by Yazz Ustaris
When we arrived at the Gym, Marisol hadn’t yet arrived so I sat Mercer down along the wall with a chew toy, and I put on a pair of boxing mitts to start warm up with the punching bag. The desire to pound on something was still coursing strongly through my veins. Pretty soon, I was completely immersed in punching and kicking the hell out of the sand bag that was hanging from the ceiling, so it came as a shock when I heard a timid little voice announce, “I’m here.”
I looked up and saw that Marisol was standing beside Mercer with an uncertain expression on her face. I hadn’t even heard the door open! I was panting hard as I asked, “How long have you been standing there for?”
“Just a few minutes.”
I took a seat on the ground and motioned her over, patting a spot on the ground in front of me. I had a little brown paper bag with me that I had gotten from Amos in the kitchen, and I pulled it in front of me as I addressed Marisol and started pulling things out one at a time.
“Before we do any kind of exercise today, I would like it if you ate a little protein first for energy because if you’re going to train with me, you’re going to be burning a lot of calories. You need to replace what you burn off, with nutrient rich things that your body will need for fuel.” I handed her a hard-boiled egg, half an apple, and a carton of strawberry greek yogurt. “Can you try to eat some of this while I get some water down? I didn’t realize how hard I was going at it with the punching bag.”
I was relieved when Marisol obediently starting eating everything I placed in front of her. When she was finished, I passed her a bottle of water and instructed her to drink a few sips while she watched me demonstrate what I wanted her to do. “In order to gain muscle, we need to incorporate weight training into your workout routine. We’ll go slowly, and steadily increase the amount of weights until you’re strong enough to begin martial arts training with me. If you do what I say and eat what I tell you to, then we’ll get you caught up with everyone else in no time at all.”
This first day, we did exercises with kettlebells, and I warned her that her arms might be very sore tomorrow so I wanted her to drink the peach protein shake I had Amos make especially for her. To my delight, she drank the whole thing down and even flashed me one of her hesitant little smiles. I wanted to hug her, but remembered Kyrie’s warning to move slowly where Marisol was concerned. Instead, I bade her to sit again on the matt and watch me do exercises on the punching bag again. After demonstrating a series of jabs and hooks, I asked her if she wanted to give it a try if her arms weren’t too sore.
Nodding her head enthusiastically, she grabbed a pair of gloves and got to work pounding the sand bag next to mine. I watched with approval before ripping my tank top off, using it to mop my dripping face. I was wearing one of those black workout bras that sort of served as a miniature tank top, but it was fine because I was decently covered. It felt overheated in the Gym and I made a mental note to ask Sergeant Ramsey if we could have some overhead fans installed.
Flinging my tank top down, I rejoined Marisol and started punching the hell out of my bag. “Just pretend it’s Ruby’s face you’re hitting and I guarantee you’ll instantly feel a hundred times better.” I grinned at her and nodded my head to let her know I was dead serious, and she giggled as she did as I asked. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her really going at it, and I was so proud of her that I started cheering her on.
When we were both shiny with our sweat and panting hard, I called an end to our first day. We exited the gym and started heading for the Mess Hall. Marisol had reached down and was softly rubbing Mercer’s head as we walked side by side, and I was happy that she had bonded with the pup. Walking through the front doors, she came to a screeching stop as we saw that everyone was congregated in the Mess Hall for dinner. I whispered under my breath to Marisol, “Go shower and meet me back here for dinner, okay? We’ll eat together. Don’t look at anyone else…if they’re staring, it’s because they’re just jealous. You did great today Marisol. I’m very proud of you!” She gave me a shy smile as she jogged off down the hall towards the women’s dorms.
After watching her jog off, I turned to the rest of the Mess Hall and tried to ignore the stares as I made my way to the drink station at the very back. Sure I was wearing a skimpy top and I was glistening with sweat and probably should’ve gone straight to my room, but I was literally dying of thirst. As I passed by the table that Ruby was sitting at, I made direct eye contact as I delivered another one of my death glares. Mercer growled softly from beside me as he kept pace with me.
I greeted Sam and Gideon at the last table before reaching the drink station. Grabbing a fresh cup, I filled it with water and stood there to drink the entire cup before refilling it again. When I turned back around, everyone in the Mess Hall was still staring at me. Stopping beside Gideon I murmured, “Is it because of my earlier outburst, or because they’re now all afraid of me or something?”
“Nope. It’s probably because of your amazingly tight abs you have on full display right now.” I looked at his face and saw that he was staring straight at my midsection with appreciation. I laughed and nudged him as I asked where Kyrie was.
“She said she wanted to wait for you, so she’s in your guys’ room I think.” Sam grinned as he commented on Marisol’s appearance when we entered the Mess Hall. “Even though you guys were all the way up at the front, we could tell from back here that you’ve already made progress with her. Good job Teagan! We all knew she was in good hands!”
I smiled as I excused myself to shower. As we passed by Ruby’s table again, I glanced down at Mercer and couldn’t resist a little experiment. When we had walked ten steps past her table, I bent down to Mercer’s height and whispered in his ear. “Mercer, stay and guard Ruby. Watch her and don’t let her leave, okay?” To my surprise, Mercer issued a little “Woof!” in reply before planting his butt right down on the ground and staring at Ruby like I told him. I kissed the top of his head before I turned and jogged off down the hall to my room, trying to ignore the curious looks being cast my way.
When I reached my room, Kyrie was sitting on her bed with Jamie and she was caressing the new pink sneakers I had ordered for her online. They must’ve just arrived today along with Gideon’s gaming system. When she saw me, she jumped to her feet squealing with happiness. I held my hand out to her when it looked like she was going to hug me.
“Oh! I forgot! I’ll wait until you’re done with your shower before I hug you! Thank you so much for my present. Jamie said you bought them for me, and I love them! Thank you!” She was so excited, she was kind of doing a little dance as she bounced from foot to foot.
“You’re welcome sweetie! I’m glad you like them! But I have to hurry and shower because I left Mercer guarding Ruby, and I don’t want to be gone too long.” Jamie shot me a curious look at that statement but I didn’t bother taking the time to explain the story to her. Instead, I rushed through my ritual in record time and was back out of the shower in under five minutes. I chose skinny jeans and a plain white shirt to go with my black biker boots when I finished my shower. Even though I was in a hurry, I took the time to dry my hair fully and even let Kyrie brush it out into a shiny mass before we left our room. Jamie had mysteriously disappeared when I emerged from the bathroom, so it was just me and Kyrie walking with our arms linked as we headed to the Mess Hall for dinner.
14
I felt the tension the moment Kyrie and I stepped into the Mess Hall. It was completely silent except for a low continuous rumble of warning coming from Mercer. He was exactly where I left him, still guarding Ruby. Curiously, I shot a look at all the sergeants who were present with Jamie and Dr. Duffy along one wall of the Mess Hall. They weren’t doing anything at all except “observing” the situation with Mercer and Ruby. Even Amos was perched in front of his post in the kitchen with his arms crossed over his chest. When he saw my arrival, he shot me an amused grin. I guess he’s not a big fan of Ruby either.
At the back of the Mess Hall, Sa
m and Gideon were standing up to watch the spectacle and I worried for a moment about Gideon’s well-being since growls were still coming out of Mercer’s mouth. Geez! I didn’t mean this to turn into a huge deal, I just wanted to teach Ruby a little lesson.
“What’s happening?” Kyrie whispered from beside me. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll tell you later.” Wondering if I was in trouble when Sergeant Ramsey caught my eye, I decided to put an end to it. I whistled to Mercer who instantly turned around and trotted to my side with his tail wagging happily. I sank to my knees and patted the top of his head as I said, “Good boy. Who’s a good puppy?” I peppered the top of his soft head with three noisy kisses before he bathed my chin with a few adoring licks. Climbing back to my feet, I glanced up again at Sergeant Ramsey and saw that he, along with all the other sergeants, all had the same amused expression on their faces that Amos did. I did a mental shrug and figured that it probably meant I wasn’t in trouble. Good enough for me! My stomach made a loud rumble so I continued on my path to dinner.
I was surprised to see tears on Ruby’s face when I passed by her table as I headed for the buffet. Since Mercer was no longer standing guard over her, she started to noisily sob as she glared at me accusingly. “He wouldn’t let me leave…every time I tried to stand up, he would snarl and bark loudly at me! I was afraid he was going to attack me! And no one did anything to help!” Hmmm… I wondered if she realized the irony of her words because I had shouted the same thing earlier in the classroom in regards to Marisol. No one did anything to help.
I paused for a moment as I looked her over, doing a quick scan of her body for any injuries. “Did Mercer bite you, scratch you, or otherwise cause any other type of physical injury to you in any way?” Ruby continued to sob as she shook her head and whined, “Noooo! It’s just that he scared me because I knew he’d attack me if I tried to leave the table!”
“Sooo…you’re crying because you got scared? That’s all?” Disgust was thick in my voice as I looked at her with disdain. The Mess Hall was utterly silent as everyone continued watching the exchange. I wondered sometimes if anyone realized how rude they were being by staring…after all, I was here in the flesh now, not mounted on live cam. It was annoying that I seemed to serve as everyone’s main source of amusement. I made another mental note; this time to have Sergeant Ramsey play real television shows on the mounted screens along the walls of the Mess Hall or something. They hadn’t been in use since our arrival and I assumed they were the same monitors that played the live camera feed from the smaller barracks. At the very least, they could turn it to the channel that played music videos or something; anything to take everyone’s attention off of me.
“YES! I’m crying because your stupid dog scared me. Isn’t that enough?” Ruby was practically shouting at me.
I cast her a look of disbelief before I pointed my finger at her and raised my voice to match hers as I spat, “You’ve been tormenting Marisol for months, and I was only gone for twenty minutes! Are you telling me that you couldn’t even handle twenty minutes? Seriously? As for my dog, he’s not stupid at all. On the contrary, he’s obviously extremely intelligent if he was able to keep you in your seat trembling with fear for a full twenty minutes. You may not like him, but you’ll be getting up close and personal with his crap since I heard you’re going to be the resident Pooper Scooper. So…congratulations, and I hope you have fun with that.” My voice was thick with my disgust as I scoffed at her and continued on my way. I heard a few twitters of laughter around me and noticed that even the girl who was sharing the same table with Ruby was grinning in amusement. It was the girl with hate-filled eyes and the mass of curly black hair from day one. Figures she’d be friends with Ruby.
I heard Sergeant Ramsey’s chuckling voice as he commanded, “Come on, Pooper Scooper. There’s a special shovel out there with your name on it.” The protests and excuses started pouring out of Ruby’s mouth soon after, and I rolled my eyes since I predicted she’d raise a ruckus once she found out about her new chore. I jumped in surprise when Sergeant Flynn’s booming voice suddenly echoed loudly throughout the entire Mess Hall. I looked back over my shoulder to see that all the military staff had converged on Ruby’s table, and they all stood in a circle around her as Sergeant Flynn stood directly in front of her and yelled practically in her face.
“YOU WILL GET YOUR ASS OUT OF THAT CHAIR RIGHT NOW AND ACCEPT YOUR PUNISHMENT LIKE AN ADULT, YOU PRISSY LITTLE DRAMA QUEEN! EITHER YOU SPEND THE NEXT WEEK SHOVELING SHIT, OR YOU WILL SPEND THE NEXT SEVEN DAYS IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT. THE CHOICE IS YOURS. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!”
Whoa! Geez! They all stood there glaring at Ruby with arms crossed over their chests as they waited for her reply. Judging from their expressions, they meant business. It was clear to see from Ruby’s trembling that she wasn’t used to having the sergeants ganging up on her like this. At the same time, it brought home to her the severity of her situation.
Ruby stood up from her seat and followed Sergeant Flynn as he led the congregation outside. As soon as they exited the double doors, I exhaled a pent up breath as the level of tension in the Mess Hall seemed to decrease significantly. I couldn’t help but wonder which choice she’d make.
Eager to reestablish a sense of normalcy, I whispered to Kyrie to go serve herself some dinner while I saw to Mercer’s needs. Amos showed me where the closet was where he kept the puppy food. After filling Mercer’s water and food bowl, I washed my hands and turned to join Kyrie at the buffet table. While I was occupied with Mercer, I saw that Marisol had arrived and she was standing off to the side quietly awaiting my attention. As I approached her, I saw that she had a healthy glow to her cheeks and a brightness in her eyes that she didn’t have before. I couldn’t help but wonder if she had heard the confrontation with Ruby. Sergeant Flynn was so loud, I’m sure she had to have heard a little bit of what went on. I hoped Marisol knew that things would be different from now on, and that she wouldn’t have to put up with Ruby’s shit as long as I was around.
Over her head, I saw a few of the guys from the other tables were attentively watching us but trying to be sneaky about it. Heedless of Kyrie’s warning to take things slow with Marisol, I gently slung my left arm around her shoulders as I led her to where Kyrie was loading her plate. I happened to be a touchy-feely kind of person and oftentimes expressed myself through casual physical contact. I wanted to show Marisol that she would always be welcomed with open arms in our little circle of friends. Also, in my world hugs were free, and I had a feeling that where she was concerned, a simple hug would go a long way in her healing process whether she asked for one or not.
“I don’t want you sitting by yourself at one of the other tables anymore. Tonight and every night, I hope you’ll choose to sit with us because I want you to know that you have people here who care about you and your well-being. You don’t have to be alone anymore Marisol. Is it okay if I introduce you to Sam and Gideon tonight? We’re all close and I love them like family.” I held my breath as I waited for her reply. I knew I was being a little bit pushy, but if she truly wasn’t ready to open herself up to a new group of people then I would respect her wishes to proceed in baby-steps. I just wanted to draw her a little further out of her shell.
She surprised me when she said, “Okay. I already like them. I liked to watch you three on the live cam because I used to wish that my unit was a loving, close-knit group of people like yours. It would be nice to have that camaraderie in this place.”
“It seems like you and Kyrie get along pretty well,” I pointed out.
Her gaze flicked to Kyrie for a brief second, and I saw the sadness in her eyes when she said, “I have more in common with her than I do with anyone else here. We understand each other.”
Kyrie looked up and smiled at us as we stopped on the opposite side of the buffet from where she was still loading food on her plate. I grinned back but my smile slipped as I watched her load a second cupcake on her tray and placed it next to her tall glass of
what I assumed was strawberry milk.
“Ummmm..?” I was alarmed that the amount of sugar on her tray outweighed the total nutritional value of her actual dinner. Speaking of dinner, I couldn’t help but stare when I saw the hodgepodge of foodstuffs that Kyrie considered a meal. She had a small pile of chicken nuggets, surrounded by at least 5 different types of dipping sauces. On the other side of her plate, there was a large pickle laying alongside two different types of string cheese. Next to the string cheese, there were two baby carrots—not a dozen, or half a dozen…just two. Two? What’s up with that? What a little weirdo.
I smothered my laughter and kept my thoughts to myself as I noticed that Kyrie was looking at me suspiciously. I winked at her and smiled broadly as I said, “We’ll meet you at the table. See you in a sec!”
As soon as she was out of earshot, I demanded, “Okay, how the heck does she not have diabetes?!”
Marisol just shrugged in response. “She likes what she likes. She’s as serious about all desserts as you are about your chocolate.”
I snorted at that and executed a mock cough as I muffled the word, “Moderation!”
That earned a giggle from Marisol, and an answering chuckle from Sam and Gideon who clearly heard what I said from 15 feet away, even though I tried to mask it. “What’s so funny?” Kyrie questioned in the background.
“We have way better hearing than you because we have one DNA shot more than you do. If you train hard enough, you can get your second shot too, and then you’ll have awesome hearing like us.”