Clyde Brixton stood in the superintendent’s office at the United States Military Academy at West Point, not quite certain he understood the bizarre order correctly. Superintendent Draper sat behind the imposing mahogany desk flanked by two American flags. “General White’s daughter wants a fountain added to her birdcage, and you are going to build it for her. Or would you prefer to have your disciplinary hearing now, instead of at the beginning of the next semester?” Clyde swallowed hard. If the hearing was held before he had a chance to work off his demerits, Clyde would be expelled from West Point. No cadet was allowed more than two hundred demerits, and as of this morning, Clyde had just hit that dangerous number. He hadn’t expected the penalty for his jaunt to Washington to cost a staggering forty demerits, and his academic career was hanging by a thread. Working off demerits was possible, but difficult. In Clyde’s case, it was going to involve pandering to the general’s spoiled daughter.
