Isanna stepped out from the room where she had been assigned to stay in along with some other female cadets in the Training Corps. Donning their standard training uniform, she walked down the hallway together with Adalaide and Chiara, heading outside towards the training grounds for another series of training.
"Wonder what hellish training regime the instructor's gonna make us do today," Adalaide wondered out loud with her arms crossed behind her head as they treaded out of the building where the girls' dormitory was located, the light rays of the morning sun dousing their figures and casting shadows on the earthy ground.
Chiara pondered. "There's no rain so that's good in case she'll be ordering us to a run inside the muddy forest while balancing rocks. And I don't think she'll want a repeat of a dozen of cadets with broken bones so I guess there's no chances of us tree climbing racing without our gear."
Their head instructor was a woman with sharp facial features and a personality of a tiger. As one of the few older women who was fiery enough to train cadets, Gricelda Koch was everything a Training Corps head instructor should be: terrifying gaze, terrifying face, terrifying personality, and a terrifying training regime. 'Devil's Spawn', the cadets would often call her behind her back.
Adalaide recalled a certain training routine their instructor had executed months ago and visibly shuddered, her face paling at the memory. The Tree Climbing Racing incident. It was a haunting memory among the batch 95th, which ended in more than dozens of broken bones and trauma.
There was an unspoken agreement to never bring up the Tree Climbing Racing incident.
When the trio reached the training grounds, they wasted no time and immediately lined up along with the rest of the cadets in a square platoon formation as their instructor walked up to the front. She wasn't one to be patient when it came to schedules, so even a second late was never an option. The cadets learned this the hard way on the first day of training, when they were just as fresh as a newly-arrived stash of vegetables on the supermarket with no idea of how horrifying it would be once sales' day came.
"You all look like shit, as always," their instructor spat as she scanned the weary faces of the cadets. They all stood in attention, expressions serious and rigid, unflinching at the vulgar words their instructor had just let out as if this was normal to them (it was).
"But I'm in a good mood, so no broken bones for the day," their shoulders relaxed upon hearing the good news. "However!"
The cadets tensed as they waited with bated breath for their instructor to continue, each passing second becoming more agonizing to bear.
Gricelda's eyes squinted at them. "I passed by the boys' bathroom earlier this morning and it smelled like shit. Tell me who among you didn't flush after shitting."
Isanna swore she heard an audible gulp coming from the majority of the boys, but none of them said a word to answer their instructor. Everybody knew that if no one raised their hands, all of them would be receiving a punishment.
"I'm training ya'll not to become titan food but it doesn't mean you should leave your shit lyin' around, ya twerps!" Their instructor scoffed. "So no one's answerin'?"
Some of the cadets closed their eyes and prayed for there to be no Tree Climbing Racing incident 2.0.
"Tch. Fine. Like I said, I'm in a good mood so I ain't wanna see any broken bones comin' from ya, so here's what you gonna do," she pointed to a faraway hill. "Boys, pick a girl partner an' carry 'em through the hill, through the forest, through the swamp, and through the river. Then circle around the whole grounds and come back here. No shortcuts, no breaks, no cheating. Winner won't clean the bathrooms for a week. Those who lose will clean bathrooms of both the boys and girls dormitory. Do ya hear me?"
The boys' faces all fell upon hearing the instructions. Trekking through the route their instructor pointed to was already hard enough, but to carry someone while doing that? They might as well just clean their bathrooms. Some had even began questioning why the girls could be carried.
"Because their bathroom was sparkly clean an' shit," their instructor reasoned out, shutting down any more complaints.
Begrudgingly, the cadets dispersed from their formation and began looking for girl partners, targeting those who were particularly of small statures.
"The boys have their eyes on you, Isa," Adalaide pointed out at the glinting eyes of the men towards Isanna, who looked like she couldn't be bothered. "It's 'cause you're short."
Isanna's unbothered face twitched in annoyance as she gave her friend a sharp look. "I'm fun-sized." True enough, Isanna definitely leaned more towards the shorter height, but she wasn't that small.
Chiara snorted. "Sure, sure. It's not like it makes a difference. You're partnering with Erwin either way," she paused, looking at a certain direction. "oop - speaking of the devil."
Isanna turned to where she was facing and saw the four horsemen of the apocalypse - with Erwin at the front walking towards her.
"Do they have to be so," Chiara paused, eyes squinting in mild disgust as she refrained from rolling her eyes. "shiny?"
"They ain't called the Dazzling Quartet for nothin'," Adalaide said with a dismissive wave of her hand. The four guys were called as such by the rest of the cadets because they had a .. strong and bright aura around them making them seem hard to approach. Adalaide thought it was stupid - maybe because they were close together and she thought all four guys were just softie dorks underneath that sharp exterior.
And she was right. They were dorks. Dorks who just liked to act cool in front of the others (except Erwin, she got to admit he was naturally cool), but she and her friends knew better.
Before Erwin could even open his mouth, Adalaide and Chiara had already pushed Isanna towards him, the poor girl letting out an incoherent curse under her breath while stumbling on her feet. Good thing she regained her balance before she could bump into Erwin.
"Yeah, you can go take your girlfriend," said Adalaide with a nonchalant tone, ignoring the glare Isanna was shooting at her.
"Ada, Chi, you pieces of sh - "
"Do you have a partner already, Isanna?" Isanna was cut short as she turned to Erwin, who was waiting for her answer. His voice was as deep as the pits of hell, another part of him that had changed thanks to puberty.
"I don't," she grumbled, still salty over her friends pushing her but decided to move on. She placed a hand on her hips. "let's partner up."
"That's a given," Isanna turned to Nile after hearing his voice, rolling his eyes. "you guys always are."
"Is this jealousy I hear, Dok?"
"You wish, Herrmann. I just feel bad for Erwin for always having to put up with your shit."
Eyes twitching, Isanna hardened her glare at him, before she smirked and stuck out her tongue at him. "Keep wasting your time and you'll end up with no partner, emo boy."
At that, Nile clicked his tongue as he looked around for a partner, forgetting his banter with Isanna.
Rolling her eyes, Isanna turned back to Erwin, who was silent the whole exchange but was wearing an amused expression; he always wore that kind of face whenever Isanna and Nile roasted each other.
"Your vocabulary has become more vulgar," he commented with his deep (sexy) voice.
"Because Dok's an ass," Isanna retorted with annoyed eyes glued on the said man, who was busy looking for a partner. "An ass with no ass - a walking paradox."
"Since when have you started looking at his butt?" Erwin couldn't help but ask with a light chuckle.
Isanna wanted to tell him he had more ass than Nile. But there was no way she was going to say that out loud. She shrugged. "I wasn't looking - there's nothing to see. Everyone knows he has a flat ass."
When she heard him let out a low chuckle, Isanna turned to the tall blond, taking note of the way the sides of his eyes creased while smiling. She could literally see envious looks from other girls (and boys) at how she managed to partner with the hottest cadet in their batch.
It wasn't her fault they were childhood best friends. Besides, they should have seen it coming already. In every partner training regime, both Isanna and Erwin paired together all the time.
"Putting that aside, are you sure you can carry me throughout the route?" Isanna asked as Erwin looked at her.
He smiled. "Of course I can. Who do you take me for?"
"You'll get tired later," Isanna slightly frowned. "we can switch once in the forest."
"The instructor said no cheating."
"I know, that's why we'll switch in the forest. She won't see us there."
Erwin didn't reply straight away and seemed to study Isanna for a few seconds, contemplating about something.
Isanna added, "What, I can carry you just fine."
"I'm well aware, it's not the weight that concerns me," Erwin paused. "it's the height."
"..." Isanna thought about it and pictured her, a fun-sized midget, carrying a person who was literally a mini-titan.
Blowing a short fuse, Isanna's face went beet red and looked away. "Hmph. Whatever, you damn tree."
Erwin lightly smiled at her and had to hold back from chuckling. Lifting a hand, the blond patted Isanna in the head, his fingers ruffling the strands of dark hair. It was a caring gesture he would do from time to time.
A sharp blow coming from a whistle pierced the air, before their instructor yelled at them to line up with their partners.
"Dok, do I look like a sack of potatoes to you?"
Isanna turned to her left to see Nile carrying Adalaide over his shoulder, her body slung exactly like a sack of potatoes.
Nile grunted as he adjusted his hold on her. "You might as well are."
The dark haired man received a wack on the back of the head. "Ow - !"
They heard a hearty laugh coming right beside Nile, and Isanna saw Adrian carrying Chiara in a bridal carry. Chiara did not look pleased, seeing her crossed arms and furrowed brows.
"Nile, that's not a way to treat a lady," he chided with his killer smile - the grin that captured every girl's heart within the cadets. Every girl except for Isanna, Adalaide, and Chiara. That's what happens when you become close friends with a hotshot group of teenagers - you start questioning what exactly is 'hotshot'-ish about them since you see them in a different light than others.
To Isanna's right was Mike, who had already partnered with a random girl (Isanna didn't know who it was) and was silently waiting for the start signal, standing with his partner on his back in a piggy-back ride. Isanna saw the girl blushing red but Mike's face was as stoic as ever.
"Ready!" Their instructor yelled, mildly jolting Isanna in surprise. She felt shuffling in front of her and looked to see Erwin crouching with his back to her.
"Get on," she heard him say, to which she obeyed.
Erwin took hold of Isanna's legs as he secured her position on his back, before standing.
"The view's nice," the girl commented at how she was literally towering above everyone else. Bless Erwin and his insanely tall height; she felt kinda proud.
"GO!"
As their instructor yelled, so did the number of cadets rushing forward. Their first hurdle was the upward hill. It would've been bearable if the sun wasn't so harsh today, but its heavy UV rays were prickling their skin. Added to the weight the boys were carrying, it required double effort to go over the hill, but with the help of their 2 years of training, nobody passed out. Yet.
"That damn Erwin with his long legs," Nile muttered as he watched the pair of childhood friends run ahead of the others. "Plus, that chibi's so small it's like having a titan carry a pebble. Their match-up is the ideal pair for this race."
"If you ran your legs like your mouth did, we would be doing so much better," Adalaide stated with a bored face, cheek on her palm as she watched the rest of the cadets behind them catching up.
"I'm doing all the work here, so you don't get any say, Müller!"
Adalaide rolled her eyes and looked over her shoulder, cupping her mouth as she yelled. "ISA! DOK IS TRASHING YOU AND ERWIN!"
Isanna's ears perked up at her friend's yell and she peered over her shoulder. She looked at Nile in the eyes and raised her middle finger at him like the saint she was. "FUCK YOU DOK!"
Nile's eyes twitched in annoyance, but he tried to contain the feeling inside him. He pictured himself chucking Adalaide towards Isanna as some means of coping mechanism.
Meanwhile, Erwin's brows knitted together after hearing that particularly crude yell coming from Isanna.
"Language," he berated, eyes still glued straight ahead of their route.
"Dok was mean," Isanna reasoned out, folding her arms above Erwin's head and rested her chin on them.
Erwin could only internally sigh at his friends.