Sunshine (Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw x OC)

Chapter 03

The room was cold and dark, no light coming through the window yet. I sat on the edge of my bed, trying the laces of my sneakers tightly while getting ready to face the challenges of the day. I worked quietly in hopes of not waking up Trace who was still asleep at the early hour.

"Did I miss my alarm?" Trace jumped to sit up suddenly with slight panic, calming with confusion when she noticed the alarm clock that read 3:22 am.

"No, you've still got just over an hour" I shrugged back casually, moving to tie my hair back in a quick French braid.

"You going running?" She asked curiously, eyeing my sneakers while sitting up slightly on her bed and rubbing her eyes into focus.

"Yeah, do you wanna join?" I offered with a smile, glad to have made a new friend. I had never been one to make friends, opting to study over books on planes rather than interact with people, but I'm starting to like having a friend, especially one who understands me.

"Sure, I could do for a run this morning" my roommate nodded in agreement, getting up with ease and moving to get dressed for the busy day ahead of us.

We walked out of the barracks into the dark morning, streetlight style lights showing us the way to the track field. We moved onto the grassy middle space to warm up and street but our body's to prevent hurting ourselves before our first day of training.

"So, do you run much?" Trace asked, reaching for her toes as she sat on the grass with her legs stretched out in front of her. I bounced on the balls of my feet, getting my energy up to start the run.

"I used to, but I'm hoping to get back into it" I told her as she stood to her feet to meet my level. "What about you? Do you run much?" I returned the question with interest.

"No, only if I have to. But nows a good time to start, right?" She smiled back as we made our way into the track and prepared to start our run.

"You ready, Trace?" I glanced over at her with a smirk donning my lips and a glint in my eye.

"Are you, Danvers?" She challenged back with a matching look on her own face. I took off sprinting, leaving her in the dust with laughter. She started after me with her own laugh, me slowing down to match her steady pace so that we wouldn't burn out our energy before the day full of physical tests.

The two of us continued side by side at a steady pace throughout our run. We spotted a few others beginning to gather around the field and we both came to a slow, walking onto the grass to join our groups designated area. I wiped a stray strand of hair away from my face as we began our cool down exercises to prepare us for another workout that we would be tested on by group.

Each group, or squad as we called them, has five people to it. Our group consisted of Anderson, Bradshaw, Jennings, Trace and I, the same group I had given my statement with yesterday. Today as I finally looked at my group, not afraid of being yelled at for not looking straight ahead, I noticed that Trace and I were the only women in our squad. Despite the fact that we were the only women in our squad, we didn't let it discourage us, in fact, we used it to encourage us to be better and to stick together, creating an unbreakable bond between the both of us.

"Where are you going?" Trace asked when I started to move away from her as she stood up, pulling her leg in another stretch.

"I'm going to introduce myself to our squad" I shrugged with a cheery smile to which she just laughed and shook her head at my friendly behaviour, letting me go ahead and make introductions.

"Hi" I stopped in front of two of the men who had previously been having a conversation, sitting down and not bothering to stretch properly. The duo simply looked at me in confusion as if it was so strange that I was talking to them, sharing the look with each other. "I'm Danvers" I reached out a hand in greeting but they both looked at my hand blankly before bursting out in mocking laughter.