Chapter 4
Harold was glad he'd had his jacket handy...it was colder here than he was used to. Well, colder during the day - the desert was colder than this at night, of course. He wasn't in the desert anymore, though - green as far as the eye could see. He vaguely remembered living somewhere green, although his father The General had moved his family to Strangetown when Harold was only six or so, so he didn't remember a whole lot about life before the desert.
This sure was a big dorm, though...big school, too. He'd been accepted on an ROTC cadet scholarship, and The general just about burst with pride when he found out. Harold was happy about it, himself, as it meant he got to go to college somewhere other than the tech college down the road. He did suppose he'd see some of the world when he joined up after he got out of college, but hey, why not see a little of it now? Collge was supposed to broaden one's horizons, after all, he thought. He went in to his dorm, rather enjoying having his horizons broadened by the view as he followed another student up the steps.
He half-heartedly scolded himself for ogling the co-eds and headed in to find his room.
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"Hey, you must be the roommate, I'm Dave, Dave Saunders," the young man stretched out on one of the room's two beds said, looking up from his book.
"Harold Grunt," Harold said, nodding to his apparent roommate.
"You go by Harold, Harry, Hal, what?" Dave said.
"Any of those is fine - Th..my father just called me 'Grunt'."
"Well, I can't call you that - I'll think of something. I guess we have to share the dresser, so I took the top two drawers, hope that's ok."
"You got here first - I snoozed, I loozed," Harold said, going over and putting his clothes away.
Dave turned back to his book, but not before noticing the uniform.
"Ah, you're a cadet?"
"Yep," Harold said.
"Well, this should be interesting," Dave said. Harold wondered what he meant. He supposed he'd figure it out.