TEN

[ELLIE]

A sudden loud banging woke me from my restless sleep. "Ten minutes, in the Pit."

Oh, great. A wake up call. I rubbed my eyes, propping myself up on my elbow.

Trudi was already tying her laces up on her new boots, her auburn hair in a quick ponytail, which was a strange sight, since I'm used to the tight bun knots. She looked up at me, amused.

"You might wanna get up, El. He doesn't seem like the pushover type," she chuckled. "Nine minutes' left, and it takes three to get there."

"How long have you been up?" I asked, groggily swinging my legs over to put my boots on, too.

"A while, couldn't sleep," Trudi stood up and walked over to Alice, shaking her awake. Kori was yawning and complaining about 'not getting her beauty sleep.'

"Yeah, I get it, I didn't sleep well, either."

The change of colours left odd, all my life I've worn grey, but now, its suddenly all black. Although, it's one of the smallest detail changes I'll have to get used to.

My family. A pang of homesickness spread through me. I know they'll come, on Visiting Day, but still. I left them, for adventure and a change of scenery. I truly didn't belong there, because of how selfish I was. I'm a disgrace.

Stop. If I'm going to survive initiation and become a Dauntless member, I had to forget about anything negative. I am going to be Dauntless. I will be Dauntless. I have time to grieve the loss of my family later.

"Ugh," a voice of disgust interrupted my thoughts. I turned to see Kori grimacing at her reflection in the only mirror in the room. "It's not easy being this beautiful, y'know. And I need my beauty sleep. I mean, look at this bags. I look like a druggie, for goodness sake!"

I chuckled softly at her ranting. The guys on the other side heard what she said and they either looked completely confused or amused.

"It's okay, Kori," I tried to reassure her, trying not to laugh. "It's just for today, you can get more sleep tonight?"

Kori thought for a moment and was about to reply but one of the guys interrupted her. "Ten minutes almost up!"

Kori forgot about her imagery for the moment and ran to get something off her bed.

Trudi had met up with us, practically dragging me to the door. "Quick, quick, quick! We don't want to be late!"

I laughed. "I can walk myself," she let me go, but didn't stop pestering me to quicken my already fast pace.

She called over her shoulder. "Quickly, girls! Don't get left behind!"

I regretted not getting up for breakfast. I was starving.

We started our day with Ajax telling us about the three stages of initiation, which includes physical – shooting, aim and fighting. The second is emotional, having you face simulations of your fears. And the third is mental capability, consisting of the first two stages.

"This morning, you'll be learning how to shoot, this afternoon I'll teach you a few things about fighting. So gear up, and follow me," Ajax led us to the shooting range.

He showed us a few tips about how to hold and shoot a weapon.

"Never point your gun at anything you aren't prepared to shoot at," Ajax has never looked more serious or more deadly. "Not playing around, not threatening, never, ever. Understood?"

We all nodded solemnly.

"Okay," he instantly sounded chirpier, apparently happy with our answer. "Watch me closely. Don't look at the target, look at my stance."

Ajax stood up to the line, and raised his gun. "Keep your feet about shoulder-width apart, it'll keep you balanced. Tuck your elbows in, brace yourself for the jump, aim at the target, breathe evenly, don't let your hands shake. Gently pull your finger on the trigger, fire." His gun barked once.

I looked over at his target, he got a bullseye. Not that I was expecting anything less.

"Okay, your turn. Let's see how much you pay attention."

I was holding one of the guns I'd gotten earlier, and I stepped up to the line with Trudi on one side and Kori on the other, Alice was next to Trudi and honestly I didn't pay any attention to the boys.

I then tried to copy Ajax's stance. Feet shoulder-width apart. Check. Raise your gun at the target, tuck your elbows. Check. Brace for the jump? I don't know what he meant by that, but I'm bracing. Aim; I closed one eye, peered down the barrel of the gun, I could see a little aim thingy that was coloured and had lines that met in the middle. So I lined that dot up to the bullseye. Okay, check. Breathe evenly. In, out. In, out. Okay, check. No shaking hands, ugh, they were shaking a little, so I gripped the gun harder, good enough. Aim, gently, gently pull the trigger.

Bang!

I stumbled back a few steps from the force.

"So that's the jump," I mumbled. I heard someone chuckle behind me, I turned and saw it was Ajax. I gave him a smile – though it was probably more of a polite but really very fake, embarrassed, pursed lips, slightly grimace kind of smile.

I went back to the target and saw I didn't hit it, not that I'm surprised. It's okay, we have time. Not much, but enough. You'll get this. You are not leaving. You will master this.

I took a deep breath and raised the gun again. I repeated my checklist. But this time, I dug my heels into the ground, locking my knees, and elbows, I'm bracing of it properly, this time. Stance, aim, fire.

I was ready for the force this time, so I could stay in the same spot this time, but it was still a shock to my body. I looked up at the target, I got the very edge of the board.

It got me thinking. If I lined the line up with the target, and I got the edge to the right, does that mean I should aim further left?

I decided to give it a try.

Stance, aim, fire.

So damn close.

I got the edge of the outline of the target. Still, it was an improvement.

Someone to the left of me cried out in joy. "I did it!" I look along the targets, and I indeed saw that he got the bullseye, not smack bam in the middle, but got it nonetheless. He got a few slaps on the back and 'good job's from his friends. I saw Ajax nod in approval.

I steeled myself. You got this.

Stance, aim, fire.

Closer.

Aim, fire.

Closer.

Aim, fire.

Closer.

Aim, fire.

Gotcha.

"Yes! Ha, take that, board."

Trudi peered over at me. "Really? Already?" she looked at my target, there was a line, from the outer edge to the bullseye, a literal track of my improvement.

Kori also came over. "Good job, Ellie! That's incredible!"

I saw Alice take a deep breath, she looked worried.

"You okay, Alice?" I asked, frowning.

Her gaze snapped up to mine. "Yes, congratulations, Ellie."

"You looked worried."

"No, I'm okay, thank you."

Kori visibly winced. "You're a terrible liar."

Alice's shoulders sagged. I had to say, this is the most depressed Amity girl, ever. "I-I don't think I'll ever be good enough," she admitted.

"Hey," Trudi frowned. "Don't worry, we'll help you. Although for now, Ellie's the only one who can be teaching us."

"Girls, this is shooting practice, not gossip time," Ajax didn't look happy. We all smiled innocently up at him – considering he was a giant compare to our small sizes, and Kori's taller size.

I picked up my gun again, now that I knew exactly where on the coloured visor to aim in line with the bullseye. But it took too long for my liking, having to carefully line the dots up at the correct spot. But I decided that'll be my next step, for now, learn where the gun has to point to get bullseye every time.

Stance, aim, fire.

Bullseye.

Not to get too cocky, but I think I'm getting the hang of this.

"Listen up! If you're suddenly wondering why you can't fire any more shots, it means, you've obviously run out of bullets, so you get another magazine, or mag for short. They generally hold ten bullets. You should always keep count of how many shots you've fired. You don't want to run out at the least opportune time."

He held up a black stick of some sort. "Come here for a sec, I'll show you how to eject your mag and replace it."

I put my gun down and we made our way over to a table. He held the gun up so we could all see it.

"Click this here, it'll pop out, catch it, check your bullets, if it's empty, pick up a new one, just click it in. There, you have ten more bullets. If you're just checking, and there's bullets left, just put it back in. Easy. Alright, off you go."

Okie dokie. Here we go.

I went back to my gun, picking it up, I clicked the switch that Ajax just showed us. It came out, and I checked it. There were bullets left, so I didn't have to replace the mag just yet. I slid the mag back into the gun and waited for the click, to say that it was going to stay there.

Stance, aim, fire.