When washing shoes by hand, it was practically impossible to be rough enough to destroy them.
"If there's already an issue with your shoes, it wouldn't be fair to ask her for compensation," Claire reminded the girl, delivering a polite but firm warning.
The girl quickly defended herself. "I would never do something like that!"
Claire offered a pleasant smile. "That's great to hear. I just prefer to set the boundaries clearly beforehand so there are no misunderstandings."
With that settled, the girl left her name, contact info, and dorm room number. She snapped a quick picture of her sneakers, dropped them off, and walked away.
Oh, and she made sure to hand over half the deposit.
"I was so nervous just now," Lex admitted. "I had no idea so many people hated washing their own stuff."
For Lex, putting in a little elbow grease meant nothing.
Physical labor was free, and she had boundless energy!
As long as she could save up for her living expenses and tuition, she was more than willing to take on these odd jobs.
It was easy work, and the payout was fantastic.
Before long, word of mouth spread, and a surprising number of students sought out Lex's cleaning services.
However, the girl who had previously gotten into a fight with Zara somehow caught wind of the operation. She had originally intended to report Zara to the instructors, but she ended up dragging Lex down with her.
What Lex was doing wasn't exactly a heinous crime.
But since they were at Camp Blackwood, the administration strongly advocated for self-reliance. Managing one's own living quarters was a mandatory part of the curriculum.
There were no maids in the military.
If war broke out and a soldier couldn't even clean their own boots, what good would they be?
During the morning assembly, Chief Instructor Hawk publicly announced that paying classmates to do chores was strictly forbidden.
And just like that, Lex's booming business was shut down.
The students who despised cleaning groaned in collective despair.
Lex felt a pang of regret as well.
She had already made a few hundred bucks over the past few days.
Twenty dollars a pop might not sound like much, but the sheer volume of exhausted students unwilling to lift a finger made it highly lucrative.
People like Lex, who felt like they possessed an endless reserve of stamina, were incredibly rare.
By the end, she had so many orders she could barely keep up.
Claire genuinely believed her friend had struck a gold mine.
It was a shame the camp authorities had banned it.
Forced into early retirement, Lex gathered in a quiet corner of the field with Zara, Claire, and Skylar to take a breather.
They had been assigned weed-pulling duty, with the promise of free time once the task was complete.
Zara had managed to chafe her delicate hands until they bled. The frustrated instructor had finally` ordered her to sit out because he
didn't know what else to do with her.
If it weren't for her clumsy injuries, the four of them wouldn't have been able to hang out together.
"How on earth do you guys think this camp is easy? I feel like I'm dying every single day."
Zara slumped against the pull-up bar, eyeing Claire and Lex.
One had phenomenal physical conditioning, while the other was completely immune to hardship and fatigue.
Neither of them seemed remotely fazed by the grueling schedule.
Lex naturally had a deeper complexion, so the blazing sun didn't leave much of a mark on her.
But Claire had a luminous, radiant complexion—so how had she not tanned at all? Meanwhile, both Zara and Skylar had gone through several bottles of heavy-duty sunscreen, yet they were turning a darker shade by the minute.
Their uneven tan lines were glaringly obvious.
"This training is just a test of basic fitness. I've been working out since I was a kid, so it's not really a challenge for me," Claire explained.
She had maintained a strict exercise regimen her whole life. This wasn't actual boot camp for active-duty soldiers, so the intensity was perfectly manageable.
As for Lex, she rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. "Is this supposed to be tiring? I wake up,
there's food waiting for me, and net
after eating, all have to do is stand around or do a few drills. This is a vacation compared to my old life."
"What was your old life like?"
Zara asked, genuinely curious.
"Back home, had to wake up at five in the morning during the winter to prepare the livestock feed," Lex
replied matter-of-factly. "In the
summer was up at four and net
four and still had to cook breakfast for my entire family."