At school one afternoon, John hears a speaker talk about the Army Cadet Force – a youth organization affiliated with the Army. Cadets get to do wilderness survival and first aid training just like real soldiers. Older cadets even get to shoot guns! John has heard so many of his father's stories about Watsons in the Army, and he wants to be like them. (Besides, Dad was a cadet too, so he'll let me join even if it's expensive.)
John races home with the information the speaker handed out and as he suspects, Dad allows him to join. At the detachment's first meeting, the instructor casts a condescending eye on John and seems to look at him whenever he talks about "toughening up you lot."
The boy merely sets his jaw and returns the instructor's stony gaze. He knows what adults think of him; he's small, he wears hand-me-downs, and his mum used to be a drunk. He's bright, they concede, but they've seen too many boys from his neighbourhood forget about school after discovering girls or drugs and they don't hold out much hope for John to break the pattern.
John's greatest fear is that he won't prove them wrong.
A/N: John's experiences with the ACF are loosely based on those of Charlotte Madison, a British Apache pilot who first became interested in the Army while participating in the cadets.