*~*Mikey's POV*~*
Frank stopped talking to me, and stopped going near me. I spent more time with Alex and we were becoming really good friends, he didn't seem to even notice a lack of Frank.
It was our first 'official' week, seeing as our first whole week was spent working in the kitchen, and now we were finally going into official training. Alex and I would always go last in line, or close to last, for meals, because then we could talk to Jacky, even just a quick greeting. He seemed so hurried without having any help, and the line went a lot slower without help.
Alex and I weren't the two best, strongest men in the camp. In fact, we were probably two of the weakest. We had gun training in the morning along with sword training, and then we had help dig latrines, which was the smelliest and quite possibly the worst job ever, I wouldn't even make my worst enemy (Frank at this point in time) do that job.
Frank was in our gun training, he was around Bert and that group, taunting some of the younger and horribly skilled people around. He avoided me and Alex, and when they would walk towards us, he would turn the group around. The group probably thought nothing of it, seeing as they were all idiots and he would do it so smoothly, pointing at someone at the other side and they'd all run off to laugh at him. He probably thought I wouldn't notice, but I did. I noticed everything he did. I missed him, even if he is an asshole.
"Mikey," Alex said with a shove, and I stumbled a few steps before I caught myself. I turned to glare at him and he grinned, pleased. He seemed to always want to make me fall down, he thought it was just the funniest thing in the world. I needed to find a way to get back at him.
"What?" I asked, slightly annoyed. I wasn't in the mood, really. One of the officers made an example of 'what not to do' using me as his 'volunteer'. No one laughed, because they weren't allowed to when directions were being given, but I could feel people suppressing their laughter and judging me with their eyes. I didn't like it one bit.
"The target, you need to shoot. Your aiming sucks, even Ronnie can aim better than you and he's half blind."
I sighed, looking down at the gun in my hands. It was heavier than I could easily carry, I wasn't strong at all, as I mentioned earlier. "I don't care, I don't want to be here, so why should I practice?"
"So then you don't get killed...?" Alex tried with a cheeky grin and I glared at him. In the short time we knew each other he knew how to get me annoyed easily.
"Have I ever said I hate you and your logic?" I asked and he shrugged.
"Every day. Now at least try to make an effort, do you want everyone to silently laugh at you again? I don't think so. Do what Jacky taught us."
I lifted the gun up and Alex set his down on the ground, and walked closer to me. He started adjusting my hands and my stance, and told me to pull the trigger as soon as he back away enough.
I looked to see where I hit, and there was a hole in the crudely drawn target, as close to the center as I'd gotten so far. Alex held his hand up for a high five and I slapped his hand, proud of myself for my shot. Okay, I wasn't the most eager to learn how to fight or shoot, but I finally did something sort of successful involving it and it made me happy.
"Now do it on your own," Alex said encouragingly and I lifted the gun back up, adjusting my hands and feet to how Alex had them earlier. I pulled the trigger, my hands shaking slightly, and there was a new hole in the fabric, fairly close to the one I just put in.
"Good," Alex said, smiling. I couldn't help but feel proud, ignoring the thought of what the target would be if it came to be an actual battle.
"Do you want to go?" I asked, stepping back slightly. Alex shook his head. "I'm good for today. You need the practice."
He was right. I stepped back up to the spot and lifted my gun, quickly adjusting my stance and pulling the trigger. It wasn't as close as before, but it still hit the sheet.
"Don't move so fast until you get it down. Just work on getting your grip right, the rest will come with practice," Alex said knowingly.
"You know a lot about shooting," I observed, looking over at him.
Alex shrugged. "Back home, I'd have to shoot the animals when they got too hurt or injured, you get the idea. There have been times where I've had to shoot people, too, for stealing from us. I didn't kill anyone, but I hit like their legs so they couldn't run anymore..."
"That's more than I did. I made my brother shoot the animals," I said blankly, raising the gun up. This time it was a little closer to the center than before, and I grinned. I was doing better than I thought.
"You have a brother?"
"Yeah, or at least I did." Alex looked shocked.
"Is he...dead?" he asked quietly.
"No, it's just that my parents disowned him like ten years ago or something because he got his girlfriend pregnant so he moved and I haven't talked to him since. I don't really refer to him as a brother, or talk about him." I shrugged, putting the gun down. I felt satisfied enough, and I was running low on gunpowder and I didn't feel like going to confront an officer for more just yet.
"What's his name?" Alex asked, and we started walking, leaving the shooting rang behind.
"His name is Gerard," I said, and we both put our guns away in the designated area, avoiding everyone else as effortlessly as we could. We were one of the last people left, just a group of people still shooting left, hitting the target dead on.
"Weird name."
"Indeed," I said, hoping the subject would drop. The two of us started walking towards the middle of the camp, avoiding some of the puddles that had formed over last nights rain. I knew that at some point I was going to trip into a puddle and people would just laugh at me. I knew it was going to happen one of these days.
"Way. Gaskarth." We both stopped and looked over our shoulders to see Jacky walking towards us, clearly the source of the voice. He was wearing his apron around his neck and over his uniform, stains of tonight's dinner visible.
"Yes sir?" I asked and Jacky glared.
"Boy, you know I don't like to be called 'sir'. Makes me feel old."
"And calling us 'boy' doesn't?" Alex asked with a grin and Jacky cuffed his ear. "Ow."
"Be quiet you baby," Jacky said with a stern voice. "I talked to Bryar, you two are helping me again."
Inside I was smiling, ecstatic to be back in the kitchen. A majority of people wouldn't like it, but it got me out of training which I despised with a passion. "What about training?"
"Do you only think about fighting?" Jacky asked and sighed. "You'll still go to training and attend to your normal duties, or a majority of them at least. I'll do the cooking, that doesn't take many people, I just need someone to help serve and cleanup. If all else fails, I can help train you two, I do know how to fight."
"Of course you do," Alex said, and my smile just grew bigger. I liked learning from Jacky more than I did anyone else. He wasn't intimidating, and neither was Alex and he didn't glare at me when I missed something, or wouldn't embarrass me in front of a huge group of people.
"Are you two okay with this?" Jacky asked seriously. I nodded without a second thought. The kitchen was a nice place to be, just the three of us. It's not like I needed to think about saving some time for Frank anymore, and being in the kitchen again gave me an opportunity to spit in his food.
"Great, I need you both for lunch which is in..." Jacky paused for a moment, "ten minutes?"
He turned on his heels to go back to the kitchen tent and Alex and I followed behind wordlessly. Jacky opened the flap and we ducked in, already moving to our usual spots. I was at the food again, dishing up bowls for Alex and Jacky to hand out.
When the lunch bell went off, we were all silent, glad for things to be back to normal.

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Clean up went by fast, since Alex and I needed to run to our sword training which was on the other side of the camp, out of distance of just about everything.
"Bye Jacky," I said, pulling Alex behind me as I went for the front flap.
"Be back before supper!" Jacky called and I nodded, walking out in the sunlight of the camp. We didn't run to the training field, neither of us in much of a hurry. No one would notice if we were late, we used each other for sword practice anyways (it's amazing neither of us have stabbed each other yet).
"Why aren't you at sword?" A familiar voice asked and I looked over my shoulder to see Bert and one of his groupies, Quinn, the blond one.
"Why aren't you?" I asked, defiantly, over my shoulder, not stopping to talk to them.
"On guard," Quinn said, and I could hear their footsteps behind us. I quickened my pace a little, Alex doing the same, but hopefully not enough to notice.
"That's nice," I said with a little sarcasm, "way to go, stopping two soldiers from going to their lesson."
"I don't like your tone," Bert said, and I felt his hand grab my shoulder and turn me around. I almost lost my balance and the two of them laughed.
I raised an arm to push Bert's hand off of me, but his fist collided with the side of my face before I could even move more than an inch. My face turned to the side abruptly, and I cupped my cheek with my hands. My cheek was already starting to throb and I could feel it swelling beneath my fingers.
Bert and Quinn laughed again, and I lifted my face up to watch the two of them turning to leave when Alex jumped up and attacked Bert, his legs wrapping around the other's middle, pulling at what hair was sticking out from under the cap.
"Alex!" I cried, moving to so I could try to pull him off of Bert. Bert was puling at Alex's arms and legs and elbowing him, his limbs flying around as he tried to get my friend off of him. Quinn tried helping, and with his help I got Alex off, but I pulled him close to me before either of them could get their hands on him.
I grabbed Alex's arm and started pulling him in the direction of sword practice, running as fast as I could. My face was really hurting, and I didn't like it one bit. I didn't look behind us until we reached the outskirts of the field, and no one was behind us. Alex didn't have any visible injuries, or not any that I could see. I'm sure he'd have bruises on his arm from Quinn and I both trying to pull him off, but those would heal in no time.
"And now you're the one with the swollen face," Alex said, trying to make a joke of the situation. I rolled my eyes at him, and started moving closer to the field, still staying on the outside, but at least now if someone came after us there would be witnesses. Not that any of them would care, really. Would they notice if we went missing? Would Alex and I be able to make a getaway if we tried?
I pulled my sword out and held it up, grinning at Alex who shook his head disapprovingly before taking his own out. He wouldn't admit it, but I was close to his skill, if not better than him, when it came to sword fighting. I was no where near as good as anyone else, but being a little better than someone was what I cared about.
"You're so bad at this," I said when I managed to knock the sword out of his hand. He went to grab where it landed, a few feet away, and came back with a clearly not pleased expression. "My face really hurts," I said when he didn't say anything, carefully reaching up and touching my cheek. It really did hurt, even to the slightest touch. "Does it look bad?"
"Just looks like you lost a fight with an ogre," Alex said, grinning, "oh wait, you did, didn't you?" I laughed slightly at his joke, pain flaring up in my cheek. I stopped laughing, holding my cheek.
"How did you put up with this same injury for half a week?" I asked, lifting my sword up again. Some fellow soldiers were starting to stare and I really didn't like the attention. When we started to fence each other again, the gazes turned away and I was a little relieved.
"I got them a lot," Alex said simply, and thrust his sword forward. I backed up quick enough to get out of the way, and he grinned. "I metaphorically just stabbed you and killed you."
"You seem too pleased about that, I think I should be worried with you sleeping next to me. You might try to kill me."
"I won't try, I will succeed," he said seriously and glanced over at him warily, and he had a serious expression on his face.
"Please don't kill me, I'll do whatever you ask!" I fake pleaded, clasping my hands together, not quite dropping down to my knees - that for sure would get some weird stares - but I put on a pretty good pleading face.
"Fine, I could use you still." Alex pretended to look uninterested, but he cracked a smile and we both started laughing a little until I was holding my cheek again and glaring.
"I can't do this. I don't like it, I'd rather have a broken leg, then I could sit around until it heals."
"Be careful what you wish for," a voice called behind me and I turned to see Bert and Quinn walking towards us, looking as smug as ever. I glanced at Alex whose whole expression just screamed 'let's run' and I wanted to, I almost did, but then I saw the one named Jeph and another guy, who I still didn't know the name of behind Alex. I shook my head.
I didn't understand why they were coming to attack us now, it didn't make sense. Bert didn't usually harass the same people more than once a day, not wanting to get in trouble, or some stupid oath he took, I don't know which.
"What do you want?" Alex called out, defiantly. We both held our swords in our hands, and my grip was tightening around the handle.
"Just to talk, like friends," Bert said nonchalantly, smiling as they got closer.
"Yeah? What about?" Alex asked.
"I believe you said something about wanting a broken leg?" Bert asked, looking at me. My eyes went wide and I felt a little terrified. He scared me so much, his gaze only showed evil intentions and I could only imagine what he was thinking of, not that I wanted to.
"No," I finally said, "just joking," I said and looked down at my feet. 'Don't make eye contact, it's just asking for trouble,' I thought, taking time to think about how dirty my boots were and how they would need a wash before the next inspection.
"What do you want, Bert?" Alex asked again, and Bert's gaze shifted to him, and I saw Alex take a little step back.
"McCracken, get back to your duties," a voice called and Bert looked away, to find the source, and it was Bryar. He was walking around, an officer at his side as he made his way closer. "Stop disturbing two of my men from their training."
"Yes sir," Bert said, saluting Bryar, before turning to glare at us before stalking off. I silently thanked Bryar, although he was evil for kidnapping us, he seemed to always know when Bert was around and could stop him from harassing anyone.
"Thank you, sir," I said a little shakily, saluting him myself. Alex did the same and Bryar just walked past, his officer looking forward at a fixed object on the horizon.
"I didn't do anything for you," Bryar said, "he neglected his duties and he'll pay for his choices later. Come along Armstrong, we need to continue this conversation in a place a little more...private."
Bryar and Armstrong left without another word and disappeared into a tent once they reached the camp.
I looked around and some people were staring again, and I turned away from them. I didn't care what time it was anymore, I just wanted to get out of there. "What's next, do you know?"
"Well we can always learn some military strategy from our friends," Alex said sarcastically and we both started walking off in the direction of the camp. "Or we could go practice more, or go help Jacky, or we can go ask an officer for an official duty..." Alex trailed off and we both started making our way to the kitchen, ducking our heads inside and spotted Jacky sitting on the ground, his eyes closed.
"Hey Jacky," Alex said and his eyes opened up quickly. I saw a faint smile on his face as he stood up.
"You're back already?" he asked, "it's not supper time is it? Wait, Mikey, you didn't have that black eye before, did you?"
"No, but we had some trouble," Alex said simply. Jacky seemed to get the idea and the conversation ended there.
"I should teach you two some fighting moves," Jacky said, looking in the distance, lost in his thoughts momentarily. "Knowing how to fight back without weapons is important, too. Hmm, we can add it in on our lessons. Speaking of which, shall we go out back to the trees and practice some live targets? We could use some fresh meat, too."
Alex seemed ecstatic by the thought, and I just followed behind them. Jacky had a gun in his possession, keeping it out back near the stove just in case 'a good for nothing soldier tries to steal food when he thinks no one is looking'.
Jacky lead the way, barely crossing through the tree line that outlined this side of the camp. "Okay, who wants to take the first shot?"