Once the month was over, Brent and I were deemed Captains of the force of 998 men and women and would be leading them until a Commander came to replace us in Korea. By now everyone had heard about Brent and I standing up to the guys for the group of girls. The pranks had slowly started to stop, but continued until it was announced that I would be a Captain. All pranks stopped right then. Even the pranks being pulled on other girls. Brent and I had both earned the respect in our camps and in eachother's camps. During trainings we would always be at the top and whenever a fight broke out between girls, boys, or both, it would only take our presence to end it. I hadn't realized how scary I could seem to the others, but none of the guys dared to offend me and the girls rarely would talk to me. I would have been really lonely had Brent not been there. But I guess the same goes both ways. Brent was the leader of the guys, but that didn't mean they liked him. Being the toughest guy was the greatest honor. You won women, pride, and you made your father proud. Both of our parents were very proud of us. We were each allowed to email them once a week. I always looked forward to it. Everyone did, of course, but for me to be able to tell my parents how well I was doing was the greatest feeling. I was happy I had made both of my parents proud, especially my dad. Ever since I was young I would try to find ways to make him proud and always hated the feeling I got when I disappointed him. To know I had made him proud kept me going and helped me work harder every day.

Then the day arrived. It was time to go to Korea. The camp was unusually quiet and no one was talking, except in small whispers every now and then. Our month was over and we had all sent our last email that morning until we came back. I knew I would miss the letters, but I had taken the last one my parents had sent me and had printed it off. I wanted to have their words with me.

We got on the plane and Brent and I sat in the front. We were all in green uniforms. Brent and I had a stripe on our shoulder to represent our current position. We would only have this while the Commander was not around. But when he was there we would become regular soldiers. This didn't bother me. I would be happy when all the extra responsibilities were placed on someone else's shoulders.

I watched as we flew through the clouds and eventually drifted off to sleep.

I woke up to Brent nudging me.

"We're almost here," he whispered.

It would be our duty to wake the others in thirty minutes. We had to be up now to take care of our other duties before arriving to the airport in Korea.

I glanced out of the window to see what Korea looked like, but there were too many clouds and it was late at night.

Brent and I readied ourselves and then began waking the others. Before long, we felt the plane begin its descent and by then, everyone was completely ready to disembark.

The plane landed and all of us got off the plane. We were herded into trucks and set off for our new camp. I never had a chance to get a good look of the airport or any part of Korea, but this never crossed my mind until we actually arrived at our camp. The girls set up in their camp and the men set up in theirs. Brent and I headed to a meeting to inform our superiors of our arrival and recieve our orders. By the time we finally arrived in our own camps, we were exhausted and I immediately fell asleep.

The days following were uneventful. The men and women would mess around and have fun. Brent and I, however, spent most of our time checking camps, breaking up fights, and keeping everyone fit in case of an attack. Our orders were to stay on the defensive which made it stressful on Brent and I. We were always on edge, waiting for an attack to come.

During these days, I also noticed Brent began distancing himself from me and spoke to me less. The days became lonelier and I would have felt helpless if I didn't have so much to do.

Then one day, Brent came up to me and asked if we could go for a walk. I agreed since my work load could wait a couple of minutes and I didn't have too much to do.

We walked in silence away from the camp and away from any spying eyes and ears. I was lost in thought when Brent suddenly stopped.

"Is something the matter?" I asked, screeching to a hault beside him, "you've seemed really out of it lately."

Brent was silent for awhile and then reached into his pocket and pulled something out.

"I had gotten you something for you for your birthday, but I lost it. I couldn't afford another one, so I had to make it for you."

He held out his hand and in it laid what I think was supposed to be a bracelet made out of random string. Hanging down from it was a crude version of an 's'.

"I know it isn't too pretty, but at least its something."

I stood stunned for a moment, then reached into my own pocket. I pulled out the bracelet Tray had given me. I didn't know why I kept it with me. I think it's because I felt so bad for turning him down, but I had kept it with me from day one.

Brent saw the bracelet and his eyes grew wide.

"Where did you get that?"

"Why? Your bracelet reminded me of it, so I wanted to compare them."

"Because... because that's the bracelet I had bought for you."

I stood stunned for a moment, then grew angry as I put the pieces of the puzzle together.

"Tray gave it to me," I said, putting as much venom into those words as I could, "he said you had told him about my real name and had gotten this for me."

I watched as realization dawned on Brent as well. I then saw what those guys must have seen a few weeks ago. I watched Brent's eyes burn with anger, his jaw and body tense up, and for the first time in my life, I saw Brent angry. Not just angry, but furious. I now knew why those guys' eyes had grown wide in fear when Brent approached us. Why he was so respected by all the other men and how he had made it to where he was. I had done it just by being better, but Brent had done it by being feared. I was glad Tray wasn't here right now because he would probably be dead by now.

"This is the bracelet you got for me, isn't it?"

"Tray actually stole that from me? Why did you bring it with you? How could you like that jerk?"

"I don't like him!" my voice began rising with my rage, "I brought it with me because I felt guilty for refusing to marry him!"

"He asked you to marry him! Why didn't you say something before?"

"I didn't want to get teased and I already felt bad enough for saying no. It's your fault for giving him my number!"

"I never gave him your number! I thought you liked him and had given him your number! That's why I thought you liked him!"

"No! I have been avoiding his calls because he wouldn't stop calling. I hid whenever the phone rang and someone came to look for me! Why would I like him? He's the pretty boy who thinks he is the best. You know I don't like those kind of guys!"

"That's what I thought, but he kept calling you and having conversations with you that I figured maybe you had changed."

"I only talked to him a handful of times and they were very short conversations."

"Tray would be on the phone for hours talking to you," both of our voices had started to simmer down as the whole picture began to form.

"He lied to both of us. I would only talk to him when someone would trick me into answering the phone. So he pretended to talk to me on the phone and would constantly be calling me, pretended you had given him my number, found out about my real name, and he stole the bracelet from you to give to me. Why?"

"That's something we'll figure out when we get home."

"Here Brent. This is actually yours." I handed him the bracelet.

"Happy birthday Ayla," he said as he handed the bracelet back to me.

"This is no longer a present from Tray, but a present from you."

I smiled at him, but didn't take the bracelet. It made sense now why I had felt so attached to the bracelet. Brent had bought it for me because he had liked my real name.

"Call me by my real name. I only want you to call me by it."

He smiled too and said, "Happy birthday, Shayla."

He helped me put the bracelet on my right wrist. Normally I would have worn it on my left, but I wanted it to be on the same side as the ring my parents had given me. The ring had a pearl in the center to symbolize my birthday and was surrounded by small diamonds. It seemed right to have the two things I would cherish the most by each other.

We slowly began walking back to the camp, each deep in our own thoughts. We were just outside of the camp when there was a concussion of sound, a wave of heat and force, and debris flying everywhere. I landed on top of Brent as another wave came through and ended up hitting my head hard on the ground. I tried to stay awake, but the darkness came around me and I passed out.