Do You believe in fate?

Doing good

The first thing I did after the dog days was take a bath. It turned out that there was a laundry room in the barracks with the private rooms. For a small fee, one could get a bathtub filled with clean hot water. I scrubbed and scrubbed myself well by a bucket of water and rinsed off the soap before I sat down in the tub. It did good, I came to feel thoroughly warm again and my sore muscles also benefited from it.

I went to the canteen and got a stew of unknown origin, but there was sourdough bread and milk, so I did not complain, it was better than the food we had received the last week.

As I sat eating my food and reading in one of my books I brought along, a scraper sounded next to me, someone pulled out the chair and sat down. I looked around, there were plenty of vacancies ... then I looked for who had sat down next to me. It was a big guy, he looked like someone used to hard work in the country. He must have served the army before entering the academy.

"Don’t be fooled!" He said before taking a spoonful of the stew. He wrinkled his nose and looked over at me.

"That's why we get dog food for a whole week, so we're not complaining about the food here!" I just nodded in agreement and went back to reading my book. Soon there was the scrape with several chairs, and when I looked up I saw several sitting at my table. It was my sleeping buddies from the last week.

"He reads too!" Commented my sidekick and the others nodded as if to confirm his observation.

"You're a weird guy, but you're alright!" Said my sidekick and kindly slapped me on the shoulder. I nodded a thank you and tried to read in my book again, but immediately people around me started talking to me.

I had been something of a loner at boarding school, I preferred my studies and my classmates had respected this. I had not been unpopular, but when my nose was buried in a book, people often just left me alone. So to say I was surprised was an understatement.

"Where are you from?" Was there one who started but before I had time to answer

"How are the private quarters?" Or "Why do you not eat with the other privileged?" The last question made me look around. There were only us from our group. We probably had an eight man out of twenty of our team.

"I'm not privileged, so I'm not alde!" I mumbled and ate without looking at any of the others.

"No, we're probably aware of that!" Laughed my sidekick loudly and slapped his hand on the table.

"Nah, those lads they all slept in in their warm beds every night, but you!" He patted me kindly on the shoulders again, a little harder than I cared, but I did not say anything about it.

"You persevered and slept with us other ordinary people!" I nodded kindly to him as I continued to eat. There was still talk, but not much I needed to contribute to. I was not ungrateful to Earl, but I got the feeling that I had been caught a little in between two pits. That of the common people, as they called themselves, and that of the nobles. It could make it hard to belong.

As soon as I finished eating, I got up and wished the others a good night before retiring to my room.

I sat down at the table and tried to read in my book. But I had lost the thread and had to give up. Instead, I found paper and ink, to write to my parents, I told about my surroundings, about the dog days and for the first time in my school days, I could write home about others. I had never thought that I had always been pretty closed off and not had other people to write home about. I hoped my mother would be happy about this, she had often when I was a child wished I had peers to be with. Even though I had not missed it, I still did not, but I was not blind, the officer academy was hard and challenging, it couldn't hurt to have someone to work with.

The next morning I got up early, it was shortly before dawn. I hurried to the bathroom and washed myself in a bucket of hot water. I had overheard the night before that they only had cold water in the other barracks. It was probably not that bad in the summer, but I was glad I could have hot water for the winter. I just had to be frugal with my money. I had not yet looked at how much money the Earl gave me, but I was sure that with my salary I would probably be able to manage with his grant.

When I was ready in my uniform and went out for breakfast, I noticed that the others who slept in the private room went to the main building. I chose to follow suit and entered a dining room, not a canteen. Here people sat down and ordered breakfast by menu. I slowly went back out the door and walked to the canteen.

There I got solid oatmeal, coffee and a glass of milk. I found the table from the night before empty and sat down in the same place again. It did not take long, then my comrades came and sat down with me.

"Good morning" I greeted politely, while I noticed that the others also sat in the same seats as before. I looked over at him who the night before had asked why I was eating with them.

"I've just been to the dining room!" he looked over at me and looked down at my food. With mouth full of oatmeal:

"So they do not eat better than us!" He sounded a smacking answer. I shrugged,

"I would know nothing about that ... I left without looking at the food!" My side man let out a loud laugh. I looked at him in surprise.

"You say you were standing in the dining room where they serve the food while you sit down and you decide for yourself what you want to eat, but left it to get lukewarm lumpy oatmeal?" I looked down at the oatmeal.

"It's still better than the food last week, even though it could well use a pat of butter!" The others nodded and mumbled that they agreed. I got up and went up to the kitchen. I waved one of the men cooking over to me.

"What do you need for a piece of butter?" He stared at me in surprise.

"Uhmm, I think we buy it on glass!" I sighed deeply, tossed him some small coins, more than I gave for a hot bath, it had to suffice.

"Give me a glass!" he took the money and ran for a glass.

"Here!" He mumbled when he came back and handed it to me. I nodded a thank you and went back to our table.

"Then there's butter!" I said, taking a blob with my spoon before putting it on the table. The others stared at me in disbelief before diging in to the glass. Soon it was empty, the butter actually helped quite a bit on the porridge.

All morning we sat for tactics teaching, I found out that I had read several of the books that belonged to our curriculum. The earl had all the books in his library and over the years I had been allowed to borrow from them. Once again, I let myself be engrossed in teaching and the books. It was only when one of my eating buddies poked me in the side to ask a question that it dawned on me that the material was not as easy for everyone. I answered in a low voice and soon we were sitting and working together. After class there was lunch and when we sat around the table again, one of the others asked where I had served before I got to the academy.

"I went to military boarding school!" I mumbled and there was a low-pitched mumble,

"Which one?" My side man wanted to know. I sighed, straightened my back and lifted my head from my food.

"The Royal!" There were gasps of surprise from across the table. I shook my head.

"My parents are in the service of an estate, The lord was a soldier and his children are not!" I could see some of the others nodding understandingly.

"When I showed myself at an early age as intelligent and a hard worker, he let me enroll. When I was done he had given me access here!" There was mumbling and people started shoveling in, without looking at me. I shook my head.

"I am the son of the first foodmen and his wife the ladys maid! The lord is just disappointed in his sons and I got the chance to do for him what they have refused!" My side side man took the glass and held it up to his mouth, paused and then put the glass down again.

"So you do not have money?" I shook my head.

"Only the pocket money I got from home ... there was paid for my room before I came!" Glances were sent back and forth between the others, some shrugging while others shook their heads.

"So if you are not a nobleman and have not served in the army before, how did you get a place?" I shrugged.

"I finished school as the best in my grade and then I got a recommendation!" The one I had worked with during class nodded.

"He's in control of the material!" He said then with a shrug on one side, and then there was a nod around the table.

"You're still weird, but you're good enough!" My side man patted me on the shoulder and resumed his meal.