Chapter 24

My Brother Will,

Holy came by? I can tell you are tired and overworked. I doubt even the most sadistic of parents would name their daughter Holy.

As for the kiss. I promised I would never tell who it was. Erica knows, but it wasn't her. And it wasn't part of the musical. The characters I played in all four musicals I was part of didn't kiss. I did get the opportunity because of a surprise surrounding the performances we did of Pirates of Penzance, but that was all.

And don't worry, it wasn't Oliver. Yuck. He's a worm. I'd rather kiss Grandpa Pickering, and he is a complete tool. To be honest I really only spend time with family. Marilyn, Erica and my classes seems to be all I have time for right now. I do get extremely good grades now. Even with my dance classes, tai chi, deportment with Erica's Great-Aunt, and even my tank driving, I am tops in my classes. Well, Erica matches me. We study together so we tend to get the same answers on everything.

Interesting to hear how things work in your pod and on the ship. That definitely doesn't match the stories being passed around at school. The boys like to make it sound like if you are lucky and are the one allowed to volunteers, its all sex all the time, and if you are a concubine you just sit around waiting to be ordered to have sex.

I don't remember if I told you, but Marilyn took her CAP test. She got a six point six. Marilyn is beside herself with both pride and fear. Her medic's training has increased in intensity. She's admitted that she's already thinking about test driving a few guys, just to get an idea of what it will be like. It was so funny when she showed up at school the day after she tested. She had a huge smile on her face. Of course, she's one of the oldest kids in eighth grade and for ninth we'd move to the high school, so right now she doesn't have much of a selection for her entourage. Still the comments she makes while sitting with Erica and me during lunch are just too funny. She's playfully musing about how good of a lover each of the boys might be. Honestly, I don't expect her to try any of them though. So far the three boys who are fourteen and in our class are all losers.

I'll probably have tested by the time I get your next letter. It's exciting and scary. Marilyn tells everyone that she doesn't remember the test. It's frustrating, I so want to know what happened so I can try to do a bit more preparation, but all Marilyn will do is smile. Erica mentioned this to Chin-pa after one of our classes. The man just smiled. He then had the gall to say. "If one seeks serenity within themselves, they will find their true worth and allow it to shine as a beacon to others."

Major Pervis isn't really contributing to anything. Erica and I ignore him and the trainers know that. Heck, it was our training company leader who gave Major Pervis a non-working headset. What's funny is that the Major hasn't figured it out yet. We did ask and found out that the man is regular army. However, while he did train some in tank tactics and operations he got shifted to supply before he made Captain and was still there when they promoted him to Major. The military needed him out of the supply depot he was in charge of and sent him to help the training commands.

So Erica and I have been stuck with him off and on. He was only in the tank for thirty minutes during our last training day, and we've been told they sent him to one of the bases to give a verbal report. That doesn't make a lot of sense though. Erica and I were asked to stay late that day and we gave the report using a web cam. I do know that the men watching us in that web conference were amazed by how we used web cameras to give us full vision outside the tank. One guy pointed out that they are a bit vulnerable, but another said that with the way we mounted them, any hit that destroyed the majority of them would breach the tank armor and kill us.

Congrats on your rat capturing. I'm still trying to figure out how they got to the ship. I mean if everything is teleported up and the AI is watching for life forms, how could the rats have made it aboard. You'd think the AIs would have noticed and teleported the rats someplace nicer, like the caldera of an active volcano.

Well, I need to get going. I promised John that if he got perfect scores on his English, history and math homework this week, Erica and I would take him to the amusement park. Well, it was more that I'd convince Mom to take us, but as it turns out its Erica's Great-Aunt taking us. We're just finishing breakfast and we'll be out the door.

Your sometimes overwhelmed sister

Willow