Two weeks later, Wednesday. 12:00 Cafeteria

“Where the hell is John?” Kristen asked as she down next to Andern. “He wasn’t in any classes this morning.”

“He wasn’t here at breakfast either.” Andern took a bite of the chicken sandwich as he answered the question.

“Let me call him.” Alice was worried. The call went straight to voicemail. “This is not like him.”

Alice was now equal parts annoyed and worried. She sent a couple messages, both were read, but no responses came back. That just pissed her off.

“He wouldn’t be gone if he didn’t have a good reason to do so.” Jessica looked around trying to cut the silence.

“What if some of his dealings caught up with him?” Thomas asked, almost innocently.

Jessica’s attempt to get the group talking again was quickly shut down by Thomas. It was no secret amongst the group that John flouted the law with his dealings. While he was capable of a great number of things, even he could be caught off guard, as evidenced by the trial last year. The rest of lunch was uncomfortable and quiet.

Eventually it was time for the cadets to head to their respective classes. John wouldn’t be at any of the classes that afternoon. He would also miss the PE session that evening. Skipping classes was not only frowned upon but usually ended with some sort of punishment. One or two days a year wouldn’t result in a large punishment but doing it too often was a bad look.

John wouldn’t be there for dinner or when the curfew bell rang. The study group session was awkward and unproductive. No one knew what the hell was going on. Alice was mostly pissed that her fiancé had just ghosted everyone. She presumed he had a damn good reason why he did that, but it didn’t sit right with her that he had looked at all the messages she had sent but didn’t respond to any.

Thursday. 07:10 Cafeteria

A very disheveled John sat down between Alice and Andern.

“I am beyond pissed off with you.” Alice was in no mood for any of John’s bullshit.

“Yeah man, what the fuck?” Kevin added.

“Dude, going AWOL is like seriously bad news. Not to mention stupid as hell.” Andern was shaking his head worried like.

“Yeah, there’s gonna be a minor tribunal. Just going to have to own it though. Probably going to get a uniform violation today too.” John was hungrily eating breakfast. “I’d give you the details, but you don’t need that. Let’s just say that some karma rebounded my direction.”

“I am pissed.” Alice wouldn’t even look at John.

“Yeah, I couldn’t message you, then time got away from me.”

“Not good enough.” Alice finished her breakfast and left for class early.

“You done fucked up bro.” Thomas said slightly laughing.

Everyone at the table turned and looked at Thomas. He laughed it off awkwardly. Brian elbowed him. Theresa shook her head and left to catch up to Alice.

“I’ve seen her angry, but not like this.” John was looking worried.

“Here’s some unsolicited advice, you need to apologize.” Jessica finished up breakfast and got up to leave the table.

“Yeah, I’d do that quickly. And not miss anymore classes.” Kristin followed suit.

“John. Out of all of us I had a feeling it’d be either Andern or myself to cause such a colossal fuck up.” Kevin got up and patted John’s shoulder as he walked by.

“Good to know your human.” Andern got up and headed to class.

The group dispersed. John sent an apologetic note to Alice. Then sent another one. And another. Five apologies in total were sent for the offences John believed him to be guilty of. It probably wasn’t going to be enough and a serious and uncomfortable conversation about open and honest communication was going to be had in the very near future.

John got reprimanded for the look of his uniform in every class. In addition to missing a full day’s worth of classes he earned four warnings, which elevated to a demerit on the fourth warning for his uniform. After the last class of the morning, he ran back to his dorm room to change into clean clothes.

Alice remained in her justifiably pissy mood at lunch. She told John as such and said they’d have a private conversation that evening after dinner. He decided to not push it since he didn’t need to dig the hole he was in any deeper.

The rest of the day proceed like normal for John. Aside from having to apologize to the professor for his absence without explanation in each class. Dinner was much like lunch. Alice did not want to sit next to him or talk to him. They were going to have a chat in their room after dinner then head to the lounge to study with their classmates.

18:15 Co-Ed Dorm

“Ok, I am still pissed off with you. I accept your apology, but you are not going to disappear like that on me again. You will be at a bare minimum letting me know where you are going.” There was legitimate anger in her eyes.

“I agree and I should have done that, and I should have at least sent you a message when I had some free time.”

Alice softened her look a bit and walked over to him and took his head in her hands. “We are on the same team; you can’t be going off as a lone wolf anymore. It doesn’t work that way.”

“The reason why I did what I did was because it involved the mafia, and I didn’t want any of you to get roped into the bullshit that I did.”

“Blackmail?” Alice shook her head.

“Yeah. Not too happy with them.” John smiled. “On the plus side I got most of them arrested.”

“And you’re not worried about retribution?”

John shook his head and smiled. “I may or may not have implied what I’d do if Vito’s crew looked in my general direction. Plus, I did them a solid and got them jammed up on some annoying misdemeanors, not felonies so they should all make bail by today or tomorrow.”

Alice looked confused. She was about to ask a question, but John answered it for her.

“Got them on possession of stolen property. They weren’t the ones that stole it, someone else did that they knew of. So, it’s a class F misdemeanor and doesn’t even have a minimum sentencing recommendation.”

“They messaged me last week and had been pressing the issue. Got a message from them yesterday demanding I do what they say.” John shrugged. “I don’t like being told what to do, especially from them.”

“So, they had footage of you paying for the camera.” Alice was rubbing a temple. “Because what cadet walks around with one hundred million credits in unmarked chits?”

“In my defense, I can actually prove paper trail on all of those chits. Little sketchy sure but nothing that rises to actual criminality. And I can play that purchase as them having leverage on me and me needing that to save my career as I was desperate.”

Alice stood up on her toes and gave him a kiss. “You need to be smarter. And you need to keep me in the loop more often.”

“So do you want to know about my latest windfall?”

Alice laughed and shook her head. “No, I actually would rather not.” She sighed. “In the future remember, we are a team. We are stronger together than we are alone. Remember that.”

The couple left and headed down to the lounger to work on homework. John felt like a giant weight was lifted from his shoulder. Alice was just shaking her head at her fiancé. There’d be some blowback because of his general idiocy but he’d be fine. She was just annoyed that he didn’t communicate with her. She reluctantly understood why he did what he did. Alice wasn’t going let John pull a stunt like this alone again. She was going to be there at his side, through good or ill.

Friday. 16:45 Rear-Admiral Johan’s Office

“Cadet, you were absent without explanation for all your classes and PE on Wednesday. Do you have a valid reason for being absent?” Rear-Admiral Johan, the leader in charge of cadet compliance.

John was standing at attention in front of the admiral. “I have a reason, justification, and explanation for my actions. But none of them fall within what the student code defines as a valid excused absence.”

The admiral was aware by reputation only of the cadet in front of him. “Well, a day isn’t going to cause you to get booted from the academy. But you’re going to have to attend a tribunal and explain yourself.”

John paused a moment. “Would I be able to plead to it now.”

The admiral smiled. “Normally yes. Off the record here, but you’ve pissed off enough people that you don’t get to take the easy way out. Back on the record, the leadership here at the academy wants to ensure everything you do is properly documented.”

“And out in the open for all to see. Fucking wonderful.”

“Watch the language and attitude in here cadet.”

“Apologies sir.”

“The tribunal will give its recommendation, but you are well aware that student tribunals lack any ability to punish the student. That falls under the purview of this office. As it’s your first offence I’m going to assign you two PE sessions and confinement to the campus this weekend. Before you ask, the trial last year is not being included due to the well documented hit job that was attempted on you.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Make sure this doesn’t happen again cadet. Not everyone here has it out for you. But I worry that you can be your own worst enemy.”

“You wouldn’t be the first person to tell me that.” John tried hard to not crack a smile when he said that.

“I’m sure I won’t be the last. Tribunal is scheduled for next Tuesday at 19:00. Bring a cadet to act as your representative.” The admiral entered a few things into his terminal then paused. “This is your first offence. The demerit will remain on your file. Dismissed.”

“Thank you, sir.”

John left and headed to the lounge. They didn’t have any plans besides the football game. John would just have to be boring and stay home. He figured he’d use that time to work on a couple papers for his classes and at least be productive while his friends were free.

16:30 Lounge

John and Alice were playing a game of cornhole. The group was happy that all was well with the couple. They didn’t want the awkwardness to continue. John smiled and admitted that he didn’t want that feeling again, it was weird and uncomfortable.

“So, loss of leave for a weekend and the demerit stays on your file.” Andern shouted.

“Jesus, dial it down.” Kristin slapped his shoulder.

“Not worried about the demerit. That only becomes an issue if I rack up too many.”

“You can graduate with honors only if you have less than twenty demerits. You went three and a half semesters without earning one. You’ll be fine.” Alice tossed an air mail and tied the game up.

“You guys have no idea how nice it is to play cornhole. All we do is fucking homework.” John smiled and tossed a bag into a defensive position. “Demerits aren’t something you have to worry about until you’re on the test ships the next couple of years. That’s when you can start racking them up.”

“Not that your worried about that.” Thomas laughed. “We got next game by the way.”

“Andern, what are you doing Tuesday at 19:00?”

“Homework, what else?” Andern gave him a confused look.

“Cool, I need you to be me representative.”

“I have homework.”

“No, you should do that.” Kristin gave Andern an annoyed look.

“Fine.” Andern shrugged. “Wait, representative for what?”

“The student tribunal that will be arraigned because of my absences.” John shook his head. “Really, why else would I go to a tribunal?”

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him. Half of them cocked their heads a little.

“No, stop. Don’t answer that.”

“And that’s my game honey.” Alice tossed an airmail shot and brought in one of her bags with it. She beat John by a point.

The couple sat in the loveseat that was vacated by Thomas and Brian. John grabbed the remote and changed the channel to ESPN2. There was a PAC-16 college football game between Oregon and Stanford.

“So, you grounded this weekend then?” Kevin asked.

“Yup. I’m part of the no fun club between now and Sunday’s curfew. Tricky part is how much I disclose on Tuesday.”

Theresa looked up from her homework. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I had a damn good reason why I wasn’t in school. Just not sure how much detail I should get into.”

“If no one else is going to ask it, then I will. What happened?” Nathan put his pen down and leaned back.

Had there been popcorn available Brian would be eating it. Brian went over and closed the lounge doors for what little privacy that would afford. He was still new to the group, but he fit right in with this bunch.

“Ok, cliff notes work?” John asked as everyone nodded in response. “So, the mafia tried to blackmail me last week. They used the footage they had on me, edited it too I should point out, of when I came in and bought the camera that I got the footage from last spring. Well, they wanted some me to bounce a few of their guys from jail. I wasn’t too happy but when I met with them Wednesday morning, I noticed something in their clubhouse. Turns out it was some stolen gear that they purchased from some punks that lifted it last week. So, I jammed them up on a possession charge. I neglected to inform the FBI on the blackmail bit. And Jesus man, the FBI were fucking hopeless.”

“God damn man, you are a fucking disaster zone sometimes.” Kevin said as he laughed.

“Some of the capo’s and other made men may have threatened me but then I may have made certain threats to disappear things and people near and dear to them and that shut down the threats. Vito overplayed his hand and got burned.”

Brian went to the doors and opened them back again. “Honestly was expecting more for some weird reason.”

“Hey, I think the new guy is part of the crew now.” Andern pointed and laughed.

The friends laughed and continued on until the lounge was closed at 23:00. Almost all of their homework was completed. When the lounge was closed the packed up and headed off to their rooms for the night. Alice was sad that John couldn’t go to the game, but he told her to enjoy the game and he’d be in the lounge when they got back. He’d at least get to attend the next two home games.

Saturday. 09:30 Co-Ed dorm

John had already done his penalty PE sessions and had breakfast. Alice was getting ready to head to the arena to mingle in and around the tailgating area. He was working on a final paper for one of his classes. He was well under way when a call came in. He answered it.

“Vito. Hey dickhead, looks like you got out.”

“You owe me.” Vito looked pissed.

John smiled. “The recording system on your end isn’t working by the way. There won’t be any more games played at my expense.”

“Do you know what you did?”

“Yes, I ended our relationship when you stepped out of bounds. You’re lucky the feds only have you on that petty charge. I think it’s best and we part ways here. Pushing me anymore than you have will result in making an enemy of me. Best wishes.”

John disconnected the call. He didn’t want to end that relationship, but Vito left him no choice. He was a liability now and not something John needed to deal with. John had hoped this would be the end, but Vito wasn’t necessarily the kind of person that would take no for an answer.

John sent a short message to Director LeCroix.

‘So, Vito blackmailed me last week. Didn’t write because I figured I could handle it (yes, before you say, ‘I told you so.’ I really did figure I had this covered.). Well, turned out the little shit tried the same shit the shadow group did in the spring. They had a highly edited video of me giving them the money to get that camera. I noticed they had some stolen goods that were on the news in their clubhouse. So, after they let me go, I headed over to the FBI field office and gave them the location of the stolen goods. I neglected to say who was there or why I was there. They bought it and nabbed them on possession of stolen goods, I think. Downside was that I missed a day of school. So that’s why I’m writing you from the sin bin this weekend. Also have a student tribunal on Tuesday. I think that covers most of it.’

John sighed and then got back to work on his paper. He kept on working on his paper until lunch began being served. When that announcement was made, he saved his work and headed down to the cafeteria. He had a good start and would likely finish it up after his PE session Sunday morning. As he was walking across the quad to the cafeteria, he began thinking what he would say in front of the tribunal. Winging this would likely not work nor would be a flippant dick about things either. He had a couple days to figure that out at least.