"You can call your parents," Sergeant Young reported as she handed out pay phone cards to the recruits. - "Cell phones, as well as other non-statutory items, will be confiscated and placed in the personal effects drawers. A list of authorized items to be kept in the barracks will be in the folder you receive with your uniform. If unauthorized items are found in your possession, the entire platoon will be penalized. Why don't you say something? Do you understand your orders, recruits?"
"Yes," the recruits responded, and Sergeant Young's twisted mouth twisted even more.
"An affirmative answer to my question is "yes, ma'am," a negative answer is "no, ma'am," and nothing else. When you receive an order, you must immediately answer "aye, aye, ma'am". Do you understand? "
"Yes, ma'am!" the recruits answered together as they picked up their phone cards.
"Call only to father or mother. The time limit is a minute and a half. Tell them you're all right, you're in the reception area of the recruitment depot, and your Drill-instructor name is Sergeant Emily Young"," ordered the sergeant. - "Get in line. When your turn comes, identify yourself and tell me who you're calling - the recruit's father or the recruit's mother."
"Ma'am," Bree Tanner spoke up timidly.
"Recruit, be quiet until ordered to open your mouth," Sergeant Young snapped at her irritably. - "Say your name."
"Recruit Bree Tanner, ma'am," Bree replied.
"Well, what did you want, Recruit Tanner?" - Sergeant Young asked incredulously.
"Ma'am, I don't have parents, just my grandmother. Can I call her?" - Bree muttered softly.
"Open your mouth rather than eating like a mouse, Recruit Tanner. Is Grandma the legal guardian?" - Sergeant Young inquired.
"Yes, ma'am. She authorized my contract," Bree confirmed.
"You can call your grandmother, Recruit Tanner," Sergeant Young said, walking over to the pay phone and pulling out a list.
First in line for the machine was Zafrina, who immediately said:
"Private Zafrina Noboa. I waive my right to call."
"Pass the card to another recruit, Recruit Noboa," - said Sergeant Young. - "Next."
Bella was next. Clutching the card firmly in her hand, she stepped forward and spoke:
"Private Isabella Swan. A call to the recruit's father."
Walking over to the machine, she dialed the home number. Judging by the time, Charlie was just about to watch his favorite baseball game at full volume with a beer and a bowl of fried chicken wings in his lap. And indeed, when he picked up the phone, the hum of the crowded stands could clearly be heard in the background.
"Dad, it's Bella," she began, but Charlie interrupted her immediately:
"Bella, where's your mother? She went to the recruiting station to pick you up. When I called her, she said she was at the police. And now she hasn't answered the phone for five hours!"
"Dad, I don't have much time," Bella exclaimed, not wanting to waste the only minute she had with her father complaining about Renee's negligence. - "I'm at the Parris Island recruitment depot. There's nothing wrong with me. I signed a five-year contract and I'll be doing a twelve-week basic course right now. My drill sergeant's name is Emily Young."
"Bella..." Charlie sounded like he had laryngitis all of a sudden, his voice so husky. - "I thought you were just trying to scare us."
"You never took my words seriously," Bella muttered in frustration.
"Recruit Swan, time's up," Sergeant Young called out to her.
"Everything will be all right, Dad. I'll call you as soon as I can," Bella said quickly, and pulled out her card.
Hanging up the phone, she gave way to an agitated Bree and stepped aside to Zafrina.
"Where are you from?" - Bella asked, remembering the redhead's taunts about the green card.
"From Guayaquil," answered Zafrina. - "Have you ever heard of it?"
"I think it's in Colombia, isn't it? - Bella suggested uncertainly, her mind completely shut down from the abundance of new impressions.
"Colombia? Guayaquil is the second largest city in Ecuador after the capital", - said Zafrina. - "You Americans don't know anything but your states," and smiled. - "All right. Let's move on. I wonder who our redheaded witch will be calling?"
Zafrina and Bella looked at the bitchy girl who was next in line after Bree.
"Private Victoria Reno!" - she shouted loudly as Bree returned to the line. - "I waive my right to call," and as she slipped her card to another recruit, she stepped aside.
When everyone had called their parents, Sergeant Young ordered the recruits to line up and announced:
"You will now receive your uniforms, regulations, and other necessary documents. Then you'll get your shots for all kinds of contagious shit. Then you'll go to the mess hall and get your bellies filled. Recruits! Get your things and follow me!"
"Aye, aye, ma'am!" a chorus of hungry recruits cheered her back.
"Judging by your sour faces, you expected me to put you to bed and kiss you on the forehead like a mommy after the canteen," Sergeant Young flew like a kite in front of the line of tired girls. - Well, recruits, I'm not your mommy! And you're not going to sleep now! Now you're going to take a physical fitness test. Each of you will have to do three pull-ups on the bar, twenty squats, and run one mile in no more than twelve minutes. If you do well, you move up to the next level. If you don't do well, I don't envy you chicks. You're going to get your asses kicked from morning to night!"
Bella adjusted her new uniform and swallowed hard, imagining her asshole tearing up. Exercise had never been her strong suit. And after what Sergeant Young had said about the test, Bella shuddered like she was about to take her final exam.
She was third in line behind Victoria, who tried to get in first everywhere, and Zafrina.
"Recruit Reno! Out of the line, up to the bar and ready," said Sergeant Young.
Victoria, with perfectly straight posture, walked to the bar and grasped the bar with her hands.
Sergeant Young gave the signal and effortlessly pulled herself up to the top of the bar. Repeating the exercise twice, she easily and gracefully jumped to the ground.
"Next! Recruit Noboa!" - Shouted Sergeant Young.
Zafrina pulled her body up like a robot, just as Victoria did. Bella saw steel veins bulge on the shoulders and neck of the girl, and her stomach twisted unpleasantly with a premonition of disaster.
"Recruit Swan!" - Called her Two-Face, as they began to call the drill-instructor by Bree's apt definition.
Bella walked doomfully toward the bar, already realizing that she was about to screw up. This bar looked much more imposing than the one she'd taken her fitness test on at the recruiting center.
Swan grabbed the bar and pulled herself up, but she could not complete the exercise - the bar was so uncomfortable that her hands simply slipped off it, and Bella jumped back to the ground. Under Two-Face's grim gaze, she tried a second time, but the pain in her fingers, palms, and muscles was so sharp that Bella immediately unclenched her hands.
"The first candidate for kindergarten is revealed. Recruit Swan is going for a diaper," commented Sergeant Young sneeringly. - "Neeeeext!"
The test made Bella feel like the worst recruit ever. Even little Bree managed to cover the one-mile distance in less than twelve minutes, and Bella was on her last gasp for sixteen minutes. True, she still managed to do twenty squats. But judging by the look of Sergeant Young, even the normal half of whose face looked menacing, it was clearly not enough.
"The recruits whose names I'm about to call out, step out of line," she said sternly, and one by one she called out eight names. - "Also Recruit Tanner and Recruit Swan," the sergeant finished, and Bree and Bella stepped forward in doom.
"You scored the worst on the test. Your training isn't just bad, it's crap. Even zombies run faster than you all," Two-Face said. - "For now, you'll stay in your regular platoon on probation and learn from your comrades. But if in three weeks I don't see you all run around like you've got a jet engine up your ass, the drill instructors from the special platoon will take over. And you'll wish you'd never been born, I promise you!"
"Aye, aye, ma'am!" the distraught recruits responded.
Ashamed, Bella, Bree, and the rest of the losers returned to the line, and Sergeant Young ordered:
"Grab your belongings. You'll be settling into your barracks. And stop grunting like a bunch of old ladies! This is the best time of your life. Enjoy!"
"When Two-Face spoke of pleasure, did she make fun of us so gracefully?" - Bella chuckled as she tucked her things into the locker beside the bunk.
"I like it," Zafrina stretched out on the top tier of the bed. - "I like order."
Suddenly the barracks door flew open and Sergeant Young and two other female instructors break in. They whizzed between the rows with a beastly look, throwing the recruits' belongings in different directions.
"And remember - no non-statutory relations," Sergeant Young declared, while the other two instructors continued their search. - "You'll have sex only after the final trials!" - The sergeant turned to an animal growl. - "If I see or hear that the recruits started a brothel in the barracks, straight to the brig and goodbye, money!"
Bella saw a piece of paper next to herself, and picked it up. It was a photograph in which she was surprised to see Victoria in a white linen dress next to a tall, handsome guy in a Marine's uniform. Victoria was smiling happily and gently squeezing the boy's hand in hers. Turning the picture over, Bella read: "Semper Fi. Forever yours. James."
"Give it back, Swan!" - Victoria snatched the photo from Bella in a tiger's leap. - "And don't you ever touch my things again. Ever."
"It just happened to fall down next to me..." Bella said, a little confused. The contrast was too great between the girl in the picture, in love, and the furious predator who had nearly broken Bella's fingers by snatching the photo from her.
"Recruit Swan!" - Sergeant Young's shriek snapped her out of her thoughts. - "What the hell is this shit?"
Bella looked at the drill instructor and saw a candy bar in her hand in a brightly colored wrapper.
"We found it in your things," Sergeant Young said, glaring at her. - "What did the list say about the chocolate?"
"Сhocolate is not allowed in the barracks, ma'am," Bella replied, cursing herself for not eating the damn candy bar on the way to the base.
"I can't hear you. Put on your vocal cords, recruit Swan!" - Sergeant Young yelled in her face.
"Chocolate is not allowed in the barracks, ma'am!" Bella shouted, stretching out in front of Two-Face.
"Exactly. And what happens when you find forbidden things in the barracks?" - Sergeant Young yelled, coming close to Bella's face.
Bella instantly wanted to pull away, but she knew she shouldn't move now.
"I... I don't remember, ma'am," Bella said, embarrassed, trying not to look at Two-Face's beveled mouth and scarred cheek.
"If one recruit breaks the routine, the whole platoon will be punished" - Sergeant Young stepped into the corridor between the bunks and handed a candy bar to a bewildered Bella. - "Now Recruit Swan will eat his chocolate contraband, and the rest of us will do push-ups off the floor until Recruit Swan finishes it."
Bella glanced at her, hoping the drill instructor was joking, but Sergeant Young snapped back:
"Swan, not only do you run, but you can hear like an old woman! Get a hearing aid or read my lips! I don't repeat orders twice!"
"Yes, ma'am," Bella mumbled and unwrapped the wrapper.
At the Drill Instructor's command, all the other girls dropped to the floor and began push-ups between the rows. Seeing the angry looks the other recruits were throwing at her, Bella shoved half a candy bar into her mouth at once and choked. The oversweet, gooey candy bar lodged in her throat, and Bella coughed painfully and almost vomited. But the sergeant slapped her sharply and forcefully on the back so that the candy bar instantly slid into her stomach, and Bella herself almost stretched out on the floor.
"Swan, eat, not gobble!" smirked Sergeant Young. - "And you all, push-up, push-up," she turned to the other recruits. - "And remember, one Marine's mistake is the platoon's mistake. Oh yeah... Welcome to the Marines!"
Hello everyone!
Thank you so much for your wonderful reviews! It's so wonderful to have readers :-)
I guess at this training Bella really look more like Gomer Pyle than G.I. Jane :-)
But it's just beginning for her...
I hope you enjoyed the new chapter. I would be very happy for any feedback :-)