High School Soldier
23. Math

29 January 2321, 10:11 WIB

**

The welcoming ceremony has been completed, but all the training students have not been allowed to rest.

A coach stands in both rows that make all soldiers do attitude ‘siap’.

“We will form a Squad. Each squad will be filled with 32 to 33 soldiers. Of course we have shared it,” said the coach soldier in his hand there is a piece of paper.

The entire army muttered about the division, as they could no longer be a Squad with their friends.

But unlike Nio, his attention since then was only focused on a female soldier who had the highest body of all the young soldiers who were still marching here. Even he was taller than the rest of the coach warriors who were also surprised by his figure.

The female soldiers from Company 406 who were lined up behind also noticed the woman. One of them is Arista who also took training to become a Special Student Forces.

“Nio was not even anything with him, the inner” of Arista who also saw Nio paying attention to the female warrior.

“Sergeant Nio..!” grit the coach soldier who from earlier called his name to be included in the Squad that had been formed by the coaching team.

“Si-ready...!” nio replied firmly and nervously and then immediately entered the almost complete Squad line.

He marched behind the soldier from Company 302 who would be his partner in this training.

Some of the soldiers from the 406 Company were also in this line smiling towards Nio which made him ashamed and frightened by the glare of the coach soldiers staring intently at him.

Then the coach read out his next name, “Soldier One Aprillia Ika.”

“Ready,” replied the soldier whose name was called firmly but whose voice was soft.

And the soldier whose name is called is the woman who has the highest body. Nio was surprised by this and the few soldiers who were in front of Nio glanced at the soldier until he lined up behind Nio.

Nio only gulped until his jakun moved up and down while behind him was a woman whose body was much taller than him.

**

“Sergeant Nio who will become Squad Commander 3,” said the trainer. Nio replied firmly, “Siap!”

He then moved on to the front row. All the soldiers from Company 406 who were in Squad 3 were happy if the soldiers they knew became Commanders of this Squad.

Soldiers from Company 406 who were in Squad 3 as many as 12 people and from Company 302 as many as 20 people.

Arista who was a member of Squad 3 was pleased that there was Nio who was also the Commander of this Squad.

Rio who was also in Squad 3 felt quite worried about Nio, not because he became the supreme leader of this Squad.

“Can he survive in this training?” inner Rio.

Rio still remembered when Nio got a push-up penalty as much as 20 times and Nio looked very exhausted after that.

The entire Squad is fully loaded with soldiers and Commanders – each.

“Alright, please prepare to undergo the general test. The test will be held at 1 noon” said the trainer who composed the Squad earlier.

“Ready!” answer all the soldiers firmly and simultaneously.

**

Nio and the male members of his squad walked into the male warrior barracks. Of course the female and male warrior barracks are separated even in their Squad ‘dikampur’.

Inside the barracks Nio immediately lay on his mattress which was on the top mattress without taking off his shoes first. Because the bed in this place is a level mattress and the person who occupies the bed under Nio is Rio.

Of course, the one who chose this place was Rio himself because he felt comfortable being close to people he knew so well.

“This is not the time for a stupid sleep,” Rio said as he smacked his helmet into Nio's head.

“I also need to prepare my brain to know later!” nio replied with annoyance because his head was hit by a helmet by Rio.

He looked at his watch to check the current time. The watch still shows at 11:29, a long time before undergoing the general lesson exam.

Some soldiers prefer to do activities that they like rather than do learning. Some choose to eat the snacks brought, some even make voice calls with their lovers and occasionally laugh.

Of course the sound of laughter made Nio upset, or maybe not just him who was annoyed because some soldiers also look upset with soldiers who have lovers.

Nio then got off his bed to ease the irritation and opened his bag to pick up the notebook. A notebook containing a record of all the lessons he had prepared with his brother, Arunika.

Nio then pulled out a book that was bent because ‘ squeezed’ with other luggage.

Maybe some pages of the book contain scribbles that are the work of Nio. But most are still in the form of neatly written lesson notes.

Nio was seen only skimming the writing on his book and flipping to the next page as if he had no intention at all to learn. But that was how Nio learned all along.

While being ‘asyik’ studying, Rio approached Nio while carrying his own notebook and said, “You should also learn this.”

“What ?” said Nio out of curiosity with what Rio would show.

“Damn it, why are you showing me math?” nio said with a flat face because Rio showed ‘one of the’ things he hated the most.

Shortly after that Nio held his head after seeing formulas and numbers that indeed drain the mind and patience. After all, according to some people who do master or at least can not understand with one of the common subjects called ‘mathematics’.

After experiencing a headache, Nio slowly started to look calm. Some of the soldiers who saw Nio in pain just stared in wonder at Rio who only let Nio alone.

Because Rio already knew how to calm Nio down if he had a headache when he saw the collection of numbers on the math lesson.

“Just let him like this, later also heal himself,” Rio said calmly.

“Fuck you,” said Nio as he brandished his fist towards Rio.

It wasn't just math subjects that Nio hated so much. All the subjects he had counted would hate him.

**

All prospective PPK student soldiers to the place where the exam is carried out with their respective preparations that have been done before.

After all the soldiers filled the preferred seat, but either today Nio is lucky or is ‘apes’. Because the tall and often called female warrior Ika was sitting next to her.

“Kok my heart feels broken huh?” inner Nio as a woman taller than him sat beside him and smiled towards him.

Arista who was sitting in a place that was not close to Nio was seen just staring flat at the two of them even though he actually felt very upset.

But it was not only Arista who looked annoyed. All the male soldiers of the company 302 directed a look of wanting to kill towards Nio because he was sitting next to the female soldier ‘primadona’ of this Company.

Let's take that away for a moment.

4 Coach soldiers began to share the exam with all the soldiers.

Stack a paper containing 15 paper twins and cover 450 questions from all subjects, including mathematics presented in front of the soldier.

The tested subjects are SMA/SMK and equivalent level lessons.

“Test will end at 4 p.m. Work with seirus, good luck!”

Without saying anything more, all the soldiers took out their respective stationery that had been brought and filled the column containing the name and origin of the soldier's unit.

“Is he seriously working on the problem?” muttered the entire soldier sitting around where Nio was.

“He will fail this test,” said another soldier who seemed to underestimate Nio.

Even Ika widened her eyes when she saw how Nio did the exam.

Except Rio who had often seen Nio working on exam questions like the original person choosing answers from multiple choice.

“They will be confused later because it is too underestimating Nio, the inner” of Rio that makes Nio suddenly sneeze. Nio said in his heart, “See how many people are talking about me?”

**

“Test has finished, please rest 15 minutes. After that you have to undergo your first exercise, which is a run of 20 km,” said one of the coach soldiers after collecting a matter that has been completed by prospective PPK students.

“Siap..!” answer all the soldiers at the same time who made a very loud noise in this room.

Nio limply stood up from his seat and walked slowly towards the exit of the hall.

Rio suddenly approached her and said, “Where, can you do the math lesson?”

“I didn't do it at all,” replied Nio calmly.

The soldier who heard Nio's words was immediately shocked and said that Nio was stupid and such.

Even Arista was worried that Nio would not qualify as a PPK because he did not pass the general knowledge exam.

“Yes, let them the end result,” Rio said with Nio's pride.

“What do you mean?” asked Nio for not understanding what Rio was talking about.

“They will definitely be surprised by your test scores later. Even though you're stupid with calculations, but you're a genius with other subjects.”

“Is that?. I take it as a compliment,” replied Nio with her innocent face.

“That's a stupid compliment indeed !” rio snapped and then chased after Nio who was running towards the barracks.

Rio's view with Nio is of a friend and Squad Commander to be respected. But unlike some soldiers who saw how to do the test Nio earlier, including Ika.

“She was doing things carelessly right?” muttered another soldier.

“Yes, he looks only as long as he chooses answers,” replied his colleague.

Several other soldiers were talking about Nio with such talk.