Drill Sergeant Lovato

Part 5

I did end up regretting the decision, but not for disastrous reasons such as everyone finding out about DS Lovato and I. Sanders just had a one track mind the entire next day. Every time DS Lovato would walk by, or she was addressing the platoon on something, Sanders would give me a look. It wasn't overtly suspicious or anything, but I knew what it meant. 

She showed a totally different side of herself now, one that I had not yet seen. Of course, the only side I had seen was the 'get after it' military mentality and her ridiculous knowledge of military customs for someone only in basic training. Which I guess to be fair wasn't really her, it was her military side. I had begun to think she was one of those people that never showed any other facet of themselves, only the one that they deemed appropriate for the circumstances. And in basic training, you can guess which side that was. 

But not anymore. I'd awoken an animal inside her. The gossip-hungry, need-to-know-everything, remind-you-to-reveal-what-you-said-you-would-constantly... animal. 

"You haven't changed your mind about telling me the details tonight on fire guard, right?" She asked me, for probably the twentieth time that day. 

In any other scenario - anywhere but basic training - this incessant thirst for information might have been annoying. I just thought it was kind of cute, being that Sanders was never like this for the 8 weeks leading up to now. 

"No, I haven't changed my mind... for the hundredth time..." I laughed, as we opened the brown packages that housed our 'dinners' for the day, back in the tent. 

The day hadn't been all too exciting, to be honest. It was mostly small groups of us shuffling around the area taking different classes on various things from different drill sergeants. When it came time for us to take DS Lovato's class, which happened to be about detaining people - I.e the proper ways to restrain people and check them for weapons or bombs - Sanders had had a field day with it. 

"You should volunteer to be the detainee, I'm sure she'd love to detain you..." Sanders had said, suggestively. It made me almost burst out laughing, just because of how foreign such a sentence sounded coming out of her mouth. 

I didn't volunteer, but for some reason I didn't think I would have gotten picked anyway. 

"Okay seriously... just... how?" Sanders asked excitedly, during our first guard shift later that night. 

I had to respect her restraint, she'd not asked me about it for a whole two minutes when we first went to sit outside of the tent. 

As I explained everything to her from the beginning of basic, I couldn't help but look back and give myself props for how smooth I'd been. It felt insane to realize the words I was speaking were true. 

After I explained the gas chamber incident, Sanders nodded with her mouth agape as if I'd just explained the meaning of the universe to her. 

"Ohhh... so that's why you made her come in and get you... that's really smooth, girl!" 

I shushed her, because her voice had risen to more than audible for anyone that happened to be nearby.  

"Sorry, sorry..." She returned to a whisper. 

Alright, so maybe I hadn't exactly planned to nearly pass out in the gas chamber because of DS Lovato, but I felt that was a detail I could leave out. 

Sanders had the same look of revelation when I explained the night I pulled CQ duty all night long, and when I was detailing our first kiss that had happened that night, Sanders looked like she wasn't even breathing so as not to miss any single word that came out of my mouth.