DT 2022: Their Small Start

Merlin decided he hated Andra-D054. After she got the two of them into administrative punishment, it wasn’t hard to dislike her. He could easily forget her sob story about dead parents. Everyone here lost their family. Bawling her eyes out didn’t sway the training instructors. It wouldn’t sway Merlin.
Plus Andra’s tears disappeared quick enough during their progressive workout of pushups, planks, and mountain climbers as the adults dropped and screamed into their faces. Having to perform every exercise one foot to her left, Merlin’s animosity only grew. He was far from the most adjusted Spartan candidate at Camp Ambrose, and he winced every time breath and spit touched his skin. Instead he focused on how Andra seem to shudder with his flinching. She was so annoying.
Why did he have to receive punishment equal to her? Why did the trainers treat him like the criminal?
It was unfair. She was unfair. This is her fault. The words kept repeating in Merlin’s mind as his arms, legs, and abdomen burned but he kept pushing into the dirt because stopping meant more yelling, more time, and more pain. And deep down he wanted to hurt himself a little. Etch in the reminder his friends already told him. "Stay away from D054."
Merlin was stupid, but he wasn’t an idiot – he could learn from mistakes. The soreness from remedial exercise would burn the lesson into his mind.
The hoarse and gravely adult voices finally died down as the sun began to set and they decided the kids learned their lesson. Merlin barely registered the instructor called Dellend whispering “Yeah. I know it sucks. I hate this stuff too but it’s over now, kiddo.”
Merlin didn’t bother to get up just yet. He rolled over and groaned out loudly, uncaring for the dirt once again sullying his training uniform. He gave Dellend a side glance but the instructor seem to shrug in a rare moment of seeming humanity. “You two head on to your next classroom lesson. No more fighting or next time will be worse.”
Merlin shot a stink eye towards Andra but she was already glowering at the back of his head. She annoyed Merlin even more as she stumbled up in a great display of endurance and shrugged off the punishment. The boy by comparison was breathless and stunned from the exertion.
Dellend called to Andra and gestured to Merlin with a knife hand, “Hey. Help your partner-in-crime up.”
Merlin noticed Andra seemed a little dazed despite standing. Turning to the instructor, she shot the adult a defiant glare but shuffled over to the fallen boy, snatched his outstretched hand, and dragged him up. Merlin managed out a rough “Thanks,” but Andra didn’t meet his eyes. She shook her head in frustration, and started towards the study hall.
Dellend glanced over to another instructor and shook his own head, speaking within earshot of Merlin. “I’m not sure I would have taken this job if I knew Spartan candidates had so much drama.”
“Children are volatile bundles of emotion and not much else. It takes years of mistakes for them to even begin to grow up. Some don’t ever mature.”
Merlin shot the adults a pained look but they didn’t seem to notice as Dellend continued, “How are you supposed to know that? You don’t have kids. None of us do. It’s why we received this assignment.”
“Touché.”
Once Merlin found his lungs again, he trailed after Andra’s distant form towards their classroom. However, after their fight he made sure to avoid the girl like a plague. It didn’t help that gossip among the Delta Company children traveled fast. Only Andra and Merlin knew what happened during their fight but his friends and bunkmates were quick to tell their own tales.
Some stories told of how Merlin triumphed over the unhinged, blue-eyed freak from Room Five. Other stories told of how Merlin embarrassed himself, bullying a girl shorter than him and receiving an appropriate butt-kicking. After a few days, Merlin’s kind-of victory felt very hollow. He didn’t say anything about the fight after failing to convince anyone of his account. Andra wasn’t telling her side of the story. It was a lost cause regardless.
Merlin thought he at least had a visit with the camp psychiatrist to look forward to from the incident. In some twisted sense, mental evaluations for further punishment was an award. Doctor Zhou-Romero told Merlin she knew his mother and that he could consider her a family friend. In a place like Camp Ambrose, the staff discouraged reminders of a Spartan’s past life so the doctor’s presence was a nice breach in protocol Merlin was delighted to exploit.
Maybe he could forget sore days of constant physical conditioning and beating his head into virtual lessons about algebra by learning about his own past. He didn’t know his parents. The Ljang-Boyd family dedicated itself to civilian contracting for the military. Merlin’s mom was a propagandist. His father was a ship security officer. They were always away from home, but their deaths ensured Merlin got to live.
Doctor Romero had plenty of stories to tell Merlin about them. But he should’ve known Spartan training didn’t give him easy passes. Three days after his fight with Andra, he turned the corner into Doctor Romero’s office only to jump back in horror.
A bob of chin-length brown hair, wide blue eyes, and light freckled cheeks. Andra-D054 stood stockstill with a shocked peep even as Merlin quickly collected himself and clenched his fists. He watched the girl’s hands form into fists and Merlin’s vision narrowed into fight-or-flight.
Not again. Beat her to it.
Merlin’s fists flew up first into an awkward boxer’s stance as he learned from morning katas. He threw a right jab but promptly froze as several things occurred at once.
“Merlin Ljang-Boyd!” An adult screamed Merlin’s full name, something very taboo at Camp Ambrose.
Andra shrunk down into a ball, her knees hitting the floor. Her hands came up not in a fighter’s defiance but open in a sign of defeat.
A pair of low heels clicked from the atrium of Doctor Zhou-Romero’s office and the psychiatrist stepped into full view.
“No, Merlin. Behave yourself. I expect much better behavior from you. She’s clearly not looking for a fight so put your hands down.”
Merlin blinked in confusion. He stared at his mother’s friend and felt like he just robbed a bank and was sucker punched all at once. What did she say? Who wasn’t going to fight?
The boy’s eyes trailed down to Andra quivering on the floor. She snapped her eyes shut and dared not look up at Merlin towering over her. Merlin glowered at the girl.
“She’s just pretending so she can get me in trouble again.”
Doctor Romero shook her head to Merlin’s frustration. “No she is not. You don't know her, Merlin. You don’t know what’s she been through.”
But that was unfair! Merlin hissed his resentment, tempering it as best as he could. “She doesn’t know what I’ve been through…”
The doctor nodded. “Yes. You’re correct there, but that doesn’t mean fights outside training is right. Neither is making enemies of your comrades.”
“But she started it!”
Doctor Romero raised her hand causing Merlin to zip his lips into a fine line. He held back his further complaints so the adult could speak like the ONI foster house taught him to.
“She told me as much. I’ve also seen the recording,” The doctor reached down and tugged on one of Andra’s wrists. “Come on now. He won’t hurt you. One foot at a time.”
Andra slowly rose from the floor but her shivering seem to continue as she refused to meet Merlin’s eyes. Merlin didn’t know what to do or say. The doctor seem to steal Merlin’s fire with such simple words and an almost-mothering voice. Was it what she said, or the way she said them?
Andra admitted she started the fight. What was going on?
“So she admits it was her fault?” Merlin muttered out.
“No, no she doesn’t. It’s no one’s fault, Merlin. You acted well in self defense but people fight all the time and that’s normal. However, it’s on us to instead accurately assess a situation and to show the appropriate amount of restraint. And especially to know friend from enemy.”
Merlin blinked some more and shuffled his feet. Part of himself wanted to protest but a more powerful part told him to just listen. Merlin took two seconds to think over his frustrations before looking from Doctor Romero to Andra. “I’m sorry,” he gingerly repeated as he had in the heat of their fight.
Andra glanced up, finally meeting Merlin’s conflicted brown eyes. She opened her mouth, closed it, and opened it again. No words came out.
Merlin turned to Doctor Romero and opened his own mouth, ready to protest at the girl’s lack of sincerity or remorse. However, a distant, ghostly voice interrupted him.
“I’m… I’m sorry for attacking you,” Andra mumbled out at a volume where Merlin thought he heard her lips rather than her words. She spoke a little louder, gaining some confidence. “Merlin. I’m sorry.”
The boy’s lips parted in confusion. He didn’t expect that. This all felt so surreal. The way Andra seemed so slow, struggling with herself just to say words. Merlin didn’t get it. She always seem so animated with her gestures and actions. But he never imagined Andra having a problem with words.
Something clicked for Merlin. He didn’t get it but he felt it, like a little spark in the back of his mind. He didn’t say anything, instead choosing to nod in acceptance. Merlin raised his fist towards Andra but kept it slightly bent. Not a punch.
“Merlin. I would rather you two shake hands if you are going to—” Doctor Romero exasperatedly spoke but paused when Andra raised her own fist, gently tapping Merlin’s. An understanding passed between the two children. It wasn’t like they suddenly became friends. Maybe they didn’t understand one another at all. But the spark seem to flash a little brighter for Merlin as he searched Andra’s eyes and she didn’t look away.
Her blue eyes were pretty, Merlin let himself admit. He let down his anger for Andra just a little. Maybe she wasn’t so bad.
“You two have back-to-back sessions with me thanks for your little fight… Ah, whatever. How about this, would you two be okay to do shared sessions with me? I’ll give you extra time away from exercise sessions if you both behave.”
Merlin glanced between the doctor’s pleading face and the scrunched, complicated look on Andra’s as she looked away once more. He nodded again hesitantly.
“I guess I’m okay with that if Andra is,” Merlin replied, saying the girl’s name for a change. His eyes flickered across Andra's face as he somehow tried conveying a friendly truce.
Andra looked up to Doctor Romero even as she squeezed the doctor’s hand bony-white. “Okay.”
Merlin managed a soft tilt of his lips in support. Doctor Romero used her free hand to pinch the roof of her nose.
“Alright fine, you two can come back in here now. Let’s try to and re-introduce ourselves. Merlin, close the door behind you.”
Doctor Romero gestured for Andra to follow her back into the office. Merlin sealed the sliding door behind him as ordered. It wasn’t apparent until a few years later, but this is where Andra and Merlin became friends.
Category:The Weekly
Category:Short stories