5
BIRTHDAY PRESENT
After my adventure with Joseph, I returned to the barracks, washed up, and redressed into my military uniform. The other cadets were enjoying their leisure time talking or flipping through smuggled magazines.
I took a seat on the bed, brushing away an offer from another cadet to look over the magazine he had taken from the other recruits. Instead, I took a book from under my bunk and studied.
Steps echoed, and I heard the rush of cadets muttering as they tried to hide their contraband before scattering. I lifted my eyes from the pages of the book, and glanced over the trim of the cover, catching sight of a man in a white coat standing over a bunk and taking a magazine from a cadet’s hands. I immediately sat up when I realized it was Dr. Nicholson and the staff sergea
