A first glance

Another dreaded year of initiation.

Straightening out the stiff collar of his uniform, Eric made sure the tattoos on his neck were on full display, for the rest of the world to see, how hard he had worked for this. In his head he cursed Max for assigning him to oversee again, even though he knew full well, what a disaster last year had been.

First the whole drama with the candor bitch and then the loud mouthed stiff. He would have never guessed that Four would tap that, but as they engaged in a make out session in the middle of the mess hall, shouts of graft came from all the initiates.

It got so bad that Eric punched Peter K.O., just to shut him up.

And all of this drama for two damn stiffs.

Even before his own choosing ceremony, he had exercised countless hours, studying every single book about combat in the erudite library there was.

He had always detested the baby blue suits and the fake glasses, but he played his part, until it was his turn to choose.

Not that his parents would have noticed. The only thing his father was interested about was, how a child would behave after being deprived of love and how jealousy influenced these minds, so he tested it.

Growing up with the perfect, older brother, Eric had spent his life in the shadows of erudite. Eventhough he held no doubt, that he would have been able to compare to his class mates intelligent wise, he choose not to act on it.

Eric had always been too determined to get out of this house, this faction, to leave his father, who was only interested in his prodigy son, and his mother, who worshiped the ground Jeanine Matthews was walking on, behind, to pretend to be smarter than he really was.

Shaking these unwanted thoughts out of his head, Eric only now realized, he had arrived at the foot of the stairs, leading up to the roof. Taking two steps at once, he glanced at the screen of his phone, realizing he had less than five minutes until the train would arrive.

Throwing the door open, he was greeted by a few members and Maggs, his superior that was scowling at him.

"Just in time. Wouldn't have hurt you to be 10 minutes early." Eric rolled his eyes at her antics. Maggs surely wasn't someone to mess with.

"I had other shit to do." Smiling sarcastically, Maggs narrowed her eyes at him. But before she could response, or what was more likely, hit him, the rattling train interrupted their staring match.

Turning towards it, all the members on the roof watched the initiated take the leap over the 25-feet gap, landing on the roof more than ungracefully.

Swaying his gaze over the mass, Eric´s brain was working in overdrive. Most of the dauntless born seemed to have come back and the transfers consisted mostly of erudite and a few candors.

Like usual.

But what he saw next, made him snort. There, farthest away from him, brushing off the gravel, were two girls. Both wearing dresses.

An amity, blonde hair displaying a stark contrast to the vibrant red of her now torn, flowy dress and an abnegation, head lowered, the only colour about her, her auburn hair that had escaped her nun-like bun.

"Great. Another one of those damn stiffs." Eric muttered to Maggs, who fretted at him. "Not to mention the tree hugger."

"You shouldn't always judge a book by its cover, Nose. There is more to people than appearance." Eric only chuckled, irritated by Maggs patronizing and turned to address the initiates.

But he stopped short, as he met the stiff´s gaze. Now that he could see her face, he was rendered speechless.

She was staring at him with wide eyes. They were a color he couldn't really grasp. Eric wasn't able to tell if they were green, grey or blue, but they held a certain glint in them. She had a heart shaped face, her cheeks rosy from exertion and lips red from biting them.

The slightly red hair was framing her face, making her look like an angel to him.

He couldn't deny it. The stiff was more than just beautiful.

And she would be even prettier, with her hair sprawled out on his pillow, her naked body only covered with a silk sheet, as he was making his way over to her, ready to pounce…

A sharp jab to his guts, from Maggs, pulled him out of his fantasies and Eric realized he had been staring at the stiff for too long. To mask his slip up, he raised his eyebrows at her and to his satisfaction, her cheeks went even redder. The amity, who had witnessed everything, glared at him, giving him the most intimidating one, he ever saw an amity wear.

Smirking slightly, Eric jumped onto the ledge, before addressing them.

"Initiates, listen up! My name is Eric and I am one of your new leader." Cue all the whispers, he was used to. He really was young to be one, in fact one of the youngest ever, with 19, now 21. "Behind me is your entrance to dauntless. You either jump, or be factionless. Your choice. We have no place here for cowards."

Looking at the two girls again, he saw the amity rolling her eyes, while the stiff looked more than just slightly intimidated. Like always he ignored the sarcastic remarks, and the outrage they felt, at having to jump off a roof.

The dramatics were getting boring.

"So, which one of you will it be?" He called after a minutes, annoyed by those idiots. As if they would really let them fall to their deaths.

Dauntless were brave, not suicidal.

A movement from the last row of the initiates caught his attention and he watched with mild interest, how the hippie pushed her way through the crowd, elbowing people out of her way. The stiff followed her, but not in the same manner. She slipped through the people, never even touching one, before coming to a halt.

The blonde girl stopped in front of him, raising her eyebrows challenging. Eric jumped off the ledge, landing directly in front of her. Despite him standing taller than her and sporting his most intimidating look, she didn't seem bothered in the slightest.

No, she seemed angry. Slowly moving out of her way, Eric kept a close eye on her, as she managed to get onto the ledge, muttering angrily the whole time.

He managed to catch something that sounded like "Gonna show him who´s a coward." And "buttface".

Eric had his problems at hiding his smirk, more than just amused by the little spitball of fire in front of him.

With a smile that was entirely to saccharine, to be genuine, she saluted him, before letting herself falling into the whole. Her maniac laughter rang through the air, making even Maggs beside him chuckle.

Before Eric could even ask, who would jump next, the stiff was standing in front of the ledge. Being so close to her, he used the time to scrutinize her further.

His first impression had been right, she was utterly beautiful, almost angelic. But she was also slim. No muscles, just like the stiff of number boy had looked.

She would have it hard here and her looks wouldn't help her, when she was beaten to a pulp. The petite girl in front of him didn't look, as if she could take a single hit, not even mentioning a whole beating.

Or a pounding, but he would worry about that later.

Not being able to watch the girl´s pitiful attempts to get onto the ledge, without tangling up in her skirts, Eric grabbed her waist and heaved her up, his fingers almost touching on her stomach. If that was because he had huge hands, or just because she was so thin, Eric had no idea.

But he didn't miss her flinch, as he had grabbed her. It couldn't have been his grip, so she either didn't like to be touched, or she was hurt. But before he could more than ponder about any of that, she had already stepped of the ledge.

Furrowing his brow, Eric watched her disappear in the blackness, before he turned around again, gesturing for the next jumper. He was anxious to get this over and done with, to find out more about the stiff, that had captured his attention.