There Are More!
Author's Note: Happy Readings! .
Chapter 4
Edited Version
Sergeant Mathermartis was a simple man who had a good life.
When he was a teenager, he was the star quarterback of the football team. He had a great girlfriend, and he was homecoming king!
Then he joined the army. Life was still good. But he got shot in the leg, which wasn't good. It was bad.
But he got a Purple Heart metal for getting shot, which was good! But he still got shot, which was bad.
He went to college and got a degree in Psychology, which was good! But he had to work a bit and study, which was bad.
Then he became a sergeant, which was good! But then he couldn't spend time with his wife, which was bad.
After he became sergeant, he made lots of money and bossed people around, which was good! But he had to wake up early, which was bad.
Then, he got a job offer that made a little more money, which was good! But it was only to boss around teenagers for two weeks, which was bad.
He thought that the teenagers were juvenile delinquents... but they were not, which was confusing.
After a week of bossing the teenagers around, he was good! But then he was givin orders to make fun of them whenever the professors told him too, which was...
Good and Bad. And confusing?
Sergeant Mathermartis was a very simple man.
Day 6 of Hell Week
0500H
The six agents were standing on the field, casually conversing to one another in threatening manner.
The first to break into a fight was Mina and Mureithi.
"...Oh really? Thats fantastic." Mina told Mureithi sarcastically. "Have you ever been beaten up by a girl?"
"No." Mureithi crossed his arms.
"Well from now on you can say yes, you little..!" Mina pounced on him.
"Ahh!"
Takeo and Dimitri were in an intense judo-sweep match.
Meanwhile, Alex was 'talking' to Luis, who said something about his parents. Appearently Alex Rider was famous in the world of intellegence agencies and his father was slightly known.
"Okay, give into the madness." Alex told himself.
Alex gave into the madness and shoved Luis really hard to the ground. He fell to the ground with a 'thud'.
"WHAT WAS THAT NOW?" Alex roared, clentching his fists.
"So he does fight." Luis sneered, and kicked Alex in the shin and quickly stood up. Alex in turn grabbed Luis and threw him back on the floor then-
"Good mornin' kids!"
The voice...
was so...
...odd and
...western.
The six agents slowly stopped what they were doing and looked over at the speaker.
It was...
"Sergeant?" Alex broke the silence.
It was the Sergeant. Instead of his usual green uniform and the nice hat on top of his head, he was wearing a yellow Lacoste polo shirt, khaki Armani Exchange trousers and penny loafers.
"No, not now. Jus' Mr. Mathermartis." The sergeant said. He had a thick western accent.
"(Russian Profanity?)" Dimitri said, and dropped Takeo with a 'thud'.
"Okay, this here morning instead of doin' your runnin', you are gonna do a lil' psych-e-ac-tric things to help ya'll get along."
Mureithi: "...What?"
"Jus' falla me." The sergeant walked off.
"What did he say?" Dimitri asked.
"Just follow me," Alex answered.
The crew blinked and awkwardly follwed the sergeant.
0510H
The six agent walked into the training facilities gym. Alex thought it was a remarkable building. He and the others would swim there for three hours every morning. The pool itself was inside of the gym, under the wooden floors that slid out and disappeared on command. Alex would also go to the gym during personal training for Karate, and every kick and punch echoed sweetly off the walls.
"Now jus' sit in a lil' circle and we're gonna do some talkin'."
Alex and Mina sat down, understanding his words. The other boys just copied what they did.
"In'a circle now!" The sergeant commanded lightly.
"Sit in a circle..." Mina coughed. The boys rearanged themselves in a circle.
Alex turned to Mina and whispered, "I think I like him better when he's spitting in our faces."
"I agree." She responded.
The sergeant sat down with them in the circle, next to Takeo and Luis. He started, "Alright, now I know that this here's kinda different than the usual, but today you are gonna get along! Okay, first, lemme tell ya'll something. I joined the army when I was about Takeo's age so I could go to a swell college! After four years, I went to college and majored in Psychology."
Alex glanced at the other blank faces.
"...so ya'll are gonna do something called a 'clearing'. You say it to someone to clear a problem. It'll help a bunch, I'm sure. It gets things off your chest. First, you gotta says the facts that are buggin you. Like... Murthi used my brush. Then, you say your judgement on the facts. Like, Murthi's nasty for doin' that. After that, you say how you're feeling about the situation, like, its makes me goddang angry when you use my brush. Then you say says what you want to happen, like dont ever use my brush, murthi...then you're done."
Alex blinked. As much as he hated the sergeant for trying to run him over while shooting him with a paintball gun, he didn't have the heart to tell the sergeant that he couldn't understand one word he was saying.
"So..." Mina said. "You say the facts, judgement..." She paused.
"Feelin's and whatcha wanna happen."
"Oh." She said slowly. "Okay... um...you can say it to anyone about a problem?"
"Yes, anything that happened that you wanna clear with someone. You can do a clearing if you want!" He said.
"Sure. Um..." She glanced at everyone, then grinned evily. "Okay. Mureithi!"
He straitened. Alex turned his head to Mureithi. Mina continued. "The facts are... You put mouthwash in Takeo's orange juice. My judgement is that you could have seriously hurt him!" Alex noticed her voice was dripping with fake concern and a hint of sarcasm. "My feelings... anger and disgust... that was my mouthwash... and what I want... Stay away from my stuff. There, was that right?"
"Perfect!" The sergeant exclaimed. "Now that you got that problem off your mind, you should-"
"You! ORANGE JUICE IS NOT MINTY!" Takeo exclaimed and glared at Mureithi, who glared at Mina, who grinned evily.
"I have a clearing!" Takeo raised his hand. Alex turned his head to Takeo.
"Go 'head." The sergeant said.
"Mureithi! Facts: You tried to kill me! My judgement: I hate you. My feelings: I hope you die! What I want: I want to see you suffer-"
Alex bit his tounge to stop himself from laughing.
"Now now, let's not get too-" The sergeant began.
Mureithi interupted. "CLEARING! Mina!" He pointed mercilessly at Mina. "The facts, you are a bitch! My judgement,"
Sergeant: "Hey now..."
"CLEARING!" Dimitri smiled. "The facts are that TAKEO took poor Alex outside while he was sleeping and covered him in mud! The-"
"Nani?" Takeo spoke in Japanese.
"WHAT?" Alex exclaimed and jumped to his feet. Anger bubbled within him and her clenched his fists, glaring daggers at Takeo.
Sergeant: "Kids, you-"
Dimitri said, "Yes! I had to use the toilet and I saw him dragging Alex outside..."
Outbursts popped in the conversation, left and right.
"WHAT?"
"Nani?"
"Hahaha..."
Sergeant: "Now stop inter-"
"I AM GOING TO-"
"LUIS HELPED ME DO IT!"
"Hahaha..."
"I did not!"
Sergeant: "I-"
"...and my judgement is..."
"...GET YOU WHILE YOU SLEEP-"
"...That was very bad and he could have..."
"Hahahahaha!"
The sergeant stood up and barked, "QUIET YOU DIRTY NO GOOD MAGGOTS! THIS IS SUPPOSE TO HELP YOU AND YOU JUST FIGHT ANYWAY! NOW EVERYONE OUTSIDE AND GET ON THE JUGGERNAUGHT!"
Alex found himself covering his ears with his hands, the sergeant was so loud and his voice was still echoing off the walls of the gym.
They all stared at him.
"NOOOOOOW!" He roared.
They hurried out of the gym.
Hell Week was over, although Alex and the others were still being beaten by training. He laid in his bed, thinking. It was five in the morning and the agents had until seven to be on the field.
After a week of training with the most physically fit, clever, and beautiful teenagers of the world, Alex had come to a conclusion.
He hated them. Everyone of them. From Mina's curly lashes to Mureithi's perfectly rounded nails. Every single detail about the other child spies made Alex cringe with disgust. How could something so perfect be so conceited? So malicious?
Judging by the way everyone treated him, he was sure that they felt the same about him too.
Sure, Alex knew he wasn't horrible to look at, and he knew that he was in shape... But was he as annoying as the other agents? As evil? As ruthless? No. He had friends who would so differntly.
Or at least he thought he did.
Alex sighed and rolled over to his side.
He couldn't imagine the five other teens having a social life. But then again, he didn't have much of a social life outside of MI6. MI6 always kept him busy and away from his school and away from his friends.
An absurd thought crossed his mind.
Perhaps the others were not always so obnoxious. Maybe they were calm and collected when they were in their home countries.
It could very well be, Alex thought, that the reason they acted so horribly to each other because they were afraid. Afraid of the fact that there were other people in the world that they could actually relate. People who knew what it was like to be used by powerful people and be helpless to stop it.
His theory evolved into something deeper.
The teens probably did not fit it with their own friends, singled out because of their secrets. They acted terribly to each other because they were afraid that the people they could actually relate to might not accept them. With the thought of rejection in mind, the teens probably thought it was easier to not even try, to fight everyone off before the other got a chance to reject them.
Sharp screams cut through the tranquil silence. Alex quickly sat up. He heard the unmistakable voice of Mina arguing, along with another boy and the deeper and very angry voice of an adult. He stiffled a laugh. Alex figured that she probably did something extremely foul now that an adult was involved to clear it.
As the arguing softened, Alex glanced at his clock and laid back on his bed.
He waved off his previous thought. The other teens were most likely just insufferable show-offs that fought only to prove that they were better than each other.
AN: Happy Reviewings! (hint hint)
