Page 129 of The Fighter
“Yeah, she’s with Mila at the Manor. She called me and complained about having to wear a dress.”
Solo laughed. “I’ve never seen her in a dress.”
“No, she told me. Obviously, I don’t care what she wears, but it sounds like Mila and Laura have very firm ideas about what a bride should wear. Laura even wanted Raven to wear a pair of her high heels.”
Zasquash raised his eyebrows. “Is she doing it? I’ve been trying to get Darlene to wear some too, it looks fucking hot.”
“Raven refused. She says they hurt and told them to stop treating her like a doll.”
Solo raised his chin up. “Good for Raven. She’s never been one to let others boss her around.”
I chuckled. “Believe me, I know.”
Solo threw his jacket on my couch and took a seat. “I was meaning to ask you about that. Her time at the station is coming to an end soon, right?”
“Yeah, on January 26th. Then she goes back to the academy for three months. I’ll only see her on the weekends.”
“That sucks.”
“Yes. It sucks big time.”
Solo moved to the edge of his seat. “Look, I’m only mentioning it because I heard some disturbing things from Willow that worried me.”
“What?” Zasquash got three beers from my fridge and returned to the living room, handing us one each.
“Raven told Willow about some of the things that happened to her at the academy and we can’t let her go back there if shit like that is going to happen again.”
I frowned. “The academy is a tough place.”
“Sure. So is the army, but it sounded like the headmaster is a psycho with some kind of vendetta against her. He swore to her face that he would make sure she doesn’t pass and he has been sabotaging her every way he knows how.”
Opening my beer, I took a sip. “Why would she tell Willow and not me?”
Solo shrugged. “That’s Raven for you. Always trying to solve her own problems, but think about it; the headmaster has had six months to cook up new strategies to make her fail.”
Zasquash sat on the armrest of my sofa. “Hmm, sounds like someone should pay that guy a visit and remind him that women should be treated with respect.”
“But Raven doesn’t want special treatment.”
Solo and Zasquash stared at me. “Exactly. Raven wants the same fair chance as everyone else at the academy, but it sounds like he already decided to boot her out one way or another. I get that trailblazers have to work twice as hard as everyone else, but she should have a fair chance. Anything less is fucking wrong!”
“I agree, but Raven would be pissed if she found out that I paid her headmaster a visit.”
“I get that.” Zas took another swig of his beer.
For a moment none of us spoke and then Zasquash groaned. “It’s fucking ironic how we’re upset about this situation when last year we were all pissed that Khan allowed her to join the academy to begin with.”
Solo nodded. “In my defense, it was the idea of something happening to her that made me against it.”
“You wanna hear the worst part?” I breathed. “I actually think she’ll make a good officer. She is so fucking hungry to prove herself, and these past few weeks that we’ve let her work on some real cases she has nailed every task we gave her. Raven is bloody sharp.”
Solo chuckled. “I could have told you that. Unless we’re talking about math because trust me, she’s horrible at it.”
I smiled. “I’ve noticed.”
“How about Zas and I pay that headmaster a visit? We have a certain effect on people and if you want, we could even bring a handful of our Doomsmen brothers and swing by the school to have a friendly chat with him. What do you say?”
Every soldier on the Doomsmen Squad was more than seven feet tall and bulky with muscles.
