chapter 4

Straighten those spines, p*ss-ants! The 104th Cadet Corps Boot Camp starts now! Allow me to introduce myself! I'm Commandant Keith Sadies and you will grow to hate me!" Commandant Sadies introduces.

He continues. "Training is going to be a white-knuckle ride through Hell! If I've done my job, you'll all be waking up in cold sweats from memories of this place every night for the rest of your miserable lives! Right now, you're nothing! You're livestock!"

Here we go again. We're being compared to animals. I came here to become a Scout not to be called an animal again. It's still hard to believe that I actually signed up and that I'm actually here.

Just like we all had promised, we've signed up to join the Scouts. It'll be three years of non-stop training, but it'll be worth it in the end.

Commandant Sadies still continues on with his speech. "Over the next three, soul-crushing years, you'll learn to take down your own Goliath! Remember this moment when you find face to face with him, 'cause here's where you ask yourself; 'Am I a fighter or am I feed?! Am I going to be ground up to pulpy human grist between boulder-sized incisors or am I going to be the one to bite?!'"

I think about his question. 'Well, I'm hoping to be a fighter, but I don't intend to physically bite back. I will bite back on their prides, if Titans even have-'

"You! Mop-top!" Commandant Sadies shouts, bringing me out of my thoughts. I realize that he's talking to Armin, who is standing right beside me.

Armin salutes. "Sir!"

"What do they call you, maggot?!" He asks.

"Armin Arlert, from Shiganshina, sir!" Armin answers.

"Wow. Seriously?" He raises an eyebrow. "Why would your parents curse you with such a dumb name?" That makes my blood boil.

"It was my grandfather, sir!" Armin replies.

"Cadet Arlert!" He leans down in Armin's face. "Why is a runt like you here?" He's making my blood boil even more.

"To help humanity overcome the Titans!" Armin exclaims.

He stands straight up. "That is delightful to hear! You're going to be a great light snack for him!" He grabs Armin by his head. "Row Three, About Face, runt!" He turns him around.

I know that that could've just broke Armin's neck, so I look over at him to make sure he's okay. Well...that was one of the biggest mistakes I could've made.

"What did you just do, midget?!" He practically screams in my faces. So, I'm a midget and Armin's a runt...how wonderful.

I salute. "I was just seeing if he was okay, sir!"

"Why in h*ll would you check on someone you don't know?!" He asks.

"He's my twin brother, sir!" I answer. "I'm Y/n Arlert, from Shiganshina, sir!"

He leans down in my face. "Do you know what you earned yourself, midget?!"

"I don't know, sir!" I reply. I have a good feeling that I didn't earn anything remotely close to being good.

"Your meal privileges are gone for tonight! Congratulations, midget!" He stands up straight and lays a rough hand on my head. "Row Three! About Face!" He turns me and moves on to the next person.

I'm not going to be able to eat when dinner is ready, just because I thought you broke my brother's neck?! That's ridiculous! I'm sure the food here isn't too good anyways, so I think I'll be able to last until tomorrow morning.

Commanadant Sadies kept yelling at person after person. He even headbutted this guy named Jean for wanting to join the Military Police just to live in the Interior, which is mainly known as Wall Sina. I guess it's a good thing I decided against joining the Military Police.

He also picked a guy named Connie up just by holding the sides of his head, because he saluted the wrong way. This place is a lot stricter than I thought it'd be and oh no...he's spotted his next victim. A girl eating a potato...

She looks around curiously after he called out to her, thinking that he's talking to someone else. This girl was bold to even bring a potato, but now...she's a step above being bold.

Commandant Sadies gets right in front of her face. "You are officially on my sh*t list! Just who the h*ll are you?!"

She quickly swallows the bite of potato she had and salutes. "Sasha Braus from Dauper village, at your service! Reporting for duty, sir!"

I can't hear what he tells or asks her, since she's quite the distance away from me.

"A steamed potato!" She yells. I guess she's answering a question he asked. "It sat there in the mess hall begging to be eaten, sir!"

Again, I can't hear what he tells or asks her.

"It looked quite delicious, and it was getting cold. So, I gave it shelter in my stomach, sir!" She replies.

It goes silent for a good solid minute. This girl might be getting a worse fate than me, and mine is already bad enough.

"Five days!" He suddenly yells. "You have no meal privileges for five days, potato girl!"

"May I have a different punishment, sir?!" She asks. "I'll starve to death without food for five days, sir!"

He's so angry, you can just see an irk mark appearing on his head. "You'll be running 'til sundown then! No exceptions! Everyone is dimissed! Start running, Potato Girl!"

I let out the deep breath I was holding in and relax my shoulders. I've been so tense today, but now that our 'welcoming' speech is over with, I shouldn't be as tense.

"Y/n." It was Armin. I immediately knew by his voice. I already knew what he wanted to talk about too.

I turn toward him and sigh. "Yes, yes. I know. I didn't need to look over at you, but that's my fault and I'm taking punishment for it."

"Why did you look?" He asks.

I pull the chain with rings on them out from under my shirt and start fumbling with the rings. "I just don't want anything bad happening to you. All I wanted to do was make sure you were okay..."

"Y/n..." He rests his hand on my back, as we go to get changed into our normal day wear. "I want the exact same for you. All we have to do is stick together, and we'll be alright. Now you're going to be hungry."

I wave a hand at him. "I'm sure that the food isn't that good here. I'm most definitely sure that it tastes bland. I'll survive."

"You'll need your strength for tomorrow, though." He remarks. "We start training."

"I'll have breakfast and make sure I train extra hard." I reply. "I'm going to become strong enough to beat those d*mn Titans. For our parents, for Grandpa, and for us."

"Alright, Y/n. I'll see you at the dining hall later." Armin lightly patted my back, before leaving my side to go to the boy's lodging area.

It didn't take me long to get to the girl's lodging area, where I went to the room that I was going to be sharing with five other girls. Mikasa is one of them and the girl that was eating the potato, Sasha, is also with us.

I grab my dress go to the bathrooms to quickly change into it. I hope I'm not pitied around, because of how weak I look. I might not make it into the Top Ten, but I will get stronger.

"Y/n." I was brushing my hair out and turn around to see Mikasa. "Do you want me to get some bread for you later?"

Now Mikasa...she will make it to the Top Ten. She'll most likely be on top. She has grown to be more intimidating, as I knew she would when we were younger.

I shake my head. "No, thank you. If Commandant Sadies sees me with it, I'll have to run laps until sunrise. You and I both know that I'm not the best at running."

"You've gotten better over the years." She assures, as she begins taking her jacket off.

"Are you changing here?" I ask. "There are bathrooms you can change in."

She shrugs, now unbuttoning her shirt. "It's faster to just change here."

I slip on my black worn out flats, as the other girls start coming into the room "Alright then. I'll be exploring the place to get to know it better."

"Be careful." She warns.

"Thanks, Mikasa." I left our lodging area, ready to explore the place said to be Hell, as Commandant Sadies described it in his speech.

⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡

I have practically explored this entire place, except for the boy's lodging area. This place is so huge, that the sun is starting to set, meaning Sasha can almost stop running her laps.

I was now roaming around near the dining hall area, since it's close time for dinner to start being made.

"Y/n!" The voice of my brother calls out. I look in the direction it came from to see him, Eren, and three other people on the front porch. "What are you doing?"

I walk up onto the porch and get beside Armin. "I've been exploring this place, and I was just now coming here."

"You got you're meal privileges taken away, though." Eren notes.

"I still thought I'd come here in hope of making new friends." I reply.

Armin gestures to the three people that are with them. "Why not start now?"

"I'm Marco." A tall guy with black hair and freckles introduces, holding his hand out. (I'm going to go start crying now. Bye-)

I send him a soft smile and shake his hand. "It's nice to meet you, Marco." I look over at the guy beside him. He's got a shaved head and is short, like me.

"You're...Connie, right?" I ask.

He nods. "Yeah. You probably saw Sadies picking me up by my head earlier."

I hum. "Mhm. That's where I remember you. It's nice to meet you."

"Right back at ya!" He replies.

"And I'm Mina. Mina Caroline." The girl with black hair introduces.

I nod. "Yeah. I heard you introduce yourself to the Commandant, but I couldn't get a good view of you." I look Marco. "That's the same story for you too. I heard you introduce yourself, but I couldn't see you."

"We we're in the same row, so that would make sense." He replies.

"Yep! Anyways..." I step back from the three of them. "I'm Y/n, Armin's twin sister and I hope we can all make good memories while we're here."

"Same here!" Connie exclaims.

"It'll be a little hard to do that, since we'll be training, but I'm sure we'll be able to make some good memories here and there." Marco adds.

Looking way out in front of us, I see Sasha as she makes another lap. With how long she's been running, I would be laying on the ground, most likely dead.

"Man..." Connie drawls out. "I thought Sadies was going to kill Potato Girl..."

"I know." Eren chuckles weakly. "What a h*ll of a first day. It's funny. Being told to run until the sun sets didn't seem to bother her near as much as losing meal privileges for the next five days."

I hop up onto the railing and carefully bring my legs to hang in front of me, since I am wearing this dress. "She's probably a foodie."

Marco looks over at me, as I am now sitting next to him where he has his arms crossed on the railing. "What's that?"

"It's means that she loves food. She has a great interest in it." I answer.

"Wasn't she from Dauper?" Connie asks.

"Yeah." Armin confirms. "That's what she said in her introduction."

Connie hums. "If I remember right, that's a small hunting village up in the mountains."

"Maybe she has some hunting experience then." I say, just throwing out a guess about the semi-famous Potato Girl.

"What's that?" Eren asks. I look back at him over my shoulder to see where his was looking, so I look and there's a wagon leaving the camp.

"They're dropouts." Mina answers.

I look back her with wide eyes. "Seriously? Already?"

She nods. "Yeah. They'd prefer to work in the fields."

"It's only the first day, though." Armin remarks.

"That's the way it is." Eren replies. "If you can't handle the pressure, then you've got to leave." All of us look at Eren, as he continues. "I can't believe anyone would rather pull plants than fight."

Marco abruptly stands straight up, still looking at Eren. "I know about some of us, but you never mentioned where you were from, Eren."

"The same as Armin and Y/n." Eren answers and puts a fist against my back. "I'm from Shiganshina."

"Oh, wow..." Connie says in awe. "That means...you saw it. You three were there that day."

"Huh?" Marco looks at Connie. "Quiet!"

"The colossal one? Did you guys see it?" Connie continues.

"Yeah. Yeah, we did." Eren confirms.

I jump back onto the porch. "It was terrifying..."

"I would think so." Mina replies. "That Titan is the biggest Titan there is."

"Guys, stop." Marco tries.

"It's fine, Marco." I assure. "They're just curious. Let's go inside. I'm sure it's about time for you guys to start eating now anyways."

Armin gently grabs my shoulder. "Are you sure you'll be able to withstand eating?"

I nod. "Yes. Now, come on."

With a smile on my face, I enter the dining hall. It hasn't even been a day here yet, and I've already made friends. The bad things about making friends here is that when it comes time to choose your regiment, you could be separated or maybe join the same regiment, but end up getting killed. I can only hope that that's not what happens.

A/N: Hey, cadets! So, they've finally made it to the Training Camp, where, like I wrote in the A/N at the beginning of this book, things start getting interesting. I hope you all enjoyed. Bye, cadets.

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