Mya, right?"

Mya raised her head and saw a young female with short blonde hair and blue eyes sitting across from her at the table.

Mya nodded, food still in her mouth.

"I'm Kirsten. I've seen you around, but haven't had the chance to say "hello". Im a trainee too. How are you enjoying training so far?"

Mya looked down in thought, then raised her head back up.

"I like it a lot. The tasks can be pretty hard for me sometimes, but I'm learning."

Kirsten nodded.

"Yeah, today was a lot harder than usual for me. We had to complete an obstacle course, and we were timed. There's nothing more stressful than getting timed for something as rigorous as that. I think we'll get a chance to try it again tomorrow so they can check our progress."

"Cool" said Mya, after swallowing a mouth full of potato. "My group did archery practice for the second time and I did a lot better than yesterday. Many people in the group hunt for a living though, so I'm a bit behind."

Kirsten chewed her salad thoroughly as she listened to Mya.

"I've never held a bow". She replied after swallowing. "But, I have held a rifle. Maybe that's on the menu for tomorrow - how to load a rifle quickly."

She ate a bit her salad again and proceeded to talk with her mouth full.

"I can't believe we're already eleven days into training! At first it was soo hard to get up at five am every single day, but I think my mind's clock is finally adapting."

"Yeah. I'm exhausted. Probably going to crash for once when I'm back at the cabin"

Kirsten laughed.

"Yeah, I'll be sleeping good tonight, that's for sure."

Mya set her fork down. She was stuffed and it felt good to be full.

"So, what area are you from? And what made you want to enlist in the military?"

Kirsten set her drink down.

"Well, I used to live in the country, but my Dad got a job as a bar tender a few years ago, so we have lived in town ever since. What about you?

"Oh, um, I'm from the country side. My family owns a farm and we sell all kinds of things at the marketplace."

"I see. So do you work around the farm a lot?"

"Yeah, I have to milk the cows first thing in the morning, and then feed the rest of the animals - chickens, ducks, anything that can lay eggs basically - and then I help load up the cart and drive it into town once a week."

"Must be a lot of full days. So getting up early isn't anything too out of the ordinary for you then."

"Not really. I'm not up early every single day, sometimes I'll get a break at home, but it's fun to have animals everywhere. It stinks so bad in our barn though."

Kirsten chuckled.

"I bet. Well, I'm done eating. It was nice meeting you, Mya."

She got up, grabbed her tray and left.

"Bye" said Mya.

And then she was alone again.

Even though Mya liked having the company, it also made her realize just how long it had been since she had a real friend to talk to. Growing up in the country meant less people were around to chat with. However, as fate would have it, she met her best friend when they were three. It had been a few days since she thought of her. Training had made her so tired that she barely could remember the girl's name that had just sat down with her.

But before she could think about it further, a group of guys smashed their plates on the opposite side of the table she was at. Maya jumped a bit at the noise ,and slowly turned her head towards them.

It was a group of six guys, all in their early twenties approximately. Each of their plates were completely loaded with food, causing Mya to wonder if they might run out in the kitchen.

Mya didn't mean to stare, but they were so obnoxiously loud that she could help but glance over occasionally as she nibbled at her plate while she thought up a way to draw the least amount of attention to herself so she could leave.

Even though they all seemed lost in their own little world, one of the guys saw her take a glance and made eye contact. He slammed his hand on the table.

"Hey girly. Why don't you mind your own business over there? We're trying to have a private conversation."

Mya looked down at her plate. She was too scared to make eye contact.

"Hey. Girly."

Mya felt something hit her hair. Were they throwing their food at her?

She felt the side of her head and found a piece of mashed potato in it. She looked at them, her face a bit annoyed now.

"Finally. Now that I got your attention, will you please leave us alone? You know, me and the boys like to be alone when we eat"

Mya turned away from them and started picking at her food. After a few more seconds, the same guy taunted her again.

"HEY. GIRLY. What did I just say? Are you deaf or something?" He paused. "Maybe she can't hear because of her huge-ass hair."

The other guys around him chuckled.

Mya stood frozen as she could hear footsteps coming toward her. She bit her lip and toyed with her fork and leftovers on her plate.

Suddenly, she felt a cool breeze by her left ear. It was like someone had pulled her hair up.

She turned to see the man standing next to her with something in his hands. It was a large string of hair.

Her. Hair.

In the other hand he held a small pocket knife. He stared down at her before leaning next to her left ear where it was now fully exposed.

"HEEYYY GIRLYYYY!!!"

He yelled so loudly that Mya thought she might fall over.

"WE WANT YOU TO SCRAM!!!!"

Mya was so shocked that she didn't know what to think. She turned red as she could feel eyes staring at her.

The dining room was still very crowded and full of people chatting amongst themselves, so it may have been hard to hear the bully the first time, but this guy's scream was just enough to turn several heads their way.

Mya stood up and faced the guy who held her hair in his fist. He was a few inches taller than he and was very well-built. She had never been in a fight before, and didn't want to start now. But she had to do something.

Mya stood there for several seconds, shaking. Before she could think of what to say, the man started laughing.

"Got anything to say, pipsqueak? Look, maybe if you had moved the first two times I asked you to, it wouldn't have cost you this"

He opened his hand and the hair fell to the floor in a large clump.

"So, what are ya gonna do?

LEAVE?

LEAVING SOUNDS LIKE A GREAT IDEA"

Mya stared at his blue eyes. She couldn't believe this was happening. What was she supposed to do?

After waiting for something to happen, Mya realized she just couldn't do it. She turned around and started walking away.

Don't engage, she thought. That's what they want.

But the guy wasn't through just yet.

"Don't forget your TRAY!"

Mya turned halfway around to see her tray flying towards her - still full of food she didn't eat. It landed loudly against the cement floor in front of her.

Now more than just a few heads were looking at Mya and the guy who had thrown her tray. Still, nobody said anything, and nobody moved.

Mya could feel the air around her left ear and put her hand around it.

Then, she quickly walked out of the room and ran into the night.

Mya found herself crying as she ran.

She could barely see where she was going it was so dark out. Nobody seemed to be around, and if they were, hopefully they wouldn't hear her sobbing, and hopefully she wouldn't crash into them by accident.

She ran all the way back to her cabin and leaned against it, panting.

As soon as she caught her breath, the tears began to flow down her cheeks again and her fists slammed against the wood.

It hurt, but she was too emotional to care. She slid down against the cabin to the grass and covered her face with her hands.

Training was finally going well. So why did it have to go this way?

Mya tried to think of something positive, but nothing was coming to mind. She hugged her knees and buried her face in them. She sobbed as the crickets chirped around her.

After a few minutes of crying, Mya wandered over to the front of her cabin. It was still pretty early, so her roommates were probably still awake. There was no way she was going to head inside. She couldn't bare for them see her like this.

Mya walked to the other side of the cabin where it was a lot darker. The moon wasn't out yet so it was hard to see much of anything. She sat down against the wall in the grass and hated herself.

Her hand felt the side of her head where the guy had cut her hair. It was about six inches now suddenly gone. It would be impossible to miss.

Mya's eyes welled-up with tears again,dripping down into the grass around her.

She didn't know how much time had passed, but she didn't care anymore.

As Mya stared off into the distance, she heard a knock on the door of their cabin.

She froze, careful not to make a sound.

"Hi! I'm sorry to interrupt you girls..."

The door shut so that Mya couldn't hear anything anymore. She wondered who is was.

Only a few seconds passed and the door opened again.

"Okay, I'll see ya later!"

Mya heard the door close and could hear the person's footsteps getting more faint until she couldn't hear them anymore.

She put her head on top of her knees and hugged them with her arms.

But as soon as she did, she heard a new noise. It sounded like... someone... was sniffing very loudly.

Mya looked over to her right. A voice spoke in the darkness:

"I found her"

Mya let out a pathetic "EEP!", and instinctively slapped where she heard the noise.

A lantern appeared around the corner illuminating the side of the cabin. It showed a man crouched next to her rubbing his cheek. The person who held it spoke:

"This is why you should always have a lantern, Miche. Oh, you found her!"

Mya recognized the voice and realized it was Hange.

"What are you doing here in the dark? Pardon him. He has a killer nose, which is how we were able to find you."

"Sorry.." said Mya to Miche beside her.

"It's alright."

"We heard what happened at the dining room, Mya. I'm sorry, that should have never been allowed."

Mya continued to sit on the ground with her arms around her legs.

"We have a solution though. That is, if you're interested."

Mya's eyes looked up.

--

They wandered down the road a little ways to a wooden shed. It was large and looked a little creepy in the darkness. Hange walked up to the door and unlocked it, stepping inside.

Mya found herself looking at several crates with various labels stamped on the sides. Hange and the man with the powerful nose lead her over to an open area that didn't have crates in it. Instead, there stood a chair, and by it, several, small tools in a case.

"Here we are" said Hange. "A seat for one"

She gestured to Mya to have a seat. Mya sat in the oddly-comfortable chair and rested her back against it.

Hange grabbed a black blanket and threw it over Mya so that it covered her entire front side, then tied it around her neck. She started to brush Mya's hair gently until it was completely smoothed out.

"You have very pretty brown hair. It almost looks black"

"Thanks. Yeah, it is pretty dark."

Hange smiled.

"The Captain will be over shortly. He's the closest thing to a barber around here. Is that still alright with you?"

Mya nodded.

"Great. Well, we'll be off. If you need anything, I'm at the fourteenth cabin."

Hange and the other man left.

It was then that Mya realized she had no idea who was about to cut her hair.

There were a lot of Captains, and she hadn't talked to any of them personally.

What if he just made her hair worse?

It was a pretty bad time to suddenly back out of a haircut, but perhaps she could find another way to hide the gap.

Before she could think any further, a door slammed behind her and she could hear the sound of shoes on the cement floor.

Mya was a bit too shy to say "hello" or simply turn around, even though it seemed appropriate. Instead, she continued to sit in the chair with the blanket around her and eyes facing the opposite direction.

She could hear a ruffling sound several feet behind her, followed by more footsteps. They got louder until they suddenly stopped. She could feel the air shift behind her.

A comb quickly ran through her hair before being set it down behind her. The person walked towards the tool case that lay on a crate to her left.

It was Mr Sour-Puss!

Oh gosh Mya, don't call him that, Mya told herself. She watched as he looked through the case, making little-to-no noise.

Mya couldn't help but feel uncomfortable. She felt it would have better if it was a complete stranger, even though she didn't think Hange would leave her with someone who was mean.

He grabbed a few tools and walked back behind her and Mya felt something cool in her hair. Water? It was likely water. She had haircuts before several times, but it had been awhile, and usually she had just a quick trim.

He continued to dab water on her hair and run a comb through it.

The silence continued for a minute until he spoke.

"The best way to fix this is to add layers. I will have to take a few inches off. Okay?"

Mya nodded, then realized how stupid it was that she had decided to nod during a haircut.

"Okay" she replied

As the Captain snipped away at her hair, Mya's mind began to wander. She glanced around at the crates. One read 'Bows'. Maybe this is where they stored the training equipment.

"Um, is this where they store the training equipment?" Mya asked.

"We keep most of the weapons used in training here. The rest is probably spare parts for furniture used in the cabins."

"Oh. "

Mya really didn't know what else to say. Perhaps she should start with the basics and at least try to engage in conversation.

"So, have you cut other people's hair around here?" Mya asked.

A few seconds went by until he answered.

"No. You would be the first."

Another several seconds of silence.

Then a minute.

Mya bit the top of her lip. She wasn't the best when it came to small talk. Perhaps he didn't want to talk so that he could just cut her hair and leave. It was pretty late into the night, ... probably. She hadn't looked at the time in so long that she honestly had no clue.

She thought back to the last time someone had cut her hair and had s hard time remembering who it could of been. Had it really been so long that she'd forgotten? She had been growing her hair out and it now reached past her shoulders.

Mya tried to jog her memory when suddenly it came to her. She used to see this one woman who worked in town at a barber shop. The lady had over to wear her hair up in unusual fashion and loved to talk. She talked so much that Mya could have swore she left with a splitting headache every time she went - which was not very often.

She recalled the certain way she would talk to her and just how oblivious the hair dresser was to Mya trying to engage in her conversation. Mya had such a soft voice that the woman always would cut her off without knowing, only to continue talking about her dogs again.

Mya smiled at the memory and could feel a laugh rising from her throat and tried to hold it down. However, it managed to skip out a bit.

"Something funny?" asked the Captain, diligently measuring her hairs with his fingers.

"Sorry," Mya let out a light laugh as she spoke. "I just realized that this is probably the least stressful haircut I've had in a while. The woman who usually cuts my hair was always very... interesting."

She sat there a bit embarrassed by her inability to hold her laugh down.

He didn't say anything in return and continued to measure and cut. He shuffled his feet back and forth, cutting, and then measuring her hair lengths with his hands. Mya had no idea what her hair looked like because there was no mirror in sight.

She looked at the blanket around her and fiddled with her hands underneath.

The man gently pushed the back of her head forward. She bend her head down so that all she could see was the cotton blanket that was wrapped around her.

Bits of her hair onto her lap.

It hit Mya just how late it probably was after she made her first yawn of the night. She closed her eyes and then opened them again to the lit room.

He adjusted her head again, as she tried to sit as straight as an arrow.

The room continued to be filled with silence.

Mya's eyes grew more tired as time went on. She tried hard to keep herself from nodding off, but the blanket underneath her her was very warm and comforting, and it had been a very long day.

The sound of the small scissors continuously trimming small bits of her hair was surprisingly comforting.

Mya's eyes closed again and then opened.

She struggled to think of something to keep her brain busy from nearly nodding off and stared at the floor. Her head drooped forward before she had time to stop herself.

Suddenly she could feel the cool medal of something tap her neck under her chin.

She bolted up.

"Done" said the Captain.

He stood in front of her face just inches away. She saw that he had dark, silver eyes, and very thin eyebrows.

Mya's eyes widened as she realized she had managed to nod off and wondered for how long.

He handed her a mirror and she looked into it.

Her hair was no longer past her shoulders but cut up to the very end of her neck. Instead of being all one length, it was three layers, approximately.

Mya tucked her hair behind her ear and realized just how light and bouncey it was. She now had a swoop bang because of joe her hair was parted. Her hair had never looked so shiny and healthy. she almost looked like a younger version of herself.

Mya raised her eyebrows in amazement.

"Wow. Thank you."

She looked up from the mirror to see him with his back to her, standing in front of his case of tools.. Mya glanced down at the floor and saw it covered in her hair.

He really went out of his way for this haircut, she thought. Something he didn't have to do, but she really did appreciate.

Mya looked in the mirror again and looked at the left side of her hair. It was impossible to tell that someone had sabotaged her hair at all.

She put the mirror on her lap and saw a broom to her right. She took off the blanket and began to sweep up her hair. Then she placed all of it on the blanket.

"Is there a bin I could throw this away in?" she asked the Captain as he cleaned the tools he had used.

"Throw it behind the shed, " he replied.

Mya opened the door to the outside and ran over to the woods behind the shed.

The moon was out now and the clouds were gone, revealing the brilliant star-filled sky. She had to stare up at it for at least a few seconds before shaking the blanket so that it was completely free of human hair.

As she walked back, she noticed a wooden pole that looked like something was moving next to it. It was a tied up horse. Beauty.

Beauty's ears perked up and looked over at Mya. He pulled on his bridal that was tied around the pole.

Mya walked up to himand pet his long face while holding the blanket in her arm.

"I didn't know you were out here" Mya whispered. "I'm sorry for keeping you out so late".

The door to the shed opened and out stepped the Captain. He locked the door and bent down and lit a match.

"What should I do with the blanket?"

He placed the match inside of a lantern that was near his feet.

"You can tie it to the saddle."

Mya quickly did so.

Beauty nuzzled her hands again. Mya held them up like she was surrendering with a small smirk on her face. Beauty snorted in disappointment.

Mya pet Beauty once last time as the Captain closed the lid on the lantern and grabbed the handle.

She turned so that she was facing the Captain.

"Thank you for fixing my hair. I really appreciate it."

The Captain stood in the doorway of the shed and walked over, the lantern in hand. He untied Beauty.

"Of course" he said, plainly.

Mya didn't know what to say again as she twirled her fingers.

"I'm going to head back to my cabin now. Thank you again"

And before there was time for anything else, Mya quickly walked down the dirt road illuminated by moonlight.

After she was a few yards away, she glanced back and could see the man leading his horse by the bridal down the other end of the road. The lantern's light getting slowly dimmer.

--

Mya quietly opened her cabin door to the sound of her roommates heavy breathing as they slept underneath the covers. She climbed up to her bed at the top bunk.

She thought over today's events as she stared out the window across the room. She could see the wind blow through the trees as the wind made an odd noise as it blew against the cabin.

Mya knew that others were gong to notice her dramatic hair change tomorrow, so she had to think of something by sunrise.

However, she couldn't think. Her brain was completely fried and she couldn't afford to keep her eyes open any longer. She fell asleep under her warm covers and dreamt of friends and love as the wind continued to blow through the trees until golden light spread across the plains.

A man blew through his fingers, whistling loudly as the cool morning air shook awake the trees. Trainees walked over to him, chatting, and then going silent as soon as they were close to the man who whistled for them.

It was Commander _ , making his return from being gone the other day.

"Today I want you to run for two miles by yourselves to the barn and back. While you do that, I will be observing you from afar. Then I will decide which ones of you will be allowed to continue training, and who will be sent home. Remember, a trainee who can't keep up with their teammates will never advance in this program. Understood?"

He whistled again and the group took off towards the barn.

The sun continued to rise as the day went on. As it rose, it's warm rays fell on top of the blankets of the top bunk, where a trainee lay fast asleep.