Greenwood's jaw tightened. He hated remembering such memories.
It happened a long time ago. Long enough to stop hurting, and to an extent, had stopped hurting him. To an extent!
The mere thought made him angry. F*ck those bastards that claim time heals all. A little speech had opened the barely covered wound again. Wher was the healing they said time brought? F*ck them and their philosophies to hell.
Originally, he had a target for his rage; those bastards terrorists. After all, they were the ones that always killed people indiscriminately. At least, that was what he used to think. That was why he joined the army in the first place – to get rid of those heartless vermin in human skin.
But now, he did not know anymore. What if the man in black was actually a soldier chasing a so-called 'saint'?
The possibility that he might have joined camp with the real perpetrators drove him mad with rage. This time, he wasn't sure who to be mad at. Not anymore. And that just drove him madder.
The intense rage was expressed, unbridled, on his face. Officer Bridgestone saw it and did not like it.
"Do you have a problem, Woody?"
Wood looked straight at Officer Bridgestone and their eyes immediately met. They ended up staring at each other for minutes. The atmosphere became so tense that some of the other students were finding it hard to breathe.
The next day, Officer Bridgestone called a general assembly that involved everyone in the academy – staff and student.
They had all gathered and arranged themselves in an orderly manner of rows and columns that was separated in a way that it was easy to identify who were the first years, second years, and so on.
When the hour hand hit seven, Officer Bridgestone - who had stood in front of them, from the moment the first student arrived, till that moment – finally spoke up.
"Student Greenwood! Report! Now!"
Greenwood was startled to hear his name. He moved like a soldier. Swift, smart, with his head held high and his uniform as tidy as possible. He stood in front of Officer Bridgestone, raised his foot up, stomped it against the ground and saluted his superior.
"Face them!" Officer Bridgestone instructed him. Greenwood turned around and faced the crowd.
A song was played thrice. It was short and was an awkward-sounding song with a lot of modulations. At first, Greenwood, as well as the rest of the first years and a good number of the second years, was confused as he listened to the song. What the hell was this supposed to be?
"That," Officer Greenwood started. "….is the song specially written and directed by Officer Screech."
There were a few snickers and badly-concealed giggles in the crowd.
Officer Bridgestone raised his voice a little.
"I am aware of what many of you are thinking, but I would advise you to stop thinking it. I assure you, you do not want to know what it is like, to be punished by a Five-star Sound User."
The Officer waited for a few seconds, so, his words could sink in. Many of the faces showed a hint of fear, much to his pleasure. But there were still a good number of faces that did not stop smirking.
"And for those of you who have failed to understand the implication, just know that your thoughts emit sound waves too."
That cleared all the smirks.
It was Officer Bridgestone's turn to smirk.
"The song is called, 'The Old Hero Lady of Academy Campus.' Composed by the late Five-Star Officer Cringe and his girlfriend of the time, Five-star Officer Screech."
He turned to Greenwood and said,
"Sing it!"
"What?" Greenwood looked at Officer Bridgestone in shock. Sing? Why should he sing? He felt like he was being led into a trap.
"Do I have to repeat myself?"
"No, sir!"
"Good! Sing it!"
"Ahem!" Greenwood cleared his throat. "The Old Hero…."
He sang it the first time. It was surprisingly good. He got all modulations right and even though he could not sing at the pitch used in the Originals. He still managed to do justice to the song.
Officer Bridgestone was surprised. It was left to be if he was pleasantly so or not.
"Well, color me surprised and barf a truckload of bullets!" He said, using an absurd phrase that made no sense to most of the students. "Again!"
Greenwood sang the song again. And then was instructed to sing it a third time.
Officer Bridgestone gave him a very serious look.
"Your voice is surprising nice to listen to." The Officer said.
"I try, sir!" Wood answered.
"What do you think of the song?" Officer Bridgestone probed.
"It has really bad lyrics, sir. But it really challenges the singer's singing skills." Wood responded.
"And when you were called out, what first came to your mind?"
"That I was about to be punished in front of the whole academy."
At this point, the seniors began to snicker. A few of them shook their heads pitifully. Greenwood noticed it and so did Officer Bridgestone.
"When you heard this song for the first time, what came to mind?"
"When I first heard the song, I could not help but think about how it was capable of giving musicians everywhere a violent heart attack."
Officer Bridgstone's forehead squeezed together in a deep frown. HE looked at Officer Grim and Officer Keel.
Office Keel nodded while Grim, her counterpart beside her shook his head sadly.
"There is no need for this. Why would you do such a thing? It is not necessary." Officer Grim said.
"All students must learn the importance of total obedience." Officer Keel responded.
"And this thing Bridgestone is doing. How does that preach obedience?"
"They also need to understand that they are totally at the mercy of their superiors." Keel said.
Grim shook his head. "There's something wrong with all this. Something smells fishy. Don't you sense anything?"
"No! Now hush! Bridgestone is getting to the good part."
Officer Bridgestone now had a devilish smile on his face, that showed a few teeth and his face seemed to darken a few shades.
"Student Greenwood. Tell us, what are the secrets you have that you would rather take to your grave?"
Officer Grim's eyes opened wide. He raised his foot and leaned forward. HE was about to dash to the front, but Officer Keel spoke first, having kept an eye on him all the while.
"Stand down, Officer Grim."
"But…" Officer Grim tried to raise a complaint, but Officer Keel was not going to have any of it.
"No buts. Stand down!"
Greenwood was soon amusing and disgusting the entire academy.
"There was this one time I slept in the dumpster and ate rotten cat food when I was hungry. That time, I had just started living on the streets. The food did not sit well in me and made me sick and dizzy and I had this horrible stomach upset. Felix told me sometimes when he was in a similar situation, it always helped to take a walk around the central park.
"So, I took his advice and took that walk. But, halfway across the park, my bowels threatened to give way. I was insanely pressed and in the middle of the large park. It was just so really bad. I was going to sh*t my pants and that was the only one I had. To make it worse, it was nighttime and so the mobile toilets were out of the park.
"So, I made the tough, big boy decision and uh… left a massive present right there, right then. Man, it stank…"
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The Very Next Day,
"Run like you have spirit in you, will you?" Officer Bridgestone was in his usual voice and tone, yelling at Bea to pick up the pace. Her fellow mates were ahead of her by almost a kilometer.
It wasn't really her fault. She had been going through a period of rapid growth. She had recently gotten evidently taller, growing by almost a whole feet in the timespan of two months.
Her strength, speed and endurance had also received considerable boost due to the training. It had not eluded the attention and observation of the officers and so, all of a sudden, while in the middle of the early morning run, they increased the weight conveyed by the skin suit on her body.
And so, here she was, panting and trying her best to find a balance, retain the appropriate posture and adapt quickly, while being fiercely yelled at by Officer Bridgestone.
She tried to pick up the pace but of course, it wasn't that easy. Her body had been given a heavier burden.
She felt so uncomfortable, she was nearly moved to tears despite her recent toughening up. Being under Officer Bridgestone's direct, unbridled fire was just simply another level, really.
In the front, her colleagues continued jogging with a relaxed expression on their faces. Since Officer Bridgestone was not near them, thanks to Bea, they relaxed and slowed down their pace even more and began to converse among themselves.
"Anyone else worried about Bea?" Brady asked.
The others were quick to answer.
"Nope!"