Chapter Text
Toccoa, Georgia, 1942
Everyone got to the barracks at different times, trains coming from different states and cities taking somewhat longer or shorter. The first one there was probably Eliza Thomlin. With her being from Asheville and all. Eliza arrived at 5 am and waited for maybe five hours until another girl came. The girl was taller than Eliza. Her skin was much paler than Eliza's, with a near-white complexion. Her curly blonde hair framed her pretty face. The girl then introduced herself.
“Hello my name’s Torrance, everyone calls me Torrie though,” she had a British accent, which was strange being that they were in the south.
“I’m Eliza, ain’t you supposed to be on the other side of the pond?” asked Eliza.
Before answering, Torrie let out a laugh, “Yea, I guess so, but I haven’t been to the other side since I was 15.”
“Well, I didn’t expect that, where are you from now?” Eliza let out a chuckle.
“Hattiesburg, Mississippi, you?”
“Asheville, North Carolina, I’ve been sitting here for 5 hours waiting for someone to show up.”
“Well, you got someone to talk to now,” Torrie laughed again. Eliza smiled, she knew she was gonna have a friend here. About an hour later, a dark-skinned girl showed up, who spoke quickly with a clear New Orleans accent. “Y’all here for the female parachute infantry?”
Eliza immediately replied, “Yup, what’s your name?”
“Olive-Marie LeBeau, most people call me Olive though,” the girl replied.
“I’m Eliza.”
Torrie piped in, “And I’m Torrie,” her accent seemed to surprise Olive.
“Well at least it’s nice to see a familiar face,” Olive replied. Over the hour that Eliza and Torrie were talking, Eliza found out Torrie was mixed and just so happened to be albino also. “Yea, it is, you look shocked by my accent” Torrie replied.
Olive laughed, “Well, you don’t hear a British accent in America all that often.” Torrie replied, “Well you got that right.”
A few hours later two other girls showed up. They were around the same height. One had olive skin and medium brown hair, and the other had tan skin and black hair. The black-haired one spoke up immediately, “What’s all y’all’s names? I’m Bianca Hernandez.”
Everyone introduced themselves except the brown-haired girl. “What’s your name girl?” asked Olive.
“I’m Marselle Rosaliano,” the girl answered in a sweet tone. “I like your hair, Eliza, it suits your eyes.”
Eliza was bright ginger with bright green eyes, and that comment made her face as bright as her hair. It was later into the afternoon and the girls who had shown up already had retreated inside the barracks. There was a knock on the door, Bianca had yelled for whoever it was to come in. In walked the tallest of the girls gathered, she was built and had long black hair and dark eyes, and she looked menacing. Bianca asked, “What’s your name?”
“It’s Zipporah Fieldman,” said the girl.
Bianca grinned while lying on her side in one of the barracks beds. “Well, I’m gonna call you Zippo because there’s no way in hell I’m gonna remember that.”
Zippo let out a chuckle, “That’s better than Zippy, what’s your name?”
“Bianca,” she replied.
“Well, I’ll call you B.”
B chuckled, “That’s creative.”
“Yea and so is Zippo asshole,” Zippo replied grinning. Everyone started talking and having a good time and started creating nicknames for the ones who didn’t have one already. Olive became Ollie. They tried to make Eliza ‘Lizzy’ until she shot that down in a heartbeat angrily, no one questioned it and they moved on. Marselle politely declined being given a nickname.
It was about 2 hours later and what seemed to be the last of the girls had arrived. She seemed to be about Marselle and B’s height, she had dark red hair and pale skin, she and Eliza looked like they could be sisters. She knocked on the door and walked into the barracks. Everyone stopped talking and looked up at her. Until Zippo perked up “What’s your name?”
“Mary McCullen,'' the girl introduced herself.
“I’m Zippo, that’s B, that’s Ollie, that’s Torrie, that’s Marselle, and that’s Eliza,” Zippo introduced herself and everyone else. Everyone greeted each other and started shooting the shit. Until one last girl barged into the room. She looked like she was ready to give everyone an order, she glared at all of them. A look that made all the girls get out of their beds and stand at attention. Now, she was the tallest out of all of them, she had short straight blonde hair. She spoke with an authoritative tone. “I’m Lieutenant Harten, I’ll be leading you ladies. You girls are now officially apart of the 101st Airborne, you neanderthalettes are gonna be apart of the 506th’s E Company, you all better prove yourself tomorrow and show that a women’s division isn’t a stupid idea, because tomorrow is when you meet the boys of Easy and show them what you’re made of. Now go get some food because for some reason they decided to keep y’all separate from the boys for as long as possible,” the Lieutenant let out a laugh. And so it begins…