Carly by Lyn Cote Read Free Book Online Page A

were flatware touching plates and coffee cups being put down on the Formica tabletop. With one eye on the clock
     over the door, Carly worked her way through the plate of food. The clock hand ticked around toward the quarter-hour and the
     sergeant shouted, “One minute. Finish now!” Unfortunately, she was standing right behind Carly. The DI was so close that Carly
     could hear her breathing.
    Carly looked down, gathering her courage to force down the last of breakfast. Without warning, Alex-somebody spat onto the
     remaining few bites left on Carly’s plate. Carly gasped with surprise.
    “Clean up those plates now!”
    Carly stared at her plate in shock, horror. Then, her fork in midair, she turned to Alex-somebody and stared in disbelief.
    “What’s wrong with this table?” roared the DI right at Carly’s shoulder. “Why is this table just sitting here when everyone
     else is ready to go?”
    Carly looked around and realized she wasn’t the only one who’d seen what Alex-whoever had done. Horrified faces looked back
     at her.
    “Eat!” The sergeant shouted into her ear. “Scrape that plate clean, recruit!”
    Carly stared down at the last two bites of food. Should she say something? In the normal universe, she would know what to
     do. But here, anything might happen if she told the truth. Carly closed her eyes and scooped the remainder of the food into
     her mouth. A shudder of pure disgust went through her like a wild jet of green slime. She gagged and gasped for breath.
    “Attention! Outside! Into tight formation!”
    Carly staggered to her feet and along with the rest of the company, she deposited her tray on the kitchen counter on her way
     out the door. Outside, the summer sun was already beating down. At the bottom of the short flight of steps, the combination
     of the bright sunlight and her revulsion hit her. Carly doubled over and vomited. She vomited until everything that she’d
     just eaten poured out onto the ground at her feet. Cold sweat dotted her forehead. Finally, her stomach was empty. She tried
     to straighten, but weakness made her lightheaded; she slid to kneel on the ground.
    “What in the heck did you do that for?” her DI yelled into her ear.
    Carly couldn’t even look at her. The world was still kind of undulating beneath her. And the sour taste in her mouth threatened
     to push her into the dry heaves.
    “Someone spit onto her plate, and she ate it anyway.”
    Carly opened her eyes and saw that the blond recruit with a bashful face had spoken.
    “What did you say, recruit?” The DI switched her wrath to “Dolly.”
    “Someone spit onto her plate, and she ate it anyway,” the blonde repeated.
    “You expect me to believe that?” the DI demanded.
    The blonde recruit shrugged.
    The DI turned back to Carly. “Did someone spit onto your plate?”
    Carly didn’t know whether to say yes or no. Again, all the rules of conduct had changed. In the reception hall, she’d been
     punished when Alex-somebody had tried to trip her. What would the sergeant do to her about this?
    “I asked you a question, you piece of garbage!” the DI yelled an inch from Carly’s face.
    Carly nodded but refused to look up at her. Caught between conflicting impulses, she stared at the ground away from the reeking
     contents of her stomach.
    “Miss Stick-My-Nose-into-Other-People’s-Business, drop and give me twenty!” the DI ordered.
    Carly watched in shock as the sergeant punished the blonde for telling the truth. What would the DI have done if Carly had
     pointed an accusing finger at Alex-somebody?
    The DI dragged Carly up by her collar. “Get into formation! In the army, you may have to do something worse than eat someone
     else’s spit! Don’t you dare faint on me or I’ll drop the whole platoon!”
    Feeling drained and desperate, Carly walked as if moving through Jell-O to her place in formation. She reached deep down inside
     herself and dragged up strength and will. Over and over, she