Holly nearly missed the ceremony. Thankfully, she didn’t because it would not look good on her records to be late for something so important.

Root was not exactly who Holly had imagined. He LOOKED pretty impressive in the history textbook with plenty of gold and silver acorns pinned on his lapel and muscules like an Michaelangelo statue.

The Julius Root sitting before her was a chubby, red-faced individual who shouted to half the staff and smoked a fungus cigar that filled the whole auditorium with seaweed green smoke.

“All right, listen up you layabouts. This is the hardcore LEP. The moment you walked in here, your mommies aren’t going to be able to carry you home if you got a little “boo boo”. You’ll notice I’m speaking specifically to you, Kelp”

Kelp? Holly frowned. Trouble didn’t strike her as the sort of person who was-

Grub Kelp stopped sobbing and winced apologetically. “Sorry, Commander”

Holly laughed. So this must have been Trouble’s brother. She had heard a famous urban legend that Grub had once been sent home after he wet his pants. All because of a particularly frightening whoopee cusion.

“Is there something you would like to add, Short?” Root shot a fiery glare. Holly blushed. Root was as itimidating as he looked.

“So as I was saying before Short interrupted me, the LEP has no places for weaklings. If you are here because you failed university and thought the LEP was a source of easy money, you might as well go find a job at Spud’s spud emphlorium.” Root paused for a second to see if he had all the attention. He did.

“But that does not mean that the LEP is some sort of…” the Commander paused again. “Okay, so maybe I can’t find an appropriate metaphor”

Vinyaya laughed, and so did many others while Root found the right words.

“The point is, the LEP was founded to protect the People. It is your duty to keep Haven safe from the mud men. So if you are truly commited to this job, sign your names on the e-forms Foaly’s bringing in”

“Excuse me? That’s grunt work” Foaly protested from the corner.

“More like donkey work to me. Now pull over those forms before I slash your budget”

Foaly grudginly pulled over the forms and many soon-to-be cadets quickly scrambled up to the forms, nearly knocking over Foaly in the process (which was really something, considering he had four hooves). Holly was among them. In the side, Trouble Kelp caught Holly’s eye as he headed for the Retrieval pile. Holly pulled herself together.

Come on Holly. Don’t stray to the Retrieval line. You came to join Recon. You are joining the LEP for yourself, and not for anybody else…

But Holly was sorely tempted as she signed her name. She caught herself just in time before she signed her name as “Holly” Short.

Someone put a hand on her shoulder. Holly whipped around. She knew instantly who it was. Another famous face from: “Notable LEP officers of the 20th century”. It was Wing Commander Vinyaya.

“W-what is it?” Holly stammered. Vinyaya pursed her lips slightly. “Nothing…” Was it that she was simply thinking too much?

Uh oh…it’s only Holly’s first day and things are starting to look suspicious!… 

“Nice!” Holly turned again to find Trouble staring admiringly at the Recon form. “Not many people have the guts to apply for Recon. And you get Commander Root himself as your tutor. Apparently he also used to be in Recon too himself”

“What?! Oh fabulous” Holly groaned. This was getting better and better…

Some other stories by Star Jinin:

• Short Update!
• Beautiful Lie
• The Unknown Audience
• Reason to Live
• Death Note