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Thank you for reading and following my story! :-)
Returning from the training ground and thinking about her experience with M14, Bella pushed the door to the barracks open and with just one step suddenly lost her balance.
Crutches slipped on the wet floor, and not being able to cope with them, Bella almost sprawled in the hallway, but helpful Bree picked her up in the last moment.
"Swan," Victoria hissed, standing with a mop in her hands. "I see you normally don't look under your feet. I've just washed the floor here, and you're making it dirty with your crooked legs!"
Then she threw a mop at Bella with irritation.
"Clean up after yourself!"
Bella looked at the floor at the door and didn't see any dirt, but just water spilled everywhere. Apparently, she has slipped on one of those puddles at the entrance.
"Didn't you hear what I've just said, Swan?" Victoria increased the volume of her voice. "Clean up after yourself!"
"I was not the one who was ordered to clean the barracks." Bella calmly replied. "Besides, I've wiped my feet before entering."
Victoria opened her mouth to put her in place, but suddenly the door opened and Two-face flew in the barracks as always promptly and slipped on the same puddle as Bella. Miraculously staying on her feet, but hitting her head against the jamb hardly, Sergeant Young yelled.
"Fuck! Did some dog make the puddles here?"
Bree giggled into her fist, while Victoria clenched her teeth.
"Recruit Reno, why the fuck did you make a deluge here? This is not a deck of torpedo-boat destroyer, Reno!" Two-Face shouted with all her might. "If you can't clean the floor with a rag, wipe it with your hair then! You have a lot of it, enough to make entire floor dry. Clean up immediately all this shit!"
"Yes, ma'am." Victoria said dryly and began to wipe the floor. Sergeant Young turned to Zafrina, who came in immediately after her.
"Recruit Noboa, hand out the letters. You have an hour for a leisure time. After that the whole platoon should be in the lecture."
Sergeant Young left the barracks, rubbing her head and swearing.
Zafrina said with a grin, "Have a bad day, Reno?"
"Shut up, Noboa, and eat your bananas." Victoria snapped.
"So, you are a racist." Zafrina laughed and pulled out a small white envelope from the stack of the letters she was holding. "By the way, you've got mail, Reno… From the Catholic Children's Orphanage of New Orleans."
"Give me that now!" Victoria demanded, catching looks of other recruits on herself.
"Apologize for bananas and you'll get it." Zafrina said and raised her hand up with the letter. She was almost a head taller than Victoria, so the last couldn't take away her letter even jumping.
"Give me it back!" Victoria hissed as an angry cat.
"Apologize first." Zafrina didn't give in.
"Leave it for yourself then." Victoria said with contempt, threw the mop on the floor and ran out of the barracks.
Bree looked after her anxiously and said, "Looks like she's angry... a lot."
Lying in her bed after lights out, Bella tossed and couldn't fall asleep. Seeing that Zafrina's hanging hand snapped a certain rhythm with fingers, Bella slapped her comrade on the palm. Zafrina immediately leaned over the edge of the bed and asked, "Did something happen?"
"No..." Bella hesitated. Zaf, it's just that... It turns out that Victoria grew up without her parents?..."
"Apparently." Zafrina shrugged. "I didn't read the letter. I threw it on her bed. Why do you ask?"
"Well... That's probably why she's so... evil." Bella said in a whisper.
"Are you feeling sorry for her or what?" Zafrina grinned. "It doesn't matter why a person become evil. The important thing is that the one does. And Reno's soul is as black as my ass."
Bella smiled. Zafrina never minced with her words.
"We don't know what she had to go through there, though." Bella said, remembering the happy picture of Victoria with a nice guy named James that Reno snatched from her during the inspection of belongings.
"Whatever you had to go through, other people are not to blame." Zafrina said. "I am the daughter of a drug dealer and a prostitute. I've lived on the street since I was twelve years old after my father was sent to prison and those to whom he owed money burned down our house and my mother died in the fire. I worked on a banana plantation, where I was whipped like a donkey, and forced to suck of the boss. Then I got into the youth gang. In sixteen I was almost raped in the basement by three drunk brutes, but I stabbed them with a knife and fled. And then still a lot of things happened to me. According to your logic, baby, I should hate everyone. But I just want to live as a normal human being, and that there was less crap around." Zafrina grinned. "Victoria only increases the amount of shit in the world, though. Sufferings were sent to Job to test his faith and virtue. Reno should have picked up the Bible long time ago."
Bella wanted to say something in response, but realized that all her words would sound false and inappropriate, besides Zafrina smiled as if nothing had happened and said.
"Don't let it go to your head, Swan. Go to sleep. If you don't get enough sleep, you'll snore again at the lecture."
"Goodnight, Zaf." Bella said softly.
"Goodnight, Bells." Zafrina responded and in a few minutes Bella heard slow and regular sniffing from the top.
Bella buried her head in a pillow and pondered.
She realized only now how beautiful her life is and what a trifle her current troubles were compared to what other people have to endure. And if others could get through such a nightmare and not break, couldn't she kick Victoria's ass indeed?
"Hold on, Victoria..." Bella thought and with this bright idea fell into a deep sleep.
"Get up!" Bella suddenly heard a loud cry of Sergeant Young through her sleep.
Opening her eyes, she saw flashlights rushing in the dark of the barracks. Everybody started moving. Zafrina jumped of the top and began to put on the uniform in a hurry.
Still not fully awake, Bella grabbed her pants and only managed to put them on a one leg when a flashlight struck her in the face, and the second Drill instructor Carmen Rodriguez shouted.
"Line up! In the state that you are in now!"
Platoon of unaware from the sleep recruits lined up in the corridor between the rows of the beds.
Looking at the other girls, Bella realized that she wasn't the only one caught by surprise with Drill instructor's sudden raid. Bree wore only the uniform jacket, but she hadn't pants on her. Sue from Minnesota managed to wear pants, but remained in sports bra on the top. Heidi was dressed up, but stood barefoot. Zafrina didn't have time to fasten the belt and to collect her hair in the tail. The other girls didn't look good either. Victoria was the only one on full alert, staring impassively ahead.
"Barracks were attacked at night by the group of insurgents, who fucking shot the two-thirds of the platoon." Sergeant Young said, appearing in front of them. "The Marines met the enemy with bare boobs and flabby asses. In this state they were killed." After a pause she looked at the girls again and screamed. "At any time of the day or night you must be fucking prepared to fight! Your enemy doesn't care if you're sleeping, eating or sitting on the toilet with a newspaper! Platoon should be on its feet and not with a bare ass in forty-five seconds after the command! Now the whole platoon will dress and undress until it's done as it should be! Lights out!"
Girls quickly took off their uniform and climbed in bed.
"Get up!" Less than a minute later Sergeant Young shouted.
Recruits jumped out of the bed and began to put on their uniforms.
"You're not dressing up on a date, ladies!" Sergeant Young hurried them on. When the platoon finally lined up in a straight line, dressed according to the rules, Sergeant Young said irritably.
"Two minutes, thirty seconds. While you were dressing, the entire base was obliterated along with yourselves. Back to bed!"
Cursing, Bella went back to bed only to jump out of it again in a minute.
Groundhog day lasted for about an hour, until finally, tired to death platoon managed to dress up in required time.
"Now you won't be killed with your ass naked at least." Sergeant Young optimistically said examining lined up before her girls. "Sweet dreams, recruits!" She wished them with oblique smile and headed to the exit.
Once Young and two other Drill instructors left the barracks, it was swept with a heavy sigh.
They had only an hour for the "sweet dream".
"Get up! Alert!" Bella heard through her sleep and immediately jumped as if undermined.
But suddenly she realized that her uniform is already put on and heard the joyful laughter of Emmett McCarthy.
"Sorry, I just couldn't pass that up." He said, patting Bella's shoulder. "You slept so comically with your nose in a plate."
Bella rubbed her eyes and realized in horror that she actually fell asleep in the dining hall with her head right on the plate, which was fortunately clean.
"Hey, Emmett," she said, looking at an old acquaintance, who collapsed in front of her on a bench in his favorite bear manner with a wide smile on his face. "How are you doing?"
"Excellent!" Emmett exclaimed. "I was chosen a platoon leader and I made friends with all platoon. We have some great guys. And half of them are baseball players!"
"And the other half is probably football players." Bella smiled.
"No, there are also basketball players." Emmett didn't understand the irony. "Why are you so sleepy?"
"We were raised ten times at night by Drill instructors and forced to dress for speed." Bella replied with a yawn.
"So did we." Emmett laughed. "Also, Drill instructors go in the barracks at night and check if we sleep or do other sorts of things, eat sweets for example. One night one of the recruits was ja... Well, he was masturbating. Sgt. Myers yelled in his ear so loudly that the poor man will probably never get it up again!"
Bella laughed and thought that this guy doesn't seem to be much luckier than her. Most likely he'll hear vulgar jokes at his own expense till the end of the training.
"Come on," Emmett told her. "Don't you have to be in the lecture, too?"
Bella took lying next to her crutches and began to rise from the table gently.
"Have you been already shot by the enemies?" Emmett smiled, holding her elbow.
"I fell while jogging and torn the ligaments." Bella said with a sigh.
"I did the same during the match once. I tried so hard to beat off the ball, but that asshole of a pitcher sent so complicated curve ball." Emmett burst into memories. "I backed of and then suddenly fell down. It was painful like hell. So, I laid there and thought, "All right, McCarthy, you've played your last match. There is no way you'll be the best batter of the season." But in the end in three weeks I beat off the ball so hard that they even wrote an article about me in newspaper. So, don't you worry, Izzy. Besides, you look cute with crutches."
"You're a gentleman, Emmett." Bella laughed, as they went out of the dining room together.
Noticing a crowd of recruits gathered near the boards, they went there too and saw the poster, reporting that in three weeks there will be held competitions between platoons and individual competitions in sport and military subjects.
"Cool!" Emmett immediately perked up. "I love competitions!"
"Yes, I remember." Bella winked at him. She remembered Emmett's emotional speech before the recruiter.
"Now my team will win the cup of Parris Island!" Emmet said confidently and turned to Bella. "Your platoon will be there as well. What competition will you participate in? Will it be a contest for the smartest recruit?"
"No, Emmett." Bella smiled at him. "It'll be a contest for the best-aimed one."