I decide to let Christina drag me around shopping tonight. I need to do something to keep my mind off of training. I'm worrying about it just as much as an instructor as I did as an initiate! Christina obviously noticed this and asked me to come shopping with her. That's always her suggestion when I'm upset or worried about something.
She runs about in front of me, throwing a bundle of clothes onto my arms for me to try on. I just stand there as I hear her squeal.
"Oh, Tris! You have to try this on for me. Look at this, it is so cute! This would totally bring out your eyes."
Once Christina has covered the entirety of the store she pushes me into the dressing room to try everything. She's found quite a few things that I actually like, so I redress and go to pay for my clothes.
Just as I'm walking out of the store with Christina by my side I see a mob of people and someone yell, "You idiot!"
I don't recognize the voice, but run to see what's going on. I push my way through the crowd until I reach the center. A couple of my initiates are standing in the inner circle, and there's one more of them laying on the ground. I recognize Jack, but not the girl standing over him. What happened?
When I first saw him, I thought that Jack was unconscious, but he was actually clamping his eyes shut in anticipation as the girl kicked him in the gut. I hear him moan and push the girl away.
"What the hell is going on here?" I didn't realize that I was angry until I spoke. Who am I angry at, the girl for beating up one of my initiates? No, I'm mad at Jack. I only gave them two rules, don't leave the compound and don't get in trouble. Jack obviously failed at the latter.
"That boy," the girl spits, "tried to kiss me. As you can tell, I didn't appreciate it."
"Leave. The fight's over," I yell to the crowd. I then point at Hector the boulder, as I've come to call him in my head, and instruct him, "Carry Jack down to the infirmary."
Him and the other transfers next to him all have a terrified look in his eyes. When I was thinking of ways to scare them this never crossed my mind.
"The rest of you go back to the dorms and go to bed. You still have to fight tomorrow." They all shuffle away silently.
I pinch the bridge of my nose as I head back to my apartment. I thought that Jack had more sense than that. He was the first jumper after all, and he showed quite a bit of promise today in training. Now he's gone and gotten himself hurt the night before the first fights. This is going to mess up the pairings that I had thought of earlier. I'm exhausted so walk through my front door and get ready for bed sluggishly.
I turn off the lights and plop down onto my bed. I'm asleep before my head even hits the pillow.
I walk into the training room the next morning with a muffin in hand and start writing pairings on the blackboard. Jack is still in the infirmary, he's either much more of a wimp than I originally anticipated, or he got hit a lot harder than I initially thought. Either way, his little stunt last night gives us an odd number.
Just as I'm deciding who to give the bye to, I feel someone's arms wrap around me from behind. I smile and turn around to see Tobias grinning down at me. I close my eyes and feel our lips meet, his hands resting on my waist.
We break apart and tell him, "Help me decide who to give the bye to." He gives me a puzzled look so I go on to tell him the events of last night. "So, because Jack got into more trouble than he could handle and is still in the infirmary, there's an odd number of people, so I have to give someone a bye and can't decide who to give it to."
Tobias just stands there for a moment staring back at me. I realize that by the end of my rant I was talking a lot faster than I thought at the time.
"Well," he replies, "if you are in a particularly kind mood, give Estelle the bye. Regardless of who you match her up with she's going to bet hurt. This way she'll be able to learn more and won't be impaired by any injuries in the second fight. She needs all of the help she can get."
I nod, it makes sense. I leave a blank next to Estelle's name and write down the rest of the matches that will be taking place today.
Tobias stays in the room with me as the initiates walk in, and I see Brianna stare at him a little longer than I'd like.
The first fight is between Madeleine and Brianna and I smirk. I tried to be as fair as possible with pairing up everyone, butMadeleine should win this one.
The two of them jump into the circle and the fight commences. Brianna is taller and more muscular that her opponent, but I can tell that she underestimates Madeleine, and she's very sloppy with her punches. Brianna lunges first, but Madeleine easily ducks out of the way and elbows her in the stomach. Brianna lurches back a step, but gets her hands in front of her face before her opponent's fist can hit it.
Brianna tries to punch her again in the stomach, but her feet get swept out from beneath her. Madeleine kicks her in the abdomen and punches her on the mouth before stepping back.
Brianna blacks out for a moment, but comes back to and lets out a groan. I drag her over to the benches with the help of Tobias, and the next two fights occur. I circle the names of all of the winners.
The last fight is between David and Patrick, one of the Candor twins.
David knocks his opponent to the floor and straddles his abdomen, punching him repetitively in the face. There's a calm, calculative look in his eyes so common in the Abnegation, but not when they're causing blood to gush out of another person's nose.
I call the fight, and see the stunned looks on everyone's faces. They never expected a stiff to be capable of doing anything as selfish as beating someone else up for personal gain. Tobias tells him to take his opponent to the infirmary, and I watch David carry the unconscious form outside the door.
I decide there and then that there's something not right about David, and I'm going to find out what.
AN: I'm SO sorry it took me so long to update. I've had a ton of homework, and then I had to write debate cases and go to the debate tournament. I promise I'll update faster this week. Thank you so much for reading, and please leave a review. They really help motivate me to write the next chapter!
-theimpossiblegirl42