A fight, a Fire, and Time Among Friends

"INCOMING!" The crowd roars. This is followed by outbursts of laughter as I walk to the mat in the center of the room. It’s a typical Friday night at the academy; the instructors and senior officers are all off picking up supplies and enjoying their weekend. The trainees, along with a few young officers and teachers, are alone at the Corbulo Academy, a military boarding school in an undisclosed location made to train soldiers from early ages to join elite task forces. Each and every student had been an orphan and had volunteered for the program at the ages of four and five so they could leave their various orphanages. The academy was their lives, and like all people, they needed time to relax and blow off steam. That's why tonight the other trainees and I are throwing a party in the academy's rec-building.

        I look around and see my friends enjoying themselves in any way possible, they’re doing everything from sitting by the fireplace, to playing pool, to drinking beer stolen from the headmaster's private supply. More shouts bring my attention back to what I was doing; in the center of the room was a mat that instructors like to use to teach the trainees hand-to-hand combat. The other guys and I just like to use it to beat each other up for bragging rights.

        As I walk towards the center I look over to the table we use to organize the tournaments and call out to the person sitting behind it, "Hey Bishop! Who's my playmate tonight?" Bishop, who has been one of my closest friends ever since we got dropped off at the academy together, grins and replies, "Well seeing how you send anybody we put against you to the infirmary, I decided to step it up a notch. You're going against fireteam Onyx." The crowd cheers and I wave my hand to get them quiet as four guys walk out of the crowd to face me. I know this group well and the reason Bishop has chosen it.

        The night Bishop and I arrived at the academy; these four guys had pushed Bishop out of our van into the mud and pouring rain out of impatience. When Bishop asked them to help him up, they had kicked him and spat on him. After this I pushed them all into the mud and threatened to hit them with a tire iron until they apologized to Bishop. The group had never forgotten how they had been embarrassed by me that night and has always tried to take any chance they get to return the favor.

        I can’t help but grin and admire Bishop’s sense of humor as the group comes to meet me on the mat. They sneer and obviously are looking forward to embarrassing me. Bishop rises from his seat and speaks into a microphone with his best sports announcer voice.

“All right folks,” he calls out, “it’s time again to see who the big dog on campus is. In one corner,“ he pauses for dramatic effect, “we have our current champ, a mister Tristan Porter; a decorated squad leader and star student who believes himself to be invincible and whose smell is almost as dangerous as his punch.” Bishop pauses so everyone can laugh and so he can give me a joking smile before he continues. “With that said,” he begins again, causing the crowd to settle down, “he is also my best friend and if any of you punks have anything to say about him, you can tell him next week because I’ll put you as his next match. Now in the other corner,” Bishop spits out in a bored voice, “we have the ever-hopeless fireteam Onyx. They have tirelessly worked to show us all that they are incapable of anything more complicated than eating with utensils. Tonight however, they wish to entertain us by showing us that their combat prowess can compensate for the single pea-sized brain that they all seem to share.” Bishop pauses to bow as the crowd begins laughing and Onyx begins cursing him and throwing every rude gesture they can think of at him. This just causes his smile to stretch wider as he paces the edge of the mat.

“ALL RIGHT!” Bishop roars, “you all know the rules. No biting, clawing, using unauthorized weapons, or whining about any broken bones you may acquire in the match. A contestant loses the match if, they leave the mat, are knocked unconscious, or surrender.” “Now,” Bishop announces with an air of finality, “let’s watch some idiots fight!” Everyone gets quiet and Bishop blows the whistle to start the fight.

         The biggest one of them, a stocky guy named Butch, immediately charges me. As he runs and swings his fist I sidestep and crouch under the blow. Stepping behind him, I wrap my arm around his neck and pull him around in time to use him to block one of his friends who is trying to tackle me. Stepping back, I kick the two of them off the mat and turn around. The remaining two, a couple of guys named Nick and Zane, are standing to my right and left, waiting for an opportunity to get me off of the mat and out of the competition. Instead of waiting for them to attack first, I rushed Nick on my right and catch his arm as he tries to throw an intercepting jab at my face. Stepping in close, I turn him around and twist his arm to an angle until he yelps. Then, a delivering a quick hit to the temple with my elbow to stop him from being able to retaliate, I pick him up under the neck and knees and throw him at Zane, who is rushing to get me away from his friend. He obviously isn’t expecting this and crumples to the ground under the weight of his incapacitated friend. As they both lay there groaning the crowd laughs and gives a light applause. Bishop, with his ever-present sly grin, yells out, "Ladies and gentlemen! May I present you this week's champion, once again, Tristan Porter!" After I give a small bow and a mock salute to Bishop I walk off to what I've really been waiting for all week, time with my squad.

        I work my way over to the fireplace and see my friends already talking and laying all the couches. I look and smile at each of them: first is Zach, the closest thing to a brother I've ever had throughout my life, we've always stuck together and accomplished everything together. A few months ago during a training exercise, the two of us had stormed through an opposing eight member team and secured our objective in record time. During our debriefing he had given me all the credit which led to me being promoted to squad leader. There is no finer friend in the world.

        Lying against her boyfriend Drew is Lydia. She had been one of the recruits that came more out of desperation than anything else. When she first arrived she would spend hours in dark spaces and corners crying and mourning her family who had all died in a shooting. Everyone had felt bad for her but hadn’t known what to do until one day Drew walked up to her, handed her an apple, and invited her to come join the rest of us. She had loved him from that day forward. As she warmed up to the rest of us, we found that she was an expert climber and that her slender figure allows her to get into spaces most others can’t. She became an expert in reconnaissance. Her irony trademark is that she almost never stops talking. Over the years everyone has gotten accustomed to telling her to "put a lyd on it". She sticks her tongue out and laughs and just always pulls Drew closer to her.

        I lock eyes with Drew and give him a knowing wink and smile. When he first arrived he had already been bruised and battered from being abused at his orphanage. When he came to the academy, people like Onyx team had only made his life worse. One day, when a few of these people were harassing him for his meal card, Bishop and I happened to walk by and find him. He didn’t hesitate to take up our offer for him to join us. As he tagged along with us for a few months we found that he isn't a great fighter or strategist, but has a compassion that never leaves him and a knack for medicine. He's become an amazing medic and ethical consultant. A few months ago he finally worked up the nerve to ask Lydia out and she practically screamed yes as she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. Bishop and I have always joked about who the real leader in the relationship is.

        Then my eyes rest on the couch across from me and who sits in it. Sarah was immediately loved by everyone at the academy when she arrived and had never had any problems apart from other girls being jealous of her. She was always confident and happy around everyone in public. When I was ten I found her crying in one of my quiet getaway spots around the campus. Her family had been killed in a terrorist bombing on her fifth birthday and she had been thinking about her old life and family and how she didn't belong here. After I calmed her down and talked to her for a while she decided to come join our squad. As she focused more on her studies she became a brilliant strategist and expert marksman. She helps us all keep our heads straight and points out things we overlook. A couple weeks ago at the 4th of July fireworks display, I finally kissed her and asked her out right before the finale. She joked about me having to pick a dramatic moment and said yes. These past couple weeks have easily been the best of my life.

        I go sit down next to Sarah and pull her to me then tell them about the match. Zach laughs and mentions something about Bishop owing him his dessert for a week. This causes all of us to laugh and toss throw pillows at him. Laughing hysterically, Zach raises his arms to protect himself then starts throwing them back. Immediately it becomes a small war with everyone against Zach. We’re all laughing as the air becomes filled with cushions.

        It’s these moments that make everything possible, I think to myself. It’s these moments of joy that get us through our darkest days. Everything is possible when you have people you can call family not because you’re related, but because you’ve been through so much with them that a bond is formed that is more powerful than any blood ties. I’d do anything for them.

        The pillow fighting continues for a few minutes until we hear someone strumming a guitar. I have no idea where the guitar came from but it’s a welcome surprise for us all. Playing the guitar is a tall, sandy-haired guy named Bryce. I don’t know him personally but on nights like this everyone is a friend. He starts playing a rather crude version of “Wonderwall” and starts singing along to it. Practically everyone joins in by the second verse and for a few minutes everyone in the room is happy and having fun. Eventually Bryce puts down the guitar and walks off towards the dormitory wing.

        We talk about classes and Zach needing a girlfriend for a while until he finally rolls over and falls asleep in his recliner. A little later Drew and Lydia fall asleep holding each other and it becomes just Sarah and I left.

        "You know," Sarah whispers, "you shouldn't tease him so much about getting a girlfriend. I might just leave you for him instead if you keep making him so lonely."

        This makes me chuckle and pull her tighter on top of me. "You're not going anywhere," I reply, "I only just got you and I don't plan on ever letting you go. Someone has to keep me from going crazy and I don't plan on even trying to replace anyone as incredible as you."

        She giggles then lays her head on my chest and we just stay there. I think to myself how I wouldn't give this up for anything in the world and how nothing will ever touch her while I'm breathing. I can tell she's fallen asleep because her breathing slows into a pattern so I pull a blanket over us and tuck her hair behind her ear. I look out the nearest window and think I see a figure moving in the distance but dismiss it. "Nothing is wrong, today is perfect, all is well," I think to myself. Then I drift off into a deep sleep with a last thought about me being the luckiest person on the planet.