I'm rushing up the stairs, sweating lightly even though it's below freezing outside. The problem is that my second period class is Psychology, which is on the second floor of Thayer Hall, while my third period class is all the way up on the fifth floor of Washington Hall. That’s a long way apart.

I get into class with seconds to spare. We start class quickly, with the instructor, a visiting Captain in the French Army going off most of the time in liquid French that's about twenty percent faster than anything we listened to last semester.

“So, zhe key is to focus on your subject,” the instructor says in one of his few bursts of English. Unfortunately, I think I'd prefer if he stayed in French, because his accent is so thick I can barely understand a damn thing he's saying. “And remember zat zhe conjugation flows from your subject.”

I struggle to keep up, but I know about halfway through the class that the only way can is if I bust my ass studying at night. Well, at least there's plenty of resources to help me practice. Hell, if anything I can talk with Cadet Lancaster, he's a foreign language major.

After class, I'm heading down the hall when I hear someone call my name. “Yo, Carlyle, wait up.”

I turn around and it's a Cow from class. We sat on opposite sides of the room, but up close I can't help but think he’s handsome-ish. About six feet tall, with a body that's obviously seen the good side of a weight room pretty often, he's got sandy blond hair and a handsome face, kinda looking like a young Brad Pitt. “Sir?”

“Cade Edwards,” he says, waving off the sir. “I saw the way you looked in class. Let me guess, you're feeling like you just got chucked into the deep end of the pool?”

“How'd you guess, sir?” I reply, smiling. Okay, maybe it's a bit of a stretching of the rules, but I haven't had a guy do more than yell at me or call me by my last name since July. Well, there’s Cadet Lancaster, but he was my squad leader… I can’t think of him as a guy. Cade’s obviously flirting with me, and to be honest, I've missed it. “Was it the sign on my forehead that said I have no damn clue what the instructor said?”

Cade laughs, nodding. “Something like that. Listen, I was wondering... well, French isn't my main language, that's Chinese, but maybe we can help each other out. I saw the roster, you're in I-1, right?”

“Right, sir,” I say, before Cade shakes his head. “What?”

“Drop the sir act in the class area with me,” he says, shrugging. “I hated that my entire time as a Plebe. I did a year and some change active duty before I got in here. Seriously, Central Area do what you need to do to avoid fire, but up here, chill out.”

“O… okay,” I say, realizing after all this time it's harder than I thought. I guess some of that cadet act soaks into you after all. “How did you find it?”

Cade shrugs and gives me a mischievous smile. “Not too bad. But, I was thinking... well, how about you come by my room tonight, we can review what Captain Le Peu spewed today? Say, after nineteen thirty?”

I can't help it, I lick my lips a little, it's a habit I've had since I was a kid, and it's held me pretty well when guys try and hit on me. “Uh... sure. Where do you live?”

“Bradley, room 224,” Cade says with a smile. “And come in your PTs, it'd be easier on you. You can relax in my room, just be on the bounce outside of it, okay?”

“Okay,” I reply, and he smiles. It's wolfish, a little daring, and I gotta admit it's flattering. “I'll see you there.”

Cade nods and turns. “Okay. As for me, off to Chinese. Trust me when I say that sucks. See you tonight.”

I have fourth period off, which is nice since that means I'm totally prepared for lunch formation. I get back to my room and set my books down, yawning a little. My shoes for lunch are already shined, so I take out my history book for my after lunch class period and start reading. I'm surprised when Tamara knocks on my door about halfway through the hour, she and I aren't rooming this semester. “Hey, Ash?”

Tamara's the only person in the entire company who calls me by my first name, and I like her, even if she is painfully shy with everyone else. I know she's already having problems with her current roommate, and I feel bad for her. “Come on in, Tammy. You have fourth period off too?”

Tamara nods, and sits down on my footlocker. “Yeah, I just hate going back to my room without needing too. Not quite as much fun as last semester.”

“I gotcha,” I tell her, closing my book. “You and Breisling not getting along still?”

“Nope. Total Cold War ever since we caught two hours punishment apiece for that mess in the sink,” Tamara says, sighing. “She's barely talking to me at all since then.”

I shake my head, knowing about the incident. I think a little blame could go to both girls, I mean Tammy was in a rush when she shouldn't have been and didn't wipe out her mess from brushing her teeth, but I suspect that Breisling screwed up in not checking the sink before she left the room too. Either way, it was only two hours. “Damn. Well, you can hang here for a while. Aren't you calling minutes this week?”

Tammy nods, blushing. “They put me outside Cadet King's room. She says that me having quiet minutes is a good thing, she hates it being too loud. She's actually really nice in her own way, she came out and talked to me yesterday.”

“You mean she's nice in a butch way?” I ask, broaching the subject. Tammy blushes, and I decide it's time to have the talk that I've been meaning to have with her since about two weeks into last semester. Getting up, I close my door. “Let's talk, Tammy. You and me, we were roomies since R-day, right?”

“Yeah,” Tammy admits. “You spent a lot of time in Beast and last semester saving my ass. Why is that?”

I sit down in my chair and lean back, letting my elbows relax on the arm rests. “Tammy, did you know that back in Beast, I thought I'd end up the first half with only one roomie, that you'd be one of those that would quit? You didn't, and I saw something that most of these idiots around here haven't seen, maybe because most of the Corps came here straight from the stupidity of high school drama. Where are you from again?”

“Idaho,” Tammy says, her voice dropping to a whisper. “Ketchum, Idaho.”

“Population?”

“Two thousand, eight hundred, and twenty three,” Tammy replies.

I hum, nodding. “So I'm guessing that growing up, there weren't too many girls like you around?”

Tammy looks up at me, half scared. “What do you mean, girls like me?”

I cock an eyebrow and smirk. “Tammy, my college in Washington has a freshman class bigger than Ketchum, Idaho. You don't think I met a few girls who were at least bisexual if not full out lesbians? I even got hit on by a girl in my dorm, and more than one girl in the dorm ended up doing a little experimenting. So chill, I'm not worried about it.”

Tammy bites her lip, then sighs. “Thanks. I guess I'm just worried that the word would get out. And I'm not totally lez, I've been with a guy. I guess you could call me... well, I don't know what to call myself. Just....”

“Just you've been crushing on me for a little while,” I interrupt her gently. “And I'll be honest, it's flattering even if I’m not vibing the same way. You've got a lot to offer a guy or girl you're into, Tammy.”

Tammy blushes, then looks at me out of the side of her eyes. “So you don't mind that I want to hang out with you a lot?”

I shake my head, relaxing and smiling. “Nope. Everyone needs a friend, and I am happy to be yours. Long as we recognize that friends is all we are going to be. I'm not going to lead you on, and I won't play you either.”

Tammy smiles again, then nods. “I can live with that. Besides, my crush is kinda fading.”

“Oh really?” I tease, raising an eyebrow. “And you wouldn't be thinking of a pretty muscular studette of a former first sergeant now, are you?”

“She is pretty in a pro-wrestler kinda way,” Tamara admits. “But, she's a Cow, and I'm just a Plebe. Can't even call her by her first name for another two and a half months. And I'm just Price, not Tamara and certainly not Tammy to her. Oh, and she's also straight. Or at least she's got a picture of a guy above her desk, I saw it when I delivered laundry to her room.”

I laugh. “I figured she ate boyfriends for breakfast and whipped them BDSM style for lunch.”

Tammy bites her lip, and I chuckle. “Down girl. You need to let off steam, go take a long shower, the water masks the noise pretty well. Trust me, I know.”

Tammy laughs, and nods. “Actually, and please don't freak out, but there were a few times when I'd do it in my bed when you were asleep. I'm pretty quiet when I want to be.”

I don't want to tell her that at least once I knew, but instead nod. “Still, safer that way. You don't want to be fingers deep when a roomie wakes up needing to take a piss, you know? Personal experience from civilian college talking here.”

Tammy laughs again, and leans back. “Thanks, Ash. Really. I've spent months now wanting to just have someone I can be myself with, even if it's not romantic or whatever. Maybe now that I know I can just be myself around you, I'll drop the stressed out act, you know?”

“I know,” I tell her. I check my watch, chuckling. “And you need to post yourself outside King's room, you got just a few minutes. Hey, you going to come watch Sandhurst practice this afternoon?”

Tamara shakes her head, blushing again. “I signed up for submission grappling for Intramurals.”

I blink, stunned. “You what? Have you ever wrestled in your life?”

She shakes her head, and her blush deepens. “Nope, but I'm trying to learn. And I get to roll around and get sweaty with King on the mats, she's the only other female on the team. Nice side benefit, you know?”

“Good point.”

* * *

I've never been in Bradley Barracks before, even though it's right next to Pershing. It's the realm of Second Regiment, there's no reason for me to be poking around there. Better not to play with fire.

But I've got my French book, and I'm wearing my full PT gear, which means that I'm a little anonymous as I walk down the hall to Cade's room. The only thing I do that gives away my Plebe status is knocking three times on his door. “Come on in.”

I open the door, and Cade's there by himself, his roomie absent. “Hi.”

“Hey Carlyle, come on in,” Cade says, waving me over. “Ben's out of the room for a while, so grab his chair and pull it over here.”

His room is laid out differently from mine, with an L-shaped desk that looks like it'd be more at home in a normal office than a cadet room, but I'd seen those before. Unfortunately Pershing doesn't have enough room in our rooms for the big L-shape, I’d like the space. “Where? Not a lot of space on the other side of the desk.”

“Then slide over here next to me,” Cade says, laughing. “The door's open, Carlyle. Or can I call you Ashley? At least during studying?”

It is one of those things that is unique in the foreign language classes, we refer to each other all the time by first name. “Ah, I guess. Sure.”

I grab Cade's roommate's chair pulling it next to his, and he scoots over, letting me in as best I can. Still, it's a tight fit, and the arms of our chairs are touching as we get started. “So let's try the first script, see how you're doing with translating it,” Cade says, opening his book and putting it halfway between us. “You go ahead.”

I feel like as we run through the script that I'm actually getting this better than Cade is. My pronunciation sounds a lot closer to the instructor’s, and as we try changes to the script, I'm a lot more accurate with the variations than he is.

Still, Cade's charismatic. But when he knee brushes against mine, at first maybe accidentally, but the second time for sure on purpose, I don’t like it. Leaning so close over the book that I can feel the warmth from his body on my skin, I'm shocked when his finger traces mine while we're going through our lines. “Cade....”

“Shhh,” he whispers, shaking his head. “Sometimes it's fun to break the rules, you know.”

His eyes are full of meaning, but I shake my head, standing up. “Thank you, but no. I... I need to get back to my room.”

“Your loss. See you in class Wednesday,” Cade says casually, waving. He's not flustered at all, in fact he looks like he's just expectant, like he knows how I'm feeling, and as I quickly leave Bradley and head back to Pershing, I'm trying to keep my head from spinning.

One touch. One fucking touch, on my hand no less, and my goddamn hormones are jacked up to eleven. I understand it, I haven't exactly had attention from guys in the past few months. But Cade? He's not even my type. Sure, the bodybuilder build is nice, but he's got a fake bake tan, and he rolls the hems on the sleeves of his PT shirt which is already a size and a half too small! Hell, he might as well have been from Jersey and asked me how I'm doin'?

But it doesn't matter, my body is flying right now on hormones, and I need release. I just need to make sure that whatever I do to release it, I'm not going to think about those ripped biceps or the way his thighs were warm where he touched my knee... FUCK! God fucking damn it all!

I get to my room and quickly make a decision, I'd told Tammy about it earlier today even. Grabbing my towel and shower kit, I head to the bathroom. I step into the changing area and peel off my clothes, turning on the water and stepping into the stall to give me my own personal space to do what I have to do.

For me, nothing beats letting off sexual energy in the shower. Cupping my breasts, I tweak my nipples, biting my lip as the hot energy sparkles inside me, the burning feeling good as the water splashes against my stomach and runs down between my legs, warming me even more.

I've let my body maintenance slip since joining the Corps, and my fingers catch a little in the full bush I've grown, but it doesn't matter, the slight pull is good as my fingers slide between my pussy lips, rubbing the slick folds until I slide my finger deep, moaning as I do. I work quickly, pumping my finger in and out letting the waves wash over me, the heel of my palm grinding against my clit. It's been my guaranteed move since I was thirteen and figured out what my body can do, but something's missing.

My mind starts drifting, and I start thinking of what I need, a man who can be my fantasy lover. Tall, for sure... his body athletic, but leaner than Cade, a little taller. More serious, none of the playboy bullshit. And I like brown hair...

The image comes into my mind while my orgasm grows inside me, and I let my head fall forward, the water soaking into my hair as suddenly Cadet Lancaster comes into my mind. He's tall, and there's a strength to him, refined and cultured, but with a hint of inner passion that pulls at me. No man could ever be as good as he is without a strong wild side, one that I want to be able to see, to make him let loose.

My body trembles, and then the waves all harmonize, my clit and g-spot coming together is a tsunami that leaves me smiling. My entire world stretches out and washes white and pure before my thighs tremble, the afterwash leaving me relaxed and happy.

I finish up my shower, putting some conditioner in my hair while my fingers stop trembling, and I wait, thinking while the vitamins do their work. Cadet Lancaster? He's a Cow, but at least he's respectful. When he invited me to join the Sandhurst squad, he didn't hit on me, he was totally cool. And last semester, as squad leader, he certainly made my pulse race a little.

Hell, he's not too bad a fantasy, a lot better than Cade Edwards. Even with that scar on his mouth and cheek, he's a lot more my type anyway. He's actually got his act together, and I don't sense any fakeness from him.

I rinse out my hair and chuckle, drying off. Okay, so I've been denying myself pretty hard since Beast. Instead of a healthy sex life, I've lived like a nun. This sort of release is something I need, and now that the stress of first semester is over, maybe it's time that I reacquaint myself with my inner fantasies and with my body's needs. It's about all I've got right now.