The answer is absolutely yes. He spends the next week leaving pop-tart bits around so that I get lectured about cleaning up after myself.
“Missed your study session this weekend, something up?” Alvarez asks as he plops next to me with his food tray.
“Yeah, Daniels thinks I’m the source of all his woes, or some shit. He accused me of trading ‘favors’ for tutoring and being inappropriate with Miss Peters. Miss Peters heard him and filed the accusation so in fine military fashion I’m guilty until proven innocent and have been warned off helping people or any one on one time with our instructor.”
Alvarez pauses mid bite to let his brain catch up. I absolutely butcher a chicken breast and toss it on a fading salad before hate-stabbing it with a fork.
“To make things worse, since the command hasn’t talked to either of us yet, the goblin has taken it as cart blanche to harass me more.”
“I’m sorry you’re having to deal with that, but if this keeps up for too long, it won’t be just you that will suffer. Several of the guys rely on your help to pass. Miss Peters helps as much as we ask, but she can’t be here to help after hours when we need it.”
“Not to mention seriously impacting my strudel habit.” I sneer at my salad again. “What am I supposed to do, Juan? If I even think of doing something to curb his behavior it’ll look like retaliation for reporting me.”
“Just go insufferable science nerd on him. Log the crap that he does that feels like harassment. Then turn in said report every week until they do something.” He says this calmly, turning to his burger and stuffing a good sized portion of it into his face.
“You’re evil. Your advice in the face of harassment is to officially harass Senior Chief with paperwork.”
“Lazy ass deserves it. Took him two months to help me resolve my pay issues. Housing started the process of kicking Mariposa and the kid out. I went directly to the CO and he dressed both Senior and I down for that shit. Pay and Married status got fixed right away after that. Look up the admin timeframes for the accusation and a harassment report.” I frown, he shrugs. “Just remember, this kind of crap can keep you from space.”
I slam my fists down at that and launch the rest of my salad across the room as my fist catches the edge of the bowl I was stirring. My asshole friend just chuckles through his burger. He proceeds to make yummy food noises as I pick up bits of lettuce, cheese, and chicken off of the short pile carpet.
As we walk back to the school house, Alvarez tries to cool off my temper by showing me the cutest pictures of his scraggle-toothed daughter. The pudgy princess was trying to help with baking this time, covered in flour with laughter on her face. Alvarez is a good dude.
I’m even having a good day until knocks his soda into my lap.
“Even with a twist cap you managed to spill your drink? You’re a mess Mercer. Aww, that’s kinda cute, Messy Mercer.” The goons by his side snicker.
I stand up and raise my voice, “I’m tired of your harassment Daniels. I don’t know what kind of caveman flirting you’re working up to, but it’s not cute and I’m not interested. I am very, very gay. And even if I weren’t, I’m not interested in little boys. If you keep up this offensive behavior I’ll report you.”
He stops leaning so far into my personal space, but he scoffs at my declaration. “Sounds like a messy old spinster was hurt by a boyfriend in the past and just wants to stick it to the other men she meets.”
“If you spent all this talking time studying, you wouldn’t have to feel insecure about your grades.” I stand up suddenly and he flinches. I smirk at that and make sure he knows I saw, then take the remains of his drink to the trash.
The rest of the day goes without any more incidents save the vending machine being out of pop-tarts. I take Alvarez’s advice and start logging the events and at the end of the week I turn my report into Senior Chief.
Senior tries to talk me down from filing the harassment report and asks me if I want to ruin someone’s career over some schoolyard bullshit. I asked him how Daniels was ever going to learn how adults should behave if all the men in his life kept coddling him? Senior did not like that at all, or that I insisted that I did want to file the paperwork.
Nothing came of it of course. Or any of the other periodic reports that I filed against him. Senior yelled at me for twenty minutes about wasting his time. I wanted to yell back that if he’d have done anything with the first one, I wouldn’t have to have filed the next two. But I didn’t, it wouldn’t help anything, and he surely would have made things more difficult for me. He may even mess with my prototype placement because of this anyway. Cant change my GPA though, assface. Yeah, just take those silent insults you balding, lazy parasite. I showed him what for.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
I’d like to say any movement came of these reports, but 45 days after my first in-paper allegation of harassment, nothing came. Not one meeting was had to talk to me about any of this or Daniels’ allegations. So, I collated my photocopies and sent my next report directly to the CO. Senior had his time to conduct his investigation, and that time had lapsed—a week before our comprehensive exams began.
Alvarez and his study crew were suffering as well as I was still not allowed to help them study, nor was I allowed to schedule time with Miss Peters for extra instruction. Daniels had no trouble talking about how great of an instructor one of the other “A” school classes had, and how much his extra instruction with the male teacher was helping him. That was until one day we walked in favoring one side and didn’t talk at me all day. I enjoyed the silence, but something was up.
Daniels still sneered at me from time to time, but he wouldn’t maintain eye contact and he was clearly afraid of something, but tried to mask it bravado. On Wednesday, he didn’t show up to class. Did someone from class lay into him a little too hard? I’m all for justice, but disappearing a person is a little aggressive. My thoughts on what would have been appropriate punishment for his behavior were interrupted by Senior telling me that the CO wanted to see me in his office.
I knock smartly, three times on the CO’s door as instructed.
“Enter” a serious voice says from beyond the door.
I open the door and hand it off to Senior, who follows me in, before marching as crisply as I can to the chair in front of his desk, standing at attention in front of it. “Sir, MMN3 Mercer reporting as ordered, Sir!”
He looks up from his computer using only his eyes. “Do you remember what I said to your class on the first day.”
Oof. He didn’t say much, but he did say, “Sir, that you didn’t want to see any of us again until graduation, sir.” Gotta pack those responses into that sir sandwich, yes I do.
“Yet here you are, with a stack of paperwork and issues arriving in my office before you.” His disappointment is metered and thick. “Do you know why I’ve called you here?”
“Sir, I assume its because of the harassment allegations I filed with your secretary last week?” I didn’t mean it to come out as a question, but what else could it be?
“You assume incorrectly, Sailor. You are standing there, at attention, because a Sailor that you have accused of harassment was left at medical this morning having been beaten half to death, unable to walk under his own power.”
What. The. Fuck. Who would do that? I mean, I wanted to punch the little weasel in the face, but I just wanted him to stop fucking with me, not be crippled. My surprise must have shown on my face.
“Well your surprise seems genuine, and you definitely would not have been able to do it by yourself. But I have to ask if you put any one up to enacting this incident of ‘barracks justice’?”
I mean, any one of the guys with degrading test scores could have been desperate enough to change something, but I wasn’t going to volunteer that. “I’m not close enough with anyone to threaten a career over his continued behavior, no.”
“What about Alvarez, I seem to remember that Daniels accused you of inappropriate behavior with some of your classmates.”
“He accused Miss Parker too. And no, Alvarez and I are friends, but he wouldn’t risk the stability of his wife and kid to teach a man-child a lesson. You should know that Senior.” He did not like that dig, and neither did the CO, but Captain Rickman didn’t say anything.
“We’ll be talking to Alvarez and a few of your classmates as well. It seems to me that this situation could have been avoided, or at least mitigated before it escalated to violence. However, wishing things were handled better doesn’t fix that I have a Sailor in the hospital and more than a dozen Sailors whose performance has degraded since I received Miss Peters’ complain months ago.
Now, there’s plenty of blame to throw around, and it will stick to someone that is not me. What I am going to do is highly recommend you spend at least two hours helping your classmates after Miss Peters is done for the day until comprehensive exams are over. You will continue to respect the other students’ need for extra instruction more than your own. I also highly suggest you limit your out of classroom time with your classmates for the remainder of your time at my school. Any appearance of collusion during my investigation will not be tolerated.” He looks back to his computer and starts typing.
This continues for at least a minute before he looks up at me, “Was I in any way unclear Mercer?” that’s a power play if I ever saw one.
“Sir, no sir!” I can’t leave before he dismisses me.
“Then get out of my office. Senior, stay behind.”
I march out and close the door behind me. Sounds like my chances at space haven’t been ruined too badly, but it’s not the kind of thing I want to be known for. I check my watch and find I don’t really have much time for lunch unless I want to boot camp feed my angry belly. I should make sure none of my study materials are left out.
I find that the tables have been cleared, my materials included. I hope Alvarez got me and that I’m not in trouble for leaving secret info unattended.
“Don’t worry about your stuff. I’ll hand it to Alvarez when he gets back.” Peters is facing away from me checking her sign-up sheet. “if you hurry you might even get to eat.”
I chuckle and shake my head at her considerate gesture. “Thanks teach. Sorry about the bullshit that’s going on.”
“I’d tell you to make it up to me after you graduate, but you’re kind of radioactive right now.”
“You’d think in a place called Nuclear Power School, they’d teach people how to handle radiation.” I waggle my eyebrows while Miss Peters erupts with a short guffaw before putting her hand over her mouth.
I chuckle all the way to the mess hall.