It was a pretty boring, typical day in the life of an ATC prisoner. Oh right, the correct term was Candidate. Sometimes it definitely felt more like a prison. The only thought to keep him truly sane was that this would all be worth it in the end. Two or three years, tops, and he’d be out of the ATC – at least as much as anyone could be once they went in that first time.
Matt would become a Pilot, just like his parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on. There was a lot of pressure to graduate as soon as possible. If a member of either side of his family had ever been TRIMed, well, nobody talked about it.
Right. No pressure.
Drills, despite his habit of complaining about them, weren’t that bad. Matt was athletically inclined, so the physical side of Candidate training had always been pretty bearable. Sure he left morning drills sweaty, winded, and sore like everyone else, but that was just because the instructors pushed every Candidate to their limits and then pushed a little more.
Everyone hit the showers and changed into fresh uniforms before heading to morning classes. Matt wasn’t the worst student, but not the best either. At least he’d been privileged with a very good and expensive education previous to coming to the ATC. It gave him a small leg up.
Despite trying to give off this flirty, very confident persona on the blog, there were plenty of insecurities running through Matthew Wright. One reason he wasn’t a Stage 4 yet was his hesitation to truly apply himself, despite wanting to be a Pilot more than anything. His parents and upbringing had groomed him for this from the moment he was born, but he knew a lot of the Candidates didn’t have the same very privileged background he did.
Matt wasn’t stupid, he heard the rumors and whispers of getting special treatment. He didn’t think they were true, but something didn’t have to be true for people to believe it. If he pushed himself to graduate as quickly as possible he worried they would think it wasn’t his own hard work but some favoritism.
He was terrified his peers would resent and dislike him. It made it hard to try to approach them outside the blog. Who would have thought he’d spend a lot of time hiding in his room?
Not today.
Matt got lonely and bored; he was definitely a social person. Ostracizing himself out of fear of judgment was just going to take this huge toll on him. Besides, nobody on the blog seemed to mind who his parents were. That’s why when he got free for the day he headed over to Viktor and Landis’s room, not even sure if Landis was in right then, but wanting to try to reach out to the cute and extremely outgoing boy.
Especially after that verbal smackdown they had all gotten in the chat. Matt had never felt like more of an ass. The poor kid had been through a lot, and if he needed friends and people to talk to and care about him, well Matt wanted friends too. Good friends that he could keep connections with even after they were all Pilots.
It was important. Stage 3 was all about bonding, teamwork, and connections with their fellow future Pilots, right?
Right.
“Hey Landis, you free? It’s Matt; I thought maybe we could hang out for a bit.” Not that he’d thought of what they might do together. Surely they’d think of something; even if it was just chatting and enjoying some company.
