Chapter 10

'From what I've heard' may have been the most commonly stated phrase when anyone referred to the Air Academy. This statement usually preceded some wistful statement about how easy and wonderful life at the Air Academy was.

Most of it was horse crap, Kayla decided about two hours into her first day. They'd been welcomed by the commandant of cadets, welcomed by the instructor cadre, shown their dorms, and then led to the supply building to draw their allotment of clothing and accoutrements as flying students. In that time she'd seen no evidence of unlimited food, chairs with pillowed seats, butlers, unlimited laundering services from the dregs of society, or flocks of women throwing themselves at the feet of the young men in her class.

Kayla considered her classmates, the twenty-eight young men fortunate and skilled enough to be chosen along with her and the one other young woman in her class. As with the previous class, most of them ranged in age from twenty-three to twenty nine with only one, Joey's boyfriend Cody, younger than twenty. Except for Cody, most of them had cast an admiring look over Kayla and Alana, the other young woman. Most of the looks Kayla missed due to her naivety but Alana, her new roommate, caught most of them. She smiled back at a few, knowing that austerity may have squashed some things, but hope springs eternal.

As Kayla and Alana hauled the many pounds of gear they now had back to their room their classmates kept them within the confines of the group. Kayla gave Alana a look, hoping the other woman would slow her pace so they could converse without the crowd of men surrounding them, but the group paced them. Alana gave an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes. When they reached the women's dorms, a smaller annex to the men's dorms, the class leader told them to be back in the classroom by noon. Kayla and Alana nodded and hurried of the stairs to their room.

"Seriously? They can't let us be for a second can they?" Alana asked as they lugged their bags up the stairs.

"Whatever, my Dorm Mother hasn't let me out of her sight without Joey a step behind for the last year!" Kayla told her.

"Really? That's rough." Alana heaved her bag inside the door to their room, once again admiring the large space. "I've been out of the kid's dorms about seven months now and I don't miss it!"

"Nice. It wasn't horrible but I'm not used to so many people ordering me around. And the roughest part: cold showers every day and never enough food. One rumor I had hoped would be true: hot water and more food."

"You could use it too, bean pole!" Alana told her. Kayla paused for a moment and stared at her in shock until she realized that Alana hadn't meant the comment to be harmful. "What, you're thin as a rail; didn't you get the extra ration?" Alana asked.

"What extra ration?" Kayla wiped the sweaty hair off her brow and stared at Alana.

"Oh man, seriously?" Alana stared at her in shock. "All the girls are supposed to get an extra cup of rice each week to keep our baby makin' bits up to speed." She huffed as they up turned their bags in the corner of the room. She stopped. "You really didn't get it?" Kayla shook her head. "Man, bummer. Well, hopefully you get better fed here."

Kayla's mind raced furiously, wondering which of her myriad of Dorm Mothers had made the order for her to miss her allotment and how many had followed it blindly, not knowing any better. Her mind raced around the possibility that one of them might have simply been hoping she'd die of starvation.

"Fucking foster care," Kayla muttered. "No wonder kids in the system were always so mean."

"At home?"

The word 'home' caused Kayla to feel like her stomach had dropped out and the blank mask that had been her shield for almost two years slid across her face. Just the thought of being home, with her father made her ache with longing. Hell, at that point she'd even take being home with her frigid bitch of a mother. Kayla looked at Alana, face devoid of emotion and nodded. Alana patted her shoulder somewhat awkwardly.

"Sorry, didn't mean to spook you," she pointed at the door in front of them. "Well, looks like we've got some times before class. You want the first shower; see if it lives up to the hype?"

Kayla nodded again and quietly grabbed her toiletries. Alana stared after her, wondering what she said that affected Kayla so much. She'd gone from somewhat chatty to silent and cold in the space of a heartbeat. She shook her head as she started sorting her belongings.

Alana knew that some of the kids had had harder times adapting than others. Alana was thankful every day to be where she was. Not just to have been fortunate to be at the Academy but to be away from her family. Some people had been torn from kind, loving families, as she suspected Kayla had been but Alana's situation had improved since coming to Offutt. Before her mind could delve too deeply into the past, she heard a shout from the bathroom.

"Hot water! We have hot water!" Kayla shouted triumphantly. Alana scurried to their bathroom to see Kayla batting her hands through the spray, splashing water all over the floor. Her face was transformed, the cold blank mask was gone, and look of childlike glee covered it. Alana was struck by just how young her new roommate was. At twenty-two, Alana was one of the younger members of the class, but she was older than Kayla by six years.