[March 9th, 2021]
I awake at 3AM sharp, ready for my day. I get out of my bed in a hurry and make my way towards the shower. I turn the knob and cold water pours from the shower head. What was that woman's name? Ignoring my thoughts for a moment, I put a towel out on top of the toilet, then step into the shower. The warm water trickles down my back. I grab the shampoo and pop off the lid. I pour it in my hair and, of course, it trickles down my forehead and into my eyes. I hiss in pain, set it down, and quickly poke my arm out to grab the towel I'd set out before and rub the shampoo out of my eye. It's fine though, it's happened before, and will happen again. I lather myself with soap and wash the shampoo out of my hair. I let the water wash the soap off. I get out, grab some clothes, and slide them on. I just get on a hoodie and some jeans, and that's about as eventful the morning is. They said that recruits should wear deep comfortable clothing. They also said that you need to remove all piercings, but I don't think that I have any reason to worry about that, after all, I don't even have any piercings. When I walk into the mess hall 40 minutes later, I see everyone eating their breakfast. Luckily the breakfast is free so we can get what we want and not have to worry about the cost. Well, whatever. I'm just going to eat as much as I can before boarding the bus. I decided on 2 waffles, some eggs, and bacon. I grab all of that and some water, then move to find Brandon. I scan the room and see him talking to a very uncomfortable looking woman. A rather short woman with bunned, brown, hair. I hurry over to him to see what's happening. As I get closer I see the woman glancing towards me uncomfortably. She's fidgeting a little, afraid of my borderline pervers friend. "Alright Brandon, you can stop." He turns to me. "Oh, Jack! You're here!" "Yes, now stop messing around. You're obviously making this woman uncomfortable." "Sorry, just figured that I'd make a friend since you couldn't." I go to look at her and apologize for my friend, but she speaks first. "It's fine, It just made me a little bit uncomfortable." "Say, I never got your name." "It's Mabel." "It's nice to meet you, I'm Jackson. You're free to sit with us if you'd like, I'll just have to make sure that Brandon doesn't do anything too idiotic." "Hmmf?" I look to the source of the noise and see a confused Brandon with his mouth stuffed with food. We sit down and Brandon speaks up after swallowing his food. "Sorry for earlier." Mabel smiles gently and responds, "It's alright, I know that you didn't have any bad intentions." I don't want to be left out, so I continue the conversation with small talk. "Say, did you get done with whatever you had to do yesterday? It seemed like you were in a hurry." I, of course, already know that she didn't have anything to do. She was just trying to get away from the conversation that we were having in the hallway. "Oh yeah, that was you that I talked to yesterday, wasn't it?" "Yeah, we were talking about it after you left." "Oh, you were there too?" She asks Brandon. "Well, it's more like he just happened to be stalking me while we were talking. We were talking after you left. He probably annoyed you like he did earlier so we could be on better terms." "What were you talking about?" Brandon takes a huge bite of his waffle and speaks through his food while covering his mouth. "First of all, Jack, you don't know if it was for your sake. Second of all, Jack was worried that he made you upset." "No I wasn't. I just didn't know if the conversation ended on good or bad terms." I interject. She smiles slightly at our conflict. I feel a sudden curiosity of why someone as upbeat as here would enlist. "Anyways, why're you joining the Army? You don't seem like the type of person to enlist." She seems deep in thought, seemingly trying to remember why she was doing it herself, or thinking about if she should tell us or not. "My father is in the Army and he assured me that he could help me set up the foundation of a career in the Army." "Oh, I can see that motivating you to join." I hear Brandon respond. We continue to eat as we converse about our parents. "My father never really cared for me." They look at me, both surprised, but both for a different purpose. One is surprised that I'd share that information with someone that I'd just met, the other surprised by my father's actions. "Why would he do that?" "He just simply didn't want me. My mother got pregnant and he insisted on aborting, but she didn't want to abort me. He stayed because he loved my mother but he didn't care too much for caring for me. Of course he had the human decency to not abuse me or anything of the sort. He still made sure not to do anything that'd harm me. He never yelled at me or disciplined me either. Nor did he really ever talk to me. He more or less just ignored me." Mabel looks at me disheartened by my father's actions. "I'm surprised that you'd share that information with someone that you had only met yesterday, it took 3 months before you told me about your problems at home." I simply respond with "Trust is the foundation of comradery and cooperation." The rest of the meal goes by in silence. Then we board the bus.