A quick knock on the door broke me from my thoughts, prompting me to fix myself and remove the sweat from my brow before Smith came striding into the room.

"Riley said you wanted to see me, man."

"Yeah. Just got a quick question. That Dalton kid from your class, what do you know about him?"

Smith pondered for a minute before Dalton apparently popped into his head, sparking his memory.

"He's a good kid from Wisconsin. Company Honorman in bootcamp. That's all that really stood out to me. Why?"

"Just wondering. He's on my radar and I just wanted to know what you knew."

"Nothing bad from what can I tell."

I nodded, but deep down I still wasn't convinced. An aching in my gut was telling me that there was something about this kid that he was hiding.

"Anyway, man. We're hitting up the bowling alley at lunch. You coming? Dollar games during the lunch hour for military in uniform."

"Yeah, I'll be there. Puttin' you assholes to shame."

"Right. We aren't putting the bumpers up, man. Gutter balls count."

"Fuck off," I replied, finally able to laugh.

Smith turned and walked out of my office. I quickly changed over to my cammies, grabbing my cover and placing it on my head as I strolled out, trying to think of anything other than the fucking student who had done nothing but mentally destroy me since I first laid eyes on her.

Back at the schoolhouse, I went ahead and got the class started for the day, focusing on the various types of radio communications we used in the fleet and in what capacity they would be used. Newsome worked tirelessly in the corner, putting together the test packets for the first test that the students would take later in the week in neat and orderly piles.

"What is the job of a zero-six in the Marine Corps, Bennett?"

Her eyes widened as she looked up from her manual.

"To set up and operate all radio equipment for field missions."

I looked at her with lustful, unrelenting eyes, nodding my head before going into my spiel about how, without communications, people die. I had given the speech quite a few times, and in all actuality, it was true.

Jensen went more in depth with the functions of each radio system that was commonly used in the fleet while I took over the roaming of the classroom, making sure that every bit of pertinent information was being written down so as not to fail their test later in the week.

Allen, the beast from the PFT who was screaming his head off like he'd just murdered and eaten something after his pull-ups, wasn't taking down very many notes, prompting me to keep an eye on him. He seemed to possess brute strength, but his classroom skills were not on par. He was definitely one to look out for.

I took a seat in the back of the room, studying the class while trying to mentally place them into the categories that I thought they fit into. Most of them were pretty easy to distinguish. There were the obvious science nerds who loved anything with numbers and currents, then there were those who were willing to do anything other than infantry, and then there was Allen, Ruiz, and Bennett. None of them seemed to fit into any category. Allen, in my opinion, seemed like a picture perfect infantry man. He was big, rugged, and tough, so it puzzled me as to how he ended up in Comm. Ruiz and Bennett were odd ones here because if I had met them in bootcamp, I would have pegged them for Admin girls. Ruiz and her grit out on the PFT field showed that she had a rugged side, but Bennett, I didn't want to see anything rugged about her, except maybe for how well she could hold up against me in bed. Besides that, I wanted to see her as the sweet smelling flower that plastered smiles on my face, perked up my day, and brightened my night.

"You'll have an hour for chow today.  Be back here at thirteen thirty," Jensen called out, promptly dismissing the class.

I seemed to have gotten lost in my thoughts in the back of the room and lost track of time.

"You coming to the bowling alley, Cruz?" Jensen asked.

I swallowed, trying to bring myself back into the here and now.

"Yeah, let's go."

We walked out of the schoolhouse, sunglasses pulled down over our eyes, covers thankfully protecting our heads from the broiling rays of the sun as we made our way over to the base bowling alley. When we walked in, Castillo and Collins were already sitting down at one of the lanes, motioning for us to join them. Shortly after we sat down and got situated, Riley, Newsome, and Smith walked in, meeting us in our area.

"Let's put a friendly wager on today's game," Riley called out, making the rest of us shake our heads. "Whoever scores the lowest is footing the bill all night at Coyotes on Friday."

"That's not a good bet. Cruz has duty Friday night. He won't be around to pay for our binge fest," Jensen answered, making everyone break out in laughter, including me.

"I'm not that fucking bad. And I'll take your shitty little wager, Riley, because I'm damn near certain that it won't be me paying up to kill your livers."

Everyone else nodded their heads, agreeing to the bet.

Before long, we were five frames into the game and I was holding on to second to last place. Collins, luckily, was pulling up the rear. It was my turn to throw when I heard that annoying voice of Pfc. Dalton making his way into the bowling alley. When I turned around, I found Bennett and two other Marines whom I didn't know walking in with him. The female I had never seen before, but the male looked like he was in Smith's and Riley's class; perhaps a friend of the kid who made me want to spit nails.

I turned and cracked my neck, trying to erase her presence from my mind. It wasn't an easy task. In fact, it was downright shitty because the more I tried not to think about her, the more she was there, smiling that perfect little naïve smile that had hooked me from the very beginning.

I walked up to the lane, throwing my ball and cursing aloud as the ball made its way to the gutter for the first time in the game. Of course it would have to happen when she was around, possibly looking over at me.