Here we are at another brutal initiation, another fight to determine who is "brave" enough. I was content with the way things were in initiation until Max completely changed and warped it into something painful, something wrong. I was in Max's initiation class and he was a snobby Erudite transfer, always criticizing the other initiates, always telling people how they couldn't fight, no matter how hard they tried. He finished top of the class, chose a leadership job, and changed the best things about initiation (though not all). He changed the best things about Dauntless. So, let me tell you how Dauntless initiation used to be.
"Jump"! I yell flying in the air. We have just chosen our factions. I chose Dauntless, naturally, because it's where I grew up. Once I land on the rooftop, I look and see everyone else has jumped too. I notice one Candor girl is on the net connecting the roof to the train tracks because she didn't jump far enough. The purpose of the net is to keep us safe; they don't want anyone falling 40 stories to their deaths. But, it is still a test of bravery. Even though there is a net, you still have to jump from high up, and to some, that's a little frightening. Not for me. I'm used to jumping out of moving trains; I've done it since I was 5.
"Everyone over here!" yells Jahn! He's one of the instructors. "I trust you all enjoyed that." Glancing at the scraped knees, cut elbows, and scarred faces of the transfers I think, maybe not. "Now, for this next exercise, each of you is going to jump in this hole." He says it so casually I almost laugh. "What's at the bottom?" asks a small Candor girl, fear trickling into her voice. "That" replies Jahn "is for me to know and you to find out." Everyone around me looks scared except me, the rest of the Dauntless born, and a tall Erudite boy.
My best friend, Orion, runs and leaps into the hole. I have always been jealous of how she looks with her long curly black hair, and piercing green eyes. When she reaches the bottom she yells up, "Come on Rena, its fun!" She is talking to me. I run jumping into the big black hole. "Whooohoooo!" I yell with pleasure as I fall. A couple seconds later I land with a soft thud on some sort of mattress. I roll over to Orion laughing. "You were right that was fun." I hear a yell as the tall Erudite boy, Max, I think, soars toward the ground.
Once everyone has landed Jahn jumps and introduces us to the two people standing by the landing site who I never even noticed. "This is Sara and Kalon. They will be your instructors for initiation. Sara will be the instructor for the Dauntless-born and Kalon for the transfers. Initiation will be staged in three parts. The first will be based on physical activity, the second on standing up for others, and the third on facing your fears. You will be ranked on how you do and then you'll choose your job. You will choose based on your rankings, first place chooses first, second place second, etc. But don't worry, you'll all make it through initiation, unless you quit, and most of the jobs are okay. He pauses, letting the information soak in. "Sara and Kalon will now lead you to your dormitories."
The next day I wake up at 7:15, change; eat breakfast, than go to the training. We will not be training with the transfers until stage three. The training room we will be using smells of dust. I'm not surprised considering it hasn't been used since last year. Orion nudges me and points to the guns we will be using. At first I think we're using real bullets and that scares me a little, because Nain, a girl in my initiate class, doesn't like me so much and I wouldn't be surprised if she accidentally on purpose shoot's me in the leg or something. But, when I look closer, I breathe a sigh of relief and see that they're plastic. Still, it might hurt a little if she hits me.
"Good morning." says Sara, as you might remember, our instructor. "Everybody pick up a gun and two rounds of bullets. This morning we will work on shooting. After lunch we will be working on throwing plastic knives." She says the word plastic extra loud because she knows some of our class can be kind of violent. She grabs a gun and a loads it with a plastic bullet. She inhales, aims, exhales, and fires. Her bullet hits towards the side of the center, but still in the center, impressive. "Okay" she says, "Now you shoot."
I load my gun. Inhale, exhale, aim, fire! I hit dead center. Sara comes over to me looking impressed. "Wow, I didn't know you could shoot so well." At that moment I feel very proud, but put on a cool face. I can't let anyone know it's the first time I've ever hit the center. I've been trying for ten years and didn't hit it once. Until now. After about five minutes of feeling extremely proud of myself, I look around me and see how everyone else is doing. I gawk when I see the Max has shot every single one of his bullets, and every single one hit the center. Now he is walking around trying to tell other people how they should shoot their guns. But he's not being very nice about it. When he reaches me I tell him, "What makes you think you can just walk around telling other people what to do?" "Well", he says in a snobbish, matter of fact voice, "Sara said since I was so great at shooting, I should help the people whose skill level isn't as, developed, as mine. Here's a tip." He says this in a voice so quiet I can barely hear him. "Actually try to hit the target more than once." I bite back the urge to punch him and give him a fake smile. "Thank you for the tip." He's right; I only did hit the target once today, even if it was the center. Then I shoot and hit the target.
After lunch, it's time to throw knives. I have always hated throwing knives. I stink at it and I just hate it. When I throw the first one, I miss by about 6 feet.
