Page 26 of Specter Bred

Twice.

Not everyone had come around, of course. Redwood and the collection of stuck-up pricks he hung around with still hated me. They'd simply stopped saying it to my face after the range assessment.

And then there was Grizzly, who still pushed me to my breaking point every chance he got. He’d also started calling me Farm Boy. Personally, I viewed the nickname as a term of endearment. Everyone assured me it absolutely was not. I chose to ignore them.

Despite that, for the first time since arriving at Fairfield, I felt like I was actually starting to be accepted.

That became even more obvious one evening after dinner when I turned the corner and found Captains Cutter and Alvarez waiting outside my dorm.

"Hayes," Cutter called.

"Sir."

He crossed his arms.

"How would you feel about a room reassignment?"

I blinked.

"A what?"

"The squad bay," Alvarez clarified. "With the rest of the recruits."

The offer took me only half a second to reject.

"No offense, but no way, sir."

Both instructors stared at me, looking genuinely surprised.

"You don't even want to think about it?" Cutter asked.

"Have you seen my roommate?"

"Who, Archer?"

"I'm not passing up the opportunity to sleep on the bottom bunk under a woman like that. It's the closest I'll ever get to actually being beneath her."

"Archer would fucking devour you, Hayes," Cutter chuckled.

"I wish, sir."

That only made them both laugh harder.

"You've got a death wish," Alvarez added.

"Nah, sir. Just exceptional taste."

"That woman has threatened bodily harm against you and four other recruits at least six times this week," Alvarez pointed out.

"Seven," I corrected.

"You counted?"

"Of course I counted."

"Jesus Christ," Cutter said, shaking his head.

"What?" I asked. "The fifth one was my favorite. She told me if I called her Firecracker one more time she'd beat me to death with my own boots."