Children's Draft

Chapter 10 (Part One)

(Landon's PoV)

    Coming from Nebraska, I should have been very used to sudden changes in the weather. For the most part I was. We literally went from snowing to nineties in a matter of three days last year. But at least back home I had a variety of clothes to help me adapt to the drastically different types of weather. Our army uniforms just made our situations worse.

    It was a given that it was going to be hot. After all, we were fighting in a jungle, but it seemed like the second it became May, the temperature decided to jump another 15 degrees. And that's without including the humidity.

    We all entered the base exhausted and covered in sweat. My shirt was sticking to my skin.

    "I really wish this place had air conditioning," Gavin complained.

    "Or decent showers," Daniel added.

    Clayton gave a quick sigh. "Fuck it. I don't care how gay it seems." He took off his shirt and threw it on the ground near Daniel, who did a sort of jump to avoid touching it.

    "At this point, it doesn't matter," Trevor agreed, following suit. "And I mean, it's not gay if we all do it, right?"

    Logan began unzipping his jacket. "Yeah, we're all hot--not like good looking hot--but like temperature hot, you know...it's too hot to think."

They made a point, and within several seconds we had all given into the heat. It felt good to take a few layers off. Our army jackets were so thick.

"Blake," we heard Holly call. "I finished those forms." She looked up from her stack of papers and started to turn bright pink. She was wide-eyed and for once, left utterly speechless.

Although I can't say the experience was any less mortifying for the majority of us. Several guys scrambled to put their shirts back on or hide behind something, including their friends. I panicked and ended up ripping off my bed sheet and slamming it against my chest.

Holly opened her mouth, but no coherent words would come out.

"Enjoying the view?" Ned asked. He was one of the few of us that was not embarrassed in the slightest.

"Umm..." Holly was still trying to gather her thoughts.

"Want a better one?" Kent offered, unzipping his pants.

Holly immediately pushed him away. "If you show me your dick, I will cut it off." She still remained violent as ever, but her voice was much softer. Finally, she was able to ask, "why aren't you wearing shirts?"

Logan gave a sheepish smile. "It's hot."

"Why is that a good enough reason?" she questioned further.

"It's really hot," Marcus tried.

"You just don't understand," Tristan chimed in.

Even Justin appeared flustered. "It probably just feels hotter for us since our outfits are made of thicker material," he attempted to explain.

"Obviously," Peter pointed out. "These jackets are made of a flame resistant NYCO. That dress is 100% polyester."

Holly looked down to examine her dress. "It is?" I expected she had as much knowledge about different types of fabrics as I did.

"Plus your dress has short sleeves and it only goes down to your knees," Gavin continued.

"Although we wouldn't mind if it were a little shorter," Felix said, grabbing the end of it.

Holly hit him with her clipboard and took a step back. "A-anyway," she managed to stutter out. "I have to go give these to Sgt. Blake." She buried her head back in her papers as she left.