SG Vol. 1 pt. 14

Breaking Students; Annoyances

An open spot at one of the tables in the cafeteria serves as a seat for Clover and me.

I’ve got some mashed potatoes, a pork chop, and beans on my plate. Clover went for the pizza despite my warning and got a… chocolate milk.

“You’re like my daughter,” I tell her.

Clover blushes and tilts her head, her lips parted like she’s trying to think of something to say, but she just blushes and stares at me instead.

For fuck's sake. Don’t tell me she…

“My actual daughter. Her name is Naomi,” I explain.

“A-ah! I – I see. That makes sense,” Clover replies while waving her hands in front of her face.

I hope she gets stuck with desk work and never has to deal with actual patients.

“So… you have a daughter?” Clover asks me before taking a sip of her chocolate milk.

I didn’t even know chocolate milk was an option in here.

“Yeah,” I answer.

“How old is she?” Clover asks.

“Ten.” I swear this is the only small talk that people ever make with me. On top of that, I keep on catching her looking down at my hands.

“A-and… the mother?”

“A bitch.”

Clover almost spits out her chocolate milk.

“Before you ask,” I say, “since everybody always wants to know, yes, I’m still married to her. Sure as fuck don’t enjoy it, though.”

“If… if it’s not too much to ask, why don’t you leave her?” Clover asks.

Yeah, that question also usually pops up. I must have had this exact conversation hundreds of times in the past decade. “Because she takes care of my daughter and mom when I’m not around. Anyways, you said you’re new here. Where were you before?” I change the subject. Sure, I could keep on talking about that bitch because then it’d get me even more pissed off which would make training my cadets even more effective, but I’d rather not think about her. I just want to eat my pork chop, have this conversation, finish training my cadets, and then go home to Naomi.

“Oh! Umm, I was just at the academy in Japan training. This is my first assignment.”

“Japan, huh? I’ve heard good things about the joint academies there.”

“They trained us to become the best nurses in the world!” Clover says with a proud look on her face.

Too bad they didn’t train her how to act like she belongs in the military.

“What were you doing before the draft?” I ask her.

“Oh, umm, I – I wouldn’t really say I was drafted… I got permission to study at a private university for medicine in exchange for enlisting once I had my degree,” Clover explains.

Huh. She might not be as worthless as I thought. “That so?”

She nods her head while sipping more of her chocolate milk through her straw. “I didn’t enlist until I was twenty-two, but I planned on it from the start!”

“Guess that makes you an old hound then.”

“An… an old hound?”

“Yeah. It’s what us wolves call the enlisted who enlisted on their own will after eighteen.”

“But I’m only twenty-four!”

“You’re an old hound now, Clark.”

“You can just call me Clover…”

“Alright, Clark.”

Clover looks up at me and pouts before smiling and looking down at her food. “Thanks,” she says.

“For what?” I ask.

“For talking to me. The colonel told me that I should talk to you since we’re both new here, but he warned me that you might be… umm, a bit rough around the edges.”

That bastard. He’s not wrong, but still. Bastard. “I’m not that new. Just never been an instructor before. Was trained here and have been stationed here for… shit, about seven years in total.”

“O-oh. What were you doing before?”

This girl doesn’t know anything about me apparently. “Front lines pilot.”

She lowers her pizza back down and says, “Oh.”

The people who have never been on the front lines can’t imagine just how truly horrible it is. People like Clover only ever deal with the aftermath after hundreds if not thousands of our men and women are brought back with ruined bodies and broken machines.

They have no idea just how fucking horrible it is out there.

I lift my head and see a ghostly figure standing at the far end of the cafeteria.

Ghosts aren’t real. She’s just in my head, and when I blink my eyes, she’s gone.

I return to my pork chop.

Pork chops taste good when dipped in mashed potatoes.

“I’m sorry, I’ve been asking you personal questions,” Clover says.

“Don’t worry about it, Clark. You said this is your first assignment. Can’t blame you for not knowing boundaries yet,” I reply.

“Sorry…”

She’s barely eaten any of her pizza.

“Told you it’d be gross,” I say.

“E-eh?” she asks.

“Your pizza.”

“Ah… you were right. I should have skipped it.”

I swap our trays around.

“Wh-what are you doing?” she asks me.

“Eating pizza,” I answer before taking a large bite out of her pizza.

“But—”

“I’ll eat anything. You get used to eating shit when you’re on the front lines. So, just this once, I’ll do you a favor. Don’t complain about me abusing my cadets in exchange.”

She pouts then sighs at me. “Fine… thanks.”

This pizza is shit. I don’t know how they can fuck up a pizza this badly. The chefs in here are great fucking cooks who make everything else perfectly, but when it comes to pizza, they somehow make the cheese cold and slimy. Just… how the fuck does that happen, and how are they alright with serving it?

Something crashes into my back while I’m trying to eat. Well, not something, but somebody. I can tell by the flat feeling against my back and their arms draped over my shoulders exactly who it is.

“Yo! Ya wanna explain how ya burnt one of my babies, wolf?” a girlish voice asks from behind me. Despite how friendly she’s trying to act and sound, I know that she’s got to be pissed off at me.

Annoying brat.

“You should be grateful I only got the leg grazed when I’m down one eye,” I tell her.

“Oi. Ya think I’m goin’ to buy that excuse? Ya don’t get to use excuses when you’re supposed to be one of our aces,” she says. “And who’s this? Ya finally cheatin’ on your woman?”

I take another bite out of this shit to let Clover answer for me.

“I’m – it’s not… it’s not like that,” Clover answers. I should have just answered instead of letting her. “And I’m Clover!”

“Ya new here, Clove?” the girl behind me asks.

“I am, yes.”

“I see, I see! Well, ya can call me Tabs. Short for Tabitha. Last name Strauss. I’m one of the engineers around these parts responsible for keeping this wolf’s machine runnin’, but I wish he’d take care of her as much as we try to.”

“One fuckin’ burn in a dozen missions and you get like this,” I say after finishing the pizza. This brat, every fucking time I ever get hit, will give me shit for weeks.

Clover giggles to herself and says, “He won’t be able to hurt your ‘babies’ anymore at least.”

“Eh? What’s that?” Tabitha asks.

“Got transferred. Stuck training a bunch of brats now,” I explain.

“Woah, seriously? They transferred ya to bein’ some sort of brat tamer?”

“Unfortunately.”

“Sounds like they’re finally neuterin’ the wolf.”

“Sure fuckin’ feels that way.”

“Well, if it makes ya feel any better, your unit ain’t gettin’ moved or reassigned. She’s still all yours as far as we’re concerned.”

I let out a sigh of relief. That means that there’s still hope I won’t be stuck with brats all day every day, but… that would also mean leaving Naomi again.

Fuck, I don’t know how to feel about this. I’m excited that I might get to go back out to the front lines, but at the same time, what kind of shitty fucking father gets excited about putting his life in danger and leaving his daughter behind?

Naomi deserves better.

“How’s the little one?” Tabitha asks me. “I bet she’s excited you’re stayin’ around here now.”

“She is,” I answer. “And no, I’m not letting you see her again. I don’t need you corrupting her.”

“C’mon! I’ll tune up your ride for ya free of charge if ya let me see that cutie.”

I sigh in defeat. She knows how to win me over. “Fine. You’re lucky that she likes you.”

“Good dog,” Tabitha says, patting the top of my head.

I turn around and glare at her.

Staring me right back into my eyes, Tabitha says, “See this, Clove? Ya can’t back down when a dog is bein’ disobedient. Ya gotta stare at them back until they submit.”

“I seriously hate you,” I say.

“Right back ‘atcha, wolf,” Tabitha says, ruffles up my hair, then runs away before I have a chance to hit her.

I wish she had a single fucking weakness I could use against her. She’s too comfortable with her height and doesn’t care about being taller than most men, has nothing against being flatter than a fucking board, and just – fuck, I don’t how to beat her. Pisses me off.

“You two seemed friendly!” Clover says. She sounds like she’s trying to act fine, but when I look at her, she seems a bit… I don’t know. Insecure? Probably. Don’t know why she’d feel like that, but I don’t care. I’m annoyed now.

“She’s basically my older sister,” I explain. “She’s been giving me shit ever since I first enlisted and treats me like some puppy even though she’s only a year older than me. She’s a fucking genius when it comes to machine shit, but she’s an annoyance more than anything else.”

“This base is much livelier than my academy was. Everybody was very formal there, and I never saw anybody with personalities like yours and Tabitha’s while I was there. It’s – it’s nice.”

I wish some of that formality rubbed off on her. “And what do you mean when you say personalities like me and Tabs? Don’t lump me in with her, either.”

“S-sorry. I just mean… you’re very unique!”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” I ask Clover, focusing my glare at her now.

She scoots away on the bench.