"I don't know, Ma'am," Latisha said. "I was in the barracks." "Bowen?"
"Grace and I were playing ping pong when those two came in and started making trouble," Jan said. "We left and they followed us out, Ma'am."
"Waters?"
"Yes Ma'am," Grace said. "Just like Jan said, Ma'am."
Donaldson looked at Grenner and Dawson. "And if I asked you two I'd get a completely different version, right?"
"We just went in to play a game and they started harassing us, Ma'am," Lauren said, doing her best to look innocent.
Bullshit, Grace thought to herself.
"And so when they left the situation you just had to come out after them, right?" the blonde instructor asked. "You two are on restriction until Sunday. Bowen and Waters, you two were headed somewhere so get going. As for the rest of you, I think twenty pushups should help remind you that proper young ladies don't cluster around like a bunch of hooligans hoping for a fight. Now drop!"
Together Jan and Grace walked toward the trail that led to the cabins. "How the hell did we get away without having to do pushups?" Jan asked.
"Guess Viking decided we were telling the truth," Grace said. "And we were walking away rather than getting ready to fight."
"Yeah, there's a switch, eh?" Jan shook her head and gave a little laugh. "This place is getting to me, Grace. Next thing you know I'll be taking tests and trying to get into college too." They stopped, looked at each other, and began laughing. "Not," they said in unison.
"But it is good not to be in trouble," Grace said. "We could be back there doing pushups or even stuck on restriction."
"Short Shit will drop dead of shock," Jan said. "Bet I can get an extra hour of TV out of this."
They stopped where the trail split apart. "Lucky you," Grace said. "Carey's working late tonight but I bet tomorrow I can talk her into playing cards."
"Ooh, fun city," Jan said, taking the left side of the fork. "Night."
"See you tomorrow," Grace said, going to the right and heading for the cabin. It was starting to get dark, the trees becoming nothing more than silhouettes on either side of
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the trail. How does Carey find her way at night without a flashlight? The cabin came into view, the motion detector turning on the outside light once she was close enough. Wonder how long it'll take Viking to tell Carey what happened. Kneeling down next to the steps, she felt around for the false rock, then retrieved the key hidden within.
Once inside, Grace went to the refrigerator in search of the leftover pork chop Carey had told her earlier she could have. She had just put the plate in the microwave when the phone rang. "Guess it didn't take long," she said as she walked over to the phone. On the fourth ring the answering machine picked up.
"Grace, pick up the phone."
She put the receiver to her ear. "I didn't start it." "So I've heard."
"I didn't fight," Grace said, leaning against the counter. "I walked away."
"I heard that too. You did good, Grace. I'm proud of you for keeping your cool." Hearing the approval in Carey's voice, Grace smiled. "Thanks."
"So what are you doing right now?"
"Waiting for the pork chop to heat up. Can I have a soda?" "May I have a soda and yes."
Grace made a beeline to the refrigerator. "Thanks." "Only one and make sure there's grape left for me." "You have two left. I'm taking a root beer."
"All right. I'll be home around nine thirty. Try to leave some food in my fridge."
"I will," Grace said, pressing the cancel button just as the microwave started to beep. "So you're proud of me?"
"Yes Grace. You saw a situation starting and walked away. You wouldn't do that a month ago. You acted like a young lady instead of a juvenile delinquent."
"Are you very proud of me?"
She heard the chuckle on the other end of the line. "Don't push it. What do you want?" "Well there are five ice cream bars in the freezer…."
"And I wonder why my grocery bill's jumped twenty bucks a week. One and you'd better wipe out the microwave this time. I know you didn't put a paper towel over your plate to keep the splatter down."
171 "Whoops. I forgot."
"Just like you forgot to replace the roll of toilet paper after you used up the last sheet." "I said I was sorry about that."
"That didn't help me when I was sitting there with nothing to dry myself with. Go eat and I'll see you when I get home." They said their goodbyes and Grace hung up the phone.
"I knew you'd be proud of me," she said aloud to herself as she took the plate from the microwave. While it bothered her that Grenner had gotten away with calling her a coward in front of the others, Grace took a certain amount of satisfaction in not being the one on restriction. "Besides," she added with a smirk as she began cutting up her meat. "I'm the one getting soda and ice cream."
* * * * * * *
The morning sun beat down on the group while Instructor Gage paced back and forth in front of the two squads. "Last chance, girls."
Grace looked around, knowing full well no one would admit to vandalizing the equipment. She spotted Grenner and Dawson sharing knowing smirks. You want to know who stabbed the basketballs, ask them.
"Fine, if that's the way you want it," Gage said. "Everyone drop for twenty."
Oh great, Grace thought as she hit the ground. Gage woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, didn't she? She glanced over at Jan, who mouthed the letters PMS. Figures. Not bad enough she's pissed about the balls. She's gonna work our asses off and make today suck.
"When you finish those, you can do twenty sit-ups, then stretch and get ready for your morning run," the petite instructor said. "And for those of you that think you can just jog along at a leisurely pace, I'm going to be running at the back of the pack and I expect to see some hustle today." She clapped her hands impatiently. "Let's go, girls. We don't have all day."
No, just four hours for you to squeeze as much hell in as you can, Grace thought, rolling onto her back to do the sit-ups.
"Did I ask for a commentary, Grenner?" Gage yelled. "No Ma'am."
"So why did I hear your mouth?" "Sorry Ma'am."
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"You're always sorry, Grenner. Four months and you don't know enough to keep your mouth shut."
Grace smirked as the instructor continued to berate Grenner. Maybe today won't be so bad after all.
* * * * * * *
Grace was sitting on the couch happily munching on a cookie when Carey entered the cabin. "Hi," the teen said around a mouthful of cookie.
"Hi Grace," Carey said, kneeling down to unlace her boots. "How many of those have you had?"
"Just two."
"Two or two dozen?"
Grace smiled. "Just two. I'm saving the others for later."
"Others? I said you could have three cookies so where do you get others?"
"Well…you usually let me have more than three," Grace said hopefully. "And it is a new box."
"There was a time when a box lasted me all week," Carey said, putting her boots neatly next to Grace's sneakers on the newspaper near the door. "You sure you're not related to Cookie Monster?"
Grace pretended to check her skin tone. "Nope, not turning blue yet." "Could have fooled me," Carey said. "What are you doing there?" "Working on my goals list."
"Revising?"
Grace nodded. "Wanna see?"
Carey walked over to the couch. "Move over," she said, settling down on the cushion next to the teen. "You crossed off the question mark next to college."
"Yeah," Grace said. "If I passed the GED, Dad says I should be able to go to a community college." She circled the dollar signs next to the word college. "The only problem is gonna be money."
"You would be surprised how much money is out there for college if you want it," Carey said, patting Grace's shoulder. "Good move. Now you have to decide on your major." "I have no idea," Grace said. "I'm good at math and figuring things out but I can't
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imagine what kind of job I want to do for the rest of my life."
"So that's something you need to look at," Carey said. "I'll see if I can get hold of a college catalog. That will show you what careers are available and what courses are needed to get that degree. It might help."
"It would at least give me ideas," Grace said, closing her notebook. "I can't think anymore."
"You've had a big surprise today," Carey said. "Oh, speaking of surprises, I have one for you."
"You do?" Grace's eyes lit up. "What?"
"You clean up this mess," she said, pointing at the paper napkin covered with cookie crumbs. "I'll go get it. Don't get too excited. It's not as wonderful as you think." Carey went into the bedroom and retrieved the package that had arrived the day before. "You remember Mrs. Hamlin?"
"My math teacher?"
"That's the one," Carey said, entering the living room. "Since you've done as much as you can with the math books we have, she sent this for you."
Grace opened the brown paper wrapper. "She sent me a math book?"
"Trigonometry," Carey said. "Give you a head start for college. After all, we can't have you doing nothing during math period."
"I can think of a few things to do," Grace grumped good-naturedly. "Thanks." "A letter thanking Mrs. Hamlin would be good too," Carey said.
"I'll write it tomorrow," Grace said just as the phone started to ring.
Carey looked at the clock on the wall. "I wonder who that could be?" She stepped into the kitchen and picked up the receiver. "Hello?" Grace flipped the pages of her new math book, trying not to listen to the phone call. Unfortunately, she was curious and it was too easy to hear each word. "…thought you two were happy together." Whoever it was, Carey didn't seem to be too pleased as the older woman began pacing in the kitchen. "That's not really any of your business." Grace made sure to keep her eyes on her book. "Now isn't a good time. Because we're in session, that's why and even if we weren't, I don't think it would be a good idea." Grace heard the refrigerator open, then slam shut. "Eve, I'm not interested. No. No. I don't care." There was a silence on Carey's end while the other woman spoke, then the instructor exploded. "Well if I'm so damn controlling then why are you calling me after all this time?" Grace winced when she heard something come down hard on the counter, guessing it to be the angry woman's fist. "I know, I know, it's all my fault. The fact that you came home pregnant had nothing to do with it, right?"
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headed out the front door, she heard Carey say "…and you want to talk about fair?" Grace closed the door and sat down on the wooden steps. It was clearly a private conversation that she should not have been listening to but still she could not stop from replaying the snippets of the conversation. It took little to add up the pieces, especially when she added in the way her mentor reacted to Eve's call. Even from outside she could hear the force in which Carey hung up the phone. She is so pissed. I'm waiting right here until she comes to get me.
Several minutes later the door opened. "You can come back in now," Carey said, leaving the door open and walking to her recliner. Grace went in and sat on the couch, unsure what to say or if she should say anything at all. Even with the shadows cast by the lamp, she could see the hint of red rimming Carey's eyes. She made you cry? I didn't think anything would make you cry. Carey put the footrest up and rubbed her temple. "How much did you hear?"
"I tried not to," Grace said. "I left when you said something about being fair."
"Wonderful," Carey said, letting out a long breath of air. "Well, too late to do anything about it now." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Any questions?"
Grace thought carefully before answering. "Are you okay?"
Carey's head popped up, brown eyes locking with hers. "That's not what I thought you'd ask," she said.
"The other stuff doesn't matter," Grace said. "You seemed pretty upset."
"It was an unexpected call," Carey said, leaning her head back against the cushion. "If I had realized who it was, I would have let the machine get it."
"I won't say anything," Grace said. "I swear."
"About what?" Carey asked, her lip turning up in a half smile. "About the phone call or what you learned about me?"
"Both," Grace said. "It'll be like I didn't hear anything."
Carey smiled. "I doubt that, Grace. You heard, whether I like it or not." She rubbed her forehead again. "What the hell, I guess. You girls probably figure I am anyway."
"Actually everyone thinks Viking, I mean Instructor Donaldson is," Grace said, her eyes widening when she realized what she said.
Carey smiled. "Viking, huh? Fits. She's straight, though."
"You we weren't sure about," Grace said. "Some think you are and some think you aren't."
"We don't keep you girls busy enough, do we?" Carey said. "I don't even want to know how much of your day is spent trying to figure out the sex lives of your instructors. It's probably better than talking about going to kennels looking for dates." Grace colored
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