The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

05: Pick of the Litter

Charlie was allowed no more than two minutes to acclimatise herself to her new bedroom when Mabel came barrelling through the door with a wild grin on her face. "Come on, Charlie," she said, her eyes alight with mischief. "Let's go meet some paratroopers."

Charlie smiled back at her in spite of the butterflies beginning to stretch their wings and flutter in her stomach. She'd graduated high school early and gone straight into training, then had finished that and come (almost) straight overseas; between working so hard for so long and the fact that every school she'd ever been to was all-girls, her experience with boys was limited to say the least.

She didn't have the time to worry about what Mabel might think of her for it and instead turned to look into the mirror on the dressing table, smoothing back the pinned up sections of her hair and running the edge of her fingernail around her lips to smooth out any lipstick smudges.

"You look perfect," Mabel said from the door, and Charlie could hear the smile in her voice. "You'll knock 'em dead. Ready?"

Charlie smiled back at her with her lips pressed tightly together, resisting the urge to turn back to the mirror and fiddle. Instead, she smoothed down the front of her skirt before following Mabel out of the door and down the stairs, where Autumn and Violet were both already waiting for them.

"Ready?" Autumn asked.

She was met with nods and replies in the affirmative and so off they went, following, as usual, after Autumn; they had seemed to develop a routine in the mere hours they'd known each other.

Charlie tried to pay attention to her surroundings as Autumn led them all to the village centre while explaining that they could get their laundry, their mail, and their food all in the very place they were headed to. Beyond that, most of the pubs were just off of the village centre, so they'd likely be spending a lot of time there.

"Where do you suppose Lieutenant Maddox lives?" Charlie asked the group as she kicked at a pebble which lay in her path over the cobblestones. "With the other chief nurses of the units?"

"Prob'ly closer to the hospital than us, since she's so important," Mabel answered with a scoffed laugh. "Goddamn, how did we lucky ducks end up with the most delightful CO of 'em all?"

"They probably thought we could handle her," Charlie mused, which made Autumn nudge her with a grin.

"Yeah, well she's gettin' a little more than she bargained for with us, that's for certain," Mabel replied.

They turned a corner and found themselves in the centre of the village, and directly in the line of sight of a group of boys in khaki dress uniforms.

"Now you must be the ladies of the 23rd," began a boy near the front of the group. He wore a charming smile as he took off his garrison cap and sidled forward to greet them. "Am I right?"

"Fortunately for you, you are," answered Mabel coyly. She stood her ground and let the boy come to her, and Charlie made a mental note to remember that. She decided she'd follow the other girls' lead where interacting with boys was concerned and prayed she wouldn't make an idiot of herself. "Meanin' you must be the company of paratroops we're lookin' after."

"Some of 'em," the boy agreed.

Charlie couldn't help but blush and look down at her shoes as his eyes passed over her, taking in each member of their group individually. She realised she had been expecting boys and was taken a little bit aback to find young men instead. She really was out of her depth. Perhaps the age requirement she'd so nonchalantly disregarded had some weight to it after all.

"Is this all 'a ya?" asked another boy, coming up to stand beside the first. He, too, looked like a charmer, as he caught Charlie's eye when she snuck a glance at him and winked. He had an underbite jaw and a stocky build and Charlie tried to avoid looking at him directly.