Military School

The Gamelins drove into the night away from the lit-up school and into the dark.

Pulling up to a large white house, William was falling asleep not looking hard at each detail. The whole day had drained him, as he moved like a zombie into the new house and into a room before the darkness took over his vision.

William tossed and got up fast. He could smell something new, something foreign. He jumped when he noticed his sister was not next to him like she had been every morning since he got back from Italy and ran down the halls, opening every door until he came to a staircase and ran down. At the bottom was his sister sitting happily stuffing her face full of french toast as she mumbled something.

"Morning, sleepy are we," said the smiling woman as she handed more french toast to his sister.

"Ed never properly introduced us, did he?, we are the Gamelins. My name is Fred and the woman who is serving the french toast is Grace." said the man standing at the stove with an apron on cooking the french toast before he would hand it to his wife before it would make its way to his sister.

William walked to his sister and checked on her, making sure she was ok. He was worried that she was eating so much until he realised how stressed she must have been yesterday as he had not even explained, he had just scooped her up and moved her.

He looked at his sister and his eyes moistened. He wondered how bad she wanted to be with him, even if the entire time they were driving she never asked what was happening, but only when they would get there she trusted her brother so wholly that it hurt him.

Without a word, he sat down and turned to his sister. He thought he should explain but when he opened his mouth he just could not find the right words.

"Save it for now lad, eat first and think then you can have some time alone to explain," said Ed without even turning his back and still cooking the french toast.

Grace handed him some fresh french toast and stared at him with such sad eyes that they looked like a sky greyed over just before the rain would fall. She clearly knew the situation, why she was not talking about it William did not know.

After breakfast and a brisk walk around town which the gamelins insisted on doing right after dinner, William finally got a sit down in private with his sister, where he tried to explain that he was not abandoning her again and she would have a good time with the gamelins. However this did not go over well with his little sister as she ran off yelling how he broke his promise.

Two days went by extremely fast, he had not seen much of his sister in the meantime as she would always avoid him but he made sure he said a proper goodbye and spent a little time with her even if it felt forced, before he headed off to military school.

After the whole "family" got into the car they drove the hour to the military school where they saw off William.

William waved and said sweet pleasantries as he worried on the inside about his sister. He was not worried in the least about military school, as even though it can be used as a punishment for normal students, he had long become an abnormal student, to say the least.

...

Inside the military school in an old-looking building made of red brick, the only building made of red brick and the only two-story building it certainly stood out as the most important place on base compared to the small green building that looked like cut-in-half cylinders.

It was the barracks for the officers and above as well as the offices for them. It was the nerve centre of important people in the school.

As William walked the long halls he saw the men moving back and forth in well-kept uniforms. All had serious expressions on their faces with no beards or moustaches and were all well groomed.

Completely in opposition to the old building that was clearly not old out of neglect, but no matter how well it was kept up was still showing the years in the off-coloured paint, the old cornices and the wooden floors with no heaters.