What the hell is wrong with kids today?
As Ava opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling from her bed all she could think, today is a new day. Yesterday was by no means the worst day of her life, but she could safely say it was possibly the most embarrassing day of her life. Why the hell was she staring at that woman, she didn’t do things like that she didn’t ogle woman. It was one of the reasons straight men drive her crazy, she had many times throughout her life been ogled. She hated the feeling, and she herself had done that. She should apologize for the staring, but she had decided today she was sending Hannah into physical therapy alone. She wasn’t going to step foot in that building the next day she would literally just wait in the car or maybe run some errands or something. Her alarm started to blare, and she reached over without breaking her stare at the ceiling and slapped her phone to shut off the annoying sound and slowly crawled out of her bed. She got dressed in some workout pants and a Marine Corps shirt with some running shoes and made her way to the kitchen and grabbed some water. She put her earbuds in and slipped her phone into a small black arm band and then slid it up her arm and headed out the door for her morning run.
When Ava got back to the house after an unusually long run, she headed straight past Hannah who was in the kitchen making breakfast and hit the shower. This was a normal routine not out of the ordinary because Hannah always woke up and made Ava breakfast before she had to head out for school. It was a promise that Hannah had made her when she accepted the position as the Head of the MCJROTC program at their Base’s school. Hannah was a good cook and loved making breakfast foods, today she was working on French toast because it was Ava’s favorite and she knew she had a shitty day yesterday and wanted to try and make amends with a nice breakfast. Ava took a quicker shower than normal because her run ran late but when she emerged from the room in her Service c uniform today instead of her cammies. Long green slacks and a khaki long sleeved shirt with her ribbons and badges on her left breast and her Major rank on the collars. She made her way to the dining room table where her normal glass of water and glass of orange juice were, today she running a little later than normal so her plate full of French toast and fruit was already sitting there waiting for her. She saw the setup and a small smile formed on her lips. She looked over at Hannah realizing maybe yesterday was a bit tense and she was as Hannah would say being a douche. “Thanks.” She said as she sat down. Hannah met her eyes and smiled glad her sister was able to speak to her today.
“Glad to see your speaking to me again.” Hannah said as she stood at the counter on crutches getting ready to bring her plate over. And before she knew what was happening Ava was there grabbing her plate and bringing it back to the table to her normal spot across from Ava. Hannah made her way over to the table and propped up her crutches as she sat down. “Want to talk about it?” Hannah asked putting her head down and starting to cut her food.
“Not really.” Ava said as she ate slightly looking up with her eyebrow raised.
“Okay, let me rephrase the question then. What happened at school yesterday because you said you had a shitty day. And I’m sure it wasn’t all what happened at the doctor’s office.” Hannah never looked up to meet Ava’s eyes.
“I had to demote a kid and kick him off the armed drill team.” Ava said sadly.
“What for? That sounds kind of harsh.” Hannah had finally looked up and met Ava’s eyes and she could see a little streak of upset there.
“So, he has already been warned about these pranks he keep pulling against this kid. Like the first time he apologized and just got off with a warning and the second time he got detention for two weeks. But this time he went a little too far. He setup this elaborate shaving cream joke in this kid’s locker and had twelve cans of shaving cream rigged to start spraying when the kids opened his locker.” She saw Hannah choke a little on her food to stop from laughing grabbing her drink no doubt to wash down whatever was stuck in her windpipe. “It’s not funny, two of cans exploded before the kid could open his locker because they got to hot. It could have been bad. What if that happened the moment, he opened his locker.” She was now looking at Hannah with a serious look.
“Holy Shit.” Hannah was in shock “Sorry I didn’t know.”
“Well thankfully that’s not what happened, but Principal Heywood was ready to expel him from school because it really could have been dangerous. He came to me and offered me the opportunity to maybe do some in house punishment. So, me, cap, and sgt maj, decided that we could do that and prove a point to him. So, we demoted him, and put him on probation from the drill team. We also called his mother and she agreed he would do community service every Saturday until the end of the school year.” Ava started getting to work on eating her food.
“Well I mean consequences for actions and all that. Don’t the drill teams have a competition coming up soon though?”
Ava nodded as she finished her bite, “They’ll have to figure it out without him.” She shrugged and kept eating. Her phone alarm started to go off and she grabbed it from her pocket and turned it off and rushed a few more bites before she got up and took, her plate and rinsed it. She grabbed a tumbler from the cabinet and poured the orange juice in it from the cup on the table as Hannah finished her food. She quickly grabbed Hannah’s plate and rinsed it off also. She grabbed her Green sweater out of her room and her backpack by the door and looked over to Hannah who was still sitting just staring at her coffee. “Hannah.” Ava was waiting for eye contact now and Hannah looked up from her coffee to meet her eyes, “you know were good right?” She smiled and that caused Hannah to smile and nod. “okay ill see you at two thirty to take you back to the V.A.” Ava smiled and walked out the door.
Its only third period and Ava is already sitting at her desk wondering what the hell is wrong with kids today? In first period she had to break up a fight between two freshman who literally kept screaming at each other about girl code. Ava wasn’t even sure what the hell that meant. But now that Captain Danvers had explained it, she was at a loss for words as to why it would lead to a fight. In second period somebody had turned on an app that kept making a fart noise and she thought Sgt Major was going to lose his shit when he slammed into the office. And now she had just broken up another fight in third period between the two guys who were fighting over a girl they both liked. She even went as far to ask Captain Danvers if there was a damn guy code she should know about. What wrong with fourteen- and fifteen-years old’s? She doesn’t remember being like this at this age, then again, she wasn’t exactly dating anyone to fight over and honestly no where near popular enough to warrant any attention. But still the ridiculousness of it all was lost on her. Why did she take this position again she kept asking herself as she laid her head on her desk and slowly started tapping her forehead against it?
“I want to say it gets better, but we get a new batch of hormone crazed teenagers every year.” Captain Danvers says as she enters the room and sits on the chair in front of Ava’s desk.
“Alex, you said this job was fulfilling and it would be an amazing experience.” Ava said without lifting her head, but she had stopped tapping her head on the desk.
“It is, I’ve been here four years now and I’ve grown with some of these kids. They do grow out of the Freshman, Sophomore idiocy.” She smiles thinking about her seniors. “We have four seniors who have already met the physical requirements of the Corps who are going in after graduation. And at least twelve more headed to take their ASVAB this year sometime for the ARMY. And two more who have accepted scholarships to West Point. We are shaping young peoples lives here.” She stands up and knocks on the desk hard causing Ava to pop her head up quickly and look at her.
By sixth period Ava had decided that Alex was full of shit. This was not amazing and or fulfilling it was like a big babysitting job all day. She broke up at least two more fights and a kid literally held his breath until he passed out because someone dares him to do it. She looked at the clock and knew she had to leave soon to drop Hannah off at the V.A. she started to look around the empty classroom and started straightening up desks out of habit.
“Hey what are you and Hannah doing for Thanksgiving?” Alex asked as she was joining Ava in fixing the seats. “Is your mom coming to town?”
“God no, why on earth would you think that?” Ava huffed.
“Well its Hannah first year back so I figured she would invade or something.”
“No Carol and I made a deal that I would take care of Hannah and she would stay the fuck away.” Ava said not looking up.
“So, you’re still calling her Carol?”
Ava stopped what she was doing and looked at Alex who seemed to be concerned about her. Alex had known her for years they did officer candidate school together and even had two deployments together. She knew exactly the relationship Ava had with her mother, she was a shoulder to cry on after many fights with the damn woman who literally almost disowned her when she came out at 20 and then practically blamed her for Hannah’s entire platoon getting blown up nearly two years ago. That’s when she became Carol to Ava.
Two years ago:
Loud explosions all around her Hannah clad in her Desert Cammies squatting down against the side of a Humvee. Her M27 IAR in her hands she can hear her Captain yelling orders.
“Contact Left!”
Hannah is trying to stay calm, but she is struggling, the onset of a panic attack is setting in and she can’t focus on her breathing long enough to stop it.
“Contact Right!”
She knows they are surrounded but she can’t see them. She manages to control her breathing enough to stand and look over the Humvee front end to see her Captain shotting towards where she thinks hostiles are. She can see someone making there way towards the Captain and she aims and fires her weapon shotting the person before they can shoot her captain.
“Sharpe Get down!”
Hannah does as she is told and squats back down, she tells herself she is going to be okay and to just breath. She looks off in the distance and all she see’s is a flash and searing pain rolls through her body. Everything goes dark, until she wakes up and in a bright room where she can hear voices arguing. Voices she recognizes as her mother and her sister. But it can’t be, they aren’t in Afghanistan. Ava is back home she is stateside and mom well she is in New York. Hannah can hear them clearer now as she is more awake.
“This is all your fault!” Carol says.
“Are you kidding me? How the hell is this my fault?” Ava is beside herself and Hannah can hear it.
“You got her to join the Marines and now she is well Jesus look at her!” Carol shouts.
“She joined the Corps because she wanted too and because she wanted to follow in dad’s footsteps not mine.”
“Oh, give me a break Ava. That girl has only ever looked up to you no one else. And you know that. If you hadn’t went and joined the Marines she never would have.” Carol was now pacing and talking she didn’t care if she hurt Ava.
“Let me get this straight you are now blaming me for enemy insurgents literally trying to blow up my sister!” Ava was loud now; she was Major Sharpe now Hannah could hear her clear as day. She only got that voice when she was ready for action. If mom kept going Ava could easily snap and beat the shit out of her. Hannah was always scared of that voice, her dad had it too when he would get upset like when she snuck out of the house to go to Zari T’s Pool party when she was sixteen. Mom probably blamed that on Ava too even though Ava was at OCS by that point and hadn’t been home in almost two years. But anything Hannah did that was against the rules somehow always was Ava’s doing according to her.
“You know when you told me about your questionable lifestyle choices not a week later, I walked into Hannah’s room and caught her making out with some girl?” Carol had hit a nerve with that one. Ava was ready to explode. Hannah recalled that specific memory yes, she did, and it was worth it Lena Luthor was totally worth it and a really good kisser too.
“Oh My God!” Ava had turned toward her pacing mother and her face was red. She was livid, angry, hurt, broken hearted, and every other feeling you could have in that moment. “Listen to me…Carol I am going to say this once and only once Hannah was kissing girls before I ever even had kissed a girl. She was the fucking one who helped me realize I was a lesbian. Which seems backwards because I am the older sister but hey were not a typical family are, we? Nope we blame random shit that happens on Ava. The fucking house could be on fire right now and you would somehow figure out how to blame me for it. And now I’m going to say the most important thing and I want you hear me loud and clear. I want you to leave! I want you to leave right now and just don’t come back. I will take care of Hannah I will go with her wherever they send her, and I will do everything in my power to make sure she comes back from this. But I don’t want you around at all, I don’t want you around being judgmental and a total bitch to her because she is about to go through hell and claw her fucking way back out.” Ava turns away and just stares at Hannah with tears streaming down her face as Carol just stands in shock behind her as the words, she just said register. She walks over grabs her bag and heads for the door taking a look at Ava opening her mouth and Ava lifts her hand “Goodbye Carol.” Carol huffs and walks out the door slamming it as she leaves.
Hannah Is now acutely aware of the silence, this was bad Ava had her breaking point and mom had found it. And she was proud of Ava for standing up to their mother. Even though she knew it had probably crushed Ava because she always said you can’t choose your parents. Hannah decided now was the time to try and talk she was going to say Good Job Major but all that came out was... “Ava”
Ava snapped out of her crying and rushed over to Hannah’s side grabbing her hand. That she could feel but everything else was very fuzzy and numb.
“Hannah, I’m here.” Ava said with a new rush of tears coming down her cheeks.
“Good Job.” Hannah finally got out quietly and painfully. Ava laughed a little at the statement and just started to stroke Hannah’s head as she fluttered her eyes open and saw her sister, but she was distorted a little but fuzzy like. She could see her, but some features weren’t clear. What was wrong with her eyes? And why was everything so fuzzy and numb. “What happened?” she whispered.
Ava grabbed the stool that was nearby and slid it over so she could sit on it and be close to Hannah. She then kissed her hand and just thanked god her sister was awake and talking. “You know what Gidget lets save that for later right now I just want to tell you how much I love you and I’m not going anywhere, okay.” Hannah knew in that moment it was bad if Ava didn’t want to talk about it. She nodded and closed her eyes.
“Major?” Alex had lost her she sometimes did this would zone out in her thoughts. “Ava!” Alex got louder and it snapped her out of that day so many years ago.
“Yeah sorry, yeah she is still Carol. And I haven’t spoken to her since either.” Ava continued cleaning up the room.
“Wait you said she came down a few months back.”
“Just because she came here doesn’t mean I’ve actually talked to her. She was here to visit Hannah, so I let her visit Hannah.” Ava shrugged as she moved back towards the front of the class not satisfied with the classroom and how it looks. Alex follows her back and just stares at her. “Why did you ask about thanksgiving anyways?”
“Oh yeah well it’s Maggie’s holiday with Z. I got her last year on thanksgiving and she got her on Christmas so this year we swap, and I get her on Christmas. So, I was wondering if…”
“You can come over. “Ava answered before Alex could finish causing Alex to fist pump in the air. “I know your only coming for my homemade pumpkin pie.” She smiles at Alex
“Okay so I have ulterior motives for wanting to hang out on Thanksgiving with my best friend in the whole wide world who makes the best pumpkin pie in the whole wide world.” A huge smile comes across Alex’s face and Ava pushes her into a desk, laughs and walks away.