Chapter 15
As I walked into class I was the last one to arrive. I was shocked to see Mr. Thompson at the front of the class. As I looked for a seat I noticed Natalia was sitting in the front row and there was only one seat left and it was behind her.
“Ah Mr. Armell. Welcome, you are just in time. Have a seat please,” Mr. Thompson said.
As I walked past Natalia to take my seat, she winked at me. I sat down behind her and tried to pay attention to Mr. Thompson. Natalia was wearing a short, plaid skirt with white knee socks. Her navy-blue sweater was snug and hugged her curvy breasts. She smelled like fresh flowers and was definitely a distraction for me.
“Okay class, welcome everyone. For those of you who don’t already know me I’m Mr. Thompson. I will be your AP English professor and guidance counselor this year. I will be meeting with you each individually to discuss the new training program you all are members of. Listen for your name and respond once I call your name, Jason Armell? Vincent Alexander? Chase Devlin? Maurice Deshields? Nicholas Nicola? Natalia Morgan?” The register took no time at all and we were able to move forward with the lesson.
“Well, I want to welcome you all to a new school year. Make no mistake this will be a challenging but rewarding year for you all if you put in the hard work and do your best. Please take a look at your schedules. In addition to your normal classes, you all will have training classes in weaponry, hand to hand combat, martial arts, tactical combat, and marksmanship just to name a few. Please get familiar with one another because the six of you will be training and working with one another for many years. All of you have applied and should have by now received your acceptance letters into the Naval Academy. Congratulations to you all. Each of you have been tested, and each have a unique set of skills that will serve your team well. Once you have completed your preliminary training this year, all six of you will go into the Naval Academy to continue your training. All other details will be revealed in due time. Okay, open your textbooks to page one. We will be starting with The Great Gatsby.” Mr. Thompson explained.
About forty-five minutes later, the bell rung and each of us started to pack up our things to go to our next class. Natalia stood up and turned to talk to me.
“Hey, Jason. How was the rest of your summer?” she asked.
“Good, I went up to Montana vacationing with my family.”
“Hey, Jason, I’m Nick,” another guy said.
“Hey, Nick. Nice to meet you. This is Natalia.”
“I know. I remember you two from training camp this summer. Always competing with one another.” Nick laughed.
“Nice to meet you Nick. Yes, Jason is always trying to one up me,” Natalia said with a grin.
“Well I’ll make sure to stay out of the way.” Nick laughed.
A tall, boy came walking up to us from the back of the room.
“Why stay out the way Nick. Then there wouldn’t be any fun in that would there?” Maurice said.
Maurice reached for and kissed Natalia’s hand.
“Hey darlin’, I’m Maurice.”
Natalia smiled and blushed a little as Maurice kissed her hand.
“Okay enough of that already, Mr. Smooth,” I said.
I reached out to shake Maurice’s hand. Who was this kid with the deep raspy voice?
“Hey Maurice. I’m Jason.”
“Hi Jason. Sorry man I wasn’t trying to make moves on your girl,” Maurice said.
“No, it’s cool man. Natalia and I are just friends.”
“Okay boys calm down. Nice to meet you Maurice. See you later Jason. I gotta go before I’m late for calculus class,” Natalia said.
“Okay.”
The boys and I watched as Natalia walked away. A tall boy with short, sandy blonde hair walked up to Maurice, Nick and I.
“Alright lads. I’m Vince. She seems to be a firecracker.” Vince said.
“What?” Nick said.
“Natalia, I mean.” Vince stated.
“Hey you talk funny,” Nick laughed.
“I’m British,” Vince said.
“Whatever guys. Nice to meet you Vince. I gotta go check on my little brother, Ryan”
As I was leaving the class there was still one boy sitting in the back of the class watching all of us. When Mr. Thompson called out names he said his was Chase Devlin. Chase was tall with really wide shoulders. You could definitely tell he worked out a lot. I guess he was kind of a loner. I heard he was the best defensive lineman on the football team and I was excited to play with him. Before going to my next class, I went to check on Ryan. He was in gym class playing basketball with some kids. He looked like he was doing okay so I left and went to my chemistry class. At lunchtime I went to the cafeteria to grab some food. I saw Natalia, Nick, Maurice, and Vince, sitting at a table together. Vince waved for me to come over and sit with them so I did.
“What’s up lad, come sit with us,” Vince said.
“Yeah Jason, come sit at the cool table.” Nick joked.
As I looked across the room I saw Chase sitting at a table by himself. I wondered why he wasn’t sitting with the rest of the group.
I placed my tray of food down. I was sitting at the opposite end of the table from Natalia but she was looking right at me. As I started to bite into my sandwich, I could feel someone standing over my shoulder. As I turned I saw it was Chase.
“Hi Chase, do you want to sit with us?” I asked.
Chase accepted and sat down between Vince and I.
“Jason how did you get here?” Maurice asked.
“Well I drove of course Maurice,” I said laughing.
“No, I mean how did you end up here at Briarwood? This is my second year here myself,” Maurice said.
“Well Mr. Thompson was my ROTC recruiter for the last couple of years at my old school and he told my foster parents to enroll me here because it would be the best shot for me to be enrolled in the Naval Academy and he was right I guess. I eventually want to become aSEAL one day,” I said.
“Maurice, what’s your story lad? This doesn’t seem to be your scene for sure,” Vince said.
“I moved up here two years ago from New Orleans after my parents died doing missionary work in India. I have lived with my aunt ever since. Mr. Thompson came to my school as well recruiting for ROTC and my aunt thought it was a good idea since I am a bit of a bad boy and needed some discipline. It’s funny because my grades at my old school weren’t that great but Mr. Thompson helped me because he gave me some tests and said my scores on those were good so he said he would help me. He said I could make a difference and serve my country I never thought about going to the Naval Academy actually,” Maurice said.
“Okay Nick, what’s your story?” Natalia asked.
“This is my third year at Briarwood. My dad is a Muay Thai and Judo Olympic champion. He also teaches it as an instructor at the SEAL training facility. Starting from a young age my dad trained my sister and I in martial arts including the use of martial arts weaponry. Mr. Thompson asked my dad to enroll me in this program, so here I am,” Nick explained.
“Okay pretty girl, what’s your story?” Maurice asked Natalia.
“Nothing really. Both my foster parents work in government. One day early last spring, I came home from swim practice and Mr. Thompson was sitting in my living room talking to my parents. Next thing I know they transferred me here to Briarwood. I was kind of pissed because I had to leave all my friends behind but I’m just trying to make the best of the situation,” she said.
“Okay Vince, how does an English guy get here?” I asked.
“My father is in the British government. There had been attempts on our lives by terrorists recently so he made a few calls and shipped me here. This bloody sucks. My girl back home broke up with me right before I came here,” Vince said.
“That sucks man,” Nick said.
“Hey Chase, you’re pretty quiet. What’s your deal?” Natalia asked.
“Just listening to all of the stories is all,” Chase replied.
“I hear you’re one good football player though,” I said.
“Yeah man, I hear the same thing about you. I know you’re going to be joining our team here at Briarwood as well. Good timing too. Our quarterback graduated last year.” Chase said.
“Yes, I know. I was the captain of the team at my old school and led us to a State championship,” I said.
“Well, let’s hope you can do the same here,” Maurice said.
“Looks like you’re the only one here Maurice who doesn’t play a sport.” Natalia said.
“I’m not into sports darlin’ I’m into girls and motorcycles.” Maurice said smiling.
I don’t know why I was getting jealous of the attention Maurice was giving to Natalia.
“Hey Chase, we really don’t know much about you besides you play football,” I said.
“Well this is my fourth year at Briarwood. I came here as a freshman. Both my father and uncle are both retired SEALS and served on the same team with Admiral Thompson in operation Desert Storm.”
“Admiral Thompson? I never heard him referred to as that before,” Maurice expressed.
“Yes, Mr. Thompson is a high-ranking admiral in the Navy. I thought you all knew that already.” Chase said.
“Well, I’m new here so I had no idea. What does that really mean?” Vince asked.
“It means he’s calling all the shots and makes you wonder what he’s got planned for us?” Natalia stated.
“Well there are only six of us and we were put together for a reason. I’m sure we’ll find out why soon enough. The six of us are a team now and need to share with the group any information we each find out that may affect the team,” I said.
“Indeed, we should,” Maurice agreed.
Everyone else agreed with my statement. I’m sure there were many things about this program and new group that would soon be learned.