Battle Dress by Amy Efaw Read Free Book Online

“Hurry up! Just stick that name tag on, then I’ll put the claspy things on—”
    “Dammits,” Ping said.
    “What?” I looked at Ping. Is he mad at me?
    “Quick! Somebody! Throw me the belt!” Boguslavsky yelled.
    “Dammits,” Ping said. “Those clasps are called ‘dammits. ’ Um, could you, like, unbutton your pocket?”
    The guy called Hickman, who had complained about the door being open, tossed Boguslavsky my belt.
    “Sure. ...” I attacked the button.
    Boguslavsky jumped over to me and started shoving the belt through the belt loops on my pants. “Hope you don’t mind, Andi, but I need to know how long this has to be ...”
    “Uh ... no. It’s okay ...” I held my stomach in.
    “You know, ’cause they’re such a pain in the butt.” Ping pulled at the flap of my pocket and stuck one end of the name tag into the fabric. “You lose them, they’re small, they pinch your fingers.” He grinned. “Dammits.”
    “Hey, watch it,” Boguslavsky said. “We’ve got a lady in the room.”
    “Oops, sorry,” Ping said. “Then again, some people call them ‘frogs.‘”
    “What are you, Ping?” Hickman sneered. “Some kind of walking military manual?” He went to stand behind Ping. “Oh, that’s right.” He looked around the room. “Y’all, this guy’s a sergeant in the U.S. Army!”
    “Correction,” Ping said, stabbing the flap with the other end of the name tag. “Was a sergeant. Now I’m a knucklehead.”
    “Anyone got a knife?” Boguslavsky sighed. “Yeah, right. A knife in this place. This thing could wrap twice around her waist. I need to cut—”
    “WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE?” Cadet Daily stomped into the room.
    My attendants melted away from me and slid to attention. The half-pinned name tag dangled from my shirt pocket.
    “I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WEAK, LILY-LIVERED PERVERTS HAVE BEEN DOING WITH THAT FEMALE CLASSMATE OF YOURS, BUT I DO KNOW THAT I GAVE YOU FIVE MINUTES TO SQUARE HER AWAY, THIRD SQUAD! FIVE MINUTES! ” He paced back and forth, back and forth in front of the wardrobe closets, kicking my newly issued items out of his path. “I DIDN’T GIVE YOU SIX MINUTES, THIRD SQUAD, AND I DIDN’T GIVE YOU FIVE AND A HALF. I GAVE YOU FIVE . FIVE MEANS FIVE! ” He rubbed the back of his neck and continued to pace. “ARE YOU GONNA LEAVE A MINUTE LATE WHEN YOU KNOW THAT ARTILLERY’S COMING INTO YOUR POSITION? ARTILLERY’S ON TIME, ON TARGET. AND YOU’RE DEAD! ” Then he stopped and faced us with his hands on his hips. “Time management’s everything, Third Squad.”
    Our chattering teeth and knocking knees applauded appropriately.

    4:25 P.M.
    Ten minutes later we were standing at attention in North Area among a mass of other new cadets. Nothing shaded us from the blazing sun that beat down on our dripping heads. Cadet Daily had told us that we new cadets weren’t wearing our hats to the Oath Ceremony. We were too incompetent to march and wear hats on our heads, he had said. I blinked over and over to keep the sweat out of my eyes.
    Cadet Daily’s face suddenly appeared an inch from mine. “Davis, you need a haircut! Big time.” He looked around my left shoulder, then my right. “You look like a powder puff! Come on.” He nudged me out of line. “We have fifteen minutes till first call.”
    He led me across North Area, dodging pinging beanheads and bellowing cadets. “You’re not going to be my problem child, are you, Davis?” He paused. “You show up in some kind of preppy boat shoes, I have to get you shoes. You show up with a poofy hairdo, and I have to take you to get your hair cut. You blab your whole life story to another female waiting to see the Cadet in the Red Sash. You let every guy in your squad put his hands all over you!” He looked at me. “You have no clue what this place is about, do you, Davis?”
    I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. “No, sir.”
    We walked down some stairs into an underground tunnel.
    “It’s about