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They laughed, they cheered, and then he disht his toon leaders on the way out and told them that he wouldn't expect anyone to come to practice till 0745, and that practice would be over early so the boys could shower Half an hour for breakfast, and no shower right after a battle--it was still stingy, but it would look lenient co the announcement of the extra fifteen minutes come from the toon leaders Let the boys learn that leniency comes from their toon leaders, and harshness froht knots of this fabric

Ender ate no breakfast He wasn't hungry Instead he went to the bath-roo his flash suit in the cleaner so it would be ready when he was dried off He washed himself twice and let the water run and run on him It would all be recycled Let everybody drink soiven him an untrained army, and he had won, and not just nip and tuck, either He had ith only six frozen or disabled Let's see how long other co their fory can do

He was floating in the an to arrive No one spoke to him, of course He would speak, they knehen he was ready, and not before

When all were there, Ender hooked himself near them and looked at them, one by one "Good first battle," he said, which was excuse enough for a cheer, and an atteon, which he quickly stopped "Dragon Aroing to be that bad If that had been a good army, C toon, your approach was so slow they would have had you froood position You should have split and angled in from two directions, so they couldn't flank you A and E, your aied only one hit for every two soldiers Thatsoldiers close in That can't go on--a competent enemy would cut up the assault force unless they have much better cover from the soldiers at a distance I want every toon to work on distance ets Half-toons take turns being targets I'll thaw the flash suits every three minutes Now move"

"Will we have any stars to ith?" asked Hot Soup "To steady our aim?"

"I don't want you to get used to having so to steady your arms If your arm isn't steady, freeze your elbows! Now move!"

The toon leaders quickly got things going, and Ender estions and help soldiers ere having particular trouble The soldiers knew by now that Ender could be brutal in the way he talked to groups, but when he worked with an individual he was always patient, explaining as often as necessary,to questions and problehed when they tried to banter with hi He was coether He never had to remind them of it; he simply was

They worked all day with the taste of victory in their ain when they broke half an hour early for lunch Ender held the toon leaders until the regular lunch hour, to talk about the tactics they had used and evaluate the work of their individual soldiers Then he went to his own rooed into his uniform for lunch He would enter the co that he wanted Since this was his first victory, he had never seen the inside of the commanders' mess hall and had no idea what new commanders were expected to do, but he did know that he wanted to enter last today, when the scores of the on Army will not be an obscure name now

There was no great stir when he came in But when soons on the sleeves of the uniforot his food and sat at a table, the rooan to eat, slowly and carefully, pretending not to notice that he was the center of attention Gradually conversation and noise started up again, and Ender could relax enough to look around

One entire wall of the room was a scoreboard Soldiers were kept aware of an army's overall record for the past two years; in here, however, records were kept for each co fro to what he had done

Ender had the best ranking A perfect won-lost record, of course, but in the other categories he was far ahead Average soldiers-disabled, average enee tiory he was ranked first

When he was nearly through eating, someone came up behind him and touched his shoulder

"Mind if I sit?" Ender didn't have to turn around to knoas Dink Meeker

"Ho Dink," said Ender "Sit"

"You gold-plated fart," said Dink cheerfully "We're all trying to decide whether your scores up there are a miracle or a mistake"