Chapter 7: The Big Jump

Benton

It was a new day and from the moment I awoke I knew it was gonna be a bitch, the first thing I saw was a message on my dashboard that told me to go to the commanders office, I sighed at the sight of it, for turning him down I was going to suffer for it. I got dressed quickly and made my way across the school to his office, to this day I was baffled about its overall size the school was massive and to get across it at normal walking speed would take nearly 20 minutes. Compared to my old school that was almost triple the time, it made getting things done in a day sometimes tedious. I made it to the commander’s office, and he gestured me into the chair across from him, I did so. He then stopped doodling notes in his book and looked at me, he shifted his body language as if I had done something wrong and he was going to punish me. “Benton, someone of your calibre should not be just a regular troop, in a regular team. You need to be in a leadership position if you want to progress further up the system.” I knew what he was going to do, he wanted me to think that joining his rank would put me up the order. It most likely would as he was able to get John out of facing a murder charge, but I didn’t want to lead, I wanted to be a good fighter, someone that a leader could trust, a right-hand man if you would. “I don’t want to be a leader, or move up the ranks too fast, I just want to do right by the people who want those positions, I’ll be a loyal soldier, someone that a leader can trust. And don’t you dare say that I won’t make it to graduation because I will, you watch me.” My tone was become angry and passionate, the commander didn’t like it at all. “Benton, you need to face facts, I know John influenced your decision as our relationship has been… unstable to say the least, but what I am doing is for the good of everyone.” I couldn’t help but snarl at his remark, “Something you want to say Benton?” he said it angry and threatening, his patience was wearing thin “Yeah I do actually, you betrayed the privacy of everyone at this school using John as your gunnie pig, you made him feel guilty every time he did something wrong and wanted to back out, using getting him out of prison as an excuse to get him to do what you want. Well I won’t do that for you, you are an sick fuck and I sincerely hope you get what you deserve you STUPID CUNT!” after I had finished I realised what I had done, I had broken, slipped up, I had given away a crucial detail of the story that John had told me. I had incidentally betrayed him, now the both of us would probably be iced. The commander looked at me in shock, he then turned into a rage, “Get out of my fucking office… NOW!” I proceeded to, not before slipping my recorder device in a crevasse in the room. He didn’t notice.

John

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I was eating breakfast before my first class before Benton stormed in, he was in a panic, unsettled. He made his way over to me, he had the shakes and he just seemed like he had seen a ghost. “Man are you good?” he didn’t answer my question properly “I fucked up man, I just fucked it all up.” Benton exceeded at keeping calm in a stressful circumstance, but this must have been something else. “What happened?” he looked at me, face pale, the rim of his eyes red. “I broke, I told the Commander about the privacy thing, me and you are iced man.” I sighed heavily, “Fucking hell, the whole thing?” he shook his head “No, I didn’t give any details, he just knows that I know, and you have been telling people.” I began to panic “the only other person I told was Emily” I had never seen Benton in such a state “yeah I know but he probably thinks you’re telling everyone you can, trying to get back at him for what he did.” It was at that point things went from bad to worse, the commander walked in holding two pieces of paper, he stormed over to us and placed them on the table without a word, I picked it up and it read “Principal hearing 7:15am, Expulsion notice.” I looked up and Benton, he was trying his best to hold it together, he wasn’t doing well. “It’s a hearing.” I said, “we can still convince him to let us stay, I’ve got this.”

15 minutes had passed, and we were called in to the principal’s office. I went in with the idea of exposing Commander Jenkins, however I was aware of the fact that it could and most likely would fall apart in seconds. We both walked in Benton being significantly calmer than he was 15 minutes ago, he told us to “Sit” the thing that baffled me was his tone, he didn’t seem angry or upset. We say down across from his desk, he looked at the both of us, I knew what he was doing, he was analysing us, our body language. I looked him square in the eye, he spoke “So, Benton First, you have broken quite a few rules. One being ‘Verbal Misconduct with a teacher’ that under normal circumstances would be an instant expulsion but I am going to relieve you of it due to the fact it was on personal business, not professional. This is also because I have been trying to bust the commander for privacy violations for years and you can become a useful asset to me.” Benton looked at me, then straight back at the principal. “Wait, so I’m not in trouble?” the principal looked at me, then back at Benton and grinned. “If you can give me evidence to lock up the Commander for Privacy violations or even treason, I will not only give you no punishment, you both can be transferred to the next stage automatically.” I was suddenly worried, “and what happens if we can’t?” the principals face dropped. “then I can’t save you, you will have broken your contract agreement and will be sent on trial for murder, as for Benton he will be suspended for the Illegal spying on a Commanding officer.” Benton’s face seemed to crush from under him, “What do you mean Illegal spying?” Benton quickly chimed in, “I placed a bug in the commanders office…” The principal tried to lift the mood “He doesn’t know it’s there, only we do, if he Is doing something shifty through it, we will catch him. But for now, what can you tell us about your missions John?” I hesitated “How do I know this isn’t some sort of trap?” he chuckled at my paranoia, “You don’t, however we both want the same thing, we both want the commander gone.”