Children's Draft

Chapter 4 (Part One)

(Tristan's PoV)

My eyelids were heavy as I got ready in the morning. Part of me wondered if I could use my birthday as an excuse to get out of workouts.

Now being at Basic Training sucked, but having your birthday at Basic Training really sucked. And of all of my birthdays it had to be my 16th. Today I was supposed to be able to get my license and drive without an adult in the car, but no. I had to be up at five in the morning preparing for hardcore workouts. To top it all off, there's no cake, just gross military, dare I call it, "food."

I slumped down on my bed after putting my T-shirt on.

"What's wrong?" Gavin asked.

"It's my 16th birthday and I'm stuck here," I explained.

From down the hall we heard Lt. Jason call, "mail!" We all immediately shifted our attention to him. Once he got to our room, he shuffled through various sizes of letters and handed them out. When he came to me, he pulled out a small package. I couldn't help feeling important because my mail was the biggest.

In the front left corner the name read Kierra Tomguard. Intrigued by what she could have possibly thought to send me, I pulled off the duct tape and opened the edges. Inside was a note and a king-sized Reese's peanut butter cup.

She had remembered my favorite kind of candy.

I picked up the letter and read it.

Dear Tristan,

Happy 16th birthday. Sorry you have to spend it at Basic Training. Hope this helps a little bit. By the way, I just wanted to remind you that I'm still 3 weeks older than you.

Even before eating my candy, I wrote a short reply.

Dear Kierra,

I'm still taller.

I decided I'd send it tonight.

Logan seemed to jump up in excitement. "You know what I just realized? It's Sunday! Don't we get a day off for like...holy reasons?"

Call me a bad Mormon, but I had completely forgotten about that. If we were in church, then we couldn't do workouts. Thank God. Literally.

"Well actually," Justin spoke up. "Soldiers used to get Sundays off for church and other free time, but they've cut that since Basic Training was shortened."

The rest of us groaned in response.

Although I was curious about one thing. Justin had been spewing off facts left and right since we got here. "How do you know all this?" I asked.

"I did some research before I left," he replied.

Clayton made a sort of gagging sound. "Oh well God-forbid you don't do research."

Justin's posture went even stiffer. "Well, I'd kind of prefer to lessen my odds of dying."

"Oh yeah cuz an enemy soldier is just gonna pass you by cuz you're so smart," Clayton retorted and the two of them began bickering.

Unfortunately for us, Justin's research was accurate because Sgt. Blake came storming into our room yelling at us to head to the gym.

I cannot wait to eat my candy when I get back, was all I could think.

(Connor's PoV)

Sgt . Blake had us running timed 100 yard sprints. Then he took our times and had us race each other based on how fast we were.