Let's Start A Riot

Chapter Ten - Testing Your Luck

After traipsing back to the cabin and trailing mud through the hallway to the bathroom where I manage a quick shower, I hurry to my room in a towel, ready to wait for Sarah to get back to ask to borrow her clothes again and promise that I'd wash the ones that I got dirty. Instead, I find clothes stocked in my wardrobe like they had always been there.

I pull out a t-shirt, a pair of camo-trousers, a set of fresh plain underwear, and a pair of socks and slowly get dressed, my muscles beginning to ache from the day's exercise along with the still lingering exhaustion from the previous day.

God, for a professional gymnast made special agent in training, I sure am out of shape.

I walk into the hallway and go over to the small cabinet stocked with shared cleaning supplies and pull out a scrubbing brush and polish. I grab my boots which I had left next to the front door coated in a thick layer of mud and take them out to the front porch to scrub off the dirt.

When I am sure I have gotten all the dirt, I go back inside and sit down on the couch, taking a cloth to wipe dry the leather of the boots. Finally, I'm able begin polishing them – determined to make them shine like the other soldiers' boots had, or even better if I can.

After ten minutes of intense polishing, I hear the cabin door open – which after yesterday makes me tense until I recognise the recently familiar laugh that belongs to Sarah, and the taunting voice of Hugo, followed by the angsty, sarcastic muttering that is plainly Marcus.

I wander out of the living room with my boots still in my hand and Sarah and Hugo look up from their conversation, while Marcus pays me no attention.

"So, how'd you like your first day?" Sarah asks as I meet them in the hallway.

"It was certainly something." I reply, rubbing at a scuff on my boot.

"I can't believe you kicked James in the face, he won't forget that in a hurry." Hugo grins at me like a proud father.

"He deserved it." I say haughtily with a shrug, smiling at the memory of the man howling in pain from my boot in his face.

"You certainly like to create trouble." Marcus complains, rolling his eyes.

"Well, what would you have done Mr Perfect Soldier Boy?" I glare at him, placing my boots on the ground next to me and wiping polish off my hands.

"I wouldn't have gotten caught in the first place." Marcus replies, levelling my stare.

"I didn't exactly do it on purpose." I huff.

"Are you sure?" Marcus sneers, stalking into my personal space as Hugo and Sarah's eyes bounce between us like they are watching a Wimbledon tennis match. "Because it seems to me like you're just some attention seeking little brat that's crying out for mummy and daddy's approval, so you ended up here, having not a single clue what you have promised your life for. Do you even understand what we do here? How we're training to risk our lives for our country, potentially giving our lives, meanwhile you're just using it as an opportunity to show off some stupid circus tricks."

"Show off?" I gape, dumfounded. "How in the hell can I show off? I don't have any of the useful skills everyone else here has because in case you've forgotten, I'm not military trained like the rest of you fuckers, and I certainly was not showing off, I was simply using the skills I do have to complete a task given to us – 'get to the end by any means necessary'!" I paraphrase what Sergeant Moore had told us, "Is that not a part of what we're training to do? To follow orders? To use our skills to the best of our abilities to serve us for the needs of our country?"

"Oooh, she's got you there, mate." Hugo puts in, eyes wide, lapping up all the drama.

Marcus clenches his jaw, the muscle jumping under his skin. "Just stop drawing so much attention to yourself – and don't tell me you weren't showing off because you didn't have to do those fancy flips, you could've as easily jumped," I cringe internally, knowing he got me with that, but I wasn't going to let him know that, so I keep my expression defiant. "Don't say I didn't warn you when you have all the other soldiers breathing down your neck waiting for you to fail, even encouraging it just because you couldn't fly under the radar when you are already so very disadvantaged and have no need to be drawing attention to yourself. You saw for yourself today the lengths these soldiers will go to in order to make it through this camp, don't mistake any of them for your friends, they would stab you in the back without a second thought."