Elegant (Wolffe)

22

YOU ALL WILL LOVE THIS CHAPTER!

I think.

I mean I loved it.

Tw: Vomit, a reference to child abuse, language.

Wolffe was... less than pleased with his current assignment of training the cadets that would join the 104th.

So when someone offered to do it for him for three rotations, he eagerly agreed. And he got to train their cadets?

Win win.

He got a break, and his cadets got a change of pace. They had practically been begging for him to be less strict, so this was their opportunity.

Karina would say that he skipped down the hallway to his temporary assignment, but he absolutely did not. Commander Wolffe did not skip.

He walked quickly.

If that.

Wolffe pressed the button to open the door and slipped inside. Perhaps these cadets would be ARCs. Or future commandos. Or-

Or... perhaps they would be literal children.

Wolffe stared blankly at the group of seven kids, faintly noting that they looked to be around five years old. They were all tussling in the centre of the room, letting out shrieks of joy.

Wolffe cleared his throat. "Cadets."

None of them looked up.

He set his jaw and crossed his arms. "Cadets. I will be your temporary instructor-"

"You aren't happy!" one of them in the back screamed.

Wolffe huffed. "I am perfectly happy. I am in a-"

"No!" he shouted again. "Happy! Our big friend!"

"One: don't yell at me." Wolffe raised a finger at him. "Two: I already told you that I'm your temporary instructor. And three: Happy is not your 'big friend' he's your teacher."

"Happy's our big friend!" Another one started tearing up, lower lip trembling.

Wolffe didn't respond to that. Instead he looked at his datapad. He had been sent the cadet's schedule by Happy.

Curse you, Happy.

"Looks like we start the day with... circle time." Wolffe sighed heavily. "Get in a circle."

The children all cheered and scrambled around so they ended up sitting next to their friends. There was enough room for Wolffe left, so he sat in their circle.

"Now, we will discuss favourite adjectives and how you discovered them," Wolffe ordered. Learning Basic was an important developmental step.

"That's boring. I hate you," said the cadet on Wolffe's left.

"Happy says hate is a strong word and not to use it," the one of Wolffe's right said.

"Sorry," the left one muttered to Wolffe. "Sorry I hate you, but you're boring. That's my adj... edge... edgingtive."

"Adjective," Wolffe corrected. "And I don't care if you hate me. I'm not here to be your friend."

A cadet sitting across from Wolffe frowned. "You don't 'ave a lot of friends, do you? I do! That's why I'm named Friendly! 'Cuz I'm friendly."

"Good for you. Now-" Wolffe tried to steer the conversation back to adjectives.

"Wait!" Friendly gasped. "If I'm named Friendly, does that make me an edgy tif?"