I chose a seat by the window, my plate full, but not too full. I didn’t want to look like a pig or anything. Cattie and True soon joined me. Since we were all really hungry, we ate in silence for a while. I figured that the suited people bordering the walls were there for intimidation. It was working. Every few minutes a person would stop eating for a second and steal a quick uneasy glance in their direction. I too eyed the stock-still strangers.
When I was done eating, my eyes drifted to the window. Not a cloud in the sky. The grass was no longer frozen. It looked rather tempting. I found myself longing to go outside.
True followed my gaze. “Oh, we’ll be going outside soon enough.” She didn’t sound too happy about that.
“Yeah,” Cattie chimed in, “to do some drills or something.”
I made a face. That didn’t sound very fun. What did I expect? This was boot camp after all. For the rest of lunch, we chatted about silly stuff, like the first thing we would do when we got out of this place. We talked about sleepovers and birthday parties. I told them about my family and friends back at home. They giggled at the funny things I said about Louis, and were solemn when I remembered the time Malerie’s dog died. As I laughed and ate with them, I realized that these girls reminded me so much of my friends. They had my back and made me the happiest I’d been since I’d arrived at this dreary place. It was hard to believe that I had just met them that morning.
Lunch ended and soon after came the drills. Our afternoon was spent doing push-ups, crunches, knee-highs, sit-ups, weights, and running laps. I had never worked so hard in my life. Gym had never been nearly as grueling as this.
After about fifty crunches, my stomach was tight and sore. My arms hurt terribly from the weights, and I could no longer feel my legs. Sweat dripped down my face by the gallon. The ground looked so comfortable, I wished that I could just lie right there and rest. I didn’t dare, though. Sergeant Buck would have had a fit.
The sky had turned from baby blue to indigo when we were finally allowed to stop. Water bottles were handed out. I drank all the water in one big gulp, wiping the sweat from my brow. Legs unsteady, I wobbled to the line forming at the door. All the others were just about as run-down as I was. Some were leaning over and puking, and others had passed out. I was close to doing both of those things myself.
Once we were back in our room, I stiffly got into my bunk, falling asleep instantly. A few minutes later, I was being shaken awake. I groggily swatted my hand at the gentle hand on my shoulder.
“Lily,” a voice whispered, “they’re totally gonna freak if you don’t come to dinner.”
My eyes slowly opened to find Cattie standing over me. Wincing, I rose from the bed and followed her out.
I stifled a yawn as I stood in line for food. I was so tired that I didn’t pay any attention to what I was putting on my plate. When I sat down, even the hard table seemed like a pillow. So I laid my head on the table for just a second. The next thing I knew, a loud whistle was being blown in my ear. That woke me up a bit and scared the living daylights out of me. My hand automatically brought the fork to my lips, shoveling it all in.
My friends practically had to drag me out of there when dinner was over. I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. I was asleep before I even hit the covers.
A loud horn sounded, blowing me right out of bed. Since every bone in my body still ached, this didn’t feel too great. I crawled back to bed, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. There was a deluge of shrieking girls, running to the bathrooms. Water ran in the showers as people poured in. When I finally got to the mirror and saw my reflection, I nearly jumped out of my skin. I looked like the living dead. As usual, my hair was in disarray. There were bags under my eyes and I could see visible bruises from the previous day of drills. I washed my face and brushed my teeth until they gleamed.
Surprisingly, the shower water felt warm against my skin. It soothed my bruises and sore muscles. I scrubbed diligently in order to scrape away all the grit and grime from the previous day.
After having a good wash and putting on fresh clothes, I went for breakfast. Then I carried my tray of a buttered roll, scrambled eggs, bacon, and orange juice to the usual spot.
“Good morning,” Cattie sang with a smile. “You seem to be in high spirits.”
“I like the showers,” I answered.
True nodded in agreement. “Great, aren’t they? Not to sound weird or anything, but I like to go there to think.”
“Really? Okay. I can see how that would work,” I said.
Cattie stared at us like we were a couple of whack jobs. “You do know that you’re talking about showers, right?”
True and I broke into a fit of giggles. Our ravings about the showers sounded like we were talking about some kind of spa. While hugging my stomach and giggling uncontrollably, I caught a glimpse out the window. My giggles immediately stopped. True and Cattie turned their heads to see what I was staring at.
The sun shone so brightly you’d think it was a summer day. Was it? When I’d first arrived, it had been so cold that I had nearly frozen to death.
My smile faded. “What month is it?”
True’s face, still frozen in laughter, turned to a frown. “I dunno. February or March maybe?”
I’d arrived in December. Had it really been that long? The mood at our table changed drastically. I didn’t feel like laughing anymore. I felt like doing the opposite. The effects of the soothing warm water were wearing off and my aches and pains were becoming evident again. What was also becoming evident was the need to get back to our plan to get out. So what if the food was great and I liked the showers? The time to act was now. My realization of how long I’d been here only fueled my determination. I looked up at the girls, my fingers gripping the side of the table. The same affirmation showed on their faces as well. Relaxing, I sighed and took a bite of the roll. We were all on the same page.
A loud voice made me jump. One of the sergeants was yelling for us to get off our butts and head out. Heart thumping, I hurried out the door with everyone else.
Bulky guys stood at the doorway, giving orders. We stood against the wall at attention as ordered. Then Sergeant Buck arrived. He hadn’t come alone. A severe-faced woman stood on one side of him, while an even meaner-looking man stood on the other. They appeared younger than the sergeant, in either their late twenties or early thirties.
Standing directly behind them was the biggest, cruelest obstacle course that I had ever seen. There was a huge rock wall that had real jagged rocks instead of fake ones. The monkey bars weren’t even kid safe! With a height of about thirty feet, each bar had been made of rusted metal. Instead of going ten bars across, it went about forty. If you were unfortunate enough to fall off, you would drop straight into a mud pit. Near the monkey bars were two rows of big flat tires stretched so far apart, it had to be almost impossible to hop through unless you used your whole body. To get to the zip line, you’d have to climb over another rock wall even taller than the last one. Once off the zip line, there was a giant shoot that led to the barbed wire, which was so low to the ground I had no idea how we were supposed to crawl under that without getting cut into shreds. Maybe that was the point. The hurdles came after the barbed wire. There was simply no way anyone could get over them unless they had the skills to jump really high or had very long legs.
When the obstacle course ended, it opened into fields and fields of grass. Placed twenty yards apart from each other stood wooden signs. On these signs were different kinds of instructions. For example, one said to do thirty push-ups.
Before I could finish reading the signs, the sergeant began to speak. “Attention! Listen up, ’cause I’m not repeating myself.”
He cleared his throat. Then he introduced the two people on either side of him. The woman’s name was Lieutenant Kantanker; the man was Lieutenant Parker. They both swept their cold unfeeling eyes over us. They’d be stationed at certain spots to “cheer” us on.
We were all reluctant to star
t, so we had to get yelled at. The rocks scraped at my hands and knees. I held my breath the whole time I was on the monkey bars. I made sure that I had a good grip on each rung before moving on. Lieutenant Kantanker screamed in my ear the whole time. It was more of an annoyance than encouragement.
My downfall came at the push-ups. My muscles were still really sore from before, and I’ve never been a stellar athlete. So after fifteen push-ups, I just dropped. My arms couldn’t take the weight anymore. Because I had stopped, I was forced to start the course all over again. To have come so far and have to start again was devastating. With a sigh of despair, I jogged back toward the beginning.
For two more hours this went on. Even if we went through the course with no mistakes, we still had to do it over and over. Because of this constant painful cycle, my arms were extremely tired. This turned out to be a problem when it came to the dreaded monkey bars of doom. I ended up covered with mud from head to toe.
Once we went back inside, everything in my body ached yet again. Moans and groans could be heard throughout the group. They were quiet ones, of course, since no one wanted to get on the sergeant’s bad side.
I took as long of a shower as I could take. Although I got all the mud off, I still didn’t feel too great. None of us did. True grunted in pain.
“Stupid obstacle course,” she grumbled. “And to think, we still have to do those horrible drills soon.”
I groaned. “Ugh, don’t remind me.”
While we complained about our many ailments, Cattie remained absolutely silent. Of course, we noticed this and asked her what was wrong.
“I forgot to tell you something,” she confessed. “Something important.”
“Well, come on. Spit it out!” I urged.
“I was sneaking around the grounds last night,” she let out in a rush.
True and I stared at her openmouthed. Was she out of her mind? Did she realize what would have happened if she had gotten caught?
She looked down at our hands. “I know. I know. It’s just that I needed a place to think, too, and I like taking walks, so I thought, why not? Then I got to thinking that maybe while I was there I could look for weapons. Every boot camp has a stash somewhere.” She paused to build up the suspense. “I started tiptoeing and dodging behind walls like a real-life secret agent. Just when I was about to give up, wham! There they were. Rows and rows of ’em.”
She sat back, finished with her story, obviously proud of what she had discovered.
This was indeed good news, but also bad. Would our crazy scheme really work? Lowering my voice, I told them my plan of what to do next. About a day or two before we left camp, we’d have to sneak out at night. Then we would each take one weapon for ourselves. Someone would have to be the lookout. That would be Cattie. For fun, we named our plan Mission Impossible IV: Project A. We’d take the weapons with us when we left boot camp, but we’d have to use them quickly before we were caught with them.
Having time to kill before lunch, the girls and I played a game of Would You Rather.
The tiring days went by quickly. Nearly every day was the same. I soon became accustomed to the routine. As the weeks progressed, I found myself aching less and less even though the training was as brutal as ever. I guessed that I was getting used to the pain, since now I just felt numb. My arms and legs became stronger and the little scabs and scars accumulated on my body. Besides the grueling drills, horrible obstacle course, and the terrible feeling of confinement, it really wasn’t all that bad.
Stealth
On the night before the departure ceremony, I was very jumpy. What if we got caught? Would we get some kind of horrific punishment, or worse, be forced to stay longer? Sheer panic crashed over me in waves as I lay awake. I glanced around the room. Everyone seemed to be asleep. The blonde girl—never did catch her name—snored softly in the bunk across from mine. Red tufts of hair stuck out from the covers on the two top bunks. The silence made me even more antsy.
Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Cattie, are you awake?” I whispered, lightly kicking the bunk above me. “Don’t you think we should be leaving now?”
I heard what sounded like a muffled “Ouch!” Then there was a rustling of sheets. Her head appeared from the top bunk, hair disheveled.
“Yes, I’m awake,” she hissed. “And a little sore on the bottom, thanks to you. I have a cousin who—”
“All right. I’m sorry. I’m just nervous,” I apologized.
She nodded. “I’m nervous too. Come on, let’s get out of here.” She climbed down the ladder. I noticed that she was already dressed, like me. We woke True up and headed out as quickly as possible.
The hallways were eerily silent. True and I followed Cattie down the corridors, looking this way and that. When we came near the third door on the left, we heard voices. From what I could gather, some of the staff was having a midnight snack of some kind. Out of pure curiosity, we pressed our ears to the door.
“Just think, by tomorrow those brats will be gone,” one said with a satisfied sigh.
“Yeah,” barked another one. “But a new batch will be arriving soon after.”
There were agitated murmurs of agreement.
Someone cleared her throat angrily. “These ‘brats’ are mere children who are being forced to do things no one their ages should be doing. However, they continue to work hard and push themselves to the limit. Many of them come to me with ghastly injuries, but they don’t utter a single cry of pain. They just stare down at the floor, trying very hard not to show any emotion.”
We couldn’t believe our ears. Someone was actually taking our side. An uncomfortable silence followed.
Finally Sergeant Buck muttered, “Tough little monsters. I’ll give them that.”
Again there was silence and a few uneasy coughs. After a while they began to talk about other things, such as politics and how much they were getting paid, which was a lot, mind you.
I felt like kicking myself for spending so much time standing there. Still, it definitely was interesting to hear what they really thought about us. Brats? Tough little monsters, were we? Oh, I’d show them how tough we really were. I’d outwit them and teach them a thing or two. I squared my shoulders, holding my head a little higher. We silently moved on.
It felt like a full hour before Cattie stopped us in front of a big metal door. When she tried to turn the knob, it wouldn’t open.
“I don’t understand. It opened for me before and I’m sure this is the right one,” she insisted, staring at the door in disbelief.
With my hands on my hips, I asked, “Are you sure nobody saw you?”
She blinked. “Of course.”
True rolled her eyes, removing a bobby pin from her hair. In one stride, she stood right in front of the door. She picked the lock and had the door open in a matter of seconds.
We entered the room, which was full of weaponry. One word: Awful. Guns, grenades, and heaven knows what else lined the walls. I didn’t really understand why they would have all this stuff. I mean, this was a boot camp, but technically not a real one. And another question: Why wasn’t their security better? We had just picked the lock and waltzed right in. There should have been sirens going off and red lights flashing. Something. Anything. The lack of protection was shocking and a bit suspicious. Maybe they had a hidden camera somewhere and a mob of angry armed men would be coming this way any minute, but when I looked out the door, there was nothing. Since we’d left our room, we’d seen no one patrolling the hallways. The whole setup seemed very unprofessional.
As planned, Cattie stood at the door while True and I raided the stash. I settled on a handgun. Although it made me grimace to touch it, I reluctantly slipped it into the bag I’d brought with me. True took one for herself and one for Cattie as well. Then she took a few other things that she thought would be useful.
Before leaving the room, I took a quick sweep around just to make sure that there weren’t any big gaps or anything that i
ndicated that someone had been there. Nope. We’d been careful to take very little so that we wouldn’t leave any clues behind. Being surrounded by all those terrible tools made me feel oddly vulnerable. I hightailed it out of there once Cattie gave the go-ahead. My friends and I surreptitiously crept down the corridors extra quietly until we were safely back in our room.
The other two fell asleep instantly, but I did not. Lying awake, I checked my watch. 1:00 a.m. exactly. I willed myself to go to sleep. Since the departure ceremony was tomorrow, the time to wake up had been changed to an earlier time. Like the staff had said, they couldn’t wait to get rid of us “brats.” Huh. Clenching my teeth, I replayed the whole conversation in my head. They made me sick. We weren’t so crazy about them either. On that note, I slipped into a deep sleep.
I wandered the halls of KVMS, my school. Hearing sounds coming from the now dark cafetorium, I headed there. Chase, Malerie, Louis, Asialie, and Ella sat at one of the lunch tables. They had their heads lowered, voices hushed. I stepped closer to hear what they were saying. They abruptly stopped whispering, turning to stare at me. Elated to see them again, I felt like running over and giving them all a great big hug, but something stopped me in my tracks. Their expressions were all wrong. Instead of smiles, looks of fear and perplexity greeted me.
“Lily,” I heard a voice say, “don’t do anything hasty. Just put it down and we’ll work this out.”
I turned to see Dustin slowly backing away from me, hands up. “Please, don’t shoot!” He got down on his knees, eyes pleading. “I’ll do anything. Look, I’m sorry for everything I’ve done. You’re right to be mad, just please don’t shoot.”
Bewildered by this peculiar spectacle, I tried to assure him that I had no idea what he was talking about. I had no intention of hurting him. Dustin didn’t believe me. He continued to beg and whimper. This was so unlike him. Then I saw it. That thing in my hand. My shaking hand was pointing it right at him.
Wacko Academy Page 8
