Ivan Kal - Olympus

Adrian then looked back at his roommates and saw that five more of them have arrived, the new arrivals were Noah MacKay who previously worked as a cargo and shipment manager on Earth, while playing Fleet Commander in his spare time. He wasn’t the only one of the recruits that were invited because their success at the game. The other arrivals were Araki Sakura who finished the military school before the Academy. Alexander Mencken former med student invited to the fleet after he expressed interest in becoming a doctor on one of the mining ships, next was Ana Trzin, 26 years old. Adrian had matured early, at sixteen he had already finished his height growth, and he was in better form than most other people, but his 18 year old face still held that boyish look, and anyone looking at him would know that he was much younger than his classmates. Ana had just finished Olympus College for space technologies at Sedna when she was approached to join fleet, she would most likely go for becoming a ships engineer which meant going through one more year of specialization back at the Academy after this course. Next was Tania Nast another pilot. Adrian considered joining them but found that he didn’t really know what to say to them. When he first started classes at the Academy he was confident that he would make friends fast and make them accept him as their own, but he was only half successful. Oh they acknowledged him as their classmate, they small talked on breaks and lunch, they all respected his knowledge and skill, and everyone wanted him on their team during assignments or simulations. His teams tended to do better than the others, they followed his lead when he was in command, or at least most did, and then wanted him as a subordinate when they were in command. They asked him about things they didn’t understand in class or to help them study. But socially they were distant. He wasn’t invited to parties, or simply on a night out. He couldn’t really say that he had friends. He accomplished what Laura wanted him to, he proved himself to them as a peer, but not as someone who they wanted to hang out with. During the past two years Adrian felt alone, he still emailed with Sahib regularly, and they were best friends still, but had grown a bit distant over the years, and Sahib was busy with his own training, and he had made new friends. Sahib tried to include Adrian in his new circle of friends, when he was on break, inviting him out with them, but they didn’t really mesh, Sahib and his friends had formed bonds during their training, and Adrian just didn’t fit in, he hoped that after this course he could feel at least bit closer to his best friend, having passed at least a fraction of what he went through.

Looking at his new roommates Adrian decided that this was his opportunity to bond with them and make friends, after all they will be stuck together for a year. He started towards them when he noticed another person entering the room. As soon as he recognized her he froze. The woman entering the room was Bethany Jones, the last person Adrian wanted to be around. She was 26 years old, she had red hair cut just above her jawline, green eyes, short pretty nose and a fit body that only came with years of physical activity, and had taken upon herself to refer to Adrian as “that kid”. Before fleet she also finished military school and was planning to continue on to army. Her father was ex Concordis military, and then later Olympus security and now Olympus army, her brother was in the Olympus army as well, and she was groomed for military life from early childhood. She was always the best, graduated top of her class, and was always the smartest person in the room. At least she was, until Adrian. She had finished as second in their class at the Academy, right behind Adrian. Their simulation battles were widely talked about amongst the students, Adrian had finished ahead with 23 wins, while Bethany had 16 wins, and they had 8 draws. Bethany was very competitive, and having never really met her match until Adrian, she didn’t take to being second best very well. She insisted on calling him “kid”, even though she wasn’t all that much older than him, at least in Adrian’s eyes. And Adrian simply didn’t know how to respond, he tended to avoid her, and since she was popular that meant avoiding crowds.

Bethany entered the room greeted the rest and then started looking around for a free bunk, the only available bed was the one above his. As she looked around she finally noticed the free bunk, and then Adrian standing beside it. She looked back at their roommates.

“We’re stuck with the kid?” She said. The rest of the room fell into an awkward silence, none of the others had ever called him kid in his presence, but he knew that even they referred to him as such when he wasn’t around, he could see it in their eyes. How they averted their eyes when talking to him, how they went quiet when he entered a room. The only one that called him like that in his presence was Bethany. And just like that two years of being the little kid, even with everything he tried to make them see that he was just like them, two years of being alone, slowly losing his best friend, all of it was just too much, and something inside him snapped. Adrian walked right up to Bethany, she saw him coming and stood her ground as he approached. Adrian stopped right in front of her, he was so close that he could feel the heat of her body, he looked her in the eyes. Adrian was 186 cm tall and was just slightly taller than Bethany’s 181 cm. He glared at her for a moment, she showed no outward appearance of being bothered by Adrian’s closeness, but Adrian could see something in her eyes, he recognized surprise. She was surprised by his actions.

“I have spent the last two years putting up with your insults.” Adrian said softly. Bethany tried to say something, but Adrian interrupted her. “No. Perhaps you didn’t insult me directly, calling someone a kid isn’t any kind of a grave insult, but your tone, your attitude, they left no doubt to your intentions. You wanted me to feel inadequate, to feel as if I didn’t belong among you. And you did succeed, but no more, I have proven beyond any doubt that I do belong here. I was better than you, and I will not suffer you demeaning me anymore.” Adrian finished hotly. The rest of the room was silent, some had shameful expressions while others looked uncomfortable, Bethany had grown slightly red, she just stared at Adrian, not really letting herself believe what was happening. Adrian looked at her for a breath longer then stepped past her and exited the room, he entered the men’s bathroom, through the door on the left he saw the showers and through the one on the right toilet cubicles, he entered one closed the door behind him, and sat down hard on the toilet seat. He put his head in his hands and released the breath he was holding since he exited the room.

“Well that was interesting.” Adrian heard in his head.

“Yeah, I don’t know what came over me.” Adrian replied.

“At least you finally stood up for yourself.” Iris said.

Adrian sighed, his brain and his implant had integrated fully in the past two years, and he no longer needed to vocalize his commands, nor did he need to speak out loud in order to speak with Iris.

“I didn’t mean to blow up like that. It’s just that everything piled up, and I just…”

“I know Adrian, and you really needed to tell them how you felt.” Iris said.

“I could have found a better way, I acted exactly like a kid.” Adrian said tiredly, and Iris didn’t offer anything else. Adrian thought about going back there, and a feeling of dread filled him, they will never accept him now. He would spend a year living with strangers.