The rest of that afternoon they ran laps around the training room to build up endurance and afterward Samantha skipped dinner and slept like a log the whole night.

The next day was another day for fight matches and she was paired with Grant, but she again couldn't bring herself to hit him as she ignored Eric's screams at her to fight. Even with her points from the firing range the day before, she managed to only move up one spot. She had four more weeks to get above the red line or end up getting cut like Eric reminded her of everyday.

Today they were back at the firing range, but this time the targets were moving and Samantha found that she had a really hard time hitting them with maybe one out of three shots actually hitting the board. She growled in frustration when she had missed for the tenth time and was about the throw her gun to the ground when two strong arms came around her and aimed her hands at the target for her.

"Relax and watch. Eventually the target will come to you and when it does you shoot. When you get comfortable with that then you can start to predict where they will be and shoot when they are in different positions." He said and he began shooting in quick succession still using her hands to do so and hitting every target. A tingle went up her spine from the rush, or possibly the fear, of knowing that he could do such a thing with ease.

Class ended on a bad note for her though, because after Eric helped her out all she could think of was the feeling of him pressed up against her from behind and she couldn't concentrate if her life depended on it, which it kinda did.

After dinner was over, she threw herself onto her bed and laid there with her arm over her eyes. It was Friday night, when Kyle's brother was playing at The Pit Stain, and the others were getting ready for their first night out.

"Coming to the party with us?" Astrid asked Sam.

"No, I feel like staying here and having myself a pity party instead." She sighed in reply.

Astrid rolled her eyes. "No way are you going to beat yourself up here all alone on a Friday night. Get up and shower while I get your outfit ready. That's an order." She said pulling Sam up by the hand.

The hot water felt nice against Samantha's sore muscles and she began to relax. Maybe the party wouldn't be so bad and she could forget all about training for one night. Now determined to have some fun with her friends she finished showering and joined Astrid at her bunk. She had the dress nicely laid out on the bed for her matched with some borrowed black heels and a necklace.

The material was a slinky Dauntless red so when she put it on it clung to every curve she had. The skirt fell just above her knees and only left her legs when she turned. It was one of those dresses that was good to dance in. But what Sam hadn't realized when she originally bought it on Astrid's advice was that the neckline was a plunging v that reached past her breasts and the necklace she gave her was low hung as well so it drew attention to that area.

"Geez Astrid! I can't go walking around like this!" She exclaimed in embarrassment.

"And why not? You look hot!"

"Probably because a lot of guys will be staring at me and I don't mean my face. In Amity we don't dress provocatively so as not to draw unwanted attention that could lead to a confrontation of some sort."

"Forget about your past faction and think about the now, Sam. Do you feel good in this dress?" She asked her and Sam nodded shyly. "Then that's all that matters. You don't have to talk to anyone you don't want to and we'll back you up, so don't worry." Astrid reassured her.

It was dark and crowded in the club that night. Most of the lighting was a dark shade of red with a few white strobe lights that roamed around the room from the stage which made finding Kyle and his friends a bit hard until their eyes adjusted to the new environment. When they found them, someone offered her a beer which she turned down because she wanted to stay clear headed for training the next day. She couldn't afford to lose any more points on her target practice if she wanted to survive training without hitting anyone.