My Soldier Mate

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:

NALA POV CONTINUED:

It was three in the morning when my alarm went off. It was just a vibration. So she didn’t hear it. I got up and got into the shower and got ready for the day. I put on my uniform. I was getting ready to leave. I looked at her and I sighed and went over to her. I shook her awake and said “Amanda, it is time to get up and get going. We have a roll call.”

Amanda replied “my alarm clock didn’t go off, so not when my alarm clock goes off, then I will get up. Not a minute earlier.”

I replied “Amanda, if you don’t get up and start you will get into trouble. Come on, I am trying to save you from dealing with what you dealt with yesterday, once with the Captain and the first Sergeant and the second time with the Corporal. Get up. I will not bail you out, and I will not lie to you if you are late. And I am leaving right now.”

Amanda replied “then just leave. I will deal with the punishment when I get there. I don’t need you looking out for me.” I then gave up and walked out of the room and started walking the quad. That is when I saw another woman. She looked lost, and I asked “hey, do you need help?”

She replied “Yes. I don’t know where I am going. Are you new here as well?”

I replied “I just came yesterday. You can come with me if you want. I am Nala, by the way.”

She replied “me too, and thank you so much. I didn’t want to be late on my first day. And my name is Julia.” We shook our hands and that is when we started to walk to roll call. We started to talk. I knew for a fact I could trust her. Just then, when we were walking into the building, she started to act weird. She had her nose up in the air like she was smelling for something. I asked “are you alright, you are acting weird.”

Julia replied “yeah, I am okay. I just smelt something, that smelt perfect to me, and I was trying to figure out where I was smelling it from. That is all. I have a perfect sense of smell.”

I replied “well okay, that is no problem, well good luck on finding the smell.” She smiled at me and I smiled back. That is when I saw Alex and Jason. I walked right to them and said “hey guys.” They turned around and Alex greeted me while Julia and Jason were looking straight at each other. I smiled and I said “Jason, Alex. She is my new friend Julia. Julia, this is Alex and that is Jason.” They continued to stare at each other. Which was weird. But if that is what they were into. I will not stop them. Jason whispered the word “mate.” I didn’t understand because it made no sense to me, but hey, what people are into is their thing. I left them alone, and went to go stand in my spot and stood there. I was paying attention to when it was about to start. That is when the door opened, in walked the Corporal, the first Sergeant, the commanding officer all came in. The commanding officer yelled for us to stand at attention. We all got into our positions. I noticed that Amanda once again didn’t make it. Commander David Johnson came right up to me and asked out loud “Private Ashton, where is your bunkie?”

I replied “Sir, I tried to wake her up. She said, I quoted “my alarm clock didn’t go off, so not when my alarm clock goes off, then I will get up. Not a minute earlier.” When I told her that she needed to get up for a roll call, she was fighting me about it and told me to leave her alone. So I did.”

Commander David Johnson said “Okay, thank you. So we are going to move on with what is on the agenda for today. First, we have a ten-mile run in exactly ten minutes. Then we will be doing exercises, then hand-in-hand combat training. Since we had an incident last night with clothes, I might as well go over the rules again so you know there are no tobacco products, no alcohol, no non-prescribed medications, do not carry personal valuables like expensive jewelry, cameras, talking back to drill sergeants, disobey orders. So, with that being said, let’s go stretch and go running. As we were about to leave the building, Amanda walked in… She had her face all done, and she had done her hair, not had the standard for women in the US Army. The First Sergeant Matthew Bell yelled “every one stands at ease.” We all did as he commanded. I was watching to know what was going to happen. Amanda replied “what happened? Why is everyone staring at me? I don’t understand.”

Corporal Noah Johnson replied “Ms. Emcko, didn’t I tell you to be here on time?”

Amanda replied “I am on time. We are getting ready for training right now. So, technically, I am on time.”

Corporal Noah Johnson replied “Well Ms. Emcko, you are wrong. You were supposed to be here for roll call, so you are late, and you will be running twenty miles more than the group, and you have got twenty minutes. You will be doing more training than the rest of the group. Let’s get a move on because we are running late.” With that, we all started to leave. Amanda found me and asked “why didn’t you wake me up? You are my roommate.”

I replied “I did try, so don’t try that bullshit. You need to start taking accountability for your own actions because you are in the real world, and we are not in high school.” With that she shut her mouth and went to her spot in line. Alex, Julia, Jason and I started to stretch with each other. Amanda was alone. She looked around and found us and decided to come into our group. She put on a flirty face while walking up to Alex and Jason. When she was close enough to us, she started to talk to us and asked “Will anyone be willing to run with me, so I don’t have to be alone to do that. I will make it worth your world please.” She was mainly looking at Alex.

Alex replied “no, I am not going to put myself on the radar because you can’t or won't start doing what you are told. I think no one will put themselves in the crossfire because of your decisions.”

Amanda replied “but you are big and strong. And you look like you need company and to release stress.”

Alex replied “I am not interested in you at all. Please stop trying to get me to sleep with you because that is very unattractive. I like to chase the person I am interested in. Not the other way around, because it gets boring. And right now, your personality is boring to me. You are a pick for me. And I don’t like to pick on girls.”

Amanda replied “I am not a pick me. I just want what I want and what I see, and I like it. I go after it. It is not a bad thing.” After that she stomped away from us. We got done with stretching when the Drill Sergeant Keith Hamliton said “Okay, let’s start to head for the ten-mile run, Ms. Emcko, you got twenty miles. Let’s go.” We all started to run.