Be My Fool
Chapter Eight
D: I don't own Alex.
xxx
Cub walked out of the class about half way through, I think about the time I had started to attempt to lift weights while laughing. But, honestly, that wasn't my fault... Or maybe it was, I don't know, I'm so confused about the entire thing that I've decided to try not to read into it too much.
Anyway, so an hour or so later after killing ourselves with weights too heavy for us to lift and skipping for half an hour straight, we finally get a fifteen minute break. Nate went off with Gordon, Anthony and Charlie while I returned to Farah, Ava and Ruby. Ruby was good friends with Ava, and she was quite nice so I didn't mind that she was with us all.
As soon as I sat down next to them and said "Hey", they all grinned at me.
Taking a sip from my water bottle, I lowered the bottle slowly before asking, "Why're you guys staring at me?"
"Well?" Ava squealed, "Details? Hello!"
I blinked a few times before realising what she was talking about, but when I did I started blushing a horrible beetroot colour. I looked down and fiddled with my bottle lid, "Well... there isn't much to say to be h-"
"Oh shut up!" Ruby grinned at me, leaning forward, "Everybody's seen you two flirting. Are you guys together yet? Have you sha-"
I squirted her with my water bottle to get her to stop talking, causing Farah and Ruby to burst out laughing.
"Shut up! And no we have not, thank you very much," I replied, now probably the colour of a constipated pig, and took the bobble out of my hair to hide as much of my face as possible. I fixed my eyes to the floor, avoiding looking up to see whose eyes were drilling into the back of my neck – which I had the feeling it would probably be Nate.
Soon enough though, after they teased me a bit more, it was time to move onto the medical tent.
xxx
I was a bit nervous for my check-up, wondering how much information they would have on me but Farah and the others helped to keep me calm and distracted.
Ten minutes after Nate had entered the other side of the tent, he came back out. He looked fine, except for the sweat dripping down his face, and he had to pause for a minute before we could understand whatever he was trying to say.
"H-he s-said," insert another gasp of air here, "To send y-you in." He nodded at me before collapsing into a seat, breathing heavily.
Great. I nodded back at him, said my thanks, and started walking towards where he came from.
Snake was in charge of this tent. He nodded to the seat next to him, indicating I should sit, and didn't even look at me until he had finished typing something up on his laptop.
"Right, all we're doing today is testing your body. Hence, why Eagle is here to help." He glared at the man I hadn't noticed playing with some of the equipment before turning back to me, "He'll set you up if you go over, and I'll be over in a minute."
I nodded before making my way, cautiously, over to Eagle, "So what exactly have I gotta do?"
"Take these things," he passed me some pads, with wires sticking out of them, "And put two on your chest, and the other on your arm. Then sit on the rowing machine."
I did as he said before waiting, watching him trying to start up the machine. After about a minute, Snake returned just in time for Eagle to get the thing set up – you could tell by the triumphant grin on his face that he had just avoided getting scolded by Snake for turning the damned thing off.
"Right, so all I want you to do is to get a rhythm going and when the bell goes off," Snake tapped at the machine, indicating it would make the noise, "Then you try and go as fast as you can for a minute. Can you do that?"
By the disdain on his face, he wasn't used to having to be so kind to people – but I guess it's all the pros of being a kid.
I nodded, again, and replied "Yes, sir" when he glared at me. This was going to be interesting...
xxx
Fifteen minutes later, I exited the room – exhausted. They had told me to wait until my pulse was back to normal before writing down the time on my hand, so they could record it without taking up even more time. They also asked me to send in Ava, so when I returned I kicked her shin as I went past before collapsing into a chair.
Nate came to join me, grinning, "You look like you had fun!"
Glaring at him, I pushed him slightly but he barely moved considering I had no energy left – which just caused him to start laughing at me.
"Bugger off," I muttered, glaring at him as I tried to recover.
He just laughed harder at this, but eventually he got a hold of himself and just sat and grinned at me.
I raised an eyebrow at him, feeling my heart beat return to normal, "What? Never seen a girl sweat like a horse before?"
He smirked slightly and opened his mouth to say some sort of witty retort, but unfortunately Farah decided to but in.
"Oi!" She yelled from where she was sitting with Ruby, "Absolutely no flirting before dinner, it's forbidden!"
I gave her 'the look' while Nate laughed, turning to face her, "Forbidden by who?"
"By me! I'm her wifey and what I says, goes! So you can take your-"
Dreading whatever she was going to say next, I intervened by yelling, "That's nice Farah, you go do that! Yeah, we heard you, off you go!"
She glared at me as she kept trying to talk but I yelled over her until eventually she gave up, and sat in a huff.
Nate chuckled quietly and I looked back at him, having half-forgotten he was there. He grinned before asking, "So does this mean that I can flirt before dinner, or is that still in the rulebook?"
And, for once, I was glad Eagle yelled at me to hand over my time because I had absolutely no idea how I was going to reply to that.
xxx
The rest of the day passed in a blur and the 'tent of doom' (as some kids had named the tent without a sign-post) was actually just a "common-sense" test and before I knew it, it was 10 PM and we were all hanging out in our dorm (Farah included, since she didn't want to go back to her dorm again... but I couldn't blame her, she was sharing with Kayla, Claire and Kate).
Chloe stood up and made a 'shh'ing noise to get us all to stop laughing, "R-Right, your abnormal taste in men aside Leah – Jen! What's going on with your love life at the moment?"
She grabbed the nearest can of coke (zero of course, she wouldn't drink anything less) and leant against the wall, smirking.
I sighed, lying back on Leah's bed since I couldn't be bothered to climb the ladders up to my bed when we returned from dinner, and started to look at the patterns of the underside of my bed. "There's not much to tell reall-"
"Oh don't give us that bull crap! We all know tha-" Tulip interrupted but I cut her off.
I made a frustrated noise before sitting up straight, "Let me finish, will you?" She nodded, content, and I sighed again before continuing, "Right, well, as I was saying... There isn't much to tell. There's something between me and Nate, which might turn into something – I really don't know – and then... well... yeah..." I coughed, stopping mid-sentence and taking a drink to give me an excuse not to talk.
"And then there's Cub!" Farah finished brightly, grinning at me, "Which is, y'know, completely out-of-bounds and he's probably a good two times our age-"
"Nah, I'd say he's around 24, that isn't that bad. He's younger than all of the other soldiers." Leah butted in and Chloe nodded her head in agreement.
"Well, yes," Tulip started, "But that doesn't mean to say that this is going to turn out well. I mean, let's just say by chance you two get a moment alone together – what exactly do you guys think is gunna happen? That he's just gunna suddenly start snogging her like there's no tomorrow?"
"Yeah!" Chloe, Leah and Farah said in unison but Tulip glared at them.
"No! His entire job would be on the line and, I'm sorry Jen, but that really isn't realistic. We're leaving in two weeks and there really isn't a hope in hell that it would work out!"
I nodded, considering both sides, and knew that Tulip was right but I was surprised at how much I was disappointed by that.
"Take it back!" Leah suddenly play-dived on Tulip, and the two rolled into the wall... or, rather, they did until the bottom of the wall gave way into a tunnel.
xxx
I've had so many version of this story put up, that I'd almost forgotten about this. Well, it's not the exact same entrance or whatever... but some of you might recognise the place they end up in :) This chapter has been re-done quite a lot, so if you haven't read it fully you might want to go back up and read it again ^-^ Otherwise you might be confused a little in the next chapter.
Oh and apologies about the shortness of the chapter!
LoveYou
InsignificantBlimp
**[[16th March 2012]]**