She Will Persist

Origins pt. 2

Let's get one thing straight: the outside exercise area at the cadet academy isn't a playground.

It's real shit, and I'd been running it for years. The minimum age to be an army cadet was 12, and I'd been here officially for almost a year now, but Dad had let me come and "play" since I was a little kid, the advantage of being the son of a Colonel and a Major.

Unfortunately for literally everyone, Stryker Phillips had also been here since we were little. Our Dads had been best friends since their days as junior cadets, and Stryker and I had been pretty much forced into being brothers since we were born --two fucking days apart. He held those 48 hours over my head every. Single. Day. I was supposed to be the older one anyway! But of course he had to make a fuss, even when he wasn't even born, and scream his way out two days before me. Whatever. I'm better than him at everything anyway.

The course was simple. Well, simple for those who knew how to run it. None of the other boys at the academy could do it perfectly, not even the third years. It was an obstacle course that only practice could ensure safety of. It was super dangerous, with high jumping points and nets and tires and ropes and balance beams 20 feet in the air and the best part --shooting targets. The first years weren't allowed to use real guns or real bullets yet which sucked ass, but the paint balls we use really hurt if you got hit. Or so I've heard. I never get hit.

It was after school when the competition was set to take place, and all the first years had gathered outside by the course to watch. Even some second and third years which was super cool. When I won I would get some serious cred.

And best of all --Samantha Tate. She was a year older than Stryker than I, and her Dad was also friends with ours so we had grown up with her too. She wasn't into army stuff though, more like pink princesses and dolls and all that girly shit, so she wasn't in cadet training. Her Dad taught some classes here though, and on Fridays after her school ended her Dad brought her to the academy, which meant that today she was here to watch me take Stryker down. She was standing with the rest of the boys in our year, ignoring how all of them were practically drooling over her. This was an all-boys academy, so we rarely got to even see girls. And I didn't blame any of them, she was super pretty. Long golden blonde hair, freckles, these beautiful blue-green eyes. She was perfect. The only problem was that Stryker wanted her too. We'd been fighting over her attention since we could crawl.

The two of us were oozing adrenaline and excitement, and my muscles were twitching, raring to go on this fine day for kicking ass. The New Jersey sky was clear blue, the sun was shining, and the course looked deliciously inviting.

I stared up ahead at the elaborate series of wooden beams and metal bars that formed the middle part of the course, trying to imagine exactly where I would place my feet to maximize my speed. I stretched my elbow in the air over my head in a bicep stretch when Stryker elbowed me in the side.

"Thinking about giving up?" The blond snapped.

"You wish," I snorted.

The crowd around us were chattering and passing something around that I couldn't see. I looked closer and spotted a small clear bag with some round white pills inside.

"What are those?" I squinted.

"Mine," Stryker smirked, snatching the bag back to himself from the hands of all the curious boys on the concrete that rimmed the bark chips under the course.

"Where did you get them?" I asked.

"None of your beeswax Andrews. You're just jealous."

"I'm not jealous," I said firmly, though I felt my cheeks warm a bit, "I just want to know what they are."