Chapter 3
Chapter Three
B atya’s eyes flicked from one corner of the graduation hall to the next. At her side, her mother, Adelaide, fidgeted with Batya’s certificates. She’d lost count of how many she’d received. It wasn’t a surprise she was first in her classes, but that wasn’t her focus.
Is anyone from Castille’s squadron watching?
It was a futile exercise. She’d never paid enough attention to her classmates to know who their family was. For all she knew, her potential recruiter could be the strapping bald man sitting ramrod straight in his chair. Since the other military schools had taken in women before, it could even be the woman with her afro barely contained by a headband.
Instinctively, Batya touched her hair. The wayward curls were too light to hold an afro, but too curly for stylish twists. She wore her hair as she always did: in micro braids. They took forever to get done, but she could go months without worrying about it.
Her mother swatted her hand away.
“Leave your hair alone, Batya. It looks fine.”
Batya turned her attention to the deep blue dress sticking to her skin. It was as plain as her mother would have allowed but it still made her skin itch. The uncomfortable thing was another remnant of the tradition she hated. Would it have killed her mother to let Batya wear a shirt and slacks?
The headmaster droned on and she checked the program again on her tablet. It was almost over, thankfully.
When the ceremony wound down, Batya took her mother back to her dorm room. It was the first time Adelaide had been to the school without Batya’s father. While Clarke had survived years of military service, the giant of a man had been felled by heart disease a few months prior.
In her younger days, the only thing Batya feared was that her father’s death in battle would put her plans to be a soldier on ice. But her father had survived and so would she. Better yet, she’d thrive.
“It’s…still so bare,” Adelaide noted as she looked around the dorm room.
Batya frowned and tried to see the space through her mother’s eyes. That was part of the joy of having a single room. She didn’t have to put on the shroud of normalcy in her own room.
“It’s close to graduation so I just put everything away. It’ll be easier to pack.”
Adelaide smiled, indulging her daughter’s lie. The dorm room looked like her bedroom used to: neat and functional. It was nothing like her sister’s room that overflowed with her hobby of the month or her brother’s obsession with politics.
Shrugging, Batya changed the subject.
“So, I haven’t made my mind up about what I’m going to do.”
“I thought you were going straight into military service. Wasn’t that the whole point of this?”
Adelaide waved her hands around the room.
“Yes. Well, things have opened up and trained soldiers can work for private companies too.”
Batya waited for her mother’s reply but the silence stretched on. Obviously, her mother had given up trying to steer her direction in life. Nodding slowly, she cleared her throat and touched Adelaide’s shoulder.
“They’re probably serving the refreshments now. Would you like to get something to eat?”
“Sure,” Adelaide replied with a smile.
Batya chose to ignore the ghost of worry plaguing her mother’s gaze. Everything would work out. It always did.