“You are ridiculous. I’m the lucky one.” Keegan put her arms around his waist as he leaned down to kiss her.
“Get a room!” someone yelled.
Donald laughed and Keegan’s face turned bright red.
“Let’s go dance.” Donald pulled her into the next room.
Keegan glanced around and couldn’t get over the extravagance of the place. A huge chandler hung above them and tables lined the walls overflowing with food. A live band was playing, complete with light show and disco ball. Keegan barely knew the girl who was throwing the party, but she had gone all out.
She smirked at Donald, amused. “I see you learned some new moves.”
“Yep, thanks to your Christmas present. Give me another week and I’m asking Lauren for a rematch.”
Keegan glanced around trying to catch a glimpse of Anna or Lauren but there were too many people. “Where are the rest of the guys?”
“No idea, and I don’t really care. I just want to be with you.” He touched the side of her face and smiled down at her.
“Let’s grab a drink before I get dehydrated from all this dancing.” Keegan led him off the dance floor and to the food, where she grabbed a plate and filled it with snacks.
“Do you want soda or a drink?” Donald asked.
“Soda or punch is fine.”
“Ok, I’ll go get in line.”
She watched as he walked off with his lazy gait and smiled to herself.
“There you are. I have been looking all over for you.” Lauren screamed over the music.
“I can hear you fine. What’s up and where is Josh?”
“I just broke up with him. He’s so upset.”
“I thought you were going to wait till the end of the school year?”
“I figured I might as well get it over with now. It’s kind of cruel to lead him on.”
“That’s true. Are you ok?”
“Not really. I need a drink.”
“Go tell Donald, he’s in the line.”
Lauren gave her a thumbs-up and glided away, scanning the drinks line for Donald.
Later, Keegan reflected that telling Lauren to get a drink was probably not the best idea she had ever had. She stood in the bathroom, the sounds of the party muffled by the closed door, and held Lauren’s mass of dark curls back as her friend got sick in the toilet.
Supporting a very heavy Lauren on the side of her own body, Keegan escorted her out of the house. The cold air seemed to sober Lauren enough for Keegan to let her fall to the white wicker couch on the front porch while she texted Donald and Anna that they needed to leave.
“Too much?” Donald asked, tugging his big black coat on as he closed the front door behind him.
Keegan turned around to find Lauren had fallen over, her face planted in the cushions as she snored.
“At least she’s breathing,” Keegan sighed. “Can you take us home?”
“Of course.”
Once Anna joined them, they all piled into Donald’s car. Keegan was exhausted by the time she got home and put Lauren in bed.
Chapter 21
Tommy and Rourk both made it through Airborne school.
Rourk was surprised he ended up having a lot of fun. Tommy struggled because he had a fear of heights. Somehow, with Rourk’s encouragement, he managed to make it through unharmed.
Once again, Rourk found himself singled out as the Distinguished Honor Graduate. This time, however, neither Tommy nor Rourk had any family in the crowd.
They were given a weekend pass, before they had to head to Fort Bragg, North Carolina for the Special Forces selection process. The initial selection process was only three weeks long. If they made it through that, it would depend on which field they were placed in. The training would be anywhere from six months to over a year.
Tommy was really nervous that he wouldn’t be selected. If Rourk had anything to say about it, he would make it through with flying colors. Having Tommy around made the days go by quicker. Keeping an eye on the kid gave Rourk something to do to keep his mind busy, to keep his thoughts off Keegan. He couldn’t help but think that Keegan would really like Tommy. He hoped someday they would be able to meet.
“Come on, Tommy, let’s get out of this place.” Rourk said, grabbing the last of his things.
Tommy followed suit, checking around the room one last time before he closed the door. “Right behind you. If I never came back to Fort Benning it would be too soon.”
“Let’s get a hotel downtown. We can get some real food, and maybe catch a movie.”
“We should try to get into a bar.” Tommy laughed.
“I don’t drink Tommy.”
“I’m not talking getting drunk, man. Maybe we could just get a couple of beers.”
“My mother was killed by a drunk driver.”
“Oh man, I’m sorry, I had no idea. You’re not exactly an open book when it comes to your personal life.”
“It’s okay. It was a long time ago.”
“Maybe we can find a mall and try to pick up some girls.”
Rourk stared at Tommy for a moment. Rourk was not interested in girls, but it might do Tommy good to get his mind off his ex-girlfriend. “Sure, we could try that. I’m not very good around females though. So I’ll sit back and take notes from you.”
Tommy chuckled. “I’ll give you some pointers. First one, you need to learn to relax.”
Rourk and Tommy caught a taxi to a nearby hotel where they booked separate rooms. They had been bunk mates for so long; some solitude was just what Rourk needed. After they cleaned up, they went out for dinner, then grabbed a taxi to the mall.
It was small and run down. It was already getting dark outside, and shoppers were few and far between.
“I don’t know if you are going to have any luck with girls in here, Tommy,” Rourk remarked as they strolled down the aisle towards the main shopping area.
“Let’s go to the bookstore. There are always hot chicks hanging out there.”
Rourk thought of how many times he had seen Keegan getting her white chocolate mocha at bookstores. “Sure, sounds good. I could use a cup of coffee.”
They spent a couple of hours at the mall, and Rourk stood back and watched as Tommy got turned down again and again. It was pretty funny, he had to admit.
"One more time, Rourk. Let's go talk to those two girls." He nodded towards a brunette and blond sitting in the food court. Rourk shook his head and followed.
Tommy walked up and put his hand on the table. "So ladies, how would you like to hang out with me and my buddy over there? We're going to be green berets."
The blond looked up at him and said, "Get lost."
Tommy turned towards Rourk and shrugged his shoulders. "Alright let's go watch a movie."
Rourk had to give him credit for trying. A few good movies had come out since they had entered basic training over three months ago. It was hard to believe it was already February.
***
Once the weekend was over, they were back in their bunks to pack for Ft. Bragg. They were traveling by a van since there weren’t many of them left.
“Rourk, I’m scared.”
“You should be scared, Tommy. This is the make or break point. If you make it through the next three weeks, more than likely in less than a year you will be wearing a green beret. If you don’t make it, you’ll be thrown back to the regular army.”
“Thanks, that was encouraging.”
“Well, you need to know how important this is. I know you can make it.”
“You really think I’ll make it?”
Rourk smiled over at Tommy. “I really do.”
“Well, I can’t let you down so I guess I’m going to have to get selected.”
“I guess so.” Rourk leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes.
“Well, at least we shouldn’t have to clean floors once we get there.”
“Let’s hope not. I’ve cleaned enough floors and bathrooms to last me a lifetime
.”
“They didn’t tell us that part at the recruiter’s.” Tommy laughed.
“Yeah, the recruiter seemed to leave out all the good parts.”
Like all training, time seemed to fly. After a couple of weeks of “indoctrination” phase, where they did tons of physical exercise in preparation for the selection phase, they finally got a class date.
They shipped out to Camp MacKall, North Carolina, less than an hour away from Ft. Bragg. The selection class started with 345 “candidates” as they were called. Within the first week, they had lost 50 from the PT test, swim test, and those that chose to leave because they realized they had bitten off more than they could chew.
Rourk and Tommy were in different huts, which is what they called the large barracks buildings the candidates stayed in, but they saw each other several times throughout the day and spent any free time they had hanging out.
The second week was spent running through the woods doing land navigation from point to point. Rourk thought the course lanes were almost laughable in how short they were compared to what he was used to. Each night he checked on Tommy to see how he was doing and to make sure to keep his morale up.
“I don’t know man. I only found two points today. I think there were four. They’re gonna drop me for sure.”
“Relax, Tommy. They don’t expect you to do everything perfect. They don’t even expect you to find all the points. If you do, it’s a bonus. They just want to see that you have the ability to continue to drive on even when things suck. As long as you don’t quit and show them you have the drive, you’ll make it. You’re doing good.”
“Easy for you to say. You don’t even look tired. I’m beat down. How many points did you find today?”
“Four. After four points, they had me sit over and start up a fire. And I may not seem like it, but I’m tired too. I just happen to be in a little better shape than you. Don’t worry about it. Don’t think about the negative, just keep thinking about the positive and your mantra. Say it for me.”
“It’s all mind games. Countless others have made it and so can I.”
After the second week, almost half of the class was gone. They had a couple of days of rest where they weren’t running around in the woods, but still didn’t get any more sleep and instead had some grueling log and rifle PT sessions. Not as many were quitting as when they had first arrived, but each day, one or two more candidates would show up at the cadre’s door, knock, and voluntarily withdraw, or VW, from the course.
By the start of the third week, what they were calling SR week, there were 170 candidates left. They were placed into 12 separate teams with 14 or 15 men each. Again, Rourk and Tommy were not together.
After the end of the first day, Rourk found Tommy sitting on his bed taking care of some of the blisters on his feet.
“How’d today go?” Rourk asked as he sat down on Tommy’s bunk.
“Ugh, probably about the same as yours. How many guys from your team quit?”
“Three. We started with the ammo crate carry. Within the first two kilometers, the first two VW’d. After lunch and right before we started the second event, the third guy went up to the cadre and VW’d. Left us with an odd number, but gave us an extra rest man.”
“My team lost five. What the hell? I can’t say it didn’t cross my mind a couple of times while as my grip was giving out that it would be easier to just call it than suffering through this, but I didn’t want to let you down. What the hell does SR stand for anyway?”
“Situation, Reaction. Typical military, putting an acronym to everything. Don’t think of it as letting me down, think of it as letting yourself down. Look how far we’ve come already?” Rourk moved to the floor and started to stretch a bit. His legs were starting to get stiff sitting on the bunk.
“I know, it’s pretty crazy.”
At the end of the 24 days, both Rourk and Tommy were standing in formation waiting to hear if their roster number would be called.
“Listen up candidates,” the Senior Assessor Cadre addressed them. “If I call your number off, fall out of formation and move into classroom number 2.”
The tension and nervousness was in the air as numbers were called out in random order. “17, 64, 311, 224, 152…” In all, twenty-seven numbers of the 133 candidates left were called. Neither Rourk or Tommy’s number was called.
After the last candidate that was called had entered into the classroom, the Senior Assessor Cadre looked over the ones that were left. “Congratulations men. You’ve been successfully selected for further training.
Over half of those standing let out a cheer. Rourk smiled and looked over at Tommy, who had a grin from ear to ear and was shaking the hands of those who stood around him. After they were dismissed, Tommy came over to Rourk and shook his hand.
“We did it!”
“Yes we did. I told you that you would make it.”
“Of course, it’s not over yet. We still need to find out what our MOS will be, and from there how much longer our training will be.” Tommy ran his hand through his hair.
“Do you have a preference?” Rourk glanced over at Tommy.
“I’m hoping for Medic, but I’m not sure if my scores are high enough.” Tommy said.
“That’s another year of training. I’m hoping for anything, but medic.” Rourk laughed. “Where do you want to be stationed?”
“It doesn’t really matter to me. What about you?”
“I’m hoping for Washington State, 1st Group.”
“Really? Why? It’s cold and rainy there man.”
“I like cold and rainy.” Not really. However, for whatever reason Keegan’s dream was to go to Alaska. Rourk would really prefer to stay near Tennessee and go to 5th group at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He only planned on staying the initial four years, and then he would go back to the Army of the Light so it didn’t really matter where he lived.
“Tonight, we pick up girls.” Tommy slapped Rourk on the back.
“Sure, Tommy. We saw how good that went last time.”
Tommy looked down at his bandaged feet. “Let’s just grab something to eat and get some sleep. At least we get a couple of weeks of downtime to let our feet heal.”
Chapter 22
Thaddeus took a sip of his hot chocolate and looked around the coffee shop before sending Anna a text. Sorry I’ve been busy. Can you get away today?
Her response was immediate, making him roll his eyes. Keegan and her friends were surgically attached to their phones. Of course. Where do you want to meet?
Pick me up at the Starbucks near Target.
Now?
In about twenty minutes.
Ok.
Thaddeus grinned. Anna was right, this cloak and dagger stuff was pretty fun.
Anna pulled up out front in her old, beat-up car and Thaddeus chugged the last of his hot chocolate as he walked out the door. He tossed it in the trash can out in front of the store.
It was a cool, sunny day with the kind of warm breeze that heralded spring. Thaddeus was glad it was finally April. Cold weather sucked.
“So where are we going?” Anna looked over at Thaddeus, both of her hands wrapped around the wheel.
Thaddeus eyed her bright blue highlights warily. She was such a weird chick. “To the vault.”
“The vault. It sounds so mysterious.” She put the car into drive and pulled away from the curb. “Thanks, for letting me in on this, Thad.”
“No problem.” He didn’t want to tell her she was his only option. That might hurt her feelings. He pointed for her to take a left.
“So do you think this will work?”
“I hope so. But as I’m sure you know, there are no guarantees with magic. At least we can say we tried.”
“I have to admit. I feel slightly bad for Donald. He’s innocent in all of this.”
“He’ll be ok.” Thaddeus shrugged.
“How do you know he’ll be ok? Did you have a vision?”
“Maybe.”
> “You’re not going to tell me what it was are you?”
“Nope.”
“I wouldn’t want your gift, Thaddeus,” Anna answered in a quiet voice, shooting a glance over at him.
“No, you wouldn’t. It’s not as cool as people think.”
“Speaking of cool. I think it’s pretty awesome you are helping out your sister.”
Thaddeus cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably. “I’m helping Rourk.”
“Same thing.”
Giving her one of his impish smiles, he said, “Anna, I’m going to have to wipe your memory once we get back. You’re not supposed to know where the vault is.”
“You can trust me. I would never tell anyone.”
“I’m sorry, Anna, you have to agree to that or we can’t go any further.”
“Fine. But just take away the directions nothing else. I like my memories.” She paused. “Most of them anyway.” She stole a sideways glance at him, her eyes narrowed. “Can you make my crush on Xavier go away?”
“You wouldn’t want that, Anna.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I don’t suppose you can tell me the formula to my prefect match could you?”
“Hmm, that is certainly against the rules,” Thaddeus murmured, rubbing his chin in his best evil genius impression. He grinned. “If this plan works, I’ll look into it.”
“Ack! Are you serious? I was just joking. You could really do that?”
“Sure, it’s not that hard.”
“I wonder what he looks like, my soulmate?”
“Anna, focus. You are going to turn right up ahead. Drive ten miles and take a left on to a hidden driveway. We are going to have to walk about 3 miles in the woods.” He leaned over, looking down at her feet on the pedals and nodded. “I’m glad you wore comfortable shoes.”
Once they arrived, Thaddeus had her park the car just off the driveway and they started through the woods. “You didn’t say it was going to be three miles uphill, and it’s freezing.”
“It’s not all uphill and it’s definitely not freezing. It’s almost sixty degrees. You sound like Keegan.”
“Fine. Okay, so how is this going to work?”