It was day 21. Five days ago Harry -or Mr Styles, I don’t know if I still have the right to call him Harry since we didn’t have any contact in those four days- gave me my necklace back.

And I’m so glad he did. I couldn’t stop myself from tracing my delicate pale fingers over the meaningful necklace each night before closing my eyes temporary.

The last five days have been normal. There’s no other way to describe it. They were anything but ordinary –except for the fact that me and Harry haven’t talked for five days-. Well that is, if you don’t count the insults he threw at me and my fellow camp members while jogging around the camp.

But at least, there are no awkward tensions or unwanted conversations. Both of us decided not to make any contact with each other without consulting it together, and I thought it was the best option. He was my sergeant and I was at a military boot camp to learn and not flirt with my sergeant.

“When are we getting our dresses?” I heard a girl shout through the assembly room, she interrupted my thoughts.

A woman with small round glasses tore away from her conversation with one of the other sergeants and glanced towards the massive amounts of people sitting on their seats in the echoing hall.

Her nose pointed upwards in a sharp line and her lips were pursed into a thin line which almost made them seem visible. She gave the girl a disapproving glance and headed back into the conversation with all the sergeants who worked at the camp.

Her nails were painted blood red and her glasses stood low on her nose, giving her a stern facial expression. She seemed old, not as in elderly but the wrinkles on her forehead clearly indicated someone older than 40.

She wore a formal black pencil skirt with high black heals underneath it and tucked in the skirt was a white blouse which shone through a bit.

Next to all the sergeant there was a man, brown hair which was slowly decaying into grey and a smile just as pleasant as when I first saw him.  He wore a military blues with new badges on it. He caught me looking at him, turned his face and gave me a welcoming smile.

For a few minutes more he turned back to face the sergeants and woman before turning back to us. He cleared his throat and immediately the chitchatting in the hall stopped. Everybody looked tensely at him, not knowing what to expect from this kind looking man. I knew what to expect.

“Hello children –or should I say adults-” he chuckled to himself before continuing. “I have assembled you all in this room to inform you on the Winter Ball.” A few murmurs escaped people’s lips but he didn’t seem to mind and just talked on.

My eyes travelled to all the sergeants who were stiffened in a row next to each other. All of their eyes staring into the far distance. I wondered if we looked the exact same when we had our morning routine and they yelled into our faces and we weren’t allowed to look them into their eyes.

It was sort of amusing, but all of that feeling disappeared when the eyes of Harry stopped staring at something in the back and quickly looked for mine.

When he found them he held the stare for a long amount of time, or so it felt. It could only have been two seconds, but to me it felt like two hours. The colour of his eyes reminded me of a poem my mother always used to mutter when she washed mine and my dad’s clothes.

I know a boy

with sea green eyes.

He melts the sun

and swallows the sky.

Then breathes out stars

to kiss the night.

I never knew why she repeated that poem over and over again, until now. His eyes seemed to take me to somewhere new and distant. As if he was trying to protect me from everything bad, but in the meantime dragged me into the darkness.

He broke the stare, and mimicked the other sergeants by staring at the back of the assembly hall again. It was as if this moment only lasted for ten seconds, because when Mr Chilton started to speak again, he continued at the last part that I heard.

“A lot of questioning has been going on. Where do I buy my dress or tux? Why is this ball held? At what time? What dress matches my eyes?” He mimicked and the assembly hall chuckled lowly, especially the boys who were making fun of the girls now.

“Now, me and Mrs Chilton,” he said pointed at the woman with the glasses almost falling of her pointed nose. “Have gathered you all so that you can ask your questions.” He stepped back and stood next to his wife staring at us waiting for some questions.

At first, nobody dared to say anything, but suddenly everyone wanted their questions to be heard. Questions were fired all at once from every side and row of the hall. I tucked a piece of hair which hung in front of my eyes behind me ear, not saying a thing.

A few rows in front of me Melissa and Agnes sat, we were seated on alphabetical order. They were shouting all sorts of things, and giggling at their sudden freedom.

For a few minutes everyone kept shouting, and nobody did a thing. I just sat there with my hands tucked in between my crossed legs, waiting for something to change.

Harry stepped forward, nothing happened. He walked to the front of the podium, nothing happened. He opened his mouth, nothing happened. He shouted loudly, the crowd silenced down.

“Now, who wants to ask a question?” He said calm again.

A boy rose his hand in the corner. Harry pointed at him and he asked his question. “At what time will it start and what time will it be finished?”

“It will start an hour after dinner, so about eight o’clock. And it will end at 2 am.” Loud cheers escaped from the crowd

“Is it mandatory?” Another boy who was sitting behind me asked a question, I recognised the voice as Brad’s.

“Yes, Brad. It’s mandatory” He spit out his name almost as if it was poisonous. Brad scoffed.

“Where am I getting my dress?” A girl squeaked above the cheering of the crowd. Harry hushed everyone down, and not until you could hear a needle falling- he started talking.

“Tomorrow you’ll be allowed to leave the camp ground. This is under strict supervision. So no flick flacking around.”

I felt a finger touch my shoulder and I looked around to see Brad with a lopsided grin. “What do you think about all of this?” He asked.

“I like the idea” I smiled and turned around to hear the stream of unending questions. I tried to smash them all into my brain, but after ten more, I couldn’t absorb any more information so I just decided to stare.

Then I realised I already had a dress and my hand rose into the air without giving it a second thought.

“I already have a dress” I whispered, scared to even say anything. I had to repeat it twice before he could hear me above all the murmurs.

“Then you’re ordered to stay at the camp grounds.” Immediately I wished I didn’t say anything at all. I could’ve gone outside all these fences and boundaries, but now I’m ordered not to.

The minutes flew by and in no time the assembly was over and we were told to go to our cabin before lunch started. I did as I was told and followed the stream of people, but somehow I couldn’t get the thought of Harry in a tux out of my mind.