All Things Nice » Band of Brothers

16: Spaghetti

The rain reminded Posey of home. She hadn't even been sure whether Georgia, in all of its stifling heat, was able to produce rain, but apparently it was. A whole lot of it, too, by the looks of how it was coming down.

When the men of Second Platoon had awoken to the sounds of heavy rain slamming against the window, they'd all cheered.

"Looks like we're in lectures all day, folks," Tab had declared with pure glee written all over his face. "Manoeuvres, positioning, tactics, map-reading, you name it. We've got ourselves a whole day without Currahee."

The cheers that erupted as soon as he'd finished his announcement were almost deafening in the early morning, drowning out the sound of the heavy rain altogether. Posey couldn't help but cheer herself, a huge grin splitting her face. Lessons she could do. She'd been to boarding school for years and had to endure private tutors over the school holidays - between that and the rain, so reminiscent of London, she felt right at home. She could scarcely wipe the beaming smile off of her face for a second, even when having to endure perhaps the most boring lecture she'd ever experienced in her entire life. How this lieutenant, not one she was familiar with, managed to make battle tactics sound so dull was beyond her, but he'd managed it. She fought desperately to keep her eyes from wandering to the windows as he droned on and on in his monotone voice.

At one point, when she hadn't been so successful, she'd met Guarnere's eye. Just for fun, she stuck her tongue out at him. He rolled his eyes and turned away immediately, but it made her giggle. Out of the corner of her eye she caught the confused glance Roe shot at her from the seat on her right but she paid it no mind. Now her eyes were back on the board and she reminded herself of her promise to remain inconspicuous, which meant paying attention in lectures no matter how boring they were and definitely did not mean pulling faces at Guarnere.

By the time lunch rolled around, Second Platoon, once so ecstatic about their day of lectures, were utterly demoralised.

"If I gotta sit through one more goddamn lecture I'm gonna rip my eyes out," Perconte told her and Luz as they made their way to the mess hall.

"How many more things can they lecture us on, anyway?" Posey wondered by way of reply. "We've already done battle tactics, positions, formations, and map-reading. I don't know what else there is to teach."

"Me neither, Duckie," Luz put in through a sigh, "but I'm sure they'll find somethin'. They'll never have us sittin' around doing nothing, that's for damn sure."

"Yeah, and don't we know it," Perconte agreed.

"Nah, one more lecture and we've got the afternoon off," Tab butted into the conversation. "Winters just told us."

"Really?" Posey furrowed her brows.

Tab grinned, throwing a casual arm over her shoulders. "NCO privileges," he explained with a smirk. "We get told first."

Posey shrugged his arm off but she laughed. "I wonder how they went about picking the NCOs," she began, a cheeky grin already making its way onto her face. "I bet they chose those among us already in possession of the biggest egos and decided to inflate them as a sort of social experiment."

"Ha ha," Talbert drawled. "You're just jealous."

"Extremely," she snarked back, laughing along with him.

When they set foot in the mess hall, spirits brightened immediately.

"Hey, guys!" Perconte called out to the rest of Second Platoon behind them. "They're serving spaghetti!"

"No fuckin' way!" Liebgott cried.

"I'm so happy I could cry," Posey said, only half joking.

"I think I already am," added Perconte.