"Dang." I mumble as I miss the target yet again. Orion nudges me and points to her target where a knife is stuck. "I hit the target!" she whispers in an excited voice. I look at how everyone else is doing and smile when I see Max has hit the target only once, and barely. "Hey Max! Actually try to hit the target more than once." I just realized, why is Max training with the Dauntless-born? They must have moved him up because, I hate to say it, he's really good. "I wouldn't be talking," he snaps back. "Have you hit the target? Oh right, you haven't."
Lunch today is my favorite, mac and cheese, tater tots, and best of all, chocolate cake. I really love Dauntless chocolate cake. I sit down in between Orion and a boy from our initiate class, Sam. "Are you stocking up for the winter or something? That's a lot of food." Sam says staring at my plate. "Hey, it's my favorite. Remember how much food you got on Chinese food day?" He blushes and I laugh and lightly punch him in the arm. "Rena," says Orion, "Are you scared for tomorrow, when we start fighting?" "No." I state, and I'm really not scared. "I'm confident I will win my fight. And it will be especially easy if I'm against you or Sam." I say laughing. "Plus, we're using fluffy boxing gloves and shoes so no one gets to hurt, right?" "Oh yeah, but just so we're clear, if we get paired to fight, I'd whoop you're butt."
In the afternoon, we prepare for tomorrow's fights. Sara shows us a few punches and kicks to maneuver into our fights. After she shows us how to punch and kick, I start doing it. It stings my hands, but I enjoy the feeling. It's a good way to get all my anger out and just let loose. I'm really enjoying this exercise. I throw a punch, and as my hand makes contact with the bag, it starts to bleed. It really stings; I should probably get a bandage. "Sara, do you have any sort of gauze to put on this?" "Oh dear, that looks like it really hurts. I'll get some disinfectant." As I wait for Sara to get the bandages, I see Nain, oh I hate Nain, hitting really well. I hope she and Max get paired so at least one of them will get slightly hurt."
"Everybody get up!" shouts Sara. It's 4 o'clock in the morning, what is she doing? "Get dressed and meet me in the Pit in 5 min." "Ugh!" I groan as I roll out of bed. I look at Orion and ask, "Do you know what we're doing?" "Yes!" she replies excitedly, "My brother was an initiate three years ago and said this happened to him, we're playing capture the flag!" "Yay!" I squeal! "I hope we'll be on the same team." After we get ready me and Orion go downstairs and grab a gun and some paintballs. We were a little late so we have to run to catch the train. Once we get on, Kalon explains to us how to play. "Sara and I will each choose teams. One team will get off first and hide their flag; the other team will get off a few minutes later and hide their flag. Then, the teams start hunting for each other's flags. If you're hit with more than 5 paintballs, you're out and can't help anymore. The first team to get the others flag wins." "Sounds simple enough." I whisper to Orion. "Okay," continues Kalon, "Sara, you choose first." "Okay," replies Sara, "I choose Max. Then Kalon chooses. He chooses Orion. It goes on like this for a couple more minutes when I hear my name. I'm on Kalon's team. I'm excited that Orion's on my team, but Nain is also on this team. She whispers in my ear, "You better not lose this for me." I bite back a rude retort and look at who's on my team, me, Orion, Nain, my friend Kat, and some transfers I don't know. Our team is okay. We get off first and hide our flag in a shady grove. We decide that half of us should search for the other team's flag, and the other half should protect ours. Me, Orion, and some transfers are in the searching group. I'm grateful to be rid of Nain. As we walk through the trees, I tell everyone to be silent because I have good ears and will listen for voices. After about ten minutes of searching I hear something, it was very faint, but I'm sure I heard someone's voice. I start walking in the direction I heard it and gesture for the others to follow. One of the transfers asks what we're doing and I put my fingers to my lips to signal silence. He still looks confused so I whisper, "Trust me." I creep towards where the sound came from and hear more voices. I can tell my fellow teammates can hear them too judging by the mischievous smiles on their faces. We all get really close to the other team to the point that we can see them. I whisper back to my team, "Everyone choose someone to shoot and shoot them six times in a row so they're out. Then we steal the flag." I say the last sentence with a wicked smile on my face. I chose Max to shoot. "Okay everyone, fire on three." Orion instructs. "One, Two, Three." Bang! I hit Max once and he turns around. Bang! Bang! Bang! I hit him three more times. I take a couple seconds to shoot the last one because I don't want to miss. Bang! I hit him in the chest. Then I run forward feeling amazing and grab the flag. Cheering a little louder than necessary, my half of the team carries me back to where our flag is. Nothing could ruin this night.
Until…
