Hours later, I saw how everyone was leaving the room. I had fallen asleep in my bed, just waiting for Lucia to come at night and give me my uniform, I left the room as the rest of my classmates did; however, they took my hands by force. In the short time I had in that place. I had done nothing to bother them, and they wanted to do something to me.

I could not resist, since there were eight companions. They dragged me through the corridors, some people saw it, but no one tried to do anything. Slowly, we arrived at a place that seemed to be the women's bathroom, but at that moment there was no one there. There were only four fellows, and it was still hard for me to fight with them. They dragged me through that place and locked me in a locker. They put something on the door, so I couldn't get out.

I felt that they closed the door to the toilets so that no one would notice that anything had happened in that place. I thought about screaming, but the best thing to do was to get out of here quietly. The girls were kind of paranoid about these things.

I tried to open the locker, with my hand, but it was difficult, only two fingers could get out of there. I was able to touch the object that was preventing me from opening the door, slowly I was able to move it, but minutes later a group of girls arrived. I put my fingers in the locker and tried to turn my face towards the place where I couldn't see anything, but I could hear more girls' voices. It was hard enough to get out of there.

I could hear each one opening a locker, I got a little nervous, and all of a sudden one of them walked over to where I was and opened the door.

"A boy!"

"What are you doing here?"

"No wait" I tried to explain.

I felt myself being dragged out of there and thrown to the floor.

"It's the new guy who moved up to second level" Said one of the girls.

I heard a familiar voice and felt sorry.

"After all, you are a guy, but spying on girls. For this, you might get expelled."

 The person speaking was Lucia, she had a towel over her and looked quite angry. I didn't answer anything. It was humiliating to see how they all looked at me. Suddenly a lieutenant appeared and seeing all the girls gathered around she approached.

"A peeping tom, well, you'll get a good punishment" Said the lieutenant.

I just tried to say a few words so that to avoid getting a punishment.

"I'm no peeping tom. Several fellows dragged themselves here and forced me in here."

"Ok, whether it's your fault or not. That's for the general to decide, walk."

In the midst of those looks of rejection

I lowered my face and tried not to look anyone in the eyes, it made me feel much worse.

[...]

I was taken to the general's office. He didn't look very happy to see me there. He didn't listen to me, but without saying a word to him, I tried to make everything clear to him.

"Let's say that if I believe what you are going to tell me is true, don't you think I should punish you?

"Of course not, I didn't do anything."

"The girls are very upset, they want me to give you an exemplary punishment. If I don't do anything, they will send complaints to your family. You know there are dozens of rich kids here who want pilots."

"I'm innocent, the people who put me in here are the guilty ones."

He laughed and came clean with me.

"If I tell you the truth no one, no one, cares who put you in there. You have become so well known that it is irrelevant. A lot of people envy you and want to see you humiliated, so you'll learn. I think that's the only way to keep them from doing things like that to you. The only thing I could think of is for you to clean up the abandoned area by yourself. Area 10 of this base. You can stay there if you want, from what I can see you can fix weapons and disassemble old models of ships. If you can get about five of them working by the end of the year, you could graduate as a pilot. That's my offer. I don't want to see you here anymore."

His proposal caught my attention, I wouldn't need to run away, I could get my degree at the end of the year and I wouldn't be dependent on my father. That had been the best news I had ever been given.

[....]

I walked to the place the general told me to go. I arrived at the site and was disappointed, it was a room full of old airplanes and full of dust. Even the walls were dirty and black. Maybe it had been like that for more than 20 years. I felt disappointed, I would never finish cleaning the place and I could never live here. They only gave me a broom, a bucket and a mop.

I threw everything on the floor and was getting out of there. I wanted to talk to the director for sending me to this place; however, when I turned around, in front of me was Lucia.

"You're leaving like that?"

"Uh... Why are you talking, aren't you mad at me?

"No, I heard some comments and I knew you hadn't done anything. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry, I understand, I'm a stranger to everyone and most people don't like me."

"Okay. You should bring a hose, with this you can wet all this, then clean the planes. It's been years since anyone has come here, since it was obsolete. They've wanted to throw us out and make a workshop for years."

"No, they just told me that with a broom."

"Nick, that way you'll never finish. You'll use the broom to get the water out anyway. Don't worry, I'll help you"

She left the place, I thought she was gone, and I was a bit puzzled, I didn't understand how she knew I had been sent here, but suddenly I saw her dragging a red hose, and she opened it. Water began to pour out and little by little this place began to flood.

"Well, now it really starts. You have to go all the way to the front with the broom, get the water out and everything. The floor is dirty, it's not only dust, it's mud too. Goodbye."

"Ah... I see... Thank you" Those were the only words I could say to him. I was worried about her attitude towards me.

[...]

Four o'clock in the afternoon and I had completely washed the place, only the planes were missing. Lucia was not there, she only helped me with the main thing, maybe she knew she could not help me, it was obvious that if the generals found out they could punish her.

There were almost twenty small attack ships and one big one in which there could be more than twenty people, but it also had all kinds of equipment elements to cause damage. There were launchers and a type of machine gun, as well as laser beams. This was an old model that was no longer manufactured. I wanted to check and see if it was any good, but I didn't have the tools to open it.

My curiosity led me to hesitate a bit, and I decided not to finish cleaning the place today. Maybe if I took more time, I could check it out.

The rest of the ships were older, maybe more than twenty years old, but they were so dusty that I knew I would have to clean the floor again, but thanks to Lucia's idea I wouldn't take so long.

[...]

I went back to the cafeteria for dinner, I was already tired, but everyone was giving me dirty looks, I had the reputation of a pervert. It was hard, even though I knew I was innocent, nothing would take away the pressure I felt because of the hatred everyone was showing towards me.

I took a tray and lined up like everyone else, but most of them stood a few feet away from me. They didn't want to be close and whispered behind my back. As it was, it was quite a while until I got to the place to receive my food, however. The woman who served me looked at me as if I was a piece of garbage. In front of me, she spat my food. I was very angry, but I tried to avoid saying anything to her.

I just tried not to react badly, if I said or did anything, I would be the only one hurt. I went to sit in a chair far away from everyone where no one was sitting. However, that's where my brother went. He didn't hesitate to talk to me without caring what the rest of the people thought of him.

"I didn't know you were a pervert."

"I didn't do anything, some mates put me there."

"You don't have to explain that to me, tell dad, not me. If what you say is true, the people who did that to you will end badly. The best thing to do is to tell him that you wanted to do that. In two days, something will happen.

Suddenly, Lucia and other girls sat at our table, but with some distance. To avoid talking to us. It was a good sign, maybe she was taking care of helping me, but my brother didn't seem to like this.

 She wrote on a piece of paper several things and handed it to me. I didn't hesitate to read it.

<

>

I doubted that Lucia was a traitor. She was just an obsessive fan of my father, but nothing more. I didn't know if she wrote that on a piece of paper or told him.

[...]

I went to my previous room where the first level rejects were, but I noticed that I had thrown my things in the hallway. It was obvious that I had been kicked out, I decided not to protest or anything. I just picked up my clothes off the floor and started walking towards the place I was cleaning. I didn't want anyone to say anything to me. I was already so bored, I never thought I would end up like this in this academy.

On the way to that site I noticed that the first level were doing resistance exercises, luckily for them the weather today would be quite warm, and they wouldn't have any problems because of the sun. It was almost five in the afternoon, maybe they would be there until seven at night, but that was no longer my problem, now I had to face my new reality as a second level cadet that none of his classmates wanted.

As I walked along the asphalt, I watched as my brother approached me. He had some kind of long gun.

He looked a little dangerous, and I decided to ask him about it.

"What about that gun?"

"This, these are weapons they give us on missions. Tomorrow I'm going with a group of comrades to the Mert galaxy. Better take care of yourself while I'm gone. Well, you know what will happen to those who did that to you. Ah, you guys have a video to watch, it's about space. There they will explain to you what space travel is like, you will learn a lot, so get ready is tonight."

"Ah...ok."

I felt a little better listening to him, it seemed like he was changing his attitude towards me; however, I knew it would take some time in this place. I could already imagine what my father would have my father do to that group of stupid people who put me in that girl's bathroom.

I remembered the galaxy thing my brother mentioned. I would like to go to one sometime. I had never been off the earth, and I was kind of curious about discovering space. I was deluding myself with what I hated the most. Everything was a contradiction, I tried to return to my reality and stop thinking about something so banal.

It was only five o'clock in the afternoon, there were still a few hours to go to that meeting. I had time to examine some ships; however, I did not have the tools to open them and see if I could fix them. He had to ask the robots or the lieutenants for help, as he could not do much. However, since the day of the explosion they had not seen the robots, it was quite strange.

[...]

Quickly, it got dark, and I was able to open the ships because I didn't have the tools to open the devices. I felt useless, I was just wasting my time in that place. As my brother had told me, I went to the auditorium of the academy. That place was almost full, but I didn't see Lucia, it was quite strange.

I sat in the loneliest place in the auditorium where no one would bother me. I watched as the lights went out, and they played us a movie about this universe. They just played the names of the planets and showed us other universes up to neighbors. Even two nearby galaxies, all this I already knew, but suddenly they showed us two strange devices that countries use to protect themselves. They were two types of strange bombs. One was to create a huge explosion to take out enemy ships. This one roamed through space and was thousands of miles away from inhabited places. It was red and square in shape, very easy to identify; however, a laser beam could set it off.

The second bomb was less damaging, but it stuck to external ships. It was activated when an unauthorized ship passed through the universe and would explode within hours if it did not communicate with the nearest planet. I was a little afraid of encountering such a device in another universe.

After the explanation, we were shown the ships we would be handling in this galaxy and how we were to use them. I was very expectant of what they would explain to us, however. A lieutenant appeared and spoke to us.

"It is already very late, the rest of the video will be left for tomorrow. You may go to your quarters," said one of the lieutenants.

I was left wondering about that explanation.

 I wanted to see the ships they used in this place, but everything had been put on hold. I felt cheated, I got up from my chair like all my companions, but I noticed that I did not have the uniform of the rest. I still had the first level one, I had not seen Lucia, and that had me worried. I approached one of the lieutenants to ask about her.

"Good evening, lieutenant, could I ask you a question?"

"Yes, you may speak cadet."

"I have not been able to see a fellow officer. Her name is Lucia."

"She is suspended for arguing with the general. She abandoned her leadership role and did improper duties. In addition, she argued with one of her colleagues. She will be away from this academy for a week."

I didn't like that at all, even I could be suspended, without Lucia helping me. Now I had to learn my way. I just hoped it wouldn't be so hard to be with dozens of strangers.