Today Everything Changes: Quick Read Read Free Page A

sergeants and warrant officers, the backbone of the army. Before that happened, though, we all had to be cut down to size. As soon as we arrived, from our various parts of the country, all 1,100 of us were given another haircut. A really outrageous bone haircut – all off, with just a little mound of hair onthe top of our heads, like a circle of turf. I knew straight away I was going to hate army life.
    To make it worse, I found out that it was not just for three years that I had to sign up for but six because of all the extra training I needed. The army wanted its money’s worth out of me. I hadn’t really understood the contract, I just thought the options were three, six or nine years. I’d thought I’d signed up for the minimum three years, but I was wrong about that too.

Chapter Eight
    The camp was very big, located on the high ground above Folkestone. Most military camps and their training areas were in the same sort of place, wet, cold and windy, maybe it was because nobody else wanted to buy the land?
    As we drove into the camp, I saw some lads in shiny steel helmets picking up leaves, cigarette ends, even matches. They were being told off by a big guy with two stripes, very shiny boots and a big stick under his arm.
    ‘Who are they?’ I asked the bus driver.
    ‘Prisoners.’
    ‘What did they do?’
    ‘Went AWOL, mostly. New recruits go missing, get picked up and brought back. Then they get all the horrible jobs.’
    ‘What about the guy with the stripes?’
    ‘The provost corporal. He’s going to be your worst nightmare. That’s all you need to know about them.’
    We drove past squads of junior soldiersmarching or running all over the place, some with weapons, others lined up outside the gym getting shouted at by the man in charge.

Chapter Nine
    The next day was a blur. We were given our kit, some documents and then more documents. There was more shouting and just ten minutes for food. We were told that we were not allowed to wear jeans because they were ungentlemanly. We’d been given a civililan clothes list for when we were not in uniform and from now on that was what we would wear. If we didn’t have a pair of proper trousers, we would be buying some at the first chance we could get.
    We had to stand to attention if a trained soldier came into the room, even if he was a private. We had to say to him, ‘Yes, Trained Soldier. No, Trained Soldier.’
    And then I found out I had to shave every day, even though I didn’t need to. I didn’t need to shave until I was nineteen. I had teenage zits all over my chin, which didn’t help me look like a soldier when I cut the tops off them every morning.
    They weren’t the only bits of blood I had to contend with. As a south London boy, I thoughtI was a bit hard, but other people there made me look like one of the Teletubbies. They had homemade tattoos up their arms, smoked rollups, and came from places I’d heard of but wasn’t exactly sure where they were, such as Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and, of course, lots of Scottish places. I couldn’t work out the names because I couldn’t understand what the Scots were saying. I’d only been north of the River Thames about three times. The furthest south I’d ever travelled was Margate. I hadn’t ever been on an aeroplane. After my third scuffle in as many days, I wanted out.
    I shared a large room with twenty-three other lads. The showers, toilets and basins were in a large room we called ‘the block’. For the first time ever, I had my own space. It might only have been a bit of lino the size of a broom cupboard, which I had to polish every morning, but it had a bed, a locker and a bedside mat that were mine. I paid for it and my food every week out of my wages.
    I’d never had a space of my own before. The last couple of years, I’d slept in the living room of our flat, having to wait till Mum and Dad were asleep or my younger brother went to bed before I could. The constant smell