Disclaimer: The world, and most of the characters belong the Veronica Roth.
Thanks to AnnaBella862 because your review made me laugh :)
Thankfully the next morning, I get away with just questioning looks rather than actual questions from my friends.
My Brother however, is as expected keeping his distance from me. While I ignore the throbbing guilt in theback of my throat and pretend not to miss him.
"The first fight today will be Jane vs Andrew. Step into the ring." Tobias' voice holds no sympathy even though he knows Andrew could kill me with ease.
I try to fight the shaking in my knees as I unsteadily make my way into the large ring in the centre of the room.
When I avert my eyes from the concrete floor I notice Andrew standing in the centre of the ring, a dangerous smirk painted on his thickset face.
I gulp and trudge the final steps to join both him and Tris. She casts me a sympathetic smile before turning to address Andrew as well.
"The loser will be the first who is unable to fight anymore. No surrenders will be accepted. You may not leave the ring at any time."
She steps out from in between us as a signal for us to begin. I swiftly draw back my hand, and bring it crashing into Andrew's face with a sickening crunch before he has time to react, causing him to stumble backwards half a step.
A moment later he regains his balance and kicks me in the stomach. Hard. I stagger scrunching my face in pain, giving him time to knock my legs out from underneath from me.
I groan and try to push Andrew off from where he has securely pinned down my legs. I eventually give up my fruitless attempt to wriggle free, and draw my hand back to make connection with his nose again.
He flinches but doesn't let up his hold on my legs. He tries to bring his fist down in a fight ending punch to my head, but I easily swerve his clumsy hand. I go for the nose again, theres a crunch, a dribble of blood and a curse word, but he still stays put.
He brings his fist down again, with more both force and precision, and it makes painful connection with my skull. A blinding pain shoots through my head and my whole world goes dark.
o0o0
A small groan escapes my lips as I push myself up onto my elbows, and try to get my bearings.
The room I am lead in contains around 20 other tightly made beds with crisp white sheets all sat equidistant from each other. The walls were painted (as expected) midnight black, and the lino floor was coloured to match it.
"Miss Eaton?" A brisk voice sounds from behind me, I twist my slightly throbbing body to face a slightly stern looking, plump nurse, dressed all in dauntless black. "Good you're awake. You may go back to training now."
With that sentiment she turns and marches off into the other corner of the oom to scold a younger looking woman.
I pull back the covers, discovering I am still dressed in my training clothes, and slide out of bed trying to ignore the pulsing throbbing in the back if my head.
The second I step out if the infirmary I am met with Tris' plain face. "Jane?" She lets out a long sigh, some lines of tension smoothing out on her face. "I'm so glad you're OK."
I smile and begin to walk away from her, disappointed that my brother couldn't be bothered to check on his little sister.
"He really does care about you, you know. He just… he's stubborn, he's got too much pride to apologize for anything. You both said some things you shouldn't have yesterday, and you both know it." She steps in front of me again, making me face this particular problem.
"So what do you expect me to do?" I huff impatiently, slightly annoyed by my brothers girlfriend.
Tris rolls her eyes as if it's obvious. "Talk to him first, he really is sorry Jane. I guess he just didn't expect you to do that behind his back." She says it without judgement, and the guilt hits me again with even more force.
"What if he doesn't listen?"
"He will, now get back to training."
With that she turns and marches in the opposite direction to the training room, and the more curious part of me wonders where she is headed. I quell that quickly however and make my way to the training room.
0o0o
The rest of training passes in a blur of unconscious friends, and unfair fights before we are dismissed at 3:00.
Tobias turns and exits the room the second we are dismissed, and Tris never came back to training after I spoke to her.
As I start to jog after Tobias' quick strides I hear Claudia's voice behind me. "You'll sit with us at dinner?" She's stood by Brianna, a hopeful look on her face, and I almost feel guilty about abandoning the two of them until I catch of Brianna' own sour one.
"Definetly." I nod before turning in pursuit of my stubborn brother.
It takes me a full two minutes to catch up with my brother, even though I'm running as fast as I can and he's barely strolling.
"Will you just stop Four!" I call when I am in a close enough proximity to him.
He grinds to sudden halt and turns to face me, an impatient look on his face. "What do you want Jane? I have something to do."
I sigh, for what feels like the 10 millionth time today. "I wanted to apologize, I shouldn't have gone to see Mum-"
"Evelyn." He cuts me off. "She's not your Mum."
"Right, I shouldn't have gone to see Evelyn without telling you, and I shouldn't have said I was going to spy on Dauntless either."
Tobias runs a hand through his short hair. "No you shouldn't have, but I shouldn't have told you not see her. You're sixteen and you have every right. I just-" He sighs, "I care about you Jane and I don't want to see you hurt especially not by her."
I smile and pull him into a fairly one-sided hug. Which he accepts for about half a minute before he prises me away good naturedly. "Alright, I have a reputation to uphold you know." v gruffly.
'Well now that's OK, I need to go and talk to my friends. See you at dinner?" I ask.
"Yeah maybe."
And for the first time today the throbbing guilt has almost completely vanished.
Sorry it's been so long since my last update, I had school camp and then a few final days of school, but summers finally here so I will probably update a little more.
However I do have a full week without wifi or a laptop coming up in a week or so, but will almost certainly get at least one more update up before then.
Review? :) Love you guys.
