"Too late," Sean replied. "I already sold my soul to Juilliard and apparently wasted a good chunk of Dad's money while I was at it." At this point, he was still half-hoping he'd wake up and find this was all just a really bad, alcohol-induced nightmare he could move on from as easily as swearing never to drink whatever it was that brought it on ever again. And listening to Savannah wasn't making any of this better. All he could think was that she was already lost to his dad's brain-washing after being there for too long. It sounded like his dad's version of Disney World, a place where everyone had to train to be just like him.
"But anyone with a gun can be escort?" He did not want to be chained to his dad's whims. Dad had told Jenna the night before she could be qualified by Monday. Sean would make do until Jenna could be his escort, then. He'd deal with getting out by himself when he had to. And, if that required learning to fire a gun, then fine. He'd learn; he'd carry; and he'd go out. Sean hadn't gotten as far as he had at such a young age by not being willing to do whatever he had to in order to get what he wanted -- without his dad's approval.
"So, no place on base to get real clothes?" he asked, recognizing the name of the store as one off the base, even though he hadn't been to that area much. That was going to suck. Didn't the base have civilian family members of the soldiers living there like a normal base at home? Or were things here really that different? Eating slowly, Sean wondered how long he was supposed to last there before he went mad from all this. The only normal thing she'd said so far was he could split chores with Jenna. His dad even told her when she was allowed to cook? "And you just let him?"
Sean perked up at mention of the clubs, though. Now, that was something he might be interested in. If his dad actually made good on getting his sax back -- Sean would believe it when he played it -- maybe he could see about playing there. It would still be stuck here, but he'd be playing. No matter what they did to him, he refused to stop playing unless they killed him. "Why skip the first two?" He was already filing away the name of the guy running the enlisted club. He snorted at the repeat of his dad's admonition about talking to anyone outside this little group. "What they forget is that not everyone wants to talk about the things they're afraid of people talking about. Some of us might just like to talk about something other than pretty much anything connected to the military or the government or whatever else floats this boat."
He was pretty sure they didn't care if anyone chose it or not.