Children's Draft

Chapter 5 (Part Two)

(Will's PoV)

My hands fumbled around with the bullets. We were learning how to load and unload M-16s. Luckily for me, we all had to make sure that the safety was on first. Loaded guns and incoordination were not a good combination.

    Matteo shut the stock of his gun. "Finished."

    Sgt. Blake, as always, looked unimpressed. "You would have known that you also needed to unload your weapon if you'd actually listened to the directions"

    I could hear Connor and Aaron snicker from a couple tables behind me. I didn't even need to see to know it was them.

    I looked over to Matteo apologetically. "I haven't even finished loading mine yet," I admitted.

    Matteo broke his pout to respond, but he was interrupted by Lt. Jason's yelling.

    "Blake! I need help!"

    Sgt. Blake sighed bitterly, but then decided to go find Lt. Jason.

    Matteo continued to slam the open stock of his gun on the table. "Why won't they come out?" he said, pounding between each word. He stood up and held the gun over his head to look inside. "Stupid bullets." He gave his gun a hard shake, which caused the bullet case to fall out and hit him on the middle of his forehead. He immediately collapsed and the gun fell out of his hand.

    Everyone's eyes averted to the situation. I got out of my chair and made my way closer to Matteo. His eyes were closed and he wasn't moving at all.

    Justin came over and flicked Matteo's right temple with his fingertip. He still didn't flinch at all. "Yep, he's unconscious," Justin stated.

    Connor couldn't contain his laughter. "The idiot knocked himself out?"

    "Quick! Does anybody have a sharpie?" Tristan asked.

    "Not the point," Justin cut in again.

    Since Sean was so small, he was easily able to make his way through the crowd. He picked up Matteo's limp body in amazement. His limbs looked about as stiff as wet noodles. "This is so cool," he said, astonished.

    Aaron watched him apprehensively. "Don't--"

    "What?" Sean asked, dropping Matteo, leaving his head to smash against the tile floor.

    Aaron sighed. "Do that."

    Sean backed away, looking kind of guilty.

    I quickly turned Matteo's head onto his side, so he wouldn't choke on his tongue.

    Connor had a smug grin on his face. "Well it looks like his constant pleas for attention backfired."

    "He doesn't plea for attention," I tried to say, but Aaron cut me off.

    "Either way, he's getting it now."

    "That or he's just so lazy that he'll hurt himself to get out of work," Alan suggested.

    I gently nudged Matteo's flimsy arm with my foot, silently begging for him to wake up. I couldn't just stand there and listen while the other guys talked shit about him. It wasn't fair, they barely knew him.

    Daniel took it upon himself to ask an actually important question. "So how do we wake him up?"

    "We could pour water on him," Clayton guessed and several other guys shrugged.

    "No!" I exclaimed. "I have a sister," I decided to not straight up mention her disease, "but yeah, anyways, she faints a lot. But you can't pour water on an unconscious person. The water could get in their mouth and if they breathe it in, they could drown."