Dev was no stranger to boys; Senji wasn't one to care about making his presence known at every turn. She figured something must have been wrong with her and perhaps every other female cadet leader there with how the boy cadets all meandered about rather than getting into the showers.

Down the rows, the girls shuffled in, under the water no less, and pulled the glass closed before undressing.

Regret pulsed through Dev who focused on Sen's recruit's awkward expression. He wasn't going in. In fact, he, and most boys there, refused to enter with the opposite sex.

"We'll take too long," Dev muttered through gritted teeth. "Get in there."

The boy stared her down, defiant.

She wanted to bark an order at him but as she didn't yet know his name and with all the fanfare of her miserable family still fresh in everyone's minds, she didn't dare bring attention to them.

Down the row, the female head cadets ordered the girls out before a proper cleaning and shoved the boys in.

That was an option but the manual said a proper delousing. Dev couldn't do this part way.

But with the seven girls...everything took forever. Absolutely, everything.

They squabbled behind the opaque glass. One and then another insisting they understood the mechanics of the shower better than the other. The mechanics. It was just one efos button. Just push. It wasn't even hot!

Her mind finally made up, Dev took one step toward that shower but the boy stepped in her path.

"Don't," he pleaded. "Girls are smaller. When we get water rations, they don't always get enough. Some people steal from them. So let them play in it. Lotsu said the shower's the best part and the only thing anyone'll care about if they don't make it."

Play?

Dev stared past him to the glass then back again. They were...playing. And she was ineffective in getting her urgency across.

When she met eyes with the boy, she demanded, "And how do you plan to get in if you don't go through it. They'll use up every bit of water."

He considered her words, concern creased in his face. "Lotsu always said—"

Dev shoved him aside and marched in.

A flurry of panic ensued. One girl even slipped.

What Dev witnessed was hell on earth. They were filthy, so dirty, in fact that grime lined the walls. She didn't dare to think wherefrom. But they weren't playing as the boy suggested, but rather...cleaning.

The simpletons, absolute abject simpletons, had no business in the division.

Eyes narrowed, Dev marched back out, grabbed the boy by the arm and dragged him down to the nearest shower filled with boys.

He had trouble finding his footing, struggling to keep up with her. The first available slot they found came with a female head cadet, puffing her chest out in protest.

Dev caught her by the caller and dragged her forward. "You look at my arms, and look into my very impatient eyes. This vermin is getting into that shower and if I hear one peep out of you, you'll find out the hard way why I've got three bands on my arms and you've got one."

She shoved open the glass door and tossed the boy inside.

Immediately ready for retaliation, Dev turned and took a fighter's stance. Her father always said, when coming for a fight, follow through.

What she found was a look of confusion, near embarrassment. Girl recruits shuffled into the opposite row of drying units while the boys washed, but each and every head cadet turned to take note of them, even the males.

Dev's unfortunate victim scrambled with something to do—say. It wasn't coincidence that Dev'd chosen her—she was the loudest. Animals without bite barked. Predators waited in silence.

One glance at Dev's right arm which sported a red and yellow band and her other with the single yellow there and the head cadet took the out.

Each ranking spoke of a skill level. Dev was a miserable leader, but she was the last person any other female cadet in the entire building wanted to throw their budding careers away for.

From the moment she could breathe, she was conditioned to be a Volunteer. It wasn't arrogance that brought her this confidence, but literal proof and motive.

The head cadet dropped her gaze, submitting to the imposition.

Dev felt awful. Now her family could gain even more notoriety as misfits and bullies.

"Sen?" someone whispered.

Within minutes, male cadets formed a line. As announced, bath towel in one hand, still sporting his injury, Dev's cousin sauntered down the line.

It was nearly creepy the way the male head cadets stood at attention for him, and by extension, all male recruiting cadets who were finishing their shower.

Sen ignored the show of respect and came to a stop before her, bored.

"Oi. Wanna skip with me and get to breakfast early? Food's gonna dry up by the time this lot's done with it."

Dev, acutely aware of Sen's recruit in the shower beside her, swallowed hard and shook her head, silent.

"Really?" Sen let his shoulders droop. "But it's—"

"I'll skip with you for lunch," Dev promised. Anything to get him away from that kid.

This did the trick. "Really?" He raised a right eyebrow—he couldn't raise the left—and leaned in. "I'll get you something nice for our lunch date."

Dev stifled a gag. "It's getting weird now."

As was his habit, he draped his right arm around her. "I'm telling you, three districts—"

One soft punch in the gut shut him up. "All right, all right." He made his way to the end of the line, the shower with Dev's girls.

She remembered the morons and hurried to intercept him. "My crew's in there."

Sen slowed in his stride then looked up and pointed to the name lasered into the stone. It was handmade. The word Sen's stared back at her.

No wonder this one was easy to get. Wait...people actually responded to him.

If history taught her anything about her cousin, it was that he was rarely gentle about addressing anything he considered his own. Throwing a fit and embarrassing others to get his way wasn't above his level of petty.

Still, she knew him, and she didn't care how he presented himself around others. She needed his help now.

"They're cleaning," Dev said, desperate. "What'll I do if they're cleaning?"

Sen considered those words, then glanced at the door. He leaned back and stared down the line of people finishing up. most stuck around to snoop at their comings and goings. It was more than clear that Dev's inability to handle her seven was garnering her unneeded attention.

Finally, Sen looked her in the eye and said, "You get in there and clean with them."

Taking insult, she opened her mouth to protest but calmed. It was a good idea. It also meant things would go much faster. As of now, those poor dummies were using one of their undershirts to clean. Not that it helped.

"Right," Dev said. She almost took the advice but paused and remembered Sen's recruit. "If you swear you will not, and I mean this, not cause a ruckus today."

He narrowed his right brow again and she clasped her hands together.

"I beg."

After letting out a sigh, he mumbled, "Fine."

Dev gave a cheer and hurried to find cleaning supplies. When she arrived back, she spied a pair of green eyes alone in the showers. She nearly slowed to check on Sen's recruit but her cousin himself was still at the end of the line, waiting to use his shower.

"Pardon," Dev said, shoving him aside. The sight of her with the buckets and brushes was met with a staunch greeting—relief.

Within minutes, the shower was liveable again and Dev exited first. As anticipated, Sen turned to face the wall. Getting the girls into the dryer after that was no trouble.

Once that was done, she returned to get the supplies only to find both them and her cousin gone. A minute later, Sen returned from wherever he'd been down the hall, putting the supplies away for her. He slowed by one shower in particular.

Dev's breath caught. Without saying a word, Sen stepped back and went into the spot he claimed as his own.

"Get him out of there," Sen warned. He called out as the door swung closed. "Save me a spot. Reckon?"

It wasn't much of a question. Dev let out a sigh and made her way down to get the boy. To her surprise, he walked out and then into the dryer, despite her being there.

By breakfast time, all nine of them arrived at the obstacle course turned mess hall. She sent her seven girls on but stayed at the doorway with the boy on one side, Sen on the other.

"This is stupid," Sen insisted.

"Getting your bandages wet is stupid," Dev muttered.

But there was no end to the food line.

Dev made up her mind. She'd come there last. "I'll take your misfit to get checked out. Look after my crew, will ya?"

After patting his shoulder, she grabbed the boy by the arm and maneuvered him toward the hallway.

He was deadweight. "You can't leave girls with the likes of him. Lotsu always says—"

"Yes. Yes. Good, good. They're fine with Sen. He'll get them food faster. Much faster than with me."

The boy scoffed. She understood.

Sen wasn't what others saw as reliable but unlike Dev who was given her markings as gifts with each level of her training achievements, Sen had to fight twice as hard to get his. And he'd gotten them young. He was a lot of things, abusive wasn't one. That made this weird situation all the more alarming. She'd never seen him this angry. Not at anyone other than his psychotic father, as he put it.

Dev tried to make sense of it. There wasn't much time for that, though. She found that some other teams had the same thinking as her, doing checkups early before food.

"That's too bad," the boy said, passing by the long line.

"What is?" Dev let him go as they walked.

"If they don't pass the checkup, they won't even get food."

Dev slowed in her stride. She wanted to confirm if that were true but didn't dare show her ignorance.

Instead, she tested her theory, "Lotsu said?"

The boy nodded and Dev sighed. They were all hopeless, herself included.

"Fine. How about we assess you then? And after that, you'll get your last meal and sog off should you fail the check up?"

He cut her a glance out of the corner of his eye. "You've just made your first mistake." A grin formed in seconds.