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As they sorted the to their arrival dates, Ender walked up and down the aisle Alht out of their launch group, coe--the ones nearest the door were pathetically small Ender reminded himself that that's how he must have looked to Bonzo Madrid when he first arrived Still, Bonzo had had only one underage soldier to cope with

Not one of the veterans belonged to Ender's elite practice group None had ever been a toon leader None, in fact, was older than Ender himself, which hteen nize, they had made so little impression

They recognized Ender, of course, since he was the most celebrated soldier in the school And some, Ender could see, resented him At least they did me one favor--none of my soldiers is older than me

As soon as each soldier had a bunk, Ender ordered them to put on their flash suits and coht to practice after breakfast Officially you have a free hour between breakfast and practice We'll see what happens after I find out how good you are" After three h many of them still weren't dressed, he ordered them out of the room

"But I'm naked!" said one boy

"Dress faster next ti out the door--that's the rule this week Next week the rule is two minutes Move!" It would soon be a joke in the rest of the school that Dragon Ar dressed

Five of the boys were coh the corridors; feere fully dressed They attracted a lot of attention as they passed open classrooain if he could help it

In the corridors leading to the battleroom, Ender made the a little, while the naked ones got dressed Then he led them to the upper door, the one that opened into the a handholds to hurl themselves into the roo for the eneate"

They revealed theh the door Almost none of theet, and when they reached the far wall few of the new ones had any idea how to catch on or even control their rebounds

The last boy out was a s to reach the ceiling handhold

"You can use a side handhold if you want," Ender said

"Go suck on it," said the boy He took a flying leap, touched the ceiling handhold with a finger tip, and hurtled through the door with no control at all, spinning in three directions at once Ender tried to decide whether to like the little kid for refusing to take a concession or to be annoyed at his insubordinate attitude

They finally got the the wall Ender noticed that without exception they had lined up with their heads still in the direction that had been up in the corridor So Ender deliberately took hold of what they were treating as a floor and dangled from it upside down "Why are you upside down, soldier?" he demanded

Some of them started to turn the other way

"Attention!" They held still "I said why are you upside down!" No one answered They didn't knohat he expected