Brothers In Arms

Chapter 2

When I finally heard the murmur of voices outside in the hall, my room was all set up and I had gone over all the paperwork in the envelope about three times. The student handbook was very straightforward and most of the points against were for uniform infractions and failure to finish assignments.

The points for were going to be based on excellence in subjects taught, so as long as I did really well I would be able to earn my place in this dorm. I figured that was the best way to make peace with the guys in here, show them I belonged even if my father was a douche who liked to pull strings. I thought that the general wouldn't have listened to him if he thought I couldn't handle it.

My schedule was all the subjects I had started out with in my old school, and as long as I went to the teacher and got an idea of what they had been doing up until now I should be able to manage well enough. Dinner bell was going to ring in about fifteen minutes, so I stacked all my things neatly before heading to my door.

A number of heads turned my way as I walked out and I nodded politely. One guy was checking out my room over my shoulder, and I knew it was impeccably set. I closed my door behind me and made me way down the hall to the stairs, walking out on the first floor and following the signs for the dining room.

I surveyed the people, noting how they moved from the left side to the right with their trays and signed the sheet on the board when they had collected everything. They had been here for a month longer than I had, so they were already sitting in small groups along the tables.

I sighed inwardly. I got in line and followed the example of the guys in front of me, excusing myself politely when I bumped into someone as I left one station to go to the next. As I signed my name on the sheet, the guy in front of me waited a second.

"Hi, I am Alec. You are new here. Do you want to come sit at our table?" I looked into dark brown eyes and nodded in relief. Saved me from looking like a lost lamb wandering.

The four other guys that sat there did not seem surprised when I set my tray down. I caught another set of brown eyes, two sets of blue in different shades and missed the last set under shadow from a rather strong brow.

"Who's the stray Alec?" One of the boys asked. Alec grinned and swallowed his mouthful of meatloaf before answering.

"Boys, meet Alex. Alex, this is Ferret, Roger, Mike and Micah." He pointed out each one and I nodded as I shoveled my food. I had missed lunch since my father hadn't stopped to get us anything before dropping me off here. The food was decent, not quite mom's cooking, but tasty enough.

"Great, would you stop picking up the puppies now?" I think it was Ferret who said that with an eye roll. I laughed a little at Alex's hurt pose which was a little too dramatic and nearly knocked over his glass of milk.

"It's bad enough we got Mike and Micah, now we have an Alec and Alex?" I heard Roger growl without any real menace. Ferret grimaced and looked over his shoulder. The seniors were a couple tables over and I noticed now a couple kept looking over at our table.

"Is it true you have a single?" I finally heard Mike next to me speak. I tried to ignore the half masticated meatloaf that still sat in his mouth as he talked.

"Ah, yeah. My father is a bit..." I stopped. I didn't want to get into it on the first day here. I hardly knew these guys. I saw a couple of nods of understanding from Ferret and Mike though, even without saying anything.

"No worries. Just keep your grades up or they will give you a hard time." Ferret murmured with a nod in the general direction of the seniors table. I nodded. They talked about a few of their classes together, which I didn't follow, and then they were asking me what classes I had.

I went over the list in my head and found that I had four classes with three of them. I had Math with Alec and Micah, Tech with Micah, Language with Mike and Geography with Alec again. Alec said he would meet me out front in the morning to show me to class.

That was a relief. It was a big place and it would help to have someone who knew their way around. Maps are good and all, but it would be faster to follow someone who had been there.

I had that for my first two classes now, so I felt less stressed for the morning. Now I had some acquaintances to pass the time with, which would make for a less boring evening as well. Assuming they would let me hang out with them.

"Hey, we were going to watch a movie with some of the others before curfew, you in?" Alec asked me. I shrugged and nodded. It wasn't like it even mattered what movie they were watching.

I followed them to put away my tray and dirty dishes where they belonged and then out to the common room with a big screen on one wall. Quite a few guys were loitering in the room, some waving to Alec and his friends. The room was slowly filling for the evening crowd as guys finished their dinner.

Harold moved to the DVD player and stuck in a disc. He fumbled with the remotes until the screen lit up with the opening screen and he played the movie. It was an old classic that I had already seen before, "Predator," and the guys cheered who recognized the flick and were looking forward to it.

I just sat quietly on the floor with my back up against the couch, feeling just a touch out of place in my casual clothes. A few seniors sat nearby and were whispering together as they looked over at me, but I pretended I didn't notice. Alec asked me in a whisper if I had seen the movie before and I nodded.

We had a discussion whether we thought modern day special forces would wipe the floor with predators or we thought the predators would have evolved at an equal rate to make it more of a fair fight. Ferret thought the predators would evolve faster and wipe the floors with humans.

It kept us occupied until we had to head back to our rooms; long after the movie ended we were still arguing and it was only when the warning bell rang for curfew that we noticed how long we had been at it. I told the guys I'd see them out front and headed to the stairs to my floor.

Most of the guys were already in their rooms, doors shut when I headed down the hallway. One or two nodded as I passed in the hall. I unlocked my door and went inside, remembering Harold's warning and locking it behind me before heading to bed to sleep.

1248