Melbourne awoke to a blaring alarm warning him that it was time to wake up and go to his homeroom class.
"Ugh!" groaned Jeremy as Melbourne jumped down from the top bunk. "Why did they have to make the alarm so annoying?"
"It's better that alarms be annoying." said Melbourne far more cheerily than Jeremy as his Aclito artificially delivered more cortisol into his brain to wake him up. "If they're relaxing, you'd be more capable of just ignoring it and going back to sleep. C'mon sleepy head, let's go to homeroom and find out our schedules for the year. I'm sure the sergeant's secondary wake up call will be far worse than this alarm if you roll over and go back to sleep. We have ten minutes to get to homeroom."
"Alright, alright." said Jeremy, stretching out as he reluctantly got out of bed and hit the off button on the alarm.
The two ran out of B Dorm and across a small section of the campus to G Building where their homeroom was located on the second floor of G building. As they stopped at the room labeled "270", a muscular bald man shoved into their backs, causing Melbourne to stagger and Jeremy to trip to the floor.
"Watch out, Jodies." yelled the student. "I swear, you wimps need to learn your place! Do you know who I am? I'm Logan Indri. My father is General Lovellum Indri of the 23rd Division, the highest ranking officer in New Venice! You better be showing me some respect now. I'm late to class, so I'll spare you a beating just this once."
The student looked both Melbourne and Jeremy in the eyes, registering their faces, and then walked into the classroom pompously.
"Jody?" asked Melbourne in confusion mingled with anger.
Jeremy grimaced. "It's a term that spoiled military brats tend to use in a derogatory way against those who have no family with decorated officers. It's usually the kind of bullying done by children who were spoiled by parents with high ranking officers who get very well paid. Many of these people care more about pedigree than actual merit and were afforded personal trainers throughout their childhood who taught them combat skills. These factors often give them a superiority complex. They are known to bully those they look down on and are often not punished by the institutions because teachers tend to fear the influence of their families."
"I thought these situations were more common on the Jovian Moons or other nations that practice the new age feudalism that the Ganymedian Kingdom established in the early 22nd Century?" remarked Melbourne. "Mars is supposed to be different."
"Yes, that's what the propaganda would have you believe." said Jeremy. "Mars is usually touted as the 'New America', the bastion of freedom and meritocracy in Sol. To some extent, this is definitely true. There are far more instances of poorer people moving up in the society in Mars than on Ganymede. I thank my lucky stars I don't have to deal with their aristocracies. Unfortunately, even in republics like Mars, rich and successful families accumulate influence over generations and still manage to get their hold on political systems to an unfair extent, allowing them to bribe and manipulate the system to give them and their progeny unfair favoritism that allows them to get away with many things ordinary people can't get away with. Don't be surprised if we get targeted and bullied for being of lower class backgrounds."
"Sounds like James all over again." said Melbourne lowly through a sigh as the two walked into the classroom.
The two took a seat in the room with about fifty cadets and found themselves waiting five minutes before the teacher actually showed up.
From the back door of the classroom walked a bald man with glasses in a naval dress uniform.
"Good day, ladies and gentlemen. I am Lieutenant Anders. I regret to inform you that your homeroom teacher is currently busy attending to an important matter with the dean and she will be late. Don't worry, she will be here shortly to give you your induction week schedules and then send you on your way. In the meantime, I have been instructed to handle escorting you to the cafeteria to allow you an opportunity to eat your breakfast. You will have fifteen minutes to finish your meal before you will be escorted back out of the cafeteria. Now, we will have you all file in line based on your height. Please stand tall and I will determine in what order you should file. ATTENTION!"
The cadets stood up and a few snapped their legs together and stood stiff and professionally.
"I see some of you have been informed of some military customs beforehand." said Lieutenant Anders happily. "As for the rest of you, do not worry. You are still in induction week and are not expected to understand drill etiquette yet. You will not be disciplined today. Now, I want you to get in the front of the line, sir." Anders pointed to Logan, the tallest of the cadets. "Next, you." Anders pointed to Melbourne.
"My height has grown a lot with my Aclito training and augmentations." thought Melbourne to himself bitterly. He wasn't mad about his growth spurt, just momentarily upset that he had to stand right next to Logan.
"Now you, the blonde lady." said Anders. "You sir, come in fourth."
Anders kept pointing out cadets until he arrived at the last one. Jeremy Olan was the shortest of all the cadets in the room.
"Alright, I won't use regular marching commands yet." said Anders. "I do not expect you to keep a single-file lockstep formation yet. Just follow me, and do keep a single file line please.
The cadets walked to the first floor and filed into the cafeteria where many tables were set up. In the back of the large room was a bar behind which cooks worked efficiently on the student breakfasts in an assembly line.
Anders led the line and grabbed a tray with a single breakfast burrito, a carton of milk and a glass of water for himself followed by Logan. Melbourne received a tray next as Anders lead the line towards a long table with exactly fifty seats printed with the number "270".
"This will be your dining table every week day, cadets!" announced Anders with authority. "You will dine together according to this line formation and sit according to your height. The first in line will sit next to me today and your real HR teacher from now on. The second will sit by him. The 26th will file in to the other side and sit across from me and the others will file behind him. The weekends will have more leniency. You will be allowed to sit wherever you like and even leave the campus if you so choose. Is that explanation simple enough?"
"Yes, sir!" said a chorus of non-unified rookie cadets.
"Good enough." said Lieutenant Anders.
Melbourne grimaced as he realized he would have to sit by Logan every day. This was bound to result in trouble in the future.
Just as Melbourne was about to sit down, his Aclito showed a red attack line emanating from Logan into his breakfast tray.
Logan feigned a trip and knocked Melbourne's tray up into the air. Melbourne managed to catch the breakfast burrito before it hit the floor but the milk and water spilled all over.
"Oops, sorry!" lied Logan loudly. "That was a little accident. I slipped."
Anders looked disapprovingly at Logan before looking apologetically at Melbourne whose attention was more fixated on Logan's condescending sneer.
"Yup, it's James Kurkoniff all over again." thought Melbourne in grief. "I'm being targeted as prey. Of course I wouldn't get away from the bullying that easily. Now that James respects me, someone's gotta take his place, right? The universe must have a sick sense of humor."
"Don't worry, cadet." said Lieutenant Anders, bringing a paper towel to clean Melbourne's clothes up quickly. "The cafeteria staff won't give you replacements on weekdays, but you can have the milk of this clumsy cadet." Anders looked gravely at James. "You may want to be careful next time if you want a full breakfast. You don't want to endure training at this academy on an empty stomach, I assure you."
Melbourne sneered at Logan who looked darkly back at Melbourne as the two sat down at the table.
"You have just made the biggest mistake of your life." whispered Logan as Melbourne began to drink the milk that the scion of Lovellum Indri had been forced to surrender to him.
The cadets finished their breakfasts and filed back to room 270, returning to their seats.
"Alright, cadets, I hope you had an excellent breakfast!" announced Lieutenant Anders. "Your HR teacher is done at the Deans office and will be here momentarily. Until then, please remain in your seats and wait patiently."
As he finished this sentence, the door to the classroom opened up and Melbourne gasped in horror as a familiar black haired woman walked in with an uncomfortable air.
She visually scanned the room before landing eyes on Melbourne. Upon seeing him, she locked eyes and smiled coldly before walking up to take the podium from Lieutenant Anders.
"Good morning, class." said the woman formally. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Lieutenant Lavender and I will be your homeroom teacher for the remainder of this school year. Welcome to Fort Relecon Naval Academy and congratulations on your successful enrollment into the most prestigious naval academy of the Martian Republic!"