Hello, everyone!
Thanks for your help in correcting mistakes in the language and in the plot. It's very helpful to me :-)
Of course, I could just write about what I know well. But I so want to write about these characters in this setting.
So thanks again to everyone who helps make my text better.
I look forward to your feedback :-)
"Each of the recruits will be given a battle buddy for the duration of their training, to be by their side at all times. He will carry his buddy and his rifle if he is legendarily wounded and unable to walk," Sergeant Young reported as Bella finished her candy bar and the others caught their breath. - "Buddies are those whose bunks are one above the other. And from now on, the two recruits are a team. Marines must always help each other, have each other's backs in combat, and never leave each other in danger."
Bella looked anxiously at her upstairs neighbor, Zafrina, and Zafrina with one lip she told her: "We'll get through this." Bella smiled and saw Victoria squint disgruntledly at Bree and call out loudly to Sergeant Young:
"Ma'am, permission to address!"
"Permission granted, Recruit Reno," Two-Face turned to her with a disgruntled look. She didn't like it when recruits unnecessarily opened their mouths during instruction.
"Ma'am, I need an other battle buddy. Recruit Tanner is much weaker than me. I didn't know I had to be paired with her when I chose my bunk," Victoria said.
Sergeant Young walked over to Victoria and poked her fist into the wall near her head with force. Reno didn't even flinch, and Two-Face hissed in her face:
"There is no Recruit Reno or Recruit Tanner here. There's a platoon. And there's a commander. The platoon got an order, the platoon carried out the order. There ain't gonna be no other, Recruit Reno."
"Aye, aye, ma'am!" Victoria shouted at the top of her voice, staring blankly at the wall.
"Lights out in half an hour!" – said Two-Face. - "Get your shower gear and go to shower!"
Everyone started to get the washcloths and soap, shorts and T-shirts issued to each recruit at the front desk, and Bella caught Victoria leaning toward Bree and mumbling through her teeth:
"If I don't become the best because of you, Tanner, you'll regret it. I promise you that."
"I'll never be able to remember it all," Bella said, for the fortieth time as she read the words printed on the sheet.
"You'd better use your brains, sister," Zafrina said with a snort. - "If we don't learn all this, we'll be anally punished with an M16."
"Victoria would kill me if I mixed up all the words," Bree muttered thoughtfully, frightened to see if her "battle buddy" was nearby.
"Baby, I don't know what the hell you're doing here," Zafrina looked at her with motherly sympathy. As Bella found out, Zafrina was twenty-six years old, and because of the nine-year age difference, she thought of Bree as an unsophisticated child. - "The longer I work for Uncle Sam, the closer my citizenship gets. And you probably haven't even kissed yet, and already enlisted."
"I have kissed. And not just that," Bree sighed. - "I have a daughter. She's a year and a half old."
"You have a daughter? Really?" - Bella looked at her in amazement. The girl looked like a baby, but she was already a mother herself?
"Yeah. I was fifteen when I gave birth to a daughter," Bree answered. - "I was raised by my grandmother alone. We didn't have any money. So they took my daughter into foster care. I want to raise her on my own, but I need a good job and good insurance to get her back. And why did you join the Marines, Bella?"
Bella looked at Zafrina and Bree and thought that her reason for being here would sound almost like a mockery to those girls.
But she didn't have time to answer the tricky question because Sergeant Young and two other instructors were approaching their formation across the plaza. After ordering them to line up, she yelled at the recruits, as usual, for their lousy posture, stupid smirks, not loud enough salute, and crumpled uniforms, and then, after yelling, got down to business:
"I hope your platoon has learned all the running cadences. Because if your instructors hear mooing and wheezing to death instead of singing, you'll be running until your legs fall off!"
"Aye, aye, ma'am!" the recruits shouted at the top of their lungs.
"To the right! Forward march!" - ordered Two-Face, and the other instructor, demonstrating at what pace to run, ran ahead of the platoon and, tearing at her vocal cords, shouted: "I love working for Uncle Sam!"
"I love working for Uncle Sam!" - the recruits responded in unison.
Bella ran with them all, shouting the lines of an old war song, and she could feel the pain in her side from habit. But the platoon was only picking up speed.
Swan felt she could no longer run as fast as the other recruits, and she knew that Two-Face would see it now, and she was finished.
Noticing that Bella was slowing down, Zafrina, still shouting cadences, took her under her arm and dragged her along, taking most of her weight.
"I love the Marine Corps!" - shouted the recruits.
And then they were joined by a chorus of male voices, inspirationally yelling a very different song. Turning her head, Bella saw guys running away, led by Emmett McCarthy, proudly rushing at the platoon leader's position, shouting out:
"I Got a Girl in a Mississippi Town! Marine corps lie cause they getting hard out! She said it was easy to be on the corps! I wonna go back to this city no more! Keep up, boys!"
"Your buddy seems happy," smirked Zafrina.
Bella smiled and replied:
"Yeah. This guy was already born a Marine".
"Tanner, pull up! Get your arms over there! Pull your butt up!" - Two-Face yelled at Bree, who was having trouble climbing the rope. - "Recruit Reno, step out of the line. Recruit Tanner, Recruit Reno will do push-ups until your ass is at the top!"
Bree looked in horror at Victoria, who showered her with a wave of hatred before dropping to the ground.
The girl struggled to cling to the rope, rubbing her hands to bloody blisters, and, clenching her teeth, she crawled upward. With tears in her eyes she reached the crossbar and, immediately unclasping her hands, collapsed without strength into a muddy puddle beneath the rope.
"Recruit Tanner, get up and get back in line!" - Sergeant Young ordered. - "Recruit Reno, halt. Recruit Swan is next!"
Dirty and crying Bree returned to the line, and Bella made her way to the rope on wobbly legs.
She remembered how she'd fallen off the rope in high school and broken her arm, after which she'd come up with all kinds of reasons not to climb it.
But now she had no choice.
Grasping the rope, she slowly climbed up. Slippery after the rain, the rope kept trying to get out of her hands. As if it were alive, it wriggled and tried to throw Bella down like a bull in a rodeo.
"I love working for Uncle Sam!" - Bella muttered under her breath, hoping the chant would add to her morale. - "My Corps! Our Corps!"
"Damn it, Swan! Are you glued to that fucking rope?" - shouted Two-Face with indignation. - "Recruit Noboa, out of the line! Swan, until you get on that rope, your battle buddy will be doing push-ups!"
Bella gritted her teeth. Zafrina shouldn't have been responsible for her hatred of gym class at school.
"Wrap your legs around the rope! Work your ass!" - Sergeant Young yelled from below.
Bella pulled herself up as hard as she could, but barely moved.
"Swan! When the bearded savages will aim for your ass, are you going to hang like a sack of shit, too? - Sergeant Young was totally pissed off. - "Get off the rope and run three laps on a track!"
Bella collapsed into a puddle and, barely on her feet, ran, smearing mud and tears on her cheeks.
Twenty minutes before lights out, Bella went into the bathroom and heard Victoria's angry voice:
"Today, Tanner, because you went off the ropes five times, I had to do push-ups. I do my best, and you make me look like a laughingstock in front of the whole platoon and in front of the drill-instructors. Did I warn you you'd regret it?"
"Yes," Bree replied quietly. - "But I'm doing the best I can."
"I don't care about it," Victoria said. - "I'm here to be the best. And you're in my way, Tanner. And now I want you to apologize to me."
"I already did, this morning," Bree said in surprise.
"I want real contrition. Get down on your knees, Tanner. And if you don't, Heidi will help you."
Heidi? This short, slender, but very strong and tenacious girl befriended Victoria almost immediately and followed her everywhere, like a sidekick to a supervillain in a comic book.
Bella peeked into the room with the booths. Heidi was holding Bree by the hair and pushing her to kneel in front of a sneering Victoria.
It was so similar to what the poor nerds at school had had to endure that Bella felt insanely sorry for Bree, who'd been given such a battle "buddy".
Hoping that Victoria would stop her bullying when she saw her, Bella went into the bathroom.
"Swan, get out of here if you don't want to stand next to Tanner!" - Victoria wasn't the least bit embarrassed.
"Victoria, you shouldn't treat Bree like that. She's not trying to hurt you," Bella exclaimed.
"But she is," Victoria said angrily. - "You and her don't belong in the Marines. You'll crawl under a car in the first fight and howl in fear. Saving men like you is what kills the best. So leave on your own, if you've got a conscience. Come, Heidi."
Victoria and Heidi headed for the exit of the bathroom and ran into Zafrina at the door.
"Swan, where have you gone? Yang came back to search our stuff and found candy on your bunk," said Zafrina.
"But I don't have any candy," Bella exclaimed, and, guessing what that meant, said, "They won't rest..."
"These two bitches?" - Zafrina snorted. - "If they come after you again, call me. It's time to thin out the ginger jungle on her cheeky head."
Bella, Bree, and Zafrina went to the barracks, and Bella quietly asked:
"Zaph, you did push-ups today because of me. And on the run you dragged me. Doesn't that make you angry?"
"No," replied Zafrina. - 'The more I train, the stronger I am. But you have to push yourself. I won't always be with you."
The next morning, sleepy and lethargic recruits again stood on the parade ground before Sergeant Young, who, despite the early hour, was awake, fresh, and, as always, grumpy.
"Recruit Zafrina Noboa became the platoon leader for the duration of all training. Recruit Noboa, stand in front of the line!" - Two-Face commanded, and Bella saw the envious look Victoria gave Zafrina.
"On the right! Run!" - Zafrina ordered.
Chanting the traditional Marine chants again, they ran in a circle. At one turn a heavy army boot suddenly hit Bella in the right leg directly under the knee, and the girl felt such an unbearable pain from hell that she collapsed flat on the ground at the feet of the other recruits.
"Stop!" yelled the second instructor, Carmen Rodriguez, running beside her.
Within seconds, Sergeant Young appeared beside Bella, who couldn't even breathe in pain.
"Recruit Swan, get up immediately! - she shouted.
"I... I can't, ma'am," tears spurted from Bella's eyes.
"What's the matter? Why are you yelling like your leg's been ripped off?" - Sergeant Young looked at her angrily. - "Get up, Swan. No more chilling."
Bella, with the help of the other recruits, tried to stand up, but just as she leaned on her leg, her knee exploded from within again, and Bella even screamed in pain.
Two-Face leaned toward Bella.
"Swan, did someone push you?"
Bella didn't know whose shoe had hit her, though she guessed it might have been Heidi, running a few paces away. But she didn't care who had done it, or why.
"I want to go home," Bella said through her tears, trying in vain to keep the pain in her knee down.
"Home?" - Two-Face looked at her with irritation and almost contempt. - "You're not going home now, but to the medics. Recruit Noboa, help Swan up. Take her where I tell you. Rodriguez, keep up the drill!"
Bella, trying unsuccessfully to distract herself from the pain, looked at the sign on the door in front of which she sat on the couch waiting for help.
"Chief of Naval Medical Services, Parris Island Marine Corps Training Center, U.S. Navy Captain Carlisle Cullen."
Sergeant Young had gone somewhere, taking Zafrina with her, and Bella, left alone, was finally cracking up.
She was all alone. Far from home. She was hated by Victoria and her henchwoman Heidi, whom the whole platoon feared. She wasn't getting anywhere. And her leg hurt like hell.
Why did she join the Marines? Why didn't she go to that college in Phoenix that Phil had practically put her through? Better be a broker than an invalid!
What was she thinking?
Apparently, Victoria was right, and Bella Swan had nothing to do in the Marines, except go through the paperwork in the headquarters.
The office door opened, and Bella heard a pleasant man's voice:
"Will she let you see Carly before you go?"
"I don't know. This bitch won't return my calls," another younger, more irritated man's voice answered.
"Slow down, Edward. You married her two months after you started dating her. Your mother and me had said you were too hurry."
"Yes, yes. You were right, as usual. But what does it matter now? I can't go to Afghanistan right now. If I go, she'll take Carly out of the country."
"You don't have a choice, Edward. You know that. Do you remember where I was when our first child died in childbirth?"
"Yeah. In Vietnam."
"And there was nothing I could do to support Esme in that moment. Her mother still hasn't forgiven me for that. And when you were born, I was in Grenada. And I first saw you when you were a few months old. When Carly gets older, she can understand you."
"If I ever see her again. All right. I must go. I'll let you know when and where I'm going," the young voice said wearily, and the office door swung open.