Manjha A String of Complicated Relations

The Tough Life Of A Cadet

The next morning, everyone was in a hurry. The new batch of cadets had woken up early and were all in a hurry to get to their morning drill on time. Anisha had woken Shambhavi up on time and both of them had rushed to get to the grounds. Soon, they were joined by Anant who introduced them to Anthony Pinto, his roommate.

All around them new cadets were introducing each other to newly formed friends. Though, the introductions had to stop when they saw both the Captains come out along with a few senior orderlies.

Anant asked whisperingly, "Where is Shreya? "

Shambhavi, being as sarcastic as she was, said, "I thought Captain Rathore will be taking the roll call, not Cadet Rathore."

They were standing in the second row, horizontally, so the Captains had no problem hearing Shambhavi's remark. Captain Rathore smirked and Captain Chauhan tried but failed to hide a smile.

They were all assigned to their respective companies and separated accordingly. A 40-minute period of PT and 40 minutes of drills had successfully proven it to all of them that they were all not as mighty as they had earlier thought. The PT was alright, but the drill was treacherous and included rope climbing, wall climbing, running, monkey bars, and whatnot! It was a wonder that Shambhavi was able to complete the drill. Though, many Cadets failed and were punished as a consequence.

After the drill, they went to have breakfast at around 7:30 a.m. Furthermore, they went back to change and finally made their way to their theory classes at 8:25 a.m. The whole afternoon was spent learning everything about the military in the different theory classes until 1:25 p.m. in the afternoon. After a brief snack break, they were again outdoors for their weapons training till 3 in the afternoon. Later on, they had their lunch and then participated in games which might seem like fun to an outsider but was still very competitive.

Later, they took another brief snack break and then went to a study session along with all the seniors with lots of punishments for the rest of the day. After dinner, they had to attend another study session. Around 10 at night, Shambhavi, Anisha and Anant were all sitting in the lounge room together, thoroughly exhausted.

The day had been spent being high on adrenaline but now the tiredness was catching up to them. Each muscle screamed in agony and their limbs were almost hanging off their bodies. If getting in the Army was difficult, then this was pure hell.

Shambhavi was lying on the sofa, "I am going to spend the rest of the night in the bathroom with a long hot bath. Totally uncensored."

Anisha started talking in full swing about the day while Shambhavi was just happy to be alive. Anant looked at Anisha and them at Shambhavi and asked," What the hell did she eat? Was it something other than what we had?"

Shambhavi said, "Chocolate, the secret of Cadet Anisha Saxena being an energy bunny at all times of the day even after a day in hell." Anisha hit both of them on their shoulders.

"I am going to sleep here; nobody can wake me up now. Not even God," said Anant closing his eyes.

They were joined by Shreya and Anthony. That was when Anisha greeted, "Hi Shreya."

"Not even Miss Shreya Singh Rajput can wake me up," said Anant with closed eyes believing that Anisha was just trying to mess with him.

"When did I say that I wanted to wake you up?" Shreya asked sassily.

It was very evident that the two had some history between them. Shreya was the daughter of a retired colonel while Anant's father was still in the Army on the post of Major General.

Anant bolted right up hearing her voice, knocking Shambhavi off her feet that were near his lap.

"Hi, Shreya," said Anant in a lovesick voice.

The other three were thoroughly enjoying as Anant was getting ignored by Shreya while she reminded the girls that it was almost time for lights out. So, they decided to head back to their rooms.

On their way back, Anant was constantly pestering Shreya. She was about to lose her cool and shout at Anant when they spotted Captains Rathore and Chauhan and Shreya tried to calm herself down.

"Good evening Captains," greeted Anthony curtly.

"Good evening Cadets. Isn't it a bit late for you all to be roaming around?" asked Captain Rathore.

"We were just going back to our rooms, Sir," replied Anisha.

"If we do make it to the rooms alive, that is," added Shreya.

"If you are that tired, you should have told me Shreya. I would have carried you to your room." Anant winked.

Shreya was fuming while Anisha was gaping at him. Anthony and Shambhavi were trying hard not to burst out laughing. The Captains knew Anant very well, so it was not new for them. Hence, Captain Rathore shook his head at his brother's antics while Captain Chauhan gave a singular laugh.

Shreya looked ready to kill him but grabbed Anthony's hand, bid good night to everyone, and stomped her way to her room.

"A word of wisdom, Cadet Rathore, keep a bulletproof vest on you at all times. Judging by Shreya's looks, if looks could shoot, you would not stand a chance of survival," teased Shambhavi.

Anant looked at Shambhavi with a deadpan expression. "Are you done?"

Shambhavi shot back, "Well, not really, but I am too tired to continue."

Anisha also joined in, "Also we have the whole year, so we should save some of it for later."

Captain Rathore was smiling again because of Cadet Saxena which did not go unnoticed by the others present but was ignored for the time being.

Captain Chauhan pressed his lips together to stop the laugh that threatened to leave his lips. He had been quite surprised by Shambhavi's sass today. She had kept quiet in the classes and during the drill. She wore a that screamed seriousness, and yet when it came to teasing Anant, she had been at the forefront.

Captain Chauhan saw a glimpse of a happy, bubbly, sarcastic girl, who tended to stay quiet when amongst most people but when with friends, she was herself, or she tried to be.

He had seen the girl smile a few times but never saw that smile reach up to her eyes. It was as if something had permanently taken residence in her eyes, a sadness, a pain. He had kept an eye out for her the entire day. She had intrigued him, and as he was becoming more familiar with her. He saw more sides of her which left him guessing as to which side was truly Shambhavi.

Captain Rathore, on the other hand, had been impressed by Anisha. He had not expected to see her so dedicated to the training. Not once in the entire day had he seen her complain.

The girls bid good night to the captains while Anant went along with them to drop them to their door.

They successfully completed the first day of their training. That meant they just needed to survive 349 days more of the same routine without dying.

Shambhavi did not have any energy left in her to think anything, so as soon as her head hit the pillow, she fell in her dreamland, where she had another date with her beloved Captain.