While in class we stayed in the same groups together at a table. We had a couple of minutes left before class started so we got to talking. "How's your first day going?" I said, everyone except Energy groaned then responded "Hard" Energy and I laughed at them. By the end of class we had a few more laughs and conversations and Energy and I had made some friends. One of the recruiters drove us to Energy's house. I went in with them dreading seeing my parents. We went into their room to hang out for a few hours until we noticed it was getting late and we decided to do one more thing before we went to sleep "Truth or dare?"  Since there were only 2 of us we played stone sheet shears. She won so they went first.

"Truth or Dare?"

"Dare"

"I dare you to kiss someone"

"You should have chosen something harder you weirdo"

I then proceeded to kiss Energy on the cheek (platonically of course)

They must have saw something because they turned their head quickly

"T-that's not what I said"

"I kissed someone didn't I?"

"Yeah, your turn"

"ok truth or dare?"

"I'm not a punk so dare"

"I dare you to steal something from your dad"

"You're so stupid I pick truth now"

"You can't change that's cheating"

"Who's going to stop me?"

"Ok is it true that I'm stronger than you"

"Oh gods no, you know this"

I scuffed. "Liar prove it"

"Ok let's arm wrestle"

Like always Energy won

"You cheated"

"How?"

"There wasn't a referee"

"That means you cheated too"

"I still would've won if you didn't cheat"

"That doesn't even make sense, now truth or dare"

"Now that I know we can cheat, dare"

"You an't cheat your way out of this one run around the house clucking like a gurt (chicken), you have to finish on a full lap"

"That is the dumbest thing I've heard all day, but if I get in trouble it's your fault"

"Agreed"

I then proceeded to run around the house clucking as quietly as possible, somehow Energy's parents still caught me and we had to go to sleep. In the morning I woke up to 47 missed calls from my moms and 34 unread messages. I looked at my phone as fear rushed into my body. I hurried home as fast as possible. When I got home my moms swarmed me telling me they were worried and that punishment would be discussed when I got back home. I saw the military truck and hopped in. At the facility we met up with our friends and started the 2nd day of training. Today we jogged the course to finish in 2 minutes so we didn't have to do the course twice. Our officer noticed and made the entire group run the course 3 more times. By the second time, everybody was ready for sweet sweet death to take them, but sadly everyone lived and suffered through the next half of the day. After lunch everyone had enough energy to start class. Mr. Law started his introduction. "Yesterday I let everyone get to know each other now that you do I can start our first lesson, of course, we'll do math and language arts but first who can give me the definition of imperialism?'' Energy raised her hands. " Yes, you, what do you think it is?" " A policy of extending country's or continent, or planet's power and influence through diplomacy or military force."

Energy responded "Correct, does anyone else have a different answer? No? So for today I want you all to individually write a short story about Imperialism and the different ways it can affect countries and start wars. I'll give you all an hour then you're free to go.Starting now." An hour later everyone gave Mr. Law their papers and walked out of the room." Hey Gaia?" Energy said, " Yeah?" Why do you think he asked us about Imperialism?" I looked at them. "I don't know, maybe because we're in the military?" "Yeah, but do you think a war is coming?" I turned to Energy  "What?" I took their hands. "Energy, there is no reason to be worried. There is nothing to worry about. It's just them thinking ahead or something ok?" "Ok" they said. I then hugged them for reassurance and we held hands, something we were starting to do a lot more often. After that, we got in the truck and were dropped off at Energy's house and then Energy drove me home.

My moms were standing at the door staring into my soul. I walked into the house and unexpectedly they were calm and didn't even discuss the punishment with me. They just removed everything from my room and grounded me for a week and a half. I simply went to bed because I had nothing else to do. When I woke up I was berated once again for choosing the military before college but in the morning I still got on the military truck and arrived at the military base for the 3rd day of training.

We went through the motions like yesterday except we finished first again and we were the only ones who had to do it twice today. At lunch, we had a casual conversation. Once Mr. Law's class came up we started to lean more heavily into war. He was asking questions like "If you were deployed right now would you know what to do?" and talking about our officer teaching us to use guns like rifles and pistols. That kind of scared  Energy and I but we thought since this was the military that it must've been normal. Mr. Law then gave us a pop quiz. Eventually Mr. Law left and Sargent Axel walked into the room with a few other soldiers who were holding guns. They placed them on a table and had us learn how each gun worked so we could tell which gun it was in a dangerous situation like being in the dark. Once that was over and it was time for everyone to head home Energy and the rest of us decided to go to QQ's diner and we talked through the entire afternoon.

Our faces occasionally turning a warm purple when looking at each other.