At least I assume that’s how I was saddled with the moniker Bridgette. By the time I was old enough to ask about my origins, I’d already blown through ten or twenty homes.
So, starting at age fourteen, I refused to answer to anything but Blaze. It didn’t hurt that it was a code name for smoking marijuana. That just added to the panache.
I may never have gotten a grade higher than a C since elementary school, but I love to learn. I consider myself a mental sponge. I wasn’t busy writing book reports on Moby fucking Dick. No, I was reading about Skinnerian operant conditioning and behavior modification. I behavior-modded their uptight, condescending asses into calling me Blaze, didn’t I?
The day I turned 17, I talked the foster system into giving me money to legally change my name. I’m sure it was cheaper than paying for another year of care in one crappy foster situation after another.
Maybe I was going through a Cher, Beyonce, Adele phase, because my full name became Blaze.
The day after I turned 17, I enlisted in the army. I’ll admit, I almost washed out. I was probably the most undisciplined person ever to be accepted into the military. Maybe not, because they knew exactly how to handle me.
Something just switched in my brain during my second stint in Basic Training. I went from fighting it every step of the way, to thriving.
Eager to embrace every hardship, I ran with the heaviest backpack, cleaned with the best of them, ate what they gave me, and asked for more if I thought I’d need it to get through the day.
I’d found a purpose. I wanted to be a sniper.
Less than one percent of all snipers are women. Call me an overachiever.
What I didn’t sign on for was a little trip to outer space. Cocky alien fuckers stole me from my barracks at Fort Benning. I imagine if I ever do find a way back to Earth, I’ll be court-martialed for being AWOL.
Why I’m being hauled against my will into what looks like an abandoned high school gymnasium in the crappiest part of planet Marentine, though, has very little to do with any of that.
